I Will Fear No Evil (Psalm 23 Mysteries Book 10) (3 page)

After looking her over he said, “You’re having an allergic reaction to something.”

She remembered the strange smell that had been in the basement and wondered if it could be connected.

“Are you allergic to anything that you know of?” he continued.

She shook her head, not sure if she could speak yet. He asked a couple of more questions and then gave her some medication. Faster than she would have thought possible she was able to start breathing freely again. With Jeremiah’s help she sat up slowly, just in time to see the medical examiner bringing the body out of the house.

Mark exchanged a few words with both him and the paramedic before he came over.

“You doing okay?” he asked, worry evident in his tone.

“Yes,” Cindy managed to say.

“You had us worried. I wonder what you were allergic to?”

She shook her head. She didn’t know, but she hoped to never encounter whatever it was again.

“You might want to see a doctor and have the whole battery of allergy tests,” he suggested.

It was probably a good idea. She shuddered to think what might have happened if she had been alone when the attack happened. Then again, there was no way she would have been alone in that house. Still, whatever was in it that had triggered the reaction could be something she might encounter elsewhere.

“It’s a heck of a thing,” Mark said, looking distracted.

“Where’s Liam?” Cindy asked, realizing she hadn’t seen Mark’s partner.

“On vacation, lucky son-of-a-gun. Wish I was. In all my years I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”

“Nor have I,” Jeremiah offered.

“You said she had a mixture of symbols on her. What do the symbols mean?” Mark asked. “I mean, obviously pentagrams are Satanic.”

Jeremiah shook his head slowly. “That one in particular was symbolic of evil because it was upside down and that would seem to be the intent of it. Regular ones with the single point facing upward aren’t Satanic.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“The normal pentagram is a Christian symbol representing the five wounds of Christ: head, both hands, and both feet. The upside down version didn’t become a negative thing until more modern times when occultists and Satanists used it to represent something contrary.”

Cindy had heard something like that before, though she couldn’t remember where.

“So, point up okay, point down bad?” Mark asked. “That makes no sense.”

“It’s the inversion, the opposite. Like the difference between a cross and an upside down cross,” Cindy said. She guessed even that was a corrupted symbol, though. Legend had it that the Apostle Peter had been crucified upside down because he didn’t consider himself worthy to be killed in the same manner as Christ. Even an act of humility could be corrupted by those with evil intentions.

Jeremiah was still worried about Cindy. When she had fallen off the stairs it had scared him, and when he realized she wasn’t breathing right he had felt a kind of powerlessness he never wanted to feel again.

There was something deeply wrong with the house and particularly the basement. He had been doing his best to try and block it out, even though his imagination had been working overtime. He could have sworn he’d heard noises, whispers, most inaudible but a few startlingly clear.

He had told himself that it was nothing, merely an old building and the suggestion of what had happened in it. The fact that both Mark and Cindy had been radiating their own fear hadn’t helped any so he’d been trying to ignore that, too. Which was why he hadn’t realized Cindy was in trouble earlier.

“If you get me photographs from the coroner of the symbols, I’ll see what I can do to translate them for you,” he said. He didn’t want to admit it, but even though he’d known exactly what the Hebrew meant at the time he’d been staring at the body, he couldn’t remember what it was. That also scared him. He’d never had problems with recall like that before. He wondered if the shock of Cindy falling had been great enough to cause him to forget or if there was something more at work. What he did know was that he was grateful to be out of that basement, and he wished that he’d never answered the phone when Mark had called that morning.

“I’ll see that you get the pictures as soon as possible,” Mark said. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this whole mess, and we need to get to the bottom of it fast. I’m sorry I pulled you two into this.”

Jeremiah just nodded. It wouldn’t do any good to echo the man’s sentiment.

An officer approached Mark and Jeremiah noted that the man was pale. “We finished checking the rest of the house,” he told the detective.

“And?” Mark asked tersely.

“We didn’t find anything. It appears to be completely abandoned. No furniture, no signs of habitation. There were thick coats of dust on everything.”

“Any chance there was a nice clear fingerprint in one of those layers of dust?” Mark asked.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“Of course. Why should any of this be easy?” Mark grumbled.

Jeremiah could tell the other man was still frightened, and he didn’t blame him. He wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now. This investigation was going to turn ugly and both of them knew it. Given the nature of the crime and the way the body had looked, if the press got wind of it, then things would just get crazier.

Nobody needed that. Especially not this close to Halloween. It even had the potential to make national news which was a kind of nightmare none of them needed to live through.

Deep in his gut he felt that old, familiar urge to disappear. Attention was the last thing someone like him wanted. Nosy reporters and a national stage was one of the worst things that could happen. If it did explode into big news there’d be no way he’d be able to stay out of it. The very fact that he’d been here would send the reporters his way and they’d dig into his life, Cindy’s life, everything.

“What’s wrong?” Mark asked sharply. “Are you hurt?” He was staring down at Jeremiah’s right hand.

Jeremiah glanced down and saw blood drops seeping out between his fingers. He’d clenched his fists so tight thinking about what might be coming that he’d dug his fingernails hard enough into his palm to make it bleed.

“It’s nothing,” he said, forcing himself to relax his hands.

Mark looked like he was about to argue, but just then another police officer called him over to look at something in the dirt. Jeremiah suspected it was probably some sort of tire track or shoe imprint. Whatever it was, he was grateful for the reprieve.

