Page 119 of Never Flinch

In the pool, Kate is finally slowing down. Soon she’ll want her towel. Holly will give it to her, well satisfied with her progress.

“Mr. Fallowes? Deacon?”

Silence… but he’s listening.

“If you know where he is, call him off. Because the trail will lead back to your church. And to you.”

“I’ve heard quite enough,” Fallowes says, and ends the call.

Kate swims to the side of the pool. “Press conference dead ahead. Towel?”

Holly gives her a smile. “Right here.” And holds it out.

4

Chris is walking to the lot where he left his car when his phone rings. It’s Deacon Fallowes. “Do you have another phone?”

Meaning does he have a burner. He has several, but they’re all in the Kia, under the back compartment where the temporary tire is kept. He starts to tell Andy that, but he interrupts.

“Call me on another one. Get rid of yours.” With that he hangs up.

So it’s serious. Chris’s plan to check out the Mingo will have to wait until he finds out what bee Deacon Andy has in his bonnet.

When he gets to the parking lot, he changes phones and calls back. The news is about as bad as it can be.

“They know who you are.” Andy’s voice is as rich and mellow as ever, but Chris is an expert when it comes to fear, he’s felt plenty since the morning he woke up and saw his sister’s dangling hand, and he senses panic just below the surface of Deacon Andy’s mellow-fellow voice. “You have to break off and come back.”

Chris walks to the edge of the lot and stares at the traffic on Buckeye Avenue. Just another Thursday afternoon in the Second Mistake on the Lake. People with their own piddling concerns. Chris has his own concerns, and they aren’t piddling.

“No.”

“What?”

“I’m not breaking off. I’m going to get her, and I’m going to get herhere. Enough tiptoeing around.”

“Christopher, as your deacon and a church elder, I’m ordering you to come back. If you continue, you’ll be doing the church irreparable harm.”

You mean I’ll be doingyouirreparable harm, Chris thinks. Suppressed resentment rises inside him, like a hot spring that means to break free one way or the other.

“If I’m caught, I’ll tell them I did it on my own.” He has no intention of being caught. At least not alive.

“Christopher, listen to me. They won’t believe that. We’re on the deep state’s radar, have been for years. Just like Waco. And Ruby Ridge.”

Chris tries to set aside the resentment. And the anger. It’s hard. Would he be in this position—thisfix—if it wasn’t for the church? Only his mother understood his pain, but except for her ultimatum about Chrissy, she was too gentle to stand against the church’s iron Old Testament beliefs.

“They have your picture from the McKay woman’s lecture in Iowa City. It will be circulated to every policeman in the city. If it hasn’t been already.”

“They are going to be otherwise occupied.” On his walk from the hotel, Chris has seen Guns and Hoses fliers on just about every building and power pole. “They have a serial killer and a big charity game to deal with. Looking for the McKay woman’s stalker will be a very low priority.”

Fallowes seems not to have heard. “Every hotel and motel, too. Includingyours.”

It’s something he hasn’t thought of, and it sets him back on his heels.

“Come home, Christopher. We can work this out as long as they can’t identify you from Reno or Omaha.”

I don’t think they can. I was Chrissy in both places.That gives him an idea. If he can get back to his hotel without being spotted as McKay’s stalker, everything may still be well.

“I need you to help me,” Chris says. “I need you to find me a place where my sister can stay unseen until McKay goes onstage tomorrow night at seven. Go on the internet and search for abandoned buildings close to the Garden City Plaza Hotel.”

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