Undercover Protection

by Maggie K. Black

  Her face paled. “That’s where I think Mabel is, too. It’s faint but I think I can hear her crying.”

  He lowered the window and listened. For a moment he couldn’t hear anything but the rumble of the engine and the crackle of flames devouring the barn from the inside. But as they raced closer, he could hear faint voices coming from the burning barn. Mabel was crying and Leia was screaming for help.

  “What’s going on?” Sally asked.

  “I’m an undercover cop,” Jay said. “Your father was an informant. Your sister can fill you in on the rest.”

  “So, you’re back together?” Sally asked.

  “What? No.” Jay’s mouth gaped. “You knew about that?”

  “Why else do you think my sisters and I rehired you?”

  He didn’t have an answer to that. “If anything happens to me, promise you’ll get Leia to safety, no matter what.”

  “I promise.”

  They reached the barn and he leaped out, even before Sally had fully engaged the brakes. Heat hit him like a wave as he yanked the barn door open. Smoke filled his vision.

  “Leia!” he shouted. “Can you hear me!”

  “I’m here in the back with Mabel,” she shouted. “We’re trapped and can’t get out. Rain’s coming in from the window above me and that’s keeping the fire away for now. Ben was shot by Stan, but I think he made it out alive. I don’t know where Stan is now.”

  He thanked God Leia and the baby were alive. But they couldn’t stay there forever. Help us, God! He took a step forward in the smoke, only to feel the heat push him back. He turned to Sally.

  “They’re trapped in the back by a window,” he said.

  “Got it,” Sally said. She rolled the windows up and revved the engine.

  He leaped back and watched as she drove his truck through the partially opened barn door and into the flames. Wood splintered and fell. A flame-covered beam fell and smashed against the back of his truck. He held his breath for the longest, most excruciating moment of his life, praying that Leia and the baby were okay. There in the glare of the truck’s headlights he watched as Leia’s silhouette emerged from the dense smoke, holding the car seat in her hands. She climbed into the truck and it charged backward out of the barn.

  And in that moment Jay knew that no matter how long and what kind of life he had, he’d never care about another person as much as his heart longed to know Leia was safe. He just prayed that God would lead her to a husband who’d protect her and take care of her as much as Jay longed to.

  He stood far back as the truck emerged backward from the flames. Sally spun it around and hit the brakes. Jay’s eyes met Leia’s through the window. She rolled it down and he could hear the hardy cry of Mabel wailing. Tears of thanksgiving to God pressed unshed against his eyes.

  “Told you Sally would get it running!” she shouted, a smile filling her soot-and-tearstained face. “Come on, get in! We’ve got to go!”

  He ran for the truck, joy filling his heart. It was all going to be okay. They had wheels, they were all together and they were going to get to safety and call for help. They’d find a way to open the hidden box. It was almost over.

  A figure rose from the truck bed like a phantom, his body so covered in soot and hay that for a moment Jay didn’t recognize him. It was Stan. He raised his weapon at the glass window at the back of the cab and pointed it directly at the women’s heads. “Get out! Both of you! Now!”

  Jay couldn’t risk shooting the man from behind. If he fell and his finger twitched, even a little, his bullet would fly right through the glass, hitting Leia, Sally or the baby. Jay ran and leaped onto the back of the truck.

  “Hey!” Jay shouted. “Leave them alone!”

  Stan spun toward him and fired, the bullet flying over his head as Jay charged. Jay caught him around the stomach in a football tackle, bracing himself as the older man rained down furious blows to his head. Stan caught him in his bad ear and a high-pitched whine filled Jay’s head and nausea swept over him. More shouting filled the air as the two men wrestled in the back of the truck for control; it sounded like Willie and Ross were now running in for backup. Through the chaos, he heard Leia’s side door open.

  Jay banged his fist on the back of the truck.

  “No, Leia!” he shouted. “Drive! Go! Get help! Now! I need you safe!”

