A Light So Cruel (Pioneer Falls Book 3)

by Heather Davis

  But maybe Dad had always known that our time would run out in Pioneer Falls. It wasn’t like we could hide our slowed-down aging forever. We’d all have to leave town at some point. We’d have to live in other places, create other lives.

  My father’s earlier life now made so much sense. As a tour roadie for rock bands, he’d seen different cities every night, some in foreign countries, spent years on the road. Never getting close to outsiders or attached to a place. His existence camouflaged by a trail of new places, new bands, new identities.

  Marin, my mother, must have changed everything for him. He’d fallen in love and that love had caused him to hide everything. Risking all he knew, his very life, on someone who he only hoped could eventually handle his secret. And he must’ve known that too, like Pioneer Falls, would end someday—either with the truth, which had scared her away, or with her death. Maybe that was brave, to love, knowing that you’d lose it all in the end.

  Well, even if a vagabond life was in store for me in the future, I still wasn’t ready to lose Pioneer Falls. Not tonight, anyway.

  Morgan whispered for me to slow down as we approached Ms. Wilson’s block. Not surprisingly, there were a few people on the sidewalk, huddling in the rain near the driveway, watching as much as they could see. They must’ve figured out the feed was coming from Ms. Wilson’s, or maybe they had been drawn by the sight of Dad’s cruiser, parked near the iron fence.

  I parked the truck. Meanwhile, the Spirit Sleuths van skidded to a stop in the driveway and Ms. Wilson and Chris rushed out, slamming the doors. We charged out after them. As we neared the garage, ravens perched on the roofline and the neighbor’s cedar fence. Now and then, a bird swooped in or out of the garage’s open side door.

  We could hear the whines of the captured wolves. But beneath it, growling, gnashing teeth, snapping. I sensed more wolves nearby. I lifted my head, sniffing toward the east, upwind.

  I motioned for Morgan to follow me and we crept around the other side of the garage that bordered the alley.

  “You have no right to hold them,” I heard Dad say. “Or shoot them.”

  “Why does the police have any say about what happens on private property,” Reverend Sutton said. “No one’s broken any laws.”

  “You’re standing in a town alley. This isn’t private property,” Dad replied.

  “You can’t stop me, George. This has gone on long enough! I’m taking a shot!”

  Vicious growls sounded. Beside me, Morgan’s posture stiffened. A flight-or-fight response, I figured. I couldn’t hold myself back.

  I peeked around the corner. About twenty yards from Dad and the reverend, Ezra and Gladys, in wolf form, snapped their teeth, their backs against a fence. Ezra’s eyes blazed with anger and his hackles were up. Gladys, who’d always been a bit of a scaredy-cat of a wolf, hunched down alongside of him, almost as if she were trying to make herself seem smaller.

  Reverend Sutton leveled his rifle at them. “Archibald Gray wasn’t the only abomination in this valley. These two I’ve suspected since I first met them.”

  “What are you saying? These are wild animals, Calvin,” Dad said, his voice calm as a forest pond. “You’re not making sense.”

  “The bigger one’s missing his back paw! That remind you of anyone?”

  “What you’re saying is irrational,” Dad said as he took a step closer. “You fire on those animals and I’m taking you in for unlawful shooting of wildlife.”

  “And when I shoot them and they turn into human form? What will you do then?” Reverend Sutton said.

  “That’s ridiculous,” Dad said, his voice shaking a little. “What about your faith? Taking an innocent animal’s life? How holy is that?”

  “Let the Maker judge these aberrations,” the reverend said.

  Ezra lunged forward, teeth bared, his lips foamy. The reverend fired a shot as my dad jumped on him, knocking the rifle from his hand. Ezra dove out of the way, but Gladys yelped in pain as the bullet slammed into her shoulder. She fell to the ground.

  Ezra took off running, not looking back. Dad wrestled Reverend Sutton onto his stomach, pulling his hands toward his back to cuff him.

  Morgan and I ran toward the downed wolf. Gladys whimpered as I rolled her over, trying to see what the damage was. Blood was gushing out, and I couldn’t tell if the bullet had grazed her or was lodged inside. Morgan tore at his shirt, wadding it up to press on the wound.

