Dead of Autumn

by Sherry Knowlton

  After a few hours of work, the afternoon devolved into a party. Alexa perched on a stool at the kitchen counter and smiled at the animated group of family and friends who filled her home. She knew that her parents had engineered this event to help dispel the demons that had entered her beloved cabin with Caleb and his posse. The trick worked. She couldn’t wait to move back here with Scout. But it would still be nearly a month until the special order for the big window arrived and the place became habitable.

  Two weeks later, on a blustery Saturday in mid-December, Alexa drove out to the cabin to pick up some clothes for the workweek. Scout was getting around fine now, but she decided to leave him at her parents’ because she needed room in the back of the Land Rover to pile her suits.

  Alexa felt like her life was getting back to normal, and she was anxious to immerse herself in the routine by moving back into her own home. It would also be easier to spend time with Reese without her parents looking over her shoulder. She and Reese had been growing steadily closer since the night he found her in the cavern. They had finally had that official first date last night. As their relationship deepened, she couldn’t believe that she had ever doubted Reese or suspected him of killing Elizabeth Nelson.

  Alexa was somber as she arrived at the cabin. Seeing the huge board covering the front window didn’t help her frame of mind. Although she had participated in the family work party, today was the first time she had been back to the cabin on her own. Her solemn mood reflected her dismay at all the bad things that had happened here.

  However, the minute Alexa stepped over the threshold, her mood lifted. She loved this place and wasn’t going to let Caleb Browne and his fanatical friends ruin it for her.

  Alexa made two trips back and forth to take shoes and a basket of clothes to the car. On her second trip, she retrieved the shotgun from the Land Rover. The gun had been traveling with her since leaving the Underground Railroad cavern. That morning, her father had stowed the old twelve-gauge in the trunk of his car before he drove Alexa to the hospital. Later, she had transferred it to the bedroom at her parents’ house. Today, she had decided to get the gun out of the way and bring it back to the cabin.

  With the Land Rover nearly loaded, Alexa wandered into the chilly living room. A shaft of sunlight streaming through the only intact window fell on the couch where she sat, but the board over the living room window shrouded the rest of the room in darkness. Alone in the cabin for the first time since the night she had been forced to flee in terror, Alexa had to admit to some reticence about returning. She really wanted to come back home to this place she loved so much. But, that night had cast a shadow on her safe haven, creating an ambivalence like this play of light and dark in front of her.

  Intellectually, she knew she was safe. Caleb and his friends were in jail. They couldn’t come after her again. Still, the aftermath of that night had left Alexa feeling vulnerable. The day she had found Elizabeth Nelson’s body in the woods had been the first in a series of violent events that had hurt and killed people she knew well. Then, Alexa had become a target and barely escaped with her life.

  She remembered that long-ago thought that finding Elizabeth’s body had opened a tear in the fabric of her universe. Now, Alexa’s universe was in tatters, and she wondered if her life could ever be the same. She realized that it wasn’t moving back home that scared her, it was the hard-earned knowledge that the world was a more dangerous place than she had ever imagined.

  Shaking off this gloomy detour into introspection, Alexa rose to finish gathering her things. Returning to the dining room, she fished the plastic baggie with shotgun shells out of a box of books she’d brought from her parents’ house. She loaded the gun and propped it against the couch, intending to run it up to her bedroom when she did her final run to get her suits on hangers.

  Remembering that she needed a heavy coat for walking Scout at night, Alexa headed to the pantry where she kept an old down jacket. When she emerged from the pantry with the jacket, she jumped at a loud knock on the door. She hadn’t heard a car pull up in front of the house, but from the pantry she usually couldn’t even hear the TV in the next room.

  Alexa smiled and hurried to the door, dropping the coat on a chair. Maybe Reese had come to surprise her. Alexa threw open the door but was taken aback when she saw Reverend Browne standing on the threshold.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea,” Alexa said and tried to close the door. But the reverend blocked the heavy door with his powerful arm and forced his way into the room. He launched into a tirade, his face livid; his beard quivering with indignation.

