“Can I help you?” he asked.
The four men turned to face him. The priest studied the faces of the three younger men before moving on to Shaye’s. When he saw him, he stopped short and squinted.
“My God!” he breathed. “Shay Daniels?”
“It’s Dan Shaye now, Vincent,” Shaye said.
“And it’s Father Vincent,” the priest said. He seemed to suddenly become aware of the badges all four men were wearing. “Oh, no. Are you here for…?”
“We’re looking for Ethan, Vin—Father Vincent,” Shaye said. “Has he been here?”
Thomas, James, and Matthew watched the two men with interest. Obviously, they knew each other from another time, and just as obviously there was still more to be discovered about their father.
“Danny—”
“Dan,” Shaye said, “or Sheriff.”
“Sheriff of…what town?”
“Epitaph, Texas. Ethan and his men hit the bank in my town.”
Father Vincent hesitated, then said, “The woman…”
“Was my wife.”
The priest closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’m so sorry….”
“What about Ethan, Father?”
“Yes, yes,” Father Vincent said, “he was here yesterday.”
“Yesterday!” Matthew said, excited.
“We’re only a day behind, Pa,” James said.
“What did he say?” Shaye asked Father Vincent.
“He came to ask me…he said he was being haunted by…by a woman….”
“Mary.”
“He said she came to him in his dreams.”
“Good,” Shaye said. “I hope she never stops.”
“I told him the only way to stop the dreams was to confess his guilt and surrender himself.”
“He’s not going to do that.”
“No,” the priest agreed, “he is not.”
“Did he say where he was going when he left here?” Shaye asked.
“No, but I assume he’s going to meet with Aaron,” Father Vincent said. “I mean, isn’t that their pattern?”
“Yes.”
“So Aaron hit a bank in…?”
“South Dakota.”
“Did he kill anyone?”
“I don’t know,” Shaye said. “This time.”
Father Vincent’s legs seemed to suddenly give out and he sat down heavily in a front pew.
Shaye moved closer. “I’m going to get him, Vincent,” he said. “I’m going to track him down and get him.”
The man looked up. “And what will you do when you find him, Daniel?” he asked. “Arrest him?”
“Kill him.”
“That is not your job.”
“I’ve made it my life’s goal.”
“To kill?”
“Yes.”
Father Vincent looked up at the crucifix behind the altar. “God—” he started, but got no further.
“Don’t talk to me about God, Vincent,” Shaye said savagely. “God sent your brother to my town to kill my wife. If there is a God, then He’s sending me to kill your brother.”
“No,” Father Vincent said. “He doesn’t do that.”
“What does He do, Father?”
They both looked at Thomas, who had spoken.
“What does God do?” Thomas asked again. “If he didn’t send your brother to kill my mother, why did it happen?”
“The ways of the Lord are mysterious, my son—”
“Don’t call me that!” Thomas said. He pointed to Shaye. “That man is my father, and I have more faith in him than in any God who would let my mother be killed…and be killed in that way—”
Thomas stopped, then abruptly turned, walked up the aisle and out of the church.
“Pa—” James said.
“Go with your brother,” Shaye said, “both of you. I’ll be out in a minute.”
James and Matthew both nodded, followed in their brother’s wake and left the church.
“They’re angry,” Father Vincent said.
“The four of us are angry,” Shaye said, “and frustrated. We haven’t had any time to grieve. And we won’t grieve until your brother is dead, Vincent.”
“And what about Aaron?” the priest asked.
“Him too, if he’s there when we catch up to them.”
“How can you do this to your sons, Daniel?” the priest asked. “You’ll make murderers of them.”
“I’m going to pull the trigger on Ethan, Vincent,” Shaye said, “not my sons. They are duly sworn-in deputies, acting as a posse to pursue a gang of bank robbers.”
“Out of your jurisdiction.”
“That may be,” Shaye said, “but when they pull the trigger, it will be in self-defense.”
“And when you pull the trigger on Ethan?” Father Vincent asked. “What will that be?”
“That will be vengeance, pure and simple.”
“Some would call it murder.”
“I’m prepared for that.”
“I feel sorry for you, Daniel,” Vincent said. “You’ve lost your way—”
“Feel sorry for your brother, Vincent,” Shaye said. “When I catch up to him, he’s going to need your sympathy. Can you tell me where he went?”
“No,” Father Vincent said. “Because I don’t know.”
“Would you tell me if you did know?”
“I would not.”
“To protect your brother?”
Father Vincent shook his head. “To protect you and your sons. To keep you from doing something that may damn you—”
“I’m already damned, Father,” Shaye said.
He turned and stalked up the middle aisle to the back door. He was stopped by the priest’s voice, echoing from the front of the church.
“‘Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord,’ Daniel!”
Shaye turned and shouted back, “He’s going to have to fight me for it!”
36
Outside, in front of the church, Shaye found his sons standing apart, Thomas off to one side with his head bowed, James and Matthew together on another side, looking away from their brother. Like most young men—and possibly like most men—they had not learned how to deal with intense emotions yet. The emotions that Thomas was feeling at the moment embarrassed his brothers. Shaye walked over to his oldest son and put his hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Pa.”
“For what?” Shaye asked. “Speaking your mind? Don’t ever be sorry about that, Thomas.”
“Ma was a churchgoin’ woman,” Thomas said. “She’d’a tanned me good for talkin’ to a priest that way.”
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having your faith tested, Thomas.”
Thomas looked at his father. “Is your faith being tested, Pa?”
“Sorely tested, Thomas,” Shaye said truthfully. “In fact, my faith is shaken.”
“What do we do about it?”
“We can’t dwell on it now, son,” Shaye said. “It would keep us from doing what has to be done.”
“So what do we do?”
“We set the question aside for another time,” Shaye said. “Come on, let’s go talk to your brothers.”
James and Matthew had been having a conversation of their own about faith.
“’Course there’s a God, James,” Matthew said. “How could we be here if there wasn’t?”
“I don’t know, Matthew,” James said. “I just know that Ma didn’t deserve what happened to her. How could God do that?”
“God didn’t do it,” Matthew said, “the Langer gang did, and we’re gonna kill them for it. We can’t blame God, ’cause then we’d have to kill God for it, and we can’t kill God.” Matthew’s logic made perfect sense to him.
“We could stop believin’ in Him,” James said.
“James,” Matthew said, “if Ma ever heard you say that—”
Shaye and Thomas joined them then, and both James and Matthew looked embarrassed about their own conversation.
“You two okay?” Shaye asked.