He looked at Cindy. The color had finally come back into her cheeks.

“We should take you to the hospital or a doctor to get checked out. We need to know what it is you’re allergic to,” he said.

“I just want to get out of here,” she said, “but I’d rather go back to work or home.”

He didn’t argue with her even though he was worried. Too many strange things had happened in that basement that he couldn’t explain. He wanted answers, but, even more than that, he wanted reassurances about Cindy’s health and information on how to avoid another emergency.

“Well, hopefully we can go soon,” Jeremiah said.

As it was, both Mark and the paramedic insisted that Cindy go to the emergency room just to be checked out. Several hours later they were driving back to the church. Whatever the reaction had been to, the medication she had been given had taken care of things. She also had an appointment with her doctor later in the week to do the allergy tests to find out what it might have been that set her off. It wasn’t ideal, but at least they would be getting some answers.

It was after six when they got back to the church parking lot. It was empty except for Cindy’s car which was parked next to the building. Jeremiah pulled up next to it and she got out of the car, every line of her body telegraphing just how tired she was. He didn’t blame her. It had been a traumatic day.

He got out as well and moved toward her car. She turned to look at the gate that led into the church courtyard and stopped, keys in her hand.

“What is it?” he asked.

“The gate’s ajar. It should be locked. Last person to leave always locks up.”

Normally he would have assumed that one of the pastors was working late, but there were no cars in the parking lot other than hers so he was instantly on guard.

He moved toward the gate, waving at Cindy to stay put. He could feel her moving closer, though. He pushed the gate open wide enough for them to pass through. He looked for any lights on in the buildings, but the only illumination was coming from the exterior lights.

They were nearing one of the corners of the building closest to the parking lot when he heard a soft step coming toward them. He froze, tensing his muscles. Someone was there. It wouldn’t be the first time criminals had trespassed on church property. He waited, holding his breath as he listened to the footsteps approaching.

A form flashed into sight. Jeremiah lunged out, reaching for the man in front of him.

3

Jeremiah was reaching for the man’s throat when he recognized him. He pulled back at the last second as Dave Wyman shouted in terror. The youth pastor, who everyone called Wildman, scrambled backward several feet and then stood, staring at him as though he had just seen a ghost.

“I’m sorry, you startled us,” Jeremiah said with a grimace. “We thought you were an intruder.”

“I startled you?” Wildman asked, voice cracking slightly.

Cindy moved to join them. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“No, I’m not,” Wildman said. “You nearly scared me to death.”

Before Jeremiah could respond Wildman stepped forward and grabbed his shoulders. Jeremiah struggled not to shrink back at the contact or respond in some other inappropriate way. He’d barely managed not to knock the man out already once today.

“Do you know what this means?” Wildman asked, his eyes getting even wider.

Jeremiah didn’t and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He forced himself to shake his head.

“This is fantastic! I’ve been having problems explaining to the kids who are going to be running the haunted house here at the church how to scare people. You could show them!”

“What do you mean?”

“We could run a workshop, either after school or on the weekend and you could teach them how to scare people as badly as you scared me.”

“That was an accident,” Jeremiah said quickly. “I don’t know the first thing about scaring people.”

It was a lie, but the ways in which he frightened people were most certainly not the kind of thing that the pastor was looking for and certainly wouldn’t work for a haunted house type attraction.

“Come on. The kids look up to you, they respect you. They still talk about the hero rabbi who saved them all at Green Pastures.”

Jeremiah forced himself not to react outwardly to that news. He didn’t like that he was notorious for that. No matter what he did it seemed he was having an increasingly hard time keeping a low profile, and keeping his skills a secret, in this community.

“I just did what you or any of the other adults would have done,” Jeremiah said evenly.

“Um, sure, keep telling yourself that,” the pastor said with a dusting of sarcasm in his voice.

“Just do it,” Cindy said quietly.

Jeremiah glanced at her. “You want me to teach a bunch of kids how to better scare people?”

She nodded.

“Fine,” he said with a sigh. He could show up, try to show them one or two scare tactics and then Wildman would stop talking about it.

“This is going to be epic,” the pastor said with a grin of insane joy.

His phone chimed and he pulled it out of his pocket. He glanced at it and then grimaced. “Well, at least there was some good news today.”

“What’s wrong?” Cindy asked.

“My car’s been in the shop all day and it won’t be ready until tomorrow. I’ll have to call a taxi.”

“I can drop you home,” Cindy volunteered.

Jeremiah thought she was going crazy. She already looked completely exhausted and he figured she’d be eager to get home as quickly as possible. The noble thing to do would be to offer to drive Wildman instead, but Jeremiah was not eager to continue the Green Pastures line of conversation.

“Are you sure?” Wildman asked, perking back up.

She nodded. “You’re not that far from my house.”

“Fantastic! I’ve got some more Halloween plans I’d like to run by you,” he said.

“Okay. Jeremiah, I’ll see you later,” she said, giving him a wan smile.

He stepped forward to hug her, but then checked himself. They weren’t being demonstrative in that way in front of other people. He thought he caught a look of disappointment in her eyes when he stopped short.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said.

Together they walked out to the parking lot and the pastor locked the gate after they had exited. Jeremiah felt a little unsettled as he watched Dave get into Cindy’s car. He felt a pang of jealousy which was completely absurd. Even as he tried to dismiss it he couldn’t help but try to remember if he’d ever heard anything about the pastor being married.