Chapter 78

“Is it…?” Jefferson’s heart stopped. “Is it Reverend Deem?”

She nodded, and then exclaimed, “It’s the church! It’s possessed. It killed him.”

“It didn’t…”

“It did.” Now she looked at him with blazing eyes. “It did, and everybody knows it. Everybody saw it. You weren’t there, Mr. Dering, you don’t know what we saw.”

“Reverend Deem passed on this morning?”

“They’re all meeting at Mrs. Ruark’s. You should go. They’re going to figure out what to do with that church. Before it kills us all.”

Jefferson took Emilia’s shoulders and forced her to look at him. “How did he die? Did anybody tell you?”

“What does it matter?”

“It matters. Please, Emilia. Please, tell me what happened to Reverend Deem.”

Emilia looked at him doubtfully for a moment, but then she nodded. “Reverend Deem succumbed to a fever this morning.”

“A fever? Was his fever a result of his injuries? I thought he was cut by the glass.”