by Tracy Sharp
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“It happened to another girl two months ago, Nita. Her baby supposedly died. He was taken during the night. Gabriel said it was crib death. But he never woke Nita up. She just got up to check on him and he was gone.”
“You think they’re taking the babies?” Jack asked her, point blank.
“I know there’s something not right. He said my Lina died, but I feel her. I feel in my heart that she is alive somewhere.” She looked up at us, her gaze intense. “I need your help.”
Jack placed a hand on her arm. “We’ll do whatever we can.”
“That’s not all. My twin sister is there.” Noel looked down at her splinted finger. “She’s pregnant too.”
* * *
Noel was well enough to be released. We took her to a shelter run by a friend of Jack’s. She took in women in trouble and gave them a place to stay, food, helped them find jobs and get on their feet.
“Don’t tell a soul you’re here, Noel,” Jack said. “I have a feeling that if Gabriel knows where you are, he’ll come after you.”
“Oh I know he will. He’ll try to convince me to go back, and when I refuse, he’ll send a couple of family members to get rid of me. I know how he works.” She gazed out the window at the slowly falling snow. The branches of pine trees were gathering white, drooping only slightly with the weight of it. It looked like a snapshot from a Christmas card.
“One of the sisters left the compound a couple of years ago. We don’t have television, but I saw her picture on a missing person’s poster when we went into town to get groceries.”
“What was her name?” Jack asked her.
“Lydia MacMillan.” Noel nibbled on a fingernail, still looking out the window.
Jack looked at me, incredulous. “Holy shit, remember when she went missing? It was right after the holidays, January. Young girl, she was only about seventeen.”
“Yeah,” I did remember. A wholesome looking girl with an oval shaped face and brown hair. There had been film footage all over the news of her high school graduation. Of her posing in a beautiful blue dress on the arm of a handsome boy. I could still see her smile. “Why did she leave her family?”
“She was heartbroken. She and her boyfriend were engaged but he suddenly called off the engagement. He was from a wealthy family. She wasn’t. His family had another girl in mind, a friend of the family. If he married Lydia, the family money would’ve been cut off, his tuition for med school, everything.”
“So he chose the other girl,” I said.
Noel nodded. “He did. She was devastated. Wanted to forget, wanted something to help her forget.”
“And along came Gabriel,” I said.
“He saw her sitting alone at the mall, looking sad.”
Jack’s face grew hard. His eyes narrowed. “How nice for him. Easy pickings.”
I thought back a little. “They never found her.”
“They won’t.” Noel looked away from the window, her face expressionless. “Please get my sister out of there.”
* * *
Noel’s twin sister’s name was Julia. Apparently Julia was eight months pregnant. “This guy Gabriel sure loves to share the love, doesn’t he?” Jack said.
“It’s about power and ownership. These girls are not people to him. They are property. That’s one of the reasons they’re in such danger.” I was feeling pissed off and mean. “These guys are narcissists. It’s all about them, another asshole with a God complex, much like Dr. Garrett Clemmons.”
“Seems to be a lot of them around,” Jack said. “Okay, Kicks. Where do we go first, to talk to the girl who was lured to the motel to buy baby clothes or to Gabriel Messiah’s compound?”
“Gee, so hard to choose.” The thought of talking to Gabriel Messiah made my skin feel too tight. Or more accurately, made me want to jump out of my skin. “Let’s talk to the girl. I’m not in the mood for the new Messiah just yet.”
As we drove to the young woman’s house, I marveled at how life could change in just a few seconds. One minute I was sitting in a bar about to get myself into trouble, the next I’d been dragged into a case that was doing a better job at sabotaging my relationship than I could do on my own.
The young woman lived in an older Colonial house in the city. It was an area most populated by students, and the rent wasn’t outrageous. Although a single mother would find it difficult to make ends meet.
Mary Wilcox opened the door with a smile, carrying a rosy-cheeked baby boy with bright red curls. “Leah and Jack?”
