Without Mercy (Mercy 1)

“You seem to gain some perverse pleasure in persecuting and torturing me,” she said softly. “And you do it under the guise of executing God’s will. That’s sick, Tobias. And you, with your damned degree in psychology, should know it!”

“Cora, you misunderstand.”

“Do I? Do I?” she demanded, her voice rising. Jules imagined the woman was blinking back tears of frustration. “I’ve tried, Tobias. Lord knows I’ve tried. Just remember that Jesus forgave those who sinned. You need to take a lesson!”

“Stop. We can’t have this discussion. Not here. Not now!” His voice, too, was filled with fury. “The school is already reeling. I’ve got parents threatening to pull out their kids and reporters on me like vultures on a dying sheep. The weather service is saying we’re in for a blizzard, which at least will keep visitors away for a while. On the other hand, our campus will be isolated by the storm. But any minute I’m expecting Julia Farentino, so please, let’s attempt to look like we’re getting along. You know, sometimes God gives us challenges that really try us.”

“Every day,” she agreed. “Every damned day.”

Jules wanted to listen further, but a flurry of sound just a few feet down the lane caught her attention. Her heart nearly stopped as she thought she’d been found out. Stepping back from the door, she saw a flash of navy blue as two boys raced by, hurrying toward the chapel.

They didn’t so much as glance in her direction as they passed.

Julia caught her breath, slowed her rapidly beating heart.

So much for her sleuthing skills.

As she stomped on the porch loudly and rapped on the door, she turned her head to see who was behind her. From the corner of her eye, she caught a dark figure darting into the shadows, disappearing under the low-hanging bough of a spruce tree. What?!

Her heartbeat went wild again.

Had someone been watching her as she eavesdropped?

A man?

Woman?

She thought of Shay’s concerns that a killer was on the loose, of Trent’s convictions that Nona had been murdered. Fear skittered down Jules’s spine as she swept her gaze over thickets of fir, hemlock, and spruce that sheltered the cottage from the rest of the campus.

Did she hear footsteps?

The faint sound of snow crunching beneath boots?

Calm down, nothing is wrong. You’re jumping at shadows. All because of Shay. Pull yourself to—

The door to the cottage swung open. “Ms. Farentino,” Reverend Lynch said, his voice booming into the night. Cora Sue, on her invisible string, stood next to him.

“Call me Julia.”

“Come in, come in,” he said. “I apologize for how hectic things are down here … such a tragedy.”

“I heard. Yes.”

“You’ve met my wife, Cora Sue.”

More than once, Jules thought, “Yes. In Seattle. Hello.”

The other woman’s eyes were cold, her mouth tight, the remnants of the argument with her husband still

hanging in the air. “Welcome,” the reverend’s wife said without inflection as she stepped out of the doorway, allowing Jules to pass. “I’m sorry that you’ve come under such horrendous circumstances.”

“Me too. I only hope I can help.”

Cora Sue looked at her as if she was certifiable, but the reverend bought it. “That’s the kind of can-do attitude that makes Blue Rock Academy the elite institution it is,” Lynch said, and for the life of her, it seemed he really believed it.

Even with Lauren Conway missing, Nona Vickers dead, and Drew Prescott’s life hanging by a thread.

CHAPTER 21