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“But?”

“Mickey believes in God and Jesus and a whole host of other religious figures associated with the Native American culture and, well, you name it. I’m sure Buddha’s in there somewhere, if you asked him. I don’t pretend to understand it all, but he is surprisingly accurate in predicting . . . coming misfortune.”

“Okay.” Over the past week Savannah had been so inundated with talk of psychic gifts and paranormal woo-woo that she was beginning to become inured to it.

“He says, and I’m paraphrasing here, that the devil is coming and you need to burn him to send him back to hell. He says that he saw him at Bancroft Bluff.”

“Mickey saw the devil at Bancroft Bluff?” Savvy asked. She wanted to say, “The devil was already there and killed the Donatellas,” but she waited for Toonie to finish, as she was obviously coming to a point. Small moment, my ass, she thought.

“He sings ‘Jesus Loves Me’ to ward away the devil. He thinks it keeps him and people around him safe.”

“He was singing it when we took him into custody.”

“Trying to save you and your baby, too, I’ll wager.” She cleared her throat. “Several nights ago he caught the news, and he saw a picture of your sister. He said, ‘That’s her. That’s the one Satan’s taking to the bluff,’ or something like that. I asked, ‘Who?’ and he pointed to your sister and said, ‘We need to tell that nice police lady who’s having the baby Jesus. She’ll send him back to hell. Tell her to burn him.’”

Savvy’s throat tightened. “He saw my sister inside one of the houses at Bancroft Bluff?”

“That’s what he says.”

“Do you believe him?”

Toonie struggled to come up with an answer. “I don’t believe he saw the devil in corporeal form, no. But I think he saw something that frightened him.”

“How long has he been going to the Pemberton house? I didn’t think it was the first time when we picked him up.”

“Would you like to speak to him? I know he’d like to talk to you.”

No, she didn’t want to talk to him. But if he’d seen Kristina somewhere at Bancroft Bluff . . . “Sure,” she agreed.

“We’re just getting ready for dinner, so I’ll take you to the dining room.”

Savvy followed Toonie down a short hallway that connected the main room to the kitchen and Toonie’s office and ended at another large room, full of folding tables with white plastic covers. A line of men and women was forming,

and about three people from the end stood Mickey. His hair had been combed, but his beard was still straggly, and his clothes didn’t look much cleaner. Toonie instructed Savvy to take a seat on one of the benches that lined the perimeter wall, and she went over to Mickey and said something to him. Immediately, his attention jumped to Savannah, and he left the line and racewalked across the room so fast that Savvy tightened her grip on the messenger bag, which lay over her shoulder and currently held her gun.

He leaned in close, and she couldn’t help but pull back slightly. “I saw her with the devil,” he whispered intensely.

“You mean my sister, somewhere at Bancroft Bluff?”

He blinked rapidly. “Your sister?”

“The woman you saw on the news,” Savvy explained.

“Oh, yes! Yes. The pretty lady. She was with him.”

“Where did you see them?”

“They went inside the house.” He looked around nervously.

“The house you were in when I saw you last week?”

“That’s my house,” he declared strongly. “They were in the other one, with the red tile roof.”

“The Donatella house is a Spanish Colonial, and it has a red tile roof,” Savvy said.

He nodded gravely. “The house where the people died. Marcus and Chandra Donatella.”

“Yes,” Savvy said, surprised that he knew their names.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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