It wasn’t a large building, just the steeple and the slanted gray roof and a trio of windows on the walls of the small sanctuary. Evergreens made a U around the back of the building, creating a little grove that separated the church from the cornfield that butted up against it. There were no lights on inside. She had the strange thought that God wasn’t home.
The police had the cross street blocked in front of the church, so Lisa spun the wheel hard. The Camaro swerved onto the shoulder and took flight across a shallow ravine where dead weeds grew out of the snow. The bumper hit the other slope, jarring their bodies with the impact, and then the wheels chewed into the ground and climbed from the valley with a roar. She turned the wheel again, feeling the car spin. She hit the brakes and jerked the Camaro to a stop just outside the church’s white front doors.
“Inside,” she shouted to Purdue. “Get inside right now!”
The boy ran for the church door. Lisa popped the release on the trunk and bolted from the car with the pistol in her hand. She pointed into the sky and fired. The noise of the gunshot froze everything around her. The police car that had been chasing her slammed to a stop, jerking across the highway. She saw the doors of two other police cars opening on the other side of the intersection. Spotlights swung her way, bathing her in white light.
“Stay there!” she screamed into the wind. “Don’t come any closer!”
She could hear other sirens. More cars were coming. And somewhere out there she heard the whistle of the train again. The back door of the church led toward the evergreens and from there into the cornfield and from there to the railroad tracks. All she needed to do was give Purdue a chance. A chance to run. A chance to disappear like one small shadow into the night, where the police would never find him. Get on the train. Go to a new life.
It was an escape he had to make alone. Without her.
She would stay here, giving him cover. She would hold off the police until he was gone. Then they could do what they wanted with her. Nothing mattered once the boy was safe.
Lisa ran to the trunk and threw it open. She gathered up everything that was inside into her arms.
The assault rifle. The ammunition. An arsenal to hold them at bay.
She took it all with her and followed Purdue into the church.
39
Almost two dozen police cars staked out the two roads that made an L at the lonely corner outside the church. A handful of cops with guns drawn roamed the barren cornfields behind the trees. Intersecting lights from two sides erased the shadows and turned the black night to day. The evergreens bent as the wind blew, and waves of snow continued to pour through the light.
Denis Farrell was at the scene. So was the sheriff, who was on the front line with his officers. The media had heard the overlapping calls on the police radios, and they were on the other side of a perimeter a hundred yards away. Gawkers had begun to show up in the fields as rumors of the standoff went viral around town.
The mayor of Thief River Falls was there, too.
“Have we tried calling the church phone?” he asked Denis in a reedy voice. The mayor was a genial man in his sixties, with two little flaps of gray hair on his balding head. His black glasses were coated in snow. He kept taking them off and wiping them and shaking his head in disbelief at what was going on around him. “I mean, has anyone been able to reach her?”
“We called the church phone and Lisa’s cell phone,” Denis replied. “She’s not answering either one.”
“Well, there has to be someone who knows her, isn’t there? The woman grew up in this town, for God’s sake. We have to have someone who can talk a little sense into her.”
Denis shrugged. “I talked to Laurel March at the hospital, and I explained the situation. She’s on her way over here.”
“Is this woman a doctor?” the mayor asked. “Or is she a friend of Lisa’s? I mean, either way, I hope she can help.”
“Dr. March is a psychiatrist,” Denis replied.
“A shrink? Really?”
“Lisa’s been seeing her for the past couple of years.”
“Well, I’d like to say it’s helping, but it sure doesn’t look that way. Did Dr. March have any suggestions?”
“She said to do nothing until she got here,” Denis replied. “We don’t want to push Lisa and make her feel threatened. It’s impossible to predict how she’ll react if we do that. On the other hand, I’m worried that she may take matters into her own hands. She’s got a lot of guns and ammunition in there.”
The mayor wiped his glasses again. “You really think she’s dangerous?”
Denis scowled and lost his temper. “Dangerous? Of course, she’s dangerous! She broke into my house and took a shot at me tonight. She took a shot at the cops when she went off the road. Yesterday, she pulled a gun on two deputies at her house. She’s holed up inside the church with assault weapons, and she knows how to use them. She’s putting people at risk, and I don’t care if she’s mentally ill. You could say that about any mass shooter.”
The mayor waited for him to calm down.
“I hear you on all of that, Denis, and you’re right. The only thing I’m saying is this is Lisa Power we’re talking about. Everyone around here knows her. And this isn’t going to stay local. We’re going to have national press on this, too. This is news, Denis. I’m already getting calls. We need to take every possible step to make sure this situation doesn’t get out of hand.”
“It’s already out of hand,” Denis snapped. “Look, I know exactly who Lisa is. Believe me. No one wants to see anyone get hurt here, least of all Lisa herself. But that’s up to her. The safety of the town and our police officers comes first. If we had some nobody hunkering down in that church with a rifle, you think we’d hesitate to take a shot when we had it? Of course not. The sheriff and I aren’t giving Lisa Power any free passes. If she threatens our people, if she fires at us, she becomes a target, and we have to take her out. You know that’s the only way to go.”
The mayor exhaled long and slow. “Son of a bitch. I know what you’re saying, Denis, but you need to think about what Lisa has been through. Not only is she not some nobody, she’s also a woman who’s just gone through the worst kind of loss that a human being can experience. We need to keep that in mind.”
Denis held himself in check this time. He wanted to yell, but yelling accomplished nothing. And the fact was, he did know what Lisa had been through. He didn’t like her, but he didn’t wish her any harm. They’d been estranged for years, but she was still a part of his life. And a part of his family.
“I’m not casting blame on Lisa,” Denis told the mayor. “I know how difficult this situation is for her and how impossible it is to accept. Remember, my wife and I are going through this, too. We’re grieving, just like she is.”
The mayor reached out and put a hand on Denis’s shoulder. “Of course, you are. I wasn’t trying to imply otherwise, Denis. You and Gillian have been through hell these past few days. This whole year, really, ever since the diagnosis. I can’t imagine what this time has been like for you.”
“Thank you.”
“Is there any news of Harlan, by the way?” the mayor asked. “Did you find out where Lisa took the body?”
Denis nodded. He felt as if one weight had been lifted from his shoulders, only to be replaced by an even heavier burden. “Yes, I got a phone call a few minutes ago. They found him and took him back to the hospital. The funeral home will collect him shortly. So at least that mystery is solved.”