by Stone, Mary
“Autumn, you don’t understand.” Winter held her hands together in a pleading gesture. “I know about this. We’re not going back, not now.”
“All right, all right.” Autumn turned toward the black pit of the chapel, her expression grim. “But we are not splitting up. I am not walking in there on my own.”
Or on your own.
She didn’t have to say it. Since this whole thing began, Winter had noticed how protective Autumn had gotten. It was sweet in a way. And…truth be told…it was kind of nice to be fussed over a little.
Winter grinned. “Deal.” Her light caught on one of the stained-glass windows. The image looked familiar. She caught her breath, stepping carefully to get a closer look.
“What?” Autumn asked from behind her.
“I saw that hole in the window,” Winter whispered. “Next to the saint. The pulpit should be laying on the floor just up…” She shone the light ahead of them but cried out as her foot went through a floorboard and she tumbled forward.
Autumn caught her at the expense of dropping her phone. The two women were plunged into darkness as they scrambled to extricate Winter and then find their phones again. Thankfully, the brightly lit screens made at least this part of the task easy enough. Given how the floor creaked dangerously, Winter was more worried about them both falling through into whatever lay below.
What did lay below?
Winter shone her light into the hole she’d just made. “Look. There’s a basement down there.”
Autumn circled the room with her light. “Great. The only thing creepier than a church building that hates us, is a church basement that hates us.”
“Come on.” Winter ducked her head lower, trying to see into the space below. “It’ll be fun.” She grinned at the look Autumn gave her.
Autumn sighed. “All right, Ethel. Lead the way,” she said, referencing the old TV show they both sometimes watched together. “I don’t recall signing up for urban exploration.”
“I think…” Winter pointed her light to a door to the left of the nave. “There. Watch your step. This floor is rotted through as well.”
“I noticed.” Autumn was already putting down each foot with infinite care. Winter watched her and tried to imitate the careful actions, trying not to put too much weight on any one place. Maybe it was a good thing that she’d lost a few pounds recently.
“And if anyone’s Ethel, it’s you,” Winter murmured as they traversed the floor to the doorway. “I’m clearly Lucy in this.”
Autumn pointed to her red hair. “I’m Lucy.”
“This is my adventure; you’re just along for the ride.”
“Shit.” Autumn shot her a glare. “I hate to admit it, but you’re Lucy.” She rolled her bottom lip out. “I don’t want to be Ethel.”
Winter stifled a laugh, grateful to her friend for purposefully lightening the mood with humor. “I’ll be Ethel next time.”
“Deal.”
The steps going into the basement were also made of wood, but they had metal strips meant to reinforce them from the bottom. In two places, the wood was gone, but the strips remained intact, and they held up under the weight of two light women treading very carefully.
There was a great deal of testing of each step before Winter committed to standing on any of them. It was hard to be so cautious when she couldn’t escape the feeling that there was something down there she needed to find. She wanted to just bolt down the stairs and be done with it.
In the basement, an old desk and chair marked what might have been a church office of sorts, though a basement office didn’t allow for light or fresh air. The benefit to them was that the contents of the office had taken less exposure to the elements and therefore sustained less damage over time. Not that there was much there. An old desk. A couple filing cabinets tilted to one side and clearly empty if the gaping drawers were anything to go by.
Winter pulled the drawer on the desk. The drawer front fell off in her grip. Okay, well, so much for escaping undamaged.
At first glance, it seemed empty inside. On a hunch, she wrenched out the remains of the drawer and looked all the way back. Nothing.
She was about to lose hope that they’d locate anything worth finding when she pulled out the third drawer from the other side of the desk. In the very back was a small bundle of several papers. Winter’s cheer of celebration abruptly turned into a startled yelp as a mouse ran over her open hand.
Autumn screamed as the rodent scurried in her direction but quickly caught herself, clamping her hands over her mouth. She blushed furiously as Winter gave her a shaky grin before reaching in to grab the pages.
Just as her hand closed over the documents, the doors of the church slammed shut hard enough to rattle their teeth. This time, when Autumn screamed, Winter almost joined her. The hate she felt coming from the building ratcheted up several notches. All Winter wanted was to get in the car and leave. Immediately.
Autumn was clearly of the same mind. “Let’s get out of here!” Before the words were fully out, she bolted for the steps, Winter right behind her.
They threw themselves between the pews that seemed to have shifted since they’d gone downstairs. Everything sat at an angle now, as if to watch them run. The floor cracked and splintered under their footfalls, but neither of them stopped.
For a wild moment, Winter feared that something waited for them on the other side of the door, but it was still better than what waited for them from every darkened corner. Evil lurked in those rafters. Something as old as time itself.
“Come on, Lucy!” Autumn yelled as she attempted to wrench the front doors open. For one terrible moment, Winter believed they were sealed shut, much like the doors of a mausoleum.
This church would become their grave.
Burying them with the demons that still roamed the patch of Earth on which it set.
With one final mighty pull, the door slammed inward, crashing into the wall with a bang. The women raced out of the church, Winter holding the documents against her chest, protecting them from whatever was intent on her never reading them.
