“Shot.” Shelby nodded. “Dug the bullet out herself.”
Gemma had to swallow, fast.
“Elliot did the stitches, but only because she couldn’t focus on it, and she kept passing out. He waited until she couldn’t argue and then did it fast.” Shelby smiled. “When she woke up she didn’t say anything about the fact it was done, and then asked for this cream we put on, asked for it by its actual name. Who knows stuff like that? When Elliot offered her a sling for her arm she said she didn’t need one.”
Gemma shook her head. “That woman makes no sense, unless she’s some kind of spy.”
“So long as she finds Terrence, I don’t care who she is.” Shelby shivered. “That man always gave me the creeps. Now he outright terrifies me.”
Gemma nodded.
“Which is why John asked Bolton to keep watch outside your room. No one will be disturbing you while you’re in here.” Shelby grinned. Her eyebrow twitched. “Unless you want them to come in.”
“He’s your pastor.”
“It’s sweet,” Shelby said.
“There’s the woman who just got married.” Gemma grinned back, then said, “Sorry your honeymoon got cut short.”
“Don’t worry about that. Elliot and I understand what it means to live in this town.” She patted Gemma’s arm. “If someone broke their leg or had a heart attack, it would be no different. We’ll get our time away. I just still can’t believe Antonia is dead. I saw her the other day, and now she’s been murdered? Things keep getting worse.”
“I need to find out why this town was created in the first place.” It was a germ of a thought until she spoke it out loud.
“So that people in witness protection whose faces were recognizable could hide somewhere.”
“That sounds like a party line.” Gemma tapped the blanket over her leg as she ran ideas through her head. “I think there might be more to it than that. Because, tell me, how many seriously famous people are there here? Six, maybe? The rest of the residents just live here so that the town can function. We need a doctor, a sheriff, a farmer, a rancher, store owners, families, and a school teacher. But what if there’s some other reason for the town?”
“I don’t know, Gemma. It’s a good theory, but you’d need some way to test it. A way to find out if you’re right.”
“Where were you when I needed a lab partner in Chemistry?”
Shelby grinned. “I never would have let you cheat off me.”
“Figures. Dan didn’t, either.”
“Want me to ask John about Sanctuary?”
Gemma shook her head. “He’s only been here a couple of years. I need to talk to someone who would know, if there even is anyone still here who was also here back then. Someone who knew Hal, who knew Bill Jones. I have no idea where I’m going to find that person.”
She’d also have to get on the computer, do some research. Find out more about Hal in Vietnam, about Albert Walden and the CIA’s connection with Bill Jones. Like she could just Google all that.
Shelby said, “What about your Mom? She has to know something about Hal.”
“Sure, if she’ll actually tell me the truth.”
“She was here earlier. You could call her, ask her to come back and talk to her.”
“She was?” Gemma didn’t know who was behind the attack on them. “What about Dan’s truck? Did they find it?”
“John said he found the truck abandoned on the side of the road that leads to the ranch. Or, what used to be the ranch. No papers in the back. It had been completely cleaned out. And he said Mei had given him a decent description of the men she came up against. Not physical features, but enough he knew who to talk to. He’s going to do that today.”
Gemma couldn’t shake the feeling that the mayor might be behind all this. She didn’t know what his intention might be, but there was no doubt he was capable of murder and subterfuge. And she also couldn’t shake the feeling that things were going to get worse before they got better.
Gemma shivered in the bed. “Did Elliot say when I can get out of here?”
“Technically you haven’t been admitted, he just wanted you under observation for a while to see if your head is right. I told him not to bother, that you were loopy anyway and it couldn’t be fixed, but he insisted.”
Gemma felt the corner of her mouth curl up, but didn’t dignify her friend’s comment with a response. She flipped the bed covers back and sat up. “That means I don’t have to stay.”
“It does if you’re going home alone. If you drift into unconsciousness because you’re bleeding in your brain and no one’s there to find you, what do you think will happen?”
“It’s not like Elliot is even equipped to do emergency brain surgery anyway.” Gemma glared at her friend. “Maybe I don’t want to be cut open.”
Shelby gasped. “How can you say that?”
Gemma shrugged. “I’m going to talk to Dan, and when I can explain it better then I’ll tell you.”
“You weren’t just trying to get a rise out of me?”
“If I was, it was only because you were trying to get a rise out of me.” She had on her jeans and One Republic shirt. All she needed was her Converse. “Did you take my shoes?”
“Get back in bed, Gemma. If you want to leave you have to talk to Elliot. And when he says you can, then you’ll get your Converse.”
“Why hasn’t Terrence been found? Why does no one know where he is? He’s left to run around town, stealing my papers that Hal left me, and shooting Mei? Why can he do that?” Left with no air, Gemma sucked in a breath. “He shot Mei.”
“She’s fine. And she says it wasn’t him.”
“It wasn’t.” Mei stood at the door. “And don’t worry about Terrence. He isn’t going to come after you if I have anything to say about it.”
Shelby’s eyes were wide. She looked like Mei had just professed Gemma to be her brand new best-friend-for-life, leaving Shelby firmly in the “old friend” category.
