There should still be a whole bunch of cold cuts in the fridge. Her stomach grumbled at the thought. Maybe a sandwich was a good idea.
She heard the creak of a door. It wasn’t very loud, and she could swear it was coming from the first floor. Maybe Joseph was awake after all.
She turned and left the kitchen, making her way to the foyer, hoping that once there she’d either see him or figure out where he’d gone.
She was nearly there when she heard a faint step, so light she thought for a moment she had imagined it. She walked out into the foyer and swiveled her head. Her eyes fell on the front door and she noticed that it was ever so slightly ajar. That made no sense.
She turned and screamed as she came face-to-face with a man in a mask.
6
Jeremiah awoke to the sound of Cindy screaming. He vaulted out of bed, yanked open his door and ran down the hall. The sound had come from far away, so it couldn’t be from just across the hall. He also registered as he ran that it was a sad statement on their recent lives that he could hear a scream and know that it was hers and not Geanie’s or someone else’s.
He made it to the stairs and glanced down. He saw moonlight shining on Cindy’s hair and he could see someone dressed all in black struggling with her, their hand clamped over her mouth.
Jeremiah vaulted the stairs, crouching to distribute the impact throughout his body as he landed so he wouldn’t break anything. At the thud of his landing the man jerked toward him.
Cindy bit the hand that was covering her mouth and the man made a sharp hissing motion but did not let go. Jeremiah blinked. It took years of training, experience, not to react to something that painful.
Jeremiah coiled himself to lunge, trying to see if the man was armed before he did so. The last thing he needed was for the intruder to cut him or Cindy because he failed to see a knife.
The man seemed to have his hands full with just Cindy, though, who was writhing and thrashing. She brought her foot down on his and elbowed him in the stomach.
He flung her away from him so hard that she fell and slid several feet across the marble floor, and turned to face Jeremiah head-on. Jeremiah brought his hands up, and began to circle, sizing up his opponent.
The man stared at him from behind a mask. In the darkness Jeremiah couldn’t make out the color of his eyes. He lifted his hands, lunged forward as if to attack, then at the last moment threw himself sideways.
He hit the door at a run and flung it open. Jeremiah chased after him. A moment later his bare feet were slapping against the asphalt of Joseph’s driveway. The thief was fast and he was already on the lawn heading for the woods.
Jeremiah heard the roar of a car engine a moment before a car rounded the last bend of the road leading up the hill. High beams hit him square in the face and Jeremiah staggered to a halt.
“Police!” someone shouted.
Jeremiah pointed. “The intruder went that way!” he shouted.
He heard a car door open and the sound of running feet as one of the officers gave chase. Jeremiah knew, though, the man would be too late. He bit back a curse, struggling to bring himself under control and hide his frustration. The police had terrible timing. Thirty seconds earlier or thirty seconds later and the guy would be in either their custody or Jeremiah’s.
The second officer got out of the car and approached Jeremiah cautiously. Just then Joseph, Cindy, and Geanie came out the front door. Jeremiah could hear another engine revving as someone pushed their car up the drive too fast. It sounded like there was another one just behind it, too.
Seconds later both of the other cars had parked. Two more officers had gone after the first and Mark was striding toward them, his face ashen.
“What happened here, is everyone okay?”
“Cindy startled an intruder,” Jeremiah said. “I chased him out here when your men intercepted me he got away.”
Mark stepped farther forward. “Are you hurt?” he asked Cindy.
“Just shaken.”
“Okay, let’s move this party inside,” he said.
Jeremiah took one last look out toward the forest, furious that the man had escaped, before turning and following the rest of them inside.
In the foyer Cindy recounted her experience of finding the intruder.
“And I’m guessing you heard her scream and came running?” Mark said drily as he glanced over at Jeremiah.
“Don’t I always?” Jeremiah asked with a shrug.
“Samaritan,” Mark muttered. It was an old joke between the two of them.
“He had grabbed Cindy and had his hand over her mouth when I...got down here,” Jeremiah said, omitting the part about vaulting the staircase.
Cindy either hadn’t seen that or didn’t let on. “I tried to bite him, elbow him, everything. When he saw Jeremiah though he threw me onto the floor.”
“I thought he was going to attack me, but instead he went out the door,” Jeremiah finished.
“Did either of you notice anything in particular about him?”
“He was close to my height, but he was dressed all in black, wearing a mask, can’t tell you anything else about him,” Jeremiah said.
“When he had hold of me, he did say something,” Cindy said, looking suddenly uneasy.
“Well, what was it?” Mark prodded.
Cindy glanced quickly at Geanie and then just as quickly away. “He said, ‘tell him there won’t be any happy ending’. That was it. His voice was low, raspy.”
There was silence for a moment and then Geanie sat down abruptly on the stairs. She looked like she was about to cry. “Who would try to sabotage our wedding?” she sobbed after a moment.
“That’s what we need to find out,” Mark said grimly. “At least now we have proof that that’s what’s going on here. I think it’s safe to rule yesterday’s events as anything but accidents.”
