Rescued- The New Rulebook Series #5 ( A Contemporary Christian Romantic Suspense Thriller Series) Kindle Edition

by Joy Ohagwu

  When she looked up, she saw the war written in his eyes—war enough for the both of them. His eyebrows dipped in determination, and his jaw clenched.

  Certainly, a younger version of Ruby would be out there with him, searching for Ritz, powered with every ounce of physical might and emotional strength—emotional strength already exhausted two years earlier when Robert went missing. It was a miracle she hadn’t slid into depression or negativity—thanks to the prayers with which the church sustained her.

  Right now, the shocking news may have weakened her, but she encouraged herself to think, pray, and act rationally. Her daughter’s life depended on it. Being older didn’t make her incompetent, however trying the situation was.

  So Ruby sat up straighter, leaning against the couch. “I overheard you say they called and their ransom was The New Rulebook. How did they learn about The New Rulebook? That information is sealed, secure, and highly classified. Plus, it’s presumably…old, by technological estimation. No one with honest intentions could be after stuff like that.” She adjusted to face him.

  He settled his arm behind her head and shook his. “I had the same weird feeling about it. That’s what I’m working to find out. There are so many possibilities of what this is really about, what they’re really after. I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”

  Robert scratched his chin. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.” When he looked at her again, he appeared calmer to her relief. This was stretching their endurance taut. Was that the intention of those who took Ritz?

  Robert pointed to the electronic setup in the center of the living room. “We’re expecting them to call again soon, although we can’t be sure when exactly. But I’m headed to the station where we’ve got better equipment to track the call and try to pin its origin. I had this set up here so you can listen in if they do.”

  He stretched his long limbs, touched a remote, and drew it closer, picking it up. “Here.” He handed her its sleek oval. “Make sure you’ve got this when moving around the house. If it starts blinking, they’re calling. Get back in here, hit the green Answer button, then press Mute, and you’re in. You can hear them, and us at the station, but they can’t hear you. Of course, I’m available to you if you need me. Just dial.”

  He kissed her and perched at the edge of the couch. “Meanwhile, can we pray? Together now? Please. That’s the only way I’ll stay sane through this,” he confided, sweeping a hand through his hair and setting brown curls loose. He’d grown his hair out since his return from his secret mission two years ago, and Ruby had never seen him appear this troubled except when she was in labor for Ritz sixteen years ago, and he’d almost cried seeing the pain she was in.

  Her head bobbed, and she swung her feet downward. “Yes, let’s pray.” They joined hands together—like they’d done ever since they were kids—bowed both their heads, and, now, fought their latest battle together.

  Robert began, his voice coarse with concern. “Father God, we thank You. Because You said that in all things we should give You thanks.”

  He cleared his throat. “We are here to seek Your help with getting our daughter back. She’s Yours, Lord. Every bit Your daughter. Please don’t let any evil happen to Ritz. Don’t let them—”

  His halt flipped Ruby’s eyes open. She squeezed his hand, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. He wiped a lone tear and cleared his throat. “Keep her safe, warm, and fed, my Lord Jesus. Touch the hearts of her captors to show her mercy. Make a way of escape for her. Show us what to do to get her back without compromising The New Rulebook. Please strengthen our hearts—Ruby’s, mine, and Ritz’s—and do for us what no man can do. In Jesus’ mighty name we pray, amen.”

  “Amen.” Ruby already felt stronger emotionally. She shifted as they wrapped up the prayers. Then a thought flashed into her mind. “Robert, The Running Mile Marker! Remember?”

  It took a moment, but then his eyes widened as he realized what she referred to.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “And a little child shall lead them.”- Isaiah 11:6

  Ruby saw Robert’s knuckles whiten as he gripped the couch and his face brightened. “That’s right! From her school. You think they’ll have—”

  She nodded vigorously. “Ritz mentioned it last week. She’d said she was considering deregistering from the app because it’d been a while since she last ran, but I don’t think she has done it yet. I told her to keep the app synced as it wasn’t costing her a dime.”

