Sanctuary Forever WITSEC Town Series Book 5

by Lisa Phillips

  “What now?”

  Mei walked to each tunnel in turn, then went back to the second one. She stuck her head in and sniffed. “This one smells like fresh air.”

  “Let’s try it.” If it led to the woods they’d still have to make their way back to the farm, but Dan didn’t want to walk that dark tunnel again. And he didn’t want to stay in his mom’s grave any longer.

  **

  The fifth time John shifted in bed Andra said, “What’s wrong?”

  “Sorry. I’ll let you rest and sleep on the couch.” The baby—their son—was in a bassinette John’s mom had sent them, in the corner of the room, sound asleep. Pat had never slept so much the first week of his life. Was this normal?

  “I can hear the thoughts spiraling around in that head of yours from here.”

  John rolled over and shoved his face in the pillow. “Sorry.”

  “You keep saying that, but you have yet to do anything you actually need to apologize for.”

  John shifted to his side and faced his wife. “Did you figure out what to call him yet?”

  “Anton.”

  “No.”

  “Ridge.”

  “Closer, but no.”

  Completely straight face, she said, “Frankfurt.”

  “No way.”

  “Jalapeno?”

  “Funny.” John sighed.

  “How about Nicholas?”

  “Nick?” He let the name roll off his tongue. “Nick Mason.” John smiled. “I really like that one.”

  “Me too.”

  John leaned closer and spoke where their lips almost touched. “You could have said that one first.”

  Andra grinned. “Go to sleep.”

  He couldn’t. Too much was happening in Sanctuary. “I’m close.” John could practically grasp it in his fingers, almost like the answer to this riddle was a tangible thing.

  “If you rest and let your subconscious work on it you might wake up with the answer. Have you thought of that?”

  John sighed. “It has to be about the mayor. There’s no other explanation. But what? What is he planning, what is going on? It’s like he’s cultivating an army, but for what?”

  He hated that Antonia had been killed because of this—because of him. John could hardly stomach the responsibility he had for it, and he hadn’t been able to talk to Olympia since she first found out. Antonia had been a wild girl, determined to push the envelope. Her mom was right about that, and she said she didn’t blame him, but it didn’t matter. He blamed himself.

  He’d told the girl to tread carefully, but she hadn’t wanted to go slow. John had considered the fact she might have gone too far and gotten all the way caught up in it. He’d seen it happen undercover. He’d even thought about it himself, in darker moments. Taking the money, ditching the job. Leaving the light and falling into darkness.

  He figured that was what had happened to his brother Ben. Too many times he’d fallen into black for, and now he couldn’t find his way back. Now he insisted on this ridiculous distance. The go-betweens. Greeting cards instead of phone calls. Half-answers instead of real information. John sighed. Was he ever going to break through with his brother? It would take something huge. That was for sure.

  Ben.

  Antonia.

  Mei.

  The mayor.

  John ran his hands down his face. Then he prayed.

  He didn’t know how long he slept, but he woke up to a ringing sound coming from his charging iPad.

  John barely lifted his head off the pillow, flipped the cover back, and swiped to answer. “Yeah.”

  “I can’t see you.” Grant. Why did his brother call so early?

  “What time is it?” His voice was muffled by the pillow, but he wasn’t about to move.

  “Just after four, mountain time. Breakfast awaits, dude. Wake up.”

  “Maybe on the east coast. We’re supposed to sleep when the baby sleeps. Didn’t you know that?”

  Andra shoved at his back with her palms. “Speak for yourself. Which one of us got up twice during the night?”

  John left the bed and took his iPad into the kitchen. He punched the button on the coffee he’d prepared the night before, and hung his head.

  “Where’s your ugly mug?”

  John glanced up. Humor before coffee was never a good plan.

  “You’re going to want to sit down.”

  John sighed. “That good, huh? And here I thought this was a social call. A, ‘hey, John, how’s your wife and new baby? That growing family of yours.’”

  “You’re still not sitting.”

