by Susan Bohnet
He held Beth’s hand as she whispered his name. A nurse came in and said, “We need to prep her for surgery now and there are a couple of policemen who would like a word with you.
Chapter Thirty-five
Kai left the emergency room. Two policemen were waiting for him outside. He wouldn’t have to go to them. Coming in with gunshot wounds brought them to you, apparently.
The policemen said nothing as Kai followed them. One, a Native American of middle years, who introduced himself as Sergeant Bitternose, looked at him with disdain. He obviously thought Kai was a suspect. The younger one, ginger-haired, named Officer Harlin, nodded, however, as though he understood. That’s what came with youth, thought Kai. He still had a degree of faith in the human race that hadn’t become completely jaded. Kai wondered if he liked officer number one or officer number two better.
“Mind if I get a sandwich,” asked Kai as they passed a refrigerated machine near the exit.
“Go ahead,” said Bitternose.
After making his purchase, they approached the exit and the doors slid open. The officers were on either side of him. Kai got in the backseat of the police cruiser. “Why do I feel like you’re going to read me my rights?” Kai said when the officers were settled in the front.
“Do you want a lawyer?” asked Bitternose.
“No. Of course not. I want to report a crime.”
Without another word, they drove the fifteen minutes to the station. It was a clean, efficient-looking building that somehow exuded filth and fear. The officers led him to a room with a rectangular table and four chairs. “Have a seat,” instructed Bitternose. Kai did.
The officers sat across from him. Officer Harlin had a clipboard with papers and a pen held at the ready. Kai saw him give the other officer a questioning glance. “Would you please tell us everything you can about what happened,” Officer Harlin said.
Kai related the story of stumbling across the ‘camp’ while by himself, seeing Ronan and one of his men treat a couple of children harshly and throw them into a car in town, he and Beth spying on the camp, seeing the red-haired girl try to escape and being chased down, his suspicions of drugs.
He thought of the girl who was taken away by the sausage-fingered man and he added that incident to his report as well. It made Kai feel sick inside.
Then he told how Ronan had spotted them and, with guns firing, had come after them. When he told how a bullet had hit Beth, his voice caught. Even though he knew she was going to be fine, that moment seeing her buckle to the ground, hearing her scream, had torn at him like a knife across his heart.
The officers asked for clarification and details, especially about the location of the camp. Finally, they said, “Let’s have a look at your truck. We’ll have to get those bullets, too.”
When they got back to the hospital, Kai left the police to examine his truck and went to check on Beth. Surely, she was out of surgery by now. He was only halfway down the hall, following the directions of one of the nurses at the station, when a loud bang rang out from one of the rooms ahead of him. Kai ran, suddenly afraid it was coming from Beth’s room. He read the numbers on the doors as he passed: 348, 350, 352… Just as he came up to Beth’s room, number 354, he was almost run over by two men dressed in black who bolted from the room.
It was Ronan and one of his men. There was a split second where Kai had to decide: run after the men or check on Beth. Beth won. When he entered the room he saw that she was crying hysterically, a bloody steak knife in her hand.
“Kai! Oh, Kai!” she wailed. Her left arm was bandaged and held against her chest. Her right hand trembled and she dropped the knife.
He came to her and she threw her good arm around his neck. “Oh, Kai, he tried to kill me.” She was shaking all over.
Two nurses Kai had passed in the hall entered the room.
“I’m so sorry, Beth. I never should have taken you to that camp. It was dangerous and I knew it. Can you ever forgive me?”
Kai didn’t think she heard a word he said, she kept crying and whispering, “He tried to kill me.”
“Where did you get the knife?” asked one of the nurses, looking at the discarded weapon as it lay on the floor.
At mention of the knife, the shivering became more intense. “The girl who was going home,” she managed to stammer, pointing at the bed that was now empty beside her. “It was on her dinner tray when I got here.” Beth lay back on her pillow and took a deep breath. “I’d been shot, I felt so helpless. I grabbed the knife and hid it under the pillow.”
The two police officers appeared. The examination of Kai’s truck was either complete or they’d gotten wind of the recent attack. “We’d like to talk to you a moment … alone,” Sergeant Bitternose said to Beth.
“They’re getting away!” said Kai.
“They’re gone,” corrected Harlin.
“Please, let Kai stay,” said Beth. “I won’t speak to you without him here.”
Harlin looked at Bitternose. Bitternose nodded. The two nurses left the room. “Tell us what happened.”
“It was Ronan and that big guy who slapped the girl. We saw them at a camp kind-of-place.” She looked to Kai.
“I’ve told them about it,” said Kai.
“They came in the room and I rang the nurses’ station like crazy. Then…” she shuddered. “Ronan ran at me and I jabbed the knife up. It hit him in the cheek, sliced it open. I tried to jab again, but he’d backed up and I missed. The big guy came at me with crazy eyes, but Ronan must have heard the footsteps in the hall. He said, ‘Let’s get out of here.’ They bolted away.”
Kai took Beth’s hand, small and trembling and spotted with Ronan’s blood.
