Page 4 of Dead Evil (Cold Case Psychic #37)

Tennyson sat with Cope and Jace at the patio table overlooking the pool at Fitzgibbon’s house.

The kids were in the pool, swimming, splashing and laughing, while Jude sat on the steps in the shallow end, serving as the life guard.

Ezra played with the big kids, while Lizbet was content to float in her bright pink unicorn swim vest with an attached inner tube, her dainty fingers trailing in the water.

She wore a pair of matching pink sunglasses and had her Zen on.

Ten had never seen such a relaxed kid. He wished he could join his niece in the pool and forget all his troubles, but it wasn’t possible.

Ronan had sent a brief text after the detective’s meeting with Cisco.

All it said was that none of them were in any trouble, but that a family meeting was in order.

Ten had no idea what this meeting was about.

Neither did Cope. They each had a feeling it had to do with Paranormal Phantasmagoria, but beyond that, both psychics were drawing blanks.

“Five minutes, everyone!” Fitz called out.

“Okay, kiddos, time to get out of the pool to eat,” Jude announced, standing up.

All of them groaned, with the exception of Wolf, who bolted out of the pool like he was on fire. Ten helped Ronan dish out the cheeseburgers, while Cope got drinks out of the coolers, and Jace put salad in each of their bowls and added dressing.

By the time the kids were all set and the adults had served themselves, Ten was exhausted. “Okay, spill it.”

Ronan opened his mouth, looking like he was about to say, “Spill what?” but seemed to change his mind at the last minute. “Cisco wanted to talk about Paranormal Phantasmagoria.”

Cope and Ten exchanged confused looks. “So why all the secrecy about this meeting? It’s hardly a surprise that the chief of police would want to speak to his three best detectives about a major convention coming to town in less than a week.”

Jude sighed. “It wasn’t the con itself that Cisco wanted to discuss. He’s had a law enforcement plan in place for the convention for weeks, but there’s a fly in the ointment, so to speak.”

“What kind of fly?” Ten asked, his senses on high alert. Something was coming. Something bad, but he couldn’t see what it was.

“A right-wing megachurch is planning a protest here in Salem. They’re ostensibly here to protest the occult, but we have a feeling it’s going to go beyond that.

We have a high concentration of LGBTQIA+ people and families here, along with a lot of liberal voters.

There’s no doubt in our minds that the church is going to come after us.

” Fitz turned to Ronan and Jude, who nodded along with their boss.

Ten’s heart pounding like it was trying to burst free from his chest. During his years living in Union Chapel, Kansas, he’d seen the kind of damage these megachurches could cause, not only to people and families, but to the towns they tore through like a category five hurricane.

“Which church is it? Those Westboro Baptist fuckers?”

Fitz shook his head. “It’s not them. This church is one that I’ve never heard of. It’s called King of Deliverance.”

Ten froze. He couldn’t possibly have heard Fitz correctly. “What did you say?”

“King of Deliverance. They’re a church out of-”

“Sioux City, Iowa,” Ten said.

“That’s right. How did you know?” Fitz narrowed his eyes on Tennyson.

“Because my parents dragged me to two of their tent revival meetings. One in August of 2005 and one in October of the same year.”

“Did you know about this, Ronan?” Fitz asked, sounding accusatory.

Ronan shook his head. “No, Ten’s never told me about either of those church rallies.”

“I’ve never told anyone about King of Deliverance.

” Ten sighed. The absolute last thing he wanted to do was tell anyone about the megachurch now, but he didn’t have a choice.

“According to what I remember, KOD was founded by Pastor Levi Shackleton in October of 2001. Shackleton said the reason he founded the church was to help heal the pain and suffering after 9/11, but that wasn’t the case.

He’d seen the kind of money people were donating to the American Red Cross, and other charitable organizations, and wanted a piece of the pie, which didn’t shock me, but what did, was his hatred toward the Muslim community.

I suppose it gave parishioners a common cause to rally behind, but it made me sick to my stomach. ”

“I remember there was a lot of that same shit going on at my father’s church in New Orleans after the towers fell,” Cope said.

“You know I’m not religious at all, but Buford insisted I attend church so that we at least looked like good, God fearing people.

Prior to the terror attacks, I don’t remember our church coming down on other religions in the past, aside from the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, but that was meant as more of a warning about the dangers of the flesh than it was about hating the priests who’d committed the abuse and the clergy who swept it under the rug. ”

“What happened at the rallies you attended?” Ronan asked.

“It was all the usual scripture reading and singing hymns, just like it was at Union Chapel Calvary Baptist Church, but the sermon turned ugly. When the collection plate was passed around, Pastor Shackleton began to rail against homosexuality. I swear he went on for nearly an hour in ninety degree heat, telling attendees how to spot gay people, how to call them out to repent of their sins.” Ten shivered, despite the warm temperature.

