I Will Fear No Evil (Psalm 23 Mysteries Book 10) by Debbie Viguié Page A

through the park. He kept the flashlight low, sweeping on the ground just in front of them so they could see where they were stepping and hopefully not trip over any inconvenient roots.
    As they neared the tree he could hear voices. They were low and it was hard to make out what they were saying. He felt his heart begin to pound harder and his palms began to sweat. He didn’t like the thought of bearding a coven in its den.
    He saw pinpricks of light next, candles placed on the ground in a rough circle as he had suspected they might be. The coven was here, and the closer he got the more he hated this whole situation.
    He slowed down and started walking even more softly. He wanted to get a good look at the circle before revealing their presence if he could. He counted a dozen people standing a shoulder’s width apart from each other, just inside the circle drawn by the candles. All of them wore cloaks, half of them had the hoods drawn up to obscure their faces while the other half didn’t. Apparently some of them didn’t care who knew what they believed.
    He and Liam were very close now although the others still seemed to be oblivious to their presence which was a good thing. He couldn’t make out exactly what they were doing, but it was clear there was a lot of gesturing that went along with the words they were saying.
    After another minute of that a woman stepped into the center of the circle and raised her arms. “Merrily met and merrily part. Blessed be.”
    “Blessed be,” the others intoned. Then everyone reached down, picked up a candle and blew it out.
    The moon was shining brightly enough that there was still enough light to see by. Everyone took off their cloak so maybe he’d been wrong about it being meant to obscure. Maybe it was just like a ceremonial dress. Whatever was going on it seemed like the formalities were over and now people just started chatting with each other. He overheard one of the women mention her daughter’s piano recital the next afternoon while two men were talking about getting the transmission fixed on one of their cars.
    And suddenly Mark felt himself relaxing. Without their cloaks and candles they seemed more like regular people. He suddenly found it hard to believe that the people he heard chatting so casually about the same kinds of things other people did could be behind such brutal sacrifices.
    Throwing caution to the wind he stepped forward. The woman who had been in the center of the circle noticed him first. She looked at him with curiosity and walked forward. Two things struck him about her right away. The first was just how curly her red hair was and the second was that she was wearing what looked like a hand-knitted sweater.
    He blinked in surprise and wondered if this was Sweater Girl that Lizzie used to talk about with her roommate.
    “Can I help you?” she asked.
    “Yes, are you the one in charge here?”
    “Tonight I am,” she said. “We often take turns.”
    “So, you’re not like the high priestess?”
    “No, our coven is run a little more democratically than some of the more traditional ones,” she said.
    He pulled out his badge and her look of curiosity turned to one of concern. “My name is Detective Mark Walters and this is my partner. I was wondering if I could ask you about one of your covenmates, I guess you would call her.”
    “Who?”
    “A girl named Lizzie Matthews.”
    “Lizzie, yes, I know her, but she’s not one of our covenates, not anymore.”
    “When did she leave?”
    “It was quite a while ago. I’d say about two years.”
    “Can you tell me why?”
    The woman’s face changed subtly and her eyes became more guarded. “Can I ask what this is about?”
    “She was reported missing about a week ago and a few hours ago her roommate was found, murdered.”
    “Oh my!” Sweater Girl said, her hand flying to her mouth. “That’s terrible!”
    “Yes, and we’re eager to figure out what’s going on and to find Lizzie. She might