Page 237 of Hidden Nature

“Secured. She’s Clara—I don’t know the last name. A nurse at WVU, Morgantown. I saw her there. I saw her.”

“You hold on, Sergeant. You hold the scene. Understood?”

“Yes. Hurry, okay?”

“I see what you are.” As tears streamed, Clara hissed out the words. “Devil’s whore. You’ll pay for eternity for what you’ve done.”

Sloan crouched down. Her heart beat too fast, her ears rang, but she looked Clara in the eye. “Is Terry Brown alive?”

“This life is false. They dragged him back into it. He was called home by lightning. Man is not allowed to bring the dead to life. We send them home. Our mission is holy and blessed.”

“Have you sent him home?”

“Because of you he’ll be trapped in this false life, an abomination, a lie. Sam’s gone to glory now, but not in his time. You had no right to decide to end his life.”

“But you and Sam had a right to take mine?”

Clara bared her teeth in a snarl. “An obligation.”

Sloan straightened as the ambulance pulled in. She teetered a little, but Nash held back the urge to steady her.

“I have to…”

“Go ahead.” He put a hand on Tic’s head again as the dog stood beside him. “We’ll watch her.”

“She’ll take you to Hell with her,” Clara warned as Sloan stepped onto the porch.

“I doubt that, but if she does, you can save us a couple seats.”

He stood back when O’Hara and others arrived. Then stepped outside to give them room as they put up police tape.

A man in an NRP truck pulled in, leaped out. “Sloan Cooper,” he snapped.

“She’s fine. She’s not hurt. She’s inside.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“Littlefield, Nash Littlefield.”

“Got it. Travis Hamm. I’m Sloan’s captain, and I’m family. I’m going in.”

“Does the rest of her family know she’s okay?”

“They wouldn’t know any of this yet.” Travis hesitated. “Let them know, but lead with that. She’s okay, she’s not hurt.”

In the end, he waited outside with her family, with his brother. A unit, he’d think later, bound by sick worry and terrible relief.

When she came out, he let her parents, her sister hold her first.

“I’m fine. And Terry’s going to be. They found him, and he’s already at the hospital. Abrasions, lacerations from restraints, but he’s going to be fine.”

“Thank God for that.” Elsie hugged her in again. “Are you sure they didn’t hurt you?”

“Absolutely sure. And now they won’t hurt anyone else.”

When they brought a body bag out, Nash watched Sloan’s eyes cloud, before she closed them and held her mother harder.

O’Hara brought Clara out. “Sergeant Cooper, you have the suspect’s full name now. Make the arrest.”

---