40

Walker reached down and yanked her to her feet. “Great. Now you’ve got blood on my nice carpet. Sally will have to clean up after you.” He dragged her into the kitchen. Alex gagged at the sight of it. Old food on the counters. Crusted dishes in the sink. Roaches ran everywhere. She could see them by the light of the lantern sitting on an old table.

“Please,” she said, hating the pleading in her voice. “Please. I can’t . . . I can’t . . .”

“Shut up,” Walker snapped. He reached toward an empty paper towel dispenser. “Wipe off your face with this.”

As he spoke, a roach ran up his other arm and sat on his shoulder. Alex’s body convulsed with terror, but she reached for his empty hand, then pretended to wipe her mouth.

“Th . . . thank you,” she choked out.

He smiled, his empty eyes burning with lunacy. “That’s better.” He transferred the gun to his other hand and scratched his shoulder, which sent the roach scrambling. It disappeared behind him. “My wife keeps an immaculate house, but there’s something here I must be allergic to.” He shook his head. “Makes me itch.” He put the gun back in his left hand. Walker was indeed left-handed, just like the Train Man. Not that the confirmation would help her now.

Walker pointed to an open door in the kitchen. “Let’s go downstairs. I want you to witness the final sacrifice. It’s an honor to force an angel to watch the war begin.”

“I’m . . . I’m not an angel,” Alex said. “You’ve made a mistake.”

“Don’t lie to me!” he screamed. He held the gun over her head and moved closer to her.

Alex tried to think. Tried to come up with a plan to deal with him, but her mind was fuzzy. Fear had her in its grip. She forced herself to look away from the roaches scampering over the dirty dishes and filthy counters. She got a quick glimpse into a bedroom. An old bed, also layered in dust, was the only piece of furniture.

“I’m sorry,” she forced herself to say. “I am an angel. You know that some of us will survive the war. I . . . I think I’m one of those.”

His eyes narrowed. “We’ll see, won’t we?” He gestured toward the door with the gun. “Go.”

Alex walked slowly. She didn’t want to go down there. She’d be trapped, and it would be much harder to get away. But she had no choice. Besides, the girl was there. If she had a chance to save her, she had to take it.

As she reached the stairs, another roach ran across her boot. She grabbed the side of the doorframe to steady herself, chiding herself for her unreasonable fear. She was an FBI agent. Trained. Valuable. Smart. She couldn’t allow her training to evaporate because of a stupid bug. It was beyond ridiculous.

Even as she tried to convince herself she could handle this, a voice in her mind told her she was in way over her head. The horror of her childhood couldn’t be reasoned away so easily. She could feel the beginnings of a panic attack, and she began to gasp as she fought to breathe. Dizziness tried to overtake her, and she knew she was going to faint. But if she fell down the stairs, she could be seriously injured . . . or killed.

It took every bit of inner strength she had to put her foot on the first step leading to the basement and to try to calm down. As she took the next step, she prayed to a God she wanted to believe in. She would give Him her life if He could help her now. But that would take a miracle.

Slowly the dizziness began to recede, and she was able to catch her breath. She paused on the stairs as the fog in her brain started to evaporate. Then she clearly heard a voice say, Just trust me. Everything will be all right. Alex looked back at Walker, who glared at her. Who had spoken to her? Was she having a psychotic break too? This was the second time she’d heard a voice. Was it possible—

“Hurry up,” Walker said. “No one can help you. You can go down the stairs on your own, or I can push you the rest of the way. Like my father pushed my mother before he killed her, just like I killed my first five sacrifices. With a knife. Just like I’ll kill this one.”

So this was where Walker’s mother died. When Alex reached the bottom of the stairs, she focused on the woman tied to the table. She turned to look at Alex, her eyes wide with terror. A piece of duct tape covered her mouth.

Then her own eyes shifted to the man she’d seen through the basement window. He was still standing near the table, his back to her and Walker. When he didn’t turn around, Walker said, “That woman whose picture you showed me? She’s the one we heard prowling around outside. I’ve got her.”

“I see,” the man said. “I’m sorry you decided to join us, Alex.”

She recognized the voice even before he turned around.

Mike.

“This is nuts,” Monty said. “We’re gonna get stuck. Our phones probably won’t work. We’re going to freeze to death out here in the middle of nowhere.”

Logan glanced at him. “Remind me never to come to you when I need encouragement, okay?”

Monty didn’t answer, just kept his eyes on the road in front of them. A mile or so back, they’d switched places because Logan wanted to keep an eye on the map himself.

“You can get out here if you’d like, Monty. I can drive again.”

“You’re really funny. Ha, ha, ha.”

Although he wouldn’t admit it, Logan had to agree with his negative friend. This was looking worse and worse. Monty slowed down as a mailbox was reflected in the car’s headlights, which were now set on bright. It didn’t take long to see there was no house here. Was this a fool’s errand? Logan was just thinking maybe they should go back and call for help when he saw an old street sign that said Waywind Road.

“Look,” he said to Monty. “There’s the road the old man told me to take.” Monty slowed the car, although it continued a few yards after he touched the brake. “Let’s go down this road a little way. If we don’t see anything, we’ll turn around and drive until we have cell service or we make it back to that convenience store.”

“If it’s still open. It’s getting pretty late.”

“I’m thinking Elmer lives there. I noticed an area behind the store with lights on. If he’s closed up, we’ll knock on his windows until he lets us in. Then we’ll use his phone to call Harrison and ask for help.”

