Divine Evil

was annoying. But nothing that couldn't be dealt with. “He'll find nothing.”
    “He already knows about Parker. He got that idiot sheriff down there to reopen the case.”
    “It was unfortunate that Garrett chose to speak so freely to a whore. And unfortunate that the whore alerted our good sheriff.” With a fussy movement, James Atherton waved aside the smoke. It wasn't the law that concerned him. He was above the law now. But the quiet, reasonable man beside him who spoke of change was a worry. “But, as they have paid the price, there is nothing to lead the sheriff to us. Nothing but our own stupidity.”
    “I'm not stupid.” The cigarette glowed, revealing Mick Morgan's frightened eyes. “Shitfire, that's my point. I've been a cop long enough to know when another one's on the scent. We figured wrong when we thought he wouldn't care squat about Biff. He's got a line on everyone in town.”
    “It hardly matters, since everyone of importance is well alibied.”
    “Maybe it wouldn't, if he hadn't found all that stuff outat the farm.” Mick rammed a fist on the rickety table. “Goddamn it, Biff took pictures. Sonofabitch must've been crazy to take pictures of them.”
    There was agreement, but no panic. He was much too powerful to panic. “The pictures were destroyed.”
    “But Jane Stokey saw them. She's already identified the one girl. I tell you Rafferty isn't going to let go.
Goddamn
Biff.”
    “Biff was a fool, which is why he's dead. If we made a mistake, it was in not realizing how large a fool he was earlier.”
    “It was the drink,” the other man said sadly. What was left of his conscience mourned the death of a brother. “He just couldn't handle drink.”
    “Excuses are for the weak.” This was said sharply and brought both of Atherton's companions to silence. “However, the pieces of evidence the sheriff found there that linked the girl to Biff, link her only to Biff. In the end, it will be a dead man who will be accused of her abduction and murder. I've already taken steps to assure that. Do you doubt me?”
    “No.” Mick had learned not to. He looked from one man to the other and knew he, and others, were caught in their tug-of-war for control. “It's hard, you know? I gotta work with Bud every day. I like Bud, and he's just sick about his sister.”
    “We're all sorry for the family,” the second man said. “But what was done had to be done, though it could have been accomplished with less—relish.” He looked hard at Atherton. “She has to be the last. We have to move back to where we were. When we began more than two decades ago, it was a way of seeking knowledge or exploring alternatives, of empowering ourselves. Now we're losing our way.”
    “What we were is what we are,” Atherton stated and linked his long fingers. He kept his smile to himself He was enough of a politician to recognize a campaign speech. But he understood, as his opponent refused to understand, that sex and blood were what held the group together. And always would. “The Master demands blood.”
    “Not human blood.”
    “We will see.”
    Mick wiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “It's just that before Biff, we never killed one of our own.”
    Atherton steepled his hands. “You're forgetting Jack Kimball.”
    “Jack Kimball was an accident.” Mick lit one cigarette from the butt of another. “Parker and me just went up to talk to him, maybe scare him a little so he wouldn't mouth off about the shopping center deal. We didn't mean for anything to happen to him. It was an accident.”
    “Nothing is an accident. The Master punishes the weak.”
    Mick only nodded. He believed it, deeply. “Jack should've toughened up, we all knew it. I guess I figured when he died, we'd cut out our weak link. But he could still be a problem.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “That's why I asked for this meeting. Cam's looking into the land deal.”
    There was a sudden, terrible silence broken only by Mick's uneven breathing and the patient gnawing of a field mouse. “Why?”
    “I figure because of Clare. The other day she came into the office, tight as a spring. Right after, I find out he's making calls to the county courthouse, asking for access to the records.”
    A moment's pause. The faint drumming of fingers on wood. “There's nothing for him to find.”
    “Well, I know we covered our tracks real good, but I figured you ought to know. If he ties any of that business to us—”
    “He won't. In