An officer came in, interrupting them.
“What is it?” Mark asked tersely.
“We discovered that the alarm system for the main house and grounds were tampered with, that’s why no audible alarm sounded. It was a real slick job, too, the guy knew what he was doing. Simply cutting the alarm triggers a signal but he worked around it somehow. He took out the phone line at the same time.”
“Then how did you guys know to show up?” Joseph asked, sounding bewildered.
“The independent system halfway down your hill that monitors all approaches up he missed. That triggers a silent alarm to the alarm company who called us,” Mark said. “And we tried to call you, but this explains why your phone line was down. It doesn’t explain, though, why you weren’t picking up your cell phone. I tried calling a dozen times on my way here.”
“Battery’s dead,” Joseph said, flushing uncomfortably. I wore it out texting Geanie after we both turned in for the night.”
Mark rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath.
“You should have called my phone,” Jeremiah said quietly.
“Well, clearly I wasn’t thinking straight. It’s been a bit of a crazy night, you know?” Mark snapped.
Jeremiah sensed more had happened than Mark was sharing, but he didn’t press. The detective would tell them what was going on in due time.
Another officer came in. “No sign of the intruder.”
Jeremiah wasn’t surprised but Mark looked like he was ready to kill someone. “Great, just great,” the detective said, heaving an exasperated sigh.
Jeremiah held his tongue, not wanting to end up the focus of the other man’s frustration. He glanced at Cindy who was staring at Geanie with a worried look on her face. He knew it had killed her to admit in front of the other woman what the assailant had said to her, but the truth had to come out sooner or later. Geanie deserved to know that she really was in danger. He could only imagine what might have happened if it had been Geanie who surprised the intruder and not Cindy. This whole night could have easily turned tragic.
Mark passed a hand in front of hi
s face. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to regroup in the morning, put our heads together, and see if we can’t figure this out. I’m hoping some sleep will help us all to think more clearly. I know I, for one, can use the rest.”
“Okay,” Joseph said, sitting down beside Geanie and putting his arm around her. She leaned her head against his shoulder and nodded.
“It’s settled then. I’ll be back here in the morning. Hopefully then we can straighten this entire mess out so we can all get on with our lives.”
Mark stationed officers outside, roaming the grounds of the mansion even though everyone agreed that whoever had tried to break in probably wouldn’t try again that night. Once they were in place and the rest of the officers had left Cindy took Mark and Jeremiah into the sitting room.
“We need to talk,” she told them both.
“Is everything okay?” Jeremiah asked.
“It’s fine. It’s just that I have some new information about Paul,” Cindy said.
“That’s okay, I don’t need to hear it. And you can drop the hunt, but thanks for all your help,” Mark said.
“Oh, you want to pick it back up after we figure out what’s going on with Geanie. That makes perfect sense. We can’t afford to be distracted from that,” Cindy said.
“You don’t understand. I’m not sure...sure I want to pursue this anymore,” Mark said.
Cindy stared at him, convinced she couldn’t have heard right. “Why? This has been so important to you. And now we’re getting closer. I thought the truth was all that mattered.”
“Yeah, but that was before,” Mark mumbled.
“Before?” Jeremiah asked sharply.
“What’s happened? Has someone threatened you? Are you worried you’ll find out something you wished you hadn’t?” she pressed.
“No, it’s nothing like that.”
“Then what is it like? Before what?”
“Before I found out I was going to be a father.”
There was silence for a moment as what he’d just said sunk in.
“Congratulations,” Jeremiah said, the first to speak.
“Mark, Traci’s pregnant? That’s wonderful!” Cindy said, finding her voice.
“Yes. Wonderful. Terrifying. All of it. The point is, I’ve got to start being more careful, take less risks. I want to be there for my kid as he or she grows up, you know?”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” Jeremiah said.
Cindy took a deep breath. She knew Mark wasn’t going to like what she was about to say. “That sounds good and noble and like the right thing to do, but I know you. Not knowing is going to keep eating away at you year after year and eventually it’s going to be too much. I think you owe it to your child to find out the truth so you can finally have some peace, some closure, and be able to focus all your attention on them.”
She braced herself, waiting for him to argue, to explode, something. Instead he just stood there quietly. She glanced at Jeremiah who just shrugged. She was right. She knew she was. Whether or not Mark was ready to deal with that was another story altogether.
“I need to think,” Mark said at last, sounding very tired. He pressed his hand to his forehead as though he had a headache. “It’s just...a lot...you know.”
“I know,” she said. “We’re here for you, though,” she said, reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve always been there for us.”
“Thank you,” Mark said, voice shaking slightly. “Look, I need to call it a night. We’ll regroup tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay,” Jeremiah said softly. “Try to get some rest. I think we’re all going to need it.”
“I have a terrible feeling that you’re right about that,” Mark said.
As soon as Mark had left Jeremiah turned to Cindy. “Well, that was a surprise.”
“It sure was,” she said quietly.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just, Mark and Traci are having a baby. That’s amazing.”
