She could have followed him to see if she could discover where he was holding Noah, but it would be almost impossible to do that without him becoming aware that she was close behind him, and in any event what could she do even if she did manage to find out where Noah was? Francis had followed him and although Francis had not been a weak man he had been overcome and killed. She could call on Constable Jewkes. He was armed, at least, but he was probably drunk already and even when he was sober he was clumsy and incompetent. With Noah’s life at stake she couldn’t risk him barging in and giving Jonathan Shooks the chance to kill or injure him. Whatever Jonathan Shooks had sworn to her, she still found it hard to believe that there really was a demon with whom he was doing business. Unless, perhaps, that demon was somebody who believed themselves to be possessed. She couldn’t help thinking of the Widow Belknap, dancing naked in the woods and screeching for vengeance. She supposed that she could appeal to some of Sutton’s congregation to help her, such as Rodney Bartlett and Peter Duston and William Rolfe, but they were all family men, and after what had happened to Nicholas Buckley and Francis it was really too much for her to expect of them.
