Evil Agreement (29 page)

He then sat back up and looked at both men, as he cleared his
throat.

“Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. My guess is that it won’t
work.”
      

“Then what?” asked the Judge.

“Okay, look. Let me put my cards on the table here. I believe
you two might be forming a backup plan. Am I right?”

“What do you mean?” asked the Reverend in mild protest.

“Look, Reverend. This is not the time to bullshit me. Look me
straight in the eye and tell me you’re not planning something,” said Ed.

“Ed, surely you understand . . .” said the Reverend.
 

“Okay, you two, I’m out of here,” said Ed rising from his
chair.

“Sit down, Ed,” said the Judge.

“Why should I?”

“Because we need your help,” said the Judge.

“And what sort of help do you have in mind?”

“If I may quote you, let me put the cards on the table. The
good Reverend and I believe Samuel is being swayed by Moloch to not help pave
the way for the Great Dark One. Rather, we believe Moloch, at the least, is
deceiving Samuel, or at the worst, Samuel is in league with Moloch. In short,
Moloch may be using us all to serve his own ends.”

“That’s fucking incredible,” said Ed.

“We think so,” said the Reverend.

***

Bob
Senecal
looked over at Judy in
her pink spandex outfit.

“Damn, Judy, aren’t you overdoing it a bit?”

“Now Bob, don’t give me any shit. Samuel approved of this
personally and I just know that he would be pissed if anyone tried to bail out
on him. So you just watch yourself.”

Bitch,
thought Bob.

Judy reached over and turned the air conditioner fan up
another notch.

“I’ll sure be glad when that cold front comes through later
today,” said Judy.

Bob
Senecal
passed on the chance to
continue making small talk with Judy.

***

Korie
and Aaron came downstairs and
entered the air conditioned kitchen.

Miss Beacon was standing at the window looking through the
parted curtains.

“Are you checking out that truck down the street?” asked
Aaron.

“What truck?” asked
Korie
.

Turning from the window, Miss Beacon said, “It’s Bob
Senecal’s
tow truck that’s parked down the street. He’s a
member of the coven. This means the coven has concluded that you’re here. He’s
been assigned to watch us and to report on our movements.”

“He’s not alone,” said Aaron.

“I know,” said Miss Beacon.

“Know what? Will somebody tell me what’s going on?” demanded
an exasperated
Korie
.

“Aaron, they are probably going to try and make contact with
you directly. They will also try and make contact with you too,
Korie
.”

“What about you?” asked
Korie
. “Do
you think they know about you?”

“I don’t think so, but time will tell.”

“So what do we do?” asked Aaron.

26

Walter pulled his Jeep to a stop. He put the emergency brake
on. He had a hunch he wanted to check out.

Walter walked over to the barn and checked the lock. It was
engaged and showed no visible signs of tampering. He walked around the barn
perimeter. There were no outward signs of anyone having been snooping around.
He stood at the southeast corner of the barn and scratched his head. He was
missing something, he was sure of it. He refocused his eyes and surveyed the
perimeter again, this time at a greater distance.

There it was. He had missed it the first time around because
he was looking only around the immediate perimeter. Now that he had searched
the grass and woods around a hundred feet away from the barn, he had discovered
a trail. More specifically, three trails of recently tramped down wet grass
were evident, where at least three people had passed, heading away from the
nearby barn. Now he returned to the barn and using a key that was among several
chained to his belt, he unlocked the barn door.

He swung the door wide open. Stepping inside, he quickly
surveyed the interior. Nothing seemed out of place, although he couldn’t be
absolutely sure without a complete inventory. He still felt uneasy about this.

Who was here? What do they know?
he thought.

He quickly left the barn locking the front door.

He decided he needed to check on the young boy who was
guarding the altar. He jumped into the jeep and after releasing the emergency
brake, he drove off towards the altar.

After a brief moment, he pulled his jeep over next to the
lower edge to the field his coven and church members so often worshipped in. He
turned the engine off and reapplied the emergency brake.

Stepping out of the jeep he hollered, “Danny…”

Only a faint echo of his own voice came back to him.

He shouted louder this time, “Danny, answer me, boy.”

Still only silence.

Something’s wrong
, he thought.

Walter turned and headed up across the field towards the
altar. He had traveled about half way across when he noticed there was
something on the altar. He broke into a half run and quickly closed the
distance to the altar.

Walter stopped next to the altar and blurted out, “Shit, this
is bad, real bad!”
 

He pulled the portable radio from its belt holster. He
flipped the “on” switch. Static crackled noisily from the radio.

“Base, this is Walter, over.”

The radio hissed, “Walter this is Charlie, over.”

“Find Ed Townsend for me will you, Charlie? It’s urgent. Have
him call me on channel 23, over.”

“Roger, Walter.”

