When the Bishop Needs an Alibi

by Vannetta Chapman

  “I have no idea what was in the backpack he took, but maybe there was a phone. He pushed the sleds into my arms and told me to wait for his signal and then get you two away from Paddock.”

  “And he gave me my phone back.” Tess pulled the device out of her back pocket. “I couldn’t figure that out, why he would give it back to me.”

  “Does it still work?” Emma asked. “Can you call someone?”

  Tess pushed some buttons, but the screen didn’t light up. “Battery’s dead. I guess I used it all up when I was taking the video.”

  “Did you—what did you call it? Load up the video?” Emma looked as if she wanted to grab the phone out of Tess’s hands.

  “No. I streamed it live. I was going to load it once we made it back to the car.”

  “What does that mean?” Henry asked.

  “It means anyone who was on that site at that moment, at the exact moment I was recording, would have seen it.”

  “Do you think anyone did?” Emma reached for Henry’s right hand, as if she needed emotional strength to hear Tess’s reply.

  But Henry knew what she was going to say, because he could read her body language, the way her shoulders slumped. Her head dropped, and her voice flattened out. “Not many. Middle of the night? On a weeknight? Most people would be asleep because they have work tomorrow.”

  “What do we do now?” Emma asked Henry.

  “We do what that young man who risked his life said to do. We wait.”

  Sixty-Eight

  Tess sat on Emma’s right, her head back against the wall of sand, clearly asleep. Henry sat on Emma’s left, his legs resting on top of the sand boards. Emma would never have believed she could fall asleep in such a situation, but her body had different plans. As they waited in the darkness, her hand clasped in Henry’s and her head resting on his uninjured shoulder, her eyes grew heavier, until she could no longer fight the need to close them.

  She woke to the sound of cranes.

  Stretching, she realized her legs were sore from the hike through the woods and up the dune, and when she tried to swallow, she felt as if she’d suffered a long bout of tonsillitis. How long had it been since she’d had a sip of water? Her stomach gurgled, reminding her it was time to eat. She ran her tongue over her teeth and grimaced at the taste and feel of sand in her mouth. Her skin, too, seemed covered with the stuff.

  But none of that mattered. What mattered was that they were still alive.

  She glanced at Henry and could make out only the silhouette of him in the waning darkness. Then her eye caught on the ankle device he’d been forced to wear. A small light on it flashed red every few seconds, which she supposed meant he was out of the allowed area. Well, at least it still worked, even if Tess’s phone didn’t. Too bad they couldn’t call someone with it. Technology seemed like a complete waste of time and money to Emma. You couldn’t depend on things like phones and monitoring devices.

  You could depend on your friends and your faith. You could depend on your heart to lead you in the right direction. You could depend on God, even when you didn’t understand His ways.

  The sun peeked over the horizon, splashing the dunes with a dazzling display of pink, blue, violet, and orange.

  “A beautiful sight, ya?”

  “It is.” Emma glanced at the man who had become her best friend in the last year. “Are you all right, Henry? How is your arm? And don’t try to spare me the truth.”

  “It’s quite stiff,” he admitted, trying to raise it and grimacing. “Sore, but the bleeding seems to have stopped. You and Tess made a gut bandage.”

  “I was so afraid.” Emma blinked rapidly, not wanting to cry, not wanting to give in to the terror and fear of the night before. “What about Jimmy? Do you think he…”

  “There’s no way for us to know. There hasn’t been any sound at all from the top of the dunes. Pretty quiet all night.”

  “You stayed awake?”

  Henry nodded.

  Emma felt that she needed to be strong for Tess and Henry, but she couldn’t stop herself from asking the next question. “Gotte’s still in control, right? Despite the fact that we’re hiding behind a sand dune, we have no supplies, we’re in the middle of a forty-four-thousand-acre national park, no one knows where we are, and there’s a madwoman still on the loose.”

  “Sounds dire when you put it that way, but ya. I’m sure Gotte is still in control. Can you imagine a woman like Paddock outmaneuvering Him? Nein.”

  “When you put it that way, I have no choice but to agree with you.”

  “Remember Joseph and everything he went through when his bruders threw him into a cistern and sold him into slavery? Bible scholars say those holes in the ground used to collect water were usually fifteen to twenty feet deep. Think about that.”

  “I’d rather not.”

  “The situation must have seemed pretty bleak to Joseph, sitting in the bottom of that cistern. But Gotte still had His eye on him and His hand on Joseph’s life. Remember, Joseph said to his bruders, ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.’”

  Emma thought about that. Paddock certainly did intend to harm them. How could God use that for good? But they were together. Henry’s injury didn’t seem to be life-threatening. They were basically safe for the moment, and they could all bear witness to Paddock’s deeds if they could only make it back home. With their testimony, the authorities could put Paddock away, and she wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else.

  You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.

  “Henry Lapp, you’re a gut bishop. Nein, don’t stop me. You have a gut heart, and you use your knowledge of the Bible to encourage, to bolster our spirits when we…” She blinked rapidly, determined to finish what she needed to say. “When we doubt and when we’re afraid.”

  “We all doubt sometimes, Emma, and we’ve all known fear.”

