by Jonas Saul
One by one, she descended the stairs with her crutch carefully.
“Who’s there?” a female voice asked from the depths of the basement.
“Janice?” Sarah said. “I’m a friend.”
She had considered sending Aaron in to the house for this part, but realized it might spook Janice into thinking he was one of the aggressors.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Sarah Roberts. I’m here to take you to see your husband.”
Sarah got to the bottom stair, the sun offering enough light through the small basement windows for her to have a partial view of the freezer Detective Hirst said he had placed under Janice.
Sarah moved inside the basement a little farther. Janice’s hands were still tied above her head, pale in the small amount of light that reached them. Her face was spotted with blood and bruises that contrasted with a blanched look, matching the freezer’s complexion.
With the knife hidden behind her leg, Sarah said, “Janice, I’m here to help you leave this place. How are you feeling?”
Janice’s eyes made furtive gestures over Sarah’s shoulders as if she was looking for someone else in the room.
“I’m alone, Janice. Your husband sent me.” Sarah stopped a couple of feet in front of Janice. “I’m going to untie you now and together we’ll leave. I will take you to your husband.”
Janice shook her head fast, two quick shakes, like she was in a hurry to deny Sarah’s wish.
Tingling accompanied the hair rising on the back of Sarah’s neck as she felt someone step up close behind her. She had been sure Father Adams would have someone watching Janice for just such an eventuality.
Sarah waited an extra breath, gripped the crutch tight in her left hand, then dropped to her knees and swung it behind her.
The man anticipated her move and jumped over the crutch like he was skipping rope. When he touched the floor of the basement, his hands landed on Sarah’s shoulders. He clutched her shirt, lifted up and then thrust down. She hit the floor, not expecting the blow, and winced as her wounds ignited in pain. She curled into a ball, clenched at the agony in her ribcage, while trying to see the face of the man who had crept up behind her.
He was a young-looking boy, maybe twenty-years old. With a devilish grin on his face, a cell phone in his hand, he dialed out.
Sarah remained still for a few moments to think. Aaron was outside. When she didn’t come out with Janice, he would come in to investigate. The kitchen door at the back of the house was still unlocked.
“Yes, Father, I know you’re busy. But something has come up.”
He paused to listen.
Sarah hadn’t let go of the knife. An experienced fighter would’ve frisked her by now, relieving her of all weapons.
In an attempt to move closer to the boy, Sarah groaned and cried out, wincing as she moved. Now one of his polished black shoes was touching her right hip bone.
“Are you safe to talk now?” the boy said into the phone. After a pause, he said, “A girl named Sarah has just showed up to free that detective’s wife.” He waited. “Because she told the wife her name, that’s how I know it.” A longer pause this time. “Are you sure, Father? I will, as long as it’s not committing a sin, Father. Yes, I understand, the Bible does talk about that. Yes, Father.”
Sarah twisted toward his leg, bringing the kitchen knife around in a wide arc. The sharp blade connected with the side of his shin, slicing into his pants, then cutting through flesh.
He shouted and stepped away from her like he’d been stung by a bee. She swung again, and again, until she had sliced his pants four times. He lost his balance and fell straight back to the floor as if he was going to sit in a chair.
As Janice egged her on, Sarah got to her hands and knees and then lunged onto the boy, the knife out front. She landed halfway up his body, the blade firmly pressed against his throat.
“Stop squirming,” she shouted. “Do you have a death wish?”
The boy stilled under her.
“Who are you?” Sarah asked.
The boy’s eyes watered and his face reddened, but he didn’t say anything. He just stared at her like she was evil incarnate.
“I don’t have time for this. I’m going to get up now and untie that woman. Then we’re leaving. The question is, what to do with you?”
He muttered something.
“Speak louder.”
He uttered one word. “Alive.”
Sarah eased back, pulling the knife along with her. As she did, she felt along his body with her free hand for hidden weapons.
Janice whimpered on the freezer behind them. Why hadn’t she warned Sarah about the boy? Maybe he was the one who had tortured her and if Sarah was unsuccessful, she didn’t want to go through that again. It would make sense that Janice saw Sarah as a less than capable female with her broken foot and crutch.
Sarah got to her knees, retrieved the crutch, and stood up.
“Go on, get out of here,” she said as she smacked him with her crutch. “Get up.”
The boy scrambled away on his elbows, pushing with his feet. He got up and disappeared in the shadows of the basement, leaving a small pool of blood.
Letting him go probably wasn’t a good idea.
