Abduction (37 page)

God,
please. I don’t know You all that well. I know it’s going to take time for me
to understand You and trust You the way people like Rene do, but I don’t know
where else to turn. You’re the only one who can protect my mom. And help my dad
through this. Please.

#

She must have
fallen asleep, because suddenly she choked awake. It was still pitch dark, so
she knew it was the middle of the night. Gasping for air, she turned and looked
at the clock. It was blank.

Did the
electricity go off?

Why is it
so hard to breathe?

It was then
she heard the screams. She tried to sit up, but her
limbs felt weighed down. Suddenly she jolted awake. Smoke. Acrid
,
thick, black smoke. It was obliterating everything.

Sirens wailed
in the distance as she rolled off the bed and started crawling toward the
bedroom door. Confused and panicked, she went in the wrong direction and
slammed headfirst into her dresser. She turned and headed for the door.

She groped in
the dark for the door handle and found it. Voices shouted in the distance. The
sirens were growing louder.

“Dad!”

She staggered
to her feet and rushed into the guest room. Her father was groping in the dark
and their hands met. “Zoe! What’s going on?”

“Fire. Maybe next door. I don’t know. Come on! We
have to get
out!”

They made
their way down the hall to the living room, trying
to stay as close to the floor as possible. Zoe could hear Vince coughing
violently. She let go of her father. “Vince?”

He’d been
asleep on the sofa. She ran her hands across the cushions but couldn’t find
him.

“He’s over
here,” her father yelled.

The sirens
were blaring just outside, the strobe lights on the trucks alternately flashing
red and white. They lit an eerie path to the front door.

Zoe helped her
dad get Vince to his feet. “Take him out. I’m right behind you. I need to grab
the photo album.”

“Forget the
photo album!”

She shoved her
father out the door and turned to make her way back into the living room.
Coughing as the smoke thickened, she frantically ran her hands over the
bookshelf until her fingers closed around the leather-bound book. She lifted it
from the shelf and pressed it against her chest.

“I’ve got
you,” a disembodied voice said. She felt a blanket sweep around her. A flash of
white light from the truck outside illuminated the fireman’s neon stripes on
his turnout coat. He lifted her into his arms.

A few seconds
later, her lungs caught a touch of fresh air and erupted into a spasm of
coughing.

“Just breathe nice and easy. I’ll get you oxygen
in just one second.”

“Zoe!”

She heard her
father’s voice and tried to turn her head.

“She’s fine,
sir. Stand back. I need to get her an oxygen mask. Stay right there. Someone
will help you in just a moment.”

Then they were
moving again. She looked over the fireman’s shoulder to see her townhouse and
the one next to it engulfed in flames. Nothing would survive that. For a brief
second, she wanted to mourn all that she would lose. The moment passed and she
felt thankful everyone got out alive.

The fireman
set her down. “You’re going to be just fine.” She felt a slight prick on her
thigh. “I’ve got you, Zoe.”

Her mind
started to go fuzzy and her limbs grew heavy. One thought penetrated the fog in
her brain.

How does he
know my name?

chapter
31

Saturday, April 29

^J
J
could see the flames shooting into the air from two blocks away. His heart
jumped, racing as fast as the engine of his vehicle. He took a left turn,
squealing the tires and fishtailing erratically before he brought the vehicle
under control.

He’d been at the office, stretched out in his
chair, his feet on his desk. He was sound asleep when the call came through.
He, Fleming, and Bevere had raced down the stairs and out the station door.

Now Fleming screamed into his cell phone, trying to
reach the agent stationed outside Zoe’s house. He shut the phone. “Fire
chief says they got everyone out alive. Shefford’s
home and the connecting
townhouse are
fully engulfed. From the looks of it, he thinks it started next door to Miss
Shefford and spread. That’s not yet confirmed.”

JJ sighed with
relief as he skidded the car to a stop behind one of the fire engines. Fleming
and Bevere were right behind him as he wove through ambulances and fire trucks,
stepping over water hoses and dodging firefighters.

He stopped at the curb and stared at the
destruction. Most
of the flames were succumbing to the walls of water
being show
ered down on them, and smoke
billowed into the night sky, a light gray against the black.

Both
townhouses would be a total loss.

JJ spotted Keyes sitting on the rear bumper of an
ambulance, a blanket around his shoulders. An EMT held an oxygen mask to his
mouth.

He walked over
and nodded to the EMT, flashing his badge. “Keyes? Where’s Zoe?”

Keyes gave him
a blank stare that slowly cleared. “Zoe? She was with one of the firefighters.”

“Where?”

Keyes pointed
somewhere behind him. “He took her that way.”

JJ nodded and
walked where Keyes had pointed. No Zoe. He walked around every truck, stopped
at every ambulance, talking to one firefighter after another. No one had seen
Zoe.

Bevere showed
up at his side a few minutes later. “Find Zoe?”

JJ shook his
head as he stopped and looked around. He should have been able to find her by
now.

“We got
another problem.”

“What’s that?”

Donnie edged
JJ away from a group of neighbors clustered on the sidewalk watching the
action. “Linc. The agent posted outside. He’s dead.”

JJ’s brows
raised. “What?”

Bevere shook
his head. “One shot to the temple. He never saw it coming.”

Realization came fast and hard. “This was a
diversion. He has her!”

“Looks that
way.”

“He got Zoe.”
JJ slammed his open hand against the side of the fire truck. “I want a
roadblock set up now!”

“It’s in the
works.”

He grabbed his
cell phone and dialed the station for backup. “I want them here on the double!
And call Casto!”

JJ spied
Fleming walking toward them, talking furiously into his cell phone, a stormy look
on his face. He stopped when he reached them.

