What Burns Within (52 page)

Adrian nodded. “Yeah, Aaron.”

“I need to find him.”

“Why?”

“Adrian—” Ashlyn glanced at Craig, who gave her just the slightest shake of his head. “It’s just really important. We believe he can provide critical information about our child-abduction case.”

“Aaron? I don’t see how.”

“Do you know where he’s living? His driver’s license has a mailbox in Port Coquitlam for him.”

Adrian turned from her to Craig and then shrugged. “Sure. He moved into this religious compound, but then the group got run off. Don’t really remember the whole deal. He just told me they’d all gone, and he was still there, keeping the place ready for when they came back.”

Ashlyn wrote down the address, and then her cell phone rang.

“We found a name,” Tain told her.

“Aaron Vaughan.”

“Geez, I owe you a drink now, don’t I?”

“I’ve got an address.” She gave him the directions. “I can meet you there in ten minutes.”

“We can pick you up.”

“I’m at the fire hall.”

“Okay, we’ll meet you there, then. I’ll call Daly and get backup. And you wait for us.”

Craig glanced over his shoulder, then followed her to her car. She popped the trunk and pulled out her Kevlar.

“You think this guy is armed?”

“A religious nut who drives a Corvette? Who knows?”

Craig glanced at the men in the garage again, all watching him and Ashlyn, Adrian’s face distorted with confusion.

“I have to go.”

“Be careful.”

She nodded. “You too.”

Craig watched her drive away, then turned back to the garage, Adrian still watching him.

The men playing cards all laughed.

“God, I can’t believe some of these broads. Dress me up in a Santa suit and suddenly I’m their idea of a sexual fantasy.”

“Got to wonder how desperate they are, fantasizing about you.”

“Father complex. Jolly fat man who brings presents.”

Craig groaned inwardly. Hours of stories over dinner, first about the women who liked special pumpers, and now this.

“So, you guys get all these women throwing themselves at you just because you’re firefighters?” he asked them.

“Your turn next, buddy. Oh, they’ll steer clear when they see your girl around, but any night you want a taste of something else, you’ll have your options.”

“That’s not my style.”

“No? You aren’t married.”

“Maybe I should be,” he murmured, more to himself than anyone else.

“We don’t just get the chicks. Plenty of other nutjobs around here,” Adrian said. “All the wannabes?”

Most of the men at the table groaned then.

“Don’t even get me started on those guys.”

“Living vicariously. Can’t make the cut so they hang out, want to volunteer.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Craig asked.

“They didn’t even make the volunteer cut,” another man said.

“That one guy, you know, at the place where we get our pagers? He’s, what, failed three times now?”

“I don’t know why they keep letting him try.”

“Probably want to keep him happy, you know, managing our account and all that.”

“Which one is that?” Craig asked. “Greg?”

“No, the other one, Rob. He’s the one who handles all the accounts.”

“I had someone called Greg. He said he did it all.”

The men laughed. Craig looked around, and nobody met his gaze.

“All right, enlighten me. What’s the joke?”

“You must’ve taken Ashlyn with you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Rob loves to watch the ladies. He can’t handle a customer with a pretty girl on his arm.”

“Must be why he wants to be a firefighter,” said one of the other men who’d just walked in. “So he can flex his pumper.”

They all laughed, except Craig. He was thinking about how Ashlyn got called back to pick up a new pager.

Once they’d finished washing up and getting dressed, Taylor and Lindsay sat down. Maria, or Hannah, continued to buzz around the room, picking up their clothes, folding them, putting everything back the way they’d found it.

“Were you like that at home too?” Lindsay asked.

“Like what?”

“Fussy. Always cleaning up and looking after stuff.”

Maria shrugged. “We have a big family. Everyone has to help.”

The latch clicked, and the door opened. He stood there, dressed in black, except for his white collar. Once he’d looked them over, he smiled.

“It’s time.”

He took Maria’s hand, leaving Taylor and Lindsay to follow them.

When they got back to the main room that they’d stayed in, a large door on one wall had been opened, revealing an oversized fish tank, as far as Taylor could tell. She’d never really seen anything like it.

