A Catch in Time Read online

  Donna nodded. “I did. But it meant one of you being a man. That wasn’t as good as having Josiah. Any preacher’d deputize him in a minute, what with his honest eyes and his affliction. This works well. You’re both smaller and easier to hide. We’ll make two runs. First, we’ll smuggle you, Kate. You and Samuel. We’ll find a hideout on the California side and leave the two of you there, then come back for Laura and Lucas. We’ll have to wait a few days before we come back, long enough to make it seem like we’ve been scouting.”

  It was apparent that Donna had given thought to the details of their escape, by separating Kate and Lucas in the first run. Laura didn’t know if Donna was just being careful or if she was still suspicious of them. Kate would be free with Samuel, but Lucas was still Donna’s hostage.

  “Sounds like a good plan, Sister Donna,” said Kate.

  “Let’s pray.”

  They joined hands and bowed their heads as Kate led them in a prayer, asking God to watch over them.

  Then Kate dropped their hands. She slowly rose to her feet.

  Laura watched Kate transform. Her face shone. Her eyes glowed. Her gaze pierced them. She flung her arms up, her head back, and shouted, “Praise the Lord!” Her voice reverberated. She stabbed a finger at Donna. “Do you feel Him, Sister?”

  Laura saw Donna’s mouth open, her eyes gleam with belief. “I do. I feel Him.” Sudden tears glistened in her eyes.

  “And do you feel Him?”

  Kate had abruptly shifted to her. Amazing, how her eyes burned. Laura managed to say, “I do,” and added a weak, “Hallelujah.”

  Kate went on at some length.

  Laura saw Donna’s lips moving, her cheeks glistening with tears, and finally, Kate said, “Amen.”

  Donna looked respectfully at Kate. “There are a lot of good people here, misled, don’t even know they’ve been led away from God.”

  “Satan,” Kate said sadly.

  Donna regarded Kate with new awe that had shifted the balance, Laura realized. Laura now understood Kate had been laying the groundwork for weeks.

  “How soon can you deputize Josiah?” Kate asked with new authority.

  “He’s already registered to the Brotherhood, but he’ll have to attend meetings—when you think he’s ready,” Donna said. She removed a billfold from her back pocket and shoved it into Kate’s hand. “We can fill out the information on him now.”

  Kate pulled folded papers from the billfold and rifled through them.

  “That’s my scout certificate.” Donna pointed one out. After Kate smoothed the sheet, Donna indicated a spot halfway down the page. “That’s where Josiah needs to sign, in front of the preacher.”

  Kate scanned the sheet. “This right, Sister Donna? You’re forty-two?”

  Donna nodded, uncertain.

  “A very young forty-two, Sister,” Kate lied.

  Donna returned a bashful smile.

  Laura lay awake, still amazed by Kate’s performance. She felt shame at playing on Donna’s belief. And now they were stuck with Donna and Samuel. Forever? Donna would never survive, alone, with Samuel. Two Shaitan in our house, Samuel and Lucas. What will we do? She turned restlessly onto her side, wishing for morning.

  During the next two weeks, awkward in the role of true believer and distracted by Josiah’s presence in her bed, Laura found commonplace situations difficult. The doctor wanted to know what she thought of Josiah’s state of mind, and Laura had groped. How should she be feeling? What did she feel? Did Laura think Kate might lead a prayer meeting after dinner, asked Donna. Laura shrugged, trying to hide her confusion. She had lost her ability to assess and to react appropriately.

  She felt like she was floating, and traveled the days on autopilot, driving Josiah to therapy, babysitting, running errands, not thinking. Pretending to pray. Watching Kate manipulate Donna. Sitting through thrice-weekly sermons at Donna’s church. Barely sleeping at night.

  When they’d first arrived, Donna had taken a leave of absence from work, but the day after Kate’s performance, Donna had resumed her role in the Brotherhood.

  “I have to go back to work, we all have to attend church regularly, and we need to get Lucas enrolled in Sunday school,” said Donna. “We have to show him off more, so people don’t get anxious. People are greedy for children. Thank the Lord, he’s small for his age. If they knew he was eleven, they’d put him in the breeding program.” With disgust, she added, “Brother Snake runs that program. Says preparing the young needs his personal guidance.”

