Shield of Refuge

by Carol Steward

  Nick held it up and studied it. “Do you happen to have a computer, we could show you some videos of idiots…”

  “No,” she said abruptly. “Why?”

  “We could show you demonstrations of their use,” Sarah corrected.

  Nick shrugged. “I was thinking of the college kids who video it for laughs. Crazy kids….”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “Tasers have become pretty well known lately, and though the police have strict rules around them, use and sales by the general public are pretty much unregulated. But if someone wants to really disable someone, there are some pretty powerful units available that will allow them to do it.” Sarah let out a breath, as if struggling to tell of her own experience on the victim’s side of a taser.

  Nick took hold of Sarah’s hand. “Sarah was tased by the rapist we were looking for at the Harvest Festival. She insisted on putting herself in the line of fire, and he took the bait.”

  “That’s terrible,” Amber said with a look of concern.

  “When I was tased in training, it wasn’t pleasant, but when it was over, I was okay. The one the attacker used on me was set higher and for longer. I couldn’t fight back. I dropped to the ground like I was dead. For what seemed like forever, I thought I was.”

  Amber stared at the gun that Nick had set on the table across from her. “And you want to try that out on one of us?” She cut her food but nothing looked appetizing right now.

  “No,” Garrett insisted. “I thought Sarah and Nick might be able to explain their experience with them. While I’ve qualified to use it, and had to be shocked with it, what we do in training is nothing compared to how it feels when they are misused. I don’t plan to actually shock anyone. You’re sure you didn’t hear anything that sounded like that?”

  She let out a sigh of relief. “But surely I would remember hearing something, wouldn’t I?”

  “Stress could be a factor. Noise of the traffic, everything…We were outside an apartment complex when the guy used it on Sarah, and we could barely hear it, but it was bouncing off the buildings, and we heard their voices more than anything.”

  “And you couldn’t stop him?” Amber said, appalled that anyone would let someone they cared about go through that.

  Sarah looked at her. “Of course they stopped him. I was wired, but this guy had caused interference in our audio connection. He dragged me away before the team realized I was back. Even with him using the highest power available, I’m okay. So maybe the woman you saw is, too.”

  She nodded. “I hope so. It’s been days. I can’t believe no one has been reported missing yet.”

  “You know how college kids can be,” Garrett said. “They don’t stop to think that someone could be hurt. And when they do call someone in missing, it usually turns out they were just staying with a friend for a few days and didn’t think it was important to tell anyone. Friends sometimes don’t want to get a classmate in trouble.”

  She thought back to her rebellious years. After her arrest, she’d been too embarrassed to contact any of her roommates. “Yeah, I guess I remember how it was. That’s why I can’t believe the police won’t make a public announcement. If the students hear someone saw something that concerns them, maybe they wouldn’t be afraid to speak up.”

  Nick looked at her with concern. “You can’t bring attention to yourself, Amber. It’s not safe.”

  “Nick is right,” Sarah agreed.

  “We don’t want to take the chance of antagonizing the suspect right now,” Garrett said, his gaze sincere. “Right now, it appears he has no idea you witnessed his abduction. Who knows what he’d do if he realizes you saw him?”

  TEN

  Amber felt a chill go up her spine at the thought of the assailant coming after her. “I hadn’t even considered that.”

  Garrett’s smile of sympathy softened her anger toward the police. At the same time, it made her realize how foolish she’d been.

  “Nick needs to get back on duty soon, so let’s go through what happened. Could you describe the scene again? Let’s say the front door here is where the cars were parked. It’s a lot closer probably, but is that about right?”

  Amber nodded, barely able to think after the fear he’d put into her. She looked around, trying to place everything at the scene. Talking it through, she moved tables and showed Sarah and Nick about where she would have been standing.

  Garrett started the scenario. “So, you’re the victim in the SUV, you shake your head no, and he yanks the door open and pulls you out.” He pretended to open the door and pulled Amber to her feet. “Then what?”

  “He pulled her to the car, which was parked behind the SUV. He leaned close and said something to her.”

  “You didn’t hear anything that was said?” He pushed her hair out of his way. “Was her hair in a ponytail? If her hair was in his face, and you didn’t hear anything, how’d you know he’d said something?”

  “Yeah, it was. I saw.” She grabbed a rubber band from the supply she kept downstairs and put her hair up into a loose ponytail, talking as she went back to her position in Garrett’s grasp. “That was kind of why I wasn’t terribly sure at that point that it was anything serious. At first, it looked a little romantic, but then she kept kind of jerking away, and he looked like he was saying something again. Then the guy pulled out a pair of handcuffs and struggled to put them on her.”

  Garrett reached out and borrowed a pair of cuffs from Nick. “Did he look like he knew what he was doing, or was he fumbling with the cuffs?”

  “Kind of fumbling, I guess, but she was starting to struggle. It looked like she knocked them out of his hand, or maybe he was juggling a gun or something and the handcuffs.” Amber felt her skin flush, recalling the night she’d run from the police. “He got one cuff on her left hand,” she said, waiting as Garrett put one on her left wrist. “He didn’t hold them like that,” she said. “He opened the cuff and held it at the hinge, holding them open.”

