Whispers of Things Yet to Come

"On Halloween, go to the crossroads at midnight. They say you can hear your fortune whispered in the wind."

- old folk belief

She shouldn't be here.

Francine Desmond dug her hands in the pockets of her coat and took a few steps to the right, out of the wind.

Oak Hill Cemetery.

She shouldn't be here. She should be at one of those parties going on all around town. She had received several invitations to choose from. And then, Lee had come and had asked her to cover for him because he really, really wanted to spend Halloween with Amanda and her family and when he had used that look on her she had found herself saying yes before she knew what was happening.

And now she was here, at Oak Hill Cemetery, where two paths crossed near the Van Ness Mausoleum, waiting for a guy called Ichabod to show up and pass on some vital information.

Ichabod. She was pretty sure that had to be a codename.

Knowing her luck, he'd probably be followed by a headless horseman or something like that.

Francine checked her watch.

Ichabod was late. They had been supposed to meet here at half past eleven, now it was almost midnight. She'd give him another five minutes and then, she'd go for a phone and call Lee to tell him Ichabod hadn't shown up and ask what to do about it.

Minutes ticked by.

Somewhere in the distance, a bell started tolling the strokes of midnight. Francine counted them. On the count of twelve, the wind picked up again. Dead leaves danced along the path towards her, swirling around her feet. She tried to step out of the wind again but it followed her, pulling at her coat, playing with her hair. The dancing leaves sounded like people talking in the distance in low voices. Suddenly, Francine remembered all those tales about Halloween and midnight and crossroads her grandmother had told her when she had been a little girl.

That you could hear the names of those who were going to die the in the coming year. Or had it been your future you could hear? She wasn't sure. Besides, it didn't matter because she didn't believe in that kind of thing. Well, not much.

The wind caressed her cheek. And then, she heard it.

"Effrom Beaman."

Whispered in her ear. She could clearly distinguish the words. That wasn't just the wind. That was something else. She would have thought it was a Halloween prank. That Lee had asked her to come here only so he could sneak up to her and spook her by whispering in her ear. Only there was no one there. She knew because the whisper was so close to her ear she would have felt the person whispering standing behind her. But when she spun around, there was no one behind her.

"Right, that's it", she murmured. "I'm leaving."

Lee could just go and find that Ichabod guy himself.

Someone touched her shoulder from behind. She spun round and struck out.

"Look, I'm sorry but it's your own fault. How often did I tell you not to sneak up on me like that?"

Francine picked up Beaman's glasses that had gone flying when she had hit him. They had landed on the grass and weren't damaged. Which couldn't exactly be said about Beaman. She had punched him hard enough to send him staggering back a few steps. His foot had caught on something and he had gone down. Now he was sitting on the ground rubbing his jaw.

"I didn't mean to sneak up on you", he said. "Anyone ever told you you got a punch like Mike Tyson?"

Francine laughed.
"As if they'd ever dare."

She handed Beaman his glasses. Beaman put them on and picked himself up off the ground, brushing off his pants.

"What are you doing here?" Francine asked.

"Mr. Melrose sent me."

"Billy? Why?"

Beaman shrugged.
"Well, he seemed to think you could do with some backup."

Backup?

"Ha", Francine murmured.
Beaman frowned at her. She shook her head.
"Nothing."

Billy knew she didn't need backup for something like this. But she had noticed a tendency with him, recently, to throw her and Beaman together. Much like he had done with Amanda and Lee, actually. She didn't know why he seemed to think that might work again, especially on her and Beaman. Yes, fine, so he was a nice enough guy when he wasn't drunk and trying to hit on her. She didn't mind working with him but he wasn't exactly her type. At some point, even Billy would have to acknowledge that. Until then, though, she probably would find herself being teamed up with Beaman quite often.

Well, what do you say. The wind at the crossroads was right …

She shook that thought off.
"Come on, let's go see if we can't find that Ichabod guy", she said.

Without waiting she turned and started walking down one of the paths leading away from the mausoleum.

"What if we don't find him?"
Beaman fell in stride beside her.

Francine shrugged.
"I'll call Lee and tell him his informant didn't show up. I'm not going to chase after that guy for him."

Lee Stetson brought his corvette to a screeching halt and jumped out, hurrying over to Francine and Beaman. They both seemed shaken – Francine more so than Beaman. He had his arm around her shoulders and she didn't seem to mind, which was unusual.

She had sounded urgent on the phone and – he wasn't quite sure. Upset maybe, even though she had tried to hide it.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Oh Lee, it was horrible!"

