Page 97 of Brimstone Hollow

Dishman nods.

“And he must be the one that killed Ezra King this morning,” I continue, thinking about what I’d overheard before I’d opened the door all the way.

He had to go. Ezra had to go and I… I did what I had to do…

I replay the words in my head, over and over, and then say, “He must’ve figured out the same thing I did—that Ezra was getting those people out of the church for a reason—and he must’ve shown up and killed Ezra before it could all come out. I just… I don’t knowwhy. Not yet.”

“And it’s gnawing at you, isn’t it?” Dishman says. He looks away from me, over the steep steps and into the forest. After a long few moments, he lets out a sigh and his shoulders slump in something like defeat. “I’m beginning to realize that there are some questions we may never know the answer to. Some things we just have to let go.”

“You mean like Joel Shepherd’s involvement? Whether his operation is still running?”

There’s a long pause and then, finally, he nods solemnly.

“I’d like to help you catch him,” I say.

“I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this,” he says. “It’s beginning to feel like a snipe hunt. And I’m beginning to feel like a fool.”

I start to argue with him, to tell him he’s probably been on the right track this whole time, that he probably just needs to stick it out a little longer. But as I open my mouth, a police cruiser pulls up the drive and parks. Officer Jeanine gets out, frowning, looking past us to Bradley’s cabin.

“I’m going to have to oversee all this,” Dishman says, suddenly all business, as he gets to his feet. “I’ll have to break the news to Scarlett Nickels. She acts tough, but she and Nathaniel were together since high school. Nearly twenty years now. And then… I’ll go see Diana Bradley and let her know what’s happened.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I’ve got to deliver some bad news of my own.”

“Oh…” he says, turning his face to the sky, closing his eyes in a pained grimace. “Katie. I forgot. Please, will you give her my condolences? Tell her I’m sorry.”

“Sure,” I say.

“Come back by the station later,” he says. “I’ll need to get your official statement on all this.”

“No problem,” I tell him. “See you then.”

I stand and plod down the porch steps and then start down the steep gravel and wood stairs that lead to the driveway.

“And Annie…” Dishman says behind me. I turn to look up at him. He’s backlit by the sun so I have to squint and can only see his silhouette.

“Yeah?”

“Get some rest.”

“Sure,” I say. “You too.”

I get back in the Bronco and drive straight back to town. I park right in front of my room and dart inside before Hollis can accost me. I take a long drink of water from the sink and then strip down, shower, and throw my Hell Hole–scented clothes in the tub to soak.

I yank on a clean T-shirt and then, leaning against the table in the quiet room with all the curtains pulled, I call Katie. I tell her about her father’s appearance, not at the top of the mountain, but inside the church.

“Wait, so… he wasn’t dead?”

“No,” I say. “He was not. But… I’m so sorry, I wish I’d gotten there sooner.”

There’s a long pause and her voice is calmer than I’d have expected when she says, “What happened? Can you tell?”

“I think someone punched him,” I say. “His nose looked like he’d been punched. But then he fell and hit his head on the altar so—”

“No,” she says. “No, sorry, it’s just—I mean, from the beginning. What happened? You’re saying he was never in the coffin to begin with? It wasn’t his body they found on Saturday morning?”

“That’s right,” I tell her. I breathe in, hold the air in my lungs as I try to assemble the information in my head so I can lay it out for her. Then, I exhale and explain the theory so far. That it seems her father was working with Kentucky’s King of Weed, Joel Shepherd. That Ezra wanted more money and started selling heroin on the side. That he used his tent revival circuit as a way to move freely all over the Southeast.

“Churches are exempt from taxes,” I say. “And revivals are a cash business. There’d have been no way to track his earnings, and with so many people coming and going, it would’ve been easy to line up sales.”