Along the far wall, all the shutters had been pulled back, revealing windows and even one that was nothing more than a screen, the warm sunlight and gentle breeze filtering in through the sheer drapes.

“I am the way,” he began.

“You are the way,” they echoed.

“I show the path to God.”

“You have shown us the path….”

Taylor peeked at Lindsay as they recited the words, the words he’d spent hours teaching them, hour after painful hour of sitting with their knees pressed against the hard concrete, learning the pledges, learning how he wanted them to respond….

Lindsay stared blankly ahead now, her lips moving automatically, the words coming without resistance. Taylor had seen the wounds on her back when she’d washed, still scabbed and looking angry and sore. Lindsay had even winced as she pulled the dress over her head.

“It is time,” he said.

He reached for the bread and followed the ritual, and then they shared the wine.

Once they were finished, they sang a short hymn and then he stood up, extending his hand to Maria, the girl he called Hannah, who took it.

He led her to the tank and lifted her inside.

“I will baptize you and cleanse you of your sins.”

He pushed her backwards, under the water. Taylor waited for him to let her up.

Maria started to squirm under the water.

“Pray for her, girls. Her spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

“He’s going to kill her,” Taylor whispered.

Lindsay lunged forward, grabbing at his hands. For a moment, he let go of Maria, who pulled herself up, clutching the side of the tank as she gasped for air.

“This is it?” Tain asked as he jumped out of his car.

Ashlyn nodded. She pulled her gun out of the holster. “Apparently, he was part of some religious sect that had set up camp here. The rest of them left, but he stayed on.”

“Okay. We believe he has four girls. He’s not afraid to kill them.” Tain finished relaying the orders. “Sims, you lead your team around back. Ashlyn, you’re with me.”

Tain, Ashlyn and four other officers made it to the front door with little concern. All the windows on that side were boarded up, and there was no evidence of anyone. Once they got to the front entrance, it was another story.

The lobby was wide and two hallways ran toward the back of the building, a large, wide staircase climbing up. Tain gestured to two officers, sending them to check the main floor.

“Let’s go up,” he whispered to Ashlyn, nodding for the remaining officers to follow them.

“Shouldn’t we wait for the all-clear?”

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

She nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

They started up the stairs, each taking a side, tilting their heads back to try to see if anyone was observing them from above.

Once they reached the second level, Tain quickly assessed that the access door was locked on their side. The main floor had been cleared, and he gestured to those men to try to open the second-floor door.

They continued upward, toward the top floor. Ashlyn reached for the door and turned the handle all the way. As she pulled it open, they heard a scream.

Tain and Ashlyn ran in the direction of an open doorway across a large, empty area from where they were. They could clearly see that nobody was in the main room, with most of the side doors closed. Ashlyn half turned, gesturing to the side doors, waiting until other officers went to check them.

They reached the door as another scream ripped through the stillness. Tain peered around the doorway.

“Oh, Christ,” he said, rushing in.

Ashlyn was partway into the room before she could really see what was going on. A girl tied to a bed against a wall, crying silently because she was bound and gagged. Another girl was sitting on the floor, just staring. Her mouth was open with no sound coming out.

The man, dressed like a priest, had been dragging another girl across the room to a tank, her hair being pulled in one hand, a whip secure in the other. She screamed again, and he pushed her into the water, raising his hands with the whip as though he was going to strike her.

“Police! Stop. Don’t move,” Tain said.

At that moment, another girl lunged upward, out of the tank, giving the man the distraction he needed. He grabbed her, spinning around, pulling her in front of him.

“Get behind me, Satan.”

“Let the girl go,” Tain said.

“She is God’s.”

“Not yours.”

“I am the way to God.”

“Let her go, and you can explain it to us.”

The other girl jumped up then, grabbing him around the neck, pulling her scrawny arms tight. Ashlyn could see the murkiness of the water, blood coming from the wounds on the second girl’s back.

“Taylor, go over there,” Ashlyn whispered to the girl on the floor. Taylor looked up at her and blinked.

“Go.”

Sims rushed forward then and grabbed Taylor, pulling her back.