Eyes of the Innocent

by Christopher Wright

  Chapter 24

  Attracted by the laughter that followed, Zoé appeared in the doorway, her dark hair a mess and her eyes red and wet with tears. "It is not a time for fun," she said. "I have just been speaking to my parents on the phone. They want to come over immediately."

  Matt kept quiet. This was not the time to upset Zoé further.

  "I'm sorry, honey," Lauren said. "It was thoughtless of us."

  Zoé seemed to take no notice of the apology. "Who was here?"

  "Just two people from the police," Lauren said, taking over as spokesperson.

  Zoé's bleary eyes lit up for a moment. "They have news of Jack?"

  "I'm ever so sorry, honey," Lauren said. "Come and sit here by your husband. The police have no news, but they wanted to see if Matt could offer any further help."

  Matt nodded to himself. What Lauren said was absolutely true. The "help" they needed from him was an admission of guilt, but as long as Lauren didn't explain the real reason for the visit, Zoé was likely to be satisfied.

  "I have not been asleep," Zoé said. "Me, I have been praying. No, Matt, you must listen to what I say. I was thinking about my first Communion when I was seven, dressed all in white. I was really scared I might do something wrong in the church and God would punish me. Lauren she has explained that God is a God of Love, although he is also a God of righteous anger."

  "I don't get it," Matt said.

  "Nor did I. Then Lauren showed me that cross on the wall. She said it is only a symbol carved from wood."

  Matt looked at. Okay, so it was made of wood. But Zoé was on a roll now. "Go on."

  "Lauren told me the reason Jesus died on the real cross is to shield us from that anger. Lauren says God reaches out to everyone in love and forgiveness. All we have to do is ask."

  "You never told me about that before, Zoé. I've never put you down for a believer."

  "You are right. When I was in my teens, I decided everything in the church was just a lot of show and make-believe. But now?"

  Lauren took Zoé in her arms. "Sometimes we need sorrow in our lives before we can look for help. But remember to come to the Son of God, not to a piece of wood."

  "Yes, you are right," Zoé said. "Please, Steve, pray for us all, and tell us what we have to do next."

  Valdieri's prayer was surprisingly short, but it was certainly clear. Wherever Jack was, he needed to be safe. And the authorities needed wisdom in knowing where to search. And Matt and Zoé needed God's peace in their hearts.

  They sat in silence for a moment, then Matt's phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and looked at the screen. "It's Wendell," he said. "What should I do?"

  "Answer it of course," Zoé said.

  Matt shook his head. "I can't. I've had enough. I keep seeing that baby lying on the grass inside the tent in Green-Wood Cemetery."

  "You should have let me go with you. I have seen plenty of dead bodies."

  "Not like that, you haven't." He tossed the phone to Zoé. "You answer it."

  She tossed it back. It was still ringing. He took a deep breath. "Hi Wendell. ... Where? ... What, now?" He lowered the phone. "Wendell thinks he may have a good lead to Jack."

  Zoé gasped. "Boston?"

  "Here in New York." Matt turned to Valdieri. "Have you heard of the Children of Celestial Light?"

  Valdieri nodded. "Why?" he mouthed.

  "Wendell, you'd better come here straight away," Matt said. "You could be onto something."

  Zoé was already on her feet. "What was all that about?" she asked.

  "Wendell Harris thinks there's something suspicious happening at a religious commune here in Manhattan. It's called the Children of Celestial Light."

  "It is a home for babies and little children?" Zoé asked.

  Matt turned to Valdieri. "Tell us about it. You know all about the Christian groups around here."

  Stephen Valdieri shook his head. "It's not a children's home and it's not a Christian group. They're a pseudo religious group. For all ages. They've taken some prophecy from the Mayans and the Bible, and mixed it up with a study of the stars, the sun and the moon. It's what we would call a cult, although I believe they call it a commune. It's a full moon tomorrow, so I'm sure they'll have something exciting planned."

