Read Ten Plagues for Free Online

wasn’t being reasonable, although the reverend hadn’t shown that great a skill with Latin. But it was possible that these days no priest spoke Latin, either. Or precious little more than Morris. If they didn’t use the reverend, they’d need to go find a college professor. This was much easier, and the only reason she wanted him gone was because of their past history. A history that he apparently hadn’t cared enough about to remember.
    She couldn’t figure out a way to get rid of him. “Fine. I suppose you’re better than nothing. The autopsy’s scheduled for this afternoon. Go home. We’ll call you when we’re finished, so you can examine the photographs.”
    “I’ll just sit in on the autopsy.”
    The idea galled her. “You will not! I wouldn’t let you within a hundred feet of that girl! You couldn’t handle it.”
    “Wanna bet?” Something in his tone made the heels Keren was digging in slip a little. She studied his eyes. They’d gone a flat blue, as cold and dead as the nails in a coffin. She couldn’t believe what a difference it made in him. It changed him into the cop who had run over her. And it reminded her of how much she disliked him. “I know you used to be a cop. But this still isn’t where we need your help.”
    He gave her an extended look that seemed to worm right into her brain. “You knew I was a cop?”
    “Yeah, I’m a cop myself,” Keren said dryly. “I’m forever detecting.”
    “So what’s your problem? You know I can help you with this.”
    The arrogance she remembered so well was right there. She longed to slap him down. “No problem, Rev. And you won’t slow us down, because I won’t let you.”
    His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t respond.
    “So you went from a cop to a reverend? That’s quite a transition.”
    “Is it? It seemed natural enough to me at the time.” He quit talking and studied her until she felt like a bug under a microscope.
    He smiled in a way that told her he was deliberately trying to make her squirm.
    “You know, Rev, it’s not very Christian to enjoy making me feel uncomfortable.”
    “And you’re such an authority on being Christian?”
    Somehow it hurt that he hadn’t sensed it in her. She wondered if that might be because she’d been relentlessly rude to him ever since they’d met. “Oh yes. Born and raised. I have …”
    She almost told him about her gift. She was shocked at how close she’d come to blurting out the grim message she’d gotten from the murder scene. She’d learned very young never to talk about it. It had created too many awful situations when she’d seen demonic work in the oddest places. And it had ruined a relationship that she’d thought was ordained by God. She’d done some fast growing up and never mentioned her gift again. If the reverend understood, he’d be the first one who did.
    She wondered why she’d come so close to telling him. Honestly, the man probably had his parishioners confessing things to him right and left.
    “You have …?” he prompted.
    Keren couldn’t imagine what in the world to say. The truth was not an option, and she had no intention of lying. The only thing she could think of was to snarl at him some more. A plan which appealed to her.
    “And by the way, you can’t be born a Christian. We all come into this world needing to make the choice for ourselves.”
    “I know that.” A nice theological debate would get his mind off her slip of the tongue.
    O’Shea came trotting up.
    She took one look at his face and forgot all about her gift and her need to confess it. “What?”
    “We’ve just had another missing person reported.”
    Keren knew what he was going to say next. She prayed she was wrong.
    She wasn’t.
    “There’s a carving over the door.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land
.
    T his little carving was his gift to the world, not that the world deserved it. Uncultured,