The Devil Walks in Mattingly by Billy Coffey

Author:Billy Coffey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2014-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

14

Mattingly’s chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars occupied a one-story brick building on the outskirts of town. Aside from the occasional gatherings to plan parades and funerals and talk of old war stories (many of which were inflated by jars of Hollis’s moonshine), the meeting hall sat empty and forgotten. But not that night. The smell of ancient cigars might linger like ghosts and the pine floors may have been bowed and dull, but the VFW was still the only place large enough to hold everyone who arrived with one singular purpose on their minds—to decide how best to drive the devil back to hell.

Kate didn’t mind that Jake wanted to arrive early. Being there to welcome people inside, pat their arms and give them hugs and say how well they all looked, would go a long way toward easing simmering fears.

The gathering hall consisted of little more than a wide rectangle with a raised stage at one end. Joey and Frankie Munroe (who were not only upstanding members of the rescue squad, but just after their graduation had helped chase Saddam out of Kuwait) arrived early to set up neatly spaced rows of folding chairs. They filled the room and left just enough space down the middle and sides for movement. A lectern stood in the center of the stage, flanked by an American flag on one side and the Commonwealth’s on the other. Three more metal chairs sat just behind and to the left. Big Jim Wallis occupied the first, as was his custom. Reverend Goggins sat in the middle (the preacher was not to speak that night; Big Jim asked him to just sit there and remind people God was on our side). The last belonged to Jake. Though the meeting was not scheduled to begin for another half hour, the hall already stood nearly filled. Farmers spoke with merchants as hill folk mixed with town folk, all producing a low hum that rang off the moldy white walls.

Kate took her place in the second seat of the second row and said hello to Hollis and Edith Devereaux, seated in front. She placed her notebook in the chair on the aisle—that would be Lucy’s place, should she come. Zach took the seat on Kate’s other side. More people filed in through the open double doors in front. They descended upon the room like ants, covering the chairs until the chairs were gone, then taking up the empty places in the back and on the sides. Kate said hello to as many as she could, one eye on them and the other on the entrance. Just as Joey and Frankie went to close the doors and call the meeting to order, dirty-clothed and short-haired Lucy Seekins walked in.

“Save my seat, honey,” Kate told Zach. “I’ll be right back.”

Kate leaped—there could be no other word—and walked to the back as quickly as she could. She took hold of Lucy’s shoulders and told her how well she looked, even if the girl did not look well at all.

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