Hailstone (21 page)

His eyes fastened on her and a
tear trickled down his face. “I’m sorry Magdalene, it was the only way,” he said.

Magdalene eyed a camera that had turned their way. Preacher hadn’t seen it. She motioned for the cameraman to come closer.

“The only way to what?”

“God spoke to me. He said it was the only way to turn people aside from the path of deviancy. Force them into a proper relationship, then make them want to marry.”

“And you convinced Amanda into doing this to Adam? And then Zack? You made your people rape for you?”

“God will reward them,” Preacher insisted.

Magda pointed at Zack. “Gosh really? He doesn’t look very rewarded at the moment. But you don’t even care about him, do you? You didn’t so much as take him to hospital. Preacher do you feel the deaths on your conscience?”

“God knows his own,” Preacher mumbled.

“Did you kidnap Kat? Did you order it?”

“We had to bring you back somehow!”

Magda turned her head to watch the ambulance wail into the street. A fire truck followed on its heels and then two police cars.

Preacher straightened when he saw the police cars. The age and weariness dropped from his face. “Enough of this,
Magdalene,” he said. “The church is nothing. We will rebuild. Perhaps Zack is too ill for there to be a wedding today, but you will go to the outreach centre to be cured.”

Magda folded her arms. “Make me.”

“The law is on my side.” Preacher’s voice rang with conviction. “The police are here to take you.”

Magda glanced at the cars and hoped to God Kat was right about police coming in from outside. “It’s over, Preacher. No more church. No more outreach centres.” She watched the uniforms work their way through the crowds. The paramedics had already scooped Zack onto a stretcher and removed him.

Preacher leaped at her. One hand closed around her neck and the other hit her across the face. “God is on my side!” he yelled. “You cannot stop me, you stupid female!”

Magda put her arms around her head to protect herself, but in the next moment two uniforms leaped on Preacher, dragged him off her and cuffed his hands. He roared in protest.

A young man in a blue uniform helped her to her feet. “Are you okay, miss?”

Magda nodded.

“Are you Ms McAllister?”

“Yes.” She watched a police woman force Preacher into the back of a van.

“We’re going to need you to come down the station and make a statement.”

Magda took one last look at the burning church and knew she’d never have to look at it again. “Not without my girlfriend,” she said.

Thursday

Bright sunlight flooded the Hailstone cemetery. The deep, neatly cut hole in the ground was surrounded with piles of bright flowers, just like the steps outside Pantheon had been that morning. Most of the crowd had left, in their sorrowful black; now it was just the hole in the ground, the coffin inside it, and Magda and Kat by the grave.

Amanda had been buried earlier in another part of the cemetery by a small group from the Congregation. Magda had passed them, but they didn’t look at her. She didn’t know what they’d all do with Preacher gone, whether they’d choose someone else or just fall apart. Zack wouldn’t lead them; he’d been taken into custody as soon as the hospital patched him up
. Magda had told the new police about the rape and the kidnap and the drugs. She wondered if he shared a cell with Preacher.

The police h
ad busted every outreach centre. Welfare had taken custody of several teens found in there. Even the mayor was in deep trouble. The whole thing was a massive mess she didn’t think Hailstone would forget for quite some time.

The police had wanted to know who blew up the church, too, after the arson squad found the remains of a crude pipe bomb attached to the gas mains in the rubble. She’d told her only lie then and said she didn’t know. She presumed Joseph had left Hailstone already
. She hoped he’d make himself a good life and not blow anything else up.

Kat dug her fingers into the pile of dirt. Soil crumbled over her blunt, unpainted nails. She released the dirt into the grave. “Goodbye Adam,” she said. “I’ll miss you every day for the rest of my life.”

Magda felt a tear roll down her cheek. She dug her own fingers into the dirt and showered it over the coffin. “Me too.”

They walked away from the grave together, in the opposite direction the crowd had gone. Magda brushed down the dress she still wore from yesterday. It was all she had left of Adam and she didn’t want to take it off yet. Besides, she hadn’t been back to the house to get her things and didn’t know if she could stand to go back there ever again. She’d get a job and buy some new clothes. Nothing else mattered.

Last night, after the police had finished going over everything that had happened, and the press pack had gone away, she and Kat had sat and watched and cried while the footage of Adam’s murder had played on every news channel, over and over again, followed by Preacher’s arrest and scenes of him ranting at the cameras. Then it was their kiss, right out the front of the church when it exploded.

Magda knew today more and more Congregation people would be arrested; the outreach centre workers, the exorcist, the thugs who’d smashed up the newspaper office, even the police who’d stood by and done nothing while the Congregation took over the streets.

Kat unlocked her car. Magda slid into the passenger seat with a sidelong glance at the boxes crammed into the back. Kat had put down the backseat to fit everything in and still left plenty behind. They’d agreed, around midnight, that there was nothing keeping them in Hailstone.

Kat swung the car around and drove slowly out of the city. They travelled in silence onto the highway, passed the turn
-off to the rail yards and kept going.

Kat pulled over under a sign that announced they were now leaving Hailstone.

Magda couldn’t take her eyes off the sign. It was the best thing she’d ever seen. “Why did we stop?”

Kat reached into the back and pulled out a paper lantern stretched around a wire frame. “Adam gave me this, years ago, for my birthday,” she said. “See, it holds a wick. Give me your lighter.”

Magda took a lighter from her pocket and handed it over. They got out of the car and walked to the edge of the road. Past the railing, the land dropped away into a steep slope; beyond that, red dirt paddocks rolled away. A silver line of ocean gleamed in the distance. Magda gazed at the view in awe. She’d never dreamed something that beautiful was so close by.

Kat lit the wick and they both placed their hands on the lantern.

“In memory of Adam,” Kat said.

“Adam
.”

They both released the lantern. It floated up, up into the
clear blue sky, a tiny glow on a bright day.

Then they got back in the car and kept driving.

Magda watched the tiny spot in the sky through her open window until it disappeared.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nina Smith is an avid writer, belly dancer and costume designer who lives in Western Australia with her partner, her son and a menagerie of winged and furry friends.