Shelby looked away. “I’ll go fetch Elliot. Maybe Mei can see you home.”
Mei glanced at Shelby’s back as she left, and then at Gemma. “Did something just happen?”
“Yeah, you.”
Mei said, “Not the first time. And for the record, I’m good with camping out in front of your place and making sure no one bothers you. The sheriff will probably let me borrow his Jeep to sleep in.”
Gemma stared. She’d been planning on visiting the tent, but Dan was probably right that it was rags by now. She sighed. “You could take the couch. If you want.”
“Even better.”
“I just have to go see my mom first.”
**
Dan jotted the scripture reference down on his notepad.
“So this is what you do?” John stacked one boot on top of the other on the side of the medical center bed. Casual, like he hadn’t seen Dan completely lose it. “Read your Bible. I’m guessing you’re preparing your sermon?”
“What else would I do?”
“True. And I can see how it would help to think about something else. With the added bonus that it’s calming. Hopeful. Now I see why so many of your sermons focus on good things that come out of hard times.”
“Every pastor has one sermon,” Dan said. “Isn’t that what they say?”
“We preach what we know. If all you know of God is shallow, then that’s the extent of what you have to give people. But if what you know of God is that He is everything—life, hope, goodness, and the answer to all the evil in this world—then that comes through, too. And with you, I don’t think you could hold it back. You need it to be bigger than what you’re capable of controlling. A lion that jumps into the fight for you, because that’s who He is to you.”
Did Dan need to tell him that he was exactly right? “Don’t you have police work to do?”
“I have a deputy. I share the load now.”
“Figures.” Dan glanced over. “But couldn’t you be out finding Terrence?”
John chuckled, then sipped from the paper cup. “Every time I ask Mei about that, she tells me not to worry about it. Actually, I think she might have already found him.”
“So where is he?”
“That, my friend, is a very good question.” John sipped again, thoughtfully.
“You’re not worried about her running around town, and what? Disposing of people?”
“It’s with the committee. And I have no evidence, only a suspicion anyway. But if this is what I think it is, heads will roll. We’ve had enough rogues in this town. That isn’t something I can tolerate when law abiding citizens deserve that respect.” John sighed. “Still, I’ve been without a deputy for a while. It’s kind of nice.”
Dan was used to being counsel to people who needed to talk. Or vent. He didn’t always know what to say, or always understand what their problem was, but God did. That wasn’t an easy answer to give someone, but it was the best answer, and it helped him to have faith.
Half the time when he reminded someone to trust God, or to go back to His word and see what the truth said, it helped him as much as it helped the person. Dan had to take every thought captive, or else he was going to react before he could do anything about it. His flesh, scarred and traumatized, was trying not to get angry again just because he’d been kicked out of malice by those guys in the radio station. Dan didn’t want to feel that pain again. He didn’t want to go back to that place where he was helpless. Finding Antonia’s body had been bad enough.
The blood.
He’d heard that gunshot all over again. The flash of the barrel. The present had blurred with the past in his mind. Pain and blood, washed together into one nightmare he couldn’t be rid of.
“Where did you just go?”
Dan swallowed. He shook his head and flipped pages in his Bible. “I’m okay.”
“You realize lying is a sin, right?”
“Never said I was perfect. I just didn’t want to answer the question.”
“You wanna talk about Gemma?”
Dan sniffed. “What about her?”
“Is that a wise decision as a pastor, to spend your time with a woman who...” John’s words trailed off, and he left it hanging.
“Runs a library? Writes novels? Follows the rules of witness protection? Seriously, I’d like to know what exactly your opinion is of her. Clearly you have one.”
“Dan—”
“No. You know what? When you wanted to marry an assassin I counseled you to be cautious. I didn’t tell you it was a bad idea.”
John set his boots on the floor and sat forward. “If I do the same, will you listen?”
“I don’t want you bad-mouthing her.” He would kick John out if the guy was going to talk bad about Gemma. Truth be told, he’d be disappointed in his friend for jumping on the bandwagon the rest of the town seemed to ride. Gemma was just an introvert. She liked who she liked, and that was it.
“What did she get you into, in that room?”
He told John about the papers and about his father.
“I can look into it. Find out what happened.”
“You could, but I don’t know if you’d find anything,” Dan said. “What we really need to know is who knew about the papers, who wanted them, and why they needed to know what was in there.”
He’d told Mei, but she’d been shot trying to help. Dan said, “Hal kept this secret, but why is it so bad that no one can know what it was?”
“And now that it’s out, what do they plan on doing with it?” John paused. “There’s a big difference between information being released in this town and straight up posting it on the internet.”
“A big difference.” He thought for a second. “What if it wasn’t about the totality of what those papers contained? It’s possible someone only needed to know one thing they didn’t. Maybe it was just getting an answer to their question, the way Gemma and I were doing. After that they might have no need to keep the rest of it.”
But how would they know? Unless John found the culprit and the person explained it all.
“Did you see any of their faces?”
