"I'm going to call Matt. We'll be there as soon as we can get there. And I'll call my mother…"
"Gordon already has. She's on her way."
The black pickup drove past the window, kicking up stones as it made an arc in the drive to turn back toward the road, and Georgia was outside, locking the door behind her, before Matt had time to come to a full stop. She raced to the cab and climbed in, slammed the door behind her even as Matt hit the gas.
"Have you heard anything else from Tucker?" Matt asked as he flew from the driveway onto the macadam roadway.
Georgia shook her head, "No. I brought my cell phone, though. I thought I'd call in another fifteen minutes or so and see if there's anything new."
Matt nodded, his jaw tight and his eyes hidden behind his dark glasses.
"The police told Tucker that it was too early to start worrying." She leaned back against the seat and idly scratched behind Artie's ears. On the seat between his humans, the dog closed his eyes blissfully, unaware of the turmoil.
"That's ridiculous," Matt scowled. "Laura isn't the type of person to just take off like this. Where do they think she might have gone?"
They rode in silence for several miles, neither of them willing to voice their deepest fears.
Finally, Georgia dug in her shoulder pack and, pulling out her small phone, said, "I think I'll call my mother's car phone and see if she's heard anything."
Delia answered the phone on the first ring.
"Mom, it's me. Matt and I are about twenty minutes or so from Bishop's Cove. I was just checking to see if you'd left yet."
"You'll beat me by about an hour. I left as soon as Gordon called. I take it you waited for Matt."
"Yes. Have you heard anything?"
"Not from Tucker. But I did make a call or two."
"To whom?"
"The first was to Jeremy Noble. The second was to Nick. He and India will be there in a few hours. Nicky will have called Zoey and Ben by now. Jeremy was in D.C., so he should be there before too long."
"Jeremy is the private investigator who works for you occasionally?"
"Yes. He found Laura for me the first time. I was hoping that perhaps…" The line went silent.
"Mom?"
"Yes, darling, I'm here. I'm just beside myself, Georgia. I know that something terrible has happened to Laura and I don't know what to do." Delia spoke slowly, as if afraid to voice her fears.
There was a brief period of heavy static on the phone.
"Mom, say it again, I couldn't hear what you were saying."
"I said, thank God for Gordon. He's going to have someone drive him to meet me in Rehoboth, so that I don't have to make the entire drive alone."
"That's so sweet of him, Mom."
"It is. Oh, there's that damnable static again. Call me back when you get to the inn."
Georgia pressed the "end" button and pushed the thin antenna back into the phone. Keeping the phone on her lap, she told Matt about Gordon driving north to meet Delia, and that the rest of the family was on their way to the inn.
"That's good. She probably needs all of you right now." Matt nodded his head, recalling Delia's words. If one is wounded, we all bleed.
"That's what she said. That she'd lost Laura once…"
"Well, we're not losing her," Matt interrupted her. "We'll find her."
"Mom's already called her P.I. He's on his way to the inn. And Tucker's a former SEAL. He must have some skills that could be useful in this kind of situation."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that if the police continue to insist that she's probably just having her nails done or she's out shopping with her girlfriends, it will be good to have some investigative types around."
"Well, maybe by the time we reach the inn the police will have changed their minds and will have launched a search for her."
The police hadn't changed their tune much, as Matt and Georgia discovered when they arrived in Bishop's Cove. If anything, they spent more time thinking of excuses for Laura's disappearance than they did of possible solutions for finding her. Even the ripped section from the Bible was dismissed as inconsequential. It was as if the thought of a serious crime having been perpetrated in their tiny coastal town was inconceivable.
"Now, look, Matthew," the old chief was saying, "you don't know that your sister didn't have a gentleman friend she was visiting with last night."
"The only 'friend' Laura was with last night was me," Tucker scowled.
"That right?" The Chief's eyes narrowed and focused his attention on Tucker. "Until what time?"
