“They may need to take your car to have it processed,” she explained. “It will be up to Nelson.”
Alex waved his right hand; his left was tenderly testing one of his front teeth. “Who is Jonah?” he repeated.
“He’s the pastor of our church, and he’s also Mary Ellen’s uncle.”
“Uncle? She has an uncle you know? You’ve been holding out on me!”
“Not intentionally. I just never got around to telling you. Besides, it’s a long story. He hasn’t seen her in ten years.”
Alex sighed. “Then she probably doesn’t even remember him.”
Nick finished his phone call. “Alex, you need to stay here. Nelson and Harris are on the way over. They need to talk to you and check out the car. And a unit found the black Town Car—it was abandoned about a mile away.”
“No sign of the occupants?”
“Nope, that car was burned. We had the plate, and everyone knew what to look for. It’s a rental anyway, so it makes sense for the goons to hop to another set of wheels.”
“If I’m staying, that means you’re leaving,” Alex said.
“We’re going to see Jonah. I tried calling but didn’t get an answer. Since it’s lunchtime, everyone might be out, but I want to be certain.” He started for the door and waved for Carly to follow.
“Sounds like the story is where you’re going.”
“Sorry, Alex, but you need to wait here and face the music.” Carly smiled grimly and followed Nick out to the plain car.
• • •
“On the phone Nelson told me that ICE plans to set up on the church,” Nick said as he put the car in drive and made a U-turn. “They could be there shortly. They think Sperry might want to talk to Jonah. There might be more going on than we know for ICE to be so aggressive. I’m surprised they jumped Alex like they did.”
“Sperry took a chance sending those three here to rough Alex up.”
“And at least partially failed because we have another one of his employees in custody. But it tells me there’s an urgency in his search for Mary Ellen.”
Something in his voice made her turn and study his profile. “You’re worried because Jonah didn’t answer.”
Nick nodded. “Someone should be there; someone should have answered the phone.”
“We’ll be there in a minute.” She reached over and squeezed one of his hands on the steering wheel.
Though the ride was over quickly, Carly found herself worrying as they pulled into an almost-empty church lot. She figured at the very least, the construction workers should be there. One of the buildings adjacent to the sanctuary was being remodeled into a coffee shop, bookstore, and fellowship hall.
“Do you want to call for a unit?”
Nick hesitated. “No, he might be in the prayer room. He wouldn’t answer the phone if he was there. Let’s check that first.”
They got out of the car, and Carly slung her backpack over her shoulder. Together they walked toward the sanctuary. They reached the door as Veronica came out.
“Veronica, where is everyone?” Nick asked.
“Jonah canceled construction today. He’s been in prayer all morning.” Her face took on a pained expression. “He’s fasting for his niece. You’re not here for prayer?”
“Not exactly,” Carly said. “We wanted to talk to Jonah.”
“You’ll find him in the prayer room. I’m on my way to pick up some supplies. I’ll be back in a few.”
They thanked Veronica, then headed down the sanctuary aisle to the small room at the left of the stage and found Jonah inside. He looked as though he hadn’t slept.
He brightened when he saw them. “News?”
“No. Sorry, Jonah,” Nick said. “We still haven’t found her, but we have heard from her.”
Carly told him about Mary Ellen’s visit to Alex.
The pastor looked deflated. “She returned the car and disappeared? I’ve been here all night, praying for her life, her soul . . .”
Carly reached out and touched his arm. “I thank God she brought the baby back. And I know we’ll find her. We came here to warn you.” She told him about the apartment fire and Alex’s beating. Jonah paled but said nothing. Carly didn’t sugarcoat anything. She was certain they needed to find Mary Ellen, and she was also certain Jonah needed to know exactly how dangerous Sperry was in case he did show up at church.
“Thank you both,” Jonah said when she finished. “I appreciate it. This is a scary situation—the worst is not knowing. But I agree with you: prayer was answered with the return of the baby. And I’m glad my trust is in an all-knowing God.”
