Chapter 25: The Bell Room

Betsy's POV

I texted the stranger's number back: Where?

The answer came before Brogan had his boots on.

My mother's church. The side door by the bell stairs. Don't bring Alec.

We were there by eight.

It was a white clapboard church on the old Dayton road, with a gravel lot and a sign that still said Pancake Supper Saturday.

Brogan parked behind the fellowship hall where the truck couldn't be seen from the road.

"I'll stay on the stairs," he said.

"She's afraid of you."

"Good."

"Brogan."

"I'll stay on the stairs."

The side door was unlocked.

The bell stairs ran up behind the choir loft, narrow and smelling of dust and hymnals.

Candace sat on the top step with her knees against her chest and my aunt's old cardigan over her shoulders.

Her lip was split and swollen on the left.

There was a fresh bruise on her wrist in the shape of four fingers.

"You came," she said.

"You said please."

"I never say please to you."

"I noticed."

She almost smiled, and it hurt her, and she stopped.

"What happened?"

"He came home at midnight and found the earbuds on the dash of my car."

She said it flatly, with no tears left in it.

"He asked me what was on them. I said music. He put me against the kitchen wall and asked again."

I felt Brogan move on the stair below me.

"I told him it was a voicemail from my mother. He didn't believe me, and he didn't hit me, not that time. He went through every drawer."

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