He stepped over her, then in front, blocking her path. She lifted her head, met his gaze defiantly.

His teeth gleamed bright white against the dark shadow of his face. He lifted the gun. "End of the road, sweetheart."

CHAPTER 57

Avery came to and found herself bound to a chair. Her head throbbed. Something liquid rolled down her cheek, then splashed onto her collarbone. Blood, she realized as what had happened came rushing back-Matt, the butt of his gun.

She was still alive. Why?

Her eyelids flickered up. Her vision swam. She made out a table, figures grouped around it, sitting in silence.

Seven figures. Matt and his generals.

One of them turned and stood. Matt. He picked up the lantern at his feet. A camping lantern, turned down low.

He lifted the lantern, brought it close to her face. She squinted against the feeble light, right eye burning. Bloody. He smiled. "You've looked better, Avery."

A retort sprang to her lips, it came out a garbled croak.

His smile widened. "In case you're wondering, Gwen didn't make it."

A moan escaped her, one of grief and denial. Of hopelessness.

He turned toward the table. "Gentlemen," he said, holding the lantern high, "I have good news. Ms. Chauvin has returned to the world of the living. For how long is up to her."

The soft glow from the lantern fell across the men sitting closest to her. Avery blinked, vision going in and out of focus. It couldn 't be. She traveled her gaze, straining to make out the figures at the far side of the table.

Cadavers. In various stages of decomposition.

A scream rose to her throat. She looked at Matt, waiting for the punch line.

It didn't come.

"Avery, I think you know Karl Wright." He indicated a badly decomposed body directly across from her. "General Hawk to us."

Karl Wright. Matt's oldest friend. The man Cherry loved. The man she had planned to marry.

But he'd moved to California. He'd up and left Cypress Springs without a word to anyone but Matt.

Anyone but Matt.

A sound of horror slipped past her lips. Matt had killed his best friend.

Avery shifted her gaze to the cadaver to the right of Karl. Less decayed than all but one of the others, the corpse appeared to be that of a young man. A Tulane University sweatshirt, logo partially obliterated by blood, hung on the decomposing form.

"Tom Lancaster," Matt offered, seeing the direction of her gaze.

They found his car, abandoned. His body was never recovered.

Avery moved her gaze again, this time to the other nearly intact corpse.

Luke McDougal missing, his car found empty.

That first day, she remembered, down at the CSPD, the missing persons flyers on the bulletin board. There'd been several.

Too many for such a small community.

Avery's teeth began to chatter. She fought falling apart. Matt inducted members to The Seven through murder.

She found her voice, though it trembled. "Tell me how it went down, Matt? Did you just happen upon Luke McDougal, broken down by the side of the road and offer him a ride? Is that when you decided to recruit him?"

Matt smiled. "Not on sight, of course, but soon after. One of the generals had recently defected, I needed a replacement. I offered him a lift and discovered we saw eye to eye, General Blue and I."

Defected? How did that happen? she wondered, hysteria rising up in her. When the bodies became so badly decayed, they could no longer stay propped up in a chair? When they disagreed too vocally with their leader?

Matt looked at the corpse that had been Luke McDougal and smiled. He paused as if listening to something the man said, then nodded and chuckled. "I completely agree, Blue."

Avery watched the exchange, the full realization of what was happening hitting her. Matt believed them to be alive. He heard them speak, vote for life or death, offer comment.

He returned his attention to her. "General Lancaster was more difficult to convince. At first, he didn't understand our cause. But I could see that he wanted to. And that he could be a wonderful addition to our number.

"In the end he believed wholeheartedly in our cause. When I explained the group's vision, there were actually tears in his eyes. He begged to be a member. He pledged his total allegiance to us. Gwen would be proud of him, he has become a tremendous asset."

Avery pictured Tom Lancaster begging. Willing to pledge and promise anything to save his own life.

Having no idea that becoming one of The Seven equaled a death sentence.

"And of course, you know Sal." Matt turned, smiled and nodded toward another corpse. "Our member of the old guard."

"Sal?" she repeated. "But he was…shot. Waked and buried-"

In a closed-casket ceremony.

Matt switched the bodies. But with whose?

"General Wings," Matt murmured. "He faked his own death, Avery. He decided to devote his life to our cause." He turned and smiled at the half-decapitated corpse. "I've been grateful for his dedication. His wisdom has proved invaluable to us."

Matt arched his eyebrows, then nodded and turned back to her.

"Just so you know, he has been your champion through this whole thing."

"Who's buried in Sal's casket, Matt? Just some poor slob you picked up?"

"A worthless, homeless drunk. A nobody whose life I gave purpose, Avery." He motioned to the final two figures at the table. "Generals Beauregarde and Starr, outsiders who were drawn to our cause."

"So this is it?" she said, voice shaking. "The infamous Seven. A group formed," she paused to rest, "to counter the crime wave in Cypress Springs resorts to murder. Seems to me, the cure is worse than the illness."

"You sound just like your bleeding-heart father. He ruined the original Seven, reduced them to a system of little more than tat-tletales and whiners. I wasn't about to allow him to ruin us."

"How did you do it?" she asked. "How did you kill him?"

"It was easy. Phillip wanted to believe me a malleable weakling who would bend to his wishes-the way Buddy and the other Seven had all those years ago. So he underestimated me."

"He trusted you. You knew that. You knew he would open the door to you in the middle of the night. Even though he was groggy from the sleep medication he'd taken before going to bed."

She narrowed her eyes, hate rising up in her, nearly choking her. "Medication you knew he was taking. How? He never locked the doors… Did you go through his medicine cabinet?"

Matt laughed, the sound pleased. "It didn't take even that much effort. Heard it from Earl over at Friendly Drugs."

One of The Seven's network of eyes and ears.

Matt glanced at his generals, then back at her, expression disgusted. "I see what you're thinking. That Earl had no right discussing your dad's private business. People like you never understand. Private business is a nice euphemism for immoral self-indulgence. Human weakness. Such self-indulgences corrupt. They spread from citizen to citizen like a disease, until a whole community is infected."

She fought to keep her tone controlled. It wavered slightly and she cursed the telltale show of vulnerability. "And as not only sheriff but son of Cypress Springs's chief of police, you heard everything, didn't you? It was easy. You knew every citizen's every step? You made it your business to know."

He puffed up, proud. "Mail. Medications. Police calls. What they ate and drank, when they had sex."

"And Elaine St. Claire's weakness?"

"Promiscuity."

She died of internal injuries. An artificial phallus had been inserted into her, it had torn her to shreds.

"What about Pete Trimble?"

"Poor old Pete. Chronic D.W.I. He refused to give up the bottle, refused our efforts to get him into a program."