“When he was finished getting the crowd riled up, he asked if there were any gay people in the crowd who’d like to confess their sins and be washed clean. ”

“Sweet Jesus,” Cope swore under his breath. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” Ten gasped for air. “Listening to the pastor’s rabid hate scared the hell out of me. I wouldn’t have admitted being gay if Jesus himself had asked for people to come forward.”

“Did any people come forward?” Fitz asked.

“Yeah, one guy at first. He was brought up to the altar and had an exorcism performed on him.”

“Wait,” Jace interrupted. “I thought you said this was a Baptist tent revival. Aren’t Catholic priests the only ones who can perform the rite of exorcism?”

“That’s what I’d always been taught as well, but Shackleton introduced a demon hunter.

He was able to cast the demon out of the man who’d volunteered.

The man began shouting that he was free and went so far as grabbing a woman in the front row and kissing her.

It was an impressive display, but it felt hollow to me. ”

“What do you mean?” Cope asked.

“I have never felt like there was a demon inside me.” Ten set a hand over his heart.

“I am who Jesus wants me to be. If he’d wanted me to be straight, I would have been born that way.

” He paused as Everly laughed at something Wolf said.

Soon all of the kids were laughing along.

“Can you imagine our lives without them? Without each other?” Tears fell from Ten’s eyes, cascading down his cheeks.

He let them fall. “My life was hopeless before I came to Salem. I had few friends and my parents hated who I was inside. Coming here and meeting Carson and Cole, then Ronan and Jude, Fitz, Jace, and Cope. You can’t tell me that wasn’t ordained by a higher power.

You can’t tell me any of this is a sin against God.

I’ve thought a lot about the man who came forward to be ‘cleansed’ that day.

Did the so-called exorcism stick? Was he straight from that moment forward?

Hell, was he even gay to begin with? Or just some actor Shackleton hired for the tent meeting? ”

“What was his name?” Fitz asked.

“Greg Tompkins.”

“I’ll do a social media check on him tomorrow, see if I can find him,” Fitz offered.

Ten couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought to do the same thing himself. “I’d be interested in hearing what you find out.”

“What was the name of the demon hunter?” Jude asked.

“His name was Duke Barrymore. I’d never heard of him, but my mother had.

She told me to pay close attention because I was about to witness a miracle first-hand.

I’d never paid particular attention to Sunday sermons or those televangelist programs my parents watched.

I assumed that’s where they’d heard of this guy. ”

“Any chance you remember what he looked like?” Jude exchanged a guarded look with Fitzgibbon.

Ten couldn’t help but wonder why Jude was so interested in Barrymore. “Yeah, I think so. He was tall, well over six feet, and was painfully thin and reminded me of Ichabod Crane. He had brilliant ice blue eyes and blonde, almost white, hair.”

“Is this him?” Jude asked, turning his phone around to face Tennyson, who sat across the table.

“Jesus!” Ten practically fell out of his seat. “That’s him.”

“Jude, how do you know this guy?” Ronan asked, sounding scared.

“He’s a member of the Dallas Demonologists.

Remember I told you Wolf and I had been watching their YouTube videos?

This is the guy who founded the group. He works with two other apprentice demon hunters, but in all the videos we watched, Duke was always center stage.

At some of the church meetings he attended, people would wave cash over their heads in a bid to be the next person exorcised.

There was always a second collection plate sent around. Sometimes a third.”

“Did you believe in what you were seeing?” Cope asked.

Jude shook his head. “I didn’t. It seemed too theatrical for me. Like Ten said, he wondered if the man who came forward had really been turned straight or was an actor. I wondered the same thing about those who’d been allegedly exorcised.”

“Do we think it’s a coincidence that Barrymore is hooked up with Shackleton twenty years after Ten saw them perform together?” Jace asked.

“No!” All three detectives said at once.

Ten knew Ronan didn’t believe in coincidences and after being married to his husband for nearly eight years, neither did he. “What do we do now?”

“Cisco asked us to look into the backgrounds of the King of Deliverance people,” Fitz said.

“Jude mentioned that he’d been researching the talent coming to the convention.

I want you to do the deepest dives possible into these people.

Ten, can you and Cope work on these demon hunters in particular?

I need to know what happens when they roll into town.

Are there arrests? Higher incidences of domestic violence, hate crimes?

Do these people think they have actually been healed? ”

“You got it.” The last thing Ten wanted to do was a deep dive on the Dallas Demonologists.

His gut was telling him these were not the kind of people to mess with.

He had to imagine that at this point, twenty years on, that their bottom line was flush with cash and that anything aiming to change that would be perceived as a threat of the highest level.

“We’ll reconvene in two days, which will leave us with three days to go before the convention comes to town.”

Tennyson had initially been excited for the convention to come to Salem, now he couldn’t wait for it to be over.

Salem didn’t need people like Duke Barrymore and Levi Shackleton shaking the very foundation his city was built on.

Ten knew Ronan, Jude, and Fitz would do everything in their power to stop these evil men from causing chaos, but he couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if King of Deliverance was stronger than the good people who called Salem home?