The crash was loud and sudden, and Isabel instinctively took advantage of it, throwing herself sideways to the ground even as she reached for the gun strapped to her calf.
The black-gloved hand started to follow Isabel’s path, finger tightening on the trigger, but the evil inside was just a split second slower than Rafe’s training and instincts.
His shot spun Mallory around so that his/her gun was pointing toward Rafe.
Isabel’s shot finished it.
The storm, uncaring of both human living and evil dying in its path, roared louder and louder as it finally made up its mind to hit Hastings.
EPILOGUE
Friday, June 20
YOU’RE A HARD WOMAN to kill,” Isabel said. Hollis raised both eyebrows at her. “I’m not saying it like it’s a bad thing.”
Looking at Rafe, Hollis said, “You realize what you’re letting yourself in for? She can’t not be flippant.”
“I know. It’s a character flaw.”
“I resent that,” Isabel said.
“You shouldn’t. It happens to be a flaw I enjoy.”
“Oh, well, in that case.”
Hollis shifted slightly in the hospital bed to get more comfortable. Or try to. “I’m just lucky you two managed to stop Mallory’s evil twin before he could finish me off.”
They all found it less painful to refer to the creature they had destroyed there at the end as Mallory’s evil twin-a phrase naturally coined by Isabel. Not that it could be anything but painful, especially for Rafe.
Or Alan, who was still bewildered and in shock.
“What I can’t figure out,” Isabel said, “is what he planned to do once he left Hastings. He really was trapped in a woman’s body-and had been since the male personality split off from Mallory when she was twelve.”
“A sex-change operation?” Hollis suggested.
Rafe said, “I don’t think so. I think he saw a male when he saw himself.”
“A very confused male,” Isabel pointed out. “He wanted Mallory to be involved with men, not women. But I’m willing to bet he would have been angry and insulted to be called homosexual.”
“Didn’t Bishop offer a theory?” Hollis asked. “I seem to recall a discussion going on over my mostly unconscious self a couple of days ago.”
“We had to talk about something,” Isabel told her. “The doctors said you were pretty out of it.”
“I was. Mostly. But I remember Bishop and Miranda being here. And talking, like I said. What was the theory?”
“That Mallory’s evil twin was delusional. We haven’t really gotten past that part.”
“It’s complicated,” Hollis agreed.
“She-he-was right about me, anyway,” Rafe said. “I had seen something unconsciously when we were at the first murder scene. From the corner of my eye, I suppose. I’d seen Mallory touch Jamie’s hair. Something about it, about the way she did it, was like a red flag.”
“And a subconscious shock,” Isabel said. “The hardest thing to accept about evil is that it can wear a familiar face. He was very good at hiding.”
“Until Mallory did something he couldn’t accept,” Rafe said. He sighed. “Just… thinking of her dying inside all those years, bit by bit. I keep thinking I should have known. Should have been able to help her.”
“Nobody could help her,” Isabel told him quietly. “Nobody was there when that boat overturned and six little girls drowned. Nobody but him. Mallory was doomed from that moment.”
“And too many other women along with her,” Hollis said. “Plus Ginny’s father, and that poor older lady, and Dean Emery. And God knows how many others would have died if you two hadn’t stopped it.”
“It doesn’t feel very heroic, what we did,” Rafe said.
Isabel smiled at him. “It seldom does. Evil leaves so much destruction behind it that it’s like a train wreck. You don’t think about what was saved ahead on the tracks, just the devastation of the crash.”
“And yet you’re inviting me to jump on the train with you.”
“Well, I’m sort of committed. To the journey, I mean. It’s not something where you can just get off at the next station.”
“Excuse me,” Hollis said, “but are you two still speaking in metaphors?”
“You noticed that?” Isabel said earnestly.
“It amuses her,” Rafe said.
Hollis shook her head. “One for the books, you two. I bet Bishop can hardly wait to get you up to Quantico.”
“There was an invitation,” Rafe admitted. “He didn’t mention trains, though.”
“So, did you accept?” Hollis asked.
“What do you think?”
“I think… that the SCU just took on a whole new dimension.”
“How about that?” Isabel said. “And she’s not even precognitive.”
