Page 73 of Forever Dark
“That doesn’t make them always useful.”
Connor took the next bend slower than he needed to.“Well, don’t hold it against her.She was angry.”
“At me?”
“At both of us.”
Selena frowned.“You got it too?”
That answer came easier than he expected.“When we fell apart, it hit more than just us.Jessie looked up to what we had.I guess when it went sour between us, it was like the illusion was over and maybe she didn’t believe in that sort of love anymore.”
Selena went quiet after that, watching the countryside roll by in the evening sun.It was clear she had tired of the trip down memory lane.Connor knew when to back off.Selena was capable of kindness like he’d never known, but she had a temper to match it when pushed.
By the time they crossed into Benton County, the sun had dropped low enough to turn the fields copper.More cars started appearing on the road, most of them pickups and aging sedans heading in the same direction.Enough of them to tell their own story.
“Looks popular,” Selena finally said.
“That’s going to make it harder to spot something unusual,” Connor replied.“I’ve driven past it before when it’s passed through the county, but the last time I did it wasn’t this size.”
People wanted to see this preacher, Elias Croft.They were coming in droves.Sheep to the shepherd.
Connor followed the line of vehicles off the highway onto a narrower road leading toward the county fairgrounds.Ahead, beyond a stand of bare trees, temporary lights had begun to glow against the deepening evening.A white shape rose above them that had to be the roof of the revival tent.Music carried faintly through the closed windows, organ and drums and a voice warming up the crowd.A generator was running, too.Connor could hear its steady drone under the music.
Selena leaned slightly forward in her seat.
The fairground lot came into view in pieces.Parked trucks.Folding signs staked at the entrance.Families walking in clusters toward the tent.Men alone, collars buttoned.Women in long skirts and women in jeans.A kid dragging at his mother’s hand.A teenage girl hanging back near the fence as if not sure whether to go in.Connor saw the same look on several faces.Tired people willing to be surprised by hope.
A bus sat off to one side of the tent.Long.Cream and blue.Polished enough to catch the last of the sunset across its windows.The gold script on the side flashed as they passed the first row of parked vehicles.
Mercy Road Ministries.
He pulled into a spot near the edge of the lot and killed the engine.
Diesel hung in the air from the generator and the bus.Folding chairs scraped somewhere under the tent.A woman laughed too loudly, then stopped.The music swelled as someone on the microphone told the crowd they were right on time for the Lord.
For a moment neither of them moved.
Then Selena spoke, as though she had been holding the thought in and had to let it go or she’d explode.She said, “You seem to know a lot about how Jessie felt.”
Connor kept one hand on the wheel.The bus stood beyond the windshield.Beyond that, the white tent and the crowd and whatever waited inside it.
He looked at the bus, then at the tent, then finally at her.
“I do wish you and Jessie would smooth things over,” he said.“After all, she is my sister.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The fairgrounds looked different to Selena after dark.
By full daylight, it would probably have been only gravel lots, rusting livestock pens, and tired buildings with paint curling off the boards.Evening did it favors.Strings of temporary lights cut through the deepening blue.A white revival tent rose above the parked trucks like something dropped in from another world.Music spilled from inside, full and bright, rolling over the rows of vehicles and the damp smell of dirt.
Connor shut his door and scanned the lot.“Let’s find Elias Croft and ask some questions.”
Selena looked toward the tent instead.“No.Let’s watch first.If they don’t know we’re here, they’ll act natural.”
His head turned toward her.“You think he’ll tell us something useful from a stage?”
“Maybe not with words.I want to see what message he’s preaching.It could be related to the case.”