“Okay. But we can’t drive too far down this road. We could get so stuck we might not be able to get out.”

“We won’t go too far. I promise that if we don’t see a house with lights on, we’ll go back.”

Monty shrugged. Logan knew he was worried. He was concerned too, but he couldn’t just leave Alex out here.

Monty put the car in gear and turned down Waywind Road.

Harrison tried again to reach Alex, but the number went immediately to voice mail. Frustrated, he called Logan and then Monty. The same thing. He’d received Logan’s voice mail message and was worried.

He’d come back to the CP after the operation with the KCPD. They had no idea if they’d prevented Walker from kidnapping a woman for his last sacrifice. They’d shown up at most of the town’s churches with Sunday evening meetings, making sure they were seen in an attempt to scare him off. Then after the meetings, they showed Walker’s photo to the people leaving, but no one remembered him. One woman at a large church said he looked slightly familiar, but she couldn’t be sure. She didn’t have enough information to help them.

Every law enforcement officer in the area had a photo of Walker and a sketch of what he might look like now, but no one had seen him. Harrison hoped they’d at least been successful in deterring the monster, but there was no way to know.

Logan had said they were taking the rest of the day off, but he would have left his phone on. They all would. What if they’d taken Alex’s suggestion seriously? Ice from the storm was coating the area, and road conditions were dangerous. If they’d defied him and gone to Lake Lotawana trying to find that cabin, they could be in serious trouble.

He stared at the dry-erase board. What if Walker really was in a cabin out there? These agents were trained behavioral analysts. Maybe they were right. He picked up the phone and called the police chief. If he was going down dirt roads in the dark while an ice storm raged, he wanted SWAT with him.

Alex couldn’t believe her eyes. “I don’t understand,” she said slowly, horrified to feel tears filling her eyes. Mike was her friend. How could he be involved with something like this? And why hadn’t she seen it?

“You’re probably wondering if I’m part of the Circle. I am. And you’re why I joined,” Mike said. His expression changed from one she recognized to one filled with rage. “You left,” he said, clearly angry. “You just left. Not a word before you took off. If we’d really been friends, you would have told me you were leaving and where you were going. But apparently I wasn’t worth the time.”

She had to think quickly. What was the best way to handle this? “I’m sorry, Mike. I didn’t want Willow to know where I was. I . . . I just wanted a new life away from her. I realize I should have told you. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was just so . . . confused.”

“You thought I’d tell her where you were? I did everything I could to help you. I even got you a gun.”

“I know. You’re right. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Willow was really upset when you left. You always had her wrong, you know. She might have been a little different, but she wasn’t a bad person.”

“She stood over my bed with a knife. You know that. What kind of human being does that to her niece?”

“The rest of the time she was kind to you.”

Alex realized this argument was going nowhere. Willow hadn’t been kind to her. But Alex couldn’t show her anger now. She didn’t want to set Mike off.

“Look, I should have talked to you before I left. I really am sorry. You were a good friend. In fact, you were my only friend. I was wrong.”

“I’m glad you two are having such a nice reunion,” Walker said loudly, “but we have something important to do here. Let’s get on with it.”

“Mike, are you really going to let him kill this innocent woman? The Mike I knew would never have allowed something like that.”

“The Mike you knew is gone, Alex. I visited Willow often over the years, at first to comfort her, then just because I cared about her. Around ten years ago she finally told me about the Circle. I joined, and it’s brought fulfillment to my life.”

“So you and Jimmy Gedrose really never met?”

“He’d just left the Circle when I joined, which might be one of the reasons Willow finally decided to recruit me. He visited her a lot after he quit, but I made sure our paths never crossed. He was helping your aunt, but he was no longer part of our group.”

He cocked his head toward Walker. “Adam had been to Willow’s Circle meeting not long before Jimmy left, which was how Jimmy recognized his photo. But I didn’t meet Adam until a few years ago, through a wider Circle connection. He intrigued me. Later, he convinced me he was called to fulfill the prophecy. I wanted to be part of that. Something important.”

She frowned at him. “But you’re an FBI agent. That’s something important.”

He shook his head, and his eyes narrowed. “I’m stuck in a resident agency in Wichita. I tried and tried to get transferred somewhere else, get a promotion, but I was told I’d gone as far as I was ever going to go. Then Adam gave me an opportunity to be involved in something . . . magnificent. I could finally be someone.”

“But you have great parents. You were brought up in a good home. Why—”

Mike laughed, but there was no joy in it. “If you’d stayed in touch with me, you’d know my father didn’t die in an automobile accent. The truth is he got a girlfriend and walked out. I have no idea where he is, and I don’t care. Mom died a few years ago, way too young and way too lonely.”

Alex knew what it was like to be abandoned by a father. This time her regret was real. “Oh, Mike. I’m so, so sorry. I should have been there for you.”

“I don’t need your pity. I don’t need anything from you.” He glared at her.

She had to try one more time to reason with him. “Why are you working with this man? You say you cared about Willow. But he killed her. And Nettie. Or at least had someone else do it. Now he wants to kill thousands or millions of people. Please help me stop him.”

Walker stepped up next to her.

“I’m the Train Man, little lady. The Destroyer. I was called to offer six sacrifices, not kill anyone else. That would derail the prophecy.” He laughed, no doubt at the use of the word derail. “So you’re right. Someone else killed those women.”

“Who?” Alex asked. Then she was struck with a terrible truth, and it made her feel numb.

Mike just smiled.