Page 53 of The Truth

This… feltright.

Dinah was starting to feel free. She had never felt that way before.

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Gunn was tired.Soul tired. This was going to be harder on him and Emerson than he had thought. He’d found a handful of names. He didn’t know what to do except just give the names to Cam and let him and his partner do what they had to do.

But this wasn’t helping Emerson past any of it, not like he’d hoped. The two of them had talked, but he didn’t think his words had done much good. Not yet.

He stood. “I’m going to go check on Ayla, while we wait for Wil to get here.”

“You should marry her as quickly as you possibly can. Before someone like me swoops in and steals her away. She’s amazing. The joy… you can tell she lives by it.”

“Yes. And I plan to. So get your marrying suit ready. As soon as I can convince her to take me forever, I’m going to make it?—”

His office door swung open. A woman stood there.

It wasn’t Ayla.

Dinah Davidson had never been to his church outside of a Sunday or Wednesday service. And never looking like she did now. “Dinah… how can I help you today?”

She held a black trash bag in her hand, and the look in her eyes… it had him tensing. Checking out the window. He could just see Ayla in the front of the building now.

“I… think… maybe I’m here more to help myself, Reverend Hiller. Reverend Riordan, how are you? I… am glad you are here, too.”

“Hello, Ms. Davidson. I heard you’d moved down to Value a few years ago,” Emerson said. “How are you? Your family?”

“My family… I’m not so sure I have one, honestly.” Dinah said, bluntly. Usually, she just murmured things in response to whatever Gunn would say to her, and had trouble meeting his eyes. She’d always been like a little mouse, following behind her parents and her brothers. Gunn never had fully been able to get a read on her.

“What do you mean?”

“My father has been abusing my brother Judah and me our whole lives. More than that… ” She pulled in a deep breath that almost shook her apart. Then she placed the bag in her hands on the floor. And opened it quickly. “Three years ago, Father Rei—if you can call that monster that—gave this backpack to my younger brother Judah. Judah took the money inside for our family to use in exchange for keeping this backpack safe from the federal investigators that were there that night. Including… Agent Lake. I saw him at the barbecue.”

“Cam Lake is my brother’s wife’s oldest brother,” Gunn said, trying to put what she was saying together. “Cam is probably at the hospital right now. His wife just had a baby girl last night. Her brother Jake is the librarian here in town. They were down visiting my brother and Cam’s sister, since they had their twins last week.”

“I see. So… coincidence. God does work in mysterious ways, doesn’t he? My father saw Agent Lake at the hospital where he works last night. And… it made him afraid. Father Rei gave myfather over eighty thousand dollars, I think. Plus what was in that bag there. I think most of the money is still there. Judah buried this in our barn. It has… journals. Everything that man was doing. And I learned this morning… my brother Hezekiah and our father were helping him. With everything. And had been for years.”

She looked right at Emerson. “Hezekiah and my father were the ones, along with the ones arrested, who beat Adonijah Howell in his house that night. They did it. Judah watched them through the window. And I am sure they killed other people who got in their way. My father and mother and older brother got scared. They saw who they thought was Agent Lake at the Hiller barbecue, with you, Reverend Riordan, and they panicked, I think. Though you were down here to findthem.”

“But Agent Lake wasn’t at the barbecue,” Emerson said.

“But his brotherMurdochwas,” Gunn said, things falling into place. He had seen the Davidsons staring at Murdoch and his family. He’d just assumed it was because Murdoch’s wife had been in the news multiple times over the last few years. “They greatly resemble each other, Murdoch and Cam. They weren’t there looking for your family.”

“Well, my father and Hezekiah think they were. And… I think he’s been doing things at the hospital where he works, too. Illegal things. He is always ranting and raving about that doctor who runs the ER. Aubrey. He calls her a harlot, and says she tempts men to sin, but he also says she pokes her nose into things that don’t concern her. And he said she messed things up for him at the hospital last week. When she was hurt.”

She was meeting his eyes. Big brown eyes, so full of resolve. “Now, they are running. To Idaho. My mother and father. And Hezekiah. They should be leaving the county by now. I told them… I lied to them. I told them Judah and I are following up tonight. But… I am not going. I don’t want to go. I don’t want tobe a part of that. And… Judah has done nothing wrong. Except do what our father told him to do that night, and every night since. He had to. Or our father would probably have beaten him to death.”

She unbuttoned her sleeve. She was always covered, head-to-toe, no matter the heat. Gunn had noticed that before. In big heavy denim skirts, and simple plain colored shirts that were buttoned at her wrists. She rolled back the cotton. “I am asking you to help me. Help me make thisstop.For me and Judah, the most innocent one of us all.”

Livid bruises covered her thin arm. Bruises that… fingers. He recognized those bruises for what they were. Anger that she had been hurt by the ones who should have protected her filled him. “You don’t have to go back to him. There are resources… we’ll help you, Dinah. I promise. You’ll be safe from him.”

“We’ll make sure of it,” Emerson said, standing. He took the bag from her and opened it slowly. He pulled out a dirty burlap backpack.

“Thank you. I… have some things to do now. Formyself.I’m going to leave… this… with you. I don’t want my father’s evil in my life for a moment longer.”

Just like that, she was gone as quickly as she’d come.

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