"He was? He was as evil as you?" she asked.

She stared Dayton down for a second more, then turned. "Come on Winn, I gotta get some air. The stink of hypocrisy is choking me."

She opened the door to the house and walked outside.

"If you harm her," Winn said to Dayton as he turned to follow Deem, "I'll kill you."

"The skinwalker isn't my doing," Dayton said. "You two started that on your own."

"I was in that bus, too, with Deem and her mother and aunt," Winn said. "Why hasn't it targeted me? It's funny that it only targeted Deem's family."

"What you don't know could fill the world," Dayton said. "You don't even know yourself."

"You really are a hypocrite," Winn said.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways," Dayton said. "I don't expect a sodomite gentile like you to understand it. You're a far bigger threat to her than me, corrupting her spirit, destroying her chances at the celestial kingdom. She'd be better off if you'd just crawl back under that rock you came from."

Winn turned and left Dayton standing alone in the entryway. Deem was already in the Jeep. Winn jumped into the vehicle, started it up, and backed out of the driveway.

"What was that about?" Deem asked.

"I wanted to threaten him," Winn said. "So I did."

Deem smiled. "It won't work with him," she said. "I know these people. They think they're above everything. Including the law. Everything I said to him in there was a waste. I shouldn't have come here."

"Well, it felt good to say it," Winn said. "He called me a sodomite gentile."

"Ha!" Deem said, laughing so hard spit flew from her lips and landed on the dashboard. "In their world, that's the best insult they can come up with!"

"Yeah, 'motherf.u.c.ker' had much more panache," Winn said.

Deem laughed even harder, slapping her hand against the dash.

"Did you see him recoil when you said it?" Winn asked. "It was like you'd slapped him."

"Oh G.o.d," Deem said, trying to breathe. "I really shouldn't think that's funny, with all that's going on. But I can't help it."

Winn watched her laugh. It made him smile to see her let loose for a moment. "It's been hours since you've had a Big Gulp," Winn said. "I'll bet you're really jonesing for one."

"G.o.d, yes," Deem said. "And some food."

"How about we just go to Home Plate and you can load up on soda there?"

"Sure," Deem said, still giggling, struggling to breathe normally. "Sodomite gentile!" she repeated, and burst into another round of laughter. "Oh, I am so going to use that!"

"What was all that about robbers?" Winn asked Deem as they sat in a booth at the restaurant. He was guzzling a beer and she was sipping on Diet c.o.ke.

"Oh, you mean at Dayton's?" Deem asked.

"Yeah. You called the secret council 'gaddy-something robbers'. And Danites. What is all that?"

"I knew it would bother him," Deem said. "Gadianton Robbers. They're characters from the Book of Mormon. They were considered an evil, secret organization that would extort governments. Kind of like an organized crime syndicate, but really big."

"It did bother him," Winn said. "I saw the look on his face when you brought it up. And Danites?"

"When the church was still in Missouri, before they moved to Utah, they were under heavy persecution from the locals. To fight back, Joseph Smith organized a secret group of people to do the church's dirty work. They operated in secret, and they were called Danites. The name comes from the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. Anyway, they'd fight back against the Missourians. It's what led Missouri to issue their extermination order."

"Extermination order?" Winn asked. "Extermination of what?"

"Mormons," Deem said.

"A U.S. state issued an order to exterminate all Mormons?" Winn asked. "I find that hard to believe."

"You weren't paying attention in history cla.s.s," Deem said. "Missouri hated the Mormons. Especially when a Danite shot the Governor."

"You're making this up!" Winn said as the food arrived and he dived into a patty melt.

"No, I'm not!" Deem said, pouring ketchup over her fries. "The order wasn't rescinded until 1976. Anyway, when the Mormons moved to Utah in 1847, the Danites came with them. People think they took orders from Brigham Young, but since they operated in secret, no one knows. The rumors have always persisted though. Many people think they're still active today, controlled by the church. They clean up problems, put pressure on enemies of the church, that kind of thing."

"Like Men in Black?" Winn asked.

