What Burns Within

by Sandra Ruttan

  “Like what?”

  “Fussy. Always cleaning up and looking after stuff.”

  Maria shrugged. “We have a big family. Everyone has to help.”

  The latch clicked, and the door opened. He stood there, dressed in black, except for his white collar. Once he’d looked them over, he smiled.

  “It’s time.”

  He took Maria’s hand, leaving Taylor and Lindsay to follow them.

  When they got back to the main room that they’d stayed in, a large door on one wall had been opened, revealing an oversized fish tank, as far as Taylor could tell. She’d never really seen anything like it.

  Along the far wall, all the shutters had been pulled back, revealing windows and even one that was nothing more than a screen, the warm sunlight and gentle breeze filtering in through the sheer drapes.

  “I am the way,” he began.

  “You are the way,” they echoed.

  “I show the path to God.”

  “You have shown us the path….”

  Taylor peeked at Lindsay as they recited the words, the words he’d spent hours teaching them, hour after painful hour of sitting with their knees pressed against the hard concrete, learning the pledges, learning how he wanted them to respond….

  Lindsay stared blankly ahead now, her lips moving automatically, the words coming without resistance. Taylor had seen the wounds on her back when she’d washed, still scabbed and looking angry and sore. Lindsay had even winced as she pulled the dress over her head.

  “It is time,” he said.

  He reached for the bread and followed the ritual, and then they shared the wine.

  Once they were finished, they sang a short hymn and then he stood up, extending his hand to Maria, the girl he called Hannah, who took it.

  He led her to the tank and lifted her inside.

  “I will baptize you and cleanse you of your sins.”

  He pushed her backwards, under the water. Taylor waited for him to let her up.

  Maria started to squirm under the water.

  “Pray for her, girls. Her spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

  “He’s going to kill her,” Taylor whispered.

  Lindsay lunged forward, grabbing at his hands. For a moment, he let go of Maria, who pulled herself up, clutching the side of the tank as she gasped for air.

  “This is it?” Tain asked as he jumped out of his car.

  Ashlyn nodded. She pulled her gun out of the holster. “Apparently, he was part of some religious sect that had set up camp here. The rest of them left, but he stayed on.”

  “Okay. We believe he has four girls. He’s not afraid to kill them.” Tain finished relaying the orders. “Sims, you lead your team around back. Ashlyn, you’re with me.”

  Tain, Ashlyn and four other officers made it to the front door with little concern. All the windows on that side were boarded up, and there was no evidence of anyone. Once they got to the front entrance, it was another story.

  The lobby was wide and two hallways ran toward the back of the building, a large, wide staircase climbing up. Tain gestured to two officers, sending them to check the main floor.

  “Let’s go up,” he whispered to Ashlyn, nodding for the remaining officers to follow them.

  “Shouldn’t we wait for the all-clear?”

  “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  She nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

  They started up the stairs, each taking a side, tilting their heads back to try to see if anyone was observing them from above.

  Once they reached the second level, Tain quickly assessed that the access door was locked on their side. The main floor had been cleared, and he gestured to those men to try to open the second-floor door.

  They continued upward, toward the top floor. Ashlyn reached for the door and turned the handle all the way. As she pulled it open, they heard a scream.

  Tain and Ashlyn ran in the direction of an open doorway across a large, empty area from where they were. They could clearly see that nobody was in the main room, with most of the side doors closed. Ashlyn half turned, gesturing to the side doors, waiting until other officers went to check them.

  They reached the door as another scream ripped through the stillness. Tain peered around the doorway.

  “Oh, Christ,” he said, rushing in.

  Ashlyn was partway into the room before she could really see what was going on. A girl tied to a bed against a wall, crying silently because she was bound and gagged. Another girl was sitting on the floor, just staring. Her mouth was open with no sound coming out.

  The man, dressed like a priest, had been dragging another girl across the room to a tank, her hair being pulled in one hand, a whip secure in the other. She screamed again, and he pushed her into the water, raising his hands with the whip as though he was going to strike her.

  “Police! Stop. Don’t move,” Tain said.

  At that moment, another girl lunged upward, out of the tank, giving the man the distraction he needed. He grabbed her, spinning around, pulling her in front of him.

  “Get behind me, Satan.”

  “Let the girl go,” Tain said.

  “She is God’s.”

  “Not yours.”

  “I am the way to God.”

  “Let her go, and you can explain it to us.”

  The other girl jumped up then, grabbing him around the neck, pulling her scrawny arms tight. Ashlyn could see the murkiness of the water, blood coming from the wounds on the second girl’s back.

