He squinted into the sun. “I’m a cop. My name is Adam Thayer. I’m a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department.”
“You think I don’t already know that? Nobody enters this county without me knowing about it.”
Adam kept his hands lifted while he surveyed his surroundings. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“You should have thought about that earlier. I don’t think you appreciate the seriousness of your offense. Around here, we don’t care much for trespassers and snoops. As a matter of fact, we don’t care much for cops, either.”
“Let me walk out of here and this ends now,” Adam said. “No one has to get hurt.”
“I’ll decide when and how this ends,” the man said. “You better think long and hard about how you answer this question. What’s your business in Belle Pointe?”
“I’ve been temporarily assigned to the Nance County coroner’s office. I’m down here investigating a suspicious death.”
“The coroner’s office.” The man’s head lifted before he reseated the rifle against his shoulder. “You’re working for that Dresden woman?”
“Do you know Dr. Dresden? Let me call her. She’ll vouch for my credentials.”
“You’re not calling anyone and your association with Nikki Dresden is reason enough for me to shoot you on the spot. Maybe you’re one of them and maybe you’re not, but maybe it’s best not to take any chances.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about devil-worshippers. Satanists. Call ’em what you want, but the Dresden woman was their ringleader back in the day. She was the one who called all the shots. Maybe she still does, for all anyone knows.”
“Those old rumors were unfounded,” Adam said. “Surely you know that.”
The man’s head lifted. “Unfounded by who? Not by me. Not by anyone else I know. Ask around and you’ll get an earful. Fifteen years ago, she and her little Goth friends killed a girl. Lured her to the Ruins, cut out her heart for one of their black rituals and then buried her body where it won’t ever be found.”
Adam couldn’t tell if the guy was putting him on or not. No one in their right mind could still believe any of that stuff. But he had a sudden inkling of what Nikki must have had to put up with all these years.
He countered the man’s assertion with a logical query. “If they buried her body where it’ll never be found, how do you know what they did to her?”
“It’s called common sense. Everybody knows what they did.” He gestured with the barrel of the rifle. “Enough small talk. You told me why you came to Belle Pointe. Now tell me what you’re doing on my property.”
“I’d like to ask you some questions.”
“If you want to ask someone a question, you get him on the phone. You don’t go prowling around a man’s private domain unless you have a death wish. Or unless you’re just plain stupid. I’d be within my rights to put a bullet through your chest. Although I’ve always been partial to headshots.”
“You can’t shoot someone in broad daylight for trespassing and expect to get away with it,” Adam said. “You’d have a hard time proving deadly threat with me out here unarmed and you up there with a rifle.”
“Since when does a cop walk around unarmed?”
The man lowered the rifle. “Besides, I don’t have to shoot you. I can just sic the dogs on you. Right, boys?”
One of the dogs got up and came to the edge of the embankment to growl a warning. Adam stood frozen with his hands in the air.
“Or we could just leave you out here and let the gators and moccasins nibble on you.”
“A cop disappears, people are going to come looking for him,” Adam said.
“They can look all they want, but a body doesn’t last long in the swamp.” He cocked his head. “Ever been bit by a cottonmouth? My cousin was once. Damn thing crawled in his boat. He said the strike felt like someone had whacked him on the knee with a red-hot poker. Nearly lost his leg and he got to the doctor real quick. Imagine if you had to walk out of here. Probably wouldn’t make it to the highway. That’s what happens when you go poking your nose in places it doesn’t belong.”
“Like Dr. Nance’s cabin? That was you the other night, wasn’t it?” Adam was getting tired of the man’s threats. Put up or shut up. “What were you doing snooping around someone else’s private property?”
“You’re asking the wrong question, buddy. Maybe you should have stayed back in Dallas, where you belong.”
Adam scouted the terrain from his periphery. No way he could make a run for it. He was still too far away from either bank. He tried to calculate the odds of drawing his weapon and getting off a shot before the man took him out with the rifle. Slim to none, he decided.
“You let me walk out of here right now and that’s the end of it,” Adam said. “You haven’t broken any laws yet. At least none that will get you arrested. Even if I tell this story to the sheriff, he’ll likely pat you on the back for your restraint.”
“Tell you what I’ll do.” The man hunkered down between the dogs. “I’ll give you a head start. You make it to the opposite bank by the time I count to twenty and I’ll give you another twenty count to get to the woods. After that, all bets are off.”
“Or I could just shoot you,” Adam said.
“Yeah, I figured you were packing. You go for that weapon, you best be quick. Otherwise, time to turn tail and run.” He lifted the rifle. “One Mississippi...two Mississippi...”
Chapter Thirteen
Late that afternoon, Nikki sat on her back steps, watching the sun sink below the treetops. Despite the deep quiet of her garden, she couldn’t relax. She knew too much now. Her visit to Dessie had opened a Pandora’s box, but