"Around midnight. I already gave this information to your officer…"
"Well, give it to us again…" The Chief pointed to a chair at the opposite end of the room and said, "Why don't you just take a seat there and you and I will have a little chat…"
Tucker rolled his eyes in exasperation, but took the seat and waited for the police chief to join him.
Georgia looked out the window, watching for the Mercedes to make its appearance while Matt paced anxiously. Finally, Delia's car appeared and Georgia ran out through the side door to meet her. She waved as she crossed the parking lot and Delia emerged from the passenger side door. She's let Gordon drive, Georgia observed, thinking how unusual it was for her mother to turn the reins of control over to someone else. Gordon hopped out from behind the wheel to slam the door quickly and catch up with Delia as she strode toward her daughter.
Wordlessly Georgia gathered her mother into her arms and let her hold on. After several long minutes, Delia stepped back slightly and said, "I saw police cars out front…"
"They're questioning Tucker."
"Tucker?" Delia snorted. "Good grief, they don't think Tucker had anything to do with this…"
"I don't know that they're thinking much of anything. It's like being trapped in a bad episode of Mayberry, RFD. At this point, they don't seem to think that foul play is a factor. They seem to think she just up and took off for a while…"
"Well, I'll set them straight on that." Delia charged toward the house.
By the time they reached the front steps, they could hear Jody shouting from within.
"Laura Bishop would not leave her child. Period." With every word, Jody took one step closer to the young police officer, her brown eyes crackling with indignation, her pretty face taut with anger. The officer took one step back for every step forward of Jody's. "She would not not be where she is supposed to be, when she is supposed to be there, without telling someone—most likely, me—and for you to stand there and suggest that she met her girlfriends for breakfast, which just happened to turn into lunch, without bothering to tell anyone is totally absurd!"
"Okay, okay." The officer took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair, front to back.
"We'll put out an APB," the chief nodded, rubbing his chin. "Get me a photo and I'll send it over to the TV stations and the newspapers. I still think it's a lot to do about nothin', and I think she'll be strolling back in here any time now…"
"The new brochure advertising the inn has her picture on the back," Jody ignored him. "There's a whole pile of them right there behind you on the desk."
Without waiting for the officer to move, Jody lifted a stack of brochures and handed them to him. The Chief took them and stuck the pile under his arm.
"I'll be in touch," he said as he headed through the door, turning to address Tucker. "Don't think about leaving Bishop's Cove…"
"Why did he say that?" Georgia asked.
"Because I was the last person to see Laura last night," Tucker told them.
"That's ridiculous," Delia waved her hand, "to even suggest that you would have anything to do with her disappearance."
"If you did, I'll…" Matt began, and Tucker held up one hand, to stop him, saying calmly, "You're her brother, so I'll overlook that. Now, let's use our energy to find your sister."
"You mean, start canvassing Bishop's Cove?" Georgia said.
"Unless I am very much off
-base, Laura is not in Bishop's Cove." Tucker said. "Ah, Mrs. Enright, is that your investigator?" He pointed through the window at the man who was rapidly approaching.
"Yes. That's Jeremy. Did you speak with him earlier by phone?" She went to the door.
"He called from his car, just as you had asked him to do."
"Mom, do you think he can help?" Georgia asked.
"He's never failed me," Delia said as she opened the door and briefly hugged the investigator who had been her help in time of need on several occasions.
Jeremy Noble was tall and muscular and looked more like the football player he had been in a previous life than a private investigator. He wore a black sweatshirt with PRINCETON across the front in orange, and gray sweat pants.
"Are you all right, Delia?" he asked with genuine concern.
"No, I'm not all right," she appeared to be, finally, on the edge of breaking.
Gordon put his arm around Delia and led her to the sofa. To Jody, he said, "Maybe some coffee…"
"I'll bring in a pot," Jody said as she headed directly to the kitchen.
"Who's Tucker?" Jeremy asked.