“Amen,” Nick said. “ICE will be watching the church later. Someone will probably contact you.”
“What will you two be doing?”
Nick looked at Carly, and she shrugged. “Officially we’re off, but . . .”
“She means that we’ll probably be looking for Mary Ellen on our own time.”
“I appreciate that. Why don’t the three of us pray so this day continues on the right note,” Jonah suggested.
They each knelt, and Pastor Rawlings led them in a heartfelt prayer for Mary Ellen and the safety of all law enforcement personnel.
• • •
They left Jonah in the prayer room and walked slowly back through the sanctuary. Carly found she had more respect for Jonah than before. He’d made a hard, shocking choice to let go of Mary Ellen ten years ago, revealing a lack of faith that made him more real, more human in her eyes. We’re all faithless at times, she thought, glancing at Nick and thinking of their issues, but the bottom line is that God is always faithful.
Nick was quiet, but he reached over and grabbed her hand as they walked between the rows of empty seats. Preoccupied, she heard a noise in the lobby and assumed it was Veronica.
It registered too late that Veronica probably wasn’t back yet. Nick had just put his hand on the door to pull it open when someone on the other side shoved it with force. The door smacked Nick in the face, wrenching his hand out of hers. He went down hard.
“Nick!” Carly was thrown off-balance, and before she regained it, she was seized from behind and held in a viselike grip.
35
THE HARD STEEL OF A GUN BARREL pressed into her cheek. She looked in horror as blood poured down Nick’s face from a gash the door left on the right side of his forehead.
“Be still.” A harsh voice spoke in her ear.
A second man appeared on her left, pointing a gun at Nick, who looked dazed as he stood and brought a hand to his forehead in an effort to stop the bleeding.
“Don’t move!” the man ordered Nick. “Slowly take your gun out of the shoulder holster and toss it my way.”
Nick’s confused gaze flicked from the gun to Carly and back again. He complied, and the man scooped the gun up and shoved it in his pants. When he grinned, Carly didn’t miss a gold tooth shining in the middle of his mouth. This must be one of the goons who attacked Alex.
“What about you?” the man holding Carly asked. “Where’s your gun?”
When she didn’t answer right away, he jerked his hand toward Gold Tooth. “Hit him again.”
“It’s in my backpack!” Carly said as she strained against his grip.
He ripped the pack from her shoulder with his free hand, half-opening it in the process, and then upended it, dumping everything at his feet. He pushed the contents around with the toe of his shoe. She didn’t have much: wallet, brush, spare set of handcuffs, and off-duty weapon. He didn’t bend down to pick the gun up; instead, he stepped on it. His grip on her did not loosen.
Sour, hot breath assailed her nostrils as he spoke into her ear again. “Now, I’ll make this quick because we’re in a hurry. My boss has a plane waiting. I want the package, and I want it now.”
“What package am I supposed to have, Casper?” Carly asked, shifting a bit so she could see his face.
His eyes registered surprise that she knew his name, and he cursed. Gold Tooth ramme
d an elbow into Nick’s gut, doubling him over. Blood now covered half his face and dripped to his shoulder.
“Hey!” Carly struggled against Casper’s grasp.
“I said hurry.” The gun barrel dug into her cheek. “Give me the package and I’ll just lock you up and leave.”
Nick looked up from one knee, blinking as blood ran into one eye, voice breathless after the stomach shot. “If you’re after something that would be evidence, what makes you think we’d have it on our person? If we had evidence, we’d put it where it belonged—at the station.”
“I’m not stupid. I know the pastor is that little brat’s uncle. She must be hiding here, and if she’s here, so is the package she stole.” He pressed the gun harder into Carly’s face. “And if she’s not here, I want to know where she is. Now.”
Carly leaned back as far as she could from the pressure of the gun barrel. She could see the man holding the gun on Nick from the corner of her eye. She knew that if the tables were turned and they were on the other side of the gun barrels, she and Nick would finally be close to Sperry. But how to get there?
