She stopped the car at the edge of the docks. "Thank you for all your help, Samantha. If anything should happen to me, I want you to know how much I respect and admire your courage. You are an angel, I know it in my heart. He guided me to you."
More like the devil, Samantha thought. The devil working through Veronica Pryde had led Samantha here. She knew Miss Brigham would never accept this, so she said, "Thank you. You're a much braver person than you think too. Remember that."
After a farewell embrace, Miss Brigham opened her door and soon disappeared into the fog. Samantha waited a full minute before she ventured out of the car. She pulled the pistol out of her jacket and crept towards the slip where Molly would spring Pryde's ambush.
She looked for a good spot for her own ambush. At the start of the pier she found a pair of rope coils stacked up. She dropped into the center of the coils, squatting down so that no one could see her. Through a gap in the coils she could see anyone approaching from the pier. When the reverend and Pryde came by with Miss Brigham, she would leap out and take them.
A scream echoed across the docks. She didn't want to imagine what Pryde and Reverend Crane might do to Miss Brigham. I shouldn't use her like this, Samantha thought. It's too risky. Her last attempt to set a trap had ended with Joseph losing his mother. I won't fail again.
"She's in the car. Over there! Over there!" Miss Brigham screamed. Samantha braced herself as she heard footsteps approaching. To her dismay she saw only Pryde from between the rope coils. The reverend hadn't taken the bait. Then I'll take them one at a time, she thought.
She waited for Pryde to stomp past and then rose to her feet. She hopped over the coils of rope, landing on top of Pryde. He tried to get his knife free, but she pinned his arm down. She smashed the butt of her pistol over his head. He groaned and then went unconscious.
For a moment she held the pistol's barrel over his forehead, but she couldn't risk a shot alerting the reverend. She dragged Pryde's body behind the rope coils to deal with later, after she took out Reverend Crane. Then she resumed her hiding place to wait for him.
"Where is that fool?" she heard the reverend say after a few minutes, the sound of footsteps approaching her position. Reverend Crane held Miss Brigham by the arm, a dagger in his other hand at her back. No matter, Samantha thought.