  CHAPTER 32

  REVEREND PERRY STOOD BEFORE A MIRROR AND adjusted his string tie, carefully holding its silver clasp and smiling at his reflection. A work of art, that clasp. Brother Em said its medallionlike facing was easily five or six hundred years old.

  Reverend Perry, looking in the mirror, faced his own vanity. “Caught you again, you old bastard,” he chuckled. He knew it was only by the Lord’s grace that he was able, but he felt no pity for those poor souls who would never understand.

  He walked out of his bedroom, through the large suite, to his study. His penthouse consumed the entire twenty-sixth floor of the Play ‘N Pray Casino. Lush carpet, sumptuous furnishings, and museum-quality art went unnoticed, until he entered his study and closed the door to his favorite room.

  The shelves held only Bibles, old and new, acquired over the years. And his Jesus collection. Replicas of Jesus were on every shelf and table, every inch of wall. Statues of Jesus, Jesus bookmarks, Jesus trays, even a narrow Jesus fountain between his desk and the window.

  He smiled and sank into the leather chair at his desk just as his desk intercom buzzed.

  He pushed the button. “Jesus walks.”

  “Praise the Lord,” his secretary, Olivia, responded. “Brother Em is here.”

  “Send him in.” He leaned back, steepled his fingers, and waited.

  A minute later, Brother Em entered the study.

  “Jesus walks,” said Reverend Perry.

  “Praise the Lord,” Mack Silby responded. His smile was fierce and his eyes were chips of ice. He sat, leaned back, and placed his crossed ankles on Perry’s desk.

  Ignoring the boots, Reverend Perry kept his attention on Mack’s face. “I’ve been hearing things again,” he said, pressing his lips into a thin line.

  Mack’s smile remained unchanged, and he said nothing.

  “The girl was twelve!” Reverend Perry’s voice was grim. His fingers laced, white-knuckled. “Raped. Slashed. Beaten.” He slapped the desktop. “It has to stop.”

  Mack silently let the angry words fade.

  Perry’s gaze slipped from Mack’s cold eyes. Brother Em, like all the rest of them, was God’s instrument. He packed the church with followers. Brother Em, Perry had to admit, brought the congregation together in an indisputable way. Memory of the last sacrifice flashed through Perry’s mind. Even he, at the height of Brother Em’s thunderous calls for Satan to reveal himself, had found himself glancing into shadowy corners. Even the nonbelievers, those members who attended only to witness the sacrifices, became unsure of their disbelief when Mack stood at the pulpit.

  He sighed and slumped back in his chair. God shall judge him, not I. All I can do is try to guide him.

  “I mean it, Mack,” he said quietly.

  CHAPTER 33

  DONNA SUGGESTED IT MIGHT BE A GOOD DAY TO HAVE Josiah deputized. She smiled at Kate when she spoke, as though offering her suggestion for Kate’s approval. She wasn’t disappointed; Kate responded warmly with an impulsive hug.

  “You think so, Sister Donna?” Kate beamed. “Has Reverend Jasper seen him in the pews often enough to recognize him?” she asked, knowing the answer. They’d all taken pains to make Josiah’s presence obvious, slowly helping him down the length of the center aisle, taking seats as close to the front as possible.

  Kate had fretted the passing days, monitored Laura’s opinion of Josiah’s condition, of every word the doctor and therapist said, the delay for his prosthesis, the init
ial fitting, the readjustments. The hospital was not well supplied. Every staff member let Josiah know it was by the grace of the Lord that his prosthesis was so close a fit.

  He’d worn it home the week before Donna’s announcement.

  Kate had resisted Donna’s urgings to enroll Lucas in Sunday school by saying she could not bring herself to expose her son to the perversions of the Brotherhood. Donna’s worry about this one thing was making them all uneasy. Clearly, they were creating suspicion by not sharing Lucas with the congregation.

  The morning Donna said it was time to deputize Josiah, Kate told her she would enroll Lucas, and smiled at the relief on Donna’s face.

  Arm around Donna’s shoulders as they walked toward the Suburban, Kate whispered, “Surely you see the Lord’s hand in this? It’s time for us to put your plan into action.”

  Donna’s eyes shone, both at the praise and the hope.

