“Let her go,” Elijah said again. He sounded calm but authoritative. It reminded Hannah of the way the elders spoke when making a ruling no one in the Ordnung was to question.
But the redheaded man did not let her go. Instead, he tightened his grip, digging his fingertips into her scalp. Agony pealed through her body. Each time he turned, each time he moved, the pain increased. How could a human treat another human so?
Give me strength, Lord.
“She doesn’t have what you want.” This time he spoke, Elijah came boldly into the room. At the sound of his voice, her eyes flew open. His gun pointed straight ahead. “Now let her go and I’ll let you go.”
The man yanked Hannah placing her directly in front of him like a shield. He laughed. So close to her she could feel his breath.
“Elijah! Please!” She could not stop her tears as he pressed the cold end of the gun harder into her head. The trigger clicked in her ear and she trembled. Her weight, ironically, was held up by the hair on her head.
“He can’t help you, lady. He wouldn’t pull that trigger and risk hitting you. Actually, I don’t know if he could even pull that trigger. He is Amish, after all. You’re just going to have to tell me where my journal is,” he said.
“I do not know,” she cried. “I do not know.”
“Let her go.” Brittney appeared in the corner of the large living space.
“What are you doing here? You should be at school.” He sounded truly surprised.
“Drop your weapon.” Elijah had moved closer. Behind him several other officers filed into the apartment.
Jackson cursed. “No. And if you want to keep this lady alive, you’ll back out of here. Brittney, you, too, get out of here.”
“Just let her go.” Brittney moved closer. “If she knew where it was, she’d tell you.”
The police ordered Brittney to step back. Instead she moved closer and once she was in reaching distance, Jackson grabbed hold of the girl, after shoving Hannah as hard as he could to the other side of the room.
She stumbled out of control toward Elijah and the others, blocking any access to Jackson or Brittney.
Elijah lowered his gun and scrambled toward her to help her up and out of harm’s way.
“It’s okay now. You’re safe,” he told her.
Shock distorted her reality. Hannah could barely register the words he spoke. She could barely feel his tender touch leading her from the apartment. She could still feel that hand in her hair yanking at her scalp.
“Did he hurt you badly?” Elijah’s voice was a whisper compared to the commotion behind them.
“The building is surrounded,” she heard one of the other officers say. “Let the girl go and come with us.”
“Not today, boys,” the man replied.
Although he sounded less sure of himself, when Hannah looked over her shoulder she shuddered. Jackson had grabbed his stepdaughter around the waist and positioned her in front of him, just as he had held her seconds ago. But instead of controlling the girl with a handful of hair, he held a knife to her throat.
Hannah froze in the doorway watching as the knife pressed against Brittney’s soft skin. The policemen didn’t press toward Jackson, but stopped short, lowering their weapons. No one doubted he would hurt the child.
Oh, Lord, please, not another child.
“Elijah, please, can we not do something more?”
FOURTEEN
I can pray, Elijah thought to himself as he tried to move Hannah from the apartment. She wouldn’t budge. She was as still and heavy as a sack of stones staring back at that girl. And how could she not be? The sight before her was one that would never fade from her mind. As it would never fade from his.
Jackson’s ring and the blade of his knife flashed under the poor girl’s chin.
“You got nowhere to go, Jackson,” Tucci yelled from beside Eli. His partner and three SWAT team members had positioned themselves around the room—each with a rifle pointed at Jackson.
“Put the guns down.” Jackson’s voice made Eli’s skin crawl.
Slowly, they lowered their guns to the floor.
“You’re cornered,” Tucci said.
Jackson smirked before pulling Brittney along with him as he slowly slinked to the back of the room where a single window was cracked open. Jackson bent his knees and reached down, lifting the window wide. Then he backed through the open space like a panther onto the fire escape. The whole while he kept his stepdaughter as a shield with the knife to her neck. He dragged Brittney with him, then slammed the window closed and jammed it with the knife.
“No, Elijah. Why do they not stop him?” Hannah sounded hysterical, clutching on to him with a deathlike grip.
“We can’t risk Brittney’s life to get him, Hannah,” he said to her. “But don’t worry. We will catch up with him yet.”
At last, she relaxed her frozen stance and he was able to pull her away.
She cried and shook against him. He held her close, supporting her and helping her out of the building. An emergency team rushed to them as they exited the building. A couple of EMTs whisked Hannah away from him to check her over for injuries. Other police hurried over to him.
“Tucci just radioed down. Jackson has vanished,” they said. “The girl, too.”
Elijah felt a surge of frustration and disappointment, but his thoughts remained mostly focused on Hannah.
Seated at the edge of the emergency truck, a worker handed her a blanket. She tried to smooth and tuck her loose hair. Her apron was smudged. Her frock was ripped at the shoulder. She looked pale. Shaken. Exhausted.
He’d almost lost her. Again.
