The voice on the phone said, "I understand that you are a friend of my son, James. He has gone missing. I require your assistance in bringing him home again...”
A university student has gone missing. Can his friends find out what has happened to James Frazer in 1920s Massachusetts?
This was a turn of events that Dupont hadn’t anticipated. ”Your friends vouch for you, Ms. Ripley, so you can come along. I don’t rightly know that I can deputise you, though, with you being a woman. Normally, I’d suggest you stay here but you don’t look like the sorta woman who’s going to do as she’s told…”
Tuesday March 10th, 1931 4.45pm
Pointes-aux-Chenes, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
With Sheriff DuPont in the lead, Oscar drove them out to Terrebonne Parish. It took over an hour to get there and as they drew closer to their intended destination, the mood grew sombre. Lawrence and William had their memories of that place but even Alex and Ivy couldn’t help but be affected by their disposition.
Between the trees, William spotted a burned-out house. Was that the Brophy’s home? He couldn’t be sure and no amount of craning his neck would bring it into view. It didn’t help his mood…
Lawrence stared out of the window. In the distance above the trees he saw a church spire. Was that where they had been held? In that case, were they travelling the road where they had said goodbye to James. A scorched patch of grass went past in a flash. Was that it?! Where the truck burned?! He couldn’t be sure - wouldn’t it have grown back by now?! Like William, he searched for familiar sights from their last visit.
Eventually, Sheriff DuPont slowed and indicated a turn to the left. Guiding his car down a short, rough road, they followed him into a clearing with hard-packed gravel upon which two rusting cars sat. Both showed signs of having been on fire and Lawrence and William both remembered those final fear-filled moments before they had managed to set those cars on fire and escape their pursuers.
Oscar brought the car to a stop next to the Sheriff’s car. DuPont glanced over, waiting for the confirmation that they were in the right place and when he saw William’s terse nod, he switched off the engine and climbed out of the car.
The clearing was quiet except for the occasional croaking of toads that lived in the ponds around the clearing. Through the trees, along a well-trodden path, was a white clapboard church, from which the sounds of worship could be heard…
"I believe it may be prudent for you gentleman to walk us through everything that happened." Alex pauses. "Though perhaps we should investigate the church first."
Sheriff Dupont opened his trunk and withdrew a Winchester 1987 riot gun, which he loaded from a box of cartridges. He finished loading and racked the first cartridge into the breach.
"We should get an estimate on the numbers, at least. These people are crazy; it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to pile up on us and tear us limb from limb for that damn snake god of theirs if we just came through the front door."Lawrence comments, motioning for silence as he tries to listen in on the sounds of worship coming from the church. He clutches his rifle as if it's the only thing anchoring him to the mortal plane, his knuckles turning white.
”What do you think? Some sort of trick? You said these guys are dangerous,” said Sheriff Dupont. He looked about carefully but there was no one else around.
"It could be both. I remember hearsing that their snake-god was praised under all sorts of names in the past; their Lord has a forked tongue and scales, but they still think he's the Christian one."Lawrence responds, silently finishing the sentence in his head: "And he may well be." As it would happen, his inquiries into the horrible insane gods that secretly controlled the world had given Lawrence a rather fearful view of religion as a whole. How could he honestly say that the God he had once sung the praises of wasn't just another one of them? "Unless anybody else thinks they can do it better, I'm going to head over there and get a closer look at the building before we do anything really dangerous. With all those people singing, they shouldn't be able to hear us until we start shooting."
Dupont nodded. ”Let’s take a closer look,” he said.
As he spoke, the singing came to a sudden end. The sudden silence was then broken by the sound of dozens of people rising to their feet before the doors were thrown open and a black-frocked priest strode out.
He came to an abrupt halt as he saw the armed men. ”What is the meaning of this?!” he asked in a deep, baritone voice.
