Gabriel: A thriller (Standalone within the Divinus Pueri series)

by Tracie Podger

  Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Now look me in the eye and say that,” she said.

  I couldn’t.

  “Where’s your child, Lily? How safe is he?”

  “I bring you back to your words, if you want to hide, hide in plain sight.”

  “The person who has him, are they part of your fucking cult?”

  “No, someone I met after, when I worked on the farm. A wonderful woman who I’d trust with my life, who I trust with my son.”

  “Tsk, Tsk,” I heard. I spun on my heels at the same time as Lily gasped.

  A figure stood just outside the glow of the moonlight. A hooded figure.

  I glanced at Lily. No matter how many lies she’d told me, the fear on her face and the wet patch that spread down her jeans, between her thighs, could not mask the level of fear she felt.

  “Here, child,” he said.

  I extended my arm when she took a step forward, and held her back.

  I couldn’t make out his face. I tried to place the voice; there was something very familiar about it.

  “You did as you were asked, you will be rewarded,” he said.

  “What did she do?” I asked.

  “She gave me access to your house, Gabriel. She took your wife’s key and I made a copy.”

  “So who smashed my window?”

  “She did, I guess she enjoyed being in your house, wanted a way to get in and out as she pleased.”

  I turned to Lily, “Why…”

  I hadn’t finished my sentence before I saw another enter the barn, a hooded man carrying my child. I ran toward him, I was brought to an abrupt halt at the sight of a gun raised from the man immediately in front of me, my gun.

  Fear caused my heart to race as I looked at the second man, holding a sleeping Taylor in his arms, and who had stepped into the light so I could clearly see him.

  “What have you done?” I whispered.

  “I’m sorry, Gabriel, but this is the only way,” my brother replied.

  Lily fell to her knees, her sobs echoed around the barn. She whispered words I couldn’t decipher. Was she crying from relief or fear?

  “No, Zach, please, no. Not my daughter,” I said.

  “I will give you one chance. Come to me,” the man said.

  I didn’t try to protect her that time, I let her stand and slowly make her way forward. I heard her kneel at his feet, but all the while I kept my eyes on my brother as he walked toward us.

  “What have you done to her? Why is she still asleep?” I asked.

  “She was given something to keep her calm,” the man said.

  I shook my head. “What can I give you? I have the statements, take them but leave me my daughter.”

  He laughed. “Do you think we care about those statements?”

  “My wife was killed for them. So I think you do care about them.”

  “There are far more important things than five pieces of paper, five pieces of fake paper, full of lies.”

  “I know what you want. Please let Taylor go.” I heard. Lily had spoken.

  He swiped his hand, catching the side of her face and rocking her sideways.

  “You’re diseased now. You let him touch you! You’re not pure; we have no need for you now. It’s just about protecting the faith, Rachiel. You know that.” He had used her real name.

  Things happened so fast it took my brain a moment to register. I heard a noise, the bang of a door being opened so fast it bashed against a wall. I heard the rush of feet and then a scream. Lily jumped to her feet and threw herself forward and then I heard a gunshot.

  I ran forward, lowered my shoulder and dove into the man. We fell backwards and rolled across the dusty ground. He smashed the gun into my face and I felt my nose break, hot blood ran down and covered my lips. I aimed as many punches to any part of his body as I could. Eventually he lay still. I scrambled to my feet to see Sam standing, holding a baseball bat, having already swung it into the back of my brother’s legs. Zachary was on his knees, still holding Taylor to his chest.

  The scrape of a body against the ground alerted me to the fact the hooded man was still conscious. I turned on my knees and punched and punched, until his face was a bloodied mess, until he was still again. I didn’t let up until I felt someone grab my shoulders. I could hear talking and I could smell blood. Horses whinnied, stomped, scared by the activities.

  “Gabe,” Sam said. Somewhere in my brain it registered that was the first word he’d ever said.

