I turned to Catherine. “Don’t use up our good luck on mooks.”
She was about to laugh when Livia hissed at us. “Get back under there and don’t do that again! More are coming!”
She started pushing me down to the ground. I didn’t want to fight her, so I got down on my knees and hid under the table.
“I’ve been hearing gunshots and explosions all morning,” Livia said. “I think they’ve already killed a number of us. I can’t get to my car, and I certainly can’t walk out, not with my heart. But maybe I can distract them long enough for—well, if you’re really here to help, maybe long enough for you to help.”
I knelt in the mud and kept quiet. Annalise and Catherine did the same. If we raised a commotion here at Livia’s stall, we’d draw every armed citizen in the fairgrounds. The sapphire dog would run, and we’d have to hunt it down all over again.
Besides, I wasn’t keen on killing the sapphire dog’s victims. I was hoping that, once the predator was dead, the townspeople would return to normal. Hey, it could happen.
There was a supermarket milk crate on the ground beside me. I looked inside and saw candies. My mouth watered and I wished I’d stolen a little time for breakfast.
More footsteps approached.
“Livia,” a woman said. “Everyone is waiting. Join us.”
“Thank you, Constance,” Livia said, “but no.”
“No one is coming today,” Constance said. I wished I could see her face. “There’s no one to sell to. You know I’m right.”
“I’m still staying put.”
“The pastor is asking for you.”
“If he wants to buy some truffles, send him over.”
Catherine was kneeling beside another of the plastic milk crates. She looked inside.
“I’m already here,” a new voice said. It was Pastor Dolan.
From where we were hiding, I could see back to the church and the pastor’s house. There was a sudden flash of reflected sunlight in an upstairs window. I tapped Annalise’s shoulder and nodded toward the house. The flash came back, and she saw it. Someone was watching from there.
Livia’s voice was strained but still pleasant. “Come to buy some chocolate-covered almonds, Pastor?”
I heard the distinctive double click of a revolver being cocked. “Livia,” the pastor said, “if you don’t come out right now, I’m going to shoot you in the stomach. Then we’ll drag you back to join the others. You won’t live long, just long enough. Now come on.”
That was it. Whether we had to sneak up on the sapphire dog or not, I couldn’t just cower here while this woman was led away at gunpoint. My ghost knife would be useless against them, but I still had the gun. And since they couldn’t feel fear anymore, I couldn’t control them at gunpoint. I’d have to shoot them.
I started to move out from under the table. Livia held her hand in front of my face. It wasn’t visible to the people she was talking to, but she was telling me to stop.
God help me, I did.
Livia sighed. “I guess I don’t have a choice.” She walked around the edge of the stall.
“What about the strangers?” Dolan asked. “Rich said you were talking to them.”
“I told them to get out of town.” Livia sounded just as pleasant, but I couldn’t see her face. I assumed she wasn’t smiling anymore. “I warned them off, and they ran that way. They’re out of your clutches, you self-righteous little fucker.”
“Get her inside,” the pastor said. Squelching footsteps receded.
“We don’t have enough guns,” Constance said. “You shouldn’t have sent so many men into town.”
“We need to gather everyone. He’s hungry.”
“
“When the next missionary group returns, we’ll keep them here. Better to be safe, I guess, until the outsiders are caught.”
“I’ll get some people together to search,” Constance said, her voice flat.
More footsteps receded. Catherine turned toward me and said in a low voice: “We can’t stay here. As soon as Livia is turned, she’ll tell them everything.”
“I’m leaving,” Annalise said.
“What?” Catherine’s voice was too loud.
I held up my hand to Catherine, and she calmed down. It had worked for Livia, and it worked for me. “Boss, do you want to go after Zahn right now?”
“I do. He’s a slippery bastard, and I don’t want to let him run back to whatever hole he hides in. What he did at the cabin is SOP for that fucker. It’s not enough to keep the sapphire dog from him; he needs to be dead, and the society has been hunting him for fifty years. Besides, I bet he didn’t bring any predators with him. We may not get a better shot.”
“What about the sapphire dog?”
