Darkness at the Edge of Town (Iris Ballard #2)(8)

“Just about becoming a correspondent on crime stories. It’ll be like once a month for five minutes, if that.”

“Well, we recorded all your appearances if you want to watch them again. You were wonderful on Shelly Monroe yesterday,” Grandma said.

“Thank you.” I shoveled the chicken potpie into my mouth. It was delicious. I’d missed genuine home-cooked meals, especially Grandma’s. I couldn’t even make rice. “But that’s pretty much all over, thank God. I have to write a damn book like yesterday, and now this Billy madness…” I shook my head. “What can you tell me?”

My grandparents exchanged a worried look. “All we know is we haven’t seen him in weeks, and even before that he wasn’t his usual sweet self,” Grandma said. “When Gia lost the baby—”



“Wait, what?” I cut in. “Billy’s fiancée was pregnant?”

“Nobody told you?” Grandma asked. “Petal, Gia was pregnant but lost it at four months. Something about a blood clot disorder, I think. Poor girl. It devastated them both. You really didn’t know?”

“No,” I said, “I had no idea.”

My only brother was going to be a father and nobody bothered to inform me. Not that I’d been terribly communicative with anyone the previous two years, what with being locked away in my dark house with Stoli as my only constant company. Still. The fact that I was about to become an aunt should have warranted at least an email.

“Maybe they wanted to wait to tell you,” Grandma offered. “It was a high-risk pregnancy. She had that blood clot problem. And after the miscarriage, there was no point in telling you, I suppose.”

“It gutted Billy, Iris,” Grandpa added. “Absolutely gutted him.”

“We-We’ve never seen him that…sad before. He’s always been thoughtful and sensitive, but…it was as if that’s all he was. There was nothing in him but the sadness. A lot like—” She shut her mouth.

“Like me?” I offered.

“Yeah,” Grandpa said before looking at his wife. “But he did seem to come out of it.”

“The few times we saw him,” Grandma said. “He used to come over every other Sunday for dinner with Gia, but in the past four months, he’s only come once or twice.”

“And he was always eager to get back to The Temple for some function or another,” Grandpa said.

“At least he asked us to go with him to The Temple,” Grandma said to Grandpa.



“The Temple?” I asked.

“That’s what he called it. The New Morning Temple. I drove by it once. It’s over in Dunlop. Just looked like a regular two-story house,” Grandpa said. “Billy said the house sat on a powerful…line or something. A crack in the universe that made people strong or at peace, or some shit like that.”

“He did say that every time he walked into The Temple he instantly felt better. Like magic,” Grandma added. “He even said one of the women there healed his migraines just by touching him. He wanted me to see her for my hip.”

“Look, I know it all sounds nuts,” Grandpa said, “but it made him happy. It helped him. That was all we cared about. We’d rather he got obsessed with this new-age, touchy-feely crap than turn to drugs and alcohol, then…” Grandpa’s mouth snapped shut.

“Then lock himself in his house and barely return phone calls?” I finished for him. I wasn’t offended. “No, I agree. His way is definitely healthier. But what’s changed? If he’s been going to this place for months, why raise the alarm now? Mom mentioned something about him moving?”

“We heard about it the same time Faye did,” Grandma said. “Yesterday morning Gia called her in tears. While she was away, Billy drained their accounts, packed up his clothes, quit his job, and just left her a note telling her he’d finally been chosen to live at The Apex, whatever the heck that is, to continue his spiritual journey, and he wished her well.”



I fell back in my chair with a sigh. Yeah, none of that sounded very good. I was by no means an expert on cults, but I’d learned enough in college and with the FBI to recognize the red flags. Of course, not all cults were evil or even nefarious. Christianity started as a cult. I wasn’t that religious, or religious at all, but I didn’t think religion in and of itself was a bad concept. Hell, without religion a lot more people would be killing each other left, right, and center. You don’t go to heaven if you’re a murderer. The problem becomes when others twist the doctrine to suit their own agenda. Then cue a crusade.

“Do you know how much money he’s given them?” I asked.

“No. Like we said, we’ve barely seen him,” Grandpa said. “Gia’s the person you should be talking to.”

“I will. I’m gonna need her number and the address of this temple in Dunlop you drove by.”

“Iris, I am sure there’s nothing to worry about,” Grandma said, patting my hand. “Your mother…I love her to bits, but she does tend to overreact when it comes to things, especially where Billy’s concerned. Ever since he was born with that heart condition…she didn’t leave the hospital for weeks. Not to shower, not to take care of you. She coddles him. Even now.”