“That’s us,” Jack said.
“Come in.” She led us to a kitchen, nicely kept with country plaid curtains and prints of sunflowers on the walls. Sunflower placemats adorned the small table.
Jack and I took a seat at the table while Mary placed the baby in a jumperoo decked out with jungle toys. He pulled at a knob and cheerful tune filled the air, along with tropical bird chirping and monkey sounds.
“Hey, you got the best seat in the house,” Jack said, grinning at the baby. “What’s his name?”
“Russell. After his dad.” She watched Russell jump to his heart’s content, a wide grin on his face. “He was killed in Iraq.”
“I’m sorry,” I told her.
Jack shook his head slowly. “That is really too bad. He’ll miss out on this little guy.”
“Oh, he’s watching, from somewhere,” Mary said. “I know he is.”
I smiled. “You’re probably right. I would be too.”
She turned to us. “I have herbal tea and bottled water.”
“Not for me, thanks,” I said.
“I’m fine. Thanks,” Jack said. “So what happened with this woman who was advertising baby clothes online?”
“She said she had baby clothes for both boys and girls ranging from newborn to twenty-four months. She was selling the entire lot for forty bucks. That’s a steal. You wouldn’t believe how obscenely expensive baby clothes are. It’s insane.” She sat down at the table. “So I emailed her at the email address provided by the site, asking if I could take a look at them. She gave me a cell number, which the police later said was the number for a prepaid cell phone which is no longer in service, and I spoke with her over the phone. She told me that she was from out of town and staying in a hotel room until her apartment was ready, that the previous tenants were taking longer to leave than they should’ve been.
So I drove up there, and as soon as I got into the parking lot I got a really creepy feeling. I saw the curtain move. She was watching me. I could see her hand motioning for me to come up to the door. But I just couldn’t move. Something was telling me to get the hell out of there. She didn’t come outside. I thought she might. Instead she just stood there, peeking out at me from behind the drapes.”
“Did you get a look at her? Anything at all,” Jack asked her.
“Just a white hand, she was in shadow, it was all really weird. And now all the news stories about the missing pregnant women.” Mary shivered, then got up and scooped Russell into her arms, holding him close to her. “I know in my bones that if I had gone into that room I wouldn’t have come out again. Do you ever just know something?”
More times that I could ever count. I nodded. “Yeah.”
“It’s called instinct,” Jack said. “Thank God you listened to yours.”
Chapter Four
We drove out to the ranch, surprised that there were rifle toting men at the gate. I think it hit both of us at the same time that it was incredibly stupid to think we could just drive in. We stopped about twenty feet from the gate.
“This was a really dumb idea.” Jack watched as both men headed toward the truck.
“Just go, Jack. Back the hell out of here.” I had the willies, bad. We were out in the middle of nowhere and people disappeared from this place.
Jack looked at me a little surprised.
“Instinct, Jack. Go.” I sat forward, my body rigid.
The two men were only a
few feet away from the truck when Jack put the truck in reverse and backed out.
“Wrong place,” He waved cheerfully as he drove us away.
The two men looked at us suspiciously, but didn’t make a move to follow. They just watched as we drove away.
“What’s going on, Kicks?” He said as he looked in his mirrors, making sure that nobody was following us.
“I don’t know…Might be just that I know this is a cult and that these people are really not right. You know?”
He didn’t argue. He’d pulled me into a case that seemed to be growing tentacles, and I think he knew we’d be in for a boatload of grief before we’d solved anything. If I needed to stand back a little bit, he was willing to indulge me.
But I also knew that there would come a time, in the not too distance future, that I wouldn’t be able to stand back. If I’d lost my nerve and I didn’t get it back really soon, I might as well just quit. Because I’d end up getting both of our tickets cancelled.
“Let’s go talk to Lucas about this little situation,” Jack said. “I’m sure he’ll have some ideas. In fact, you’re right, Kicks. We really shouldn’t go in there half-cocked. You know?”