  “I have waited for this day of reckoning when I could deal with you face to face, you heathen slut. You seduced my only boy. You polluted him with your touch, you unclean daughter of Satan. You are a whore and a baby killer.” The reverend was dressed in his usual black with clerical collar, the familiar black brimmed hat planted squarely on his head. In a towering rage, the minister’s entire body trembled with anger.

  “You have ruined Caleb’s life, and you must pay. You are just like those other sluts; my own daughter who became a harlot and a baby killer and that blonde jezebel who flouted the Lord’s will by murdering Gabriel’s child.”

  As he ranted, Alexa searched for a way to defuse this situation. When he paused for breath, Alexa spoke with determination. “Reverend Browne, I understand why you are upset with me, but I really don’t want to discuss this. Please leave.”

  Despite her calm tone, Alexa was on the edge of panic. Reverend Browne clearly was not in a mood for rational conversation. She calculated her chances of escaping through the front door. The back door was double-locked and would take too long to open. So, the front door was her best option for avoiding further confrontation. Alexa stepped back, trying to draw the big man farther into the room so she could slip out the door behind him. Unresponsive to her efforts, Caleb’s father stood firm near the threshold.

  Alexa blanched when the minister drew himself fully erect. His huge silhouette extinguished the light from the open doorway. Yet, his silver eyes glittered with cold fire.

  “Leave?” he scoffed. “I don’t believe you understand.” Then the reverend bellowed. “For I am the servant of God—an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. I am the Commander of the Army of Judah.

  “I dispatched those four boys on a mission to send you to Hell, but they were weak. Caleb was weak, just like the day that Rebecca had to be punished for her sins. Gabriel, named for God’s own archangel, was weak when it came to what had to be done with that little blonde. And, Joel failed when his bullet did not hit the heart of that filthy doctor whose hands are steeped in the blood of innocent lambs.

  “I am here to do what those boys could not. I will always do what is necessary to serve the Lord, our God.”

  Reverend Browne’s voice took on a maniacal pitch as he shouted, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, sayeth the Lord.” He stormed toward Alexa.

  Listening to this diatribe, a chill ran down Alexa’s spine. She understood that this was not just an over-the-top, angry parent standing before her. This man was almost certainly certifiable, and she was in serious danger. As the minister moved toward her, Alexa darted toward the living room. If she could make it upstairs, she could call 911 or use the back window as an escape route.

  The old man moved like lightning as he leapt across the floor, trying to cut off Alexa’s retreat. She sprinted to the far side of the dining room, but in seconds, he had swallowed the gap between them. Alexa wrenched away as she felt Reverend Browne’s massive hands dig into her shoulder. She gagged when she caught a whiff of lime aftershave mixed with acrid sweat. Panicked by the man’s rapid advance, she tipped a wooden chair into his path.

  Alexa fled into the living room, desperate to reach the stairs. Undeterred by her attempt to trip him up, the enraged minister dogged her every step. When his calloused finger grazed her cheek, terror galvanized her into summoning a burst of speed.

 
; Alexa turned when Mrs. Browne appeared in the open doorway into the cabin, screaming, “Jebediah, no! You must stop. Please don’t do this again.” She halted on the threshold, anguish written across her face.

  Caught up in his frenzy of anger and hate, the reverend glanced at his wife for no more than a second. Then, the imposing man continued to chase Alexa.

  Alexa had paused behind a high-backed wing chair when she heard Mrs. Browne enter the room, hoping that his wife’s intervention would halt the reverend’s rampage. Things began to move in slow motion as Alexa saw the look of despair on Caleb’s mother’s face when her husband ignored her plea. During the moment of distraction, Alexa spied the shotgun leaning against the chair in front of her. She grabbed the gun from the floor, and in a smooth motion released the safety.