  The truck lurched forward. Suddenly he was falling, rolling and tumbling off the truck, still locked in a grip with Stan. The sound of Leia shouting his name filled his ears, fading on the wind as the truck drove away into the night.

  Ross and Willie reached his side and aimed their guns down at his head as Stan scrambled to his feet and joined them, leveling a final kick to Jay’s gut. He was down on the ground and surrounded on all sides. But Jay’s eyes fixed on the fading headlights until they disappeared. Then his eyes rose to the huge bonfire of burning wood and flame that had once been the barn, taking all of his notes and wall of research photos along with it.

  He felt his body collapse onto the ground like a dancing car-lot balloon man when someone cut off the air keeping it up. It was all over, for him and for his case. But at least Leia was safe.

  * * *

  “We have to go back,” Leia said. She gripped the door handle so tightly her fingers ached. She looked at her sister as she navigated through the night, pushing the truck to almost twice the speed limit. “Sally, they’ll kill him.”

  “I know,” Sally said. “He made me promise not to stop until I had you somewhere safe, and I can’t return until I get Mabel to safety. But we’ll figure this out together, and if you want to go back for him you’ve got my full support.”

  Leia slumped against the seat as the fatigue and pain she’d been ignoring all night finally caught up with her. Sally was right. Simply running back into a swarm of criminals with guns would get her nowhere.

  She glanced at Mabel. Somehow, due to the soothing sound of her mother’s voice and the moving vehicle, she’d fallen asleep in her car seat again.

  “Tell me what’s happening,” Sally said. “Then we can figure it out together. All Jay told me was that he was an undercover cop, Dad was somehow an informant and you two aren’t back together.”

  “Back together?” Leia blinked. “You knew about us?”

  “We all did,” Sally said. “Not the full extent of whatever was going on between you last summer, but the looks you exchanged made it pretty clear. Quinn, Rose and I went to Dad together and told him to make it clear Jay had his blessing to pursue a relationship.”

  “But he said no?” Leia guessed.

  “Yup,” Sally said. She cast her sister a quick side glance and a slight smile before turning her attention back to the road. “That’s why we were all so insistent about hiring him back. We thought you two could patch it up.”

  “Oh, I had no idea.” Leia felt like the stuffing had been knocked out of her. “Well, next time talk to me instead of playing matchmaker.”

  They lapsed into silence as the truck drove deeper into the night. Leia felt inside her jacket. The locked box and baby photo album were still there. How could she even explain everything to Sally? Logically, the way Sally would. She took a deep breath.

  “Simple facts first,” Leia said. “Our top priority is calling the cops and getting them to storm the farmhouse and rescue Jay. As he told you, Jay is an undercover police officer investigating a cold-case serial killer called the Phantom Killer. We need to avoid revealing that about him, though, if at all possible, so that he maintains his cover. Dad contacted him last year saying there might be evidence hidden in the house that proved the serial killer was Franklin Vamana.”

  Sally’s eyes widened. “Of Vamana Enterprises? Brother to Esther Vamana of the Indigo Iris makeup empire?”

  “Yup,” Leia said. “Criminals showed up tonight, cut the phone lines, took down the cell tower and ransacked the
house, looking for something connected to Vamana. I tried using the old computer to email you, Quinn and Rose, but one of the criminals shot up the machine.”

  “Sorry he beat me to it,” Sally said. “I hate that thing.”

  “Jay and I found this locked box hidden behind a brick in the attic,” Leia went on. She pulled it out of her jacket and held it up. “So far we haven’t been able to open it.”

  “Did you try Mom’s birthday?” Sally asked.

  “First thing I tried,” Leia said. “Then their anniversary, all our birthdays, names, Dad’s favorite Bible verses and everything I could think of.”

  Sally paused a long moment and eyed the box.

  “Well, worst-case scenario I have some tools back at the garage that will get it open,” she said, turning her eyes back to the road. “I spent a lot of time imagining what Dad could be hiding in the attic. Never guessed it could be secret information about a cold-case serial killer. Any idea why he had it?”

