Reverend McCamy’s face turned red with rage, the pulse pounding at his temple. He shook so hard he had to hold on to the edge of the desk to keep his balance. He yelled, “God will strike you dead, Sheriff! You twisted, perverted woman. You lied!”
Katie even grinned as she said to Reverend McCamy, an eyebrow arched, “I’m a perverted woman? That language isn’t particularly nice, Reverend.”
“Samuel isn’t in the hospital! He wasn’t hurt. Where have you hidden him? Where is the boy?”
Miles knew he had to keep calm with that idiot still holding the rifle on Katie. He leaned back against a bookshelf, crossed his arms over his chest and said, “My son is safe in jail, Reverend McCamy. I believe four deputies are guarding him and he’s playing poker with Mort, the cleaning guy. I’m sure the sheriff will let him out when you show up in handcuffs.”
“This is the man you obeyed, Mr. Boone,” Katie said. “Take a good look.”
“Kill them, Thomas!”
It was obvious to Katie that Mr. Boone finally realized he was in way over his head. He was holding a rifle on a law enforcement officer, obviously so scared sweat was pouring off his forehead, and he looked ready to faint.
“Kill them!”
Mr. Boone started wheezing, bad. He gasped through the precious breaths he was able to draw, “No, Reverend McCamy, I can’t, sir. I can’t, sir, I know her mother!”
Everything froze for one long moment.
Then, Elsbeth McCamy grabbed the rifle from Mr. Boone’s lax hands. She whirled around and aimed it at Miles, who dropped to the floor behind the desk just as she fired. Katie was on her instantly. Elsbeth screamed, trying to wrest the rifle free, but she couldn’t. Katie slammed her fist into Elsbeth’s stomach and took a huge handful of her gorgeous hair, pulling it until Elsbeth’s head was nearly bent back over her arm. She said very quietly against her ear, “Drop the rifle, Elsbeth, or I’ll pull out all that wonderful hair of yours.”
Elsbeth moaned but kept struggling, trying to bring the rifle up. Katie turned her and kneed her hard in the chest, knocking the wind out of her.
“Leave my wife alone!”
Reverend McCamy lurched forward, grabbed the rifle from where his wife had dropped it on the floor, and ran, knocking Mr. Boone over a chair in his escape from the library.
They heard him running upstairs.
Miles said, “I want him, Katie. I’ll get him.”
She started to go with him, but then she looked at him, really looked, and knew he wouldn’t do anything stupid. He had a cop’s training and a cop’s instincts. He’d pulled out her ankle gun. The derringer looked absurd in his big hand, but up close it could stop a man, even a madman.
“Take care, Miles. I’ll get help.”
She’d picked up her SIG Sauer and motioned Mr. Boone and Elsbeth to the sofa. She pulled out her cell phone and called Wade, who had to be outside by now.
But there wasn’t time for Wade to even make it through the front door. Overhead, there was a huge explosion. The whole house shook with the shock and force of it.
Elsbeth screamed. Mr. Boone said, wheezing so hard Katie wondered how he could still breathe, “The Reverend’s thrown one of the gasoline bombs. Why would he do that?”
Elsbeth ran out of the library. Katie wasn’t about to shoot her, so there was no choice but to go after her. As for Mr. Boone, where could he go? She shouted over her shoulder, “Mr. Boone, go outside where it’s safe!”
She ran out into the hallway to see Elsbeth taking the stairs two at a time. Katie stayed right on her heels. She rounded the corner at the top of the stairs and saw Elsbeth running toward the master bedroom.
Katie heard the crackling and popping of the flames before she saw them billowing out of the master bedroom, the hallway carpet already smoking. She had to get everyone out, fast.
Katie headed after Elsbeth. She saw her run into the master bedroom and yelled, “Elsbeth, don’t go in there!”
But the woman disappeared into the room.
“Miles, where are you?”
Katie ran into the huge bedroom, saw the door open to the closet, and watched Elsbeth disappear inside.
“Miles!”
She heard a gunshot, not loud, just a popping noise, and she knew it was from her derringer. She started coughing from the incredible heat and the smoke. She grabbed a pillow from a chair and clamped it against her nose.
She saw Miles, breathing hard, standing in the doorway to the sex room, her derringer dangling in his right hand. “Katie, get out of here!”
“Where are Elsbeth and Reverend McCamy? My God, what happened to your face?”
“We need to get out of here. I don’t know where Elsbeth is. I had to shoot Reverend McCamy. He’s dead, I checked. Come on, I don’t want Sam or Keely to be orphans.”
But Katie had to try. “Elsbeth! Where are you? Come out or you’ll die!”
There was no answer. Katie started to run toward the sex room, but Miles grabbed her hand and dragged her from the bedroom. He was right, she thought, there was no choice. She pressed the pillow she was holding against her face and ran with him down the long hallway. She stumbled on the stairs, and Miles picked her up and pulled her against him to keep her on her feet.
They ran into the entryway where Mr. Boone and several deputies were crowded together, right inside the front door. Katie said, “I see you can breathe again, Mr. Boone. Just maybe you don’t need Reverend McCamy’s laying on of hands.”
“This is one too many burning houses, Sheriff,” Charlie Fritz, one of her deputies said. “The fire department wants us out of here right away. Let’s go.”
Elsbeth’s face flashed in Katie’s mind. Had she just given up and chosen to die with her husband? No matter what she’d been a party to, Katie didn’t want her to be dead. Too many were dead already.
When they were near the road, they looked back to see the beautiful old Victorian lit up from its bowels, turning the black sky orange, spewing flames upward. Its old wood exploded in shards everywhere. It was an incredible sight, as long as you were away from the devastation.
Katie stood next to Miles, aware that his arm was holding her close, for warmth, for comfort, to make the world real again, to right the madness. He said, “Reverend McCamy went into that sex room and pulled a bottle full of gasoline out of one of the drawers beneath that marble altar. He lit the wick and threw it at me. It hit the bed, and the flames shot up in an instant.”
“What happened to your face?”
Miles touched his fingers to the slash along the side of his face, from his temple to his jaw. “He pulled a whip off the wall and slashed me with it.”
“And you shot him?”
“I tried to grab the whip away from him, but he fought me. I could hear the fire, knew time was growing short, and then he tried to grab the gun.
“I swear to you, Katie, there was madness pouring out of him, and a frenzy that seemed to unleash all the strength inside of him. He was grinning and moaning at the same time. I felt my blood freeze.
“And then there you were with a pillow over your face.”
“You never saw Elsbeth.”
He shook his head. “I heard her voice, but no, I didn’t see her.”
“She preferred to die with that man rather than survive,” Katie said, shaking her head. She looked up at Miles and shook her head again. “I think we’re going to need a paramedic.” She began to examine the cut and changed her mind. “It doesn’t look at all deep, but no paramedics this time. I want to take you to the hospital.”
Wade was standing next to them now. “The firemen are already bitching at all this work, Sheriff. Now you want to piss off the paramedics?”