Thank You, Lord. Thank You for getting her out of there. He lifted the prayer and tried to release the fear that gripped him.
And the guilt. If something had happened to Hannah…
An EMT appeared before him. “The lady says you have a head injury?”
“I’m fine.” Elijah stood suddenly, and homed in on Hannah. He had to hold her. He had to feel her in his arms and know that she was safe. That she was still alive.
In a second, he stood before her. He touched his hand gently to her smudged cheek. “I can’t lose you, Hannah,” he whispered. “I can’t lose you again.”
Then he lifted her into his arms and held her tighter than he’d ever held anyone.
“I can’t lose you again.”
* * *
Jackson and his stepdaughter were not caught. Mr. Tucci and Elijah’s colleagues from the Philadelphia Police Department had come up empty-handed after a complete search of the building. It was as if Jackson and Brittney had vanished into thin air.
For a long time, Elijah, Abigail and Hannah had to answer questions for the team of police. The EMTs strongly recommended a trip to the hospital, but Elijah seemed to know that Hannah couldn’t take any more of the city.
She tried to focus on the fact that she and Elijah and Abigail were blessed to be alive. And she was so thankful for that. So very thankful. But she had seen and heard such atrocities that day and her mind could not leave the idea that her Jessica had seen and heard it all, as well. Maybe worse. She was starting to think that the gossips back in Willow Trace had been right to speculate about her daughter. Maybe Jessica’s heart had not been so pure. The girl had certainly been spending time with terrible people. Today’s trip into the city and the discovery of Jessica’s secret life had made Hannah feel cheated and deceived. She was ashamed that she’d not been a better mother and prevented this. If she had, Jessica would still be alive. And Elijah wouldn’t be there, making her confused an
d feeling so many things. Right now all she wanted to do was to collapse in a fit of tears until she washed away all the filth of the outside world.
Surely, some quiet prayer and hard work would set her right—no more thoughts about how she should have done things. No more thoughts about Elijah and the past…or the future. No more thoughts of how he’d held her in his arms.
“Do you think your partner and his team will find Jackson and Brittney?” Abigail asked from the seat behind her.
Hannah looked away and stared out the window at the rolling green hills. She didn’t want to hear any more talk of Flynn Jackson or Brittney Baker or even of Jessica.
“I hope so,” Elijah said. “I think if we can get Jackson into the station, we will be able to get the information we need. What exactly this journal is that he wants. And why he thinks Hannah has it. Tucci will also talk to people in the neighborhood and see what he can find out. Jackson said he wasn’t the only one looking for the missing journal. I think that worries me most.”
“You mean like those young men, who were so awful when we first arrived?” Abigail asked.
Hannah shuddered at the reminder.
“No. I think the gang is linked somehow, but remember Daniel said that they were friendly to Jessica and Brittney. That they even took him to the train station when Jessica asked them. I think Jackson is into things with much higher stakes than those kids on the street.”
“Higher stakes?” Abigail asked.
“Yes. I think this journal must have some pretty serious information in it. Something that could hurt a lot of people. Maybe even get them killed or incarcerated.”
“But why? Why would Jessica…” Hannah could not make sense of it all. How could her girl have gotten involved in such schemes?
Elijah reached over and held her hand. He was so strong. She could feel the power and strength flowing in him.
“My strength comes from the Lord,” he said.
Hannah turned to him. “I understand better now what it is that you do.”
He nodded. “Yes, thank you. I wish my Dat could see it, too.”
Abigail smiled. “Give him time. He will see that you try to bring some order to the world.”
“I didn’t bring much order today.” He frowned. “I nearly got us all killed…”
Abigail nodded. “Well, we are here to help. Even though I know it is hard.” She patted Hannah’s shoulder. “I think we must find this journal.”
“Or at least figure out what information is in it,” Elijah said.
“Ah. I can see in your eye you have an idea.” Abigail grinned. “What is it? If we all think hard, maybe we can figure this out.”
“I don’t really know anything,” Elijah said. “Just that Jackson was a dirty cop. He did and could still have access to all kinds of things.”
“Dirty cop?” Hannah asked. “What does this mean?”
“It means he did police work and carried a badge, but at the same time he took money from criminals by overlooking their crimes and helping them get away. Maybe making evidence disappear. Or selling secret information. Jackson is no longer a cop, but the rest of what he does could be the same. He could use old contacts inside the police department to get information, to get inside the system, to help bad people make money so that he can make money.”
“But why would anyone in the police department work with such a man?” Abigail asked.
Elijah tilted his head. “Because, sadly, there are some cops on the force who want money more than they want to do what is right. And if they’re greedy just once and agree to do one thing, then Jackson has a way to end their career and can blackmail them into doing more work for him. They don’t want to lose their jobs. Trust me. I work Internal Affairs. This happens more than you really want to know.”