Francine stepped forward. Her eyes were wide. Her breath was coming in short, fast gasps. Beaman shifted on his feet. He seemed uncomfortable, too. He didn't meet Lee's gaze. Instead, he took off his glasses and started to clean them.

"Calm down."
Lee seized Francine's shoulders.
"Tell me what happened."

Something must have gone wrong. He couldn't imagine what, though. It should have been easy enough: meet Ichabod, get the information, return to the Agency. A matter of minutes, really – the Agency even was well within walking distance from here. Francine should have been back there by midnight. Only that it was past one now and it looked as if something indeed had gone wrong.

Francine nodded. She closed her eyes for a moment and took several deep breaths.
"I was here right on time but Ichabod wasn't there. I waited for half an hour, until midnight. That's when Effrom arrived. Billy sent him as backup."
She glanced at Beaman and gave him a tiny smile.
"I punched him because he startled me."

Beaman rubbed his chin but didn't say anything.

"We decided to go looking for Ichabod", Francine went on. "I wish we hadn't."

She stopped. It was obvious she didn't want to continue.

Unfortunately, Lee couldn't just let her stop here. He needed to know what had happened – to Ichabod, to the information he had been supposed to hand over. It was crucial for his current assignment.

"Francine, what happened?"

She shook her head.
"I – don't want to –"

"Francine, look at me."

She did. Something had scared her. Shaken her. He could see it in her eyes. He had to know what because Francine wasn't someone to be scared easily.

"Tell me. What happened?"

"We found him. Not all of him. His head –"

"His head was missing", Beaman finished.
He was still cleaning his glasses and didn't look at Lee.

Lee frowned.
"What?"

Francine nodded.
"It was missing. We found only his body. There wasn't any blood, though. You'd think that there would have been a lot but there wasn't."
She hunched her shoulders and wrapped her arms around herself as if she were cold. She wasn't looking at Lee, either.
"But there were hoofprints."

"Hoofprints?" Lee repeated.

This story was getting stranger and stranger by the moment.

"Yes. Large hoofprints. Like this."
She showed him with her hands, holding them about eight inches apart.

"What kind of horse –" Lee started.
He stopped and shook his head.

"It was him", Beaman said.
He put his glasses back on and shoved his hands in his coat-pockets.

"Who?" Lee asked.

"The headless horseman. He's real. He came after Ichabod to take his head and then –"

"The headless horseman?"
Lee smiled and shook his head.
"No way, there's no such thing as a headless horseman."

"Yes, there is!"
Francine pushed him away and stepped back, closer to Beaman.
"He killed Ichabod and then, he came after us, too!"
She sounded scared and angry.

Beaman put his arm back around her shoulders.
"I told you he wouldn't believe us."

Francine opened her mouth to say something – and straightened in alarm.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered.

Lee frowned.
"What?"

"Ssshh!"
Francine put her finger to her lips.
"Listen."

Lee did. There was nothing out of the usual. The sounds of traffic in the distance, what little was there at this time of the night. The wind, chasing dry leaves down the pavement and across the street.

"Don't you hear it?" Francine asked.

"Hear what?"

"The horse. Don't you hear the horse?"
She exchanged a look with Beaman who took his other hand out of his pocket and let go of her.

"I hear it", he said. "It's coming this way."

"It's him! He's coming after us!"
Francine turned and stared at something in the darkness, slowly backing away, a look of pure terror on her face.

"Francine, there's –"

Nothing, Lee had been about to say. Only that suddenly, he heard it, too. The clop-clop-clop of hooves on the pavement. Far off – but getting closer.

"What the –" he murmured.

It wasn't possible. There was no such thing as a headless horseman. It was just some Halloween tale to scare kids. He couldn't deny what he was hearing, though. He glanced at Francine and Beaman. They were just standing there, seemingly transfixed in terror. Lee reached for his gun – and remembered that he hadn't brought it. He had left it at the Agency because he hadn't wanted to carry it while being at Amanda's house – where he still had been when Francine had called. Stupid. He should have left it in the car instead.

He nudged Francine in the side. She jumped.

"Your gun", he whispered.

She shook her head.
"We already tried that – it didn't work."

"Give me your gun", Lee insisted.

"What for? It's empty."

"We have to run", Beaman said.

"Run?"
Francine smiled and shook her head.
"We already did. He found us. You can't escape the headless horseman."
Only a moment ago, she had been terrified. Now, however, she seemed very calm and collected. She even took a few steps forward.
"There he is."
She pointed straight ahead.

