I filled Susan in on what I’d found in the book, on the way to wherever we were going.
The worst part was, she didn’t even look very surprised. “I wish I could tell you that the plan to sacrifice a little girl was outside the realm of possibility, but from what I’ve learned about Olga Kowalski in the past day or two, it is not.”
“She was the one who made Gator’s head explode at the jail, wasn’t she?”
Susan took a turn practically on two wheels, and nodded. “She’s behind all sorts of things. She’s been putting loss-of-memory spells on people for the sheriff, for whatever horrible reasons he had. In return, he let her sons get away with anything they wanted to do.”
“Like murder,” I said grimly. “I’m pretty sure one of them killed Jeremiah when he started asking questions about Shelley Adler.”
She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m sure you’re right. I can’t confirm that, but I listened in on the sheriff’s phone call with Olga last night, even though I was scared to death that she would somehow find out and kill me. They all but came right out and said that Walt killed Chantal Nelson, because Hank got too drunk that night and was bragging to her about Olga and the Blood Moon. How he was going to be rich, and everybody in this pissant town needed to watch out. Walt killed her to keep her from talking.”
“Olga wanted Shelley all along. That’s why she killed Melody and her parents. Then Shelley would have nowhere else to go, and Olga could force Lawless to let her take custody,” I said.
She took a sharp turn and rocketed down a dirt road until we reached an old wooden shack at the edge of the swamp. In spite of our conversation, I hadn’t quite believed that she wasn’t going to shoot me until I saw Jack walk out the door.
“I need to leave now,” Susan said, looking uncharacteristically nervous. “I got a call, but, well, I’m not going to say anything else about it, because I’m not sure it’s going to work out.”
In that case, I wondered why she’d even bothered to bring it up, but I was so relieved that she wasn’t planning to shoot me, I let it go. But I still didn’t understand why she was leaving.
“You’re not going to help us? Shelley is in serious danger. You know I’m right about that.”
She clenched her hands around the steering wheel so tightly that her arms were shaking. “I know. I know. And it goes against everything I believe in to let you handle this without me. But the sheriff gave Olga some of my hair. I’m sure of it. My hairbrush was missing from my locker a while back, and shortly after that I started to have memory lapses. Little missing pieces of my day, sometimes.”
She laughed, and it was a sound filled with despair. “He did the same thing to Kelly, somehow. We compared notes, and Kelly had the same memory lapses that I did. I know enough about black magic to know that if I go in there with you, Olga can use my hair to kill me with a spell before I even take two steps. Not only wouldn’t I be of help to you, I might mess up the whole plan. I’ve got to try to help from a distance.”
I took a deep breath, preparing to argue with her, but there was no point. She was right. I didn’t want her death on my conscience, either. “Look. There’s this P-Ops agent. He seems like he might be a good guy. I’ve been trying to reach him, but my calls keep going to voicemail. Let me give you his number—”
“I have his number,” she told me. “He’s the one who made the weird call I didn’t want to talk about. Let me see what I can figure out. Text me and let me know what the plan is and what time you’re going in, and I’ll do my very best to find a way to back you up. Somehow. Or at least I can keep the sheriff away from there. He could—and probably would—shoot you and Jack both and get away with it, and I’m not going to let that happen.”
Impulsively, I leaned over and gave her a quick hug. “You’re a good person, Susan. No matter what happens, I’m glad I know you.”
She swallowed, hard. “Okay, that’s enough of this girly stuff. Get out of the car before that tiger comes over here to get you, and go save the day. When this is all over, we’ll go out to Beau’s and let Lorraine bully us into eating way too much pie. Normal stuff.”
I tried to smile. “Promise?”
“Promise.”
Then I climbed out of the car with my shotgun and my bag of ammunition, and watched her speed away.
“She’s on our side,” Jack said, from right behind me.
“I know,” I told him. “I hope it doesn’t get her killed.”
Jack took the gun and bag out of my hands, put them carefully down on the old picnic table next to us, and then lifted me up off the ground in a fierce hug.
“I was about five minutes away from coming to get you when Susan called me,” he said roughly. “If something had happened to you because I had to get away from that damn sheriff, I would have ripped his entrails out.”
“It was the right thing to do. We didn’t have time to be arrested; especially not by him,” I said, hugging him back, happier than I could ever express that he was alive and well.
A wolf whistle sounded from the shack behind me, and my face turned red.
“Hey, Commander, we’re starting to see why you were so anxious to get away from us last night.”
A round of laughter followed the words, but it sounded friendly, so I tried not to mind too much. When I turned around, seven guys, all with serious muscles and the hard, wary eyes of men who had seen combat, were staring at us.
“This is Tess Callahan. Be nice,” Jack called out, smiling.
“Hey, it’s Tess from the pawnshop,” a guy in the back said, shoving his way forward.
“Hi, Lucky. When are you going to come down and visit your guitar?”
That prompted another round of laughter, but my smile faded quickly. “Jack. I have a lot to tell you. It’s about Shelley, and her life is in danger. Immediate danger. We need to go get her now.”
Jack studied my face, and whatever he saw there must have convinced him. He looked at the men and made a couple of hand gestures, and they all took off into the swamp. Some on foot, some in small boats, and some just appearing to vanish into thin air.
“Backup?”
Jack nodded. “Backup. Now come inside, and I’ll tell you the plan.”