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“Why? No one else thinks otherwise.”
He released a long sigh. “I tried, Agent Rainwater. I tried to spare you. But you’re smart. Everyone said so. I’d hoped Cecil would take the fall for all this since he’d been caught with Bella Dawn and tried to kill you. Idiot. He deserves to be in jail. Then you started connecting the dots. Realizing Ruby wasn’t with Cecil, and she should be. Wondering why I didn’t call in our accident by radio. You aren’t giving me a choice now.”
Violet stood achingly still, listening but also calculating an escape. She didn’t need his big introduction. Jimmy Russell was the Blind Eye Killer. In her stoned-out stupor, she’d put together the fact that Cecil didn’t meet the Blind Eye Killer pattern or signature. She should have realized it sooner—but then she was fighting for her life and Bella Dawn’s. Jimmy staged the whole thing. Cecil was never in front of the ambulance. It was a ploy to pin it all on him. Clever too.
“I liked Chris, but he was collateral damage. Not to mention he brought all y’all here to begin with by making that stupid anonymous call to the State Police. I jabbed him with morphine then swerved.”
Jimmy cut Chris’s throat and used his blood to make it appear as if Jimmy was injured. He’d blame Cecil for Violet’s and Ruby’s murders.
Violet’s stomach revolted. “Do you have Ruby?”
“With the cold temps I’m thinking I can mess with the time of death a few hours.”
Violet’s blood froze. “What do you mean? Is she dead?” She scanned the chapel. There was one other door near the east wall, but she’d have to get past Jimmy to get to it. Could she make it to the door they entered on the west side in time? Not in her condition; her mind was moving faster than her other muscles.
“I—I can’t help myself, Agent. I have to have them. I know it’s wrong. I know it’s a sin. I pay every time and have for many years. But it’s not my fault.”
“No? They force the money out of your wallet? They chain you to a bed and make you do it? They come to you? No.”
His eyes narrowed, and he stepped toward her, fists at his side. “You don’t understand the need. It lives inside me. It’s hungry. Insatiable. It’s a darkness that overtakes me. It’s who I am.”
Violet knew a thing or two about that. The darkness that lived inside. But John was right. She had choices. She could have chosen to let Lynn die. She chose right. She’d wanted to do right when she’d felt the warmth chase away the cold shadow and thoughts. “You’re wrong. You make the choice you want to make. But you blame others. You blame the women not the darkness in you. You probably blame your mama too.”
Violet had blamed hers.
“My mama’s dead. I killed her with my own two hands. That hag had it coming.”
Lynn had it coming too. And Reeva and even Mother.
“Maybe so, but we don’t get to murder everyone who hurts or offends us. That’s lawlessness.”
She spotted an old hymnal. It was the best she had. She inched toward the pew to draw it out of the wooden slot. “What about the woman about four years ago? She was found in a mine. Eyes sutured.”
“She was in a bar outside of town. I thought she was a hooker. I propositioned her, and she turned me down. But I wanted her. I did. Things got ugly, and I found out she was DEA. She would have turned me in. I had no choice. She shouldn’t have been dressed like that! Dancing like that!”
“Yeah. It was all her fault. Have some restraint!” Violet had the hymnal in her hand. All she had to do was nail him in the face, giving her a fighting chance to run for the door.
God, help me.
She meant the prayer. Maybe Grandmother had been wrong, and John, Asa and Fiona were right. Maybe there was a God who loved her in all the broken mess she was in. Maybe He would save her. And save Ruby. “Where is Ruby?”
“She’s here of course.”
That changed everything. She glanced at the stairs. Noticed an old wooden chair by the wall. “Take me to her.” She slid the hymnal back inside the holder and eyed the chair. All she had to do was incapacitate him long enough to get to Ruby. “Is she alive?”
“She is. With the search parties, I haven’t been able to take my time. I offered her a way out that night at Nadine’s and one other chance later. Neither took it.”
“You broke into Nadine’s? That was you?”
He shook his head, and she eyed the chair again and made a step toward the stairs, but he was in front of her, blocking her, paying too close attention. “I suspect Cecil now. But I had no idea then. Chris did call me. I fixed her up. She wasn’t a holler girl, but I know she prostituted at times. Later I came back to check on her, try one more time. She would tempt other men. She tempted me. Wanted to thank me for free for helping her.”
Violet believed him. Cecil was interrupted. He’d almost made his fantasy reality; the need would be strong. When he spied the opportunity, he took Bella Dawn from the Swallow parking lot, casting suspicion on Regis.
“I want to see Ruby.”
He pulled a gun then. “Happy to oblige. Cecil is still going down for all these murders. Down the stairs slowly.”
She crept toward the back wall where the stairs were located, Jimmy right behind her. If she grabbed the chair, he’d shoot her, and she’d never have a chance. If she could get him closer to her, she could disarm him. At the top of the stairs, she paused. “If you let me put you in prison, you won’t be tempted.” It was a lame attempt, but she needed him closer.
