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quiet of the neighborhood street. Kelly’s eyes glowed with the flames reflection reminding Rita of a cat caught in a flashlight beam. Almost unnatural she was both stunningly beautiful and terrifying to behold. Rita couldn’t take her eyes off her but for a second she had seen a shape behind Kelly in the glass. She wasn’t sure but she could have sworn she had seen a large man. Jack! It must be Jack, she thought and refocused on Kelly in case her attention, too, would be diverted. Out of her peripheral vision she saw him lift one of her large metal trashcans and as the metal hit and shattered the glass Kelly went down to protect herself while Rita flew to Brian, tackling the chair away from the flames. Kelly screamed as she lifted herself to stand, holding one hand over her face as blood leaked down her arms. Glass was imbedded deep in her head and covered her hair glittering like diamonds in the dim lighting. Kelly turned in time to see Jack rush at her, a shard of glass clutched in his hand as a knife. As he imbedded it in her flesh she looked up to the ceiling and said only one word before she met her death. “Why?”
     
    Jack pulled away from the corpse to find Rita. “Hurry, get Judy. She’s in the attic.” He rushed down the hallway searching each door for the passageway down and went to get the girl who had been hiding with her tears as her only comfort throughout the confrontation. Jack lifted Judy over his shoulder as he ran out to the street, meeting Rita and Brian just in time to see the house of Rita’s childhood collapse into a pile of burnt beams.
     
     

Chapter 9
     
    “Well that about wraps up what we can do here folks.” Chief Merrels put his pen down on the pack of reports that had quickly turned into the case summary. “I have your statements, your official medical reports and everything else I need so I think we call this a night.” He snuffed out the cigarette he had been holding for the past 10 minutes without smoking and pushed back his chair from the desk. The four faces staring at him were all shell shocked and he sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to be dealing with them at 3 in the morning. “How about you all go on home and get some rest huh?”
     
    “Wait, I have just one question.” Rita interrupted as the rest struggled to their feet under the wool blankets that had been supplied.
     
    “What ever happened to the fingerprint found on the knife that killed Father Phillips?”
     
    “Well its still being looked into. It’s only been a day after all.” Chief Merrels responded gruffly, irritated that this woman would not only solve the case but then question the handling of evidence.
     
    Rita bit her lip and looked down to the floor. “Something wasn’t right. All that stuff Kelly had said about salvation. How could she have murdered a priest?”
     
    “Heck I don’t know. She figured she was damned anyways right?” Merrels responded.
    “So what, she wanted to get caught then? That’s why she made me look at those archives and help her figure out who was behind everything?”
     
    “Hell Rita, I don’t know. Listen, I’ve got a long day of handling press and making phone calls tomorrow so I would appreciate some sleep. You all have a place to go to?”
     
    “Yeah,” Jack responded. “We are heading to my house on Crystal Street. You can find us there tomorrow.”
     
    “Come on mom,” Judy said, pulling her mothers arm. “Let’s go.”
     
    “Yeah, let’s go.” Brian said, holding on to Jack’s hand as they walked toward the door.
     
    Rita felt a momentary lapse of quiet go through her as she looked at her two children’s faces and thought how they had all survived; everyone except Kelly who had been lost so long ago. Chief Merrels patted her on the back as he steered them out of her office to the parking lot, locking the door to the office behind them. As they left Rita had the urge to run back and demand to go over everything one more time.