  His green emeralds scanned her face anxiously, darting between her eyes. “You think she might still have it active on her wristwatch?” His voice lowered to almost a whisper.

  Ruby clutched her chest and chuckled. “She’s a swimmer, honey. She doesn’t leave this house without her swim watch—be it winter or summer. Not that she uses it every time, but I think it boosts her confidence with improving her swim record. Go. Check it out at the school.”

  She gave a gentle shove, and he stood then bent over to give her a resounding kiss. “You are the most amazing woman, and I’m the luckiest, most blessed man to have you all to myself. I love you, Ruby.” He leaned up.

  Robert flexed his arms and slid them into his winter coat. “It’s been two years since they had it installed at their science fair. Can’t believe I forgot about it.” He slipped on his gloves. “Keep us in prayer, Red, while I go check this out. It might be our best lead for pinning down her exact location. Hopefully, the app’s range is far.” He kissed her again and walked out.

  Ruby inched off the couch, hope igniting in her. Her knees slid to the ground with new energy as desperate prayers rushed through her soul. Ruby called on the God of heaven to arise on her behalf with words, groans, and praise.

  All that time in prayer, occasionally her mind wandered over the span of Ritz’s life from pregnancy to delivery, to the past sixteen years of God showing Himself faithful. Faith grew in her heart the more she prayed. So did strength on the inside. She trusted God. Oh yes! One way or another, her baby would return. God would bring Ritz home—or Ruby would not stop praying about it, she determined. She continued in prayer, shelving all business matters to second-place priority.

  Robert arrived at Ritz’s school and waded through the packed brush of teens parading the hallway. It reminded him of his own high school days. The hallways could be treacherous if you weren’t one of the popular kids. At the orphanage, he had his male friends, then Ruby. They’d joke and laugh and keep each other company. Boys like G-Lee had their own table at the lunchroom, and no one went there. Certainly not out of fear, for Robert and his friends, but simply to respect himself.

  Matter of fact, after the fight between him and G-Lee because of Ruby, G-Lee kept out of his way, and Robert suspected the bully feared him.

  Robert rounded the first right corner and walked into the principal’s office. Aware that his uniform drew stares, he smiled at the students. A few smiled back. Some just walked on, too engrossed on their phones even to see him. Habitually, Ritz was also glued to her phone. He half-halted mid-step—what data could they glean at the lab after studying her phone? Hopefully, it provided enough information for them to proceed the search on.

  The principal rose and greeted him, her petite frame leaning over slightly. A student sat by her right in a visitor’s chair. “Captain Towers? Thank you for your call and for informing us of Ritz’s kidnapping. We were also worried about her absence here. I’m glad you could make it over so quickly.”

  Robert shook her hand firmly and sat. “Thank you for your readiness to assist us.”

  She smiled broadly, a wrinkle crinkling her forehead. “Oh no, I’m glad we can help. Ritz is one of us, a remarkable student and member of the swim team. We are more than happy to help in any way we can.” Shifting her gaze to the right, she waved to the student. He couldn’t be much older than Ritz. “Phillip, here, is one of the students who developed that Running Mile Marker you mentioned. He will be able to provide us access to Ritz’s routes, as they call it.” She nodded to the
boy. “Phillip?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Phillip drew closer, and Robert stood to see the images on the boy’s laptop. He looked at Robert with cool gray eyes and a serious expression, a bit too serious for his age. “Sir, I can look up the information you need.”

  But a different idea occurred to Robert. “I appreciate that. But would you mind coming with me to the SSPD? My men and women are tech savvy, and so am I to an extent. However, I’m so close to this case that I might miss something crucial. We can contact your parents for permission if need be.”

  The boy packed up his laptop into his backpack and pulled out his cell phone. “Sure. Let me call my mom real quick.”

