Page 124 of Forever Dark
Outside in the corridor somebody called for water.A door opened and closed.The building went on with its work of trying to drag damaged people back toward themselves.
Selena rose from the chair.
“Will you be all right if I go?”
Donna gave a weak shrug that meant nothing and everything.
At the door Selena paused.
“If Nolan Pruitt contacts you,” she said, “or anybody from that revival does, you tell the staff here immediately.Understood?”
Fear touched Donna’s face again.“Do you think he’d come here?”
“No, you’re safe here.He’s punishing others.I think if he punished you, then he’d have to punish himself as well.”Selena said this, but she didn’t know if she meant it.
That was more comfort than truth, but Donna only nodded.
Selena opened the door.
Carol Sutter straightened from where she had been leaning against the corridor wall.One look at Selena’s face was enough.
“You find everything you need?”
“Yes.”
“I hope this hasn’t set her back.”
Selena glanced back into the room.Donna had pulled the blanket up to her chin and turned toward the wall.
“I think she’ll do what she needs to do,” Selena said quietly.“She’s strong.”
Carol’s mouth tightened with tired compassion.“I know.”
Selena nodded once, already halfway back into motion.
She moved fast down the corridor, through the lobby, past the receptionist at the front desk.Outside, the afternoon light had shifted warmer, but she barely registered it.Her mind was already racing ahead.
Nolan Pruitt at the keyboard.
Nolan Pruitt in real life.Always one step behind the man on the stage.Easy to miss.Easy to underestimate.Exactly the sort of watcher Selena had described out loud before she knew his name.
She was halfway to the car before she realized she had no idea what time it was.
Connor needed to hear this.Now.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Connor sat in his SUV outside the Rest and Be Thankful Motel with the engine idling low and the late afternoon light flattening everything into tired shades of brown and gold.This was day two of going through the list Dana in the archives had put together.This time, he was alone.He’d yet to hear from Selena.He thought that was maybe for the best.She needed the rest.
Room doors lined the one-story building in a row of faded blue.A soda machine buzzed beneath the office awning.Two work trucks sat near the far end of the lot, one with mud up the side panels and a dent in the tailgate.Nothing about the place invited attention.That made it useful.Men who did not want to be noticed always liked motels like this.Cheap.Forgettable.Temporary.
On the seat beside him lay a list of names Dana had gotten from social media snooping.People connected to the revival.Some who worked there, others who came to worship.He had drawn a line through many.The next was Nolan Pruitt’s.
Connor held the car radio in front of his mouth and watched Room 12 through the windshield.
“Dana, any luck with the background checks?”
Dana’s voice came through the speaker, brisk and a little breathless, with the sound of a computer keyboard clicking somewhere behind her in the buzz.
