The back of the church was completely shielded from the front. Half the building had no windows, the other half had high windows. He went to the nearest door, turned the knob.
Locked.
He searched for an easier entrance, but there was none—the only other door in the back was also locked. But the second door was better concealed, so he had more time to break in. It took him several minutes. He became frustrated, especially since he could feel his shirt sticking to the blood on his back. Finally the lock popped.
When he stepped in, the first thing he heard were children singing.
Children.
He was not going to kill children.
This day could not have gotten worse.
He pulled out his gun and stepped into the room. Six pairs of pint-sized eyes stared at him. The teacher, a tall black woman, jumped up.
“Hold it,” Brian said. “I don’t want to hurt any of you, but I will if I have to. I want Ivy, I want her now. Or I will start shooting.”
He looked the teacher in the eye, could practically see her little mind running through all her options. “Don’t,” he warned, adrenaline combating his fatigue. “I’ve had a real shitty couple days and frankly, I’m not in the mood for heroes.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Lucy had always admired her sister-in-law, but she’d never seen Kate in action. The only time she’d watched her at work was in her home office. In the field, Kate was all business.
Kate approached the four agents who were their backup.
“Monitor exits and entrances, you know who we’re looking for and why. But also be careful—someone is stalking her, we have no idea what he looks like, so keep your eyes and ears open.”
Lucy remembered Ivy’s comment about “Dumb and Dumber.” She said, “There may be two male suspects, working together or separately.”
“They already killed six people,” Kate said. “And one of them shot a cop. We want them alive, if possible, but preservation of innocent life is our number-one goal.” She motioned for Lucy to follow her into the church. “Ready?”
Lucy nodded. She was calm and focused, her eyesight sharp and vivid.
St. Anne’s was a small, gothic church with dark pews and tall, elaborate stained-glass windows. An organ that appeared to be far too big for the church dominated one corner. Several parishioners were dotted around the room, kneeling in prayer.
Lucy followed Kate to the front of the church. The sacristy was behind the altar. Father Harris was coming out as they approached, startled when he saw them.
“May I help you?”
“We’re looking for Ivy Harris,” Kate said after identifying herself.
“Why?”
“She used you as a reference on her rental application. She said you were her father.”
“You mean her priest.”
“No, her flesh-and-blood daddy.”
“I’m sure there’s a mistake.”
“Do you know her?”
“I’m not sure.” Father Harris looked at his watch. “I have an appointment, then I can look at my records—”
“Father,” Lucy said, “Ivy is in grave danger. We know about her sister, Sara, and we know about their father. We want to give them both a chance to tell the truth and find peace. But someone has killed six people this week, and he is looking for Ivy. We have agents outside, but if she’s not here, we need to put them out looking for her.”
She could tell the priest was undecided about whether to speak.
“Please, Father, we need your help,” Lucy implored.
“I can contact her. Wait here.”
Kate stepped forward. “I can’t do that. I can’t give you the opportunity to help her disappear.”
“I give you my word.”
“Sorry. You make the call, but I want to talk to her.”
“Very well. There’s a phone in the rectory.”
The rectory was across a small courtyard adjacent to the church. As they walked across, Lucy saw movement along the back wall, to her left.
“There,” she said, gesturing to a small toolshed. Someone was trying to climb the fence.
Ivy.
Kate ran over and grabbed her, pulling her down and pushing her prone to the ground. She searched her and came up with a gun. She was about to cuff her when Father Harris ran over. “Please, don’t treat her as a criminal. She’s been through so much.”
“It’s protocol, Father,” Lucy said.
Ivy shook her head and pleaded, “You have to let me go. I’m going to be late.”
“Late for what?” Lucy asked.
“He’s going to kill Mina.”
“Who?” Kate asked, handcuffs dangling.
“I don’t know his name! Wendy called them Dumb and Dumber.”
“There are two?”
“They’re brothers. I saw one of them when he ran us off the road. I’m sorry I left, I had no choice. Please. Mina needs me. He’s going to kill her.”
“Where is he?”
“If he sees any of you, he’s going to kill everyone.”
Kate repeated, “Where is he?”
Father Harris squatted beside the distraught Ivy. “Child, you need to let them help.”
Ivy’s cell phone rang and she stifled a scream.
“Is that him?” Kate asked.
She nodded.
“Answer it. I’m going to listen in.”
Ivy answered the phone. “I told you I’m coming!”
“Tick tock, Poison Ivy. Your ten minutes is now eight minutes.”
“Don’t touch her, you bastard!”
He cut off the call before she finished her sentence.
“How do you know she’s alive?” Lucy asked. “Have you talked to her?”
“He called right when you walked into the church. Gave me ten minutes. He let Mina tell me she was alive. There are kids inside!”
“Children?” Lucy blanched. “Is he at His Grace?”
“Yes. I tried Marti, but no one’s answering. Oh, God, why is this happening?” She looked at her watch.
Kate got on her phone. “Hostage situation, His Grace Church, Thirty-first Street—”
“No!” Ivy screamed and lunged for Kate’s phone. Kate got her into an arm lock so quickly Lucy almost missed it. “If he sees the police, he’ll kill them. Don’t you people listen?”