  “Lucas shouldn’t have to go to more than one or two classes before you come back for him and Laura,” said Kate. “You’re off work Tuesday, right?”

  Donna nodded.

  “Then Tuesday it is. Can you arrange for scouting leave?”

  “I’ll do it.”

  It was Sunday. The instant they stepped into the church, they knew something was different. The atmosphere was charged with anticipation. Kate grabbed Lucas and stepped close to Josiah, protectively sandwiching him between herself and Laura. They all moved to one side of the doorway, their backs to the wall while they watched Donna move through the crowd to find seats.

  “Who’s that?” Josiah asked, looking toward the pulpit.

  As Kate and Laura strained to see, Laura’s lungs emptied. “Oh, my God,” she rasped. Mack? Mack? It can’t be, she thought wildly.

  “What’s wrong?” Josiah said.

  “What is it, Laura?” Kate hissed, leaning across Josiah.

  Laura swallowed, shocked. “It’s … Mack,” she croaked. “Lily’s father.”

  “What?” Kate squeaked.

  Josiah focused on the tall, cloaked figure at the front of the church. Lily’s father?

  None of them noticed Lucas’s avid interest, his small tongue darting across his lips. Lucas hardly felt Kate’s hands on his shoulders. He didn’t know how to use this new information, just that it meant something huge to the grown-ups and, therefore, something huge could be done with it. Somehow, sometime.

  “Come on,” Josiah said. “Donna’s waving. She found seats.”

  Laura felt a gnawing horror in her stomach as she slid into the pew, closely followed by Kate, then Lucas, then Josiah, on the aisle. She ducked her head and peeked through her hair at Mack, standing near the altar with the Reverends Jasper and Higsworth. What is Mack doing here? In the same robes as the two preachers? Her dread had little to do with Mack’s apparent role in the church. It was all about Lily. Lily was hers. It was unthinkable that a stranger might somehow lay claim to her daughter. And maybe try to take her away. Her fists clenched. She needed to get out of the church before Mack saw her, and Lily would be safe. She peeked at him again. Would he even remember her?

  Crushed against Donna, Laura saw distress in Donna’s face and gave a questioning look.

  “Brother Em,” Donna whispered, indicating Mack. “There’s gonna be a sacrifice.”

  Laura’s heart pounded. Mack was Brother Em? The man Donna called Snake? The man who headed the Brotherhood’s breeding program? She nudged Kate and whispered the news.

  Kate tensed and examined the robed men grouped behind the pulpit. The rustle of the settling congregation absorbed whatever they were saying to each other. She gripped Laura’s hand.

  Noticing Donna’s own white-knuckled hands, Laura reached over and folded one into her own. She felt a warm squeeze before Donna abruptly jumped up in response to Brother Em’s amplified, thunderous call. The crowd rose and shouted their responses to his urging. The ritual had begun.

  Brother Em ranted unlike any other preacher they’d heard. The energy he exerted was frenzied, and the crowd shouted back with feverish anticipation. Laura trembled as fury pulsed through the overcrowded room. Her blood seemed to run hotter beneath the surface of her skin. It pulsed wildly in her throat.

  The hypnotic urging of the crowd was almost irresistible.

  She dug her fingernails into her palm when she heard a thin wail beneath Mack’s thunder and the crowd’s fury. A baby, she thought, and her hot blood turned to ice.

  The congregation came to its feet when Mack stepped into the aisle, the infant held high, showing it to those on one side, then the other. He screamed for Satan to pit his power against God. People cringed when he dared the Devil to come forward. As Mack passed, each row became silent, people craning to see. Raising the crying infant back and forth, he neared Laura’s row. His furious eyes raked the congregation.

  Then his eyes found Laura’s, held them with terrible intensity. Nausea swept over her at his flicker of recognition. He raised the child with a nearly imperceptible nod, demanding her to look. The baby’s tiny, red, wrinkled face trembled with hungry cries. Only a few hours old, she thought, hearing its small voice. Flooded with memories of Lily’s first moments of life, she thought, too young even for tears.

  Her legs went limp and she collapsed into the hard pew. Kate clutched Laura’s arm, but all Laura heard was the cry of the newborn filling the air.