Jack is a hard-ass. He will never, ever back down. But he is also one of the kindest people I know.
* * *
“That was really stupid,” Lucas said. “Both of you could’ve been killed.”
“Don’t keep it inside, Luke,” Jack said. “Just tell us how you really feel.”
Lucas was pacing. “You two have to start thinking a little more instead of just reacting. There is a time for busting in, guns blazing, and that time will come. Believe me. But this is not it. Not yet.”
“Okay. Point taken,” I said. “Now what do we do?”
Lucas continued to pace around his office. “You’re not going to just walk in there and persuade Julia to come with you. If her twin, after having her baby taken from her, takes off and she doesn’t go with her, knowing that her baby may mysteriously die too? She isn’t going anywhere. Not of her own volition.”
“What do we do? Kidnap her?” Jack said.
“Yes. That’s exactly what you do.” Lucas stopped pacing and faced us. “You need to speak with a friend of mine. Declan Manning. He’s a deprogrammer. I can tell you how Gabriel is going to react, but he’s the expert. He’s worked a ton of these cases.”
“Okay,” I said. I was starting to feel better about things. Starting to get my bearings.
“There’s only one problem,” Lucas said, peering at us from over his tortoise shell, square glasses.
“Christ,” Jack muttered under his breath. “Of course there is. Lay it on us.”
“He quit, hasn’t done deprogramming work in about two years. He says he’s finished.”
“Swell,” I said. “So not only do we have to kidnap Julia from a cultist compound, we have to convince a former deprogrammer to help us.”
“There must be other deprogrammers out there. Why don’t we just use somebody else?” Jack said.
“Because, Declan is the best, if anyone can do it, he can.”
“Why did he quit?” I asked.
“Because the last person he deprogrammed killed himself. An eighteen year old kid. Came from a really strict religious home. Daddy was a televangelist.”
“Oh, my God. I remember that. Daniel Wainwright. The famous televangelist.” I remembered when the news reported the death of his son.
Lucas nodded. “He paid through the nose for Declan’s services, not that he didn’t have the cash.”
Jack snorted. “Right. How many cars does he have? What his mansion look like? I wonder how many little old ladies sign over their social security checks to him so that he can keep doing God’s work.”
I was feeling squirmy inside. So much for my bearings. “What happened?”
“Declan did what he does best. But he took the one thing away from the kid that was keeping him from killing himself.”
“His faith,” I said.
Lucas nodded. “Belief in something other than the faith his dad preached. A faith he’d lost. He hated his dad. When Declan deprogrammed him, he had nothing to grasp onto.”
“Jesus.” Jack moved a hand over his face. “The hits just keep on coming.”
“It’s a tall order,” I said. “I’m really looking for a silver lining here, Lucas.”
He shrugged, shaking his head. “Sorry Leah. I have no bright light for you. But I can tell you that this is a really nasty guy. And if you can get that girl out of there, you’ll be saving her and her baby.”
I sighed.
“God helps those who help themselves,” Jack said, a grin on his face. “Let God be your co-pilot.”
I barked out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, well I hope he’s not nodding off at the wheel.”
* * *
Declan Manning didn’t want to talk to us. He politely refused to meet with us, stating that he didn’t do deprogramming work anymore. Lucas had told us that Declan had written several books on cults and was now writing suspense fiction. He’d pretty much removed himself from any kind of cult work whatsoever. His books had spent time on the bestseller lists, all of them, so he really didn’t have to work, other than writing.
Convincing him to help this girl would be a quite the trick.
Lucas had given us a few places to look for Declan if he wasn’t home. One of those places was a local bar with a saloon atmosphere where he sat with his laptop and sipped dark beer. The Lone Star was quiet when we walked in. The dinner rush was over, and Declan was at a corner booth at the back of the place, right where Lucas had said he’d be.