Kate looked at her sternly. “Sit down or I’ll cuff you.” Into her phone she said, “Code S, I repeat, Code Silent.”
“He’ll still know!”
“FBI SWAT is good. He won’t know,” Lucy said.
Ivy started crying. “I have to save her. She trusted me to protect her and I’ve let her down every time.”
Kate said to Lucy, “Get her in the car. We’ll drive there and figure out where this guy is holed up.” She looked at her phone. “Slater,” she answered. “Kate Donovan here, we got a hot call.”
They walked Ivy out of the church and to the car.
While making an illegal U-turn, Kate said to Slater, “We have a hostage situation, unknown suspect, extremely volatile, children are involved. He said he’ll start shooting the kids if he sees a uniform.” She turned to Ivy. “How many?”
“Um, I don’t know, I haven’t been there in a long time.”
“Guess.”
“No more than twelve. And it’s early, maybe only a couple.”
“Adults?”
“Just Marti and Remus, the custodian.”
“Church secretary?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
Kate told Slater, “Up to twelve minors, preschool; up to three adults. One teenage hostage who’s the target.”
Kate made a wide turn, far out of sight of the church, and parked. “What’s your ETA, Slater?” Then to Lucy, she said, “Ten minutes.”
“That’s too late,” Ivy cried.
“Call him.”
“I can’t.”
“Will he call you?”
“To tau
nt me.”
“We’ll buy time.” Kate assessed the area, put the SWAT leader on speaker so she could pull out a map. “Slater, you still there?”
“Yes, we’re on our way. Do you have more intel?”
“No. I’m assessing possible breach points where the suspect can’t see us. Come around parallel to Thirty-first, park at the V. No line of sight from any part of the church property.”
“Roger that. Stay hot, but I need to switch channels.”
Lucy sat in the backseat with Ivy. “We spoke to Kerry this morning.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yes. She and her sister are with Amy in Richmond.”
Ivy stared at Lucy then closed her eyes, smiling widely. “Thank God. Thank God. They’re safe.”
“Ivy,” Lucy said, “you need to trust us. We’re here to help you and your sister, Sara.”
Ivy stifled a cry. “I’m not telling you where she is.”
“Kerry told us about your father. We’re not turning Sara over to him.”
“You’re right, because she’s safe, and she’s going to stay that way.”
“Your father has accused you of kidnapping. Without Sara’s statement, we can’t arrest him.”
“You won’t arrest him anyway! He’s too powerful.”
“I don’t care if he’s the president of the United States, if he raped a fourteen-year-old girl, he will be prosecuted,” Lucy said.
“I’d love to believe it, but I know how the system works. My father has hundreds of people who think he walks on water. I did go to someone after he r-raped me.” Her voice cracked for the first time. “I was so stupid. Growing up, I’d been told over and over that if there was any trouble at all, that the police would help. That I could trust them. So I went to the police chief. I knew him, he went to my father’s church. He was so nice … and then he brought me home and told my father what I’d said. Then do you know what my father did? Took me to a doctor, told him I was showing the same signs of mental illness as my mother. They put me on drugs. I was so out of it for months. And then I realized that’s how my older sister coped all these years. She has no emotions left, they’ve been drugged out of her.”
Kate said, “I’m going to check this building. I have an idea. Stay put.” She got out and ran across the street.
“I’m really sorry about yesterday,” Ivy said. “Is that detective going to be okay?”
“Yes. She was shot in the arm, had surgery, gets released tomorrow morning. Genie’s a tough woman.” Lucy hesitated, then said, “The next few days are going to be difficult, but it’ll be worth it.”
“I just want Mina safe.” She looked at her watch. “Less than two minutes.” She implored, “Please let me go.”
“He wants you dead, Ivy. You understand that? He wants to kill you. There’s no reason for him to leave Mina alive. Or any of them. As soon as you show up, he’ll kill you. And then what will happen to your sister?”
“I’ve made arrangements.”
But she was worried, because she wouldn’t look Lucy in the eye.
“We’ve pieced together some things, which you can help confirm, but we don’t why Wendy was killed.”
“I don’t know either. Except—” She hesitated, then said, “I think it was because of me.”
“You? Why?”
“I’m the one who took the pictures of Wendy and that congressman.”
“You gave it to the press?”
“I sold it. I needed the money to rescue Sara.”
“Who did you sell it to?”
“I never knew his name.”
Even though Ivy looked her in the eye, Lucy knew she was lying. It was the calm certainty while highly agitated that gave Lucy the clue.
She was protecting someone. Why?
“That person could be responsible for all this.”
“He’s not. I would recognize him if I saw him, and he’s neither Dumb nor Dumber.”
Kate jumped back in the car. “I told Slater we have a valid entry point via the southwest corner, kitty-corner to the church. We can get to the roof without being seen. But we need floor plans.”
“I know the place,” Ivy said.
“You’re staying here.”
“They want me.”
Kate handed her a notepad and pencil. “Draw what you know.”
Ivy’s cell phone rang.
Kate said, “Tell him you’re almost here. Five minutes.”
