Piercing the Darkness (43 page)

ACROSS THE STREET
, crouching atop the hardware store, and across the motel parking lot, hiding on the roof of Nelson Printing and Bookbinding, squads of filthy warriors puffed a cloud of sulfur when they saw Khull follow the lady up to Room 302.

Destroyer watched from his vantage point above the flower shop. “They guessed right,” he hissed. “She’s here!”

CHAPTER 23

“PRAISE GOD,” SAID
Tom, so excited he couldn’t sit still. “I can’t believe it! Progress!”

“Well, a hundred different pieces maybe,” said Marshall. “But give it time—it’ll fall together.”

Tom, Marshall, Kate, and Ben were having another powwow with Wayne Corrigan in his office, not too long after that rather explosive meeting with Irene Bledsoe.

Ben had gotten over his excitement. Now he was pensive, probing. “She’s alive. Sally Roe is alive, and Mulligan knows it.”

“And Parnell too,” said Marshall. “I’ve got him on my list.”

“But what are they trying to pull, and why?” asked Kate.

“That’s what I’m still waiting to hear,” said Corrigan. “I love all this stuff, guys—I’m really enjoying it, but sooner or later—and let’s hope sooner—it’s got to add up to something. We need a case we can present in court, and so far I don’t see anything that directly applies to the lawsuit.”

“Right,” said Marshall, looking through some notes. “So far it’s all indirect, peripheral stuff. But we’re getting closer. Here are the names of the people I got from that Motor Vehicle Report on the license plates. The following people are possibly involved in this LifeCircle outfit, and some of them fit right into this: Mr. Bruce Woodard, the elementary school principal, and, no surprise, our plucky Miss Brewer.”

Kate inserted, “And as for Mr. Bruce Woodard, I talked to him on the phone again today, and he still assures me he’ll find that curriculum so I can look at it. But if you ask me, he’s stalling.”

“If he is, try these names: Jerry Mason, Betty Hanover, and John Kendall, three members of the Bacon’s Corner school board, all three most likely connected with LifeCircle.”

“Hence the
Finding the Real Me
curriculum at the elementary school,” said Tom. “It fits right into their worldview.”

“And their agenda,” said Marshall. “These people are just as evangelistic about their religion as we are, and they’re wasting no time.” He raised an eyebrow at the next set of names. “Jon Schmidt and Claire Johanson. Schmidt doesn’t impress me yet, but Johanson is big stuff, a direct connection with the ACFA. Oh, and who was that other guy? Oh yeah. Gordon Jefferson was there too, so now we have a link-up with the ACFA for sure, not to mention . . .” He scanned down the page. “Lenore Hofspring, from California. Check the ACFA California roster, Kate. I’ll bet she’s on it. They’re bringing in some bigger guns from out of state.”

“It isn’t fair!” said Tom.

“Have faith. We’ve caught so many fish today our nets are breaking. Here’s another fish right here . . . Surprise, surprise. Lucy Brandon. What a recipe. Take a mother involved in this cosmic mystic group, add the cosmic mystic group controlling the school board and pumping cosmic mystic curricula into the local school, then get a well-meaning, crusading teacher fresh out of . . . what was that teacher’s college?”

Kate answered, “Bentmore.”

“Right, one of America’s finest, they say. Miss Brewer learned everything she knows from them, and now she’s cramming it into the kids. These people have the whole system sewn up from the top down.

“Anyway, throw it all into the pot, stir it all up, and what do you get? A little girl channeling a spirit just like all the moms and pops and uncles and aunts out there at the big white house.

“We’re talking about a lot of moles, a lot of demons connecting this whole thing: Lucy Brandon, LifeCircle, the school board, the school, the ACFA, and even the little girl.”

Ben was puzzled. “But . . . are you saying they purposely enrolled Amber in our school just to force a confrontation?”

Marshall laid the notes on the desk and thought about that. “No. Maybe Lucy Brandon really wanted something better for her kid. Maybe the trouble that popped up was something the others—Life-Circle, the ACFA—saw as an opportunity. What do you think, Tom?”

Tom was intrigued with the notion. “When she first enrolled Amber, she seemed concerned about the changes Amber had gone through since being in Miss Brewer’s class. At the time, I honestly thought that Lucy Brandon wanted a more basic, ‘traditional’ education for her daughter.”

“That’s the feeling I get,” said Marshall. “It’ll be interesting to talk to her and find out what she’s really thinking, and if she’s doing her own thinking at all.”

Kate reported, “Alice Buckmeier told me about Debbie, the girl who works with Lucy at the Post Office. Debbie was there that day and saw the confrontation between Amber and Sally Roe. She might be able to tell us something more about Lucy.”