He looked up from his laptop as we approached. “I’ll thank you kindly to get the hell out of here and leave me alone. Or you can stay, order food at another table, and leave me alone. As long as you leave me alone, we’ll be okay.”
“We can’t leave without at least trying. We need your help, Declan.” I slid into the booth beside him. Jack slid in opposite him.
“This conversation is about to have an unhappy ending,” Declan said, his eyes hooded. He looked like he’d been around the block a time or two. Lucas had shown us a picture of the two of them fishing. He’d been a clean cut man back then. Dark hair clipped neatly, clean shaven. Smiling, eyes looking right at the camera.
He didn’t look that way now.
His hair had all but turned white, and had grown out so that it curled around his neck and the sides of his face. He’d grown a beard, and although he apparently kept it trimmed, it was still there. For such a neat, clean cut guy, it was a change. It appeared that he wasn’t all that concerned with appearances any longer. Still, I liked his face. It had character, and I could see the intelligence in his eyes.
“Look. I understand why you’re pissed off. I’d be prickly too. In fact, I am prickly. Jack dragged me into a case I wanted nothing to do with. I wanted to sit in a bar and hit on a guy I have no business hitting on. I wanted to be blissfully ignorant of cases that would tear me apart. But you know what? Here I am.”
“I’ve lost any passion for it, Ms. Ryan. I don’t have the heart for it. Without the heart, you better throw in the towel. It’s just not worth the grief.”
“I don’t think you’ve lost the heart for it. I think you lost your nerve.” I stared right into his eyes, not backing down.
His face grew hard and his skin flushed. He wasn’t happy with me. “You might think you know what I’m feeling. What I’m thinking. But you don’t know, okay lady? You have no damned idea.”
“Yes,” I said. “I do.”
He watched me, his jaw set, his lips pressed together.
“I lost one too, Declan. Seventeen years old. Her nut job boyfriend kidnapped her at gunpoint. Wouldn’t take ‘it’s over’ for an answer. Her parents hired me to find them and bring her back. I did that. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t nice. But I got her home safely.”
He looked down at the keys of his laptop, but he was listening. The hard set
of his jaw softening.
“That same night, he broke into the house through a sliding glass door in the middle of the night and slit her throat while she lay sleeping.”
He didn’t look at me, but his head bowed a little, and he stayed silent.
“I was in the next room, staying close, just in case. I didn’t hear a thing.” I heard my voice crack and I hated it. But he needed to hear this.
Finally he looked up at me. The hard edge gone.
“So yeah. I do know,” I said. “But I’m here, Declan. Because a girl who was impregnated by a cult leader. Whose offspring are mysteriously dying, according to him, is still there. She’s eight months pregnant, and completely brainwashed by this guy.”
He looked down and gave a heavy sigh. “Shit.”
Jack and I briefly looked at each other. My heart lifted. We’d both had that look on Declan’s face many times over the years. It meant he was going to help us.
“We do this my way,” he said. “No arguing. No deviations. It’s the only way I’ll do this. Otherwise people will die. Okay?”
“People may die anyway,” Jack said. “But, hey, this is your baby.”
“Thank you, Declan. You are saving lives here,” I said.
“And I’m happy to do that.” He ran a hand over his face. “It’s the casualties I’m worried about. There are always casualties.”
“We’ll do our best to prevent that. But that’s what happens in a war,” Jack said.
* * *
We formulated a plan. Julia would have to be kidnapped and placed in a location where she would have no access to television or people, except for the deprogrammers. She’d been brainwashed for months. It would take some intense work to turn her mind around.
I would be the one to approach her. Noel told us that several of Gabriel’s wives were driven into town each Wednesday to get groceries and other things that they may need at the compound. Julia was allowed to go because she was one of the newer wives, and she was carrying Gabriel’s baby. Noel said that Gabriel was especially hard on the pregnant women. He worked them hard cleaning and running errands, arguing that it was good for their bodies to stay active. Noel thought he enjoyed watching them struggle.