Shield of Refuge

by Carol Steward

  “But it didn’t happen on campus….”

  “Technically, no, but since she’s a missing student, our first priority is finding her. They can move faster on most issues with campus policy being slightly more forgiving than the city and state governments would be.”

  She opened her eyes and admired Garrett, appreciating his sensitivity and determination to keep digging into this, even though he shouldn’t be.

  “Once they verify that the last day she was in class was Thursday, they’ll pull Fossil Creek Police Department in, and the chief will have no more excuses not to open a full investigation.”

  “Have you told him yet?”

  He shook his head. “Campus police are going to call me when they’re ready to issue a warrant. I’ll happen into the chief’s office…to talk to him about getting back to work. I’m not supposed to be investigating this, Amber.”

  “Then why are you? Haven’t I already caused you enough trouble?”

  He shrugged.

  “Something tells me you shouldn’t be here, legally, I mean, and…and now I’m to blame for you disobeying your boss’s orders, too.”

  Garrett shook his head. “You didn’t make me do this. It’s the right thing to do.”

  “Then why didn’t the lieutenant investigate in the first place? Why didn’t Samantha Taylor do it? Nick knew about it. Sarah knew about it. Why you, Garrett? It seems to me that if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be doing this, would you?”

  He didn’t answer right away.

  Was that a good sign? Or was he regretting getting involved in the first place? “I was more driven to push this because I believe you, yes. But I was never doing it simply to win you over, if that’s what you’re concerned about.” The corner of his lips twitched. “If you hadn’t run into me and I wasn’t on mandatory leave, no, I wouldn’t be doing this off the radar. I’d have been the first man in line after that creep. So don’t even think of blaming yourself.” He tried to pull her close again, but she shook her head. “You mentioned at the accident that you’d pray for me, right?”

  She held her head high. “Yes.”

  “I appreciate it. I want you to understand my relationship with God, Amber. I’m a Christian first, a Christian man second, and a Christian officer third. My first obligation is to God, to do what He commands. And that would never allow me to use you—period. Second, I need to be true to myself—I’m still trying to figure out exactly what God has planned for me, as a Christian man. Is that career, or marriage? I thought it was one, and now I’m thinking He has the other in mind. And third, I believe God led me to law enforcement to uphold the laws that man has created for our society. I am a cop, and I can’t turn that off, so one way or another, I would be digging into this case, no matter whether you’re involved or not. As a Christian man, I really want to believe God had a reason for bringing us together.”

  “I hope so, Garrett.” The butterflies in her stomach were back. All these years she’d seen only one side of police officers. She wanted to believe that Garrett was different than those officers, but her heart was still skeptical. She wanted Garrett to be right, to believe that God had a reason for their accident. She didn’t believe their attraction was simply that—attraction. She felt too much for it to be just that, but it was too far-fetched to believe it was serious already. Believing it was true meant letting herself care for Garrett, and that made him that much more dangerous.

  He said it himself, he’d always be a cop. If nothing else, she owed him the truth about her past. Her wild years. Her lack of trust in police officers.

  “I need to work through how I’m going to tell the chief about this, but we’re still on for dinner tonight, right?”

  She nodded silently.

  “Should we make it early, about six?”

  “That would be fine,” she said, mentally calculating how long she could ignore that she was totally wrong for Garrett. She had already hurt him, she couldn’t make matters worse. Because as soon as he found out she had a police record, it would be over.

  FIFTEEN

  Garrett had a long day ahead. After questioning Amber again, she realized both the suspects fit the same description. They’d gone back through his yearbook and finally found him. He’d done as much as he could to find a current address for Anthony Melendez without access to police records. There was nothing. How could he vanish? Now it was time to have patience—something God hadn’t given him enough of, apparently, because He kept testing Garrett on it.

  He wanted to head over to the precinct and wait for the university police, but knew better than to push the chief. He’d been doing the stretching exercises that the physical therapist had suggested and felt like he could get back to the streets any day now.

  He tried to rest, but that was futile and he knew it. He couldn’t seem to get this case, or Amber Scott, off his mind. He accessed his work e-mail from home, but there wasn’t much to get excited about there, either. Garrett jotted notes about Amber’s description of the incident into his notepad adding in possible evidence from Samantha Taylor’s notes and from the break-in at the store. He needed to be ready to push the investigation as soon as he got the word. His mind came back to the suspect. He’d gotten his aunt to e-mail him a copy of the sketch she’d done from Amber’s description to connect it to Melendez’s current mug shot.

  Tapping the arm of the worn-down sofa, Garrett closed his eyes and walked back through time. He remembered that goofy maneuver with the handcuffs. He wondered how long it would’ve taken him to make the connection to Melendez had he not happened to notice his yearbooks on the shelf. He hadn’t wanted to consider that they could’ve been dealing with a rogue officer who was on active duty.

  Not that it was out of the question, since two crooked cops had tried to implicate his brother in their drug ring. Maybe Melendez had applied to the academy or to FCPD. If Garrett’s report to his dad had kept Melendez from his dreams—why had he gone to the other extreme to discredit FCPD? Or maybe this was just another attempt to frame the Matthews brothers.