“No, I do not want to hear excuses. I want it done
now!” He lifted his eyes to the power lines above their heads. “Let me put it
this way: If it’s not done within the next fifteen minutes, there are going to
be some very abrupt ends to some careers. Do you copy that?”

JJ’s gaze
drifted over Fleming’s shoulder as the first pale ribbons of dawn began to
appear on the horizon. The day was off to a real bad start.

#

No sirens. No shouts. No engines. It seemed as if
the world had been swallowed up in silence. Zoe tried to open her eyes but
found it difficult. Her body felt heavy, as if the blood that ran though her
veins had turned to lead. She didn’t know where she was. She didn’t know what
time it was, or even what day. Time came to a sudden halt and she drifted in a
cloud of nothingness.

She had a vague recollection of flames and smoke,
but it was more a dream than a memory. A photograph album. A fireman. Her
father’s voice. Had it been real, or was she on the edge of a nightmare?

A voice
drifted through the silence and into her thoughts.
Familiar. Male.
She
reached for it with her mind and recoiled.

“Ah, my dear
Zoe. How foolish of you to think you could beat me at my own game.”

#

Justus leaned
against the counter, his powdered donut dusting his chin and shirt as he ate.
He watched the antiquated fax machine send his request slower than an old
tortoise on his way to the soup pot. He glanced at the clock. It wasn’t six
yet, but he was still hoping to receive a response within the hour. He was
hanging his hopes on the off chance that someone would come in early on a
Saturday.

He was close
to identifying the John Doe found in the Matthews’ backyard. An examination of
the victim’s teeth revealed dental work infamous in the military. A piece of
shrapnel in the man’s hip confirmed Justus’s suspicions.

Finishing his
poor excuse for a breakfast, Justus brushed off the powdered sugar and reached
for his coffee. He’d been up for almost thirty-six hours straight and felt every
minute of it. A glance in the mirror would confirm he looked horrible, so he
avoided looking.

It didn’t
matter anyway. Solving this mystery was far more important than his looks.

#

Zoe heard
herself whimper, but the sound was distant and detached. Her head hurt, her
body ached, and she couldn’t feel her legs. She tried to lift a hand to her
face, but it refused to move.

Slowly,
painfully, she opened her eyes and blinked, trying to see through blurred
vision and dark shadows. She smelled dirt, decay, and dust. The air was dank
and heavy with mold. Little by little her vision cleared and she could make out
the cellar—the dirt floor, the concrete walls, the spider webs, the narrow
staircase, a door.

“Mom?”

There was no
answer.

She wiggled
her fingers and felt the rough fibers of the blanket below her and the cold
metal frame of a cot. She was tied down.

Lifting her
head a little, she glanced at the ropes binding her arms and feet. She let her
head fall gently back to the cot.

“Where is my
mother, you filthy piece of human trash!” she screamed as loud as she could.

A door hinge
creaked and she knew he was there, somewhere in the shadows. She could feel the
evil as sure as if the devil himself had entered the room.

“Ah, so you’re
awake. How delightful.” He remained in the shadows. Watching.

“Where is my
mother?”

“Alive. And
that’s all you need concern yourself with at the moment. How long she remains
that way depends entirely on you.”

“Why don’t I
believe you?”

He laughed.
“Because you don’t trust me. I can’t imagine why. But then again, you’re a
woman. One can’t expect you to understand everything.”

She narrowed
her eyes, trying to see the murky silhouette. “I understand enough to know that
you are sick.”

Then he moved.

A sliver of light from the room behind him
illuminated his face.

She gasped.
“You! How. . .but. . .”

The look in
his eyes sent a shiver down her back.

“My dear Zoe, now you understand why I couldn’t
allow you to
live.”

chapter
32

Saturday, April 29

K
aren
placed a hand on Ray’s arm. “Stay here.” She didn’t wait for acknowledgment as
she slowly made her way to the front of the church. She stared up at the cross
on the wall behind the pulpit, trying to formulate the words in her heart.

Dropping to
her knees on the velvet-padded altar, she bowed her head. “Thank You. You were
faithful even when I wasn’t. You were there even when I didn’t believe You
were. And in spite of all my faults and all my doubts and all my inadequacies,
You stayed in control. Help me to never doubt You again.”

She heard the
door open behind her and the whisper of additional voices. With one last word
of thanks, she stood to her feet and turned around.

Nora McCaine
stood next to Ray with Jessica in her arms. Benson had called Nora from the
police station to arrange Jessica’s return. Karen insisted that the meeting
take place at the church. The Lord had brought her baby back to her. What
better place for her happy reunion than in His house.

She walked
briskly to the rear of the church and, with a flood of tears, reached for her
daughter. She couldn’t see Jessica’s face through the blur of emotion, but she
didn’t need to. She could smell her familiar baby smell. She could feel Jessica
in her arms. She could hear Jessica’s familiar whimper.

“Hey, baby.
Mommy has you now. Everything’s okay now.”

She knew even
as she said the words that they weren’t entirely true. Ted was still
unaccounted for and would remain a constant threat. And she wouldn’t be blind
anymore to the fact that evil was
out there,
ready to pounce on innocent lives. It would take every bit
of her will
to keep Jessica safe without smothering her with overzealous protection.

Lifting her
eyes, she blinked and smiled at Nora McCaine—a woman with a heart as big as
Karen’s love. “I can’t even begin to thank you for all you’ve done.”

“You don’t
have to. She was the delight of our lives. We’re going to miss her so much.”

Karen reached
out as Nora’s voice began to shake. “Don’t. Don’t walk out of her life. You’re
an important part of it for her and for me. I want us to be friends. I never
gave Jessica godparents. I’d be honored if you and your husband would consider
taking the job.”

Nora choked
out a laugh and a crooked smile as she leaned into her husband. “I’d love
that.”

Karen squeezed
Nora’s hand. “Good.”