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threw that thing!”
    Ada May’s sobs grew from tiny hiccups to full volume.
    â€œI don’t know.” Micah placed a hand on Ada May’s shoulder. “All I got a look at was the back of a pickup.” He turned to the others. “Is anyone hurt?”
    Billy lay curled over Lora. Neither answered Micah’s call.
    Sydney shook as if someone had hold of every inch of her body and planned to rattle her very bones. “I’m not hurt!” she whispered. “I’m not hurt.” She tried to reach for Billy and Lora, but her legs began to give way.
    She looked down at trembling hands and decided they couldn’t be hers. “I’m not hurt,” she whimpered.
    The room faded. She fell into a warm, calm darkness.

CHAPTER FIVE
    L ora Whitman huddled in a corner of the old dining room, her forehead resting on her knees as she tried to calm her breathing. It had all happened so fast. The sound of a car on the street. A rusty oil-field drill bit flying through the window. Glass following the missile like the tail of a comet. Billy’s body slamming into hers, knocking her to the floor. Crushing her. Protecting her.
    She glanced over at the drill bit still resting on her crumpled folding chair. She’d seen ones like it all her life. The oil rigs changed bits when drilling and the used ones were often thrown in the dirt around the site, or pitched in the back of pickup trucks. This one, all rusty and dirty, seemed harmless now.
    â€œLora? Miss Whitman?” Sheriff Farrington knelt before her. “You calm enough to give me a statement?”
    Lora shoved her mass of blond hair away from her face. “There’s not much I can add to what the others have said.” Scraped knees poked through the holes in her stockings. “Except I thought it was a rock or a football or something. I didn’t know it was a drill bit until later.” She stretched out her leg. “I guess it couldn’t have been an accident. No one tosses around something so ugly for fun.”
    The sheriff glanced over at the rusty metal with teeth on one end used to dig into the rock-hard earth in theseparts. “It wasn’t an accident,” he echoed. “There was a note pushed inside the bit.”
    Lora stretched the other leg. “What did it say?” she asked. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it read, Kill Lora because the drill point had been aimed right at her.
    The sheriff offered his hand to help her stand. “It said, Let the house fall. ”
    Lora managed a laugh. “I guess someone not on the committee wanted to vote. Funny thing is, I’d have given them my place if they’d only asked.”
    She stumbled. The sheriff’s grip was firm. “The medic said there’s nothing broken, but if you want, I could drive you over to the hospital and have them check you out. You’ll want to be careful. There’s probably glass in your hair.” He touched her arm with a light pat as if he’d read somewhere in a manual what to do.
    Lora tried to smile but couldn’t manage it. “I had my head turned toward the door where Reverend Parker and the professor were standing. Billy hit me and knocked me to the floor before I even realized what happened.”
    She stared out onto the porch. Billy Hatcher sat on the steps. He’d removed his jacket. Blood spotted his shirt. The medic’s college helpers were cleaning cuts along his left hand and face. “When it happened, all I could think about was how angry I was that he knocked me down. I even fought him for a few seconds.”
    â€œDon’t worry about it.” The sheriff smiled. “I’m sure he’s not sorry he knocked you out of harm’s way.”
    â€œHow bad is he hurt?” she asked.
    â€œI offered to take him over to the doc’s, but he said butterfly bandages are all he needs. He’ll have a scar on his forehead worth talking about.