  It wasn’t long until Chief Thomas, himself, called him into the station. A half hour later, he had showered, shaved and was waiting, in uniform, hoping beyond all hopes that this would all come together quickly so they could get back to work.

  The chief’s secretary, Phyllis, led Garrett right into his office. “Afternoon, Garrett.”

  Garrett nodded. He wasn’t in the mood to make small talk. He filled the chief in on what he and Amber had found. The chief called the investigator to start looking for the suspect.

  “University police have a report of a missing girl. They’re getting ready to make an announcement, but with the attack on Amber Scott possibly connected, we’d better talk to them ASAP. For the record, Garrett, the mayor isn’t happy, but he did admit that he was wrong.”

  “What can I do?”

  “If you can get the doctor to clear you, we could use your help with surveillance in the downtown area to catch Melendez. After the shooting the other night, business owners were concerned, but after what Melendez did to Amber, there’s an uprising. Ms. Scott isn’t the only business owner ready to go to newspapers.”

  Garrett felt his lip twitch, threatening to share his personal opinion about the situation. “I’m scheduled to go for a check-up tomorrow afternoon.”

  “That will do. Will you be working at the bakery tonight?”

  “No, she’s working from my parents’ house to fill the orders she had, but until the security’s set up and she’s sure it’s safe for customers to go back, there’s no walk-in business. I don’t think she’d have a problem with me working there for a few more days, if that’s what you’re asking,” he said, cautiously avoiding answering the chief’s question directly. Lord, help me to handle this professionally, yet without upsetting Amber, either.

  The chief glanced at the same file that he’d studied the last time they’d visited. “Have you found anything else out about the incident she witnessed?”r />
  “Just that the suspect didn’t know how to use handcuffs. But the odd thing is, I was sure I’d seen someone, somewhere hold them like she described.” He demonstrated with his grandfather’s cuffs. “I kept coming up empty on where I might have seen it, until last night. I realized a kid named Melendez and I were in the Explorers at the same time, until I saw him with some of the more prominent gang-bangers. I asked Dad about it, he was never there again. So if he wanted to be a cop, I can see him buying a uniform to get revenge.”

  “It’s so easy to buy them off the Internet now, I would have been surprised if he had picked one up locally. Detective Wang has been contacting online stores, looking for orders from this region. There’s been nothing in the time period of our reports, so either he lived outside this region when he ordered it, or he bought it in a store with cash, or secondhand.”

  Garrett couldn’t help but consider the kind of person that would do this, and Anthony fit. He’d wanted to fit in somewhere. “Is there a pattern with the victims? I don’t understand how he picked these victims. Is anyone looking at that?”

  The chief smiled. “Haven’t found one yet. Would you care to give it a shot?” He slid the file across the desk. “He’s getting more careless, and more brazen, that I can tell you.”

  He stared at the file, still cautious of the way all of this was playing out. The detectives had far more experience than he did with investigations. He wasn’t sure he had any of the right theories, either.

  “Kidnapping a young woman before dark right off campus definitely wasn’t smart.” He read the first page of the report, dated three months ago. Nine forty-five on a Sunday evening. A high school student had been a block from home when she’d seen the police lights. She’d been too frightened to stop, and called her parents for advice. They’d advised her to calmly drive the rest of the way home and they met her outside. When she pulled to a stop in front of their house, the unmarked car drove on past the house. Though they had called the police, the suspect had disappeared before anyone from patrol had been able to make it to the area.

  No description of the suspect.

  Garrett looked at the address, hoping it would give them the break they needed. Flipping through the pages beneath, he found a city map where they had already started mapping the different reported incidences.

  The second incident was roughly three weeks later, in the college area and involved a twenty-two-year-old student who had no cell phone when the police car, also white with a bubble light, pulled her over. The victim had become nervous when he approached the window and ordered her to get out of the vehicle. When she refused, he broke her window out with a flashlight. She had cuts and bruises from the glass and the flashlight hitting her, but she was able to put the car in gear and get away. Caucasian or Hispanic male, mustache, roughly twenty years old. Police uniform, gun, flashlight.

  “Where are the suspect sketches?”

  “The first victim never saw the guy. Second one couldn’t give us a good enough description for Meg to release it, you’ve probably seen Amber’s suspect….”

  The third victim hadn’t reported it until the next morning, when her roommate took her to the emergency room for stitches. Though she hadn’t admitted to as much, likely reason she hadn’t reported it was that she’d been driving while under the influence. She’d been at a party until somewhere around midnight.

  Time wasn’t consistent. Description similar to Amber’s, if one didn’t consider race, or facial hair.

  She wasn’t sure exactly of her location, and due to the call not coming in immediately, there had been no investigation.

  He looked up at the chief and shook his head. “We should have issued a public warning long ago.”

  “Even if it had gone out, there’s no assurance that it would have stopped any of the reported incidences. Personal safety and police stops are discussed in all of our community safety courses.”