  “Taylor, go over there,” Ashlyn whispered to the girl on the floor. Taylor looked up at her and blinked.

  “Go.”

  Sims rushed forward then and grabbed Taylor, pulling her back.

  “Aaron, it’s time for us to end this,” Ashlyn said.

  He turned and looked at her. “Harlot. Whore. You have not been saved from your wickedness.”

  “Well, if you let the girls go, maybe you can help me with that.”

  “You’re beyond help. They have to die before sin takes hold, or they will be separated from God forever.” His eyes were bulging.

  The girl trying to choke him, who was too weak to have any real effect, bit his cheek and he screamed, letting go of the other girl as he turned and punched the one behind him. She fell back. For a moment Aaron was clear, but he was turning. Ashlyn fired, but he twisted enough for the bullet to strike his shoulder.

  His eyes blazed as he ran toward the window. The girl in the tank had slipped beneath the water, but Aaron was getting closer to the last girl, the one on the bed.

  “Whoever gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water will not lose his reward. See? This is my blood, poured out for you,” he said, holding a stained hand up for the girls to see, licking it. “He who loses his life shall find it.”

  “There’s no way out of this.” Tain grabbed the girl who’d fallen on the floor and pushed her behind him. Ashlyn could just see her still wriggling, trying to get back into the room as another officer pulled her from behind. Tain moved toward the tank slowly, and she nodded. He put his gun away and reached down to lift the body of the girl from the water.

  “If I cast myself from this height, He will summon a thousand angels to carry my body to the earth.”

  Ashlyn still had her gun trained on him. “Aaron, let’s talk about this. You need to—”

  He jumped through the screen, screaming as his body fell from view.

  “No. Christ,” Ashlyn swore, rushing to the window. “Call an ambulance.”

  “You mean call a coroner,” Sims said, stopping beside her. “Look at his neck.”

  “But the girls…” Ashlyn said, turned around. “Shit.”

  Tain was kneeling by the girl who’d been in the water, performing CPR.

  Craig was finding it hard to wait, not knowing what was going on, when the alarm sounded.

  Quinlan again jumped on the truck beside him. “It’s a medical call, not a fire.”

  “That’s
still good news. Ashlyn identified the suspect. Hopefully they arrested him.”

  Quinlan nodded. “Good. I assume it wasn’t one of my men?”

  “Your guys are all clean, as far as the arsons and abductions go.”

  “What about the rapes?”

  “We still aren’t sure about that.”

  As they pulled in, Craig saw Adrian’s face go white and then he looked at the vehicles already there, police cruisers, Tain’s car, Ashlyn’s….

  Quinlan put his hand on Craig’s arm, which was the only thing that kept Craig from racing forward. He drew a shaky breath as Quinlan called out the orders, leaving Craig nothing to do with the scene.

  The men Quinlan had ordered in disappeared into the building. Craig moved beside Adrian.

  “You’re a cop, aren’t you?”

  “That bad as a firefighter, huh?”

  “No. Just…with everything happening and Quinlan shielding you. You’re okay as a firefighter.”

  “Good. Because if you even think about telling anyone, I’ll have to arrest you.”

  Adrian looked at him. “How many have you got working the arson case?”

  Craig shook his head. “I’m working the rape case.”

  “You mean…Ashlyn, she’s bait? Man, maybe it’s just as well I thought you guys were an item. I don’t think I could take a girl who puts herself at risk like that.”

  The first group of men were returning now, a girl on a board, followed by another girl on a board, and then two girls walking down with firefighters, being led toward the paramedics who’d arrived.

  When the last group came down, Craig almost swore. Not dead, but not good either. He looked up from the ashen face to see Tain, Ashlyn with her arm around him, telling him something.

  She looked up and their gazes met.

  Then the forensics team arrived, and a group of them were sent around the building.

  “Where’s Aaron?” Adrian asked Ashlyn.

  Her mouth opened, but no words came out. She shook her head. One of the other officers came forward and asked for Ashlyn’s gun.

  Adrian’s eyes widened. “You shot him?”

  “I didn’t kill him.”

  “This is just a formality,” the officer told her. “No deadly force. All accounts say it was completely justified, that maybe you should have popped him in the head.”

  Ashlyn turned back to Adrian and Craig, but before she could say anything Quinlan grabbed Adrian by the shoulder and pulled him away, out of earshot.

  “What happened up there?” Craig asked.

