Read Online Devil's Oven by Laura Benedict - Free Book Online

daughter in one of Ivy Luttrell’s innocence-white wedding dresses. Ivy, who had never to Thora’s knowledge been on a date with a man. Ivy, who had never displayed anything but shy deference, or a calm, businesslike attitude toward men and women alike. Ivy, who was almost pretty. Ivy, who wouldn’t say boo to a goose. There was something wrong with Ivy that had to have come by way of Mary, the slight, strange young woman who had seduced and married Thora’s father. Whatever that something was, it made Thora afraid, and had kept her from—did she dare even think it?—loving either Ivy or Ivy’s mother.
    Ivy stood up straighter beneath Thora’s hand.
    “His name is Anthony, and I made him,” she said. “I found him buried on the mountain, and I put him back together.” She held up her hands. “I stitched him back together with these .”
    Thora looked more closely into her half sister’s angry face, at her lips with their sad, jagged scar. She looked closely, thinking it might help her understand what she had just heard. She saw only madness. She let her hand drop from Ivy’s shoulder. What has Ivy done?
    “You don’t believe me,” Ivy said, shaking her head. “I knew you wouldn’t. Nothing I do is ever good enough for you.”
    After Ivy’s mother had disappeared, and Thora had discovered their father hanging in the woods, Ivy had retreated deep into a private world, making up stories about her mother coming back, about creatures she met up on the mountain. Thora knew she bore some responsibility. She had been too young to take on a child. Far too young. But hadn’t she tried? Hadn’t she done what their father would’ve wanted her to do? Now, if Ivy had truly gone mad—and oh, yes , it seemed that she had—Thora would have to do something. She felt a headache growing in the back of her skull and knew it was going to be a bad one.
    “It’s not right, Ivy,” Thora said. “You can’t own people. I don’t know what you think you’ve done. That man is all wrong. He’s dangerous.”
    “I knew you wouldn’t understand,” Ivy said. “You’ve always hated all men except for Daddy. You’re the one who’s afraid.”
    Before Thora could stop herself, she slapped Ivy’s cheek. She had never hit Ivy in anger before, and the act left her shaking and afraid of what she might do next.
    Ivy didn’t run from her, or even jerk away. Her lips just tightened with resolve.
    “I’m going in to work for a while,” she said. She started toward the workroom, but then turned back to Thora. “Don’t do anything to Anthony.”
    Thora felt her body go cold.
     

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
    “Christ on a cracker, Tripp. Something popped this guy’s head like a bean.”
    Tripp knew most of the troopers who worked this part of the state, but he considered Keith Caldwell a friend. When he had called Keith’s cell phone around six thirty, waking him up on his day off, Keith had told him it was no problem. Six foot two and a fit two hundred sixty pounds, Keith had been a talented lineman at the state’s technical university, but a knee injury had prevented him from moving on to the pros. When he got a few beers in him, he didn’t mind talking about his football career, but preferred to talk about coaching his son’s Mini League team. Tripp had waited for him down at the entrance to the driveway, watching a gray dawn spread through the sky and pushing away thoughts about reality in the harsh light of day.
    “So you woke up this morning, came outside, and found him”— Keith swept his hand over the body—“just lying in your driveway? Seriously?”
    Even as a kid, Tripp had been an unconvincing liar, so he tried to meet Keith’s eyes in a sincere, unblinking manner. If he couldn’t pull it off here in his own driveway, how would he hold up at the trooper station or in front of his own boss, who would soon be there as well?
    “I don’t know what to say,” Tripp told him. “I came out to take a leak, you