GODDESS OF THE MOON (A Diana Racine Psychic Suspense) (61 page)

Cal’s fat man lost focus at the sound of the gunshots, and Cal scooped the gun from his hand, wiping his sleeve across his forehead to keep the
sweat from clouding his vision.

Lucier
put his man down with a hard right to the jaw
. He
moved slowly toward Diana, who stood
holding the gun in
a death grip
with a
trembling
hand
. “You can let go now, my love
,” he said
.
“
You’ve done enough.” He kissed her head.
“More than enough.”

She wanted to release the
weapon
, but she couldn’t. Her fingers
were
locked onto
the handle
.

Lucier pried
it
from her hand.
“
Everything
’s okay
, sweetheart
.
We
’re in
control.”

Diana responded to Lucier’s calming voice
and
took stock of the scene.
S
obbing noises came from around the side of the hangar, and Diana hustled to the sound, fearful someone was hurt.
Maia
and
Anat
huddled
together
with their wailing
children
.

Poor things, Diana thought. Fighting and gunshots had terrified
them
.
“It’s all over. Everything will be okay.”

They all
crept
forward to survey the damage.
Maia
gasped
. “
Seth
’
s
hurt
. Help him.”
She ran inside the hangar.

“You okay?”
Cal
asked Anat. When she nodded, he
jogged
after
Maia
.

Diana
scanned the area
. Phillip Crane was nowhere to be seen.
The all-powerful Crane
let others do
the
dirty work. Where ha
d
he gone?

Lucier motioned Crane’s three flunkies togeth
er and leveled the gun at them.

A
mechanized roar came
from the hangar.
“
Crane
’
s
escap
ing,” Diana yelled over the din
.

Helpless to stop him, Lucier
handed the gun to Diana
and pointed to the three prisoners
. “Shoot them if they move.”

“My pleasure,” she said.

Lucier helped Cal
drag Seth out of the way
.
Everyone else
moved back from the engine’s thrust
as the plane taxied
onto the tarmac
.

Just then, o
verhead, lights appeared in the early morning sky
, and a
brilliant spotlight illuminated the gathering on the tarmac.
Lucier rushed out from the hangar and took the gun from Diana’s hand. He pointed skyward. Shielding her eyes from the glare, she
made out two dark ovals in the sky.
E
lation spread through her like wildfire, and she saw the three letters that would burn an image in her brain forever: FBI.

The earsplitting noise of the
turboprop
drowned out
the whirring sound coming from above. T
he
helicopters circled, hovered for a minute,
then
set down on the runway, blocking the path of the
plane’s
escape. Diana couldn’t see inside the plane, but the engines shut down. Crane didn’t
emerge
.

Lucier grabbed her hand and squeezed it so hard her fingers went numb for a second. “You okay?”

She nestled next to him.
“Never better.”

Four men got out of each helicopter, guns dr
awn
. They split. A few jogged to the hangar, one
examin
ing Slater. The rest tended to the group
,
except for the lead agent who headed their way
.
“You Lucier?”

Lucier nodded. “Boy, are we glad to see you.”

The
agent
scanned the area
, checking
the men either down with injuries or being held at gunpoint
. “
L
ooks like you handled yourselves pretty well.” He shook Lucier’s hand. “Mike Cafferty
.
Stallings said
if you were still alive
to
tell you he
send
s
his regards.”

“I wasn’t sure I would be.”

“Who’s the guy in the plane?”
the agent asked.

“Phillip Crane.”

“The industrialist?”

“
O
ne
and the same
.
The
man coming to
on the ground
over there
is Silas Compton. You have two of the richest guys in the country to load up, Cafferty.
Big damn bust.”

“I’m
gonna
love this.”

“Mind if I yank
Crane
out of the cockpit
?
” Lucier asked.

“You think he has a weapon?”

“
He didn’t before
he got in the plane
, but I’m not sure
if he had
one
stashed inside
.
Being Phillip Crane, he
probably still thinks he’s going to get away with this.
That
ain’t
gonna
happen
, not when all the facts come out
. Your collar,
Cafferty,
but I
’d like
to cuff th
e
slippery bastard myself.
”

“As long as I tag along
.
”
He must have noticed Lucier’s frown.
“Just to keep things kosher.
Jurisdiction and all that.”