  In that instant, Alexa’s fear exploded into blazing anger. She was so very tired of these people who had wreaked havoc on her life because of their perverse view of Christianity and their anti-abortion cult. This madman standing in front of her was the worst of all. He was responsible for twisting so many minds.

  Aiming the shotgun at Reverend Browne’s chest, she said calmly, “Reverend, one more time, I am asking you and Mrs. Browne to leave. I am sick to death of you, and if you try to harm me, I will not hesitate to shoot.”

  Seeing the gun in Alexa’s hands brought Reverend Browne up short. For a moment, he halted just a few yards away from Alexa’s position behind the leather wing chair. Alexa tensed when the minister reached into his coat pocket, thinking he was going for a handgun. Instead, he brought out a small Bible and touched the book to his heart before returning it to his pocket.

  Then, everything seemed to happen at once. Alexa braced the shotgun, ready to fire.

  The incensed minister took two great strides across the floor, clearly intent on killing Alexa with his bare hands. Reaching the armchair, he catapulted toward her and roared, “Blessed is mine, sayeth the Lord.”

  Mrs. Browne let out another earth-shattering scream, “Nooooo …”

  Alexa pulled the trigger.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  After Alexa pulled the trigger, Joanna Browne ran to her fallen husband, cradling the reverend in her arms. The shotgun blast had hit the minister in the chest as he leapt toward Alexa. He was dead by the time his wife reached his side.

  Alexa couldn’t bring herself to touch the man who had tried to kill her. She could barely look at him. There was blood everywhere. She had never seen so much blood.

  In a daze, Alexa moved to the phone and dialed 911. Pulling on a coat, she stumbled outside with the shotgun and a box of shells.

  Sick to her stomach, Alexa huddled in the corner of the deck in a patch of sun. Inside, Caleb’s mother lamented and prayed over her dead husband. Alexa cradled the shotgun in her arms for protection. She didn’t fear Mrs. Browne but worried that others from the congregation might be nearby.

  When the police and an ambulance arrived, two state troopers approached her slowly with their guns drawn. “Drop the shotgun,” they commanded.

  Alexa rose with difficulty, shaking from the cold. She left the shotgun lying on the deck. She had trouble putting her words together. “Shot him. Going to kill me.”

  “Miss. Who did you shoot?”

  “Reverend Browne. I’m pretty sure that he’s dead. He’s in there on the floor with his wife. She had nothing to do with the attack … she tried to stop it.”

  While the police secured the house, the paramedics confirmed that Reverend Browne was dead. One of the paramedics led Alexa to the ambulance and wrapped her in a space-age blanket for warmth.

  “We need to treat you for shock.”

  A few minutes later, the police led Mrs. Browne from the cabin and down the steps toward their vehicle. As she passed Alexa sitting in the back of the ambulance, Mrs. Browne slowed. This distraught woman barely resembled the elegant woman Alexa had first met. Her hair was tangled and the entire front of her dress was soaked in her husband’s blood.

  “I am so sorry, child. I am so sorry about everything. I should have spoken up with Rebecca, but I was raised to obey my husband. I didn’t listen to the Lord himself. Deuteronomy 31:6 says ‘be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.’

  “I see now that if I had more courage, so many lives could have been saved. I knew from that first day I met you that you were a different type of woman, one with courage and a mind of her own. You would have been so good for Caleb, but I couldn’t save him from his father’s influence.

  “I loved Jebediah, but he could be a hard man in his service to the Lord. You did what you had to do, and I understand.” She smiled wanly. “The Book says ‘Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you;’ Ephesians 4:31-32. I will hold that thought in my heart when I think of you, child.”

  Alexa hardly knew what to say. She knew that this woman came from another generation and had led a very different and more constrained life than her own. But, how could she obey her husband to the point that she stood by while he killed their only daughter and pushed their only son down a path that ended in prison? Joanna Browne struck her as an intelligent woman. She must have seen the inherent hypocrisy of a pro-life doctrine that employed murder to advance its message. How could she condone her husband’s zealotry?

