“Blessed be the seed. This is all for the chosen one,” she says as she drops the flare, setting off a circle of flames on the dock, which swiftly engulf her body. She screams in agony as the fire burns her hair, her skin, but she doesn’t move an inch.
“Jump in the water!” I call out to her, but she doesn’t listen. I try to grasp on to the ladder and pull myself up, but the metal’s scalding hot.
As I sink back into the water, all I can do is watch the flesh melt off her bones, until she’s nothing more than a charred mass.
I look back at the pandemonium on the shore. People are screaming, taking off, running into the woods. Sirens are blaring in the distance. But that’s not what makes me freeze in place. Stepping out of the woods toward the shore is Noodle. She’s in her nightgown, dragging the dead calf beside her.
53
“CLAY TATE?” A voice booms over a megaphone, harsh lights blinding me, making my vision of Noodle disappear. “Step out of the water with your hands up.”
For a second, I can’t even process what they’re saying. I turn away from the floodlights, looking back at the floating dock, at Tammy’s charred remains, and I know how it looks. I’m treading water in front of her goddamn corpse.
I think about taking off, swimming as far as I can. If I reach the creek it could carry me all the way to Love County. But then I think about Noodle, Jess, and Mom. All I have to do is hang on until tomorrow. Miss Granger will be back. She can fix this. They’ve got nothing on me except being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When I get close enough to the shore to stand up, Deputy Tilford storms in and grabs me, throwing me down onto the muddy bank, drilling his knee into my kidney, as he cuffs me.
“Sheriff!” I scream into the blur of flashing red lights. “I need to talk to Sheriff Ely.”
“I’m the deputy in charge,” Tilford says as he hauls me to my feet. “Sheriff’s out there looking for your sister. Lost cause if you ask me, but I’m more than happy to get some alone time with you.”
“Tell him to go to the campground,” I plead as he drags me to his police car and crams me in the back. “Find Lee. Find Jess!” I manage to get out before he shuts the door.
The volunteer fire department finally arrives; they’re rushing out with the hose and gurney. They don’t know it, but Tammy’s been dead since I had that vision about her last night. Just like all the rest of them.
As we pull out of the lot, I see Ali in tears, standing next to Tyler’s car. Tyler smirks at me and puts his arm around her as we drive by. He still thinks this is some kind of competition for her.
But I’m beyond that. This is about her soul.
54
AT THE courthouse, they have me in a windowless room with mint-green painted concrete walls. The clock on the wall is broken, but I’ve been here for hours, maybe all night. There’s a large particleboard table and two metal folding chairs. I see a camera in the corner, its tiny red light blinking at me like a warning. Don’t say anything. Keep your mouth shut, Clay.
When the door finally opens again, I sit up straight, the cuffs rattling around my wrists.
I’m disappointed to see it’s just Greg Tilford.
Begrudgingly, he sets a cup of coffee in front of me. I take a drink, letting it scald my mouth. Anything to warm me up.
He tosses a puke-colored scratchy wool blanket at me. I manage to get it over my shoulders. “Thanks,” I whisper as I sink into it.
“You ready to talk now?” Tilford drops a thick folder on the table with a thud.
“I already told you. I was only trying to help. I saw what Tammy was doing and I tried to stop her.”
“That’s where I’m having trouble.” Greg leans in. “Eyewitnesses are saying that Tammy wanted you to go skinny-dipping and you pushed her off. They said you were acting crazy, talking about the Devil.”
“Don’t I get a phone call? I want to make a phone call.”
“Which reminds me,” he says as he opens the folder, scanning through the papers. “Looks like you’ve been calling Miss Granger quite a bit.”
“So? She’s my counselor,” I say, trying to get a glimpse at what’s in that file.
“You have things on your mind, Clay? Things you need to confess?”
I gulp down the rest of the coffee. “I want to talk to Sheriff.”
“We haven’t been able to reach Emma Granger yet, but we’ve seen your school records.” Tilford flips through some of the pages, scratching a dark patch of stubble he missed on the side of his neck. “I’m thinking you learned all this from your daddy. Graduated from pregnant cows to people.”
“Where’s Sheriff Ely?” I rub my wrists. “’Cause he’ll tell you. I had nothing to do with any of this. It’s just a huge misunderstanding.”
“Oh, yeah?” Greg smirks as he pulls out a piece of paper and slides it over to me. “How about this list of library books you’ve checked out in the past year? Schizophrenia. Mind control. Hypnotism. The occult. Prophets?”
“Th-that was before,” I sputter. “That’s when I was trying to figure out what was happening.”