Keeper of the Lambs

by Sue Clifton

  “What’s this? Some kind of a church service?” He pointed to a group of people sitting on benches. All had their Bibles open. They were looking up at a big man standing before them with his arms outstretched like he was talking to God. His face was covered in a hood, reminding Piper of the Ku Klux Klan she had studied about in her college American history class. The hood didn’t seem to bother the man’s congregation.

  Zach continued to look at the church scene with Piper. “I don’t believe this!”

  “What?” Piper leaned closer to see what he was seeing.

  “Take a good look at the woman here. Does she look familiar to you?”

  Piper took the sketchpad. Her mouth flew open. “It can’t be! Is it?”

  Hank spoke up. “You two are killing us over here. Care to share?”

  “It looks like Janie, Lester’s granddaughter from the antique shop. I can only see a little of her side profile, but the hair and the glasses are the same. I’m sure it’s her.”

  “Yep. Me, too,” Zach added. “Remember how strange she acted when she saw you, Piper? Are you sure this was a dream? Maybe she saw you there.”

  “Not possible, Zach. I had this dream and sketched it when I was still in France. This one wasn’t scary, so I dismissed it.”

  “You know, there is something called teleportation.” Zach began to explain. “Remember, my background is psychology, but also know I don’t believe all the theories and just plain notions some people in the field come up with, including dream teleportation.

  “It’s the belief a person can actually transport their body to another place during dreaming. For example, say you dream you’re at this religious meeting.” Zach pointed to the sketch. “And somehow you communicate with Janie, who is physically sitting in the meeting. Janie sees you, whether in her mind or through hallucination. That’s about as far as I can go with this possible scenario. I won’t ask if it makes sense, because it doesn’t make sense to me, but I might become a believer if this pans out like I think it will.”

  “Well, I must have seen her, but I don’t know how she could have seen me. Remember, I told you she looked vaguely familiar?”

  “I do remember that, and now we know or think we know maybe she had seen you before…just not in the real sense of the word.”

  “Janie was not there the day Harri and I stopped, so I can’t help you with this one. I’ve never seen her, or vice versa. Do you recognize any others in the scene?” Cayce moved to sit beside her daughter and looked at the sketch with her. “That is the spookiest-looking preacher I’ve ever seen, not counting Abel Mathers, alias the black fog.”

  “No, but then, I didn’t recognize Janie until Zach recognized her.” Piper looked at the sketchpad again. “The men are all too distorted to tell much about them.”

  Cayce reached for the sketchpad. “Do you mind if I look through your sketchpad, Piper? There might be something else in here you need to share with us.” She flipped through each page and came to Piper’s most recent sketch, the one she had just done that morning.

  “Whoa! Now this is a nightmare! You better tell us about this one.” Her mom handed the sketchpad to Piper, but she didn’t look at it. She knew which one it was.

  “This was the second time I sketched this dream and the second time I dreamed it, but this time—last night, to be more explicit—the details were more vivid and more horrific. I had been up a while when I came down this morning, re-sketching and adding the new details of the more lucid dream.” Piper looked at Zach to see if he was impressed with her psychological terminology.

  He smiled. “Let me see that sketch, Piper.” As Zach looked at the sketch, his face turned pale. He handed the pad back to Piper and headed to the door, not stopping until he was some distance from the cabin.

  Piper followed him. “What’s wrong, Zach? And don’t say, ‘nothing.’ Something has been bothering you, and I think it’s more than finding Johnny Stinson’s body.”

  Zach turned to face Piper. His eyes glistened, and his face was full of sadness and distress. “Just give me a minute, Piper, and I’ll come in and talk to all of you. But I want to be composed when I do.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Harri was about to turn away from the window when she saw Charlie running toward the hotel. Her face brightened as she turned to Teesh and headed to the door. “Charlie’s here.”

  Harri threw the door open with a big smile on her face, but her smile changed quickly as she saw the desperation and fear on Charlie’s face. He did not hesitate this time but bombarded his way in through the open door.

  “Harri, come! Help Billie!” Charlie took Harri by the hand and tried to drag her to the door.