  “I know.”

  Grant shrugged. “You’re the one who chose to live there. Don’t know how you stomach some of those people. Or how you babysit them all.”

  “They’re an acquired taste. And if I recall correctly, it was your idea. You said it would be good for me.” John sat at the table. “So, I’m thinking you’re on FaceTime because of… the mayor?”

  Grant smiled, more of a grimace really. “However did you know that?”

  “Wild guess.”

  “Last night Samuel Collins filed a motion with the committee that oversees the town of Sanctuary. For several reasons, which he explained in an incredible amount of detail, he’s putting forth the request that you be removed from your duties as sheriff of the town of Sanctuary. For good.”

  “He wants me fired?”

  “It’s unprecedented. There isn’t even any legal basis for this. There’s no legal basis in Sanctuary for anything. It’s more like a sovereign state at this point, since you’re out from under the Marshals service and the federal government. He wants you gone, says the town is going to govern itself. That’s the proposal he’s making.”

  “On the basis of what?” The fact he was kind-of on leave with a new baby couldn’t be coincidental. Nor could anything else that had been going on in town. This wasn’t the time to remove the sheriff from his position. There would be anarchy at worst, and complete chaos at best.

  Grant lifted a paper and read, “You hired a deputy he claims is unsuitable. And he actually has good reasons—stuff we didn’t know that I have no idea how he got his hands on, but I’ll be talking to Ben about. Evidently you give certain people preference over others. You haven’t found Antonia’s killer. You let Ben go after he assaulted Collins, and you never followed up on the case.”

  “He never went to the doctor, and he didn’t tell me until he was fine, and the man wants me to investigate an assault, base on nothing but his word against Ben’s?”

  Grant shook his head. “He also says crime has gone way up since you came. Something about how the previous sheriff kept the stats low, so you must be responsible for the outbreak in lawlessness.”

  John got up and poured his coffee. This was insane. The previous sheriff’s record hadn’t been stellar, more like nonexistent. Chandler had left town when he’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer. John hadn’t heard much since he arrived, but the word he got was that the man wasn’t well liked. Now that Gemma had told him how Chandler had overlooked Dan’s being abused, he knew all he needed to know about the man.

  “You can’t ignore this,” Grant spoke louder. “You can’t bury it, or brush it under the rug.”

  John strode back to the table, set one hand on the surface, and leaned closer to the iPad. “You think I’m going to do that? The mayor needs to be dealt with.”

  “According to what he found on Mei, he’s probably waiting for you to hire her to kill him. Or Ben will have her do it.”

  John shook his head. “I knew Ben had something to do with her being here. I asked him about it, but he gave me half a muffled answer and hung up. If he ever shows up here again I’m going to have to arrest him. I figured that’s why he sent Mei in his place.”

  “I can’t ignore this, John.” Grant waved the paper. “I have to address each part, look into it, and probably conduct an investigation—”

  The baby started to cry. John walked away,
in the middle of Grant talking, and went to the crib. Andra sat up, so he waved her off. “Go back to sleep.” She nodded, not even half awake. John gathered up the baby. “Good morning, Nicholas.” He trailed back to the iPad, where Grant was still talking, and sat.

  Grant’s voice trailed off. “He’s so tiny.” Grant paused. “I don’t think my girls were ever that small.”

  “That’s because they’re driving and going to college.” John rubbed the baby’s back. “Nicholas will be taller than them some day.”

  Grant smiled. “Good name.”

  “Give me some time on this. Let me talk to the mayor.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Please,” John said. “Something is going on, and I just need a couple more days to figure out what it is. Antonia is dead because of this. Xander saw someone try to kill Sam Tura. Things aren’t normal in this town.”

  Normal was relative in Sanctuary, but still. Nothing was right.

  “Two days. I can probably put the mayor off for that long. Then I’ll have to tell him something.”

  John nodded. “Thanks, Grant.”

  “Don’t thank me yet.”

