Faces of Evil [4] Rage by Debra Webb

heard something. I noticed some of your windows are open. In this heat, most of your neighbors keep their houses shut up tight. You and your brother may be the only people who might’ve heard any trouble in the neighborhood.”
    “I explained that we weren’t home last night,” his sister repeated. “But I’ll go up and get Devon if that’s what you want.”
    The blond lady said something else and then he heard footsteps on the stairs.
    His sister was coming!
    Devon scrambled back into his room. He jumped in his bed and covered himself. Don’t take me away. Don’t take me away.
    “Devon.” His sister jerked the cover off him. “The police are here. They want to talk to you. You have to—”
    His sister made a sound with her mouth like he did a little bit ago. Like she sucked in a big breath that would turn into a rock in her chest.
    He looked up at her but she was staring at his T-shirt. Why did she look so funny? Was he wearing it inside out? Devon looked down to see. There was lots of dried blood on his T-shirt. He’d forgotten about wiping his fingers on the shirt after he touched the dead mommy’s blood. Uh-oh.
    His sister clamped her hand over her mouth and fell to her knees next to his bed. “Oh my God, Devon,” she said behind her hand. “What’ve you done?”
    His sister’s eyes were big and round like she was scared…
    “I scratched my arm under the house.” He held out his hurt arm for her to see. Much as he didn’t like telling stories to his sister, he couldn’t tell her about going into the neighbor’s house and he couldn’t tell her about the angel. No one could know.
    Leslie stopped being afraid and got mad. “You shouldn’t be going under there. How many times have I told you to stay in the house?”
    He shrugged. “Sorry.”
    She helped him change his shirt and then she held out her hand. “Come on. The police want to ask you some questions. Remember, Dev, we have to keep our secret.”
    He bobbed his head up and down again and then reached out and took his sister’s hand. Telling lies was bad, but he didn’t want to get taken away. If he’d listened to his sister he wouldn’t have to tell any lies.
    He tugged at her when she started toward the door. When she looked back at him, he dared to ask, “Do angels take live people too?”
    His sister looked like she didn’t understand or was too tired to answer silly questions. “What?”
    Devon shrugged. “They take the dead people. Like they did mommy. What about the live people?”
    She squatted down to put her face close to his. “Devon, angels don’t hurt people. They protect them. They take dead people to heaven like they did mom but they don’t hurt anyone, especially not live people. Okay?”
    He nodded. “Okay.”
    She hugged him real hard. “We’ll be fine, Dev.” She looked at his eyes then. “I promise.”
    Devon smiled. He wasn’t gonna worry about that angel anymore. Leslie would make everything okay. She always did.
    Besides, she just told him that angels didn’t hurt people.

 
    5:30 p.m.
    J ess ignored the vibrating in her jacket pocket. It was Burnett calling. She didn’t have to look. She was supposed to have briefed him by now. And the BPD staff meeting was only half an hour away.
    Unfortunately, geographically speaking, she was twenty minutes away—if they left now, drove like a bat out of hell, and somehow managed to avoid the worst of rush hour traffic, they might make it. But she couldn’t leave now.
    “Chief Burnett’s going to have our heads,” Lori muttered as she glanced at her cell phone. She turned to Jess. “That’s Harper calling.”
    “Step outside and let him know we may be on to something here and that we’ll be on our way soon.”
    “Will do.”
    The door closed behind Lori and Jess’s attention shifted to the top of the staircase. The home was a split-level sadly in need of an update on the inside and major TLC on the outside. The front door opened to a small entry hall