  “Wait, Charlie! You’re not making sense.” Harri stopped Charlie, who began to jump up and down and shake his hands.

  Teesh hurried to his side and hugged him. “It’s okay, Charlie. Calm down and tell us what’s wrong.”

  Charlie pulled loose from Teesh and began again. “Harri come! Help Billie and baby! Billie scared!”

  Harri looked at Teesh and headed for the flyer that was still in the parlor. She opened it and showed it to Charlie. “Is this Billie, Charlie?” Harri pointed to the girl on the back of the motorcycle.

  “Billie got no hair! Billie in dark! Billie scared!”

  “But is this Billie, Charlie?”

  “Billie!” Charlie pointed to the girl on the bike. “Billie got no hair! Billie scared!”

  Harri grabbed her jacket and headed out the door behind Charlie. “Wait, Charlie! We need a flashlight if Billie’s in the dark.” Harri grabbed a big flashlight out of a kitchen drawer and ran after Charlie. “Where are we going?” Harri yelled to Charlie once she stepped off the porch.

  “Peg’s mine!” Charlie headed down the road, but turned back and ran up to Harri when she moved too slowly. “Charlie not scared. Help Billie and baby. Harri come! Help Billie!” Again, Charlie grabbed Harri’s hand and pulled her toward the entrance to the mine.

  “Teesh, hit redial on the satellite phone. It will call Hank back. Then call the sheriff,” Harri yelled to Teesh, who stood on the porch wringing her hands and watching as Harri ran after Charlie.

  ****

  The Keeper was careful to drive the speed limit only because of the bloodied tools he was carrying in the back of the now dark green SUV. The email he had received was very alarming, and he knew it was time to move the rescue operation to a new location.

  I was careless. I should never have buried the body so close to the mission, but I was afraid of getting caught. My faith was not strong enough in that weak moment.

  Not much farther and I’ll be able to get off the main highway.

  He picked up the satellite phone and dialed. “Is everything all right at the mission?…There’s trouble. Be on high alert.…No, I can’t tell you any more right now. I will be there in another hour or so.”

  ****

  Zach regained his composure but dreaded going into the cabin. It was confession time, and with the new development, he felt helpless. He was a failure, and he had broken a promise to a person who had been important to him.

  Piper turned and looked at Zach when he opened the door. She gave him a smile of reassurance, something he needed from her. He had fallen in love with this green-eyed girl and thought she felt the same about him, but he knew he was about to put their relationship in jeopardy.

  Piper patted the bench beside her, and Zach came over and sat. As he rubbed his hands on his thighs, everyone tried to ignore him to make him feel more at ease. Piper slipped her arm through his, sensing he needed support.

  “I know I owe you all an explanation, but this is very complicated.” Zack turned to face Piper. “It’s really hard to tell you, Piper. I’m afraid you’ll never trust me again.” He turned to face Cayce and Hank. “I guess it’s no secret to any of you I’ve fallen in love with Piper.” He looked back at Piper. “I’ve not been honest with you, Piper. I told you I was unattached, and I was telling the t
ruth, to a degree.”

  Piper removed her arm from Zach’s and gave him a look of disbelief.

  “Where is this going, Zach? I’m not liking what I’m hearing.” Piper stood and moved to the wall beside the fireplace. “I was feeling so bad for you. I thought perhaps Billie was your little sister and you recognized her from the sketch I did of the dream.”

  “Let me explain, Piper, but you’re not going to like what I tell you.” Zach stood. “You sit down. I think this will be easier if I stand.”

  Piper took Zach’s seat on the low bench, pulled her knees up to her chest, and rested her chin in her hands. She did not look at him as he spoke.

  “Several months ago, I was in a relationship with a girl. She was a graduate student at BYU.” Zach dropped his gaze, focusing on the floor. “Yes, what you’re thinking is correct. She was one of my students. I knew it was wrong, but she was beautiful and swept me off my feet, so to speak, and we were both impulsive. From the start, she was a lot more serious about me than I was about her, but we moved in together. I finally realized I didn’t care enough about her to stay in the relationship and risk losing my job, so I told her I was moving out. She was pretty upset, but we split under amiable terms.”