  Matt was about to ask if that involved child sacrifice, but he glanced at Zoé and knew he had to stay quiet.

  Valdieri looked grim, as though reading Matt's thoughts. "The churches see them as a bit of a threat. They've managed to entice a few families away from the Christian churches with promises of safety and healing. They have a room of crystals for which they claim special powers."

  "Well," Matt said, "Wendell Harris is on his way here with some photographic evidence. He didn't say what it was." There was no point in speculating what Wendell had found, but he needed to find out a bit more about the Children of Celestial Light before the undercover cop, or security guard, or whatever he was, arrived.

  Valdieri explained that the cult had taken over a large house in the Harlem district. They had good security and didn't welcome visitors.

  Matt looked closely at the ex-archbishop. "Do you have someone on the inside?"

  Valdieri shook his head, but Lauren spoke up. "My Steve knows people all over the place, but not there. He still wears his Archbishop's hat, protecting Christians and churches from heretics and dangerous influences." She smiled at him and gave him a hug. "And I love him for it."

  The bell in the outer door rang, and then rang again as Stephen Valdieri made his way to answer it. Wendell Harris came in, all smiles, holding an expensive digital camera. He sounded excited. "I've put some pictures from this onto a memory stick. Do you have a computer I can plug it into? The pictures on the camera screen are too small to see the detail."

  "Detail of what?" Matt asked.

  Wendell smiled broadly. "You're going to be surprised, and I hope very happy."

  Valdieri led Wendell to his office and showed him the computer on his desk. Matt followed with Zoé and Lauren, and felt a tingle run down his spine. He had no idea why Wendell Harris was here, but he looked confident.

  Valdieri plugged in the memory stick, found the file of images, and opened it. Wendell took over, ran quickly through a couple of photos, and then stood back. Matt managed to look between the eager figures of Zoé, Stephen and Lauren. The picture showed a dark brown building with iron fire escapes, and stone steps leading up to a wide brown door.

  Wendell turned to the next picture, and the words Children of Celestial Light were easy to read where the camera had zoomed in on the front door.

  "And?" Matt asked.

  Wendell nodded. "I got a tipoff from a colleague in the security business, and I staked the place out this afternoon. They keep the front door locked, but members can come and go. They're not allowed their own keys, but there's a grill on the front door ... you can just see it there ... and they speak into the grill and someone inside recognizes who it is and opens the door."

  "And?" Matt asked again. Maybe he was too impatient, but this seemed to be getting nowhere. The building of the Children of Celestial Light was hardly a secret. They had their name on the door.

  Wendell pressed the next-page key. A new picture showed a close-up of a woman in a yellow and black sweatshirt and black jeans holding a baby, with a tall man speaking into the grill. "We need to zoom in on the screen," Wendell said. He seemed to know his way around the program on Valdieri's computer, and clicked the plus button several times. He centralized the picture on the woman and baby and turned to Zoé. "Is the woman holding Jack?"

  He didn't need to ask that question. Zoé had already given a gasp and put a hand to her mouth. Valdieri and Lauren moved to one side, allowing Matt to move closer to the screen. He reached for the keyboard and pressed the plus key three more times. Wendell's camera was certainly good, because even more detail now showed, but apart from the jutting out dark hair he could see little more than the nose and chin of a baby wrapped in a shawl.
/>   "It is Jack," Zoé said almost in a whisper. "It is his hair, and his nose and chin."

  "We need to see the next picture," Matt said.

  Wendell Harris shook his head. "That's it," he said. "Look at the next picture and you'll see they've already gone inside and the door's closed again."

  The next picture showed a young Hispanic woman holding the hand of a child aged about four leaving the house, and the next an elderly couple going in.

  "I hung around for two more hours but nobody else came or left so I've come here. What do you suggest we do?"

  Matt was already checking the rest of the pictures. Wendell was right, the only picture of the woman holding a baby was the one they'd already seen. "What was the tipoff you got?"