  Garrett froze, drawing his brows to a V. “I’ve seen someone do that. Who was it?” He looked to Nick.

  “I’ve never seen that technique. It doesn’t seem like they’d make it through the academy if they can’t cuff someone cleaner than that.” Nick shook his head.

  Sarah watched, silently waiting for Amber’s next instruction.

  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a few seconds, thinking of how the girl had gotten loose. “Try to grab my other hand.”

  Four times Amber tried to get away and failed. Garrett would have had her cuffed in a few seconds. Her feeble attempts at getting away left them all laughing.

  “Did she elbow him, or kick him at all?” Sarah suggested.

  Amber laughed. “I don’t know, but I’m obviously doing something wrong.” She turned and looked into Garrett’s eyes. “So we need to assume he wasn’t as proficient as you are. Or I’m wimpier than she was. Either way, would you please pretend I get the one hand free,” she said with another laugh, unable to erase her smile as his gaze made her heart skip a beat.

  Without a word, Garrett let her hand slip from his.

  “This guy couldn’t have made it into any law enforcement job around here. No one would make it through the academy if they can’t even manage to cuff a woman…. Unless she’s had professional training,” Nick said, smiling at Sarah.

  She laughed. The teasing gaze between them was clearly love, and Amber was still stunned to realize that this was the pair that had met only a few months earlier.

  “Okay, moving along,” Garrett said as Amber spun around, trying to pull her cuffed hand from his clasp and pretending to beat him with her free hand.

  “Did she have anything in her hand?” Sarah asked.

  Amber kept pretending to struggle with Garrett. “It sure seems like she had something, but it had to have been small, because it wasn’t holding her back.” She playfully hit him again.

  “Okay, then what?”

  “The girl went to hit him again and missed. He push
ed her against the car, and they struggled. She was pulling and pushing him, but he finally got the other cuff on her.”

  Garrett looked around then quickly walked her to the bakery cases and pressed her against the curved glass. “That will work as a car. Are they on the driver’s side or the passenger’s side?”

  “Passenger’s.”

  “So pretend this is the front of the car, and to the left is the trunk, then how’d she push him around if he had her pressed against the car?”

  Amber dreaded acting this part out. “Ummm, he body-slammed her, then reached around and yanked her arm back. It looked painful. She slid to the left,” she said, sidestepping. “Once she was away from the roof of the car and the windows, he fastened the cuffs and pulled her away from the car. This all happened really fast.”

  Without the body slam, Garrett pressed her against the glass again, and followed her lead with the struggle. “Did he put her in the passenger’s side, or behind the driver?”

  “This side. And now he got the cuff on her right hand and yanked her away from the car, and she made a noise, not really a scream, but something.” She paused the action while Garrett gently fastened the other cuff and helped her stand up.

  “Sorry to interrupt but it seems strange that all this time, she didn’t yell or anything,” Sarah said.

  Amber’s voice quivered, and it was tough to keep going. “I heard a slight protest, more like she was asking the cop what she’d done, when she first got out of the SUV, right before he whispered in her ear, but that was it until this point. I never heard her scream.” She felt her voice dissolve and silence spread through the room.

  Amber heard the hushed sound of Nick’s police radio and a filmstrip of memories flashed in her mind.

  She’d gone over the kidnapping so many times in her mind the past few days, why was it so difficult this time? She took another deep breath, let it out and tried to block the memories of her arrest so long ago. She couldn’t believe it was so fresh in her memory tonight.

  “We’re almost finished, Amber. You can do it.” The deep timbre of Garrett’s voice brought her back to the kidnapping and the frightened girl that occupied her thoughts.

  She nodded silently. “He covered her mouth…and body-slammed her against the car again so he could open the door.”

  Garrett put one hand over her mouth and touched her back with the other. She leaned against the glass again while he pretended to open the car door. “Door’s open,” Garrett said quietly.

  Amber took a deep breath, struggling with the memories of the incident and the guilt that she could have backed her van into his car and changed the course of everything that night. With a shaky voice she said, “That’s when he took a step back and yanked her away from the car…” Her voice faded away. “And then she arched her back, like she was in dire pain. I heard some muffled sounds, agonized like…The girl collapsed, and he shoved her into the car.”

  Amber was drained, just thinking about it.

  She stood back upright and turned her back to Garrett so he could take the cuffs off. He quickly unlocked them, then handed them back to Nick.

  “Are you okay?” he said quietly, wrapping his warm hands around her wrists. Acting it out brought back the memories of not only witnessing the incident, but being the victim of a real arrest. Tears threatened to flow.

  She nodded silently, and Garrett pulled her into his embrace.

  “I’m sorry to put you through that again, Amber. You did great,” he whispered into her neck.

  She buried her face against his strong chest and hugged him, welcoming his comfort. Her heart raced. Her breathing was uneven.

  “You did the right thing,” he said, patting her back. “I’m glad it wasn’t you,” he whispered into her ear, holding her close.