  I paused my assault; my breathing was ragged as I tried to drag air into my lungs. I fell back onto my heels as Sam stepped forward. I watched him pick up the gun where it had fallen, and as if in slow motion, he aimed it at the man’s forehead and pulled the trigger. The sound echoed and horses panicked, their hooves kicked the wood of their stalls.

  “Taylor,” I said.

  I scrambled on all fours to where she lay, Zachary had fallen forward and his body partially covered hers. I dragged her from him. His mouth opened and closed as if he was trying to speak but was unable to. His eyes were wide with shock as he refused to give in to the pain, or fear at what he’d witnessed.

  “Taylor,” I said, louder that time, I shook her gently.

  She murmured and it was only then that I let the tears fall.

  I heard a gentle cough and turned my head, following the sound. Lily lay face down but had extended an arm, her fingers curled as if clawing the ground. Still holding Taylor I crawled toward her. With one hand I turned her over.

  “Oh, God.” I said.

  She was covered in blood, she held one hand over her chest but it flowed from between her fingers. Sam pulled Taylor from my arms and I let him. I trusted him.

  I held my hand over Lily’s, pushing down hard on the wound. I couldn’t stop the blood; I couldn’t stop her bleeding out. I should have been running out of there, with my daughter in my arms, and left Sam to deal with her, but I was fucked. I couldn’t think straight, and I wasn’t sure that I could leave her.

  She looked at me, tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “Hold on, okay, just fucking hold on,” I said.

  “Call the paramedics!” I shouted. It was at that point that I saw my dad run into the barn.

  Dad stopped beside me and he knelt. “Call someone,” I said.

  “They’re on their way, Gabe.”

  “Hang on, Lily, hang on,” I whispered over and over.

  She opened her mouth; I leaned down closer to hear.

  “I just…wanted…perfect,” she managed to say.

  “I know, baby, I know.”

  Dad took the gun from Sam. I watched as he wiped it clean on his shirt, then wrapped his hand around the grip, and placed his finger on the trigger. He nodded to Sam, who handed him Taylor; Sam simply nodded back before leaving the barn.

  Zachary was mumbling; tears ran down his cheeks as he slid to the ground.

  The barn was soon full of people. Lights were turned on and it was only then that I saw the hooded man. I looked at him. Although his face was bloodied, it oozed from the bullet wound, it had smeared from the broken nose and the split lips, I recognised Syd immediately.

  Things fell into place. He had been tasked with protecting me, sitting outside my house, yet we’d had intruders.

  “Gabriel,” my brother called out my name.

  He’d crawled forward, using his hands to drag himself, but I refused to look over at him. Instead, I watched Lily try to take a breath. Blood foamed at her mouth, and as she coughed, it splattered over my face. I raised her body to mine and cradled her. I felt the last amount of her hot blood run down my chest, and then she died in my arms.

  “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” I whispered before lowering her to the ground.

  “Get Taylor out of here,” I said to my dad as I rose.

  “Gabe, don’t…” He didn’t finish his sentence; he simply nodded.

  I took the steps required toward Zachary, the brother that had betrayed me. I grabbed a fistful of his
hair and raised his head. I dragged him to his knees. While I held him, while he raised his hands to defend himself and tried to speak, I punched him. His nose broke, his blood splattered over my hands, hands covered with Lily’s blood. I punched again and again. The crunch as his cheekbone shattered was a satisfying sound, as were his screams of pain.

  Blue flashing lights lit up the outside; cars screeched to a halt, the noise of feet running and voices shouting didn’t distract me from wanting to kill my own flesh and blood.

  “Gabriel!” It was my mother’s scream that stopped me tightening my hold on his throat.

  I looked up at her and the anguish on her face froze me. I looked down at Zachary, who had long since stopped trying to defend himself. I let go of his hair and he slumped forward, rolling to his back with a groan.

  Thomas ran into the barn, nearly knocking my mother sideways. He skidded to a halt at the sight in front of him.

  “Fucking hell,” he said when he saw Syd, and then he saw Lily.

  “Fucking hell,” he said again, when he looked at me.