  Zach leaned against the wall. “A month went by, and I didn’t see her or talk to her. Then one day, I got a call. She told me she was pregnant with my child. I was shocked. She had told me she was taking birth control when we lived together. At first, I didn’t believe her, so she emailed me a copy of her doctor’s report. She was eleven weeks, so I knew the baby was mine.”

  Cayce moved to sit by Piper. She picked up her daughter’s hand and held it tightly. Piper did not let go and finally looked up at Zach.

  “I went to see her and told her I would take care of her and the baby, and that we could get married. I promised to be a good father and husband, if that was what she wanted.” Zach’s voice cracked. He cleared his throat and changed his stance while looking at Piper, afraid of her reaction. She met his gaze only briefly, and he felt he had lost her forever.

  “She hugged me and told me that was all she wanted to hear and she would be in touch with me later. I never heard from her again. I went to see her parents, and they told me she had left Utah and was going to have an abortion. I’m Mormon, though not as active as I should be, and I don’t believe in abortion unless there’s a threat to the mother’s health, or the mother was raped, pretty much the stance the church takes. I tried to find her to stop her. I looked everywhere, but it was like she had disappeared off the face of the earth.”

  “You’re obviously not talking about Billie, since your girl was a graduate student.” Piper made eye contact with Zach and this time did not turn her gaze away from him.

  “No. Her name was Denise Mansfield, the first girl to go missing in this area.” Zach redirected his focus to Cayce. “I promise I’m not the kind of man to shirk my responsibilities, Cayce. I took a sabbatical to search for Denise. I’ve been in touch with my friend in the FBI, and he told me they had indications she might have been kidnapped outside an abortion clinic in Boise, information not released to the news media. A homeless guy in a building across the street from the clinic saw a man watching the clinic through binoculars. The man didn’t see the homeless guy. When the man left, he got in a black SUV and followed Denise’s car. The clinic was the last place she was seen before she disappeared. Her car has never been found, but the black rig has been spotted in this area.”

  “So the whole story about researching Bar None was a lie.”

  “Not totally, Piper. I am researching ghost towns for my book. But I did pick Bar None because it was a remote location in the area where the vehicle was last seen about a month and a half ago, about the time Billie and Johnny disappeared. The FBI believes the missing girls are all somehow connected to this black SUV.”

  “So how did you recognize Denise in my sketch? Other than Billie and the girl beside her, who looked to have been dead for days, all that was in the pit was another decomposed body.”

  “I don’t want to look at that sketch again, but I need to show you. Can you get it, Piper?”

  Piper went to her pack and took out the sketchpad and turned to the gruesome sketch. “Are you sure you want to do this, Zach? You don’t have to. I believe your story.”

  “I need to look at it again…just to be sure.”

  Piper handed the sketch to Zach and stood beside him as he looked at it.

  “Even with the decomposition, the facial features look like Denise, and she had auburn hair, although it was never that short. But the real identifying factor is her hand. Look at her hand, propped against the wall.” Zach pointed to the girl’s hand. It was becoming skeletal, but some skin was still intact. “Denise was born with her index finger on her left hand half the length it should have been. If you look at your sketch, you’ll see it in the drawing.”

  “I remember sketching that and thought I’d made a mistake. I closed my eyes several times while sketching, and some details almost sketched themselves. Her hand bones are a good example of the power in detail given to me by my Gift.”

  Zach continued to stare at the sketch. “Oh, my gosh! Look here, at this scar on this girl’s head. No, it’s not a scar. It’s like a brand. Where did we see this? Hank, look.”

  Hank left his seat to see what Zach had found. As soon as he looked at the brand, he reached in his pocket and pulled out the small piece of paper with the diagram he had gotten from the sheriff’s office. “Yep, it’s the same. I bet if we could see the back of the other two girls’ heads, we would find the same brand. That monster!” Hank handed the diagram to Cayce, who also compared it to the sketch.