  “Baptism of death.” Ashlyn turned around, her eyes resting on Tain, who was bent over the front of his car, his shoulders taut. “I’ve got to go talk to him. He really wanted this to end clean, you know?”

  “If you didn’t kill him—”

  “He jumped out the window. Broke his neck and splattered like an egg. I don’t figure him for our rapist, but we’ve got no way to know for sure now.”

  “Unless we catch someone else,” Craig said.

  “Well, you don’t have to worry about me. I won’t be home for hours.”

  WEDNESDAY

  “Craig. Wait up. There’s a call for you.”

  He set his bag down and went back to get the phone.

  “You just leaving?” Ashlyn’s voice. Still heavy, with exhaustion he guessed.

  “On my way home,” he told her.

  “I’m still at the station.”

  “Any idea when you’ll be done?”

  He heard her breathe out. “Not a clue. Likely won’t be long, but I might have to sit through another round of questioning.”

  Exhaustion and guilt. “If you guys need anything, call. I got some sleep last night. How’s Tain?”

  “He’ll be okay.”

  “Good.”

  Craig hung up and saw Quinlan walk over.

  “Good thing you have the next four days off.”

  “You thinking more guys are putting it together?”

  “Just maybe it’ll give you a chance to get this guy.”

  “I hope so. Hey, you know the place we get our pagers from? What’s the name of the guy who handles the account?”

  “Rob Kearns. Why?”

  Craig shrugged. “Just checking everyone connected.”

  Paul Quinlan stared at him for a moment. “Do they teach you how to lie, or does it just come naturally?”

  Craig smiled. “Not natural enough if you know I’m doing it.”

  Dennis Hawkins sighed as he slumped down on the bench across from her, the little diner humming with the morning rush. It was an out-of-the-way place, the kind of truck-stop diner that he never took Lori for even knowing existed. “What is it this time?” he asked her.

  “Can I order you something? The breakfast special?”

  “I can’t stay. What do you want?”

  She wrapped her hands around her mug of coffee, staring down at the table for a moment before she looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”

  “That’s a first.”

  “Really.”

  He swallowed, studying her face. He’d heard it all from her, believed everything, until he’d realized he’d never had a clue what she was really after from him. Dennis shrugged.

  “Then I trust there won’t be any problems.”

  He started to get up, but she reached across the table and put her hand on his.

  “I went back to Vish. Promised him I’d quit or take a desk job. It’s…it’s what he wants, you know. And it’s all I’ve got left, really.”

  He stared at her, willing her to say more, tip her hand if necessary, but not really sure what to say to that.

  “I always loved him. I loved you too. You probably don’t believe that I’m even capable of it,” she said with a thin smile. “But it’s true.”

  “Lori, I—”

  “No, just let me say it. I had to look at my priorities and my future.”

  “You mean I no longer had anything to offer you.”

  “I mean you said you didn’t want me anymore.”

  “It was never like that. Just not being threatened. I’m not going to abandon my wife and tear everything apart because you say you’re going to go public.”

  “I’m not going to do that.”

  “So I have nothing to worry about?”

  “No, not a thing.”

  “Then I hope things work out. I can see about a transfer you know.”

  She shook her head and waved her hand. “There’s only one thing I want. Just one last call.”

  He looked at her face. Some of her color was back, and the black circles under her eyes were fading. Her energy was bubbling again. Not boiling like it usually did, but starting to simmer.

  “I’ll let you know.”

  This time when he stood, she didn’t stop him. He turned and walked away.

  “What on earth can they still be talking about?” Tain muttered.

  Sims returned, passed him a bottled water and set one down in front of Ashlyn.

  “Deciding whether or not to suspend me, I’d guess,” she said.

  “You?” Tain shook his head. “Christ, Ashlyn, if you hadn’t done what you did, that girl would have been dead for sure.”

  “Any word on her condition?” Sims asked.

  Ashlyn held up two empty hands. “Not so far.”

  “Seems almost unfair, bringing Taylor Brennen out of that and subjecting her to the circus she’ll face in court now.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “John-John filed some sort of suit. I’ve been summoned as a witness,” Tain told Ashlyn, picking up an envelope from his desk and waving it in the air. “If there’s any justice at all for her, he won’t be her dad, or she’ll at least get to stay with Nick Brennen, where she belongs.”

  “You think he’d want her, if she wasn’t his?” Sims asked.

  “Taylor is Nicky’s sister. That counts for something,” Ashlyn murmured.

  “I’d want to keep her,”
Tain said.