“Miss Julia.” The sheriff tipped his head toward her. “I’m sorry we weren’t able to meet under more pleasant circumstances.”
She nodded, but felt as if all of this were some bad dream. Any minute now someone would wake her, and everything would be all right.
“Someone please start from the beginning and tell us who in the hell has our daughters.” Carson interrupted their niceties with barely controlled rage.
“That’s what I’m here to try to find out.” The sheriff turned to the group of children standing behind him. “Seems these kids witnessed the men trying to get Robin into a blue car when your daughter, Bobbi, interfered and was then also taken. Do I have that right, kids?”
The small group eagerly bobbed their heads.
“Bobbi was screaming at the top of her lungs,” Stanley added with wide eyes.
Julia couldn’t stop the room from spinning and was vaguely aware when her knees gave out. She heard a collective gasp; then a strong arm caught her and drew her close to firm muscle.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you,” Carson assured her.
She found little comfort in his words and no security in his embrace. Her carelessness had now placed his daughter in harm’s way as well.
“Miss Julia, can you think of any reason why someone would want to take your daughter?”
All eyes focused on Julia.
Tears slid from Julia’s eyes as she continued to wage war with her emotions. Her long hesitation caused Carson’s concerned gaze to turn suspicious.
“Julia?” His voice held a note of uncertainty.
Mustering strength she didn’t feel, she pushed out of his arms and stood on her own fragile legs.
The sheriff turned to the children and thanked them for being such good citizens in reporting this matter to the authorities; then he asked them to go on home.
Reluctantly, and with a big show of disappointment, they did as the sheriff asked.
When they were gone, Carson turned his attention back to Julia. “If you know something, tell us,” he urged gently.
She had to tell them the truth, but she feared they wouldn’t believe her story. She wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t. A part of her still couldn’t wrap her brain around all that had happened.
“I’m not sure,” she answered honestly.
Disappointment crept into Carson’s disbelieving features, and a pang of remorse filled her.
“Julia, please,” Lilly said in a trembling whisper.
“I swear it’s the truth. I don’t know. I wish that I did.” She heaved a weary breath and continued. “I will tell you what I do know. My full name is Julia Kelley. I’m an internist at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. About two months ago I stumbled over a picture of my late husband and my brother-in-law while standing in line at the post office.” A sad smile quivered at the corners of her lips at the memory.
“It was actually a poster for felons on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Actually, I wasn’t sure it was him, but I felt like it was, so I did a little investigating, and when I was sure I contacted the FBI and told them what I suspected.” She glanced up and saw that she had everyone’s undivided attention, so she went on.
“A plan was devised that I was to lead David to a mall, where the agents would then be able to get a good look at him. But I never made it to the mall. As it turned out, David overheard part of my conversation with the agent and deduced that I was planning to meet a lover or boyfriend for an afternoon tryst.” She shook her head at the absurdity of it. “He hadn’t exactly gotten used to our being divorced.”
“Anyway, he wouldn’t allow me to leave. Luckily, Robin was over at a friend’s house and was spared seeing his jealous rage. He suspected the man I was seeing was a colleague of mine from the hospital, so he asked his brother to go to the mall and see if he showed up there. But while they talked over the phone, something happened. I don’t know what, but it spooked David and he refused to let me out of the house.
“I hid in the bedroom, praying that the night would end. Then there was someone at the door. At first I thought it was Eric, my brother-in-law, but it wasn’t. I heard the man identifying himself as FBI, then there was a loud ruckus downstairs, and then they were upstairs. But it became clear to me that the man wasn’t interested in arresting David. He wanted something from him—something he’d stolen from a man named Vinny.
“When it was clear they were headed toward the bedroom, I hid in the walk-in closet, but I watched what happened through a crack in the door. My gun was hidden at the top of the closet, and it never occurred to me to get it.”
She swallowed hard and her vision swam in a pool of tears. “I watched this man murder David in cold blood.”
The room’s silence was deafening. She blinked back her tears and forced herself to meet Carson’s gaze. “The agent left soon after that, and I got the hell out of there. I packed whatever my hands landed on.” She glanced over at Lilly. “That time I remembered to grab my gun for protection. My regular car was in the shop, so I took my old Impala and raced over to get Robin from her friend’s house, and we hit the road.”
Carson stepped forward and started to reach out toward her, but his hand fell back to his side before he’d made contact.
“How awful,” Lilly finally said. Astonishment distorted her face.
Sheriff Benton cleared his throat. “Ma’am, am I to understand that you are a witness to a homicide—by a federal agent?”
Julia drew in another deep breath, then nodded.
He blinked, then glanced at the others in the room as if he didn’t know what to make of such a story. “In Atlanta?”
She nodded.
This time he sucked a long breath and expelled it slowly. “There is a chance that you’re mistaken. I mean, you said that you were upstairs, right? Or maybe he was impersonating an FBI agent. That’s possible, right?”
