The Switch

by Sandra Brown

  Tobias continued. "He shot Conway Alvin Medford Conway, a.k.a. Brother Gabriel—in the gut. Two rounds before we were able to stop him. He didn't want to take Conway out right away. He wanted him to think about dying."

  The medical facility at the Temple had been inadequate to handle a traumatic injury like the one Brother Gabriel had sustained, so 911 had been called.

  "He succumbed in the ambulance a half mile short of the

  emergency room," Tobias told them. "He lived a long half hour in excruciating pain, watching himself bleed out, knowing that he wasn't going to make it. Ritchey got what he wanted."

  Lawson snorted with what sounded like satisfaction, then took a hefty swig of his Dr Pepper.

  "What about Ritchey's daughter?" one of the reservation policemen asked.

  Tobias shared what Ritchey had told him. "He'd had a series of unsuccessful jobs. He was in debt. Conway approached him and they struck a deal. They staged Oleta's abduction, which is still on the books as an unsolved crime. Mrs. Ritchey will soon be reunited with the daughter she thought had been kidnapped when she was ten years old." He looked down at the floor between his tasseled Bally loafers. "I understand the girl is about to deliver Brother Gabriel's baby."

  Gillian heard Chief swear under his breath. "He sold his own daughter into sexual slavery?"

  "Essentially," Tobias replied. "Although I believe him when he says he thought he was doing best by her. He didn't learn until recently what her role at the Temple actually was. Brother Gabriel used her to guarantee Ritchey's silence and continued cooperation. Tonight his guilt caused him to flip out. He's glad Conway is dead and will corroborate your statement, Ms. Lloyd."

  "Call me Gillian. Please."

  He had no time to acknowledge her request. A commotion outside drew their attention to the door. Two men were pushed into the room, their hands handcuffed behind them. Gillian and Chief recognized them instantly.

  They were in the custody of several strapping Indians, all heavily armed but smiling. One's cheeks sported two stripes of war paint. It was he who detached himself from the others. "Agent Tobias?"

  He came to his feet and extended his hand. "I'm Agent Tobias."

  "We're reservation policemen, working undercover. We arrested these men on a civilian complaint for trespassing, but their car turned out to be a rolling arsenal. Besides illegal automatic rifles, we found black market surveillance equipment and a box of contraband prescription drugs from Mexico." He glanced over at Gillian and Hart. "We have reason to believe they're connected to your case here."

  "He's the one who impersonated you," Gillian said, identifying the black man for Tobias. "Brother Gabriel referred to him as Joshua, but that's probably an alias. They were tracking Chief and me."

  "With this."

  She hadn't noticed Dexter Longtree until he stepped from behind a taller, younger man. In his hand lay the ruby pendant and the tiny transceiver they had removed from it.

  "Thank you," Tobias said deferentially, obviously impressed by Longtree's regal bearing. He deposited the evidence on the desk, then turned to the two men in restraints and looked balefully at the one who had dared to pass himself off as him. "What's your name?"

  "Fuck you."

  "Middle initial?" Lawson asked.

  Everyone laughed.

  "Later," Tobias said to Joshua, making it sound like a threat. Along with his unnamed partner, Joshua was remanded to FBI agents who had recently arrived from Santa Fe. The pair were led back outside, where they were placed in separate cars for their trip to the city.

  Chief left his seat and approached Longtree. Gillian joined them. The two men shook hands. Chief thanked him.

  "I was glad to help," Longtree replied. "Actually, it was fun."

  After they all shared a smile, Chief said, "I'd like to hear more about NAA."

  The older Indian regarded him for a long moment. "You don't owe me anything."

  "Maybe not. But I owe it to myself."

  A light flickered in the old man's eyes. "I'd be pleased to arrange a meeting at your convenience."

  "I'll be in touch."

  After they shook hands again, Gillian took Longtree's hand in hers. It was rough to the touch, strong, warm, confidence-inspiring. "You've been awfully kind. Beyond that, you risked your life for my sake. I'm grateful." She hesitated, then, acting on impulse, gave him a hard, brief hug. Not seeming to mind, he patted her shoulder before releasing her. "Thank you, Chief Longtree."

