Page 67 of The Chain House

Jennifer froze. “What about my mom?”

“Oh,” he said. “You haven’t … never mind, I’m sorry.”

“No, what the fuck are you talking about?”

“One of the bodies,” Martin said, with a hint of satisfaction. “It was just on the news. Your biological mother …” And while hearing that gave her instant relief, she opened her eyes wide, demanding more. He said, “They just discovered her body in southern Indiana. Found evidence she was killed … twenty years ago, fleeing the ranch.”

“What evidence?”

“There was a glass jar buried with her,” he said with a gulp. “Inside the jar was a note.”

“What did the note say?”

“Killed by demons,” he said. And then, with caution, “Mother of Jennifer.”

“You’re lying,” she said flatly.

“Why would I lie about that?”

Because you’re a liar, she wanted to say, thinking of what she’d apparently written on the closet wall so long ago … The Raven was here … The Raven is a lyer …

Martin stammered, “And … that wasn’t the only body with a glass jar buried with them. They also discovered, near Bowling Green, the man who must have been Iris’s father. It said much the same. Killed by demons … I can’t believe you hadn’t heard …”

“We’ve been a little busy,” Jennifer said, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

“And now we’re going,” Carl said with an attempt to coax Jennifer away.

But Jennifer stayed put. “So the children on the ranch weren’t left there by parents who fled?”

“No,” said Martin. “It looks like they were killed … for bringing kids onto the ranch. That broke one of the rules.”

“Why would they be buried with glass jars, and notes, if not …” she trailed away.

“If not for a plan for them to be revealed at a certain time in the future?” Martin said. “And you’ve heard about the most recent fire?”

“What fire?” Jennifer asked, although she assumed he meant the fire they’d called in at the house of Trevor Harper’s neighbor.

But that wasn’t it.

“Barrett Goldsmith,” Martin said. “It was reported an hour ago. Two buildings were burned to the ground on his horse farm, here in Twisted Tree.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. But with the McFee mansion burned down this morning, and now this,” Martin said, “it just gets me thinking … about the class war Batise always spoke of.”

“What … to usher in his execution somehow?” Jennifer asked.

“Seems like an awfully big coincidence otherwise.”

Jennifer thought back to their question to Batise that morning and his insistence he had nothing to do with the McFee mansion burning down. She’d believed him then but now wasn’t so sure, and now, more than ever, feared for Sam’s well-being inside that prison, with him.

“So what next?” Harold Martin asked, like they were now a team.

Jennifer glanced at Carl, then said to Martin, “Look, I think everyone’s main concern right now should be finding Justice Minks and Beth Hawthorne. And not trying to find meat for your follow-up book.”

“That’s not what this is,” Martin said softly, and somehow she believed him. “From what I hear, Governor Hawthorne is in quite a pickle.”

“How so?” Carl asked.