  “You can’t do this!” Reverend Sutton shouted as Dad yanked him to his feet. “The people of Pioneer Falls won’t stand for it. I’m a respected member of the community.”

  Gladys lifted her head a moment, whining. Morgan and I scooped her up. “We’ve got to get her medical help,” I said.

  “Dr. Burrows is the closest. He’s not a vet, but he can take a look,” Dad said, roughly pulling Reverend Sutton toward the garage.

  We brought the trembling Gladys around the edge of the garage and pushed through the crowd of people, loading her in the back of our truck. Morgan climbed up next to her, still holding the fabric to her wound. People on the sidewalk were shouting out questions to us, gasping at the bleeding animal. I saw Alicia standing in the crowd and signaled her over.

  She ran up, her eyes wide. “I heard a gunshot! Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Can you drive Morgan and this wolf to the clinic?”

  Alicia nodded. “What happened?”

  I handed her my keys. “Local crazies shooting at wildlife.” I closed up the tailgate.

  “You’re not going with us?” Morgan said, his face pale, concerned.

  “I can’t leave Dad, plus the twins have to be here somewhere. Maggie’s car is parked near the Spirit Sleuths van. And Jonah and Nathaniel…we can’t leave them.”

  Morgan’s eyes darkened. “Please take care. This is very dangerous.”

  “Go. Try to save Gladys. I’ll text Cooper to have him meet you there if he can.”

  “No,” Morgan said. “Get him over here with you before things get worse.”

  I kissed him quickly and waved at Alicia to go.

  As the truck drove away, Dad shoved the reverend inside the back of his squad car. I could hear him radioing into the station, calling for more backup. The crowd gathered began murmuring, some moving closer to the car, gawking.

  As I approached the driveway, Skyler and Rose popped out of the back of the Spirit Sleuths van. Rose saw me and gave me a thumbs-up, which made me stop in my tracks. Before I could ask what she was doing, Ms. Wilson and then Chris ran from the direction of the garage, shouting something about the feed and holding up his tablet.

  “What did you do?” Chris yelled.

  “A little reprogramming. Your fake ghost stuff was getting old,” Skyler said.

  “Otto! Otto?” Chris shouted, pushing past Skyler and into the van.

  Meanwhile, I pulled Rose over to the side. “You were supposed to stay put.”

  “Change of plans. It turns out Skyler’s pretty good at breaking through firewalls,” Rose whispered.

  “Where are Fawn and Maggie?”

  “At the coffee shop. Skyler came and got me, trying to figure out where the feed was coming from. He’s smart,” she said, giving him a little sideways smile.

  Skyler actually blushed a little, surprising me.

  I could hear Chris rattling around in the van, cursing about how they’d gone to black. So it wasn’t just the ravens who had helped obscure the feed from the garage. Skyler had shut it down. I couldn’t believe he’d actually come in handy.

  “Fawn texted me. She and Maggie are fine,” Rose assured me.

  “Hey—do you smell that?” Skyler said as he jerked his head skyward. “Fire.”

  “Again?” I felt a wave of sickness hit my gut. “Where’s Dad?” I looked back toward the patrol car and could only see the reverend locked in the back. Dad must’ve gone back for Jonah and Nathaniel.

  The three of us ran toward the garage. Thick gray smoke billowed toward us. Skyler kept Rose back
. It smelled like electrical equipment, burning metal, half-rotted timbers. I was about to enter the garage, when I saw Ezra in human form, running away with a gas can.

  “Hey! Stop!” I yelled at his retreating figure.

  He turned the corner of the garage heading for the alley. As I followed him, I saw Jonah and Nathaniel galloping in front of him in wolf form.

  “Go on, git!” Ezra shouted at his sons. Then he hurried off down the alley in the direction of his parked truck.

  “Dad!” I yelled, running back toward the garage. “Dad!”

  The garage wasn’t the only thing on fire. As I entered the yard, Ms. Wilson scrambled up the back porch steps to the house. “Butch!” she screamed, throwing open the door, releasing more smoke.

  “Rose, call 911!” I yelled, then faced the open door of the garage, where Skyler stood in shock, coughing and gaping at what was inside.