  "You're welcome, Gillian."

  Respectfully, the reservation policemen let him go first, then they filed out behind him. It wasn't until after they had disappeared through the door that Gillian realized Longtree had called her by the correct name. She looked at Chief. Their eyes met. "When did you tell—"

  "I didn't."

  "So how did he—"

  "I don't know. He seems to know a lot of stuff the rest of us don't."

  Lawson's voice broke their long stare and drew them back into the discussion. "Where does the investigation go from here?"

  Tobias explained. "A task force will arrive sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, agents from Santa Fe and Albuquerque are at the Temple making sure that nothing is destroyed or altered. All activity has been suspended at the ministry's installations abroad, too. The task force has their work cut out for them. It's going to be a chore just to sort through all the data on Hancock's computer systems."

  Gillian said, "Brother Gabriel told me that everything had been entered in code and that only Mr. Hancock could decipher it."

  "Our experts have cracked tough codes before. It might take them months, but I'm confident they'll crack Hancock's, too."

  "Maybe he'll cooperate," Chief said.

  "Doubtful. Our own government trained him not to. Hancock was a CIA operative. The day he retired, he joined ranks with Brother Gabriel." Reading their shock, he added, "Ms. Myrick informed me of that not a half hour ago after she ran a background check on him."

  "Frightening," Gillian said softly. "And significant. We may never know how pervasive Brother Gabriel's influence is."

  "Let's hope that influence dies with him," Chief said.

  "We'll probably experience a backlash from diehard followers," Tobias warned. "We must be prepared for some unpleasant repercussions. How severe they are remains to be seen, but many will think we've destroyed a man that God Himself had ordained."

  "Brother Gabriel wasn't speaking for God," Gillian argued fiercely.

  "Let's hope they'll conclude that when all the charges against him are made public."

  They reflected solemnly on that for a time. Gillian recalled that Chief had a colleague who had sent her daughter to school at the Temple. How would people respond when they learned how consummately evil Brother Gabriel had been? Legions of followers would feel bereft. Others, refusing to accept the truth, might react violently. When Dale Gordon saw her with Chief, she never would have imagined the far-reaching consequences of that encounter.

  She asked, "Did they locate the buses?"

  Tobias nodded. "Intercepted on a direct route to Mexico. They were packed with TV production equipment. And forty- seven children."

  Gillian released a long sigh of relief.

  "All appeared to be in good health, although they were frightened to be taken off the buses. They were turned over to New Mexico CPS. The state agencies, acting on orders from the governor's office, have been exceedingly cooperative. A sidebar. Among the caretakers who'd hustled the children

  away tonight were Dorothy Pugh and Hennings's sister. Two of the children were hers."

  "Fathered by Brother Gabriel?"

  "We're assuming. She spat on the arresting officer who asked."

  "The Andersons' baby?"

  "There were several boys in that general age group. It'll have to be determined which one he is."

  "Chief and I promised to call them as soon as we knew something. I have their private cell number."

  Tobias shifted uncomfortably an
d coughed behind his hand. "There's an ugly aspect to this that obviously hasn't occurred to you." Gillian, along with the others, looked at him expectantly. "The Andersons might not want the boy now. In fact, I'm guessing that most of the couples whose kids were kidnapped will reject them once they learn who sired them. It's one thing to conceive by an anonymous donor of your choosing. When you know your baby was fathered by a maniac..." He left the remainder unspoken.

  "Jesus," Lawson said, "I hadn't thought of that."

  Gillian had. Thinking about it had consumed her ever since it was first alleged that Dale Gordon was switching sperm in his lab. The thought of it had sickened her enough to make her throw up on the side of the road.

  Thinking of it now made her ill. Shivering, she raised both hands to her lips and blew on them to warm her cold fingers. She stared sightlessly into near space. When at last she cleared her vision, she realized that the conversation had flagged and that everyone was staring at her.

