Betrayal of Trust (16 page)

“Okay, we finally ran it back far enough to find the credit card used to pay for e-mail service. The guy’s name is Sonny Thatcher. Ring a bell?”

“Not at all.”

“Well, he might be working with someone else. But turns out, this guy is being investigated in another case for something completely different than e-mail threats.”

“What’s that?”

“I can’t really give details. But he’s definitely bad news.”

“Well, thank you for calling. I’ll let Raven know.”

Wearily, he shut the phone, feeling the frustration of encountering another dead end.

Sonny Thatcher. He had no clue who that might be, nor why the man would want to take his daughter. At any rate, there was nothing he could do now…all he needed to do was get well…

To sleep…

T
he Victory Mission was abuzz with activity when Raven and Jamie walked through the door. Raven recognized the news team from the day before, and the frenzied excitement as the reporter rushed forward and stuck a microphone in her face.

“Raven Mahoney, how did you feel when you heard the news?”

She frowned, trying to wrap her mind around why the news team would be back so soon, and for crying out loud, would this woman move out of her personal space?

“I wish I knew what you were talking about,” she muttered, glancing about, using old reporter tactics of taking in her surroundings. “Noticing the small things,” as Jonesy used to say.

Her heart thundered in her ears as she spied a beaming couple in the corner, fawning over a child—Anaya. Her mind connected with the image and she smiled.

“I’m so glad you’re finally here!” Keri pulled her away from the reporter, who didn’t bother taking the hint and followed as the two sisters headed toward the reunion.

“Kere, is this what I think it is?” she asked breathlessly.

Keri’s mass of unruly red curls bounced with her vigorous nod. “Anaya has a family, Rave.”

“After one broadcast?”

“Yes! Can you believe it?”

Keri stopped before a gray-haired woman who held Anaya tightly in her ample brown arms.

“Mrs. Ford, I’d like to introduce you to my sister, Raven Mahoney.”

The woman’s eyes filled with tears. She grabbed hold of Raven with one arm, keeping a firm hold on Anaya with the other. “I don’t know how to thank you for working so hard to find us.”

“I’m speechless.” And she truly was. How on earth had this happened so quickly?

She turned to Keri, who seemed to read her thoughts. “Mr. and Mrs. Ford recognized Mary’s picture. They called as soon as the number flashed across the screen during the six o’clock news last night. They were on a plane first thing this morning.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I wanted you to be surprised. That’s why I took a chance you might volunteer today, even though just two weeks ago you’d have blown me off like a bottle of bubbles.”

“Consider it the new me.” Raven’s lips twisted into a wry grin.

“That’s what I was counting on.”

“You mean we’re not going to help serve lunch?”

At the sound of Jamie’s disappointed voice, Raven came to attention. Good grief. She’d already forgotten about the kid. Some mother she would make!

Justin stepped up and placed his hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Of course you are. Come with me. We’ll get
you some plastic gloves and you can hand out dinner rolls.”

Jamie’s countenance exploded with happiness. Raven started to follow, but the reporter from the network caught hold of her. “Wait, we’d like to film you and ask some questions.”

“I’m sorry.” Raven pulled away so that the woman’s hand slipped away from her. “This is about Anaya and her grandparents.”

“My boss would like me to interview you.” She gave her a pointed look. “In-ter-view.”

Understanding dawned. They wanted her on air, and would possibly hire her. It was what she’d always wanted. To advance to a national network. But as she watched Jamie walk away, chatting happily with Justin, she knew where she needed to be. She looked back to the reporter and shrugged. “Sorry. I have to stay with that little girl and make sure she’s safe.”

Keri squeezed her hand. “Good choice,” she whispered.

Contentment stole over Raven. She pressed a quick kiss to Anaya’s beautiful face and offered Mr. Ford her hand. “Congratulations on finding your grandbaby, Mr. and Mrs. Ford.”

“Without you, this never would have happened.”

Raven shook her head. “God gets all the credit for this one.”

“Praise the Lord,” Mrs. Ford exulted.

The reporter turned away from Mrs. Ford and rolled her eyes, but Raven caught a glimpse of the sneer on her lips. A sneer that reminded Raven of her own attitude a mere two weeks earlier.

“Amazing how quickly one’s perspective can change, isn’t it?” Keri broke into her thoughts as they walked away.

“You saw her look too?”

Keri nodded. “Now you understand how I could so easily give up my chance to be Briarwood’s first female chief of police. I just had better things to do.”

