“Everyone over thirty looks decrepit to a fifteen-year-old.”
“True."
"Candles had some sort of significance for the preacher. His flock’s state of grace?"
"More likely degree of sin."
"And Dom carries on the judgment?" She shook her head. "He’s very smart. He knows why he’s killing. He likes it."
"But, as Nancy Tolvey says, things that happen in your childhood scar and stay with you."
"So what happened to him that could have turned him into a mass murderer?" Joe shrugged.
"Who knows? We’ll go to the Baptist church tomorrow and see if we can find out anything else."
"Could Dom’s father still be alive?"
"Possibly. He’d be pretty old." He bent his head and brushed a kiss on her nose. "Go to sleep. I’ll wait up for Spiro and tell him what we’ve learned."
"It’s more than I expected." Excitement tingled through her. They were getting close. Dom was no longer a complete enigma. "And tomorrow we’ll know more."
"Don’t get your hopes up."
"Don’t be silly. Of course I’ll get my hopes up."
Joe smiled. "I shouldn’t complain. Hope’s very healthy for you.”
“Stop sounding as if I’m a nutcase and you’re my psychoanalyst.”
“Sorry. I’ve become accustomed to analyzing every move you make. It comes of standing wistfully on the sidelines."
"Wistful isn’t in your vocabulary." She hurriedly looked away from him. "Jane’s in bed. Will you keep an eye on her while I shower?"
"I won’t take a step away from your door."
She could feel his gaze on her as she walked down the hall, feeling weak-kneed. Since the trip had begun, Joe had fallen back into the role of old friend. He hadn’t said anything too personal until just then and his words brought the memory of the previous night rushing back to her.
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It was very unsettling to realize her feelings for Joe could almost overwhelm her eagerness at what they’d learned about Dom.
Joe was waiting when Eve and Jane came down the stairs the next morning. "I’m afraid we’ll have to skip Mrs. Tolvey’s breakfast. I have a taxi outside. Spiro’s waiting for us."
"He’s not here?"
"No, he called me about three in the morning. At the bar he got a lead on Reverend Baldridge, and he’s been up all night."
"Did you tell him we should go to the Baptist church?"
Joe nodded. "He said it’s not necessary. After he found out about the tent revival, he tracked down Reverend Piper, who’s the pastor of the Bloom Street church, and woke him up." He shrugged as she stared at him in surprise. "Nobody said Spiro isn’t ruthless when he’s on the trail."
"He found out something?"
"He found the place where the reverend gave his sermons. It’s a fairly long drive. We’re going to meet Spiro there."
Spiro was standing alone on top of a hill. Patches of snow dotted the ground and gray clouds hovered over the mountains in the distance.
The driver parked at the bottom of the hill.
"Pay off the taxi, Joe," Spiro called out. "I’ll drive you back. I commandeered Reverend Piper’s car." Spiro smiled sardonically as he nodded at the brown Ford parked some distance away.
"There are times when being FBI comes in handy." Jane ran up the hill and looked around. The ground was utterly barren; tatters of seared cloth clung to the numerous blackened stakes driven into the earth. "A fire?"
"Yes," Spiro answered.
Eve felt suddenly cold. "What happened here?”
“Do you want to send the child to the car?" Spiro asked.
Jane was wandering slowly some distance away.
"No, I won’t shut her out. She deserves to know everything we know.”
“And what do we know?" Joe had joined them. "When did this happen?”
“Twenty-nine years ago."
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"An accident?"
"It was presumed to be an accident. Everyone knew about all the candles. The tent was a fire waiting to happen."
"Any fatalities?"
"No bodies were found. Services were held here every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The fire must have happened earlier in the week, because the site was found exactly like this when the first car-load of people came that weekend."
"Was there an investigation?"
"Of course. But no one could find Reverend Baldridge. It was decided that he had moved on.
Evangelists are usually traveling men, and he wasn’t very popular with the authorities anyway.
He’d been warned about the candles being a fire hazard."
"Did he move on?"
"We’ll have to find out, won’t we?" Spiro glanced around. "Christ, this place is weird."
Eve felt the same way. "If the fire happened that long ago, why hasn’t the grass grown back?"
"What else did you find out?" Joe asked. "What about his family? What did Reverend Piper tell you about Kevin Baldridge."
"He doesn’t remember a Kevin. His father was the pastor of the Bloom Street Baptist Church when Reverend Baldridge was preaching here. He was only a boy when his father brought him up here for services. He met Mrs. Baldridge once, but the only sons he recalls are Ezekiel and Jacob. He never met Kevin."
"But we know there’s a Kevin. Mrs. Harding met him."
"If he was here, he was kept out of sight." Spiro shook his head. "Though why is a mystery. It seems old Baldridge kept everyone in the family busy at the services, handing out candles, passing the collection plates…"
"I don’t like it here." Jane was standing beside Eve. "When can we go?" Even Jane was feeling bad vibes, Eve realized. "Soon. Want to go wait in the car?"
Jane shook her head and moved closer. "I’ll wait for you."
"We might as well all go," Spiro said. "There’s nothing we can do right now. We’ll hop back to Phoenix and I’ll get a team to come here and go over the site."
"After two decades and a fire?"
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"No one searched for graves in the area."
"You don’t think Reverend Baldridge just moved on, do you?”
“I have to investigate every possibility. The old man seems to have been pretty unpleasant."
"Yes." Joe’s gaze wandered around the campground. "Fanatics usually cause a lot of misery."
"Well, if Kevin Baldridge is Dom, he’s created more than his share of misery." Spiro started down the hill. "Like father, like son."
"Maybe it isn’t Kevin. Maybe it’s one of the other brothers." Eve followed Spiro. "But where was Kevin when the services were going on?" Spiro said. "It smacks of rebellion against the old man." He glanced over his shoulder. "What are you doing, Quinn?"
Joe was kneeling, digging into the soft soil with a hand. "Just checking something." He lifted a palmful of dirt to his mouth and touched his tongue to it.
“Salt."
Eve stopped in her tracks. "What?"
"Like you, I was wondering why nothing had grown back." Joe brushed his palm clean as he stood up. "Someone plowed the area with salt either before or after the fire. He didn’t want anything to live in this place again."
was early evening when they arrived back at Phoenix. Spiro left them at the airport and Joe, Eve, and Jane arrived at Logan’s house after nine o’clock.
To Eve’s surprise, Logan himself was sitting on the couch, playing cards with Sarah, when they walked into the living room.
"It’s about time." He threw down his cards and stood up. "Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were leaving town?"
"I’m glad you’re back," Sarah said. "He’s been here for hours driving Monty and me bats. He wouldn’t leave and then he wanted me to amuse him."
Logan scowled at her. "You cheated."
"I’m just a better poker player than you are. What do you think rescue teams do between searches?" She rose to her feet. "You deal with him, Eve. Monty and I are tired of watching him brood."