  “I suppose that’s true.” She thought of when he’d arrived at their farm, carrying the bag of drawings, terrified that Delaney would find them. Henry Lapp wasn’t perfect, but he was a good and godly man. “You know just what to say and what Scripture to share to help us in our faith. Those words about Joseph? They were exactly what I needed to hear to calm my heart.”

  “We’re going to survive this, Emma.”

  Something whizzed by them too quickly for Emma to see. She supposed it was a bird of some sort, which caused her mind to recall the list of animals she’d shared with Tess. She suspected many more animals than she knew of lived in these dunes—snakes and spiders and who knew what else. Surely nothing that could fly could harm them, but what of the other creatures? Were they in danger? Given enough time, they could die of thirst or starvation, but she had a feeling this situation would be resolved well before then. She believed help would arrive—eventually.

  But who had survived the battle at the top of the dunes?

  In every direction she looked were giant mounds of sand. They seemed to stretch to the horizon, and she knew from personal experience that they also loomed above them. She didn’t have to turn around. Didn’t need to see the direction they’d come. Didn’t want to see the height Henry had pushed her from. That push had saved her life, though.

  Paddock might have managed to get away, but at least she hadn’t won. The police would put out a warrant for her arrest. Eventually she would be caught.

  You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.

  Emma didn’t want to contradict her bishop. She was encouraged by the words he quoted from Genesis, but she was also a pragmatist. “It’s not like we can walk out of here.”

  “We will if we have to.”

  “We might run right into Paddock, or whoever she’s working for.”

  “Which is why we should stay here and wait.”

  Emma wanted to laugh.

  “You insist on being an optimist even after all we’ve been through.” She gestured toward the monitor around his ankle. “Even after they accused you of killing Sop
hia and made you wear that thing.”

  Instead of answering her, Henry nodded toward a group of cranes flying across the morning sky. “This area contains the habitat cranes need to survive. In particular, the cattail and bulrush. Is it a plant you know?”

  Emma shook her head.

  “You have read about it before, though. It’s the same plant used to make a bed for baby Moses before he was placed in the Nile River.”

  “No kidding?”

  “No kidding. It lightens my heart every time I think of it. The plant was there and provided the materials to safely move Moses down the river and into the sight of Pharaoh’s daughter, who took him and provided a home for him. As you know, Moses’s schweschder Miriam offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby, and so Moses’s mother was able to care for the infant. A miracle indeed. Gotte’s ways are not our ways, Emma, but we can trust Him nonetheless.”

  Sixty-Nine

  They’d been speaking in hushed tones, but the rising sun succeeded in waking Tess. She startled into an upright position, looked around at Emma and Henry, and then stared out at the natural beauty in front of her. Emma saw the moment when she remembered her sister’s death. Her posture stiffened, she gripped her hands into fists, and her breathing grew more ragged.

  Emma rubbed her back in small circles. “It’s all right, Tess. We’re here with you. Help is on its way.”

  “I just…I suddenly remembered Sophia and Cooper and last night and Paddock.”

  “Probably you’re in shock.”

  “And you’re not?”

  “Ya, I think we all are. Henry was just telling me Bible stories.”

  Henry had moved in front of them. He squatted there, smiling. “Emma has a fear of heights. She needs distracting sometimes, and Scripture is gut for calming the heart.”

  Rubbing her eyes with her fists, something that reminded Emma of a small child, Tess asked, “Do you think I’ll see Sophia again one day, Henry? Do you believe that?”

  “I do. The Bible says that in heaven there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. That’s a promise, Tess. Give your life into our Father’s hands, and you can rest assured in those promises.”

  “I want to believe.”

  “Then you can. It’s a decision, Tess, and you can decide to trust Gotte’s Word.”

  Emma thought the young woman was going to answer him, but they were interrupted by shouts from above.

  “Stay here,” Henry whispered. “I’ll make sure it’s the good guys.”

  He stood and hurried around the dune they were sheltering behind.

  Emma had an overwhelming urge to rush after him, but Tess put a hand on her arm and drew her back. “We should wait.”

  They peeked around the edge of the dune and saw Henry waving his good arm over his head, and then they heard the whine of motors approaching.

  “Over there,” Tess said.

  Coming around the bend was not one or two, but half a dozen golf carts. Emma supposed they were emergency vehicles of some sort, but they looked so incongruent with the peaceful, natural scene in front of her that laughter bubbled up and past her lips. Realizing she sounded slightly hysterical, she clamped a hand over her mouth, but she needn’t have worried.

  Tess was paying no attention to her. She’d sunk into the sand, sitting cross-legged with her head in her hands, muttering over and over, “They found us.”

  “It’s going to be all right, Tess. We’re rescued.”

  “And Paddock?”

  “I don’t know, but they’ve either caught her or she’s on the run.”

  “If she’s running—”

  “Then the police will cast a wide net and catch her. It’s their job now. Maybe it always was.”

  “I couldn’t just let whoever killed Sophia get away. You understand, don’t you, Emma? Why I had to come out here last night?”

  “I do.”

  “I never meant to put you—to put all of us in danger.”