“We don’t have your package, Casper.” She spit the words out, angry at having a gun in her face and furious that Nick was bleeding and she couldn’t help him.
Just then there was a noise from the stage. Rawlings had come out of the prayer room. “What’s going on out here?”
Everyone turned toward him. Gold Tooth raised his gun in the pastor’s direction, and Nick lunged, hitting him in the midsection and driving him into a row of chairs.
The gun barrel left Carly’s face to take aim at Nick, and Casper’s grip on her loosened. Free to move a bit, Carly jerked her head back and connected with the bad guy’s face, feeling the satisfying crunch of cartilage. At the same time, she reached for the hand that held the gun and grabbed with both her hands. Once she had hold, she jerked his wrist down hard on the back of a chair. The man was forced to let go and cursed as the gun flew toward the door.
Carly drove an elbow into his face and then leaped toward the gun, picked it up, and pivoted to hold it on Casper, who had fallen to his knees and was crawling toward her gun.
“Don’t touch it!” she ordered. The man who’d once had her in his grasp stopped moving and looked up at her from the floor, blood dripping from his nose. “Believe me, I will shoot.”
Casper was the classic picture of a deer in the headlights. Carly knew then that there was nothing tough about him in spite of his earlier bluster.
“Nick, you okay?” she asked without taking her eyes from Casper.
“I’m good. Jonah is with me. And I have cuffs for this guy.”
“I have a pair for Casper.”
Nick was at her side a second later. He picked up her gun and then quickly ratcheted her handcuffs onto Casper.
It was then Carly heard the sirens, lots of them. She turned to Nick, who’d just pulled Casper to his feet.
“Sounds like the cavalry,” he said as he wiped blood from his eye. “Better late than never. Jonah and I have these guys. Why don’t you go check?”
Carly nodded and left the sanctuary. She stepped outside the church to see four black-and-whites, three black SUVs she knew were ICE vehicles, and two plain cars turn in to the parking lot, sirens wailing.
Wondering how on earth they knew they were needed, but not complaining, she held her gun at her side and raised four fingers on her right hand. The sirens shut down as the vehicles pulled to the sidewalk and came to a stop. Sergeant Nelson jumped out of one of the plain cars with Alex on his heels.
“Everything okay?” Nelson asked. Behind him came Jacobs, Wiley, and a few ICE agents.
“Now, yeah. Nick needs medics for a cut, but we have two in custody. How’d you know to come here?”
“Boxer talked about their next stop,” Alex said as Nelson directed one uniformed officer to request medics and another to help Nick and Jonah. “They were to come right to the church and kill the pastor if he wouldn’t tell them where the girl was.”
Nick and Jonah walked out of the church, the two handcuffed Sperry employees between them.
Jacobs walked her way and smiled. “Guess it’s getting to be a trend, Trouble. Now you’re dragging Sergeant Anderson into things.”
Nick answered, “Nah, she doesn’t drag me into anything. We just make a good team when stuff comes up.”
36
THE GOONS WERE HANDED OFF to ICE, who quickly moved in to take control of the entire situation. One of the agents gave Carly back Nick’s and her cuffs as they replaced them with their own restraints. Paramedics rolled up shortly thereafter and looked after Nick. Carly learned from Nelson that as soon as he and Harris had arrived at Alex’s house, Boxer started talking.
“He wouldn’t shut up. Says he’ll testify. It made Wiley and ICE extremely happy.”
“Did he say where Sperry is?”
Wiley nodded. “He’s trying to charter a plane out of the country. Agents are on their way to the airport as we speak.” They were standing out in front of the church. ICE was impounding a black Cadillac. Carly assumed the vehicle was Casper and Gold Tooth’s.
“Not disappointed that the feds are whisking this all away, are you?” Jacobs asked.
Carly sighed. “Frankly, I’m tired. I really don’t care who handles this as long as all involved parties go to jail for a long time. The only thing I do have a problem with is that Mary Ellen Barber is still outstanding.”