  “It’s the same. You didn’t recognize this when you were sketching this morning, Piper?” Cayce showed the diagram to Piper.

  “I’ve never seen this before. When did you show this to everybody, Hank?”

  “Last night when we were all in the hotel lobby.”

  “Wait a minute. That was when you went in the kitchen for that second piece of pie, Piper. You didn’t see this, and we forgot to show it to you.” Zach handed the piece of paper back to Hank. “It doesn’t matter. We still don’t know what it means, but with what we know, the abortion clinic abduction of Denise and possibly the other girls, and the cross in the middle of this peculiar diamond shape, I’d say we’ve got some extremist religious and/or anti-abortion group we’re dealing with. In fact, my FBI buddy mentioned it as a possibility, but he never mentioned any group names.”

  “Like that book I had to read in high school, The Scarlet Letter. These poor girls were branded for their sin.” Piper shook her head. “Let’s hope the abductor at least had the decency to sedate them before he branded them.”

  Just as everyone was trying to come to terms with Zach’s disclosure, Hank’s satellite phone rang. Hank walked outside with the phone, but Zach could hear his voice getting louder and sounding panic-stricken. He burst back through the door and yelled for everyone to saddle up.

  Everyone hurried outside and threw their blankets and saddles onto the horses while Hank filled them in on what Teesh had told him on the phone.

  “Charlie is leading Harri to Billie somewhere in the mine tunnels. That mine has tunnels running all through the mountain, but there is an entrance not far from here. I just hope we can still get through it. The mine has had a lot of cave-ins in that section, so we have to be careful. There are plenty of flashlights in the saddlebags on the packhorse. Zach, let’s get the guns and ammunition, and Cayce and Piper, you find the flashlights. We’ve got to hurry. Charlie and Harri are in more danger than they know.”

  Zach held out his hand. “Give me the satellite phone, Hank. I need to call Frank, my FBI friend, and get them involved. I’ll catch up with you.”

  ****

  Billie felt under her mattress for the hole. Being as discreet as possible, she removed the pocketknife and then the flashlight, putting each one under the edge of the mattress. Next, she
took out the ketchup containers already opened. She was lying on her stomach but flipped to her side, her back to the camera. She smeared the ketchup on the front of her paper dress and put some between her legs just in case the woman looked before Billie could grab her. Billie felt strong, her adrenaline at the highest level it had ever been.

  Be not afraid; God is with you. Be not afraid; God is with you.

  Billie began flailing around on the mattress and groaning as if in severe pain.

  “Oh…oh! Something’s wrong! Help me!” She grabbed her stomach and bowed up, intentionally letting her gown ride up so the fake blood would show. Then she looked down at her dress and screamed.

  “I’m bleeding! Oh, God, I’m bleeding! Please help me!”

  The synthesized voice came over the speaker. The woman’s voice had panic in it. “What’s wrong, Billie? Where do you hurt?”

  Billie rolled into a fetal position facing the camera. “Everywhere! I’m bleeding! My baby! Help me! Please!”

  “I’ll be right there, Billie. You will be all right!”

  A few seconds later, Billie heard keys rattling at the door she had never seen opened since being held captive. Billie screamed again, writhing in pretend pain and whimpering as she held her stomach with her knees up. Just under her mattress was the knife with the blade open and ready for her to use if she needed it.

  A small lady who looked to be in her forties entered the room and practically ran to Billie on the mattress. She knelt beside the girl, who continued to cry and yell.

  The woman peeked under Billie’s dress and saw the red on her upper thighs and on her dress. “You’re bleeding, Billie! You need to come with me. It looks like you’re miscarrying.” She stood and held her hand out to Billie. “You have to stand and lean on me. I need to get you to the delivery room before you hemorrhage.”

  Billie reached for the woman’s hand, but pulled her down onto the mattress. Quickly, before the woman could realize she had been fooled, Billie had flung her over on her stomach and was sitting astride her, holding her hands behind her back. When the woman began to struggle, Billie pulled the knife from under the mattress and held it to her throat.