The Hand of God (17 page)

After a few minutes rest, I kept moving, but this time at a quick walk.  The bottoms of my feet were raw and crusted with blood.  After another hour of walking, I came to a clearing.  There was a large field with cattle lying around.  It had to be someone’s farm.  There didn’t seem to be anyone following me so I walked along the edge of the property.  There was a little shack a few hundred yards away.  I couldn’t tell if there was anyone there or not, but had to check it out.

             
Making sure the coast was clear, I made a run for the shack.  By the time I reached it, I felt like I would pass out.  My feet were on fire and my legs felt like rubber bands.  The shack wasn’t too small, but looked run down.  I tried the door and pushed it open.  After a few steps inside I heard someone shouting.

“Alto ahi!” A man was yelling.  I turned and saw a Mexican man holding a shotgun at me.  I put my hands up and gestured to him.  What he yelled at me meant “Stop right there!”  I only knew a little Spanish.  I hoped I knew enough to keep him from shooting me.

“Estoy herido!” I said, meaning “I’m hurt.”  I pointed at my feet.  “Habla Ingles?” I asked as he lowered the shotgun.

“A little,” he said.  “Why are you here?”

“Some men tried to hurt me.  I escaped, but the police think I did something bad.”

“Policia?” he said.

“Si.”

“Come,” He gestured to me into another room.  He looked like he was in his forties and wearing sweatpants and a work shirt.  We walked into the kitchen where a woman stood, about his same age.  She was pretty, had her dark hair pulled back and wore a men’s shirt that fit her like a dress.  They both looked tired.  They talked in Spanish for a few minutes, but I couldn’t make out anything they were saying.  After a couple minutes, she took me into the bathroom.  She cleaned off my feet and wrapped them while he stood by.

“I am Roberto,” he said.  “This is my wife, Esperanza.”

“Thank you both,” I said.  “You work here at the ranch?”

“Si.  The owners let us live here and pay us for our work.  She will get you cleaned up and you can have some of my clothes.   But then you must go.  No policia.”

“I understand.  Thank you.”

They let me shower and Esperanza dressed my feet again.  After the shower, Roberto gave me a pair of jeans, a Texas Longhorn t-shirt, some socks and a pair of boots.  The clothes fit mostly.  Anything on my feet felt better than running around barefoot.  I thanked them again and left.  I saw a crucifix hanging on the wall of their living room as I stepped out.  It made me wonder if they knew they had just helped save the devil himself.

Chapter 30

I left the shack and ran toward the road.  There was no traffic as far as I could see.  I wanted to avoid the cops, but also needed a ride.  It was at least forty five minutes to an hour from my apartment by car.  I wasn’t even sure it was safe to go back to my place.  For all I knew, the cops were tearing the place apart.  God only knew what information the Bishop gave them.

Once I reached the road, I noticed it was eerily quiet.  There was no longer a sound of the helicopter, and the sirens had stopped a while ago.  They must have thought I either died in the blaze, or was long gone.  Either way, they didn’t seem to be searching.  I was sure they had found what was left of Lee. 

Poor Lee.  I still wasn’t sure if he’d been that creature all along, or if the Bishop had turned him into something.  I knew he was excited about the Bishop and had fallen for his whole dog and pony show.  He’d mentioned the Bishop healing a cyst on his neck or something, could that have been enough for the Bishop to do something?  If so, then what had he done to the other folks he’d healed?

I walked along the shoulder along the road for at least a mile.  My feet and legs felt like they were filled with flaming hot needles.  I had no idea what time it was, but figured it would be daylight before too long.  My clothes clung to my body in the humid, sticky air.  They were already soaked in my sweat.  I reached a sign that said it was five miles to Seguin. I was still a long way from home, too far to go the whole way on foot.  A few cars had passed, but I was afraid to try and flag anyone down. 

A pickup truck came by, slowing as he saw me.  If they were going to give me a ride, I had to think of a cover story as to why I was out walking at this hour.  When the truck stopped, a man leaned over and spoke as he opened the passenger door. 

“You all right fella?”

The man was at least in his sixties, wearing a white cowboy hat and a dark t-shirt.

“I’m okay, I guess,” I answered.  “Been walking for a long time.”

“Why you way out here this late?”

“Was coming back from some friends with my girlfriend, we got in a fight and she kicked me out of the car.”  It was the best I could think of in a pinch.

“Well ain’t that some shit.  Hop on in.  Can’t let you walk around all alone out here looking all pathetic.”

I climbed into the beat up truck as we drove off.  Hopefully this guy wouldn’t ask too many questions.

“I’m Roy,” he said.

“Charlie.”

“Good to meet ya.  I hope that bitch ain’t your girlfriend no more.”

“Uh yeah, not after this.  I’m done with her.”

“Good for you.  I been married twice, ain’t gonna be a third time.”

He was silent for a while, and then spoke up again.

“There was something big going on down the road a ways back.  Looked like a fire or something.  You see any of that?”

“Uh, yeah, I saw it a bit as we drove by, but we were fighting.”  I hoped he would leave it at that.  Instead he looked me up and down.