  Beneath the layer of smoke, I spotted Dad on the floor, his face and arm bloodied. Otto, his throat torn, lay bleeding on the ground next to him. I grabbed onto Dad’s feet and began pulling him toward the door, coughing, trying to cover my mouth against the thick smoke, which was making it hard to breathe. I felt Skyler next to me, grabbing onto one of Dad’s legs, helping me drag him.

  When we had Dad outside on the grass, I checked his pulse and airway. He was still alive. Skyler cautioned me not to, but I got to my feet and went back for Otto. The guy was heavy, thick built. I pulled and pulled but couldn’t move him. Then I felt strong arms behind me and Skyler screaming and pulling me out of the fire. A timber crashed down on top of Otto and the empty cages, and Skyler threw me out onto the grass.

  As I struggled to sit up, I could see Ms. Wilson’s house engulfed with flames. She stumbled out onto the back porch, Butch in her arms.

  A keening chorus of raven voices struck up in the trees. And the house burned bright.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I’m not sure what hit me,” Dad said between coughs.

  “You didn’t see anything?” Sheriff Polson said, her face wild with worry. She and Deputy Mac escorted Dad’s gurney to the waiting ambulance.

  Dad let out an ooof sound as Paige and the other paramedic raised the gurney into the rig. Pain radiated from his eyes. But he was alive, thank goodness.

  “Can you question him later? He’s hurt,” I pleaded.

  Ms. Wilson charged up to the back of the ambulance. “It was Ezra Smith! I saw him running with the gas cans. He set the fire.”

  Dad groaned. “No… Lily?”

  I knew what he was asking me to do. Change the narrative, make something up to protect that killer.

  Ms. Wilson wiped at her tearing eyes. “I’m an eyewitness. You have to do something! Go arrest him. My house!”

  “Mac, can you go take her statement?” Sheriff Polson gave the deputy a nod.

  Thick black smoke billowed down the street. The fire trucks had all of their hoses trained on the house now, since the garage was a total loss.

  “You can’t arrest him.” Dad choked on his words as the paramedic fitted him with a nasal oxygen tube. He fought it, trying to pull it off him.

  “Settle down, George.” The sheriff put a hand on his shoulder. “They’re taking you to the county hospital. You got whacked on the head pretty good.”

  Dad’s eyes were desperate, finding mine. Trying to tell me not to let this get too far. As the ambulance door closed, Dad was trying urgently to communicate. I got a sudden flash of Ezra. Dad was telling me not to let him be apprehended.

  “What about Reverend Sutton?” I asked.

  The sheriff closed her little notebook. “Your father arrested him, radioed it in. We’ll take him in to the station, get a statement from him, too.”

  “You’re not going to let him go free, though,” I said. “I witnessed him shooting the wolf. Doc Burrows is helping the injured animal now.”

  “We’ll hold him. Once your dad’s checked out, he’ll report to the station to complete the charging documents.” Sheriff Polson put an arm around me. “I can see you’re worried, probably worn out, but I need to know. Did you see where Ezra Smith ran off to?”

  I shook my head. “Nope,” I fibbed.

  As the ambulance roared off down the street, the fire chief walked up to talk to the sheriff. I heard him mention the victim, and remembered Otto the camera guy, who’d burned in that garage. But from what I had seen, I had a feeling he wouldn’t have survived anyway.

  Near the ghost van, Chris sat with Ms. Wilson, his head in his hands. I felt bad that Otto had been killed, horrible that I couldn’t save him, though I’d tried. But I didn’t feel bad about Ms. Wilson’s stuff going up in smoke, her bulletin boards and files and laptop. It was possible she had copies, maybe digital even, somewhere, but at least the physical records she’d kept were burning, along with Millicent’s house.

  I walked over to Maggie’s car. Skyler and Rose leaned against the side of Maggie’s car. Rose hugged me. “They’re taking Dad to the hospital,” I told her.

  “We’ll get Fawn and head over there,” she said, letting me go.

  “Hey, Skyler—thanks for pulling me out. You’re stronger than you look.”

  “Um…thanks?” He half-smiled, making his face a little more handsome. He dragged a sleeve across his sooty cheek. “Our kind, we’re not exactly weaklings.”

  My phone buzzed. I picked it up and found a message from Morgan. The knot in my stomach loosened a little. The doc had been able to stitch Gladys up where the bullet had grazed her. Thank goodness the reverend had been a bad shot.