"I am." Tucker stepped forward.
"Did you speak with the police?" Jeremy asked.
"I did."
"Show them Laura's 'note'?"
"They didn't think it was significant," Tucker said wryly.
"Show me her apartment, if you would…"
Tucker nodded, gesturing for Jeremy to follow him. Matt fell in behind them.
When they came back a few minutes later, Matt was carrying the Bible. He placed the book on the table and opened it to the page he'd been marking with one finger.
"The Bible was on the floor, and open to this page. The torn out section was under the book. In spite of what the police think, we figure that Laura left it to help us find her. Tucker thinks that somehow, she must have talked her abductor—or abductors, we don't know how many there were—into letting her read from her Bible before they took her. She must have very cautiously torn this section out and placed it under the book, hoping it would be found."
"What kidnapper would give his victim time to read the Bible?"
"Someone who thinks he's doing the Lord's work might be inclined," Jeremy said.
The room fell very quiet.
"Gary," Matt said flatly, quickly making the connection.
"Isn't he still in jail?" Gordon asked.
"Yes, but over the past few years, he's developed a following that goes from one end of the country to the other. In the past six months alone, about forty of his disciples have been released from their respective prisons," Jeremy told them.
"You think one of them abducted her?" Georgia's jaw dropped open. "Why would they do that?"
Jeremy read from the slip of paper that he'd been holding in his left hand.
" 'I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.' "
A dropping pin would have sounded more like an avalanche in the wake of Jeremy's reading.
"Gary sent someone to come and take Laura someplace." Georgia whispered, wide-eyed. "But where…"
"What if you're wrong?" Delia grabbed Jeremy's arm. "What if you're wrong and it isn't Gary at all? What if it's someone else, some random person…"
"I don't believe that it is, Delia," Jeremy told her. "I've had a trace on each one of these birds as they have been released. All of them are present and accounted for. Except for two. Last seen in Virginia Beach about ten days ago."
"Virginia Beach is not very far down the coast," Jody said aloud from the doorway, a tray bearing a large white coffeepot in her hands.
Jeremy went to take the tray and she stepped around him, saying, "I have it." She placed the tray on the low table in front of Delia and returned to the kitchen for a second tray of cups and saucers, avoiding Jeremy's gaze as she passed.
"Why were you keeping an eye on these guys?" Matt asked.
"When Delia first asked me to check up on Gary, I never expected to find anything. A minister who gambled away his church's money is probably not the most moral man in the world, but it didn't necessarily make him a dangerous person. I know the warden at the prison where Gary is incarcerated, so I thought I'd just make a quick inquiry for Delia, just finish up the file, so to speak. But when I brought up Harmon's name to my buddy, I could feel the tension right through the phone. It seems your old friend Gary has established quite a network of loyal admirers. His 'gospel' has spread from prison to prison. His ministry—which he calls the Sword of the Lamb, by the way—has become a sect unto itself."
"Like a cult?" Georgia frowned.
"Very much like a cult," Jeremy nodded, taking the cup of coffee offered by Jody, "with Gary as it's leader."
"So you're saying that Gary could have told one of his disciples to kidnap Laura?" Jody asked. "Why would he do that now, after all these years?"
"I haven't been able to figure out what triggered it," admitted Jeremy, "but I feel very strongly that's what happened."
"So what do we do now?" Matt stood and repeated an earlier question. "How do we know where to look?"
"I think we need to try to think like Gary," Jeremy said.
"There's a scary thought," Jody muttered.
Georgia asked, "Okay, let's start with, how does he see her?"
"As his wife," Jody answered without hesitation.
"From what Laura said, she hasn't seen or spoken to him in years," Tucker said.
"They haven't, but that seems to make no difference to him." Jody shook her head. "As far as he's concerned, they are married for life. Till death do us part…"
"Laura said the same thing recently." Matt frowned. "It didn't make any sense to me then, and it doesn't make any sense to me now."
