“Marcus!”she called.“Wait!”
Another noise caught her attention, a deep, rumbling echo that rattled her bottom teeth.She turned toward the sound to see the pipes on the right side of the organ bowing toward her.With a sound like skin tearing, the stone of the wall on that side fell away, and the massive brass cylinders plummeted to the ground.
Kate threw herself to the left, narrowly avoiding being crushed by one of the enormous fixtures.They landed with a resounding crash that speared her ears like spikes driven into flesh.She cried out, but her voice was drowned in the rippling echo.
“Kate?Kate!”
The voice was Marcus’s.It echoed from behind the vestry door, which was now blocked by a pile of fallen organ pipes and stone rubble.The door shook as Marcus tried to open it.
“I’m all right,” Kate called back.“The pipe organ failed.Go around the outside.”
“I can’t,” Marcus called.“It’s locked.”
A chill ran down Kate’s spine.The hairs on the back of her neck prickled, and another voice called to her, one she’d dreaded hearing ever since Winters told her of the explosion at Northbridge SMU, one she knew she would hear eventually.
“Hello, Kate.”
Kate turned toward the voice and saw him, coming through a hidden door at the hem of St.Anselm’s robes.That, apparently, was how maintenance workers and tuners accessed the organ’s array of pipes.
It was how the Lawgiver made his entrance into the House of God.
She spun toward him, handgun aimed steadily at his chest.“Elijah Cox!You are under arrest!”
Cox smiled and lifted his hands, fingers splayed.He wore his priest’s vestments: a white linen robe and scarf and a deep purple stole draped over a chasuble of the same color.The chasuble was decorated with gold filigree that formed the shape of the cross at the end of each sleeve.With his hands upraised as they were now, the crosses were displayed upside down.Kate found that fitting.
“I am unarmed,” Cox informed her, approaching slowly.“I only want to talk.”
“Iamarmed,” Kate said, flicking the safety of her weapon off.“And we’re done talking.On your knees now.”
Cox continued to approach.“Surely you must see the inevitability of this, Kate.Surely you must know that our fates are entwined together.This was ordained by God.Who are either of us to deny the will of the creator?”
As he drew closer, Kate saw the gleam in his eyes, the gray of his cheeks, the deep crimson flush on the bones that made the pallor all the more stark.He looked sick, but it wasn’t physical ailment.
He’s getting worse.He’s growing more insane as time goes on.
She pulled the slide back on her handgun.“Stop.Don’t make me shoot you.”
From behind the vestry, Marcus called, “Shoot him!God damn it, Kate!Shoot him!”
“You could shoot me, Kate,” Cox said, continuing his slow, inexorable approach.“As I said, I’m unarmed.I’m an old man, older now that I’ve suffered at the hands of the authorities of men.You could kill me.You could say that I attacked you and left you no choice.”
Kate shook her head, though only Cox could see her.She lifted her voice so Marcus could hear her say, “You’re not getting the easy way out, Cox.You’re going to face justice for your crimes.You’re going to stand in front of a jury and hear them sentence you for what you’ve done.God damn it, on your knees!”
Cox stopped.He didn’t go to his knees, but he stood still, ten feet away from Kate, hands still upraised.He gave her a beatific smile and said in a soft, gentle voice, “Kate.You know that God has called us to die together.You know that He’s called us to meet here, right now, in His sanctuary, to absolve the sins of the world.”
“We’re done,” Kate said.“On your knees now.”
Cox sighed and looked down.“Oh, Kate.Why must you struggle so?Surely it’s hard for you to kick against the pricks.”
“On.Your.Kn—”
Cox lunged forward.His hand was a blur as it swung for her wrist.She squeezed the trigger, but his hand collided with hers before she could complete the pull.The gun flew across the nave and skittered underneath the pews.
Cox slammed into her with the force of a bull, throwing her to the ground and landing on top of her.His hands found her throat and squeezed, cutting off the scream she tried to release.
She stared into Cox’s eyes and found no trace of the suave, poised Lawgiver.All that was left was the primal, murderous hate of the serial killer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