  “This is where it gets complicated,” Leia said. “Dad told Jay that his best friend from high school—”

  “In other words Mom,” Sally interjected.

  Leia swallowed hard.

  “That she went and worked in Toronto for a few months after graduation,” Leia said. “There she got involved with Franklin Vamana and saw him kill someone. She was on a trip with him in Niagara Falls at the time and he’d taken her ID and money. She called Dad and he came and rescued her. Franklin threatened to kill Mom and her kid if she told anyone, so she reported it to police anonymously.”

  “Whoa.” Sally blew out a long breath. “Part of me is very surprised—”

  “And part of you thinks it all makes sense?” Leia asked. “Yeah, me, too.”

  “Is it just me or does that sound like Dad’s fairy tale about the farmer and the queen?” Sally asked.

  “It’s not just you,” Leia said. “The criminals back at the house were actually looking for Mom, but they knew her by her maiden name. Also, I found a photo album of my baby pictures in the attic.” She pressed her lips together and forced herself to say the words. “It looks like I was born in March or April, not June. Which would mean Franklin Vamana is potentially my biological father, not Dad.”

  For a second Sally didn’t move. Then she reached over, took Leia’s hand and squeezed it a long moment. “You know that won’t change anything between us, right? Or for Rose and Quinn. We love you. Dad loved you. In Dad’s eyes and heart you were his daughter. No question. Nothing in the entire world has the power to change that.”

  Tears filled Leia’s eyes and slipped down her cheeks. “Thank you.”

  Sally pulled her hand away and put both hands on the wheel again.

  “Just to be clear, though, you’re not getting two birthdays, so you’re going to have to choose one,” Sally said. Then she blinked. “Did you try your real birthday?”

  “No,” Leia said. “I never even considered it. I don’t know what it would be.”

  “Keep the day and year the same,” Sally said, “and just try a different month.”

  “Okay.”

  Could it really be that simple? Leia typed the new date in. There was a click and the box opened. She lifted the lid. There inside sat an old mini cassette player like the kind her dad used to dictate notes into. She held it up for Sally to see and then hit Play.

  “Hello, my darlings, it’s Mommy.” Her mother’s voice suddenly filled the truck. Leia reached over, grabbed her sister’s arm and squeezed it. “The doctor told me I won’t be able to see you grow up. Which makes me a little bit sad, because you’re the most important and special things in the world to me and I’d love to be there for you.”

  Sally sniffled softly.

  “So instead, I’ve written you a bunch of very special stories to remember, about four very strong and brave princesses,” Annie’s voice went on. “As Daddy knows, the stories all have an important and secret meaning that one day God will help you share to the important people who need to hear it. The first one is about a very busy bee-boy named Jonna Hat and how the princesses rescued him from a big bad guy called Shadow.”

  Leia stopped the tape recorder. A shiver ran down her limbs.

  “They were Mom’s stories,” Sally said. “Not Dad’s. She wrote them, not him. That’s why he never came up with any new ones, no matter how many times we asked.”

  “Mom witnessed the Phantom Killer murder a busboy named Jonathan,” Leia said slowly. The shivers grew colder. “In the story, the Shadow hid Jonna Hat under the fountain in a park between a building with a red tin roof and a giant oak tree.”

  “Each story explained in a lot of detail how the Shadow captured people,” Sally said, “and basically provided a map of how the princesses found them. I drew them all out once on the computer when I was a kid.”

  Hopefully Jay still had the backups of them. If not, she had no doubt her mother had left them enough detail that they could recreate them from her stories.

  “Do you think the Phantom Killer, like the Shadow, really hid all his treasures near two waterfalls joined by a river and a rainbow?” Sally added.

  “Probably not,” Leia said. “But maybe there are more hidden codes and information in the stories. Jay says his mentor knows an amazing tech analyst.”

  Police may have refused to listen to her mother two decades ago and pursue the case or been bribed by Franklin Vamana to bury it. Leia couldn’t imagine how much it had hurt her parents to know a killer had gone free and that no one would take them seriously. How desperate they must have been to protect their baby girl from his revenge. But Leia knew that now the police would have to listen, because she would never drop it and never stop fighting to see the cold cases solved and justice reign. No matter how long it took.

