Page 71 of Shattered Sanctuary

Was this the last thing she’d ever see? “Wait—wait...” she said. She needed to call out again to the God Kaely had told her about while she still had time. Why had she been so stubborn? Would she be able to make things right before it was too late?

“God...” was all she got out before he lunged toward her, his bloody knife glinting in the moonlight.

Erin’s eyes were locked with his when a loud sound made them both jump. Allen’s eyes widened with shock as his body collapsed, falling on the ground next to her.

“Are you all right?”

Sergeant Timothy Johnson knelt beside her, and Chester began licking the tears from her face.

FORTY-SEVEN

The roads had finally been cleared and power restored. Erin’s leg was in a brace, but it was healing nicely. Dr. Gibson had even okayed her to drive back to St. Louis in four days. Noah had wanted to fly in, but Kaely had talked him out of it, choosing to spend as much time as she could with Erin before they each headed home.

Erin was sitting in the living room, a fire crackling in the fireplace, eating fried chicken, fried corn, and french fries from Dolly’s Diner, specially delivered by Adrian. Of course, her Mallomars were close by.

“I thought you said you were going to take us out to dinner as a way to thank us for helping you,” Kaely said, laughing.

“I’m still going to do that,” Adrian said. “This is just the pre-dinner dinner.”

Erin grinned. “Well, it’s great. No complaints here.”

“You’re welcome, but I think I just heard my arteries slamming shut,” Adrian said as he popped two fries into his mouth.

“But it’s worth it, isn’t it?” Erin said.

“Dolly may be a little weird,” Kaely said, “but she hired a great cook.”

Adrian nodded. “That’s true, Carl is excellent.”

“Carl?” Erin said. “I’m not a Dolly Parton expert, but isn’t her husband’s name Carl?”

Adrian laughed. “Yeah, you’re right. Carl Thomas Dean. Well, if she hired him because of his name, it turned out okay. No one makes a cheeseburger like Carl.”

Erin raised her eyebrows at him. “You know Dolly’s husband’s full name?”

He shrugged. “Hey, when you live in Tennessee, you learn all kinds of things. Dolly Parton is like royalty here. She’s actually a very nice woman who gives to a lot of different charities.”

“That’s good to know.”

Adrian nodded, but it was clear he was distracted. He stared at her for a moment before saying, “So when did you know?”

“About Allen?” Erin asked.

He nodded while Erin handed Chester a fry, which was happily accepted.

“We figured it out while we were stuck here without electricity or phone service,” Kaely said. “Actually, we were writing the names of Allen’s victims on a list, trying to see what connected them. Once we began doing that...”

Erin jumped in. “I realized that the first letter of each first name spelled...”

“Watch,” Kaely finished for her.

“And then we wondered if he was purposely trying to spell something. Obviously, it was Watcher. That’s when we became concerned.”

“But not so concerned that you didn’t think twice aboutdashing off into the night?” Adrian asked, his tone incredulous.

Erin shrugged. “When we saw the woman in the woods again, and Chester ran off...”

“You had to go after them?” Adrian said.

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