The Night Killer

church?”
    “Yes, she does,” said a little girl who looked about eight, coming into the hall to wait for the restroom. She grinned when the woman frowned at her. “I saw her. She always knew what to do during the whole service. She never had to look and see what other people were doing.”
    “You would do well to listen, and not watch other people,” said Maud.
    “I can do both,” she said. “Besides, you were looking at her too.”
    “Seen and not heard, child. Seen and not heard,” Maud said.
    Diane winked at the little girl. Smart kid , she thought.
    Diane and Andie went back to meet up with the others in her party. She was anxious to find out what they had discovered. She thought she would tell Liam what Korey’s analysis of the note had revealed. They all walked out to the parking lot together, along with the Barres and the Watsons.
    In the parking lot, leaning against his vehicle, was Sheriff Leland Conrad.
    “I thought I told you not to come into my county,” he said.

Chapter 41
    Diane was wrong: Sheriff Conrad was going to arrest her on church property. She was more than surprised. She was stunned—but not sure why. She had supposed he would not enter another church’s grounds and arrest a guest for no other reason than that she crossed the county line. Though he had disagreements with the church here, she thought he respected it out of general principle. There was a meanness about what he was doing, and she hadn’t gotten the impression he was mean for its own sake. Stubborn, parochial, authoritarian, a believer in corporal punishment, but not mean.
    The sheriff wore a suit. He had probably come from church. It was an old suit. Brown, shiny in places, slightly snug over the front and in the shoulders. He wore a brown striped tie that looked several years out-of-date.
    “You’re going to come with me,” he said to Diane.
    Frank put his arm around Diane’s shoulder.
    “On what grounds?” said Frank.
    “I told you not to set foot in my county,” Conrad said to Diane, ignoring Frank.
    “You did this?” said Violet. “And I suppose you are going to spit on my parents’ graves too.”
    The anger in Violet’s voice startled Diane. For a moment she thought Violet was talking to her; then Diane caught a glimpse of Maud, the woman in blue, and her husband. They were startled too.
    “Violet, we are just doing what’s right,” began Maud.
    “After all my dad did for that no-good son of yours? Dad kept Keith in a job just because he was your friend—even though Keith stole from the store,” said Lillian, “and this is how you repay his memory.”
    Diane watched Maud and her husband flinch as if they had been slapped.
    Another woman, younger than Maud, came up and stood with her, putting a hand on Maud’s arm, patting it. Diane recognized her as one of the members who had kept apart and hadn’t participated in the conversation.
    “She was told not to come into the county. It’s her own fault,” the woman said.
    “Wait a minute,” said the young man who had mentioned decent cell service. “What happened to ‘free country’? Leland Conrad has no authority to decide who can and who can’t come here. What’s wrong with you people? This isn’t the sheriff’s county, and he has no right to come to our church and do this to a guest.”
    Several people in the crowd that gathered said, “Amen.” Several grumbled. Diane heard the word outsider . It was muttered, but the meaning was clear.
    “Maud, Earl, you shouldn’t have done this,” said Spence Barre. “Like Violet and Lillian said, all of us have always been good to your son for your sake. Daddy wrote a letter on his behalf to the judge the last time your boy was up for sentencing. I read it. It was a good letter. Better than he deserved.”
    The two of them, Maud with her white hair and pearls, and Earl with his deacon’s demeanor, looked confused and surprised. They hadn’t expected censure as sharp as the Barres and Watsons were giving them.
    Violet was shaking and her sister put an arm around her waist. “I don’t want you coming to my parents’ funeral,” Violet said. “You aren’t welcome. Whatever you think of Miss Fallon here, this is a slap in my face and a terrible thing you’ve done to our church.”
    “Enough of this,” said the sheriff. He took out hand-cuffs and started toward Diane.
    “On what grounds are you doing this?” said Frank. “You have to have more than ‘she crossed the county