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Throughout it all, however, he’d held on to his faith. Sometimes it had been hard, nearly impossible, but he’d always felt the spirit of the Lord with him.
But that was changing, he realized. Ever since he’d come to Blue Rock Academy, his faith had been tested.
Now he wasn’t sure it would survive.
He fell to his knees and prayed for guidance, for divine intervention. All the while, he felt the cold metal of the Glock tucked into the waistband of his pants, pressed hard against his back.
Jules stood at the window of her darkened room and hoped no one could see her looking over the campus. Pulling her hands into the warmth of her sweater sleeves, she kept her eyes on Reverend Lynch, a dark slash of a figure. Bent against the wind, he walked on the path from the chapel, veering off from the main walkway, as if he was headed toward the house he shared with Cora Sue. She couldn’t see the house through the curtain of snow, but she was convinced he was going home for the night.
She could only hope he stayed there.
Keyed up, she threw on her jacket, scarf, and boots and grabbed a flashlight and keys, both of which she figured could qualify as weapons. There was no way she could stay in this room and do nothing, just sitting behind a locked door and praying that she was safe. Not with a killer on the campus. Not with her sister at risk.
Locking the door behind her, she told herself to calm down and get a grip, but she knew full well that nothing short of the killer being brought to justice would ease her mind or anyone else’s. Everyone at the school was jumpy.
She hurried down the stairs to the cozy nook that served as the common area for Stanton House. Clusters of tables and chairs were situated around warm, earth-toned rugs that had been tossed over the hardwood floor. Reading lamps and half a dozen battery-powered candles added to the ambience.
However, no one relaxed on the soft leather cushions or curled up in the corner of the couch angled near the windows. The place was empty and quiet except for muted notes of some Spanish ballad drifting from an upper floor.
Jules adjusted her scarf.
The door closet under the stairs opened.
She nearly jumped out of her skin as Keesha Bell, a disgusted look on her face, a dust rag dangling from the back pocket of her jeans, pushed a vacuum cleaner into the room. An empty bucket was swinging from the fingers of her free hand.
“You scared me!” Jules admitted, then laughed.
“Sorry.” Keesha didn’t even pause or crack a bit of a smile. “Sometimes I scare myself. ‘Specially in the morning.” She stopped to straighten a stack of magazines resting on a glass coffee table before she plugged the cord of the vacuum into an outlet.
“You must have late duty tonight.”
The furrows in Keesha’s forehead deepened. “Yeah,” she said with a roll of her expressive eyes. “Lucky me.”
“Every night, right?”
The girl nodded as she unlooped the vac’s cord. “That’s the way Dr. Lynch wants it.”
Jules thought about the note that had been slipped under her door the other night. She didn’t know if it was a prank or a sincere plea for help, but she intended to find out. “Have you been doing this all week?” Jules asked, walking into the living area.
“No, thank you, God. We rotate,” Keesha said, snapping the rag from her pocket to swipe at a cobweb hanging from the shade of a floor lamp.
“Were you working here last Friday?”
“Nuh-uh.” Keesha shook her head, cornrows rubbing the back of her neck.
“Do you know who was?”
“Uh … Nell. Maybe.” Puzzled, she walked to the janitorial closet again and opened the door to expose a duty list posted on the back panels. “Let’s see.” Squinting, Keesha ran a long finger down the list. “Yeah. I thought so. Nell was scheduled over the weekend. What happened? She miss your room?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Jules said, glad for a name. If Nell hadn’t slid the note under her door, she might have seen someone else loitering on the floor. She tucked the ends of her scarf into the lapel of her coat. “I was just wondering how the rotation went.”
Keesha closed the closet door and walked back to the vacuum cleaner again just as the song from above changed tempo. “Well, things have changed a little this past week. Used to be one person was in charge of cleaning each of the buildings, but with what’s happened around here … you know, Nona and Drew being killed and all …” She rubbed her arms as if suddenly chilled. “Now we work in teams of two.”
Jules surveyed the first floor. “You’ve got a partner?”
“If ya can call it that. Banjo’s up on the third floor.” Keesha jabbed a finger toward the ceiling. “Listen. Can’t you hear her?”
“Yeah, I do.”