  After a few minutes of silence, Sarah broke the awkward silence. “I guess the only thing left to figure out is if you could have heard a taser or stun gun. The one that the guy used on me knocked me to the ground, so it might have made her collapse, too. Did the victim look tense as she fell limp, or did she look relaxed?”

  When she didn’t respond, Garrett pushed her away and said her name again, softly. “Amber?”

  She blinked the moisture from her eyes, nodded to him, then moved to the table again, sitting next to Sarah. “I hadn’t thought about it, really.”

  “When tased, the body is jerkier, the muscles tense from the electrocution. Sometimes stocky men go rigid and collapse when they’re tased. When someone faints, the body is more relaxed. It just shuts down, so to speak. Since no blood was found, one of these two is most likely to have happened.”

  “She was tense,” she said. Amber looked at Sarah and smiled. “You don’t think I made this up?”

  “Not at all. And for the record, I think those who do are few and far between, Amber. I’m new to the department, so I won’t pretend to know all of the nuances here, but it’s my guess this is being hushed by politics.”

  Nick nodded silently, and glanced first to Sarah, then to Amber. “Amber, I can assure you that none of us here are questioning what you saw and we’ll do all that we can to locate this girl. We all figured it was being handled by the detectives, or we would have stayed on it.”

  She couldn’t believe she’d created such a mess and no one believed her. Why? Did they just look at her history and decide she was making things up?

  Nick stood, pushing the chair on the linoleum floor. “I need to get back to work, but if you need anything, let me know.”

  Amber felt the tears threaten again. “I can’t thank you guys enough for all you’ve done. I keep asking God why this happened. But what confuses me even more is how I was lucky enough to run into someone so understanding. All of you.”

  Garrett had a look in his eyes that alarmed her. “I’m beginning to think luck had nothing to do with it, Amber. I’m afraid God’s been working on this for a long while.”

  Amber wasn’t sure how to respond.

  Nick and Sarah must have felt the emotions change, as well, because they thanked them for dinner and quickly said their goodbyes.

  She waited for the door to close behind the couple, then locked it and looked at Garrett. “Would you care to elaborate on that theory of yours?”

  ELEVEN

  Garrett couldn’t understand what had happened to him. He’d never been one to fall for girls who spent more time worried about their looks than their studies, but come to think of it, there hadn’t been more than one or two that had ever held his interest like Amber Scott. Her blatant faith and determination to do the right thing was an irresistible temptation, despite her striking good looks.

  She looked at him and waited.

  Lord, I don’t know what to tell her. This isn’t just about the lack of an investigation or why the chief ordered me to keep an eye on her, it’s all about what You have placed on my heart. How do I tell her that You are totally in control here? That we are both totally in Your hands.

  “I appreciate the time you took tonight to make it look like the police are doing something on the investigation, Garrett….” She walked to the kitchen and pulled out a bin of flour. “But I have a lot…”

  “I know you do,” he interrupted, his voice barely a murmur. He followed, dodging her as she moved from one shelf to another, pulling huge stainless bowls and canisters and measuring pitchers across the room. Then she started dumping ingredients into the huge mixer that looked like it was older than both of them. “It’s not an act, Amber. I don’t know quite how to explain it to you.”

  Amber put an eight-cup glass measuring cup of milk into the microwave and hit start. “Try,” she said with a look that he’d guess was more fear than smile.

  Garrett crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the counter. “Are you sure you really want to know?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” She cracked eggs into a bowl, added oil and glanced at the microwave as if she was waiting for the hot milk.

  “You do
n’t like cops,” he suggested.

  She looked at him through narrowed eyes. “So?”

  “I get the feeling that there’s more than just a professional bond between you and me.” He cleared his throat. “Or that there could be. Except for this hang-up you have with the police…”

  Amber quickly looked away.

  He reworded the question in friendlier terms. “Any chance of changing that?”

  “You already have,” she said. “At least toward a few of you. I didn’t like Lieutenant Chavez. And Samantha Taylor…I’m not too sure about her.”

  “Sam’s okay,” he said flippantly.

  Amber’s smile faded as she stared at him. “I think she has a thing for you…” she said, glancing up to see his reaction.

  “I think you misunderstood.”

  She shrugged as if she were trying not to care. “Maybe….”

  He wasn’t even listening. He didn’t want to think about anyone but her right now. Help her realize I don’t say this lightly, God. “I have a thing for you, Amber.”

  They looked at each other and smiled broadly, his honesty disarming them. He took a step toward Amber and she toward him just as there was a loud knock on the alley entrance.

  Amber startled.

  “Are you expecting anyone?” he asked, holding her back as he moved toward the door.

  “No,” she said, “Maybe it’s CiCi….”

  Garrett looked out. “It’s Samantha.”

  Officer Samantha Taylor knocked again, then Amber heard the antique doorbell ring up in the apartment.

  Amber moved to open the door as Garrett went to the front lobby, motioning for her to keep his presence quiet.

  Samantha reminded her of their meeting after the accident. “I was off for a couple of days, but I wanted to stop in and see how you’re doing.”

  “Fine. Thanks for thinking of me,” Amber said, hesitating to move away from the door.

  “Good. Would you and Garrett mind if I came in for a minute?”