“Can you remember anything else about that night, Mercy?” Tom asked.

She closed her eyes and let the scene play a final time. For now, anyway. She was certain she’d pay for opening the floodgates of her memories when she closed her eyes to sleep later. “He thought Gideon was dead. He said that we’d die there, like Gideon did.”

Rafe stiffened. “So he knew that Gideon had escaped to the bus station?”

“Oh.” Mercy’s eyes widened. “Oh yeah, you’re right. I don’t know if all the leadership knew Gideon had escaped, but I kind of don’t think so, because they would have hunted him down.”

Daisy grimaced, but Gideon’s face was scrunched in thought. “So if DJ knew I’d at least made it to the bus station,” he said thoughtfully, “but thought I’d died there, does that mean he heard that from Waylon?”

“Maybe?” Mercy hadn’t considered that. “I mean, at the time we were reeling over the fact that you were dead. We didn’t know that Waylon had helped you escape, so it wasn’t anything we thought about. Later, when DJ said that you’d died at the bus station . . . well, I was in shock. I wasn’t thinking clearly about anything other than that Mama was dead. I didn’t give much thought to what Mama had said about you not being dead until you walked into my foster home a few months after I’d been released from the hospital.”

“I’ve noted that DJ also thought you were dead and that his father might have told him,” Tom said. “And that Waylon died not too long after. Understanding the culture and power structure of the cult could be key in finding them and bringing them down. Let’s go back to the people who were supposedly ‘devoured.’ Of the four incidents you both remember, we know one was a lie. I mean, someone died, but it wasn’t Gideon. Is it possible that the others escaped as well?”

Mercy shook her head. “The other two that I remember, the people were identifiable. Now, their families? I don’t know.” When Tom looked confused she sighed. “We moved the whole compound after each person was discovered. Their families did not come with us. Nobody ever spoke of them again. It was widely believed that they returned to the ‘world.’ The ‘world’ being not Eden.”

“We know a few people escaped,” Daisy said. “Eileen escaped back in November. Also Levi Hull, the young man who later killed himself and whose boyfriend got an Eden-style tattoo. He got out about seven years ago. There’s one other that we’ve been looking for. His tat is on Instagram, but you know about him, Tom.”

Tom nodded. “We still don’t know who that person is or was, but the search is still active. Gideon, what about the people you remember that Mercy doesn’t because she was too young?”

“Oh.” Gideon was still stroking Brutus, who occasionally licked at his chin. He frowned, thinking. “Marcia,” he finally said. “Her name was Marcia. She had two kids, Bernice and Boaz. They were twins, but older than me, so we didn’t play together or anything.” Then he inhaled sharply. “Shit, how could I have forgotten that? Marcia was Pastor’s wife. It was a horrible day when their bodies were brought back. Not recognizable. They were gone almost a week when they were discovered in a ravine. Their bodies had been heavily scavenged. I remember that church was canceled for a long time—days and days—because Pastor went off by himself to search for them, then later to mourn when they buried them. Nobody was allowed to play or smile or even talk. People walked around on tiptoes. It was awful. Mama drilled into my head that there were animals out there and we were not supposed to go outside the gates alone, ever.”