  **

  Gemma lay on her couch and tried to focus on the show. She’d been in the same spot all day, dawn to” —she looked at the window— “dusk now, doing nothing. She’d also been ignoring calls from Dan’s extension. What was there to say? The two of them might have done a lot of life together, but they were in different places. Going different directions. It’s not You, God, it’s me. Her life was a cliché.

  This was supposed to be a funny show, but mid-season four, it had taken a turn. Now it wasn’t comedy, and there was way too much death. Gemma pulled up her TV guide and found a cartoon. It took a minute to load, but eventually that super annoying theme tune started, and she watched Pinkie Pie prance across the screen.

  Much better.

  Who wanted real life, when magical ones with guaranteed happy endings were so much better? If God could assure her that things on His team would be good, well she’d jump at the chance. Who wouldn’t if they knew things were guaranteed to be golden? But alas, her dream was not to be. God wasn’t going to promise her everything would be fine. People were way too unpredictable for that. And yeah, He knew the future and all, but why share the knowledge? They would only mess with what should have been just for kicks. Humans were mostly just about getting their kicks.

  Except Dan.

  As far as she could see, becoming a Christian hadn’t made John Mason’s life better. Or Nadia’s. They’d still been through some crazy stuff. Sure, they each walked around with ridiculous grins that matched their other half’s smiles, but what did that mean? Anyone could paste on a happy face.

  Boy, Fluttershy was super annoying. She talked like Mei. Low, soft enough you had to strain to hear her. Fluttershy was probably a closet spy, too. Or at least some kind of off-books black ops agent on the side. That was totally plausible. Ish.

  Gemma got up. She needed a change of scenery—or at least some popcorn—before she died of lonely, sad-and-single disease. It wasn’t pretty, and there was an odor. She brought her notepad back to the couch with her because that wasn’t a bad book idea. Melodramatic spinster. Cute doctor. He could diagnose himself with a broken heart, and hand her the prescription—with her name on it.

  It wasn’t Cherry Coke, but it would do for a short story at least.

  The phone rang. Stopped. Rang again. Persistent, whoever they were.

  It rang again.

  Gemma blew out a breath and grabbed the handset without looking at the display. She lay all the way back on her couch to stretch the chord as far as it would go. “Yeah?”

  She didn’t really want to talk to Dan. But if she waited too long, then when they did, she would just give in. At least this way the good reasons why it wouldn’t work were fresh in her mind.

  “Gem.”

  “Mom?”

  Janice made the juh sound of Gemma’s name, as though she were trying to say it again. And then all Gemma heard was gurgling.

  Gemma threw the phone aside and shot up. Halfway there she realized she had no shoes, but she didn’t stop. Didn’t go back. Main Street, then B Street. Why did her mom live so far away?

  Gemma smelled the smoke before she turned onto her mom’s street. Before she even saw the house. People emerged from neighboring homes. Gawkers. Gemma shoved them aside and ran toward the yellow glow in the night. The rising column that filled the air.

  Her mom’s house was on fire.

  Chapter 20

  Matthias exited the house, carrying Gemma’s mom in his arms. He walked two houses down and deposited her on the lawn.

  Gemma collapsed by her side. “Mom.” She touched her face, surveyed her mom’s prone form. Rumpled. Red marks on her wrists. “Mom, can you hear me?”

  Her mom’s eyes fluttered and opened. “Gem.”

  Relief flooded her. Gemma sat back on her heels. “Thank God.”

  Firefighters, residents who volunteered to serve the town that way, ran into the house. Matthias followed the line of her gaze and then said, “Doesn’t look bad. I don’t think it’ll take long for them to put it out, but your mom’s house is toast. These old buildings go up like a match.”

  A crowd had gathered in the street. People watching the drama because there was nothing on TV like the kind of drama that happened in real life—to someone else.

  Someone dumped a red bag beside him. Matthias pulled out supplies, including an oxygen mask which he tucked on her mom’s face. He checked her vitals with proficiency and no hesitation.