  I was covered in blood; it ran down my chest and coated my arms. It dripped from my hands. I had no idea whose it was: Lily’s, Syd’s, or my brother’s. I fell to my knees as exhaustion took over and I closed my eyes.

  I heard noises, I heard sobbing. I was incapable of moving. I had failed and I knew it. I hadn’t kept Lily safe, I hadn’t rid the world of Father Samuel, more importantly, I hadn’t been able to keep my daughter safe.

  “Gabe,” I heard and opened my eyes to see Thomas crouch in front of me.

  Behind him, Mom had Taylor in her arms; my father had his arm around them both. I ached to hold her in mine, but I wouldn’t tarnish her with the blood I was coated in.

  “I failed her,” I whispered.

  “Who?”

  “Sierra, I failed her.”

  The following day I sat beside Taylor in the hospital. She griped and moaned, wanting to go home. She had been mildly sedated, and in one way, I was thankful for that. The thought that she could have witnessed the carnage haunted me.

  The doctors wanted her kept until they were completely sure her little body was drug free. She hated it.

  “You’re going home in an hour or so,” I said after the eighth time of being asked what time we were leaving. “We just need some paperwork.”

  “Are we going home or going to Grandma’s?” she asked.

  “Home, baby girl. I think Grandma has had enough excitement for the moment.”

  The truth of the matter was, I couldn’t face her. I’d disfigured her son. I’d wanted to cut off his air supply, smiled as he struggled for breath, and it angered me that it had been her presence that had stopped me. Not that that was her fault. It was irrational, I knew, and I held no malice toward my mom, I just couldn’t face her. She had been distraught, so Dad had told me; she had been confined to her bed and had the doctor visiting her regularly. But she hadn’t been to see Taylor, she hadn’t enquired after me, and that hurt.

  “Grandpa!” Taylor shouted as she saw a figure through the window in her door.

  It opened and he stepped in. “Hello there, little lady. Are you ready to go home?”

  She jumped from the bed and ran to him.

  “We’re waiting on paperwork,” I said.

  “Have it here,” he waved a small envelope.

  It was as I saw Thomas standing at the open door that I realized my dad was a little on edge. He picked Taylor up in his arms.

  “Little lady, your dad has to speak to some people, about why you got sick, okay? So you’re coming home with me, just for a little while.”

  “Whoa, no she isn’t.” My daughter was not being taken away from me under any circumstances.

  “Gabriel, the FBI is here,” Thomas said as he stepped into the room.

  “Then they can follow me to my house and they can talk to me there.”

  I tried to keep my voice calm but it had angered me that both Thomas and my dad hadn’t forewarned me, they’d brought it to my daughter’s hospital room.

  “They don’t work that way,” Thomas said. He looked apologetic and I guessed it was out of his control.

  “You’re not taking her to the ranch. You take her home, okay?”

  “Of course, we’ll see you later,” he said.

  “Baby girl, I will see you in a couple of hours. Don’t be wearing your grandpa out, you be good, okay?”

  Although she nodded, there was uncertainty in her eyes. I kissed her forehead as they walked away.

  “I’m sorry, I kept them away from you for as long as possible, but you know the drill, they need to interview you.”

  I picked up the bag of Taylor’s clothes Dad hadn’t taken and followed him from the room. I thanked the nurses at the station as I passed, then climbed into his car, parked out front.

  “There are some things you need to know. Your dad confessed to shooting Syd,” Thomas said. “I’m not sure I believe him, but I’m not asking any questions right now.”

  I nodded as I remembered seeing my dad take the gun from Sam’s hand.

  “How is my mom?” I asked.

  “She’s a broken woman right now. I guess she can’t come to terms with what happened. The other thing you need to know. Zachary is pleading his innocence.”

  “How the fuck can he do that? He walked into that barn holding Taylor.”

  “He says he got to Taylor after she’d been sedated. He says, if he had her, they couldn’t get to her.”

  “That’s fucking bullshit. Who sedated her then? And where was Mom?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “That’s what we are trying to determine.”

  “Tell me you don’t believe him?”