“He won’t wait any longer!”
“Give him a location five or six blocks away. Indicate you’re on foot. Lucy, listen in.”
Ivy answered; Lucy put her ear to the phone and Ivy held it so they could both hear. “I’m on my way!”
“It’s been twelve minutes. By now, I should have killed two of the kids.”
“Don’t! I’m coming as fast as I can. I want to talk to Mina.”
Kate nodded her approval.
“I already let you talk to her.”
“How do I know you didn’t shoot her after you hung up?”
“You don’t. Start running. I’m giving you two more minutes. That’s it. Come through the chain gate; I left it propped open for you.”
He hung up.
Ivy screamed out her frustration.
Kate said over her headset, “Slater?”
“I heard. Get me some intel I can use. Do you think he’ll really start shooting? What do you know about this guy?”
Kate looked at Lucy, and Lucy said, “He’s smart, but impulsive. His entire mission—and he considers it a mission—is to kill Ivy. If she walks in, he’ll shoot her immediately. He doesn’t want to hear excuses or explanations. I don’t know if he’ll kill anyone else, but he’s capable. He will not hesitate. He’s already made the decision.”
Ivy tried to open the door, but it was locked. She hit the handle. “I don’t want anyone else to die because of me.”
“No one’s going to die,” Kate said, but Lucy saw concern in her rigid expression.
Slater and his SWAT team drove up. Slater gave them orders, and a pair went into the building Kate had identified as having visual of the church grounds.
He approached Kate’s car. “Armstrong’s ETA is four minutes,” he said.
“We don’t have time to wait,” Kate said.
Slater looked at Lucy. “We need to buy time.”
“How?”
Slater glanced at Lucy. “Kincaid, you and Ivy are roughly the same height and build. You don’t have to do this, but—”
“Yes,” she said before he finished.
“Luce—” Kate stopped. “Shit, shit, shit. Okay, you two go to the van and swap clothes. You’re wearing a vest, Lucy. Don’t argue. Hat, glasses, don’t go in. This is for show, to expose the shooter.”
“There’s no time,” Ivy said. “He’s calling again.”
Lucy grabbed the phone from Ivy as she started taking off her clothes, motioning for Ivy to do the same.
“I’m here,” she said, panting to mask the difference in their voices. “I’m coming. Around the corner. I ran. Whole way. Please, please. Let me talk to Mina.”
“Finally, some fear. It’s about fucking time, Poison Ivy. Mina, say hi to your girlfriend.”
“Ivy, don’t, he’ll kill—”
The suspect came back on the line. “But you already knew that, right?”
“I’m not coming in until Mina is safe.”
He laughed. “You’re in no position to negotiate. Tick, tock. I don’t see you.”
Slater helped Lucy with the bulletproof vest. It wouldn’t stop a headshot, and they both knew it. But unless the guy was a trained sniper, he would most likely go for the widest target, her chest.
“I want to see Mina before I come in.”
“She’ll come to the fence. That’s it. You come in, then we’ll talk. Ten. Nine. Eight.” He hung up.
Lucy pulled on a torn, greasy sweatshirt to hide the vest. The SWAT guys had been using it as a rag and it reeked of oil. She messed u
p her hair, then put it in a loose ponytail and grabbed a baseball cap that Slater had in the back. He hooked up her earpiece.
“Count to ten,” Slater said. “My men aren’t in place yet.”
“What’s the plan?” she said.
“First clear shot.”
Noah drove up as Lucy was finished. He ran over to Slater and Kate. “I told you not to put her in!”
“I outrank you, Armstrong,” Slater said. “There are children inside. We have two men on that roof,” he pointed, “and two more in position across the street.”
Lucy squeezed Noah’s hand. “I’m going to be fine.”
She crossed the street so she’d be opposite the church. It would buy her both time and cover since the east side of the street was shaded in the morning.
She looked all around the small church. She couldn’t see the snipers, but she didn’t expect to—they were good. She trusted Slater and the SWAT team.
No one was coming out of the church. Something looked off. The windows. They were clouded.
She ran across the street, but stayed as best she could behind a tree to avoid the line of fire.
Slater said in her earpiece, “We have full coverage once he steps out of the building, either entrance.”
She nodded, not wanting to talk.
The gate leading into the courtyard and play area had been propped open with a rake.
“Mina!” she called, then said quietly for Slater, “Something’s wrong.”
She stepped away from the tree and toward the gate. “Mina!”
“Get back,” Slater said in her earpiece.
“Dammit, you promised to let her go, you fucking bastard!” Lucy shouted. The heat of the morning plus her adrenaline had her sweating and red-faced, so she really did look like she had been running. She had listened to Ivy long enough to mimic her well.
Then she smelled smoke.
At the same time, Lucy had the overwhelming sensation of being watched. Ever since her attack seven years ago, she was acutely aware of eyes on her. It was mostly a curse, but times like this it was a gift.
“He’s on the street,” she whispered and turned to the right, the tree only half obscuring her.
A dark-haired man had a gun on her. “Hey, Poison Ivy—You really are stupid.” He frowned. “Who the fuck are you?“
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