Autumn’s car sat where they’d left it, the engine running and the headlights on. It was a beacon of sanity in chaos. Autumn pelted for the driver’s side, Winter nearly overtaking her on her way to the passenger’s door.
They piled into the car, and Autumn threw it into reverse, sans seatbelt. She pulled out through the dirt and scrub and whipped the wheel around, spinning the car and throwing it into drive.
Turning around in her seat, Winter watched the old church grow smaller. For a moment, she thought she saw something move.
“Stop,” she yelled at Autumn, who slammed on the brakes with a yelp.
“What?”
Winter said nothing, just opened her door to get a better look. Autumn got out on the other side.
They both watched as the church groaned mightily, the creak echoing in the frigid air. With a great shuddering cry, the old house of worship fell over. The roof collapsed in, the steeple teetering and falling last, taking the rest of the tower down with it. Dust and filth erupted into the night air.
They waited, Winter holding her breath as the church creaked again, the entire pile of wood and nails and tiles collapsing still further. She guessed the floorboards must have given way as the entire church fell into the basement with a crash hard enough to shake the ground under their feet.
The waves of hate she’d felt gave way to bitter resentment. The church was sullen, sulky, dying. Winter’s heart was pumping hard enough to make her chest hurt. Autumn had her hand over her mouth as she watched the old church die at long last.
Autumn moved slowly back into the car, sitting heavily in the driver’s seat and closing the door with infinite gentleness, as though to do otherwise would somehow disturb the dead. She buckled in as Winter joined her. For extra measure, she locked the doors as soon as Winter was in place. What might have been coming at them now was anyone’s guess, but at least it made them bot
h feel somewhat better.
“What are those?” Autumn’s voice seemed unnaturally calm. She pointed to the papers still clutched in Winter’s hand. Winter looked down at them as if she’d forgotten they existed.
“Deeds. I think. They all looked the same when I grabbed them. This one was the deed to that place.” She pointed a thumb at the rubble behind them. “There are three others.” She shuffled through them. “Huh. All churches.”
“How could that get past Kilroy’s investigation? Any property he owned would have been red-flagged.” Autumn was looking at the papers but checking her phone too.
“Because,” Winter pointed to the name on each one, “these aren’t Douglas Kilroy’s property. These are all under his father’s name. That wouldn’t have come up on a records search since his father’s been deceased for years.”
Autumn tossed her phone into a cup holder. “I still don’t have a signal.”
Winter nodded, still feeling shaky and maybe a little shockish. “Let’s find a diner or gas station or something. I’d like to wash up and call this in.” She waved the pages in the air. “Get some coffee. Lots of sugar.”
“Good idea.” Autumn put the car into gear and got back on the road.
It took a long time before they found enough civilization to feel normal again. By the time they found a diner, texts and voicemails were blowing up both their phones.
As Winter listened to the various notification rings, she closed her eyes.
Would this nightmare ever end?
31
“I’m getting a lot of messages.” Autumn listened to her phone buzz over and over again. She tapped the screen once the car was in park, the glow of the diner’s OPEN sign reflecting off the windshield, and whistled. “Lots of calls and texts. Aiden and Noah and a couple from…Max?” She showed her phone to Winter, but her friend was still looking at the papers in her fist. “Did you get these too?” Autumn pointed to her phone again.
“Look at this.” Winter showed her the pages. She flattened them out on the dashboard, reaching up to turn on the light in the car so Autumn could see more clearly.
“Did you say they were for churches? Sorry.” Autumn glanced at the papers, but her attention was on the phone that still dinged with annoying regularity. The phone carrier had been saving her messages until she was back where a signal could reach her. Some of the texts were marked URGENT. Those were from Noah.
“Proof of ownership of at least three different churches in the area. All of them in the name of Reverend Melvin Kilroy.” Winter met Autumn’s eyes. “Douglas Kilroy’s father.”
“Any chance those are still standing?” Autumn was thinking of the church that had fallen as they came running out. Her phone had settled down, but there were a dozen messages and several texts she should probably be reading. The texts she looked at all said the same thing in different ways: CALL IN NOW.
“Winter…” Autumn shoved the phone in her face, “look.”
Winter glanced over at her phone and did a double take. She pulled her own phone from her jacket pocket. That one seemed like it had even more missed calls than Autumn’s. Her stomach growling, she gazed through the windshield at the twenty-four-hour diner they’d just pulled into and sighed. “So much for dinner.”
Autumn’s battery was nearly dead, but Winter still had a decent charge. “Why don’t you call in? I’ll go next door to that station and see if they have a charge cable. I left mine at home again.”
Winter nodded and called Noah on the speaker of her phone. Autumn hesitated, then decided to wait, as her phone was full of messages too. Very likely whatever was going on involved her.
The relief in Noah’s voice was thick when he answered. He obviously had been beside himself but was trying not to show it. The forced casualness was sweet. For a moment, Autumn felt a pang of jealousy. It must be nice to have someone care about you as much as Noah cared for Winter.
Maybe I should give them some privacy.