Chapter Thirty-six
Kai sat in the back of the police cruiser, his arm around Beth and his hand holding hers. They were driving down the gravel road on the way to the children’s camp, and Kai winced every time they hit a bump. Beth had to be in agony, every jolt sending spirals of pain through her shoulder. But she wouldn’t admit it. She sat beside him, tight lipped, eyes on the road ahead of her. There were circles under her eyes and sweat beaded on her forehead. Kai kissed the top of her head. She was in pain and the pills they had given her at the hospital didn’t seem to be easing it any.
Beth had argued until her tears ran when Kai and the police decided they would leave her and drive out to the camp to try to stop Ronan from clearing out the evidence. They were only minutes behind him, but it might already be too late. She was almost hysterical when they talked about leaving her in the hospital and she had flatly refused to stay. She swore she would leave anyway and follow them in her own car. Afraid to leave her in this state, Kai had argued for her to come. At least this time they were heading out there with several police officers who had guns of their own.
Now, after almost an hour of driving along deeply rutted gravel roads and watching Beth grow more and more pale, Kai wondered if he had made the right decision. They could have taken her to the police station and left her there, protected by half the police force. The other half, he mused, were following the car he was in down the dusty gravel road to an abandoned summer camp filled with abused children and who knew what kind of drugs.
Where had a man like Ronan got the children, though? How did he convince parents to allow him to take their children to some camp out in the middle of nowhere? There was evil emanating from his very countenance. Underprivileged didn’t mean stupid, and Kai was sure that even negligent parents would question the motives of a man like that.
Beth shifted next to him and he glanced down with a worried frown.
“How are you doing? Is the pain really bad? Can you hold on for just a few more minutes? We are almost there,” he whispered. He saw Officer Harlin look back over his shoulder to check on them, and he knew the police officer was worried about her, too. Bitternose didn’t want to bring her. But Harlin,
Kai was sure, could see her panic at the thought of being left at the hospital again and had compassion and advocated for her right to come.
“It’s not far now,” Kai said to the officers. “Just over this rise and around the corner. I’ve not actually driven all the way in to the camp, but I know if you follow this road it leads straight in.”
When they rounded the corner and drove into the clearing, Kai breathed a sigh of relief. At least the bouncing would stop and Beth would have a break from the pain. They drove under the sign and into the yard of the camp. There were still cars parked in front of the buildings and it hit Kai that this was not going to go down well. He was suddenly glad that there were several more police cars coming down the road behind them. The camp looked unnaturally still, like the calm before a storm.
Bitternose slowed the car as they approached the main building, driving a little to the right to allow the other cruisers to come in and fill up the exit routes. Except for the cars, the place looked empty. There wasn’t any smoke coming from the drug-making cabin. And despite the growing darkness, there weren’t any lights on in any of the cabins, either.
It was well past suppertime, but at this time of year the sun did not set until after nine p.m. Kai looked at his watch. It was 9:30. The kids would be in their beds by now and were probably wondering why all the vehicles were driving into the yard. It made sense that Ronan might clean out the drug cabin in an attempt to hide the fact that he was not only dealing in the drugs, but creating them as well. But how could he take the children away and still have all the cars here?
And the next thought was one that sent chills down his spine. Were the children okay?
Bitternose turned and glanced once at Beth, then met Kai’s hard gaze with a steely one of his own. “She needs to stay here and stay low. We know these guys have guns and we can’t take the chance she will be hit again.” Now he looked at Beth with a meaningful glare. “This time, the bullet might hit something more vital than your shoulder bone. I don’t want that on my conscience. Understand?”
Beth grew even paler and nodded. Kai could tell she wasn’t anxious to move any more than she had to and he suspected that her biggest objection to being left at the hospital had been the fear that Ronan or one of his cronies would return to finish what they had started. Now that police surrounded her, she seemed to feel that staying in the car was a good idea.
“You, too,” said Bitternose, looking at Kai. “You’re a civilian.”
Kai ignored his request and moved with the officers as they opened the doors of their cars and slid out, keeping the doors open and using them as shields. Bitternose pulled out a bullhorn and aimed it at the main building.
“Come out of the buildings now. We have you surrounded and there is no escape. Come out with your hands up and lay your weapons on the ground. This is the police.”
Kai thought he heard a muffled sob come from inside the main building and he turned.
The front door opened slowly and Ronan stepped out onto the veranda. He held a small boy who looked about eight years old in front of him and he waved a gun at the boy’s head. Kai heard Bitternose curse and spit on the ground.
“That’s Richard Lander. We’ve been after him for months now.”
“What is he wanted for? Drug trafficking?” Kai asked.
Bitternose didn’t comment on Kai’s presence outside the vehicle. Instead he said, “Drug trafficking is the smallest of his crimes. He’s murdered several people that we know of and probably a few more we don’t. He deals in making and selling drugs. But he’s also been known to engage in human trafficking.”
“Human trafficking.” Kai hissed. He felt the anger rising in his breast again and fought to hold onto it. Heat seemed to move up from the soles of his feet and into his torso. That’s what they had witnessed — a client picking up his purchase.