  Wendell Harris held his camera tightly. "Like I said, I've got contacts. This isn't just any baby. My contact says it doesn't belong to that couple holding it. They came back with it soon after your baby went missing. They said they're looking after it for a few days for a friend. My contact isn't a hundred percent sure, but she thinks the baby has odd colored eyes. Is that suspicious or what?"

  Matt looked round at Valdieri. "We get the police to raid the place," he said bluntly. "Either that, or we go there and do it ourselves."

  Valdieri took a deep breath and breathed it out slowly. "We need to think about this, Matt. Let's all sit down and discuss it."

  "You all sit down," Matt said. "I want to see if I can enhance this picture a bit."

  Zoé was in tears now. "There is no need to enhance anything," she said between tears. "It is Jack. I know it is Jack. Those people have taken him into that building. He is going to grow up there, and they are going to indoctrinate him. We must go straight away and rescue him or we will never get him back. Come here and stop fiddling with that computer, Matt."

  Matt nodded and came across with the flash drive and handed it back to Wendell. "I've copied the image onto the computer."

  "I didn't tell you to do that," Wendell said rather brusquely.

  Matt was surprised by this reaction, but perhaps he should have asked first. "We need it on the computer to be able to print it." He turned to Valdieri. "Stephen, I'm assuming you can you print it."

  Zoé was still crying. "We do not need a picture of Jack. We need to be there at the Children of Celestial Light to bring our baby back."

  Matt shook his head. "We need evidence, Zoé. We can't go to the police without a picture to show them."

  "We are not going to the police," Zoé said. "We are all going round there now, and Stephen will use his authority to insist that we go in and check every baby in the building."

  Valdieri shook his head. "You overestimate my powers, Zoé. This isn't some matter in the Catholic Church that I could investigate, even if I was still an archbishop. We simply have to involve the police. Two senior police have just been here and warned Matt not to get involved."

  "That is because they do not want to be shown up for being useless," Zoé said.

  "Matt and Zoé, please don't worry. I'm onto this straight away."

  Wendell Harris nodded. "Mr. Valdieri is absolutely right," he said. "You can't do this without the police."

  "It is going to take too long," Zoé said. "That couple might hear that the police they are coming and run away with Jack. And then we will never find him."

  Valdieri went to his computer and the printer clicked then whirred, and a piece of paper fell into the tray. He made two more copies and handed one to Matt. The prints were large, on glossy paper, probably letter size rather than the A4 he was used to back home. Certainly big enough to impress the police.

  Matt studied the print. The sticking out hair at the front, and the part of the face that showed did look familiar, but to him all babies tended to look alike. If the face was front-on it would be better.

  Zoé took the print. "It is Jack."

  Matt looked up and caught Valdieri's eyes. Valdieri seemed to be sharing his doubts. The problem was, Zoé had got it wrong about the baby's cry in Washington, which didn't instill a lot of confidence in her maternal observations. He shrugged.

  Valdieri showed one of the prints to Lauren. "If Zoé says it's Jack," Lauren said, "then we have to assume it is."

  "You do not believe me," Zoé said, starting to cry again. "Every moment we wait, those people could be leaving with Jack and we will never find them. They may only have been visiting."

  Wendell Harris shook his head. "The couple acted like residents. The man went straight to the grill to speak to someone to let them in. There's a separate bell for visitors. He didn't use it."

  Matt turned to Valdieri. "You get in touch with the police, and I'll go straight round there with Zoé. We'll wait outside to make sure no one walks out with our Jack."

  "I'll come with you," Lauren said. "It's not the smartest or the safest area in town. Three of us will be safer there than two. Steve, you and Wendell can call round to the precinct immediately. And take that print."

  Valdieri looked unsure. "The police will need a court order before they can raid the place. It will take time."

  "I guess it will," Lauren said. "We'll take turns to wait outside the building all day and all night if necessary. Steve, phone us as soon as you have any news. Come on, Matt and Zoé, we'll go get a cab."