Hell Fire

eggshell china and old-fashioned cream and sugar bowls. She set the platter on the coffee table, casting us back to older times when it was actually used for that purpose, just like we were doing now. She carefully fixed each cup according to our specifications and then sat back in her rose velvet armchair, looking pleased.

Butch trotted in with nothing to report and fuzz on top of his head. I dusted him off and pulled him into my lap. Stroking a dog had to be one of the best relaxation techniques in the world. He burrowed into the crook of my arm and went to sleep.

“I don’t get visitors like I used to,” she remarked again. “I’m just that happy to see you, Corine. I always did wonder what became of you.”

I’d never get a better segue. “I’m well . . . but there’s a reason I came back.” Chance gave an encouraging nod, so I went on. “I need to find out the truth behind my mother’s death. I know something’s wrong here. I know about the thing in the woods, and that there’s evil running free in town. I already know all that, but people aren’t talking. I have no reason to think you will, other than your apparent fondness for me, but I’m willing to trade on that. The fact is, you may be our only hope for putting all the pieces together.”

Her hands shook as she curled her thin, blue-veined fingers around her cup, and her lined face went pale as milk. “Lord, Lord,” she breathed, turning her face upward as if in appeal to a god I no longer believed in. “The end of days has come at last.”

Unlucky Break

Things went to hell without a handbasket.

It was as if I’d flipped a switch, and the nice old lady who had served us supper disappeared. In her place sat a dire Cassandra prophesying doom and gloom. As the shadows lengthened, even her face looked different somehow, full of mad premonition.

“I saw them,” she said, staring at nothing. “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They’ve ridden through town more than once. At first I tried to pretend I didn’t see them, but the way they came and went . . . Oh, I knew.” She nodded sagely. “I knew.”

“Uh-huh,” Chance said, seeming worried.

He wasn’t the only one.

“But what they don’t know is that four angels come to banish them.” She blessed us with a beatific smile. “I should have known about you.” Miss Minnie nodded at me. “Eyes full of heaven and such an unearthly power in your hands. I should have had faith.”

“In what?” Shannon asked.

I guessed she didn’t identify herself as a guardian angel.

“In the Lord,” Miss Minnie answered. “The time of tribulation is on us.”

What do you say to that, really?

To give him credit, Jesse tried to make sense of it. “What have you seen that makes you think—”

“‘There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.’” The old woman closed her eyes, obviously reciting from memory. “ ‘There fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters . . . there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.’ ”

“It’s from Revelation,” Jesse muttered. “Obviously those verses hold symbolic meaning for her, but I don’t know what she’s talking about.”

With a little shiver, I realized we’d already found one of the places she was referencing. I’d noticed the ground around the hollow tree in the wood looked as though it had been hit by an asteroid, dead earth, almost charred, where the monster stored its trinkets. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit— it sure sounded like Miss Minnie thought whatever lived out there came straight from hell.

“You think we can prevent the earthquake, fire, and blood?” I asked, feeling my way through what felt like a mental mine-field.

“You will,” she said with certainty. “Or nobody. The Lord’s will be done.”

Try as we might, we couldn’t get any more sense out of her. After that pronouncement, she turned her face toward the wall and her eyes went strange and glassy, as if she gazed at some war-blasted inner landscape. Mentioning the wrongness in Kilmer seemed to have triggered an episode.

Butch leaped down from my lap, trotted over to her, and licked her dangling hand. We stayed until she came back to herself; it didn’t take long. She fluttered her lashes at us and patted her white hair nervously.

“Did I doze off? I’m sorry.”

“If you’re tired, I guess we should go.” Jesse pushed to his feet.

He hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, so his face looked positively bristly, and dark circles shadowed his eyes. Clearly he hadn’t been sleeping well, but I’d been too self-absorbed to notice. What would it cost him, being here? Would he miss an important hearing? Was he allowed to cross state lines while on suspension and under investigation for possible misconduct? For the first time I considered that he might have put me ahead of his career. I exhaled shakily and shoved back the question of how important I truly was to him.

Before leaving, I tucked a white crochet afghan around Miss Minnie’s knees. She smiled up at me, drowsy from her spell. “I hope you’ll come back.” As we stood there, her eyes drifted closed again, as if she were too weary to stay awake a second longer.

I scooped the dog into my arms and we headed for the door. We couldn’t deadbolt it for her, but it did lock on the way out. Full dark had fallen while we ate, and the shadows seemed ominous. Pausing on the porch, I scanned the empty street. Butch whined, putting me on high alert.

The nearby houses had their curtains and shades drawn tight, and only tiny trickles of light gave a hint there was anybody home at all. The weather wasn’t brilliant, true, but you expected more foot traffic in a town this size, and people being neighborly. But we hadn’t seen either at all in Kilmer.

I expected an oily spill to break away from the others and try to drain the life out of me. In Laredo, it had happened more times than I could count. But this was a different enemy, less outright power and more guile. In some ways, our enemies in Kilmer might prove more dangerous.

“Well, that was pointless,” Shannon muttered.

She started to say more, and then a sharp sound split the night, like a truck backfiring, only—

“Get down,” Jesse growled.

I dove off the porch and behind the hedge as the flowerpot on the wrought-iron patio table broke wide-open and showered me in dirt. Two more shots rang out, and Jesse’s body thumped beside me. For a brief, terrifying moment, I thought he’d been hit, and then he rolled, peering backward beneath the hedge. He wouldn’t be moving so easily with a slug in him.

“Goddammit,” he swore. “I wish I had my gun.”

“You wouldn’t be able to hit him. It’s coming from the rooftop of that Victorian over there,” Chance whispered.

I heard a curse from the porch. I cast a glance over my shoulder and found Shannon crouched behind one of the columns. In a normal town, we could expect concerned citizens to call the police. I wasn’t so sure in Kilmer. If the sheriff chose to show up, he might find some way to blame us.

Butch broke free from my arms and ran back toward the door, scratching furiously. His agitated bark rang out. I’d spent enough time with him to know there was something badly wrong inside.

Another shot pinged into Miss Minnie’s porch. Please don’t let her step out to see what the fuss is about. If anything happened to her, I didn’t know what I’d do. She was gentle and kind; the only good thing I could remember about my childhood after my mama died. I only wished she hadn’t been so scared of my gift—that she’d let me stay with her, baking pies and cleaning cupboards until I was grown. But I suspected I’d be a much different person if that had happened.

“At this distance, it has to be a rifle,” Saldana said. “But at least I could lay down suppressive fire, make him dive while we run for it. But don’t worry. I’m counting shots. When I give the word, sprint for the Forester and stay