  Skyler beckoned Rose to get in the Volvo. “Hey, you need a ride to the clinic to get Morgan?” he asked me.

  I climbed into the back of the Volvo. “Not the clinic…not yet.” I shut the door and glanced back toward the burning house. “Where would a killer wolf run to?”

  Rose turned to frown at me as Skyler started up the car. “Why do you care?”

  “Dad wants me to make sure Ezra doesn’t get arrested. The police are coming for him. He’s gotta leave town now.”

  Rose let out a frustrated sigh and turned back around.

  Skyler drove down the block, catching my gaze in the rearview mirror. “You’re gonna look for him? What are you, nuts?”

  “I’ve faced him before,” I said. “Wait—stop here. I see Nathaniel’s car.”

  “Lily, no! Dad wouldn’t want you to go after him alone.”

  “Then come with me,” I said. “How ‘bout it, Skyler?”

  Skyler’s tough exterior faltered. “That’s a hard pass,” he said. “Pulling you out of a fire was thanks to pure adrenaline. If we go head to head with that crazy old-timer, I’m not sure I can take him.”

  I patted him on the arm. “Guys, go get Morgan and circle back here. Text Cooper, too. If we join forces, we can surround him.”

  “And what are you going to do until we’re back with help?”

  “Track him,” I said. “From a distance.”

  ***

  As I walked, my eyes watered, bothered by the toxic smoke mixing with the moisture rising from the river. The curtain of smog hung around shapes and trees, cars and houses, and the lamp posts barely cut through it. The darkness of the night deepened from the gloom. Low-hanging clouds obscured most of the sky. Not even the moon dared to peek down at Pioneer Falls.

  Nathaniel’s car rested along a stretch of wooded land not far from Reverend Sutton’s parsonage and church. I held up the light on my phone, peering into the Honda’s windows. An open duffle bag rested on the seat, a jumble of clothes stuffed inside. He’d probably be coming back this way to change, now that he and Jonah were free.

  I heard a twig snap in the nearby trees and the hair on the back of my neck quivered. I lowered the phone, shut off the light, and stuffed it into my pocket. The church wasn’t far from the cemetery. I followed the fence, heading toward the iron gates of the entrance.

  There were street lamps ahead, illuminating little pockets of the smog, and
I could see a few vehicles were parked there.

  Ezra’s beaten-up truck idled alongside the iron gates, the taillights like red eyes cutting through the gray. Maybe he was waiting for Nathaniel and Jonah. Maybe he was trying to figure out what might have happened to Gladys.

  I slowed, feeling the fear rising in my body. I told myself it was worth it, tracking Ezra so we could tell him to run. If he was arrested, people might die. People Dad cared about—like Deputy Mac or the sheriff. But I knew Ezra wasn’t going to go easily or quietly.

  I paused to text Morgan a quick message, letting him know I was near the cemetery gates. I added Cooper to the text chain. Then I pocketed my phone and took a few steps toward the truck. The engine sputtered to a stop. The red taillights blinked a last time. He’d seen me.

  I glanced around and sniffed the air, but with the change in the wind, all I could smell was burning house and the river. If he was waiting for his sons to change and catch up with him, I’d better make this fast.

  “Ezra!” I called out, mustering as much confidence as I could. “I need to talk to you.”

  The driver’s side door creaked open and a figure climbed out of the truck. I could tell it was Ezra by the hitch in his step, the prosthetic foot slowing his progress. He walked along the perimeter of the cemetery fence, ignoring me.

  I followed at a distance, but didn’t want to lose him.

  As I passed the truck bed, I got a distinct whiff of gas smell, probably from the canisters he’d used to torch Ms. Wilson’s place. “They have a witness,” I yelled. “You need to run or they’ll arrest you.”

  Ezra jerked to a stop and put a hand on one of the iron posts of the fence to steady himself. As he turned, the weak streetlight illuminated his face. His beady eyes glittered like black crystal. “Your cowardly pa sent you to tell me that?”

  I raised my head. “He’s trying to warn you. The sheriff will be coming to lock you up.”

  “Then I’ll be coming to tear her up,” he said, his words springing from his lips like sharp tacks.

  A chill traveled down my spine. “You can’t do that. You can’t come into our town and attack people, burn people out, and cause chaos.”