"I guess, if Men in Black are even real."

"Oh, they're real."

"Here we go with the UFO s.h.i.t again."

"It's not s.h.i.t, Deem."

"Well, whatever. I have no idea if they exist or not. But think about this, Winn. We're both gifted, right? And we got it from our parents. My father was gifted, so was your mom. They got it from their parents, and so on. This goes way back. Who knows when it first started? Maybe it's existed from the very beginning. That means, throughout history, there have been gifted people operating in society, including the Mormon church, right? It's not just Dayton and my father. They've existed all along. This secret council that Dayton is part of might have been formed in the earliest days of Mormonism, and there's probably similar groups in other religions. Maybe that's what parts of Opus Dei are, to the Catholics. We just have to deal with it here because there's so many Mormons, kind of like how we have to deal with the mutations in the River because we're downwind. If we were back east, it might be a group of secret Catholics, or in the south, secret Baptists. When someone finds out they're gifted, and they're also part of a religion, they've got to balance it somehow. Make both halves work. The leaders of the regions wouldn't sanction it, that's for sure, so they operate in secret. Having the gift doesn't mean you ditch all of your religious beliefs."

"You seem to have," Winn said.

"Well, I'm different," Deem said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I always thought it was bulls.h.i.t. It was easy to stop going. But it wasn't for my father."

"Well, you obviously knew what to say to upset Dayton," Winn said. "He was furious."

"Good, he p.i.s.sed me off," Deem said, taking a bite of her hamburger.

"Do you think he had anything to do with the skinrunner?" Winn asked.

"I don't see how," Deem said. "You were turned on to that by your friend who drove the bus. I think the council just monitors things very closely. They might have a device that tells them if something paranormal occurs within a certain area. I don't know what the purpose of their secret council is, what they actually do. But part of it involves keeping an eye on anything unusual going on. We should talk to Claude about it, maybe he knows more."

"We've got to finish off that skinrunner first," Winn said. "Your mother can't keep digging bones out of her skin forever."

"Dayton talked like it was going to finish me off," Deem said. "I don't see it. Based on everything Awan has told us, I've got the thing on the ropes already. We just have to deliver the knockout."

"Maybe it's got more tools to use against you than Awan knows about," Winn said. "They're mutations; they change constantly. I think the best thing we can do is eliminate the skinrunner as quickly as we can, especially now that we know Dayton considers it a threat to you."

"We've got to figure out who the skinrunner killed," Deem said. "When I get home, I'll get on the computer and start researching."

"Let me know when you have a name," Winn said, "and I'll call Awan so he can hook us up with his sister."

"Speaking of Awan, did you two do anything in that motel room?" Deem asked.

"If we did, I wouldn't tell you," Winn said. "It'd just get you upset."

"Maybe not," Deem said, trying her best to be cavalier about the subject. She resented that Winn thought she was a prude.

"I'm not falling for that," Winn said. "You would get upset, I know you."

Deem knew he was right. She decided to let it drop and finish her meal quickly, so she could return home and start researching.

"So your sister is gifted, too?" Deem asked, sitting in the front seat of Awan's car. They were bouncing down a dirt road about a mile outside of Littlefield, headed to a small trailer in the distance. The sun was starting to go down.

"A little," Awan said. "Not as much as me. I think her personality didn't mesh well with her ability."

As Deem wondered what that meant, Winn leaned forward from the back seat and pointed out the window ahead of them. "Are those cop cars?"

"s.h.i.t," Awan said. "She's always in trouble."

Two police cars were heading back down the dirt road toward them. Awan edged his car to the side of the road so they could pa.s.s. He observed who was in the back seat of one of the cars.

"They took Theron," Awan said.

"Who's Theron?" Deem asked.

"My sister's boyfriend," Awan said. "Wonder what happened. Well, we'll find out. I should warn you, my sister is a little strange. It might be a good idea to let me do most of the talking."

Deem looked back at Winn, concerned. Winn was just smiling, as though meeting Awan's sister was something he was looking forward to.