"She never showed you, did she?" Jody said softly.
"Showed me what?"
"The letters she got from him."
"From Gary?"
Jody nodded. "Every week or so, she'd get something from him. Generally it's just ranting and raving, a lot of Bible stuff. Laura just threw them out."
She paused.
"But…?" Jeremy walked to her and took her by the arm.
"But not too long ago she got one that seemed to rattle her. We were in the kitchen and she was opening the mail. She opened this one envelope, and she just went white and her hands started to shake. Laura crumpled it up and threw it into the trash and walked out of the room without finishing her sentence."
"How did you know it was from him?" Jeremy asked.
"Please." she rolled her eyes. "If one of your friends reads something that makes them bolt like that, you take it out of the trash and you read it."
"What did it say?"
"It was something about sin finding you out." She frowned. "It didn't make any sense."
"And there were others?"
"Yes. Every week."
"When did they start?" Matt asked.
"Laura's been getting letters from him for as long as I've been here. Three years."
"How many did you see?"
"Several," she admitted. "They were all pretty much the same."
"When did the last one come?" Jeremy asked.
"The last one that I saw was about a week or so ago. It was another weird one that made no sense. Something about the scribes and Pharisees and a woman taken…" She stopped, the words sticking in her throat.
"Go on," Jeremy turned to her.
"A woman taken in adultery," Delia said softly. " 'And the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery.' It's from the Gospel of St. John."
"Why would he write something like that?" Georgia frowned. "Unless he thought she was…"
"She wasn't," Tucker stood up and repeated, in case anyone had not understood the first time, "She wasn't."
"But supposing he had someone watching her," Georgia turned to Tucker, "and they thought she was…"
Tucker stared thoughtfully at her.
"You've been staying here at the inn for several weeks now. You've taken walks together. You've spent a lot of time together," Delia said, not as an accusation, but as a statement of fact. "If Gary had someone watching her, they might have made the assumption that you were lovers."
"And that could have been enough to set Gary off." Matt frowned.
"Where would he have had them take her?" Tucker said abruptly.
The room was silent, save for the ticking of a clock in the hallway.
"The house on Manor Road." Matt stood up. "If we're assuming that Gary has this Laura-is-now-and-always-my-wife fixation, maybe he'd want her in the house they lived in together."
"It's as good a place as any to start." Tucker headed for the door.
"We'll take my van." Jeremy was right behind him. "Matt, you'll have to show us the way."
Georgia grabbed her shoulder bag and slung it over her shoulder. She leaned down, kissed her mother's cheek and said, "We'll call you as soon as we find her."
The three men paused in the doorway, then turned to look at each other, then at Georgia.
"Georgia, we're the 'we,' " Matt pointed to Jeremy, Tucker and himself. "You are not part of the 'we' who is going."
"Oh, yes I am." She started through the door.
"Georgia," he grabbed her by the elbow, "this is not the Movie of the Week. This is very real, and it could be very dangerous."
"Matt is right, Georgia." Delia protested. "It would be foolish—more than foolish—for you to go…"
"If they've… if something has happened to her… if they've hurt her, she'll need me," Georgia said.
"Georgia has a point. But," Tucker turned to Georgia, "no crazy stuff, hear? We have to assume that these are dangerous people who think they are serving a higher power. They will not be happy to see us. Anything can happen."
"I understand. I won't get in your way. But if she's hurt, I want to be there for her." Georgia turned to her mother and said, "Maybe Ally should go to a friend's house after school, at least until things settle down here."
"That's not a bad idea." Jody stood up. "I can call Samantha's mother. I'm sure she'll take Ally home with her."
"That might be wise. Yes, that might be best." Delia nodded.
"I'll do that right now, and then I'll call the school and let them know who Ally may leave with. They're used to me calling, so no one will be alarmed." Jody headed back to the kitchen to look up the necessary phone numbers.
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