Arm-in-arm, they walked into the serving area. Relief flooded the volunteers’ faces. A sixty-something woman wearing a hairnet and plastic gloves replaced a pan of rolls into the serving dish and nodded toward them. “I hope you two are ready to help. That hooplah in there with the little girl and the media has drawn so much attention, we’re swarmed with people wanting to eat. We’re almost as busy as Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

“I’m sorry, Sharon,” Keri said, to the frustrated volunteer. “Tell us what we can do to help.”

Sharon motioned toward a small table at the end of the serving line. “Drinks cups need to be filled and another couple of tea urns will need to be filled. But you’ll have to brew it.”

Raven leapt into action and began filling disposable cups with ice cubes and tea. Thirty minutes later, she headed to the kitchen to brew some more, per Sharon’s instructions.

Justin stood over an oven, lifting a pan of lasagna from the four-hundred-degree furnace.

Raven glanced about as she headed for the sink. She frowned and her gut tightened. “Where’s Jamie?”

Justin set the pan on the stainless-steel countertop. He glanced about, a frown creasing his brow. “She was just here a little bit ago, I had her putting rolls on the pans to go in the oven.

Raven followed his gaze to the empty floor space in front of two large pans filled with brown-and-serve dinner rolls.

“Justin!” Raven’s panicked voice echoed through the kitchen. “Where is she?”

The kitchen door swung open and Keri rushed in. “What’s wrong?”

“Jamie’s gone!” Raven’s panicked screech shot through the air like an arrow.

“Raven, calm down. We’ll find her.” Keri’s voice remained low and even. “She’s probably just in the bathroom.”

Gathering in a deep breath, Raven nodded. “I’ll go check.”

“I’m coming with you.” Keri stayed planted to her side. “I’m sure she’s just making a pit stop.” But all three bathrooms were empty.

Raven’s heart raced a hundred miles a second. Not again. If she didn’t find Jamie soon, she knew it would explode inside her chest. “I know exactly how Mary must have felt on the road from Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve and went missing. She eventually found him in the temple.”

Raven’s eyes grew wide and she and Keri exchanged glances. “The chapel,” they said in unison.

“Do you really think?” Raven’s dress shoes clicked on the hard floor with every step.

“We’ll find out.” Keri opened the door.

“Jamie!” Raven rushed forward. Jamie sat on the front row of chairs with a man wearing army surplus. His stench nearly bowled Raven over as she approached. It was one thing for Jamie to serve in public where she could be watched, where no one could hurt her or whisk her away. Another thing altogether, for her to be alone in a closed room with a man who could be anything.

“Hey, Raven.” Jamie glanced up. “This is Ray. He likes the Cardinals too.”

An eerie recognition began to play at the corners of Raven’s mind. She searched her memory until she found
his face. The video footage from last Sunday. This was the man extorting money from the Strongs. The man who had beaten Casey so badly she could no longer function beyond childhood levels.

Jamie’s natural father.

Cold waves of fear slid up her spine. “Keri, please take Jamie to the kitchen for me,” she said, her tone deadly still, calm.

“Hey, I’m talking to Ray.” Jamie’s outrage shook in her voice.

“Jamie, you promised to stay where I could keep an eye on you. You broke that promise by leaving the kitchen. Now, please stop mouthing off and go with Keri like I said.”

Whether she was shocked into submission, or afraid Raven would rat her out to Matt, Jamie did as she was told without another word of protest.

The man stared her down, silently. He didn’t move to run away. He didn’t defend himself. Neither spoke until Keri and Jamie were out of the room.

“You’re a hard man to find, Ray.”

“Obviously not. You’re looking at me.”

“Yes, and you’re going to be looking at the inside of a jail cell in a few short minutes.”

“You can’t arrest someone for sitting in a chapel talking to a little girl.”

“How about attempted kidnapping, threatening letters and e-mails? Those are strong enough reasons, don’t you think?”

Ray frowned and fear flickered in his eyes. “I told you, we were just sitting here talking. I wasn’t going to kidnap her. That thought never even crossed my mind. And I’m not sure what you’re getting at with the threatening letters and e-mails, but do you really think I own a computer?”

Logic never failed to hit its mark with Raven and she allowed her thought processes to go to bat for her. If Ray had been the man who’d attempted to kidnap her, wouldn’t Jamie have recognized him now? Even if he’d been disguised that day at Adventure Park, there should have been something about him to tip her off.

“Matt thinks it was you.”

