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Logan backed away and pulled his disheveled shirt open, tearing the buttons. He revealed three figures tattooed on his chest: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
"They will protect me," he snarled as blood oozed out of the wound in his side.
"No," Valerie said. "They would be ashamed of you."
Logan lunged forward, and Valerie shot him in the thigh. But the man would not stop. It was as though he was possessed. Valerie felt him bearing down on her. He wrapped his muscular arms around her waist, pulled her up into the air, and then slammed her down onto the ground.
Valerie felt the wind rush out of her lungs. She struggled for a breath.
Logan now stood over her, grinning, but there was a wheeze under it as though the gunshots had taken their toll.
"Now you will join them. You will be another sacrifice. Disbelievers shall perish.Post Tenebrus Lux. I am the light!"
He wrapped a coil of rope from his pocket around Valerie’s neck and yanked her upward. But Valerie saw something he didn't. Someone was on the ground just behind him at the top of the stairs.
The Sheriff of Kerry County, ready to do his duty. He had pulled himself up all those stairs, and with the gun his wife had given him, squeezed the trigger.
The bullet hit Logan in the back, and he finally dropped to the floor.
Valerie pulled herself to her feet and went over to the Sheriff.
"Promise me one thing when you leave here," he said coughing and grinning.
"Anything, Glen," Valerie said rubbing her neck. "I think I owe you one."
"When you get home to Quantico," he said. "Call your fiancé. Patch it up with him. Life is too short."
"I ... I'll try," she said, knowing that she was now conflicted. She knew that she was attracted to the sheriff, though she would never betray Tom. "Your wife is a lucky woman, Glen."
"There's never enough time," Sheriff Carter said, panting on the ground. "One day, they're there, the next they're gone, and you never get to say all the things you want. So don't wait."
"Oh Glen ..." Valerie looked at the man on the ground with deep admiration and affection. Her heart ached for him. The wedding ring hung from a chain around his neck, and now she understood. Glen's wife had died some time ago.
EPILOGUE
Valerie slumped down, exhausted, onto the couch after her flight. She looked around her apartment in the dim light. It was good to be home, but it felt empty.
Tom wasn't back from his trip yet, and she had no idea what sort of condition their relationship would be in when he returned. She knew that sheshoulddo everything she could to mend the relationship. Shedidlove him deeply. But meeting Sheriff Carter had thrown something of a spanner in the works.
Valerie had thought about the man a lot. She spoke to him on the phone during her flight. He was in a hospital bed and being as warm and positive as usual. There was something about him that she felt drawn to.The profiler in her told her that it was because her relationship was on the rocks and another man was an easy way out.
But no, she felt that it was more than that. Maybe she felt drawn to him because they were both broken. Broken in a way Tom wasn't. Sometimes the injured could help each other heal.
Valerie had a terrible fear that her feelings for Sheriff Carter were a sign that she and Tom should not be together, but she tried to push that thought away as best as she could.
She was almost glad for the exhaustion because it meant that she was too tired to process it all. The tiredness gave her an excuse to leave everything until tomorrow.
Tomorrow, I'll fix everything when I've been able to think straight, she thought, standing up and heading into the hallway of the apartment. It was early morning, the skies dark and moody outside, but for Valerie, it was the night. This was when she had to sleep.
She shuffled across the hall, barely able to keep her eyes open. With no Tom to cuddle with, she at least had the satisfaction to know that Heinlein would have to run her department for a while, begrudgingly at least.
The thought crossed her mind that she'd be stuck in a career trying to outsmart not just killers, but also her superiors, and all while trying to hide her own psychological frailties. As she stepped over the threshold into her room, she kept the light off as she didn't think she could bare the slightest stimulation.
I have to figure out a way to get Jackson Weller back at the unit,she wearily considered.
It was the only way to ensure that their work didn't get destroyed or blocked. One thing was for sure, Heinlein was as petty as they come. He'd find a way eventually to shut them down if given long enough.
A cold chill washed over her body. Valerie looked at the empty bed and thought she saw the outline of her mother lying there, straight jacket and all, grinning at her.