The radio went silent. Walter turned his channel switch to
channel 23. He set the radio to monitor the selected channel. Now he would
wait. He wouldn’t attempt to move the boy’s body without Ed’s approval. He sat
down in the grass and waited.

Gases had begun earlier to build inside the dead boy’s body,
hastened by the exposure to the hot afternoon sun. His body’s belly had begun
to swell.

A swarm of small flies hovered over the body, with several of
the shiny insects landing on the boy’s head wound. They scampered over the now
dried blood, with some of them exploring the crevices of torn flesh. After
these brief landings, the flies rose up and hovered again while others landed
and repeated this gruesome ritual.

Walter watched several of these landings and takeoffs when
his radio suddenly crackled.

“Walter, this is Ed, over.”

“Ed, I’m up here on the mountain at the altar, over.”

“Yeah, and what’s the situation?”

“Ed, someone killed Danny
Almore
.”

They had both dropped the radio formalities.

“Dead, how?”

“Looks like he was slugged from behind by a large piece of
oak. His head’s split wide open. The piece of wood that hit him appears to have
broken in two.”

“What else?”

“The killers put his body up here on the altar, Ed. They even
put the broken piece of wood here, too. They laid it across his body in the
shape of a cross.”

There was no response from Ed.

“Ed, did you catch what I just said?”

“Yeah, Walter, I did.”

“Walter, a moment ago you said killers. How do you figure
there’s more than one?”

Walter then reported to Ed what he had seen earlier at the
barn.

“I think you may be right, Walter.”

“You
gonna
tell Samuel?”

“Yeah, I will.”

What do you want me to do with the
Almore
boy’s body?”

Bring it down to Ed Foley. He’ll take care of it. I’ll get
word to him to expect you.”

“Okay.”

“Later,” said Ed.

“Yeah, later,” said Walter

Walter set the channel on his radio back to 19 and the radio
back to its monitor mode. He put the radio back into its holster. He walked
down the hillside to get his jeep. He would load the boy’s dead body into the
back.

***

“Aaron you’ve got to leave here, alone. We have to continue
to act as if we don’t know anything, for as long as we can get away with it.
When you leave they will try to make contact with you, maybe even try to trick
you or test you somehow. You’re going to have to have your wits about you.
They’ll try anything,” said Miss Beacon.

They had been debating what to do next for the past
half-hour. Miss Beacon was insistent that Aaron was ready to handle direct
contact with coven members.
Korie
and Aaron both were
reticent to accept the prospect of Aaron being alone with one or more coven
members. Miss Beacon knew the risks, yet she felt confident that Aaron, at this
point, was as prepared as he could be.

“Look, time is ticking here. It won’t matter what we do if we
just wait. Sooner or later they’ll just come in here and take Aaron, drag him
kicking and screaming to their sacrificial altar and the calling ceremony. At
least this way we might learn something that could be useful later. You can do
this, Aaron. I just know it,” said Miss Beacon.

“Maybe she’s right, Aaron. After all, she is your guardian
angel,” said
Korie
.

“Okay, for my family, and for you two,” said a reluctant
Aaron.

“Good,” said Miss Beacon, “now what I think you should do is
take the Land Rover into town, and go to the grocery store. Buy some bread or
something. I’m sure they’ll try and make contact. Go along with them. When you
think you might be getting into some danger, just use that Powell instinct of
yours and get out. Don’t even hesitate,” said Miss Beacon.

“Okay, I will. I promise,” said Aaron.

He reached out and hugged
Korie
and
gave her a warm lingering kiss goodbye. He then hugged Miss Beacon. He turned
and headed out the door.

“Whew . . .I don’t know about this. Maybe we should follow
him,” said
Korie
, obviously concerned for Aaron’s
safety.

“No, we have something important to do,” said Miss Beacon.

“What’s that?” asked
Korie
.

“We have to save a girl’s life. “

***

Bob sat up like a shot. He reached for the binoculars. In a
moment he was letting out a whistle.

“What is it?” asked Judy.

“It’s the Powell
fella
. Looks like
he’s about to leave the place, alone.”

“Does it look like he’s going to drive down towards us?”

“Can’t be sure, maybe.”

“That’s good enough for me,” said Judy as she bounded out of
the truck. She quickly ran to the rear of the truck. She glanced up the road
towards Mother Nature’s and then she ran across the road. She stopped by the
side of the road and fluffed her hair before setting out on a slow jog heading
away from town.

Bob looked at her from the driver’s side mirror of his truck.

“She’s...good.”

Meanwhile, Bob noticed that Mother Nature’s Land Rover had
pulled out onto the road, turned and was headed in Bob’s direction. Bob
slouched down in his seat so the driver of the Rover would not see anyone
sitting inside of the truck.

The Land Rover drove slowly past Bob’s truck.

