Divine Evil

screams and sobs echoing off the scarred and crumbling walls. The smell of dust, the fetid, sweaty stench of terror. “It was at the top of the second floor. A step broke. I went through it, up to my goddamn knee.” The unexpected give, the flash of pain and frustration. And fear. “Jake was three steps ahead of me. Three steps. I hauled myself out of the damn hole.
    THE WHORE OF BABYLON! WHO'S GONNA CAST THE FIRST STONE? WHO'S GOT THE GUTS? WHO'S GOT THE GLORY?
    “The crazy bastard shot the woman. I'm on my fucking hands and knees scrambling up, and he shot her. She bounced off the wall like a doll, and before she hit he'd already pumped three bullets into Jake. I killed him.”
    The scream as the bullets slapped into flesh. Blood blossoming on a torn T-shirt.
    “I killed him,” Cam repeated. “Just a couple of seconds too late. I was still on my knees, and Jake was tumbling down those steps when I did it. If I hadn't been three steps behind, he'd be alive.”
    “You can't know that.”
    “I can know that. He was my partner, and he died at the bottom of those steps because I wasn't there to back him up.”
    “He died because a maniac killed him and an innocentwoman.” She put her arms around him, folding herself around his rigid body. “Maybe if the steps hadn't been rotted, maybe if your partner had fallen through them instead of you, maybe if that man had gone crazy in another part of town—maybe then, it wouldn't have happened. There was nothing you could have done to change it.”
    “I've replayed it in my mind hundreds of times, thousands.” He pressed his lips against her neck, taking comfort in the taste and scent of her skin. “And I'm never in time. Afterwards, I got into the bottle.” He pulled away again because he wanted her to look at him. “Real deep into the bottle. I'd still be there if it had helped any. I turned in my shield and my gun, and I came back here because I figured I wouldn't have to do anything more than give out citations and break up a few bar fights.”
    “You do a good job here.” She sat back to take his hands. “You belong here. Whatever happened to bring you back doesn't change the truth of that.” Grieving for him, she pressed his fingers to her lips. “I know what it's like to lose someone important to you, what it is to wonder if you could have done something, anything to stop it from happening. I wish I could tell you that it goes away, but I'm not sure it does. All I know is that you have to forgive yourself and go on.”
    “Maybe I'd started to do that. Maybe. Then in the last few weeks, with everything that's been happening to this town, I've wondered if I'm the one who should be handling it. No. No, I guess I've wondered if I can handle it.”
    She smiled a little, hoping it would help. “I can tell you that you sounded like a pretty tough cop when you interrogated me.”
    “I didn't mean to be rough on you.”
    “You weren't. I think the word is ‘thorough.’ ” She combed a hand through his hair. Yes, she liked his face, shethought. All the more now that she could see the vulnerability. “I remember you, Rafferty, ten, twelve years ago, strutting through Emmitsboro with a chip on your shoulder the size of a redwood. Nobody messed with you. I also remember you giving Annie rides on your bike. Talking to her. Being kind to her. It was a hell of a combination then, and it still is. This town needs you, and whatever's wrong with it, there's nobody better suited to fixing it than you.”
    He rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “You're good for me.”
    “Yeah.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “I think I am.” She kissed him again. “I think I love you.”
    “Hold it.” He gripped her arms tighter and pulled her back. “Run that by me again.”
    “I think—”
    “No, leave that part out.”
    She looked at him, saw what he wanted, and let out a long breath. “Okay. I love you.”
    “That's good.” His lips curved when they met hers. “That's real good, Slim. I love you, too.”
    She framed his face, drawing away enough to see his eyes. “I know. I want to believe we've got a shot at this, Cam.”
    “We've got more than a shot.” He settled her against his shoulder. She fit, just as the pieces of his life seemed to fit now that she had been added. “I've got to think that sometimes things happen because they just have to happen. After ten years we both end up back where we started. You came here because you needed to