White Heat

Ethan had been whispering, too, but in his current state his whisper was loud enough that anyone within ten feet could hear. Sister Maxine was around. As a frequent visitor to the pit, she was almost as trustworthy as Bart, but this wasn’t something Bart wanted anyone to hear. Not yet.

Searching for the dope that was all too tempting for Ethan, he went through the dresser. When he found it, he shoved it in his pocket.

“What are you doing?” Ethan cried. “Why are you taking that?”

“So you can sober up. When your mind’s clear, we’ll call another meeting with the Brethren. They need to feel included. They’re getting upset thinking you’ve gone rogue.”

“I’m the Holy One. This is my church. I can do whatever I want.”

“We have to at least pretend to listen to their opinions. You’re the one who made them Guides, granted them a voice.”

“Half of them would’ve left if not for that.”

“And now we’ve got to consider their input, that’s all I’m saying. We’ll enlist their help and then we won’t have to worry about internal problems. About unity. We need unity more than ever.”

Ethan shook his head. “But we won’t be able to convince them to act. They’re too scared.”

“Now that she’s filed a suit, things will be different. This will rekindle their anger. They can’t afford to be dragged into court any more than we can.”

Ethan fumbled with the bedding as he tried to cover himself. “Martha will ruin us if we don’t do something.”

Maybe Ethan was thinking more clearly than Bart had assumed. It was amazing what he could do, even when he was high. “We’ll put a stop to her,” Bart said.

“Wait…” Ethan’s lucid moment gave way to confusion. “What will we tell everyone when she goes missing? The police will come here first.”

“We’ll say we haven’t seen her. They can’t do anything unless they can prove otherwise. The Lord will stand by us and so will our people.”

“Right. We don’t know what happened to her. Like Courtney,” he said.

“Like Courtney,” Bart repeated and hurried to the gate, where he told the hysterical Mrs. Sinclair that she had to leave or he’d call the cops and have her forcibly removed.

Willcox seemed like a big city compared to Portal, but it was infinitesimally small by L.A. standards and looked like the set of a John Wayne movie. According to some trivia Nate had mentioned, the building designated as city hall had once been a train depot for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Not far away, on Railroad Avenue, sat several Old West-style buildings with plank walkways and wood overhangs. In this cluster of buildings Rachel saw the Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame—A Tribute to Rex Allen, the Singing Cowboy. She supposed he’d either been born in Willcox or he’d died here—maybe both.

“Interesting place,” she said as Nate slowed the truck to a crawl in accordance with the new speed limit.