“Sounds good. And now . . .” Marshall spread some sheets of paper out on Corrigan’s desk as the attorney watched. “Here’s the best part, I think. It could make this case bigger than just Bacon’s Corner . . . and it could blow it wide open. We don’t know yet.”

The others gathered around.

“That address bothered me, the location of the Omega Center that published that curriculum. That was in Fairwood, Massachusetts, right?”

Kate had that information. “Right. I got the address from Miss Brewer.”

“Ben, where did you get that arrest record, the one that included the mug shots of Sally Roe?”

Ben was stunned as he doublechecked the document. “Fairwood, Massachusetts!”

“So . . . a lady gets arrested for murder clear across the country, but then shows up in this little place for no apparent reason. In the meantime, a curriculum is published in the same town where she was arrested and finds its way here . . . Maybe it’s just a coincidence, except for some more molehills: a little girl who ends up demonized, most likely because of that curriculum, later confronts Roe in the Post Office, and the little mole sticks its head up out of the ground and says, ‘I
know you, you killed your baby!’” Marshall smiled and shook his head at his own conclusion. “That demon was in Fairwood; it knew about Sally Roe.”

“And then . . .” said Ben; he was figuring it out.

Marshall verified his thought. “And then somebody comes along and tries to kill Sally Roe . . .”

“The very same day my kids were taken!” said Tom.

“
And
the very day before you got your summons.”

“I love it,” said Corrigan. “But what does it really mean?”

Marshall looked over all the notes one more time and answered, “I don’t know. We have molehills all over the place, and demons tunneling everywhere, maybe even across the country, but . . .” He sighed. “No case. We can theorize that Sally Roe’s so-called suicide has something to do with the lawsuit against the school, but . . . what? And so what? There just isn’t any visible connection—yet.”

Ben turned away, frustrated. “We’ve got to find out who that woman was, the one we found dead in the goat shed!”

“Parnell’s the one to talk to.”

“Well, he wouldn’t talk to me! He and Mulligan are in this together, that’s obvious, and they’re looking out for each other.”

“And I’ll guess somebody higher up is watching them closely, if you get my drift.”

Corrigan piped right up. “I don’t get your drift.”

“Humor an old reporter,” said Marshall. “I’m guessing they both belong to some kind of secret group, maybe a lodge, maybe something occult, who knows, something like LifeCircle, something tied closely to it, maybe even a part of it, but not nearly as nice. Hidden. Powerful. Something has a really short leash on those two.”

“But you’re guessing,” said Corrigan.

“Keep on guessing,” said Tom. “You’re a good guesser.”

Marshall ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m in your camp, Wayne; a guess is only good if it pays off. We’ll just have to find some levers to pull, some way to squeeze these people. Oh, Kate, speaking of levers, forget waiting for Woodard to get you the curriculum. Go to the school board, those three people . . .” He checked his list again. “Uh . . . Jerry Mason, Betty Hanover, and John Kendall. Just see what they say, but don’t wait for them either. If they stall, write to Omega for it. I want
to see that curriculum.”

Corrigan rested his chin on his knuckles and stared at all the notes. “Man, where is Sally Roe?”

Marshall said grimly, “I imagine somebody else is wondering that too.”

A RUSTLING WENT
through the demonic ranks surrounding the motel; black wings began to quiver, and red glowing blades appeared.

Sally Roe was returning to the motel, walking briskly up the street, alone and unprotected.

“Remain in place,” said Destroyer. “Don’t move.”

Immediately there was a hissing and an agitation among the ranks. The officers on either side of Destroyer got fidgety.

“She is ours!” said one.

“Alone!” said another.

“Remain in place,” said Destroyer.

SALLY FELT NO
anxiety, no fear. If she felt anything, it was a new kind of exhilaration. She still couldn’t believe the incredible recovery of that second ring. She considered herself extremely lucky, or fortunate . . . She wasn’t ready to say “blessed.”

She rounded the corner, passed under the breezeway, and started up the stairs to Room 302.

“WE SHOULD SATURATE
the building!” said the monster at Destroyer’s right. “Khull and his men need our power!”

“You must reinforce the demons of Broken Birch!” said the beast at Destroyer’s left.

Destroyer watched, still silent, as his warriors fussed and hissed all around him, itching to get in on the kill.

SALLY REACHED THE
first landing and was starting up the second flight of stairs.

Khull was in the room, waiting. One of his men, dressed as a repairman, remained near the soft drink machine at the other stairway, ready to block any escape that way. Another man, looking like a casual vacationer, took his post at the bottom of the stairs Sally had just taken.