Nelson nodded. “We need to debrief about all of this. I think here will be as good a place as any. Maybe by the time we’re finished, Sperry will be in custody.” He and Wiley stepped to Jonah to ask him where they could hold a quick meeting.
Carly took the opportunity to check in with Nick, who’d just had his head bandaged.
“You’re going to need stitches, I bet.”
“Yep,” Nick agreed. He asked the medics to stand by in case he needed transport.
She reached out and gently touched his face. “Does it hurt?”
“It smarts a little.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “I can hear it now—I’ll get stitches, and before long my nickname will be Zipper Head.”
Carly laughed and grasped his hand in both of hers. “For me it will be GQ Zipper Head.”
Nelson joined them. “We’re going to review the day’s events in the church. Why don’t you make your way in there?” he said to Carly before turning to Nick. “You go get your head taken care of. Is it bad?”
“I think I just need some stitches.” He looked down at all the blood on his shirt, and Carly winced. “It looks worse than it is, Sarge. You know head wounds bleed a lot.”
“Even so, get it taken care of. You can file paper later.”
Nick nodded, then took off his shoulder holster and handed it to Carly. “Take care of this for me.”
“Sure.”
Before he climbed into the medic van, Nick squeezed Carly’s hand and apologized. “Sorry to leave you here to do all the explaining.”
“That’s okay. The next big mess we’re involved in will be all yours.”
“Deal.”
With that, the medics closed the door and the van left for the hospital.
Alex joined her as she walked toward the church. “How is it you hitched a ride with Nelson?” she asked.
“It was easy. He didn’t want me to slip out of telling him about my visit with Mary Ellen.”
“And you’re a witness to a big story now. So why do you look so glum?”
“I’ve had enough ICE to last a lifetime.” He shuddered. “They call this a sanctuary, don’t they? Think the good pastor will give me sanctuary from the storm troopers?”
Carly laughed. “It doesn’t work that way, but sure, give it your best shot.” She watched as Alex hurried inside. Things in the parking lot had calmed down a bit. The medics were gone with Nick, but ICE agents were talking to Casper and Gold Tooth and going through the Cadillac with a fine-tooth comb.
“Trouble.”
She looked toward the church door as Jacobs waved her over.
“We’ll be ready for you in the office in a few.”
In the sanctuary, Alex was sitting about midway down the aisle with Pastor Rawlings. They were speaking in low tones, and Carly found herself praying that Alex was asking questions that would lead him to a saving relationship. She gathered up her belongings and put them in her backpack before she took a seat. As she sat, she realized that the only worry she felt now was for Mary Ellen. Carly was shocked at the thought that she no longer looked at the girl as a suspect but as a victim. Frowning, she wondered if she was being disloyal to Joe. About a minute later, Alex waved her over to where he and Rawlings sat.
“We were talking about Mary Ellen,” he told her when she plopped down next to him. “Pastor Rawlings was telling me what you told him—you know, about the process with minors, what happens when they’re arrested.”
Carly stretched. “Yeah, it’s kind of strange. I never thought I’d say I was glad I worked juvenile, but I am because now I know a lot about the process.”
“There’s a chance they’ll go easy on her.” Alex looked at her expectantly.
“It all depends on probation’s evaluation and if they decide to try her as an adult. But we still have to find her.”
“Any idea where she might be?” Jonah asked.
Carly shook her head. “At least the men threatening her are in custody.” Even as the words left her mouth, she noted that worry and remorse still hung around Jonah like a shawl.
“Odd, huh.”
“What?” She turned to Alex.
“She kidnapped a baby from your partner, stole my car, and left me to get beat up, and still we feel sorry for her. Go figure.”
Carly set Nick’s shoulder holster on the seat next to her. “I can’t figure, Alex. I want to be mad at her, but I can’t. I find myself hoping that when she’s caught, she’ll get a little leniency. From what Joe has told me, he and Christy might be leaning the same way.”
“The fact that she kept the baby safe probably carries a lot of weight.”
Jonah noticed blood on the carpet from Nick and left to get something to clean it.
Abducted Page 22