Amid the Confusion

D
iana was exhausted, having slept little. She
and Lucier filled in the
disbelieving
agents on Crane’s plans for a new order.
F
ederal agencies
,
child protection professionals, doctors, and counselors
conducted interviews with
both the
staff and members of the group
.
P
riests offered to conduct exorcisms to rid the evil spirits from Satan’s damned. Their ov
ertures were politely rejected.

The compound buzzed with planes landing and taking off.
Fortunately, the
re
were enough rooms to accommodate
everyone
trying to make sense out of a story that defied imagination.
With few precedents
, the
state agencies
proceeded
one step at a time.
Cafferty was right. Lucier had no jurisdiction
in Oklahoma
. He
and Diana were
star witnes
s
es
only
.

“What happens now
?
”
she
asked Cafferty.

“All the psychologists and counselors agree that the children should remain here while they’re being interrogated. Uprooting them from their parents or from the adults acting as their parents, before they understand what’s happening would be more detrimental. Besides, it’s easier to keep everyone
together
here
. Doctors are taking DNA swabs from everyone in the complex.”

“And the kidnapped babies?” Lucier asked.

“
T
wo young women who said their names were Nona and Brigid
and
claim to be daughters of Silas and Selene Compton
,
identified
them
.
Our people are notifying t
he
birth parents as we speak.”

“What
will
happen to those girls?” Diana asked. “They’ve been so compromised.”

Cafferty shook his head. “They’ll need psychological counseling and deprogramming. They
’ll
face crim
inal charges as well.
There’s a lot to iron out
.”

“You feel sorry for them, don’t you?” Lucier asked
her
. He turned to Cafferty. “Diana feels sorry for everyone. She even felt sorry for
a guy who
wanted to kill her.”

Yes, she felt sorry for the girls, but not for Compton and Crane. They were evil and should get the maximum sentence the law
allows
“It’s not the same thing
.
Those girls have been brainwashed. They never knew w
hat they were doing was wrong.”

“Sorry, Ms
.
Racine
, bu
t they knew kidnapping babies from their birth parents was a crime.”

Diana shrugged. “Well,
yes
. Still
…
”

“What about Anat Crane and Cal Easley?” Lucier asked.

“They’
r
e help
ing
identify who belongs to whom, especially Easley. They’ve been trapped here a long time. Hope they can make it in the real world.”

“They will because they kept their worlds real, even here.” Lucier flipped through the papers of the human inventory. “There’s a little girl
named
Anna. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and I think she fed information to Cal Easley.”

“I’ll look into her personally.”

“Good. I’d hate to
see anything happen to her.”

Diana and Lucier got up to leave. A plane waited to take them back to New Orleans.
Lucier turned.
“Oh, one more thing.
Seth Crane and Maia Compton.
They helped us.
What’s going to happen to them?”

“They’re gone.”
Cafferty said.

Lucier stopped. “Gone? Gone where?”

“Good question.
The doctor fixed up his arm
. The Compton woman and her children were with him. Then,
during the night
, the
y
all
disappeared.”

Diana’s mouth hung open. “Huh?
But how?”

“They flew out of here.”

“
Planes
blocked
t
he runway
,” Lucier said.

“
That’s right
. Crane took the
helo
.”

“And you don’t know where
they went
?”

“Not yet. They have to land somewhere. We’ll get them.”

Diana
stole a quick glance at Lucier
.
With an aircraft that can land just about anywhere? Don’t bet on it.

Introspection

T
hat evening,
w
hen
Diana o
pened the door to
her
house
,
she and Lucier
were met with that closed-up, musty smell
,
mixed with a hint of vanilla from the candles
she
loved.
This was her home, and she loved the feeling of security.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Good to be home
.”

Lucier kicked the door closed and took her in his arms. “I wasn’t sure we’d see either of our houses again.”

“
You’re my hero
, Lieutenant.”

He kissed her lightly on the lips.
“I didn’t feel much like a hero when my face fell into the salmon.
Quite the contrary.
I should never have trust
ed
those people.
Knew it in the depth
s
of my soul.
Yet I let down my guard, disbelieving they
’
d do what they did.
”