  Relief ran through Robert as, moments later, Phillip received parental consent and followed him off the school grounds, into his truck and to the SSPD, hopefully bringing Ritz one step closer to home.

  Robert leaned over the desk flooded with loose sheets of reports regarding his daughter’s disappearance and tried to pin down the last location of her tracking device using Phillip’s app. The State police chief was en route, but before he arrived, Robert had one thing to try.

  Phillip sat on the couch in Robert’s office, showing his men how the program worked. Robert rounded his desk and joined them. “How far does your app track?” He was worried the kidnappers might take Ritz out of its range. And the process was making him impatient, leaving him hoping the app would yield results quicker.

  Phillip pushed a button on his laptop, and the word loading came on. After a couple of moments as they held their collective breaths, the boy’s shoulders heaved. “The server is down. It might be back up in about an hour.”

  Robert’s hope deflated like a balloon. He pressed his hands on his thighs and rose. “That’s fine.” He turned to Charlie, who sat beside Newton on Phillip’s other side. “Charlie, do you mind keeping Phillip company in your office while we work other angles here?” He didn’t want the boy privy to the case details, especially since they were freely sharing his, Ruby’s, and Ritz’s details inside his office in the interest of this case.

  Charlie nodded and placed a gentle hand on Phillip’s shoulder. “Hey, buddy, you mind coming with me to the next office so we can chill? Once the server is up, you let me know, and we can circle back in here.”

  “Sure.” Phillip locked his laptop and slid it into his backpack and zipped it up. He rose and, with a tug of his blue jeans, followed Charlie out of the door.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.”- Proverbs 8:17

  One hour later, Robert was on the phone. He dialed Ruby to see how she was doing, relieved to hear some lightness in her voice. When he’d left home, he had worried and called and asked Melinda to keep her company past her closing time.

  “How are you holding up, Red?” He perched the phone between his ear and shoulder while flipping through new lab files.

  “Did you find anything useful from the abduction site?” Ruby asked.

  “I’m reading the preliminary report now. It doesn’t seem likely that anything here can tell us where they are keeping her. I did go to her school about the running tracking app. Thankfully, Ritz’s account is active. The server was down, and we’re waiting for it to get back up to ping her location.” He flipped the last file closed, a wave of disappointment crossing his heart.

  “How far does their app reach?”

  He smiled a bit. “Exactly the question I asked.”

  “So, what did he say?”

  “Nationwide. The best news I’ve had so far.” Robert braced a hand on his desk. “Matter of fact, it appears as though that app is our best live lead, and I can’t wait to get a hold of the information it will yield. Keep praying, honey. I gotta go. Love you.”

  “Love you too. I’m going to go to the hospital tomorrow morning to see Christiana, if we hear nothing from them by then, to keep my mind off worrying, hopefully. But I’m praying, Robert. And I want you to know that the Lord is in super control. We will get Ritz back by His grace. That’s my faith.”

  “Thanks, my heartbeat. I’ll talk to you later.” He blew her a kiss, and she hung up.

  As Robert hung up the phone and studied more files for about an hour, he rotated to see Charlie striding in with two SWAT team officers in tow. Robert welcomed them in, not sure what they were doing but knowing Charlie’d explain to him what was going on. First, he was thanking God in his heart for Ruby remembering the app on Ritz’s wristwatch. If she hadn’t, they’d be combing through evidence, blind. Now, it might give them their last chance to save Ritz from her kidnapper before it was too late. He appreciated God for giving him a smart and incredibly talented wife in Ruby. He was also grateful for his team—loyal to him, fearing God, and dedicated to their duties. He had the best people with him to win this fight and to bring their daughter back.

  “Please set up the display screen,” Charlie instructed.

  Robert looked around for appropriate placement and pointed to a wide space by the wall between his office desk, visitor chairs, and some open space where a snacks and candy table had previously occupied before he had it moved to the hallway.

  On his instruction, two officers began installing the wall mount. He looked at Charlie. “I’m assuming we’re setting up because the server is back up and Phillip has some good news?”