Lee didn't want to believe his eyes. But he couldn't deny what he was seeing. A horse, black as midnight, and on its back, a headless figure. The horse came speeding towards them. A cloak billowed around its shoulders. Lee blinked. He shook his head and took another look. Maybe, in the darkness –

No. There still wasn't any head.

The figure on the horse brandished a sword. It was coming right for them. Lee stepped back. A part of his mind told him to run, another one to shoot that thing while the third and largest part of it insisted that he wasn't seeing this because it was absolutely impossible. He couldn't move.

Francine and Beaman seemed glued to the spot as well. They didn't even try to get away.

The horse stopped right before them. It reared on its hind legs. The headless rider raised his sword and –

"Very nice."
Francine stepped forward and grabbed the horse's reins.
"And now you better get off Binky and take him back to his stable – before your sister notices he's missing."

To Lee's boundless surprise, the headless horseman obeyed.

Only that now, close up, Lee could see he wasn't actually headless. He only appeared to be because of the football armour fixed around his head in a way that made it look like he didn't have one. Especially with the heavy drapes – now probably missing from some living room – that covered the whole construction. Underneath the armour and the drapes was a young man, probably a university student, judging from his age, who gave Francine a broad grin and a thumbs-up.

"Okey-dokey", he said.

Definitely more than just a little drunk.

He swayed slightly. Francine put out a hand to steady him.

"Where's your friend?" she asked.

The young man pointed over his shoulder. Sure enough another young man came running up to them.

Francine turned to Lee. She still held on to the horse's reins, stroking its nose. It was a large animal – it towered over her.

"May I introduce Jeff and Gary? – Oh, and Binky."
She smiled at the horse.
"They had that party, over at Delta Phi Epsilon. Lots of drinks, lots of costumes, lots of silly ideas. One of them was to take Binky, who belongs to Jeff's sister, that football armour and the living room drapes and go play headless horseman."

Lee noticed the sword Jeff was still holding was actually made of plastic.

"Let me guess", he said. "You ran into them."

Francine nodded.
"So did your friend Ichabod. He was a little drunk himself. And spooked by the cemetery. And when he saw the headless horseman, he ran and knocked himself out on a low branch. That's how we found him."
She turned to the two young men.
"Right, boys, get him home now."
She passed Binky's reins on to Gary who appeared more sober than his friend Jeff.
"This is grown-up stuff here. And Halloween's over – no more scaring people."

Gary took the reins. Jeff actually saluted. They both turned and started to walk away, leading the horse between them.

Francine waited until they were out of earshot before she went on.
"We found Ichabod out cold on the ground under that huge tree. When we woke him up, he stammered something about a headless horseman and the gates of hell having been thrown open and so on."
She shrugged.
"We didn't know whether to send him home or get him committed to a sanitarium at first. In the end, we put him in a cab and told the driver to take him home."

"Did you get his info?" Lee asked.

Francine nodded at Beaman.

He pulled an envelope from his coat and gave it to Lee. Lee opened it and glanced at the contents. The photos he had been promised. Excellent. He closed the envelope again and put it in his own jacket.

"How did you run into the headless horseman?"

"Yes, that …"
Francine laughed.
"Since we both had come here on foot we decided to walk back to the Agency. We were on the other side of the cemetery so instead of going around it we decided to take the direct route across it."

"And that's where he made his appearance", Beaman said with a grin. "Those guys gave us quite a start."
He grew serious again.
"They were lucky Francine didn't shoot them."

"Yes, I noticed just in time what we were dealing with. Anyways, we thought it was such a great costume that we wanted you to see it, too. After all, you're the reason why we were out here."

Lee shook his head and laughed.
"Yes, I thought you'd get me back for that."

Francine just smiled and said nothing.

Lee gestured at his car.
"Can I take you two somewhere?" he asked. "Back to the Agency?"

Francine shook her head.
"Thanks but I think I'd rather walk."
She glanced at Beaman.
He shrugged.
"I'm good with walking", he said.

Lee hid his smile by pretending to look for his keys. Of course he was good with walking. As long as he got some time with Francine out of it, he'd join her in a walk straight to hell and back.

"Fine. See you tomorrow, then."
He frowned.
"Ah, later today I mean."

Beaman acknowledged with a nod, Francine with a small wave.

When he drove off, Lee cast a last look at them in his rearview mirror and smiled.
I'll get you two back for this. Next year. Just wait till next Halloween.