  Tobias cleared his throat. "I guess I speak for everyone. Why'd you do it? Why'd you pretend to be Melina?"

  She looked from him to Lawson and then from Lawson to Chief. But she couldn't hold Chief's gaze for long, so she addressed Lawson. "It was something you said."

  He nearly dropped his can of Dr Pepper. "Me?"

  "When the two policemen came to Melina's house that morning, they didn't address me by her name. Or if they did, I didn't catch it. I'd been awakened from a deep sleep. All that registered was that my twin had been murdered."

  "Why were you at Melina's house in the first place?"

  "After leaving..." She hesitated, and instead of saying Chief's name, she said, "After leaving The Mansion, I drove home. Melina was already asleep. I woke her up. We talked for a while. That's how I knew about Jem's coming to my house with his gift of the pendant. I left it there on the nightstand. Melina spared no details of their encounter, so when the time came, I was able to make Jem believe that I was the woman he'd seen the night before."

  "Jeez, this gets confusing," Lawson remarked.

  "For me, too," she admitted with a wan smile. "Melina prevailed upon me to let her finish the night in my bed, since she was already there. It made sense. So I drove to her house and spent the night."

  For a moment she was buffeted by the horrible memories of that first half hour after hearing that her sister had been stabbed to death. "When I rushed into my own house, you, Mr. Lawson, prevented me from going into the bedroom. Remember, you held me back? You warned me against contaminating the crime scene and said, `You want to know who killed Gillian, don't you?'

  "And that question was like a slap in the face. I came to, so to speak. That's when I realized your mistake. Melina had been identified as me. Apparently the killer had made the same mistake. When I saw the words written on the wall, I knew that I had been targeted to die because I'd been with Chief. But who even knew? And why would I be killed for it? I decided not to correct the mistake until I knew more.

  "Then Jem arrived, and things really took a bizarre turn. Initially he didn't know that I—Gillian—had spent the night with Chief, so he didn't know that Brother Gabriel had ordered the murder. Up to that point, his shock was genuine.

  "But when I announced that Gillian had gone with Chief in Melina's place, and after Jem saw the words scrawled on the wall, he realized why Gillian had to be killed. He probably even suspected that Dale Gordon had been the one to do it. That's why—when we were in Lawson's office—he kept interrupting when Chief began to describe Gordon.

  "But even before then, I suspected that he was involved on some level. Why did he lie about the engagement? Why did he claim that he was against artificial insemination when he had encouraged it from the time I first advanced the idea? Until I knew the answers to those questions, I had to protect myself. And in order to do that, 'Gillian' had to remain dead.

  "Jem never suspected. I know that. I couldn't conceal my aversion, but he and Melina had never gotten along. Tricking him into believing that I was her was easy. It wasn't so easy to pretend to others." She couldn't resist glancing at Chief. His eyes were riveted on her.

  Quickly she continued, looking at Lawson. "I confessed to our switching places the night before, and then let you assume that we'd switched back when the evening ended. We didn't."

  "I never asked you when you'd switched back?"

  She shook her head. "You only asked what time Gillian had returned home from The Mansion. I did return home around two-thirty that morning, but went on to Melina's house after our brief visit. She slept in my bed and died in my place."

  She had to clear her throat of emotion before she could continue. "It was hard for me to endure everyone's grief over me, when it was Melina they should have been grieving. Often I nearly cracked under the pressure of it. The only thing that kept me going was the determination to find the person responsible for her death."

  "How long did you figure the switch would last?" Lawson asked.

  "How long would I continue being Melina? For as long as necessary to avenge her death. I didn't think past that. I suppose I committed a crime, didn't I? Impersonating someone?"

  "I'm looking into it," Lawson mumbled.

  Tobias said, "You exposed Brother Gabriel's crimes. That's my focus."

  Gillian turned to Chief. "I was so afraid you were going to forget that we had seen Dale Gordon. That day in Lawson's office, when we supposedly met for the first time, I was prompting you to remember running into him at the taco restaurant. I had to let Lawson know that Dale Gordon was a lead, but I couldn't reveal it myself."