But time was elusive. She had to get to the church.
She hobbled over to Janice, applied the knife to the rope binding her hands, and sliced back and forth.
“He had a … gun,” Janice whispered.
That sent a chill down Sarah’s spine. When she turned around, they were still alone. She pulled her cell phone out to text Aaron. At the second she pushed the button to send the text, the sound of his phone receiving the text chimed from somewhere in the basement.
Aaron wasn’t waiting in the van outside anymore. He was here.
Sarah moved to the other side of the freezer and continued slicing through the rope.
“Stay low,” Sarah whispered. “Once your hands are free, move to my side and get down behind the freezer.”
Janice nodded frantically.
Sarah sliced. A shoe scuffed the floor behind her. She ducked low and glanced over her shoulder. The boy had returned, a gun in his hand, raised and pointed at Sarah.
He strode across the floor to her. “You’re an abomination,” he shouted. “You defy our Lord and aid in the Devil’s bidding.” He was nearly screaming now.
Sarah sliced the ropes faster.
“And you will go to Hell where you came from as our Lord God is my witness.”
He stopped two feet from her, his finger twitching inside the trigger guard.
“I can’t go to Hell because it’s closed at the moment,” Sarah said. “All the little devils are here, on Earth.” She studied his finger, waiting for it to twitch, the biggest struggle going on inside the boy’s religious-tainted mind. Would he kill another, something he was so staunchly against? How far had Father Adams brainwashed him? How far would an altar boy, if that’s what he was, go for his master, his Father?
“Are you sure you should be out in public without your horns?” she asked.
She studied his trigger finger for movement while getting the blade ready to swing at the arm holding the gun.
Aaron eased out of the shadows four feet away. Like a club, Aaron swung his arm downward across the top of the boy’s elbows. Instantly, the boy’s arms retracted and the gun’s aim went skyward. Aaron kicked at the back of the boy’s knees. He folded and dropped to the ground. Then Aaron landed on him and locked his arms up while wrapping his legs around the boy’s abdomen. In a matter of seconds, the boy was immobilized with no room to struggle.
Aaron met Sarah’s eyes. “Carry on,” he said.
Sarah turned back to Janice and attacked the ropes with the knife. Finally, the thick rope gave way and Janice’s hands were liberated. She dropped to the top of the freezer with a hard thud, then rolled to her side.
Sarah helped her up. “Can you walk on your own?” Sarah asked.
�
��What about this?” Janice pointed to her neck where the explosive device was affixed.
“Oh that’s not a worry. The remote Father Adams showed your husband was a TV remote. It’s an elaborate replica. This only looks like a bomb.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Someone very reliable told me. Let me have a look at that.”
Sarah stepped in close and examined the black plastic collar. When she found the clasp, she clicked it and opened the lock. Then she pulled it safely from Janice’s neck.
“See, no big deal.”
“Whoa, that was scary.” Janice held a hand to her rapidly moving chest.
“Agreed. Scary,” Aaron said from the floor.
“You done down there?” Sarah asked. “We have a church to get to.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Aaron released his legs and let the boy’s arms go. Then he grabbed the longest length of rope and secured the boy’s wrists to a support beam. Once that was done, he jumped in the air and came down hard on the boy’s right shin. The bone cracked.
The boy screamed a high-pitched wail.
Janice cringed. “Why did you do that?” she asked loud enough to be heard over the boy.
Aaron turned to her. “No one pulls a gun on Sarah without consequences. He had intended to shoot her. I broke his leg and tied him up because he needs to still be here when the police arrive.”
The boy cried out, his head back as he screamed in pain.
Aaron looked down at the boy on the floor. “The police will be here soon. An ambulance will take you to the hospital and they’ll give you painkillers. Either before or after that, you’ll be arrested for what you did here.” He turned to the two women. “Let’s go.”
Sarah held out her hand. “Get his cell phone and his gun. I’ll need both.”
Aaron did as he was told and then helped Janice upstairs to get dressed and then out to the van. Once Sarah was in the passenger seat, he pulled away from the curb.
Sarah checked the boy’s gun. It was fully loaded.
Then she called the police and told them what they would find in Detective Hirst’s basement.
After hanging up with them, she checked the boy’s phone to see what number the boy had called when he talked to Father Adams. The caller ID said Cane Father.
The traffic bunched up as they headed deeper into Los Angeles.
“Get us there as soon as you can, Aaron. Something terrible will happen if we’re not there in less than half an hour.”
