Without Mercy (Mercy 1)

Chloe, all of twenty-four months, was protesting from her high chair, shaking her head and shouting, “No! No, Mommy!”

“Blue Rock really turned me around.” To her daughter, “Okay, okay, you’re clean now.”

“Down!” Chloe ordered.

“You got it.” Analise released the toddler who, with a mistrustful eye cast in Jules’s direction, waddled over to their chunky bulldog. A moment later, the dog took off like a shot, nails scrabbling on the hardwood floor, rather than being subjected to the two-year-old’s curiosity and pokes and prods.

“I just have a bad feeling about the place,” Jules admitted.

“Why?”

“All this secrecy and isolation. I can’t even call her.”

“That’s to keep everyone focused. But she’ll be able to call you once a week or so, depending. As soon as she finishes the introductory phase.”

“When is that over?”

“It’s different for everyone, but Shaylee will be able to reach you in a week or so, and then you’ll see that you’re all worried for nothing. Hey, would you like a cup of coffee or tea? I think I’ve even got an ancient Diet Dr Pepper in the fridge.”

“I’m good.” But she followed Analise into the small kitchen, where a glass pot was warming in a coffee machine. Outside, the day was gray, twilight gathering through the bare branches of a lilac bush just starting to bud. Rain spattered the glass, the chill of March seeping through the panes that had been installed sometime in the late forties.

“Why are you so freaked out about Shaylee?” Analise poured herself a cup of coffee, then held up the pot as a second offering. “Sure?”

“Uh-uh.” Jules shook her head. “It just feels wrong.”

“Why?” Analise asked, then lifted a hand to cut off any explanation. “Look, despite the advertisements to the contrary, Blue Rock is far from perfect, but I was a mess when my dad shipped me down there. Into weed and boys and even dabbling in meth and E. My grades were in the toilet, so I ended up at the academy, alone, with no friends. It was hell at first. I won’t kid you. There’s definitely a pecking order there, just like at any school, but I had to fend for myself and … and I made it.” She was heading back to the living room where Chloe had the dog cornered behind the couch.

“Doggy!” she cried happily, apple cheeks red, her tiny teeth showing as she grinned. “Bent-ley!”

“Give Bentley a break. Come here, you.” Analise set her cup down, then swept her child off her feet and lifted her into the air until Chloe giggled uproariously. The dog hurried from the back of the couch and lay in his bed, where he peered worriedly at the child. “They’re best of friends, really. Bentley adores Chloe, here, but he’s eleven and not as spry as he used to be.” She sat in the rocker, daughter in her lap. Leaving her coffee untouched, Analise grabbed a blanket and a favorite book of Bible stories. She kept talking with Jules while she flipped through the pages. Surprisingly, Chloe didn’t scramble to get down.

“That’s where you found God, right? At Blue Rock.”

“It was the turning point, yeah.”

“Is it optional? The religion thing?”

“Uh-uh. It’s required. And not just God-as-any-supreme-power, but the real Christian God.”

“Well, real if you’re a Christian.”

“You can knock it if you want, Jules, but for a lot of kids, moi included, we find God and listen to his word and teachings. It helps us with our addictions. With our lives.”

And it was true, Jules guessed. Analise seemed happy, at peace.

“Substituting one obsession with another. Trading drugs for religion.”

“Only the truly jaded would look at it that way.” For the first time, she seemed a bit nervous. Agitated. “Look, Jules, I don’t know why you’re so dead set against the school. It helped me; it might just be the answer for Shaylee. Lord knows she needs it. As I did. I might be dead now if I hadn’t gone to Blue Rock, and I never would have found Eli.”

“Baby Jesus!” Chloe cried, pointing at a page.

“That’s right; there’s Jesus,” Analise said.

“So do you know anything about Lauren Conway?”

“Who’s she?”

“The girl who disappeared a couple of months ago. From Blue Rock. I’ve searched the Internet and all the newspapers. As far as I can see, she’s never been located.”