Nemesis (FBI Thriller 19)

“Or perhaps, Mrs. Alcott,” Savich said, “she respected him enough to listen to him?”

Deliah rolled her eyes. “Believe that if you like, but I strongly doubt that. It is true that she loved Arthur more than anyone in the world, more than her two dead husbands, more than any of us. She admired his strength, you see, probably envied it, continually begged him to free her. She thought he was weak not to use his power, and she blamed me.

“When he died six months ago, she said she was free to do as she wished. That’s when her madness surfaced for all of us to see, and the chaos began.” Tears sheened her eyes. “Arthur was a fine man, a good man. He didn’t expect to die and leave us in her hands.

“After he died, I tried everything I knew to control her. I tried cajoling her, making her feel a central part of the family. I tried ritual prayers, even repeated the binding spell Arthur had worked to control her, but none of it was enough. I wasn’t strong enough, not like Arthur was.”

Deliah looked down at her tea cup. “I confronted her one night after I overheard her speaking to Liggert, encouraging him to punish his wife because she thought Marly had insulted her.”

“What did she do?” Griffin asked her.

“She laughed at me. She did that a lot, said I was a silly weakling, a sham who couldn’t stop her from doing anything she liked. She started threatening my children, making them do bizarre and dangerous things to amuse herself and frighten me. She told me if I didn’t behave—her word—she’d make Tanny, Liggert’s daughter, sorry she’d ever been born. I believed her. I think now that if I’d had a knife in my hand I’d have tried to use it, I was that afraid for my children.

“When Liggert told her about Sparky Carroll’s damaged Mustang, she didn’t scream and yell and curse him, she went silent, didn’t say a word for hours. Then she made Walter murder Sparky because she thought they both deserved it. She picked Brakey, her own grandson, to kill Deputy Lewis. In her mind he was as guilty as Sparky—he’d buried the truth. I believe it’s my fault she used Brakey. She was punishing me for trying to control her. She wanted me to see how powerful she was—she could make Brakey murder someone, and her silent threat was that she could make me kill someone, too.

“It’s been a reign of terror, and she’s held us all prisoner. Until you came, Agent Savich. What will happen to Brakey now?”

Savich said, “Brakey will be fine. As for Walter, that will be more difficult. He stabbed Sparky Carroll in front of dozens of witnesses, but I hope I’ll be able to convince the federal prosecutor to send him for psychiatric evaluation and, I hope, a stint in a federal sanitarium, not jail.”

“When you left that first time, do you know she sat rocking in her chair, and she laughed, knitted and knitted and laughed and laughed. She said she was going to have some fun tormenting you, teaching you what was what, she said. We all thought she would kill you.

“Thank you for what you did,” she said simply. “Last night you and Agent Hammersmith ended six months of terror for us.”

She smiled. “Most of us Wiccans are cremated when we die and return our life force to the Goddess. I think I’ll have her cremated when she takes her last breath. She would have hated that, you know.”

EPILOGUE

SAVICH HOUSE

GEORGETOWN

One week later

You can be sure I’ve given it a lot of thought,” Cal said. “My boss, Marvin Conifer, told me this morning my transfer’s gone through. I’ll be starting in New York in two weeks.”

Sherlock looked from Special Agent Kelly Giusti to Special Agent Cal McLain. Kelly looked pleased. Sherlock knew she and Cal had discussed his relocating to New York, but now Kelly was shaking her head sadly. “You won’t be reporting to me, or I’d already know about it. Too bad—I could whip you into shape in a week, two on the outside.” She turned to Sherlock. “Actually, I’m glad he’ll be in New York, part of the team. He now knows that’s where the action is, where boots hit the ground, not like down here in nerdland, analyzing everything to death. When all’s said and done, I’ve got to admit, he was pretty useful.” She smiled at him. “We’ll have to try to keep you from driving like a maniac race-car driver in Manhattan. Hey, if you’re nice, I’ll let you stay at my place until you find your own digs.”

Cal took another bite of Dizzy Dan’s pepperoni pizza, chewed, and looked thoughtfully at Kelly. Maybe if things worked out between them, he wouldn’t need his own digs. He wondered how she would react to his real news. He patted her knee and dove in. “Ah, Kelly, I’m real glad to be coming to New York, and I know I’m really going to like staying with you at your apartment, but I gotta tell you something first.”