I Will Fear No Evil (Psalm 23 Mysteries Book 10) Read Online Free Page B

checked out. Several hours later they were driving back to the church. Whatever the reaction had been to, the medication she had been given had taken care of things. She also had an appointment with her doctor later in the week to do the allergy tests to find out what it might have been that set her off. It wasn’t ideal, but at least they would be getting some answers.
    It was after six when they got back to the church parking lot. It was empty except for Cindy’s car which was parked next to the building. Jeremiah pulled up next to it and she got out of the car, every line of her body telegraphing just how tired she was. He didn’t blame her. It had been a traumatic day.
    He got out as well and moved toward her car. She turned to look at the gate that led into the church courtyard and stopped, keys in her hand.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    “The gate’s ajar. It should be locked. Last person to leave always locks up.”
    Normally he would have assumed that one of the pastors was working late, but there were no cars in the parking lot other than hers so he was instantly on guard.
    He moved toward the gate, waving at Cindy to stay put. He could feel her moving closer, though. He pushed the gate open wide enough for them to pass through. He looked for any lights on in the buildings, but the only illumination was coming from the exterior lights.
    They were nearing one of the corners of the building closest to the parking lot when he heard a soft step coming toward them. He froze, tensing his muscles. Someone was there. It wouldn’t be the first time criminals had trespassed on church property. He waited, holding his breath as he listened to the footsteps approaching.
    A form flashed into sight. Jeremiah lunged out, reaching for the man in front of him.

     
     
     
    3
     
     
     
    Jeremiah was reaching for the man’s throat when he recognized him. He pulled back at the last second as Dave Wyman shouted in terror. The youth pastor, who everyone called Wildman, scrambled backward several feet and then stood, staring at him as though he had just seen a ghost.
    “I’m sorry, you startled us,” Jeremiah said with a grimace. “We thought you were an intruder.”
    “I startled you?” Wildman asked, voice cracking slightly.
    Cindy moved to join them. “Are you okay?” she asked.
    “No, I’m not,” Wildman said. “You nearly scared me to death.”
    Before Jeremiah could respond Wildman stepped forward and grabbed his shoulders. Jeremiah struggled not to shrink back at the contact or respond in some other inappropriate way. He’d barely managed not to knock the man out already once today.
    “Do you know what this means?” Wildman asked, his eyes getting even wider.
    Jeremiah didn’t and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He forced himself to shake his head.
    “This is fantastic! I’ve been having problems explaining to the kids who are going to be running the haunted house here at the church how to scare people. You could show them!”
    “What do you mean?”
    “We could run a workshop, either after school or on the weekend and you could teach them how to scare people as badly as you scared me.”
    “That was an accident,” Jeremiah said quickly. “I don’t know the first thing about scaring people.”
    It was a lie, but the ways in which he frightened people were most certainly not the kind of thing that the pastor was looking for and certainly wouldn’t work for a haunted house type attraction.
    “Come on. The kids look up to you, they respect you. They still talk about the hero rabbi who saved them all at Green Pastures.”
    Jeremiah forced himself not to react outwardly to that news. He didn’t like that he was notorious for that. No matter what he did it seemed he was having an increasingly hard time keeping a low profile, and keeping his skills a secret, in this community.
    “I just did what you or any of the other adults would have done,” Jeremiah said evenly.
    “Um, sure, keep telling yourself