“He sells children to be used as sex slaves … or worse. Some of them survive into adulthood, but most don’t. Many were stolen from foreign places and smuggled into this country. Sometimes they were born here, but have disappeared and are presumed dead.” Bitternose glanced at Kai. “You managed to stumble into a deep pit of viciousness and brutality, young man. You are truly lucky you got out alive.”
“That girl we saw taken by the fat man…”
“We’ll find her,” vowed Bitternose.
Kai turned his gaze to the man on the porch. Ronan was standing there, brandishing his gun. Most of the police were standing behind open car doors, waiting to see what their commanding officer was going to do.
There were tears on the small boy’s face, bruises on his arms and legs, kneecaps protruding from his too-thin body. This child had already suffered more than any child should have to suffer. And now he stood in the arms of a madman who would kill him without a thought if it would save his own skin.
The child didn’t have to suffer anymore. Ronan was a truly evil man without a shred of decency. He was one of those humans the rebels were talking about.
“If I had a gun, and the strength to shoot it, I would kill him now.”
Kai turned. It was Beth. She had climbed out of the car and stood behind him, one hand in a sling and the other twisting the hem of her shirt. “He deserves to die.” She looked at Kai with eyes that shone with tears. Anguish marred her face. He turned and looked back at Ronan, seeing the monster who would sell another human being into a life of hell just so he could make some money. Seeing the drug dealer. The murderer.
“Do you really mean that?” he asked, turning to look into Beth’s eyes.
She clenched her teeth, her eyes never leaving Ronan. “Yes, I do!”
Chapter Thirty-seven
If there was ever a man who deserved to die, Ronan fit the bill. A small girl stuck her head out the door behind him. She was clutching the front of her shirt, terrified for the boy with the gun now pressed to his temple. She disappeared. Someone had pulled her back inside. The muffled sound of a slap was an added dose of anger to Kai’s already boiling pot. He looked back at Beth. His emotions were reflected in her eyes. Beth would do it. Ronan yelled, “Clear out, or this is the first kid you’ll kill tonight.”
Kai felt the anger burn deep in his chest. He didn’t try to stop it. He let it come. Let it rise and engulf him. Ronan stood on the veranda, his gaze now locked with Kai’s. Ronan smiled. Kai felt for the man’s mind, willing him to stop…insisting he stop. The scene shifted, a slight alteration in dimensions, and then returned to normal. And then he saw Ronan drop to the floor of the porch like a sack of potatoes as the sharp stab of pain ran along Kai’s spine and the world darkened as he fell to the ground himself. He heard Beth call out … and then heard nothing more.
——<>——
When consciousness returned, it was Beth’s face he saw sharpen in focus from hazy to stunningly beautiful. “Beth,” he said. She hugged him.
He was lying on the ground. He turned his head toward the cabins. An army of police officers were ushering men and women with their hands cuffed behind their backs to police cars. “What happened when I blacked out?”
“Ronan fell, just dropped like he suddenly didn’t have bones anymore. The police thought it might be a trick so no one moved for a long time. Then the boy he’d been holding bolted toward us and everything started happening at once. A couple more children ran out. Officer Harlin approached Ronan. He’s dead, Kai.”
Kai moved to a sitting position. Dead. Kai had never been more pleased with himself. Beth continued, “Bitternose called the adults out of the cabin and after a minute they came out with their hands up. I guess they knew they didn’t have much hope of escape, especially if the police could drop Ronan in his tracks. Except nobody did anything. No dart, no shot of any kind, he just died.”
“And that fixed everything…” said Kai.
Beth placed her cool hand on the side of his face. “What happened to you? Why did yo
u faint?”
Kai shook his head. “I’m fine, now. In fact, Beth, I’ve never felt better. Ronan is dead! All those children are free.”
A female police officer exited the cabin with one more child clinging to her hand. It was the red-haired girl they hadn’t been able to find. Beth gasped. “There she is.”
The girl had a black eye the color of purple grapes and was missing a chunk of hair on the right side of her head. The officer said to Bitternose, “They had her locked in a room by herself. She says she tried to run away.”
“He deserved to die,” whispered Kai. Euphoria radiated through him.
“The first car is leaving,” said Bitternose, turning to Kai and Beth. “You can ride with them. And get something to eat,” he added, nodding at Kai. He obviously thought Kai’s fainting spell was related to hunger.
There was a woman already in the back seat of the cruiser. Kai slid in beside her and Beth followed. The woman chattered the entire trip back to town. She had been sold in prostitution for years and now took care of the children instead. She didn’t want to help Ronan, but what else could she do? She was forced. She spoke of her family in Croatia, her brother who was missing a year before she was taken and on and on. Kai could see she was as much a victim as the children.
Finally back at the hospital, Kai and Beth got in his truck. He put it in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. “Do you want a burger?” He wasn’t hungry but knew that Beth probably was and he should pretend to be mending his faint-with-hunger body.
“Okay,” she said.
A couple of minutes later he pulled off the main road toward an A&W. His mind had been swirling frantically from thought to thought during the chatter-filled drive from the camp and now the silent trip with Beth, alone. There were things he needed to do. “This okay?” he asked.