  “Listen to me. Listen,” Kate whispered. “It’s Shaitan.” She squeezed Laura’s arm. “It’s not Lily.”

  Laura tried not to look at the altar but couldn’t resist. The newborn dangling by its heels, the shapes of the hellish clergymen. The knife plunged, sliced a cross into the torso of the squirming infant, and Laura’s strangled cry was lost in the roar of the crowd. She rose on watery legs with the others when the congregation bellowed. Mack vanished through a dark doorway on one side of the altar.

  Laura sank into numbness as people flowed into the aisles, excited, eyes glowing. Mack—Brother Em—sacrificer of infants, his intense gaze directed at her; recognition. He would know Lily had been born after the blackout. She fought the panic, the need to flee. From Mack. From whatever he had become. From any possibility he could learn of Lily.

  She stood numbly between Josiah and Kate as Donna led Reverend Jasper to them. She listened to Jasper’s saccharine praise of Josiah for embarking on Jesus’s work. Jasper and Josiah signed Donna’s scouting permit, and Laura bowed her head as the reverend blessed their efforts. They pushed through the crowd, out to the parking lot.

  As Kate drove, Laura thought, It’s almost over. We can go home. She felt a light-headed giddiness. Relief. She’d never have to see Mack again.

  Josiah, next to her in the backseat, nudged her. “Penny for your thoughts,” he said.

  She involuntarily laughed, feeling love for him. “You offered me a yen once. Is that less than a penny?”

  Josiah draped his arm around Laura’s shoulders.

  “It won’t be long now, will it, Sister Donna?” Josiah said.

  His possessive arm around her was for Donna’s benefit, Laura realized, but that didn’t diminish the comfort it gave her.

  None of them noticed the tall figure in the shadow of the church’s rear entrance, his eyes following their progress out of the parking lot. As the Suburban disappeared from sight, Mack Silby visualized Laura’s face and overlaid an image of Conrad. His eyes flared black, convoluted shadows.

  He remembered Conrad. Oh, yes. The sensations of that long-ago night in the desert were so crisp/cruel he could taste them. None of the tortures he had inflicted on others had ever reached the exquisiteness of his experience with Conrad. His first.

  And here was Laura. She had betrayed him, denied him. Like Conrad had betrayed him, left him stranded.

  They both deserved any suffering he could devise.

  Mack began to ache with anticipation. He fought the urge to throw back his head and howl, to snarl furiously. The frenzy he was feeling needed to be let out. But he knew that if he ever
completely let go, he would not come together again.

  He stood shaking in the shadows, face contorted, fingernails gouging his palms. Lucid moments were becoming harder to maintain. He had watched Shaitan lose that battle, in spectacular bouts of self-destruction, ripping at themselves in clawed frenzy, tearing their own flesh with feverish need.

  He did not know what he was. That he was, that was all that mattered. To be or not to be, that was his battle. The skill was to ride sensation to the brink, then leap beyond the plunge. But the promise of the plunge was exquisite, increasingly difficult to resist.

  As he stood, panting, in the shadows, he vowed: He would find Laura, follow her to Conrad, recapture that first sensation. He would have them both and kill them both, in the worst way he could devise, devouring their pain and terror. And whoever was with them would only augment his feast.

  CHAPTER 34

  KATE HURRIED DONNA INTO THE HOUSE. THE EXTENDED service and Kate’s detour into a busy gas station to fill the car’s dual tanks had made them later than usual. Donna was overdue at the guard station.

  Laura watched Lucas sprint around the side of the house as she held the car door open for Josiah. When Lucas disappeared, she was struck by the normalcy of it all. She heard Kate offering to retrieve Donna’s freshly pressed uniform from the laundry room and Donna calling her thanks as she hurried into the house to release Samuel from his confinement.

  Samuel. No, things were not normal.

  Josiah, holding his crutch, met her eyes. “Strange, isn’t it?” Josiah remarked, glancing at the house.

  “Any Sunday in America,” Laura agreed, warmed by the congruity of their thoughts. “What do you suppose Lucas was thinking … at the church?”

  Josiah eased himself to the edge of seat. “I guess that depends on whether or not he really is Shaitan. If he is, then he probably got a kick out of it. If not, it’s another trauma to add to whatever it is that makes him so different.”