  "You recognized him that night?"

  "Immediately, although I couldn't place where I knew him from. Not until he said he worked at the Waters Clinic. Then I remembered seeing him there. He'd spoken to me a few times. And... and other things, apparently." She shuddered, thinking of the photos taken of her when she was unaware.

  "That's when I learned she had a twin," Chief told the others. "She told me that Gordon must have mistaken her for her sister Gillian."

  "But you were Gillian," Lawson said with some confusion. "Pretending to be Melina," Chief reminded him.

  Lawson scowled at her. "You're sure you're Gillian now?" "Yes," she said with a weak smile. "I am."

  "She is," Tobias said, looking abashed. "The autopsy report confirms that it was Melina who was killed."

  "I was terrified that you would discover the discrepancy," she told Lawson. "Why would a woman with no female organs be artificially inseminated?"

  "That's why you rushed to have the body cremated."

  "Yes. Then when you, Mr. Tobias, told me that Lawson had given you the file on the murder, I was afraid that you would find it."

  "I didn't. Not until tonight. I ran to tell Lawson, and we came rushing over here to enlist Ritchey's help to locate you, and instead found Colonel Hart locked in the cell, fit to be tied."

  She turned to Chief. "They told you?"

  He was about to speak when Lawson spoke for him. "We didn't have to. He had figured it out on his own."

  "You had?" she asked huskily. "When?"

  One of the deputies who was monitoring Ritchey chose that moment to open the door and interrupt. "Agent Tobias, he's asking for you. Wants to know if he has to see his wife. Says he can't face her or his other kids."

  "Be right there." Tobias stood, officially adjourning the meeting. He told her and Chief that he had reserved rooms for them at the motel. "There'll be a chopper here tomorrow at ten to take us all to Albuquerque. From there you can fly on to Dallas." He glanced at Chief. "Or wherever. Just make sure you leave me a number where you can be reached. There'll be a lot of details. Paperwork."

  His cell phone rang. He opened it and answered, "Tobias. Oh, yeah, Lucy. Thank you for calling me back. No, nothing else tonight. Go home. Rest. You can resume tomorrow. I just called to tell you again what an outstanding job you did on this case. Truly outstanding." He turned his back to them, but Gillian heard him say, "And to ask what kind of flo
wers you like. That's right. Flowers."

  CHAPTER 42

  "I should have planted one of those transceivers on you myself."

  Gillian had opened the hotel room door to find Chief with a hand on either side of the doorjamb, forming a human barrier. He was frowning deeply. "I've been knocking on this door for five full minutes."

  "I was in the shower." Which should have been apparent, since she was bundled up in a white terrycloth robe, courtesy of The Mansion. Her wet hair had been combed, but the ends were dripping water onto her neck.

  "For three days I've been leaving messages at your office and on your house phone. Why haven't you returned my calls?" "Who told you I was here?"

  "Tobias."

  "He caved?"

  "When I threatened to sic NASA's PR department on his ass. He's got enough to worry about."

  "I couldn't go back to my house, Chief. I never want to step foot inside it again. And Melina's house ... it seemed like another violation of her for me to be there. I hated myself for being there before."

  "Are you going to keep me out here in the hall?"

  She stepped aside and closed the door behind him. "I talked to Candace Anderson this afternoon."

  "They got their kid back, I know. Tobias told me. They were giddy. Said it never occurred to them to reject him."

  "He's only seven and a half months old. Hopefully if there's been any emotional damage, it will be minimal."

  "They'll fix it."

  She was as confident of that as Chief. "Have you checked on Pax?"

  "Bandit's fine. He's fine. We're going for a beer together next week. Everything's bloody fine. Now—"

  "Would you like something to drink?"

  "No!" he said impatiently. "The trip back to Dallas? I thought you were going to be on my flight."

  "How's your face?"

  "Stitches."

  "How many?"

  "Seven, I think. I went to the men's room in the airport, and when I came out and didn't see you, I assumed you'd already boarded the plane."

  "It'll scar."

  "It'll make me look dashing and dangerous."

  "It already does."