He wasn’t asking her any questions that she hadn’t asked herself a million times. “Yes, to both questions. I’ve been mostly running scared, because if he wasn’t FBI, then who was he? Not to mention that it’s just too coincidental that an FBI agent would show up at my door, don’t you think?”
“Good point, but what you’re saying isn’t possible,” he argued.
Julia watched the young officer struggle with the concept of a crooked agent. “All I can tell you is what happened. And it’s the truth.” She centered her gaze back on Carson. “I wanted to tell you sooner, but I was afraid.”
Their gazes locked for what seemed like an eternity. “Your secret may have cost my daughter’s life,” he said finally, stepping away from her.
A dull ache throbbed where her heart should have been. “I know.”
Frankie wanted to throw something—anything. This was the very reason why he’d always preferred to work alone. All he wanted to do was question the girl—not take her. A man had to have his principles. Yes, he worked in a violent business, and yes, sometimes he had to whack someone, but he drew a line when it came to harming children.
And Nicholas knew that.
He swore under his breath. This entire project was being snatched from beneath him, and he didn’t like it one bit.
“Will you just chill out?” Nicholas marched back into their hotel room wearing a wide smile. “It’s not like we hurt those girls or anything.”
Frankie glared at him.
“What?”
“Do you ever think before you act?” Frankie couldn’t help but ask. He glanced around the rundown dump of a motel they’d found out in another small town called Shiloh, which was less than fifteen minutes from Moreland.
“This isn’t smart. This is unfamiliar territory to us. What if someone here knows either of those girls? What if someone here knows their parents? We aren’t safe here.”
“You worry too much. Besides, we’re not going to be here long enough for someone to rat us out. What we need to do now is call that little Georgia Inn and talk to Dr. Kelley. Since we have something she wants, we sh
ould have no trouble getting Vinny’s diamonds back.”
“Then what?”
“Then we knock off the doctor,” Nicholas answered casually.
“And the two little girls?”
Nicholas’s smile widened. “Then I guess we’ll just have to ask Vinny what he’d have us do.”
Frankie’s anger rose to a dangerous pitch. Both knew full well what Vinny would order; their boss had never liked the idea of loose ends.
Chapter 29
Paul sat across from Jonathan Mason, the agent in charge of the Atlanta field office, and watched him while he read through the updated report on the Mercer brothers. Mason, a distinguished African-American gentleman, had always been, in Paul’s opinion, a fair and levelheaded boss. He’d held the admiration of a vast majority of agents across the nation—Paul included.
Mason finished reading the report. His loud and dramatic exclamation mirrored the weariness etched in the small lines around his eyes as he lifted them to meet Paul’s.
“This is a tough call,” he said finally. “I’m not completely convinced that our agency should still be pursuing Dr. Kelley as a lead in our case.”
Paul blinked in astonishment. “I don’t understand.”
“Well.” Mason pushed up from his chair and began his habitual pacing. “Our case is, of course, the murder of our fellow federal agent, Rodney Newman. I understand that at the same location of this murder was a wanted felon.”
“Whose brother, also a wanted felon, was murdered on the same day in another location in town, and said brother’s wife is now missing,” Paul finished for him.
“And a missing person is not necessarily a case for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Maybe it’s time we let the state handle that case and focus more on who actually pulled the trigger on Newman.”
“Come on. We both know that the Montellos are involved.”
“No,” Mason corrected. “I don’t know that. I suspect that, and I want our agency to prove that suspicion.”
“So what are we supposed to do? It’s obvious to me, after hearing Miss Higginbotham’s statement, that the doctor and her daughter fled the city of Atlanta for a reason.”
“And that reason is?”
“She fears whoever killed her husband will come after her.”
“Or she fled because she killed her husband,” Mason countered.
“I don’t believe that, and neither do you.”
“Hey.” He held up his hands. “I have a strange belief system.”
“That would be one hell of a coincidence, don’t you think?”
“Despite popular opinion, they do happen from time to time.”
Paul clamped his mouth shut, feeling that he was just moments away from having his boss redirect his team. His perplexity must have shown on his face, for Mason sighed and returned to his chair.
“Look, Regis. I’m not saying that you’re completely out in left field on this. There’s a fifty-fifty chance that you’re right and I’m wrong. That’s why I said that this is a tough call.”
Paul conceded his point. “It’s just that I think that if we don’t pursue this, there’s a chance that we are allowing the Montellos to commit and get away with another murder.”
“What would the Montellos want with her?”
“The rumor mill has for years spun tales of how David and Eric Mercer had stolen something from the Montellos. I heard that it was a bag of uncut diamonds—the kind that never went through customs, if you know what I mean. Some say that it was a trunk full of money. But whatever it was, I’m sure the Montellos would want it back.”
“If they are responsible for the death of both brothers, as you say, then who’s to say they haven’t gotten their merchandise back?”
Paul didn’t have an answer.
Pleased with his analogy, Mason leaned back in his chair, but never broke eye contact with Paul.
“How about if we just call it a hunch? That has to count for something,” Paul finally reasoned.