“What a terrible man is this Flynn Jackson,” Abigail said.
Hannah had tried not to listen, but no matter how much she wanted to block everything out, she could not. More than ever, right or wrong, she wanted to learn the truth. Without the whole truth, she might never accept that Jessica had turned out to be a bad girl. And she had to accept what had happened. She had to accept God’s will. Elijah had been right about that. He had been right about a lot of things. She turned to him. “Do you think he killed Jessica?”
Elijah turned to her. Regret shone out of his blue eyes. “I don’t know. He said that someone else wanted the journal. He made it sound as if that person harmed your daughter and not him. But the way he grabbed Brittney with that knife…he certainly seemed capable of it.”
Hannah put a hand to her stomach. She felt ill. She wondered how a mother could leave her child with such a man. But who was she to judge? She’d done no better with Jessica.
“Brittney could be lying, Hannah,” Elijah said as if reading her thoughts. “Jessica might not have taken this journal. Maybe Brittney told Jackson this just to save her own skin.”
His words were meant to comfort her, but they did not. She could only think of her own failing.
“So, what we really need,” Abigail said, “is to find out what the journal actually is and what information it holds?”
“Yes,” he answered. “And as hard as it is, we should start looking for it in Willow Trace.”
“So you do think she took it?” Hannah asked.
“It doesn’t matter what I think. They think she took it and they think you have it… . I just wish I knew better what I was looking for.”
Hannah did not follow. “What do you mean? It’s a journal, right?”
“I’m not sure that they mean an actual journal. Not like what you are thinking, a book with someone’s personal thoughts in it.”
“Then what?” Abigail asked.
“Okay. I just thought of this, but it makes sense. So, there’s this retired guy I know from the Philly P.D., Mike. Mike works in security now on the weekends to earn a few bucks. He’s at the downtown courthouse. Really tight security. Very high-tech systems. And Jackson supposedly works in security, too.”
“And what?” she and Abigail asked at the same time.
“Well, all of this security is controlled by bar codes and card swiping. Mike said they are constantly changing the cards and the codes. And in case there’s some sort of blackout or computer malfunction, the security people keep all these codes on a special storage device. It’s changed out each week and synched with the mainframe system. For lack of a better word, they call this device the journal.”
“Would having it be worth killing over?” Abigail asked.
“Sure. If a place has that kind of security, there must be something inside worth guarding.”
“But Jessica? Taking something like this? Hiding it? Why?” Hannah closed her eyes and sighed, her stomach still churning. She didn’t want to talk about any of these horrible things her daughter had gotten involved in.
“If she even took it, Hannah,” he corrected her. “And I think when we know the answer to that question, we’ll know the whole of this.”
But would they? Hannah wondered.
No one spoke as they pulled back in front of Nolt Cottage. Thomas stood waiting. He’d replaced the broken window, making his stone cottage look as homey as ever. A brand-new carriage, and the gelding Thomas had spoken of earlier was tied to the hitching post. What a good man Thomas was. She should love him and want to marry him, but in her heart she knew she could not.
Strange emotions swept through her as she exited the car. She cou
ld not lift her head to Thomas. She could not look back to Elijah. The heaviness of the day weighed down on her. The loss of Jessica and Peter gripped her so tightly she felt as if she would snap. No hope for her future.
She rushed up the front porch steps and into the house. She would not love again. She could not risk the pain of losing anything else.
* * *
Elijah didn’t think he could feel any worse than he already did. But when Hannah ran into the house, his heart ached ten times more than his head. He should never have taken her to Philadelphia. He’d thought it would help make Jessica’s so-called friend feel comfortable and talk. And perhaps that connection did help somewhat, but it hadn’t been worth the dangers that they’d all been exposed to. He’d always believed that seeking the truth was worth any risk, but that was only because he had never risked something he loved as much as Hannah.
He’d always thought that going home would turn his people further against him and make him feel even more alienated from the world he had grown up in. That was what he had feared—well, that and his Dat’s disapproval. He’d been right about his Dat. But he had been very wrong about his own experience. Instead of feeling alienated from the Amish, Elijah was finding that their beliefs and rules and laws made more sense to him than they ever had before. For the first time in a long while, he started to wonder what it would be like to come home for good. Lead a Plain life. The thought was very tempting—but also very distracting. He was getting too attached, too emotionally involved, and it was keeping him from solving the case. He wasn’t doing a good job as a detective—and if he couldn’t do that, then there was no reason for him to stay. No reason other than his love for Hannah, which seemed to grow stronger—and more hopeless—every day.
She’d made her choice long ago, and it was long past time for him to accept it. But accepting it meant he needed to go. It had been easy to leave before when Hannah hadn’t wanted him, when his father had challenged him. Leaving this time would not be easy at all, but it was exactly what he needed to do and he needed to do it now.
Plain Secrets Page 13