  He sighed before he answered. “It doesn’t matter if I believe him or not, if they do, he’s a free man.”

  “Fuck! I know what I saw, Thomas.”

  “You saw him walk in with Taylor, Gabe, nothing more,” he answered quietly.

  Flashbacks, snippets of conversations flooded my mind but they were jumbled. I knew I needed to remember something, but I just couldn’t bring whatever it was that niggled me to the front of my mind.

  We fell silent as we continued our journey. Had I got it wrong, again? I saw Zachary walk into that barn with Taylor in his arms, that can’t be disputed. I heard him say something and I struggled to remember it. The problem I had, the only people there at that moment were either dead or, as was the case of Sam, missing.

  We pulled up at the station and sat for a moment. I wasn’t ready to be interviewed. I couldn’t piece it all in order and I worried for my daughter. I trusted my dad to keep her safe, but I didn’t like the fact she wasn’t with me.

  “Am I going to be charged with something?” I asked.

  “Unless Zachary presses charges, then no, I don't think so.”

  “You don’t think so?”

  “Gabe, this is all one big fucking mess that I have little control over. I’ve done all I can to give you some breathing time, but you’re a key witness. We have two dead people, one a deputy, a fucking cult member, a beaten up bishop, and a whole load of statements that appear to be fake.”

  “Fake?”

  “Well, maybe not all of them. One of the victims died in a car crash.”

  “That doesn’t mean he wasn’t killed.”

  “No, but it’s just a load of circumstantial evidence.”

  I opened the car door and walked into the station. Pete stood behind the counter, and instead of his usual top button undone, his normal high five greeting, and offer of a coffee, he was in full uniform and stiff as a board. He didn’t immediately raise the counter end so I could enter. Instead he turned to a suited man and spoke quietly.

  Suited man came forward with a smile. “Gabriel, we’ve been expecting you, thank you for coming in voluntarily.”

  I was shown to the back of the room and offered a coffee and a seat.

  “It’s not ideal, unfortunately, but it’s the only place we
have to work,” he said, gesturing with his hand.

  “And you are?” I was on edge, bearing in mind my last experience with the FBI.

  He chuckled, and as he did, a second suit walked in with Thomas. He scowled over to me. I wanted to laugh. So, bad cop, good cop, did they really teach that at the academy?

  “My name’s Special Agent Curtis, but you can call me Mich. There’s no need for formalities. This isn’t a formal interview, yet.”

  “And you have proof you are who you say you are?”

  He fumbled in his jacket and pulled out a black leather wallet, he opened it and laid it on the table, sliding it across to me. It held his credentials and I inwardly cursed at previously falling for a business card from fake fed. However, I pulled my phone from my pocket and angled the camera at it, I looked at him before I clicked.

  “Go ahead, always prudent to check, Gabriel,” he said.

  I ignored the dig and took a photograph. I wanted something I could use to verify if I needed to.

  While I took a sip of the coffee Pete had placed in front of me, he undid his suit button and slid off his jacket.

  “Another thing, can I see that gun?”

  He frowned slightly. “Humor me,” I said.

  Mich retrieved it from the holster at his side; he released the clip before laying it on the table. I didn’t touch it but leaned forward to look. On the barrel was a small word, Glock. Satisfied, I leaned back in my chair.

  “Care to tell me what that was all about?” he asked as he holstered it.

  “My dad spotted the fake feds, he said the gun he had wasn’t a Glock and a Glock is standard issue.”

  “Clever man, your dad,” he said with a smile. “So, let’s get down to business, huh?”

  He opened a folder and whether it was a normal tactic or not, he spread the photographs of Lily and Syd over the desk. He shuffled his papers, taking his time before he settled into his interview. I guessed that was so I focused on the dead.

  “Tell me what happened?” he asked without looking up.

  “Since my wife was killed? Or that night?”

  “Just that night, Gabriel,” he answered.

  Despite my past days on the fight circuit, despite my odd run-ins with the police, I’d never been interviewed before. I was cautious as I recounted that evening’s events. I omitted fucking Lily of course.