  She just prayed Jay would survive and be there to see it.

  Headlights appeared in the rearview mirror, growing larger and approaching fast. She glanced at the speedometer. If Sally was already over the speed limit, she shuddered to think just how fast this person was driving. The sound of gunfire sounded behind them. Willie was leaning out of the window, driving with one hand and shooting at them with the other.

  Bullets clanged against the back of the truck.

  Leia pulled the gun she’d taken off him earlier.

  “You okay to drive while I shoot?” Leia asked.

  “Absolutely,” Sally said. Her hands gripped the steering wheel. “You’ve got this.”

  “So do you,” Leia said. She rolled the window down again, loosened her seat belt as much as she could.

  Sally took one look at her sleeping baby, then hit the gas, pushing the truck faster and faster as it raced into the night.

  Leia leaned out of the window and fired. Her bullets clanged as they hit the hood of the car behind her. Sally swerved sharply. Willie fired again. The back window shattered, sending a spray of safety glass raining down ineffectually over the hood of Mabel’s car seat. The baby woke up and started wailing. Leia gritted her teeth and fired again. The car’s front tire exploded, sending the vehicle spinning around and around on the slick rain-soaked road. A crunch filled the air as the back corner of the car slammed into a tree. Sally yanked the wheel and spun the truck around in a tight controlled turn until they were facing the car.

  Leia leaped from the truck and ran toward the car, holding the gun out with both hands.

  “Out of the car now!” she shouted before Willie had even registered what had happened. “Now! Don’t even think of reaching for that gun!”

  He stumbled from the car and almost fell to his knees, as if dizzy from the impact. She didn’t give him a moment to stand. In an instant, Sally was by her side, tying Willie’s hands behind his back, gagging his mouth and getting him to lie facedown on the ground, while Leia stood guard over him.

  Sally patted him down quickly, practically shouting wit
h victory as she found a cell phone. She held it to his face to unlock the screen with facial recognition.

  “We’ve got a cell phone signal!” Sally’s face beamed with joy while determination shone in her eyes. “Time to call 9-1-1, get them out there and end this whole thing.”

  Leia glanced at the car. The motor was still running, and the keys dangled from the ignition.

  “To answer your question,” Sally said before Leia even could ask it, “it’ll take me less than five minutes to verify the car’s still safe to drive and change the tire if there’s a spare, if you’ll watch over Willie here and keep an ear out for Mabel.”

  Leia pressed her lips together. “Will you be okay if I left you?”

  “Absolutely,” Sally said. “Willie’s not going anywhere, so I can drive off with Mabel in the truck at the first sign of trouble and, most importantly, I’ll be on the phone with 9-1-1 the whole time. Just start the call now, pass the phone to me when you leave and make sure I’ve got a gun.”

  “Got it.” Leia’s chin rose. “Thanks.”

  Fresh determination filled her core as she took in a deep breath. She was going back to the farmhouse to rescue Jay.

  Just please still be alive.

  TWELVE

  Pain filled Jay’s shoulders as he sat on a wooden chair in the living room of the Dukes farmhouse with both hands tied tightly behind his back. He could hear the ticking of the grandfather clock mingling with the light patter of rain outside but had no idea how long he’d been at the criminals’ mercy. From what he could tell, they were down to just two armed men now. Dunlop was dead; Willie had gone after Sally and Leia, and Ben had apparently disappeared into the night after escaping the burning barn.

  At first Stan and Ross had seemed happy just to yell abuse at him a bit, tie him up tightly and threaten terrible things. Then they headed off to keep searching the house, considering him to be nothing but an unfortunate nuisance unrelated to whatever they were looking for, leaving him to worry for Leia’s safety and think about the fact his evidence wall had been swallowed up in the barn fire, which mercifully the rain had then turned to smoldering ashes before it could spread.