  Even more astounding was the fact that this complicated woman could find compassion in her heart for Alexa after all that had happened. Finally, Alexa found the words to respond. “Mrs. Browne, I am sorry for all you have lost.”

  Soon, the cabin was again surrounded by police cars and taped off as a crime scene. Alexa was relieved when Trooper Taylor arrived. Sitting alone in the ambulance, she began to recover from the shock of taking Reverend Browne’s life. She started to worry that she could be facing criminal charges. The police had only her word about this confrontation with Reverend Browne. Although Mrs. Browne seemed to be in a penitent mood, Alexa was far from certain that she would corroborate the story of the woman who killed her husband and ruined her only son.

  While Alexa had made it clear that she killed Caleb’s father in self-defense, the original troopers on the scene were strangers. These officers only saw a young woman who had killed a minister, rarely a profession that they linked with the violent behavior Alexa was describing. The policemen had, however, allowed her to call her father. He and Graham arrived only moments after Trooper Taylor.

  Alexa had a difficult few days until she was completely cleared of any wrongdoing. The police questioned her for hours. Even worse, the national media had flocked back to Carlisle to cover the latest installment in the sensational “Abortion Clinic Killers” case. Alexa had to evade the press every time she left her parents’ house.

  Strangely enough, Joanna Browne had confirmed Alexa’s story. Her husband’s death opened up the floodgates, and the minister’s wife told the police a long and twisted tale of violence and religion gone awry. The death of the patriarch of the Church of the Blessed Lamb impacted Caleb and his friends as well. They thought Reverend Browne was invincible and had followed him without question. When he died, Caleb and two of the other young men crumbled, and a larger story emerged.

  Alexa learned the details when Corporal Branche and Trooper Taylor visited one evening. When they arrived at the scheduled time, she ushered them into her parents’ living room where Reese was waiting.

  “Ranger Michaels.” The corporal shook Reese’s hand. He turned to Alexa, “With everything that you have been through, we thought you deserved to know the entire story. Through interviews with Mrs. Browne and the men in custody, we’ve been able to piece together most of it.”

  Trooper Taylor smiled. “There is some good news. It’s possible that you won’t have to testify in any court proceedings. It looks l
ike most of these guys are going to plead out. And, they’ve all been talking.” The trooper began the story.

  “It was Reverend Browne, not Gabriel, who killed Elizabeth Nelson. And, she was not the only young woman that the fanatical preacher murdered. It started with his daughter, Rebecca, who had chafed against her strict religious upbringing and rebelled by running with a wild crowd of teens. When she got pregnant, Rebecca went to Maryland for an abortion rather than face her father with her pregnancy.

  “Somehow, the reverend learned of Rebecca’s abortion. In a rage at his daughter’s sin and disobedience, he killed her in front of his wife and son. The family buried Rebecca’s body in a field and invented a story about Rebecca moving away to get married.”

  Alexa thought of all the fond stories that Caleb had told about his sister. How horrible that he had watched his father murder Rebecca.

  “The minister killed at least two other young women in the Church of the Blessed Lamb when similar transgressions came to light. The congregation’s fanatic hatred of abortion and cult-like reverence for their spiritual leader provided him with cover for his actions.

  “A few years ago, Reverend Browne took his campaign against the evils of the godless, modern world one step further. He linked up with a southern militia movement that had been trying to expand northward. This group, called the Army of Judah, was readying for the Armageddon that they believe is coming in a battle between the righteous true Christian believers and the godless society currently in control of the U.S. government.

  “The reverend assembled a branch of the militia and recruited Caleb and his three best friends to join. Because of his experience in the army, Joel became one of Reverend Browne’s key lieutenants. Caleb took on the role of quartermaster and used his sporting goods business to arm the troops. He also used his so-called business trips to maintain contact with the southern branch of the Army of the Judah.”