  Charlie held up a sheet of paper. “Yes, it came back, Captain. Thankfully, we recalibrated the software at the back end to feed us live information which will display on this screen right here.” He pointed at the sheet as he rounded the desk. “Here is the latest printout. Look.” He spread the sheet down on Robert’s desk.

  “Checking her running tracker paid off.” Charlie stooped next to the desk, so Robert could see past him. “The last ping was from this location.” He drew a wide circle on a spot. “It seems they stopped for about one hour in Baltimore, then again in Dunkirk in the past hour.”

  Phillip entered the office. “But they’ve started moving again. Judging from their speed and direction, they’re heading toward Chesapeake Beach.”

  Robert frowned. “One hundred and thirteen miles away.”

  “And going,” Charlie’s frown deepened as he rolled his finger down to the reflected speed on Phillip’s latest printout, “fast.”

  Robert repositioned himself, not liking what he heard. They were already at the Chesapeake Bay area! Were they planning on a water route for escaping? With Ritz? He pinned a hand behind his chair, fingers twitching to throw something, anything.

  He gritted his teeth. “We have a team already in pursuit, right?” He’d expressed his desire to join the police chase to Charlie, but Charlie had said to allow them to do what they were trained to do—what he had trained them to do. Doubtless, his friend was strongly against the idea. Charlie had insisted he stay away since he might be the actual target and Ritz’s capture was just a hook to reel him in.

  “Yes, we do. I sent them off the minute he uncovered the first location. They’re still far, though.” Charlie nodded. “But, if they get to the beach and onto a boat before the chase team arrives…” He needn’t say the rest.

  “They’re slowing down probably due to traffic,” Phillip updated them, his laptop balanced at the crook of his arm while his finger rolled the mousepad. He looked up sharply. “They’ve stopped again.”

  Robert rounded the desk quickly. So did Charlie and the SWAT officers.

  Robert raised his chin as an officer walked in and informed, “We should be on them in about one hour fifteen minutes, give or take depending on their speed.”

  That was too long. Robert shook his head. “Put up the live feed from this laptop to the screen. I want to see this as it happens.” His mind was going at a faster speed. How could he make up the one-hour distance? Where were they taking Ritz? And most importantly, why?

  Phillip pinched and zoomed in on the location, and Robert wished he could reach in through the PC and grab his daughter from the kidnappers.<
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  Charlie instructed one of the officers on standby, and he flicked on the mounted monitor on the wall when they completed installation and connected it to Phillip’s laptop, which was now set on the desk. They drew down the window shutters, darkening the room, and the screen became much clearer.

  Robert’s feet tapped. This all was still taking too long. Would he sit here and watch his daughter be forced out of their state? No.

  Phillip looked up. “It’s a breakfast diner. My guess is, they’re stopping to eat.”

  Exactly the opportunity Robert needed.

  He spun. “Charlie, let’s go.”

  Charlie didn’t wait to ask why or where. He followed Robert out of the office, and they jogged from the Windstar Building, into the parking lot. If he had only forty-eight hours to outsmart the criminals holding his daughter, he would most certainly utilize every single opportunity.

  Robert tapped the key fob of a police cruiser. It responded with a beep and flashing lights. He hopped in while Charlie climbed in through the passenger door.

  “Seatbelt,” Charlie reminded as Robert drove off the parking space.

  “Right.” In his hurry, he’d forgotten. Robert clicked the seatbelt while Charlie set up a viewing station on the dash with a tablet remotely connected to Phillip’s laptop feeding the location. Via radio, Charlie monitored the chase team’s progress.

  Robert swung the vehicle into street traffic and clicked on the sirens, parting traffic both ways like a curtain. “We’ll arrive faster.” He sensed Charlie’s hesitance but waited until the man chose to speak.

  Finally, Charlie did. “If this involved somebody else, I’d advise them against what you’re doing.”