  The fourth incident he knew far too much about, but he read the case report to see what Lieutenant Chavez had included. To his surprise, all of the information that Samantha had given him was included. So who had dropped the ball? Why had no one followed up with Amber?

  There was another report of an incident that took place last night, on the north side of campus, just two blocks from Old Town. The victim had called 911 and had been advised to drive to the nearest grocery store parking lot and a marked car would meet her there. She couldn’t give any information about the suspect. Something had apparently spooked him. He’d evaded the police again.

  “So we have a missing student, but there’s still no sign of the victim from last week?”

  The chief shook his head. “At least we have a probable identity now.” He confirmed that the information he’d found matched the official report from the university police. Garrett listened, waiting for the chief to let on that he had contacted the family. If Thomas knew, he didn’t let on.

  “When were they last in touch with her?”

  “The boyfriend was on the phone with her when the suspect made contact with her. He’s taking it hard.”

  “Yeah,” he said, not wanting it to be obvious that he already knew all of this.

  “Her parents have been trying to get in touch with her for almost a week. She last left them a message the day before the boyfriend talked to her. Her parents pushed her to transfer here, to save money on tuition,” the chief added. “Imagine how much guilt they’re feeling right now. I don’t like the direction this is heading.”

  Garrett liked it even less. If Amber was now a witness to a crime linked to the Texas Syndicate, that meant she, too, could have a shadow for the rest of her life. “I want twenty-four-hour protection ordered for Amber until we figure out who Melendez’s accomplices are.”

  The chief agreed. “Done, but under my conditions. I’m not going to try to provide protection for the entire staff and customers. If she wants to stay safe, she’s going to have to keep the shop closed down until we have more information to go on.”

  Garrett didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. He couldn’t do this to Amber. He had to find another option. How could he convince her he had fallen in love with her at the same time he took her dream away? Garrett closed his eyes and prayed fervently for God’s wisdom. The only scripture that came to mind was from the Book of Samuel, a prophet who, through his own trials and triumphs, was rewarded with God’s blessing. The promise of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him. Shield Amber from harm, Father, and let us both find a life of refuge with You.

  Garrett could hear Chief Thomas moving papers, and opened his eyes.

  “Somehow, I didn’t think you’d like those conditions, but I think once you get past your personal feelings, you’ll understand.”

  “I don’t understand. And she’ll go for them even less.”

  The chief pushed a manila envelope across the desk. “You don’t have to read it now, but I think it might be of interest. You can keep it.”

  Garrett turned the envelope over and noticed it was sealed. He tried to focus on the impersonator case, but everything had changed.

  He’d fallen in love. And he would do everything within his power to protect the woman that God had brought into his life.

  “Last night’s victim,” Garrett managed to say, “How old was she and what time did the incident happen?”

  They discussed more facts and more theories for another hour, until Garrett could hardly stand the thought of Amber in her shop, any time of day with anyone. After they finished, Garrett changed into his street clothes, keeping his bulletproof vest on. He placed his weapon and an additional couple of magazines of ammunition in his duty bag. If he was going to be coming and going at all hours downtown, he was going to be prepared.

  SIXTEEN

  Amber left a message for Garrett two hours ago. Now that security had been fixed, she hated to take this mess to his parents’ house. She was far too behind and far too tired to let herself be distracted. S
he only had a few more to finish after Nick and Sarah had needed to leave.

  She needed to talk to God about what He had in mind, throwing her and Garrett together. Now, of all times, when he was applying for special-agent jobs, and she was working sixteen hours a day trying to build her business. She’d prayed for Garrett’s recovery, about her feelings for Garrett and now it was time to pray that she could let him go before they got too involved. They had to be realistic.

  Heavenly Father, I beg You to take this confusion away. I don’t know how I can love Garrett so soon. Sweet, loveable, protective men like him don’t go for girls like me. He’s a take-the-bull-by-the-horns kind of guy, and I’m a bossy oldest child who has trouble taking orders. Or accepting advice. Even from those who mean well. “I don’t care about an uptown shop with a fancy showroom,” she said softly. “I’m happy here in Nana’s shop, God. I don’t want to have a security service watching my doors, seeing who is coming and going, but right now, I’m very thankful to have them.”

  She filled her cake-decorating bag with pink royal icing, then moved to the sofa with a tray in front of her. The pastel hibiscus were flowers made from royal icing and would take a day or two to dry, and time was getting short. After loosely forming the foil square to the flower nail, she spun the nail into position between her thumb and her forefinger. She squeezed the bag and moved the rose tip up and down the bowl of the nail, quivering slightly to give the edge the ruffled look of a natural flower. She added the candied stamens and set it on the cookie sheet to dry.

  Her mind returned again and again to Garrett, and how to tell him about her past. How to tell him it was over between them. Or more to the point, how to prepare herself for that reality. She went back and forth, just like the repetitive motions of making flowers for the wedding cake. A pastel wedding in the mountains, right before Thanksgiving.