AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Him not being armed, I’m assuming that’s relevant?” I asked.
Bryce nodded grimly. “Just watch, won’t be long now.” He got up from the chair but left the laptop on. He had seen it before, of course, but I guess he had no interest in watching it again. I chewed on the inside of my cheek, wishing I had the option to walk away as well. The suspense was killing me.
A man appeared in the frame behind Jim, and it might as well have been a jump scare moment in a horror movie, because I was so surprised by his arrival I let out a yelp.
He just stood there. A dark, looming figure, waiting in perfect stillness at the corner of the screen. Jim didn’t notice him. The guard continued to scan the large room, and the man in the back hadn’t made any noises or sudden movements. As Jim approached the area where the pulpit had been, the dark figure moved.
I’d expected him to go slowly, but he didn’t. He rushed towards the front of the room with his arms glued to his sides and his steps long, loping bounds. He was at Jim before the guard even had time to react.
I flinched as the dark man leapt on Jim’s back and tackled him to the ground. When he grabbed his neck and twisted it, easy as if it was the cap on a pop bottle, I looked away entirely.
“Keep watching,” Bryce instructed. He’d filled a glass with water and I hadn’t even noticed.
Wilder had moved to my side and the heat of his body up against mine was enough to restore a modicum of calm. Instead of wild anxiety I only felt steady unease. What on earth could be worse than watching a man having his neck snapped that Bryce wanted me to continue watching the video?
The dark figure moved out of the room, leaving Jim Kind’s body on the floor, eyes still open, head at an odd angle thanks to the newly broken neck. A moment later the dark man, cloaked in shadows, appeared in another frame of the video footage, prowling through the scene as if hunting for something.
I realized he was in the audio video control room, where the lights and spectacle of the church had once been operated. He poked and prodded at a variety of buttons, then picked up a microphone from the console and tapped it. Since the video was silent I couldn’t tell if he was hearing what he wanted to, but he must have.
He lifted the microphone to his mouth as his eyes scanned the room. He stopped searching when he spotted the camera. He clambered up onto a chair, pulling his face level with the security cam, and it was like he was looking directly at me.
Timothy Deerling.
The very same Timothy Deerling who had part of his skull blown open by a bullet a year ago when he’d tried to kill me.
I sucked in a breath and Wilder recoiled.
Deerling was speaking, but I couldn’t read his lips, the video was too dark to make it out.
“What’s he saying?” I asked.
Bryce pulled a phone out of his pocket, prodded at a few buttons, and then crackling audio began to play. It was especially eerie since the words did not match up to the motion of Deerling’s lips.
“I shouldn’t have expected her to be here still.” He coughed once, then chuckled. “I’m coming for you, girlie. Gonna finish what I started. Gonna see you dead one way or another. Dead like me.” Again he laughed.
On screen he had finished talking and was just smiling a grim, determined, and utterly skin-crawling smile.
“Gonna get you, Genie McQueen.”
Chapter Twelve
The video ended abruptly, and the detective put his phone back in his pocket.
“I mean… he could be talking about anyone named Genie,” I fumbled.
“Anyone named Genie who was present at the time of his death?” Bryce asked.
A thought struck me, and a spear of worry stabbed through my heart. “The deputy. Josie Dwyer. If Deerling is out there just randomly attacking strangers, there’s a good chance he might go after the person who actually killed him while he’s at it.”
“Deputy Dwyer was working when this happened, and the Franklinton sheriff’s department has decided to keep her under watchful eye at the station until Deerling is apprehended. But that’s a problem in and of itself. He’s gone.”
“Because of course he is,” Wilder said.
I closed Bryce’s laptop and pushed it back towards him.
“Now, I have to say Ms. McQueen, I was expecting you to be a wee bit more surprised that a dead man was walking around making threats against you.”
“I was surprised. Didn’t you see me? I did this.” I mimicked my earlier gasp.