Chapter 35
Sarah grabbed Aaron’s cell phone and called Hirst. It rang once.
“Hirst here.”
“It’s Sarah. We got Janice. The collar’s off.”
“Oh, thank goodness.” He breathed in deep over the line and exhaled. “Can you put her on?”
“Yes, but we need to talk after. Keep it short.”
She handed the phone back to Janice.
“How much farther, Aaron?”
“Not much now. Five, maybe ten minutes.”
“Okay, thanks baby.” She touched the side of his face. “Did I tell you I’m happy you’re here?”
“Not yet, Sarah.” He shook his head back and forth. “Nope.”
“Okay, then I’ll wait. Wouldn’t want to make you feel that I’ve taken you for granted.”
“Can’t say that’ll ever happen.”
She pulled on his ear lobe gently, then turned back to Janice. “I need to talk to your husband.”
Janice said goodbye and passed the phone forward to Sarah.
“Hirst?”
“Yeah?”
“While we deal with this church thing today, can you get someone to research Father Adams and his brother. I need to know where they were born, how they came to be in L.A., what investments they might have, do they have any other family locally, what bank accounts, etc. Anything you can find on these guys.”
“Why’s that? Where’s this coming from?”
“I’m starting to have the feeling that this isn’t religious based.”
“What are you talking about? Is this coming from Vivian?”
She ignored the question. “Just learn as much as you can about their family’s financial situation. Can you do that?”
“I’ll set it up—”
The boy’s cell phone in Sarah’s lap began to ring. Call display said, Cane Father.
“Listen Hirst, I gotta go. Just do it and I’ll see you at the church in five minutes or less.”
She hung up on him and set Aaron’s phone aside.
The boy’s phone rang for the third time. She snuck a glance at Aaron. He nodded for her to pick it up.
She hit the answer button and said, “Hmm,” deep enough to sound male.
“Is it done? Have you offered that Sarah woman her atonement?”
“And I thought you liked me,” Sarah said in her high-school voice.
Father Adams’ church came into view straight ahead. Suddenly an image of the entire church on fire smacked into her consciousness. She withdrew into her seat, her head resting against the back, while she waited for Father Adams to speak again.
“Sarah Roberts. What have you done with my Ralph?”
“He’s tied up at the moment. And in quite a bit of pain.”
“Naughty, naughty, Sarah.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“What possessed you to come to L.A. and attempt to ruin my plans? Oh I know, the devil possessed you.”
“Yeah right, and you’re about as religious as the sewer rat running around in the depths of your skull.”
“Offering your own sermons now, are you?”
Aaron pulled over and double parked the van. He killed the engine and jumped out.
“Only preaching to the preacher because I’m the one who gets to send you home. I’m the lucky one who gets to set up your meeting with God. He will decide your fate. But you, your time on this planet is over.”
“I see it differently.”
“Fire?” Sarah said.
She barely caught the audible intake of air on the other end of the line.
“Gotta go, asshole,” Sarah said. “Got a madman to kill. See you soon.”
She clicked off and dropped the phone in her pocket. Aaron opened her door. He handed her the crutch, helped her out, and shut the door behind her.
The three of them walked along the busy sidewalk. Up ahead, the police had cordoned off an area circling the church as the funeral attendance was going to be huge. A massive amount of people, probably more than they anticipated, constantly showed up to pay their respects to the late Father Adams.
At the yellow-tape line, an officer advanced on them, waving them back.
“We’re here with Detective Hirst. Call him. He’ll verify us. This is Janice Hirst, his wife.”
The cop pulled out a cell phone, spoke briefly, then nodded at them.
“Come this way.”
He pulled aside the barrier, let them in, and pushed it back in place.
They were escorted to the middle of the road where a line of police cars were parked behind the hearse at the front of the church.
Parkman and Hirst came running over.
“Thank you, Officer,” Hirst said, waving the man off.
Hirst grabbed Janice and hugged her.
“I thought I lost you,” he said.
Parkman grabbed Aaron’s shoulder. “No trouble?”
“Not really. One of Adams’ boys tried to stop us. He’s tied up in the basement waiting for the police to come and arrest him.”
Sarah studied the front of the massive church with its two spires rising into the sky on either side. The gray stones that made up the facade, the aged wood along the sides. The grass out front was manicured, and the magnificent stained glass offered the building a character of its own. The bell tower was the tallest point. From the front of the church, Sarah could see the large bells and wondered how the hell they got those heavy beasts that high up in an age before m
odern cranes and helicopters.