She was about to get out of the car when Noah interrupted Winter’s explanation about what they’d been doing with a question. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m out with Autumn, we ran a little late.” Winter grinned up at her friend and rolled her eyes.
Autumn shook her head at her friend. His voice was strained and sounded like he was upset. All those messages. Something was up.
“Aiden and I have been calling you both. Where were you?”
“There was no cell reception.” Winter leaned her head back on the headrest, closing her eyes. “I called as soon as I saw you’d been trying to get hold of me. It was a very weird night.”
Autumn snorted. Talk about an understatement.
“Winter, Justin was here.”
Winter’s face drained of all color, and Autumn froze with her hand on the door latch. A cold chill crawled up her spine, though the engine was running and the car was toasty warm.
“Where?” Autumn asked when it looked like Winter was too deep in shock to do it. “He was where?”
“Here,” Noah said, his voice becoming more strained, more hoarse. He was definitely worried. Very worried. “In the apartment. Our apartment. He broke in.”
“H-h-how…?” Winter swallowed and started over. “How do you know it was him?”
“He left a note on the bathroom mirror. It says, ‘I won’t miss you,’ and it’s signed ‘J.’ It’s either him or the Joker.”
“Is…” Winter glanced at Autumn, clearly having trouble putting her thoughts into words.
“Is anything missing?” Autumn finished for her.
Winter nodded vigorously.
“Not that I can tell. You remember the chow mein you couldn’t finish the other night?”
“Yes?” Winter frowned at the change of topic.
“Well, that’s gone, but the container is in the trash and there’s a bowl and a fork that was recently washed sitting on the kitchen counter. There’s a note stuck under the bowl.”
“He ate my leftovers?” Winter shuddered. Autumn reached out to take her hand, wanting to comfort her, trying to ignore how the waves of fear and anger warring with the love Winter had for her little brother intensified through her own body. “Another note? What does that one say?”
Winter’s brow creased as she strained to listen, though Noah’s voice was coming through clearly.
“Please get chopsticks for next time.”
A joke. Only Noah wasn’t laughing. God, it was chilling, suggesting that Justin was convinced that this was not the last time he would be visiting Winter’s apartment.
“And Winter…” Noah blew out a very long breath. “Your papers. The ones in the boxes. They’ve been scattered across the floor. They’re everywhere, and we have several distinctive boot prints on most of them. In fact, the note about the chopsticks was written on a copy of a death certificate.”
“Whose?” Winter asked, her voice barely audible.
“The local police took all that for evidence. I only got a glimpse when they showed me the note on the back. It was a Lynn someone.”
Winter’s hand went to her throat as if someone was strangling her.
“There’s more,” Noah said softly. “I know this is already a lot to take in, but the local police found a truck in the parking lot of our building. It was stolen, a carjacking. The owner was slashed with a large knife and left to bleed to death in a parking lot of a hotel.”
“Oh my god.” Winter choked, moving her hand up to cover her mouth.
Autumn tried desperately to think of a way to distract her. Or comfort her. Or something useful. She grabbed the papers off the dashboard and began paging through them. Concentrate on something you can do, something you do have control over.
“Noah?” Winter’s voice was nearly an octave higher than normal. She cleared her throat before continuing. “Noah, we found something. That old church Kilroy had…we went there.”
“What?” Noah nearly exploded through the phone. “Without backup?
Justin could have been waiting there for you. He knows that we know about that place.”
“No.” Winter swallowed hard, her hand moving to her stomach. “I was with Autumn. We were fine. If I had stayed home,” she pointed out, “I wouldn’t have been safe.”
Noah said nothing. It was hard to argue with that logic.
Winter pressed on. “Anyway, that church is gone now, it…collapsed. But we found something in it before it went down. Some deeds.”
“You went into a collapsed building?” Noah sounded incredulous.
“Um…” Winter looked absolutely exhausted. “It was only half collapsed until we got ready to leave.”
“Do you know how dangerous that is? Without backup? I could have lost you. How did you get into a building that was collapsed anyway?”
“Noah! Listen to me, please! The important thing here is that there are deeds to other properties.”
“The important thing is your safety,” Noah fired back.
“Please, Noah…” Winter waited until he was calmer.
It took nearly a minute for that to happen. “Why wasn’t that found before?” he asked, sounding much more calm.
Winter leaned her cheek against the coolness of the window. “Maybe no one thought to look in the basement.”
“You went into the basement?”
“Just listen!” she snapped, and Autumn smiled. They sounded like an old married couple. “I found some deeds. It seems that Melvin Kilroy was not only a circuit preacher, but he owned four churches, lock, stock and barrel.”
“Four?”
“Right.” Winter started shifting pages.
“The one we knew about, that one is destroyed,” Autumn said to fill in the silence, “but Justin might very well go to one of the other three, especially if he thinks he’s been exposed.”
Noah was silent again for a moment. “Give me the addresses. I can have teams to each one in a couple of hours. I can’t move faster than that. Besides, it might take some time for him to go to ground from Richmond. I would like to get him after he holes up for the night.”
Winter read the addresses of the three off to Noah.