I blink, trying to process. “Her family will be furious.” The LeBlancs had worked so hard to reestablish themselves at Holy Fire after Lila’s fall from grace.
“Like I said, we protect our own. Especially from the closed-minded.”
I remember Coby’s swift exit and my heart leaps into my throat. “What did Coby tell you tonight?”
Nissa’s face grows animated. “It’s about Herman.”
As I feared, the sheriff hasn’t managed to keep a lid on Herman’s case. “What about him?” I steel myself to hear the accusations against Everett repeated.
“There’s rumors spreading he hadunnatural urges.” Nissa whispers the last two words, though we’re the only two people here. “One of the fishing wives’ kids, a girl from his old Bible study classes, started talking, sayin’ he…” She swallowed. “Did inappropriate things. Things that don’t bear repeatin’. When she was akid, Ruth. And not just to her, either…” Nissa stops and shivers.
The goose bumps find me, too.
“So it’s true,” I whisper, thinking of my father’s fury that day in the parking lot. Of Lila LeBlanc, allowed to step alone into Herman’s car. Of what I’d wondered ever since. “All this time, that’s why.”
“You knew?”
“I…knew something was off,” I say honestly. “I just didn’t know what.” I clear my throat, swallowing the unexpected emotion. “Why’s this coming out now?”
Nissa’s voice rises, her excitement palpable. “Because now we know how he really died.”
Oh, no. She’s about to say—
“Zola Miller, who used to live next door to Herman, you know the one—she’s a nurse over at Blanchard, got all those Christmas decorations in her yard every year. Well, she’s telling everyone that her son saw the Low Man leave Herman’s house the night he died.” Nissa’s eyes shine. She blinks at me, waiting for my reaction. “Don’t you understand? First Fred dies, and then the truth comes out that he was a bad man who was violent to his family. Now we have a witness who saw—”
“Akid—”
“A man fitting the Low Man’s description leaving Herman’s house, and it comes out that Herman was a—a—pedophile.” She shakes her head, as if to rid herself of the word’s malignance. “I’m not a superstitious person, Ruth. You know that. I’m a proponent of logic. But when both the Bible and the Bard say there are more things in Heaven and earth than we dreamt of, I’ve gotta admit there’s something to this Low Man theory.”
“You too?”
“Honey, it’s too many bad men dying in a row to be a coincidence.”
Her words freeze me.Too many bad men dying in a row.
“What’s wrong?” Nissa presses a hand to my forehead. “You’ve gone paler than usual.”
“I have to leave.” I stagger back. “I’m sorry, Nissa. I have to go home.”
“Okay, but be careful, hear? Coby said her part of town’s up in arms over this news about the Low Man. People are scared. It might grow dangerous ’round here soon.”
“Okay,” I echo, barely registering what she’s saying. I turn and grope my way to the front of the library.
“At least you have that good news, though, Miss Richie Rich,” she calls to my back. “That should be enough to brighten your night.”
I turn and frown. “What in the world are you talking about?”
Nissa searches my face, then draws her hands up to her generous hips and shakes her head. “As smart as you are, I swear you wouldn’t know the sky was falling. And news about your own daddy, too.”
“My father?”
“Augustus Blanchard died last night,” she says. “It was the shame over Herman that finally did him in. Turns out he left his will in your daddy’s care at the church. Augustus bequeathed all that Blanchard money to Holy Fire Born Again. Can you believe it?”
The world tilts under my feet.
“Only right, I guess.” She clucks her tongue. “Leaving it to someone good and holy now the truth’s come out about his wicked son.”
I glance down at the printed pages now clutched tightly in my hand. “Nissa,” I say hoarsely, my mind reeling. “Is there any way you could use your connections to track down a man named John Abraham?”