  Gemma said, “You’re good at that.”

  He ripped the Velcro of the blood pressure cuff and said, “Competent, maybe. Medical care in this town isn’t guaranteed, and Frannie and I talked about it. We decided that since we were going to be parents I’d learn some basic stuff. Pediatric CPR, minor burns, wounds, that kind of thing. It was John’s idea that I join up with the fire department.”

  “Good for you.”

  Matthias shrugged. “This town is what it is, but it’s also our home. If we’re not working to make it better then it won’t ever be better.”

  “Makes sense.” And yet she’d decided leaving was better. Or maybe easier. That wasn’t the way to repair what was wrong with Sanctuary. “Have you thought about being the next mayor?”

  He opened his mouth, but Janice let out a low moan. “Mayor.”

  Gemma leaned close to her mom’s face. “Did he do this to you? Did the mayor set fire to your house?”

  Janice frowned. “No. He… not do that.”

  “Okay.”

  “Friend.”

  Gemma said, “The mayor is your friend.”

  Janice shut her eyes and nodded her head slightly.

  “He’s not a good guy, Mom. He’s done a lot of horrible things, or at least organized them and set them in motion.” He had to be the one behind it, it didn’t make sense that anyone else would be. Not when the mayor was so vocal, so dead-set against the direction the town was taking. “Did you see who set fire to your house, Mom?”

  Janice opened her eyes. She seemed to rally for a second, then her chest fell.

  “Be careful you don’t make her strain herself. She needs to rest.”

  Gemma nodded, her gaze still on her mom’s face. Janice opened her eyes. “I saw them.”

  “Who was it?” Gemma leaned closer.

  “Two.”

  “There were two of them?” When Janice nodded, Gemma said, “Did you see who it was?”

  “Masks. But man was tall. Like Dan.”

  “He didn’t do it.”

  Janice said, “Or the sheriff.”

  “Because he’s tall as well?”

  Her mom nodded.

  Gemma sat back. “Plenty of people in this town are tall.”

  Matthias nodded. “Just a couple more minutes here, Janice, and then we’ll be ready to take you over to the medical center.” He looked at Gemma. �
�I’m sure John will come and talk to her there, get a statement.”

  The first name off her mom’s lips as to who had set fire to her house, and she said Dan? Her mom knew how she felt about him, and yet she still did that. Not that Gemma wanted her mom to be the kind of person who covered for a friend even when they were a criminal. But this wasn’t a criminal, it was Dan.

  “Matthias?” The voice was male, and crackly.

  He grabbed his radio and clicked a button, held it to his mouth. “Yeah, John.”

  “Have you seen Dan?”

  “He should be here, helping put out the fire. But I haven’t seen him, just the others.”

  Gemma glanced around. Was the sheriff here? She scanned the crowd and saw John talking to the fire department’s chief—not that you could really call him that when there was no fire house and no fire truck. Just the ranch truck, and some hoses half a step up from a garden hose. They didn’t even have hydrants in Sanctuary. If a fire was bad enough, John could probably get a chopper from a neighboring county to drop water here. It had happened before with the old sheriff, years ago, and they’d covered the security breach so the person didn’t blab there was a town over here.

  Smoke would hang in the air for days before strong enough weather rolled through to empty the basin the town sat in. They needed a good storm, or the cloud cover would sit between the mountains like a blanket, and they’d be in an inversion until it was pushed out.

  Fresh air. A breeze. Gemma glanced at the trees. Thank You. It was just like Him to clear the air like that.

  The sheriff’s voice came over the radio again. “Can you send Gemma over here?”

  “I’ll take care of your mom, Gem, don’t worry. And I’ll let you know when she gets to the medical center.” Matthias motioned over his shoulder. “You go see what John wants, okay?”

  Gemma stood. She wasn’t fragile. A lot had happened over the past couple of weeks, but she hadn’t broken down yet. Unless Dan had told his friends that she’d dissolved. Alone. With him.