‘And I resent the fact you thought there even could be,’ Todd added. ‘We keep ourselves pure here. Clean hands, clean hearts. Isn’t that true, boys?’
‘Yes, but—’
‘But what?’ Todd glared at him.
Jerry tugged nervously at a button on his shirt. ‘But since we do have a strong stand on the occult maybe somebody could warp the message? The least we could do is pray and think hard if there might be anybody here who could … take things too far. As horrible as it sounds.’
‘Good,’ Larry said. ‘Then I’ll take the names and addresses of all your congregation. You can write yours out now.’ He tore off a Post-it note from Todd’s desk and handed them his pen, clicking it on. As they scrawled their details out he added, ‘And I want details on all the other members of the Phoenix Club. Plus, I’m going to send some more officers up to search this building.’
Todd closed his eyes. ‘Unbelievable.’
‘Are you saying we can’t?’ Larry said.
‘We don’t have anything to hide,’ Jerry said.
‘If that’s the case,’ Matt spoke softly, ‘tell us what the Phoenix Club were doing, just then? Why were you crying, Neil?’
Neil shifted from one foot to the next and looked to Todd for guidance.
Todd just shrugged, ‘I told you, we help offenders settle back into society. Admirable work and effective too. Sometimes that can be painful. For us as well as them.’
‘And you’re both involved in that too?’ Larry asked.
Jerry and Neil nodded, then Neil quickly added, ‘As counsellors, though. We’re not on the programme ourselves, obviously.’
‘And I take it you all tell them it’s the Devil that makes them do it?’
‘Quite right.’ Todd nodded. ‘Which isn’t only true, it helps them stop hating themselves. Helps them know they’re not the ones to blame, in the end. Prisons obviously appreciate what we’re doing, cos guess what … the chaplains keep sending them our way. You should be impressed. Men and women are rising up from the wreckage of their lives. And being renewed. That’s why we call it the—’
‘There are women in the group?’
‘A few,’ Todd blinked, then suddenly gave Matt an odd look. ‘So fine, search the place, because you won’t find anything. Menham’s got nothing to fear from this church, in fact it’s quite the opposite. We keep the Devil at bay down here, cos that’s our job.’
‘Go to the cellar and tell this support group to sit tight down there,’ Larry said. ‘I want to speak with them.’
Todd chuckled. ‘You’ll be lucky … they heard you coming and slipped out the back way. The group sessions are anonymous, for heaven’s sake, it’s an important part of the programme.’
‘Well, I still want their addresses,’ Larry said. ‘You can print them out now.’
Todd rolled his eyes. ‘Go ahead, Neil. Get him what he wants.’ Neil vanished into another room.
They hovered for a few moments, in a very thick silence.
‘Well,’ Todd said. ‘How about we use the time to pray for the Hodges and especially for their little protégée, Rachel Wasson?’ He screwed up his face like he’d swallowed a wasp. ‘That godforsaken Barley witch.’
It happened before Matt was even fully conscious of it. He clenched his fist and pounded it hard on the top of Todd’s desk, making a pen roll off the edge. He felt his muscles filling with blood and power. Ready to let the coil go and plough decades of religious disillusionment into Todd’s grinning face. But Larry’s arm was quickly on his shoulder and Matt let the fist uncurl by his side.
‘You’re dangerous, Todd.’
‘Don’t fear me, Matt. But be watchful,’ Todd said, quietly. ‘That the Devil doesn’t climb into you one of these nights. And make you do something hideous that you never forget.’
Neil came back, holding an A4 sheet. He looked confused by everybody’s expression.
Larry pulled Matt back and grabbed the sheet. ‘We’re leaving.’
‘We’re going to figure all this out, Todd,’ Matt narrowed his eyes. ‘Do you hear me?’
Todd was all out of shits to give. He shrugged.
Larry glared at Matt and was already off through the door and marching down the long corridor toward the cellar. Matt jogged after him. He could feel the tingle of adrenaline and stress firing through his arms and body, but when he trotted down the cellar steps and found Larry in there, neither of them spoke. Larry was putting his phone away and looking around the room. It was abandoned, with just a circle of empty metal chairs, some of them on their sides. Another doorway led out the back.
He heard Larry grab his radio and call in the names of Todd Holloway, Jerry Marlowe and Neil White. He read out their addresses and asked for a background check. But other than that, he and Larry did all this room-scanning in complete silence. It was while they were walking back through the dark church that Matt finally looked at Larry, expecting him to be shaking his head at the stupidity of it.
‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lost my temper.’
Larry didn’t say anything.
‘It wasn’t very professional.’
‘No shit? If you’d punched him, we’d have been done, you know. I couldn’t have you out with me any more.’ He moved down the shadowy aisle of the church sanctuary. ‘So don’t you ever do that again; do you hear me? Always do the right thing.’
Matt nodded. ‘I’m sorry.’ But of course, he wasn’t.
That godforsaken Barley Street witch.
Wow. He wanted to stomp back into that office and finish what he’d hardly even started.
Larry was already out the door, meeting some officers pulling up in a car. Matt felt the urge to turn around instead. To look at a church one last time and maybe even to scream at it: There is no framework – There are no patterns – I can do whatever the hell I want! I can punch a weirdo who’s threatening an innocent woman and it’s neither right nor