“Any idea what was going on?”

“Nope, sorry.  I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Kinda weird you’re out here wandering around just a few minutes from where that whole mess happened.  And you don’t know nothing about it?”

             
I finally looked at him, hoping to reassure him long enough to get me into the city. 

“No Roy, I don’t know what was going on back there.  Looked like a fire, they happen all the time in the city.”

“Then why you look all beat up?  Your girlfriend do that to you too?”  He wasn’t going to let this go.  He pulled over to the shoulder and rolled to a stop. 

“I shoulda known better than to pick you up.  Guess once I thought about it, I put two and two together.  I don’t know what you’re into, but I want no part of it.  So I think it best if you just go on your way.”

“I’m not getting out Ray.  We don’t have much further to go.”

He began reaching for something with his left hand near the door.  Not taking any chances, I grabbed him by the back of the head and slammed it against the steering wheel several times.  The bones in his face made a loud crunching sound with each strike.  He managed to pull his hand back up holding a large hunting knife.  Being in Texas, I was surprised he didn’t have a gun.  I grabbed the knife and thrust it into his neck.  Blood filled the cab of the truck as it sprayed in all directions.  Roy grabbed his throat, twitching and gurgling as the life oozed from his neck.  So much for my clean clothes. 
             

I pushed his body into the passenger seat and started the truck.  I was going to have to drive home, with a dead and bloody body next to me. Thankfully none got on the windshield, most of it got on me and the seats.  If I could get home while it was still dark, I wouldn’t draw any attention.  It has been a long night and I could use to catch some kind of break.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful.  I still had to do something with the truck.  I couldn’t just park a bloody truck with a dead body at my apartment.  Before I reached town, I found a spot along the river with a boat ramp.  I drove the truck to the ramp and hopped out, letting it roll into the water.  It sank within a few minutes.  Once it was gone, I walked the rest of the way home.  The sun was starting to come up along the horizon.  I knew I could take a short cut through a nearby field and get to my apartment from the back way.  I just had to move fast before someone saw me and my bloody clothes.

Within fifteen minutes, I was back at my apartment.  I peeled off the bloody clothes and stuff them in a trash bag.  Another shower was in order, to scrub Roy’s blood off of me.  Once I finished, I put on clean shorts and a t-shirt.  From there I stumbled into my bed room and collapsed into bed.  Sleep took me before my head hit the pillow.

Chapter 31

I have no idea how long I’d slept.  When I woke up, I was glad to still be alive.  The last twenty four hours seemed like some kind of twisted nightmare.  My eyes burned from the sun shining into my apartment.  I tried to move, but every inch of my body ached.  Slowly, I climbed out of bed and limped into the bathroom.  Sharp needles of pain shot through my feet.  I checked the bandages and saw they had come loose and were caked with dried blood.  I gingerly dressed myself and headed out to the church. 

When I arrived, Sandy, the church secretary was sitting behind her desk doing something on her computer. 

“Pastor Charlie!” She said clicking out of whatever it was she didn’t want me to see and spinning around to look at me.  “Where have you been?  We’ve been worried about you.  I tried your cell phone several times, but you didn’t answer.”

“Oh yes, my phone.  I lost it. I have to get a new one.  It’s been a hectic last few days.”

“Well I hope everything is okay.  I have a few messages for you,” she pulled some sticky notes off her desk.   “Mrs. Rivera is in the hospital again, this time they think it’s her heart.  John and Gloria Murphy’s son was arrested again.  And there was a police officer here this morning looking for you, but wouldn’t say about what.”

I was not even ready to process all of this.  The only thing that jumped out at me was what she said about the police. 

“Do you know who it was from the police?” I asked.

“Some guy, Stafford or something.”

“Stanton?”

“Yeah, that’s it.  You know him?”

“We’ve met.  I’ll be in my office. I have some calls to make.”

I stepped in and closed the door.  First thing I did was logged onto my computer and looked up the Bishop and his miracles.  He was behind all of the chaos I’d been through last few days.  There had been multiple attacks on me in one night. I had no idea what that was about.  Lee could have just killed me when he knocked me out, but he didn’t for some reason.  Why the whole weird set-up?  Whatever he was up to, I was determined not to be caught off guard again. 

I found a video on YouTube of The Bishop healing the amputee lady’s leg.  I did a Google search for her name.  It was Katie Ingle.  Looking in some public records directories I found her address and phone number.  To my surprise, I couldn’t find any interviews she had given.  Many places had tried, but she didn’t give comments to anyone.  I figured she’d be a good place to start.  The Bishop had since raised the dead, but Katie was one of his first big miracles. 

I slipped out of the office, breezing past Sandy before she could say anything.  It took me almost forty minutes before I reached Katie’s home.  It was a small house in the west side of the city.  A large, German Shepherd startled me from behind a fence as I approached the front door.  I gathered myself and knocked.  An older woman answered, only opening the door enough so the chain lock would pull tight.  She looked me over for a moment before she spoke.

“I take it you’re here to see Katie?  She’s not doing any interviews.”

“I figured that ma’am.  I want to help.”