Jeremiah smiled. “People have babies all the time.”
“I know it’s just usually not the people I know. I mean, really know. I almost feel like I’m going to be an aunt.”
He grinned at her. “You’d make a wonderful aunt.”
“You think?”
“I do. I also think you’d make a wonderful mother.”
As soon as the words escaped his mouth he regretted them.
Cindy looked up at him sharply and her cheeks turned red. He forced himself to smile. “Come on, let’s raid Joseph’s refrigerator, I’m hungry. Last one there makes the sandwiches.”
“You’re on,” Cindy said before racing toward the kitchen.
Jeremiah ran behind her, but let her win by just a hair. She turned, laughing, her hand on the refrigerator handle.
“I’d like a roast beef with cheddar cheese.”
“At least you didn’t ask for ham,” he said with a smile.
“Hmmm...maybe I should change my order,” she teased.
“Do so at your own peril,” he threatened.
“I don’t know,” she said, starting to pull open the refrigerator.
He grabbed her hand and held it a moment, rubbing his thumb lightly over the back of it. Her hands were soft, they always were. Impulsively he brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it before letting it go.
She stared at him in shock. “What was that for?” she asked at last.
“To distract you while I get the roast beef,” he said as he yanked open the refrigerator.
It was a lame lie, but it was the best one he could come up with.
Cindy felt like she was up for most of the rest of the night replaying in her mind the moment where Jeremiah had kissed her hand. She had no idea what to make of it. He had never done anything like that in the past. Around five in the morning she finally convinced herself that she was reading too much into it.
She woke up a few hours later to realize that she was the last up, though not by much it seemed. Joseph was busy in the kitchen making waffles while Jeremiah and Geanie were keeping him company.
“He cooks, too? I think he’s a keeper,” Cindy said to Geanie.
“You know it. He likes to cook, can you believe that?”
“It’s a guy thing. I swear more guys actually enjoy cooking than girls do.”
“You might even be right about that,” Joseph said.
The waffles were amazing as it happened and Cindy had hers slathered with strawberries and whipped cream.
“A girl could get used to this,” she teased as she finished her last bite.
“Think of all the slumber parties we can have and we can make Joseph cook breakfast in the morning,” Geanie said.
“Now that is a plan.”
“Are guys invited to these slumber parties?” Jeremiah asked with a smile.
“No!” Cindy and Geanie chorused together and then immediately started laughing.
“Wait, I can’t come to the party, but I’m expected to cook for it?” Joseph said.
“You’re catching on, Sweetie,” Geanie said.
“I think I’m being used.”
Jeremiah smiled. “Yeah, but something tells me you don’t mind.”
Joseph lowered his voice and leaned in closer. “I don’t, but don’t tell them that.”
Cindy started laughing even harder. It felt good to find a moment of semi-normality amidst the chaos. Then again, normality was a hard word to apply to either Joseph or Geanie.
“Alright, I’ll clean up, you kids go have fun,” Geanie said after a moment.
“Best wife ever,” Joseph beamed.
“Technically I don’t think you’re allowed to say that until after the wedding,” Cindy said.
“You have lousy rules,” Joseph said, fake pouting. “Actually, Mark called and he’s not going to be over until about noon so I thought this would be a good time to take another run at the tuxedo shop.”
“Okay,” Jeremiah said. “Let me go grab
the shoes I’ll be wearing and I’m all set to go.
“I’ve got a couple of things to do,” Cindy said.
The others nodded and she hurried back to her room where she got her phone and called Gerald.
He picked up quickly. “I wondered how long you’d be able to contain your curiosity and your thirst for knowledge,” he said good-naturedly.
“Longer than I thought I was going to be able to,” she admitted. “Things have been...crazy...here.”
“You’ll have to tell me about it.”
“Some other time. Right now I want to focus on sorting out the Paul issue. So, what else can you tell me about the cult?”
“Right to business. Alright. Let’s see, the cult was based in the mountains above Pine Springs on the site of an old campground. That same campground was later purchased and refitted to make Green Pastures. Thanks to the land’s history the local churches were able to purchase it fairly cheaply.”
“So, when was the cult there?”
“Twenty-six years ago a man named Matthew appeared seemingly from out of nowhere. He had half a dozen people with him from the accounts I’ve been able to dig up. He was preaching peace, that people should lay down their arms, love their neighbors, all harmless stuff on the surface. One of his tenants was that material possessions, corporate jobs, and things of that nature corrupt people and turn them from loving, innocent creatures into greedy, manipulative people.”
“And I’m guessing some people bought into what he was saying.”
“More than you can imagine. He actually managed to get himself a radio show if you can believe that and people came from several different states to learn from him and to join his nature-loving group. This was the late eighties. It was post-hippy and pre-environmentalist and a lot of people with those kinds of attitudes had nowhere to go. He provided not only an avenue for expression but also a place to live and food to eat.”
“In exchange for all their worldly goods.”
For His Name's Sake (Psalm 23 Mysteries) Page 6