Dan shook his head.
John’s radio chimed twice. “Well, I’m glad you’re good.” He got up. “I’m going to take off, let you get your studying done. I’ll let you know when I figure this out.”
Dan chuckled as the sheriff practically ran from the room. Even if he asked what those chimes from his radio signaled, John probably wouldn’t tell him. He didn’t mind that John only hung with him because he’d had a spare moment. The sheriff was a busy man with a baby almost here in a town where strange things were happening. Only one of those was a variable in Sanctuary. The rest was the day-to-day of living so closely with other people.
Dan tried to serve the town as best he could, but days like today only cemented the fact he had no qualifications. He’d done nothing to help Gemma, or to keep those papers. At best, he only functioned. But until God brought someone else to the town, to lead His people here, it was Dan’s job to set himself aside and do what God wanted him to do.
Just as he needed to set aside whatever had been in the papers. It was John’s job to find out now. And Gemma? Dan was going to have to set her aside as well. As much as he might want it, she couldn’t be persuaded into being a Christian. She was going to have to make up her own mind in her own time. And Dan would be waiting.
Right now he needed to refocus on what he was supposed to be doing. Gemma was a beautiful distraction that was for sure. But he couldn’t serve the people in this town as their pastor if he spent all his time with her and got preoccupied trying to find out who his father had been. He had to do what was best for the residents here. Not himself.
As much as he might want for things to be otherwise.
**
John slammed the door of his truck and made his way inside the sheriff’s office. Matthias stood in the middle of the room, an anxious look on his face that John hadn’t seen in a long time. Bolton was in his wheelchair by John’s desk, way more practiced at hiding his anxiety than Matthias. They’d been in the basement of the library looking at computer records.
“What did you find?”
Matthias wrung his hands together. “No one’s even looked at any of it since Hal” —Matthias swallowed— “since he died. Everything was still there, so we spent some time listening to the back-recordings. Rewinding the files and listening.”
“And you found something?”
Bolton nodded. “A call made to Sam Tura’s gym ten minutes before Gemma and Dan were attacked. Two words. ‘It’s on.’”
“Who’s phone?”
“Terrence Evangeline.”
“So he went home, knowing we were looking, and took the time to make a call?” John aired his thoughts aloud. “Or, someone is framing him for it while he isn’t around to defend himself. And either Sam is involved, or he’s being pulled in on purpose to distract us.”
Bolton nodded. “Teams are out checking every storage shed, out-building, cabin, and empty inch of grass in this town. If Terrence is out there, we’ll find him.”
“And if someone is hiding him, we’ll never get our hands on either of them.”
“He has to come outside sooner or later,” Matthias said. “Someone will see him. Terrence can’t hide forever, and he can’t live in hiding forever, either.”
John said, “He could try and wait us out. But in the meantime whoever incapacitated Gemma and Dan and took those papers is framing him for it. And they’ll probably try and frame him for Antonia’s murder as well. That is if he didn’t actually do it.” He sighed. “It isn’t in his best interest to hide.”
“So put out a call to all the phones. Announce it to the whole town,” Bolton said. His mouth thinned. “But when you do, you’ll want to add that there’s a line of people more than happy to kill him for what he did to Gemma. Did you see that bandage on her arm?”
John didn’t disagree, but still, “You want me to arrest you for murder?”
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Bolton grinned. “You could try and find enough evidence.”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about.” He shot both men a look. “I’ll go check out Terrence’s house. The two of you talk to Sam. Find out who in the gym was on the phone at that time. Radio me when you find out.”
“Yes, sir.”
John shook his head. “If I was your ‘sir,’ I’d have a cup of coffee in my hand by now.”
He took a moment to check in upstairs with his family. When he was satisfied they were all safe and resting, he walked to Terrence’s house. It wasn’t worth using his Jeep after dark if he didn’t have to. People were used to quiet, and the noise would disturb them. So many of the people who lived here were on alert, watching for him to do something—shoot someone, arrest someone. This week had been more exciting than the last four months, what with Gemma falling into a hole and Antonia being murdered. A deputy being shot and a theft made it a record week. Now everyone knew Hal had been hiding a secret in the radio station.
John didn’t knock, the door was unlocked anyway. Terrence’s place had been trashed. Someone angry had gone through everything Terrence owned, most likely after his parents were there looking for him. Mr. and Mrs. Evangeline were the kind of people who saw reputation as more important than truth. They couldn’t believe their son’s good name was being tarnished by Gemma’s lies.
John walked through the house, the crunch of broken glass and ceramics under his boots. The bedroom was a disaster, clothes everywhere. The bathroom, same. The back door was open and the yard overgrown. Not a man who saw appearance as everything. All this only cemented the opinion John had of Terrence Evangeline. Especially the magazines under his bed. This wasn’t a man trying to grow or better himself in any way.
The only thing which confused John was the shovel and pickaxe in the closet. Both were smeared with fresh dirt. What had Terrence been digging?
And where in Sanctuary was he hiding?
Sanctuary Forever WITSEC Town Series Book 5 Page 14