  “You didn’t. Paddock did, and she will be answering for that as well.”

  “Thank you for caring so much for a stranger.”

  “We are strangers no more, Tess Savalas. After last night? I’d say we’re freinden.”

  Seventy

  Henry didn’t recognize most of the men and women in the golf carts, but he did know Sheriff Grayson and Agent Delaney. He also recognized the new officer, Scott Lawson. From the way the three men were talking, Henry figured Grayson had decided both Lawson and Delaney were on the right side of things.

  “I told you to stay home,” Grayson said by way of greeting, and then he took in the bandage on Henry’s arm. “How’d you manage to get yourself hurt?”

  “Guess when Paddock started shooting, I should have zigged, not zagged. But I’m alive.” In truth his left arm felt stiff and tender, but he didn’t think it was their most immediate need. “Emma and Tess need water and—”

  “We’ll take care of them, Henry. You too.”

  “What about Jimmy? I’m afraid Paddock shot him.”

  “Jimmy’s the one who called us. He’s being transferred to the hospital as we speak. Now sit down and let the paramedic take a look at your arm.” Grayson’s tone was tough, but he made no attempt to stop the smile on his face. “We’ve had a very busy morning.”

  “Did you catch them?”

  “Paddock’s on the run, but we have a BOLO out. Her vehicle was spotted heading toward Colorado Springs. She was smart enough to get off the main highways, where we have license plate readers, but we’ll catch her. Don’t worry about that.”

  “Do you have the evidence you need?”

  “We have some, and we’ll find more.” He slapped Henry on the back and hurried over to one of the crime scene techs.

  Agent Delaney was giving orders right and left. When Henry saw him pull out a walkie-talkie and look toward the top of the dune, he realized they had officers and agents up there as well.

  “Where did all of these people come from?” he asked the paramedic. “I see more officers here than we have on the Monte Vista police force.”

  “Some are local. Some are feds.” The paramedic was an older black man with a bald head. He pushed a bottle of water into Henry’s hands, and then he shone a light in his eyes and waved something over his forehead, stared at it, and said, “No fever. That’s a positive sign.”

  “Why would I have a fever?” Henry took a long drink from the bottle. He hadn’t realized until that moment exactly how thirsty he was. He hadn’t realized that water was such a blessing.

  “You would have a fever if infection had already set in.”

  “It’s only been a few hours.”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  “I didn’t realize I’d been shot. It was Tess who noticed, and then she and Emma insisted on…on taking care of it.”

  “You were smart to wrap it up and leave it. That reduced your risk of infection from outside bacteria. I’d rather not change that bandage here with all the sand blowing about. If it’s okay with you, we’ll send you back to the visitor center, and one of the paramedics there will take care of you.”

  “Fine by me.”

  The old guy picked up his medical supplies, which were in something resembling a toolbox. “Great. I’ll go check on the ladies, then.”

  Henry didn’t want to be in the way. Emma or Tess might be uncomfortable with him there as the paramedic shone his light and took their vitals. He gave Emma a slight wave and walked over to the only person who didn’t look occupied at the time—Officer Lawson.

  “I suppose this means you’re not a part of it.”

  “It?” The young man turned toward him, his eyes crinkling at the corners and sunlight bouncing off his copper-colored hair. “I guess I was and I wasn’t.”

  Henry waited, and Lawson laughed. “It’s plain as the beard on your face that you have a few questions. I’ll answer them if I can.”

  “You didn’t come here simply to fill the vacancy in Sheriff Gray
son’s department?”

  “I did not.”

  “Do you work for the feds?”

  “I work on a joint task force that was established between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Park Service.”

  “You knew what Paddock was doing.”

  “We knew someone was poaching animals—large animals—and we knew it was a sizable operation involving millions of dollars.”

  “Millions?”

  The young man nodded. “They would bait the animals, tranquilize them, and then transport them to the buyer.”

  “The story Cooper Brooks was following.”

  “We suspected his death wasn’t random, but we couldn’t prove it, and we couldn’t investigate—at least not openly—without tipping our hand to Paddock and the others involved. It was important they not suspect how much we knew.”

  “Sophia?”

  “She arrived here shortly after I did.”

  Henry thought of Grayson’s suspicions and the waitress’s concern that Lawson was infatuated with her. “You were protecting her.”

  “I tried.” A look of regret passed over his face. “I’m just sorry I wasn’t able to prevent her murder.”

  “You aren’t guilty of that. You didn’t strangle her.”

  “No, I didn’t.” Lawson’s jaw clenched, and Henry realized he wasn’t as young as he’d first thought. “But I will see that the people responsible are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. You can count on that.”

  “Grayson seems confident Paddock will be caught.”

  “We know a lot about her—how she operates and where she’ll run.” Delaney shouted something in their direction, and Lawson said, “Looks like I’m needed.”

  He shook hands with Henry and then hurried off.

  Henry walked over to where the paramedic was finishing up with Tess and Emma. They were both holding bottles of water. The paramedic noted the empty water bottle in Henry’s hands, pulled another out of the cooler next to him, and said, “Keep drinking.”

  “He says we’re in gut shape, Henry. We just needed some water.”