Page 100 of Forever Dark
“No,” Selena said.“You just refuse to tell me who travels with you.”
“That’s because I protect people who come to me broken.”
“From law enforcement?”
“From judgment.There is a law far higher than yours one must abide by.”
Something hot moved under her ribs then.Not anger exactly.The pressure of a theory resisting the first cracks.
Selena opened another photograph and set it on the table.
Tara Brennan in happier light, pulled from social media, standing beneath the revival tent with a hopeful caption under the image.Croft glanced at it once.
“Tara Brennan was at your service, too.”
“I don’t know her.Don’t tell me there’s been a third?”
“She was killed last night and found posed in an old grain silo before dawn.”
The room fell silent as Selena waited for something usable.
Then Croft said quietly, “That woman’s blood is not on me, nor are the other two.I only preach love and forgiveness.”
“Diabolus quoque angelus olim fuit,” Selena said.The devil was once an angel.One of the phrases she had learned on her old case when the bomber had left it as a cryptic threat.
She watched him carefully.A small look.Small enough to let her know that he understood.
He sighed.“Ridiculous.”
“So, you speak Latin?”she asked.
“Many Christian theologians study Latin writings, child,” he said.
Selena leaned forward.“I find that hard to believe these days.Latin writing was found at the murder scenes.Where were you last night?”
“In my bus.”
“All night?”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Can anyone confirm that?”
“Yes,” Croft said.
The answer came so easily that it made something tighten at the back of her neck.
“Who?”she asked.
Croft folded his hands again.“My head of security, Leon.Tell me, did you do a background check on him?I assume everything was correct and proper.”
She had.Leon had no priors.
“The last time we spoke,” Selena said, “you told us no one could verify you were in the bus because you liked the solitary life.”