Mason conceded with a slight nod. “Tell you what, ask your lead investigator on this case to contact the local sheriff in that area and have him go over and talk with Dr. Kelley. Then we can go from there.”
It wasn’t what Paul wanted to hear, but at least it was better than nothing. “Consider it done.”
The news of Bobbi and Robin’s kidnapping devastated the small, quiet town of Moreland. Sheriff Benton took Julia to the jailhouse to take her statement, while Carson called everyone he knew in the hope that someone else had seen the direction that the kidnappers were headed.
Though the children were helpful, none of them knew any more than the color of their car and that the two men were white. Even then, the shade of blue of the car varied with each child, and no two descriptions of the men were alike.
In between calling friends and family, Carson thought of the wild story Julia had told them. It had all sounded more like a Hollywood creation than real life. But how could he explain his daughter’s kidnapping?
His mind filled with images of Bobbi from the first time he’d laid eyes on her in the hospital until he’d seen her off to play ball with her friends this morning. Tears burned the backs of his eyes, and his heart throbbed painfully in his chest at the thought of never seeing her again.
He hung up the phone, propped his elbows on the desk, and formed a steeple with his hands in order to rest his head. He couldn’t lose his precious child. He just couldn’t.
He knew Julia’s pain had to be similar to his own, but he was clueless as to how to comfort her in this time of need, mainly because he, too, was coming apart at the seams.
Their night together seemed like a lifetime ago—or as if it had all been a dream and they had awakened to this nightmare.
Another part of Carson, the angry part, wanted to know why Julia hadn’t shared her plight with him and his family sooner. Had they not been good to her? Couldn’t she have trusted them with her secret?
Shame washed over him when he realized what he was doing. He was trying to place the blame of what had happened to their daughters solely on her shoulders, and that wasn’t fair.
Hadn’t he been the one who’d trapped her in Moreland? Was he truly the cause of this entire fiasco?
There was a knock on the study’s door just before it creaked open and his mother entered the room carrying a tray.
“I brought you something that may help soothe your nerves,” she said with uncertainty filling her voice.
“Mom, thanks, but no thanks. It’s going to take more than a pot of tea to make me feel better,” he informed her. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but he saw that his words had cracked her mask of false courage.
“I’m sorry,” he said, not knowing what else he could say.
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, but she managed to smile for his benefit. “There’s no need to apologize. I just wanted to do something to help.”
“Where’s Pop?”
“Beating himself up for allowing the girls to go buy themselves a candy bar on their own.”
Carson shook his head and made a mental note to speak to his father. “It’s not his fault. Nothing like this has ever happened here. The emporium is only a block away from your house, there was no way for any of us to foresee that this would happen.”
“Including Julia?” his mother questioned in a low voice.
His gaze snapped up at her. “Especially Julia,” he defended.
Grace didn’t meet his gaze.
“Mom, it’s not her fault, no more than it’s Pop’s fault.”
His mother seemed to mull over his words before nodding in agreement. “If evil is searching for you, then evil will find you,” she said, then looked up at him. “Lilly told me her story. Do you believe her?”
“Every word,” he answered without hesitation, surprised by the sound of his own conviction. “I know we haven’t known Julia long, but in a way it’s as though we have,” he continued.
Grace placed the tray of tea o
n the desk before Carson, then sat in the chair facing him. “I know what you mean,” she said. “I guess we always knew she was hiding something. She always avoided telling anyone her full name. To be honest with you, I just thought she was running away from an abusive ex-husband or something. I never suspected that it was anything of this magnitude.”
Carson had assumed the same.
They fell silent for a while before Grace asked in a quavering voice, “Do you think that we’ll find them?”
It was the question he’d hoped she wouldn’t ask, and the question he couldn’t or wouldn’t give a straight answer to. “We have to.”
Julia sat across from Sheriff Benton at Coweta County Sheriff’s Department while he typed her statement. As she retold the story her mind kept wondering about Robin’s whereabouts. Had they hurt her? Would they hurt her? And most of all, she wondered who “they” were.
She remembered the man she’d seen through the crack of the closet door. She saw his red face clearly as he turned toward the closet after he’d shot David. She remembered thinking that he knew she was hiding there. Her brain had failed to remember the weapon she’d purchased just days before, now stashed on the top shelf above her, but the man hadn’t gone to the closet. He’d simply wiped down a few things, no doubt trying to get rid of any fingerprints; then he had left.
“Ma’am?” Sheriff Benton inquired.
Julia jumped. “Yes?”
He drew in a deep breath. “We got ourselves in a little pickle here. Kidnapping is a federal offense. I have no choice but to call my local FBI liaison and report this matter to him.”
Her eyes fluttered closed in a vain attempt to block the pain and fear that assaulted her. When would this nightmare end?
“You do understand?” he asked gently.
“Y-yes,” she responded, and forced her eyes open, but a thin sheen of tears obscured her vision.
A hand settled against Julia’s shoulder, and she jerked her head up to see who stood behind her.
Carson gave her an encouraging smile. “I thought you might need that shoulder now to lean on.”
Surrender to Love Page 22
