the disbelief in my tone. Wilder had been there and hadn’t seen them.
“No. Matt and I spent a couple hours at the bar after the fact, going over our notes, talking about what we could do to help Hank. When we got back, you weren’t here, but my car looked like someone had thrown a rock through the window.” Another scowl.
“That might be because I did throw a rock through the window,” Wilder told me.
Cash frowned. “You’d think someone who runs a body shop could come up with a better way to get into a locked car.”
“So sorry. I left my slim jim in my other pocket.”
“Good Lord, I’ll pay to get the fucking window replaced,” I snapped. “I think Wilder had other things on his mind at the time.”
They both got quiet, realizing they’d been squabbling like fat hens over the last corn kernel. In the grand scheme of things, a car window was not worth this much fuss.
“Sorry,” they both said.
“Forget it. We’re fine, right? For now, anyway. There are bigger problems we need to deal with. Like the fact that Timothy Deerling is a serial killer, and I think he has a secret family of creepy ginger children in the woods.”
They were all quiet again, and Cash gave me a puzzled look. “Did you hit your head when you were out there?”
Well, it had actually been hit for me, several times, but that didn’t seem altogether relevant right now. “On what planet could I dream up something that specific?”
“A planet where you’d sustained a serious brain injury?”
I let out a disgusted sigh. “My brain is fine. I know what I saw. I know what that insane asshole, Anderson, told me, so don’t try to convince me I imagined any of it. You weren’t the one hung up like a chandelier, okay? When someone ties you up like you’re being led to the slaughter, you can talk to me about what’s real and what’s imagined, but until then, just shut up and listen.”
The guys all gawped at me like live snakes had fallen out of my mouth. Their silence was the only invitation I needed. I laid out, in more detail than they probably wanted, everything that had happened to me while I was being held, and everything Anderson had told me about Deerling’s murderous history. I told them about the house, and the woman with all her kids, and what I’d overheard about how Pastor Tim preferred to kill women.
Women like me.
Once I was finished, I glanced around me, hoping one of them had had the common sense to bring beer. Alas, I had to settle for a room-temperature Diet Coke. I drank the whole thing in one long gulp, the fizz bubbling up in my throat.
The silence was long and heavy, with the men staring at each other, then at me. I wondered if perhaps men parsed information through the air, like intellectual osmosis. Finally Cash cleared his throat. I hadn’t realized how quiet it had gotten until he spoke, and every word was suddenly as loud as a shout.
“If all that is true, we need to get Wilder’s brother moved to a different jail immediately. Even county lockup will be safer for him than the sheriff’s office.”
“We might be able to use their treatment of Wilder as probable cause that Hank’s safety is at risk,” Matt suggested. He started rifling through the papers next to him, though I couldn’t for the life of me imagine what could be printed there that might help us.
He grabbed a thick, stapled list and began flipping through it. If he knew what he was after, all the power to him. I didn’t know Matt well enough to have an opinion on whether or not he was a genius or an idiot, but if Cash trusted him, it was good enough for me.
“There’s a judge in Hammond I’ve worked with before. He’s got a soft touch about supernatural issues,” Matt announced.
“You mean he thinks we’re people,” Wilder corrected.
“I mean he doesn’t sympathize with the Church of Morning, and he’s more likely than anyone else within fifty miles to get your brother moved. I can’t guarantee we can get Hank somewhere nicer, but it’ll be a hell of a lot safer than him staying here.”
Wilder and I exchanged wary glances. If the jail in another parish could offer Hank more security, that was great, but I didn’t think he was going to be truly safe until he was back with Callum.
“I