“No,” Sherlock said, shaking her head, “it doesn’t make sense. None of this makes any sense.” She drew in a deep breath. “You lucked out.”
Savich shrugged. “Fact is, there wasn’t a choice. He was going to make Joanna kill herself. I had to stop him.”
Joanna said, “That much power in this paltry little man, it scares me to death. Thank you, Dillon, for my life.”
Savich smiled at her.
Ethan said, “Joanna, you don’t look woozy or disoriented. Actually, you look okay. How do you feel? Headache?”
“No, no, I’m fine, don’t worry, Ethan.” She sounded surprised, and vastly relieved. “Maybe he didn’t have enough time with me.”
“Possibly so,” Savich said thoughtfully. “Okay, later, when we get she squared away, I want you to tell me exactly what you felt the moment you looked at his face, his eyes.”
She nodded. “I can do it now—fact is, I don’t even remember looking at him, not at first, but it didn’t seem to matter. Do you know, I was certain I’d shot him, that I’d fired my gun, dead-on. For whatever reason, he wanted me to believe I’d pulled the trigger. But I hadn’t.” She looked down at Blessed again, at his blindfolded eyes, and kicked him one more time, on his leg. He jerked and gasped out, “You damned bitch, I’m going to have you roast yourself, have you hop right into a bed of coals, get you ready for hell.”
Joanna said, “Yeah, right, you pathetic monster. You’ll be the one heading to hell, leading that family of yours.”
Blessed gasped out, pain and anger in his voice, “Martin was my family. Is he in hell?”
“No, because he saw your evil and he escaped from it, from you and Grace and your mother.”
“I’ll bet you killed him, murdered him.”
“No, I loved him, but since you’re crazy, I’m sure you’ll believe what you want.”
“You burned his mind! You burned him up, made him nothing, like you. You’re weak and stupid, Joanna, and that’s what you made him. You’ll pay for that.”
Autumn yelled at him, “Mama didn’t burn up my daddy’s mind, his mind was wonderful. Don’t you call my mama weak and stupid!” She kicked him with the toe of her sneaker.
Joanna pulled her back, gave her a quick hug. “Good shot.”
They listened to him curse her, one good meaty curse, then an-other, then his head lolled to the side.
Savich watched him for a moment and said, “I’ll wager that if we took the blindfold off him you could look right at him and he wouldn’t be able to do anything. He’s too weak now to focus, to affect your mind. On the other hand, I could be dead wrong.”
Savich said to Blessed, “You’re awake, I saw you twitch. You’d best pay attention, Blessed. You’re bleeding again because you’re not pressing hard enough. Get yourself together if you want to live.”
Blessed licked his tongue over his lips, managed only one faint curse, and moved his hand back to his shoulder.
Joanna said to Savich, “You should have killed him, Dillon. What will happen now?”
She might be right, he thought. Faydeen was right to worry, because there was no way Blessed Backman would crawl through the courts blindfolded the entire time—he could hear the defense attorney screaming at the judge how they were torturing the poor man, deny-ing him his basic human right to face his accusers. Well, it was too late now. Ethan was right, they’d have to deal with it.
The bedroom was soon full to overflowing with deputies, everyone talking, everyone avoiding looking at Blessed’s face, even though he was blindfolded and seemed to be helpless, like a snake with no fangs.
Sirens blasted through the night, growing closer. Savich said, “I’m going with him. I’ll be sure all the EMTs know to keep his blindfold on, and why. I’m going to scare them.”
35
IT WAS CLOSE to midnight before Sherlock and Savich were tucked in bed at Gerald’s Loft, snuggled close because the temperature had plummeted the instant the sun had fallen behind the mountains. De-spite the late hour they’d turned up, Mrs. Daily, bouncing with excitement, wanted to feed them.
Sherlock reared back and punched him in the arm.
“What? Hey, what’s that for?”
“I don’t care what you say—you took a big chance, looking that madman in the face.”
Savich pulled her down on his chest. “You know I had no choice.”
“Yeah, that gets you off the hook, but I know you, Dillon, you were testing it out.”
She knew him well, he thought. He said mildly, stroking his hand through her hair, “It really wasn’t all that big a risk, Sherlock.”
“Yeah, right. You jerk.” She punched him again, but she didn’t have any leverage because he was holding her against him.
He laughed, grabbed her hands, and kissed her. “That roasted corn on the cob was delicious, particularly the couple of ears snuggled down in the coals for a long time. The kernels just fell off into my mouth—no gnawing at all.”
She said against his mouth, “Yeah, make me laugh, try to distract me. That only works with Sean, and then it only works sometimes.” She bit his neck, then kissed him. “Now that Blessed is safely put to bed at the hospital, so to speak, what’s next, Dillon?”
“I want to check in on Blessed tomorrow, see when he might be stable enough for transport to Quantico. I want him where we’re really in control. Then I figure we’ll go down to Bricker’s Bowl, Georgia, meet Sheriff Cole, Mrs. Backman, and brother Grace. Children of Twilight. I wonder, are the Backmans running this cult with Whistler? Or are they subordinate? And where does the money come from, and flow to?”
Sherlock said, “I hope those bodies they buried weren’t cult members they’d finished bleeding dry of what they owned, or who wanted out.” She sighed, drummed her fingertips on his chest. “Dillon, there’s so much going on. We’ve got to attend to Lissy and Victor.”
“I think we’ve got some time, two, maybe three days while Lissy’s still mending from surgery, before they show up again. I’ve been working with MAX, checking out any possible real estate they could have access to outside of Winnett, North Carolina. The cops are looking for them there, along with the FBI and the state police. Not much else to do until they come out of hiding.”
“Happy thought. You know she’ll come dancing to Georgetown to kill you.” She tapped him lightly on the nose. “You know what I’m thinking?”
That was not a business tone of voice. Savich stared up at her and waited.
“I’m picturing fractal art in my head—all wild colors and chaos and unpredictability, so I’m thinking a smart woman should take her opportunity while all the bedlam’s still outside the door.”
“Yeah? What opportunity?”
She leaned down and kissed him.
36
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY HOSPITAL
NEAR TITUSVILLE, VIRGINIA
Wednesday morning
“Sheriff Merriweather, I simply don’t understand any of this. You say his man—who, by the way, is not only older than I am but is also too weak to even open his eyes—is so dangerous he has to be blind-folded at all times or he will somehow hypnotize me?”
“If he wants to, yes. You and anyone else who looks at him.” And, Ethan thought, I’ve told you this three times now, you idiot.
“And I’m telling you it’s simply not possible for a person to somehow take over another person’s mind. And keeping his hands strapped down to his sides so he can’t pull off the blindfold—come on, Sheriff Merriweather, don’t you think this is a little over the top?”
Well, yeah, the blindfold and the tied wrists did look like they were over the top, or maybe they looked just plain crazy, but he had to try to make this man understand, or what chance did they have of keeping Blessed in the hospital, much less ever getting him to trial? “Dr. Truitt, listen to me. You need to trust me. We must take every precaution with this guy. I can tell you I’ve already seen him hypnotize three different people—he took them over completely.”