Aaron glanced only briefly at the truck and seeing no one
inside, continued along the road heading away from the center of town. After
turning past a short curve he noticed up ahead, on his side of the road, a
woman jogger stumble and fall to the ground. She immediately sat up and
clutched her right ankle.

As he pulled closer to the injured jogger he noticed her
bright pink spandex outfit. Earlier, when he had looked out his bedroom window
he noticed there were two people sitting in the tow truck he had just driven
past. One of the two people was a woman.

He wondered,
Could she be the woman? Was she a member of
the coven?

He decided to pull over and find out.

He pulled the Rover to the side of the road just ahead of the
woman. He climbed out of the vehicle and walked over to the woman.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

With moist eyes she looked up at him and said, “I don’t think
so. I think I broke my ankle. It really hurts.
Owww
.”

“Let me check it out for you.”

“Are you a doctor?” she pouted.

“No, I’m actually a teacher. Look, I’m going to touch it.
I’ll be gentle. I promise.”

His eyes were soaking up her incredible beauty. She looked
like a Hollywood starlet.

Aaron knelt down next to her feet and gently reached out and
touched her ankle, probing for any sign of swelling. When he touched her ankle
sock he felt a cold chill rush through his own body.

“Does this hurt?”

“Uh-huh,” she said with a wince.

“How about when I touch here?”

“Oh, yeah, that hurts, too,” she said. “Is it broken?” she
asked.

“I don’t think so. It’s probably just a bad sprain. Would you
like me to give you a lift home? We seem to be traveling in the same direction
anyway.”

“That would be wonderful.”

“All right,” said Aaron standing up. “Here, take my hand and
put all of your weight on your left foot. I’ll pull you up.”

She reached out and put her hands into his. There was no cold
chill this time.
She seems nice, maybe she’s not one of them,
he
thought.

With a gentle but firm tug he pulled her to her feet. Her
momentum however, caused her to fall forward into his arms. He had to hold her
up as her body collided with his.

Aaron looked down into her sparkling blue eyes. She gave him
a warm friendly smile. Her teeth were a perfect white. Her lips were smooth and
full.

“Sorry. I guess I don’t know my own strength,” said Aaron.

“Oh, I don’t mind. By the way, my name is Judy. What’s your
name?”

“Aaron Powell.”

“Well, Mr. Powell. I don’t know what I would have done if you
hadn’t come along to rescue me,” she purred as she leaned into him.

“Please, call me Aaron.”

“All right, Aaron.”

He found the scent of her perfume to be very sensual. She
continued to lean into him. He could feel her trim but soft body pressing
against him.

“Here, let me get you to the Land Rover. Now put your arm
like this,” said Aaron as he tried to walk her on her one good foot.

“I don’t think I can.”

“Try.”

They went one step and she lost her balance tipping into to
him in the process.

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to carry you. If that’s okay?”

“It’s okay, I’m sure you’ll be gentle with me.”

He lifted her up into his arms. She felt feather light. She
wrapped her arms around his neck. He couldn’t help but notice the swells of her
breasts pushing at the scoop neck line of her spandex top. The sensual smell of
her perfume enveloped him.

He carried her over to the passenger side door. Aaron was
able to reach out and open the door. He carefully placed her on the front seat.
As he closed the door, he noticed how ample and firm her breasts were from the
sideways profile set out before him. He even noticed that her nipples were
erect.

“Thanks,” she said.

“No problem. Now buckle up. We can’t have any more
accidents.”

“Okay.”

As Aaron went around to the driver’s side to climb in he
thought
Bazooka Gum, that’s the color of her outfit.
That mental
recognition brought a smile to his face.

He started up the Land Rover and after checking his side
mirror, he pulled back onto the road.

“You’re going to have to direct me to your place. I’m not
from around here and I don’t know my way around.”

“I thought so. I know most everyone around here and I sure
didn’t recognize you,” she said while she looked him over from head to toe.

They drove along for a moment.

“Directions?”

“Oh, I almost forgot. Sure, uh… you will have to turn around
on this road and head towards the town center until it intersects with Route 7,
and then turn right and my place is about a half a mile up, on Route 7. You
can’t miss it. I own a motel called Grand View Motel. I hope that it’s not
taking you out of your way.”

“Trust me, it isn’t a problem. So are you very busy this time
of year?”

“Not really. This time of year I mostly get traveling
salesmen. Fall foliage time and winter ski season are my busiest times.”

“Owned it long?” asked Aaron, continuing to make small talk.

“It seems like forever,” she sighed.

***

“Miss Beacon, how is it that this coven doesn’t know exactly
what we are doing? Don’t they have special powers like the ability to read
minds?”

“They have powers, yes. As to the ability to read minds, well
that’s a different matter. They all have special powers. Most have changeling
powers, you know, to change shapes. They sometimes can read one’s mind, if that
person is weak and lets them in.”