Page 81 of Forever Dark
A woman in her fifties stepped in carrying a paper cup and a small pill bottle.Hair pinned up.Nurse’s shoes.Tired face.She stopped when she saw the room’s occupants.
“Oh.I’m sorry.”
Croft’s tone softened at once.“It’s all right, Marlene.”
The woman held up the cup and pills.“Time to take your medicine, Preacher.”
Connor’s eyes flicked toward Selena for half a second.
Croft smiled as though embarrassed by the interruption.“One of the humiliations of age.”
Selena didn’t think he was that old, but didn’t press.She’d heard enough.
Marlene set the cup on the desk, shook two tablets into Croft’s hand, and waited until he swallowed them.Selena noticed the ease of it.This had happened often enough that nobody needed to speak.
When Marlene left, Croft dabbed at the corners of his mouth with a napkin and set it aside.
“If that’s all,” he said, “I hope you find the monster who did this.”
“We’ll be back another time,” Selena said.“I’m sure.”
Croft rose.
“My friends will escort you from the bus.”
Connor stood more slowly than Croft did, like a man making a point of not being hurried.Selena rose beside him.Close up, the preacher looked tired around the eyes in a way the pulpit lights had hidden.
Then they left.
Leon and the other guard were already in the bus corridor.
No one touched them.No one needed to.
The walk back through the bus felt narrower this time.Selena could feel the guards behind them and hated how deliberate every step became because of it.At the front, Leon stepped aside and held the door open.Cool night air slid in.
“Have a nice night,” Leon said with a grin.
Connor turned toward him, but Selena tugged gently on his arm.“Leave it.”
It reminded her of a time Connor got into a bar fight and she tried to pull him away.At least this time he listened.
Outside, the singing from the tent had shifted to applause and scattered laughter.More people were beginning to drift toward the lot, stopping to talk under the floodlights before heading home.
Connor waited until they had put twenty yards between themselves and the bus before speaking.
“I don’t trust this setup at all.”
Selena looked back once at the cream-colored side of the bus, the dark windows hiding whatever moved within.“He’s hiding more than he gave us.I just can’t be certain what.”
Connor opened the passenger door for her by habit, then seemed to remember himself and let it swing back toward the frame.“We’ll get the warrant in the morning.”
“Maybe.”
His head turned.“Maybe?”
“I’m going to hang around awhile.See what I can find.”
Connor stared at her.“You don’t have a ride.”
