Melissa MacNeal - Beyond Redemption

But I wanted none of the frosting she spread over this bitter, inedible cake. "But The Fool's reversed-like so many of the powerful cards here!-which indicates his innocence and joy are turned to ignorance or unwise choices as he steps down his path! I'm wondering why a person of any intelligence believes this claptrap anyway, dammit! After all, I earned my legal degree and have made a productive life for myself on the power of my own mind!"

Pandora stopped rhapsodizing to look me straight in the eye, like a mother warning her wayward child of punishment to come. "I've always known you wanted to break away, Alexandrea-to lead the life of most normal mortals, despite the privileges we Sisters have bestowed upon you. But wanting your freedom too fast, before you're ready for it, can only lead to frustration and danger. The Fool's ready to step off the edge of that cliff and doesn't even know how far he can fall! Not a pretty lesson to learn, is it, my dear?"

I wanted to bolt from the room, to turn my back on the mysteries this sorceress had set into motion with the wave of her invisible wand! Yet her gaze compelled me to stay for the final truth she would reveal. "What are you telling me, Pandora? That you can save me from the fate of that girl in the black cloak? That you can control Perfidia and Pink-and your own demons-if I convince Billy to come back, because I love him?"

Her alabaster face froze in time, beautiful but oh so cold as she regarded me. Plucking the rest of her deck from my hand, she replied in a brittle voice, "Maybe you'd better forget about Billy, Alexandrea. Maybe we all should."

Like hell I would! Why should I sacrifice the one sweet dream I'd stumbled upon for the pictures in a pack of cards-or the twisted women whose images defied me from the spread on the table? Perhaps I was indeed like that Fool, ready to step off the edge into the abyss, but I couldn't allow these conniving creatures of the night to beat me down with their Wands and then plunge their Swords through my hammering heart! There I sat on my throne, an admirable, powerful, forthright Queen of Wands-surrounded by vixens determined to drain my new love until it fell bloodless to the floor, like a corpse.

I turned on my heel and headed for the door. Pandora's challenge, cloaked in benevolence, left me no choice but to head for Redemption. Intuition was needling me like a burr caught in the collar of my coat, and I couldn't rest until I found better answers.

Had Tripplehorn escaped these wicked Sisters for his own protection? Or had he forsaken me to return to Lucy Legg?

The road to Hell may be paved with good intentions, but the road to Redemption had nothing to recommend it that night. Like a long black snake it slithered through the dark countryside, shrouded by clouds that veiled the face of the moon. Eerie it was, and as I urged poor Dory along I shivered from something other than the cold.

Although it was past eleven, when the sinless citizens of Redemption would be sleeping, squares of light broke the darkness where the jailhouse sat like a wallflower at a ball: present, but seldom spared a second glance. Odd, that our overpaid deputy, Virgil Furmeister, would be burning the midnight oil. He rarely did much by day, except waddle between his office and the cafe, to swill coffee and fill up on pastries at Etta's Pie Shoppe. A bad omen, indeed, that I heard raised voices at the back of the building, where the two jail cells were.

Attorney that I was, and curious by nature, I tied Dory's reins to the hitching post and stepped inside. Oppressive heat hit me in a wave, which told me the Franklin stove had been fired up for hours. But it was the raised voices in the back that filled in the pertinent details.

"Quitcher yammerin', Tripplehorn!" Furmeister said with a wheeze. "If Judge Legg says you killed his little girl, that's all I need to know! You're goin' nowhere!"

My eyes widened. The paperwork strewn on the deputy's desk suddenly seemed beneath my snooping.

"You know damn well I never touched a hair on Lucy's head!" retorted a familiar voice.

The bottom of my stomach dropped. Silently I stepped toward the cells, sensing the deputy would bait his prisoner all night unless I intervened. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! How could Lucy Legg be dead, when- "Well, I know what you did touch, you cocky dog-'cause I watched you in that alley yesterday! Shoulda hauled your ass to jail right then and there, but-"

"But you were whacking off, wishing you could pump her!" Billy shot back. "Since you saw the whole thing, you know Lucy started it. And you know I've been sweet on her for a long-"

"Yeah, yeah-it's long, all right, but this time that cock of yours got caught in the wrong-"

"Excuse me, gentlemen, is there a problem?" I interrupted in my most intimidating Alex Moore voice. "I heard your argument all the way from the street! What's going on here?"

Virgil turned as fast as his bulk allowed him, giving me a profile shot of a middle-aged, blue-uniformed man who might've swallowed a bowling ball. "Workin' late, Counselor?" he asked slyly.

"Seems we both are," I replied, keeping my face blandly composed. This dimwitted lawman knew who paid his wages, just as I was the only lawyer the locals could hire when they got hauled into Judge Legg's courtroom. Not that Virgil and I would've been friends under different circumstances. "And since I wasn't called to consult with Mr. Tripplehorn, I can also assume that his rights have been abridged-or ignored altogether. Correct?"

Furmeister sneered at my fancy vocabulary-and because he was privy to information he wanted to rub my nose in. "Billy's bein' held on the magistrate's orders, and that's all there is to know. I hear tell Judge Legg's lookin' for you, too, Counselor. Somethin' about bein' an accessory, helpin' Billy here escape. Somethin' about two funerals-Miss Lucy's tomorrow, and the end of your practicin' law in this town."

I raised an eyebrow. If Virgil had seen the rutting couple in the alley, and watched me driving Billy out of town, he also knew that Lucy Legg was very much alive-making a noisy plea to her daddy-when we left. So why was the magistrate holding Billy for murder? And why was Furmeister going along with it?

The answers fell somewhere between dusk, when Billy had escaped with me, and daylight, when he'd run from the Sisters of Samaria…or perhaps from a desperate Andrea who wanted to keep him for herself.

Either way, discussing the details in front of this lame-brained deputy was a mistake. I straightened to my full height and gave Billy a purposeful look-but my insides nearly melted at the sight of him. With his powerful hands wrapped around those iron bars and his defiant eyes shining as hard as dark marbles beneath those mussed umber waves, he was the picture of a rebel…the sort of reckless, devil-be-damned lover every woman wished would bed her. He'd been wearing Virgil down with his demands, figuring the old toad couldn't last much longer without sleep-or fortifying himself at the cafe. No doubt Tripplehorn had plans to disappear after a daring escape that would leave the natives talking for months to come. Every man his age considered himself invincible, after all.

"Don't say anything, and don't do anything foolish," I warned him in my best advisor's voice. "I'm going to question Judge Legg about this matter, and then I'll be back for you."

"You'll be back to fill that other cell, Mr. Moore," Virgil taunted, his belly vibrating with laughter. "The magistrate won't take kindly to bein' woke in the middle of the night, after the day he's had losin' Lucy. You'll be sorry you ever met Mr. Tripplehorn here!"

I'd had that thought before-about the time those three lady vamps started circling Billy in the parlor, and again when Pandora's tarot cards foretold doom and gloom for this relationship. I swallowed hard. Here was that Tower card predicting a bolt from the blue for that blonde Empress, who resembled Lucy. "Things that have passed away," the witchy woman had intoned as she placed the cards on the table.