At the end of the dirt road was an old trailer. Awan pulled his car up next to it and they all got out. There were junked cars and piles of metal garbage surrounding the trailer. Deem thought it reminded her of Mad Max.

"Aggie?" Awan called as they approached the trailer. The trailer door opened, revealing part of a woman just the part that the doorway could reveal. There was obviously much more of her beyond.

"Aggie, these are my friends, Winn and Deem," Awan said, walking toward the trailer. "What was that all about with the police?"

"Theron was p.i.s.sing me off," Aggie said from the doorway. "So I cut myself and told them he'd done it. They hauled his a.s.s away for domestic abuse."

She turned, the doorway revealing her side and then back. There was no seeing past her into the trailer. She was immense.

"Aggie, I need you to find out something for me," Awan said.

The figure in the doorway turned, and sat. Aggie still filled the doorway, even five feet back from it. Deem realized they were not going to enter the trailer.

"What?" Aggie said.

"Deem here has got a skinwalker on her," Awan said. "We need to know who the skinwalker killed, where he's buried."

"Oh, I don't like skinwalkers," Aggie said, shaking her head. Large pockets of flesh on either side of her face continued to jiggle after she'd stopped shaking it.

Awan produced a bottle of Johnny Walker Red and placed it on a wooden picnic table.

"Just the one?" Aggie said, eyeing the bottle.

"I'll bring you another for your birthday," Awan said.

"These new skinwalkers, Awan, they're bad news," Aggie said, snorting a little. "You sure?"

"We're already down that road, Aggie," Awan said. "She's got to get rid of it. Talk to Bune."

"Name?" Aggie asked.

"Evan Eugene Braithwaite was the victim," Awan said. "John Carl Braithwaite is the skinwalker."

"You got something he can smell?" Aggie asked.

Awan walked to Deem and took the banker box from her, then walked up to the trailer's door and handed the box to Aggie. She stood up and took the box, then turned and slowly waddled deeper into the trailer.

Awan returned to the picnic table and sat. "This might take a while," he said. Deem and Winn joined him at the table. Deem felt little pieces of peeled paint crush under her b.u.t.t as she sat down on the bench.

"So what's she doing in there?" Winn asked.

"The only way Aggie has ever used her gift," Awan said, "is with Bune. He lives in an abandoned well under her trailer. When she discovered Bune, she moved out here to be next to him. Placed the bedroom of her trailer right over the well."

"Bune is a ghost?" Deem asked.

"Something between a ghost and a demon," Awan said. "The radiation has actually mellowed him out. He killed the people who dug the well, years ago."

"How did Aggie find him?" Deem asked.

"She was dating a guy who lived in Littlefield and was obsessed with metal detectors," Awan said. "She was much thinner back then. He'd take her all over these parts, looking for coins and metals. She found this well when they were out here, and she struck up a relationship with Bune. Eventually she moved this trailer out here to be next to him. Like I said, it's the only way she knows how to exercise her gift. They've come to some kind of mutual arrangement. They help each other out. I think, over the years, they've come to really like each other. Aggie's put on a lot of weight, as you can see. She's got the diabetes. I don't think she'll live much longer. But she'll stay out here with Bune until her last day."

Deem stifled a cry of shock as a figure materialized across the table from her. It had the body of a man, nude, but the head of a dog it looked like a pit bull. In a flash it climbed on top of the table and the dog's head pressed itself against Deem. Its nose slid down between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. She fell back off the bench, onto the ground. The man, on all fours, leapt off the table onto her, and ground its dog-nose into her crotch.

Awan and Winn shot to their feet. All of the windows of the trailer were open, and from inside they could hear Aggie. "No, Bune! No!"

The dog head continued to sniff Deem. She wanted to swing at the dog, but wasn't sure if that would just anger the creature. Dogs stick their noses on people all the time, she thought, but this one has the body of a man. What the f.u.c.k do I do?

Winn moved to pull the creature off Deem but Awan stopped him. "You don't want to touch it," Awan said.