“Me what?” He studied her. “Did someone try to kidnap my daughter?”

“Okay, first of all, she’s not your daughter. You gave up that right. Second of all, I’m not discussing this with you. You’ll have to discuss it with the police.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“I happen to know you violated the terms of your parole by not showing up for a drug test.”

“That was a misunderstanding of the date. And I got it all worked out. Call my parole officer, if you don’t believe me.”

Raven didn’t want to believe him. She just wanted the threats to end, for Jamie to be safe, for Matt to rest easy knowing everything was okay. “Why should I listen to a man who extorted money from the family whose daughter he victimized?”

He dropped to a chair and buried his face in his hands. “I know you’re right. I’m not the same man I was a few weeks ago. I’ve been staying at the men’s shelter a few blocks from here. It’s a lot like this one, only just for men. The only way you can stay there is if you attend nightly church services. At first I went to the services just so I could have a cot to sleep on. Then I started listening and I got saved.”

“Oh, come on.” Raven gave an exasperated sigh. “I should have known you’d play the ‘God changed me’ card.”

“But He did.” Ray looked up. “Don’t you think someone like me can get help from God? I haven’t had a drop to drink or any drugs in a month.”

“What were you doing here?”

“Part of our recovery is staying caught up on current events. We watch the nightly news.” He nodded toward the door Jamie had slipped through. “I saw her giving that little girl her shoes.”

“So you saw her on the news. How’d you know it was her?”

“They showed a clip with Matthew in it. Jamie looks just like me. I put two and two together. I might be poor and a recovering addict, but I’m pretty smart. When I heard the news trucks were back, I thought she might be here. I just wanted to see her in person.”

“One more thing. What makes you think you had a right to pull Jamie aside and talk to her?”

“I didn’t. I didn’t even plan it. I was in the chapel and she walked in. Said God wanted her to pray for me.”

Taken aback, Raven wasn’t sure how to respond. She gaped.

Ray nodded. “I know. I didn’t know what to say either. But I didn’t have to say anything, because she did the talking. Prayed for me to be strong and good. And that God would help me to find a place to live and a job so I could take care of myself.” He shook his head as though still in disbelief himself. “Funny thing is, I had just been praying those exact things when she walked in.”

“Okay. So you honestly haven’t been harassing Matt?”

“Nope. I probably would have gone back to him and tried for more cash if I was still using, but not now.”

“Would you be willing to tell him face-to-face?”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

“All right. Hang on a sec.”

Raven dialed Matthew’s cell.

After a few rings, his voice mail picked it up. Raven disconnected and dialed the main line. His mother answered.

“Mrs. Strong, this is Raven.”

“Is everything all right with Jamie?”

“Yes. She’s fine. I need to speak with Matthew. It’s urgent.”

“I’m sorry, Raven, Matthew’s out like a light. The doctor gave him a prescription-strength pain reliever for his throat and he’s been asleep now for two hours. I doubt I could wake him if I tried.”

Disappointment clutched at Raven. She was so ready to get this chapter of Matt’s life closed for him. “All right. Will you please give him a message to call me just as soon as he wakes up? As I said, it’s urgent.”

“I hope nothing is wrong.”

“I wish I could tell you, Mrs. Strong, but I’m not at liberty to share this with anyone but your son. I’ll let Matthew fill you in later.”

“I understand.”

She hung up and focused her gaze once more on Ray. “Matthew’s too ill to talk. Do you have the number for the other mission?”

Ray reached into his grimy pocket and pulled out a card. Raven fought to keep her disgust to herself as she took the filthy thing and dialed the number.

“Gospel Mission.”

“Yes, I’d like to confirm that you’ve had a certain resident there working your drug and alcohol program.”

“I’m sorry, we don’t give out information over the phone.”

“Look, he’s sitting here in front of me and told me he’s been down there. I’m at the Victory Mission a few
blocks away from you. My sister and her husband are administrators of the place.”

“Justin and Keri?”

“Yes, I’m Raven Mahoney. Keri’s sister.”

“The reporter?”

Someone else who recognized her. Strangely, the sense of satisfaction she’d once had was missing. “Yes.”

“May I speak with the resident in question?”

She handed her phone to Ray, fighting harder than ever not to wince as he put it up to his ear.

“This is Ray Marx. That you, Alan?”

After a minute of conversation, Ray handed the phone back. She had no choice but to swallow down her revulsion and hope no bugs had crawled out of his hair and onto her phone. Why didn’t these places insist upon showers?