“What is it boy?” he asked the dog. Ricky emitted a low growl, refusing to take his eyes off that spot. High above the three killers eased themselves down to the floor and crawled backwards away from the window. Dog and handler stared at the window some more, but nothing else moved. ”I don’t know boy, nothing’s happening now,” he said to the dog.
Ricky was resolute. He saw something. He smelled it. Someone was up there. The lead officer came over and talked with the handler. They decided to leave Ricky where he was ‘on guard’ and take Lucy to patrol the other side. Lucy walked to the door where the broken glass had been repaired and raised her nose to the repair. Her handler noted her interest, but again he saw nothing unusual, maybe it was a repair, but it looked old and the snow seemed uniformly choppy. He marked her interest in his notebook called Lucy off to find something else. She started a broader search of the grounds around the church, ending up on the opposite side of the church staring at the third floor turrets. “She’s focused on the same part of the church as he is,” her handler reported to the team leader. “There’s something up there.”
Kentucky team leader called Chester. “We’ve got to get into this church,” he said. “No question about it, something’s hinky over here.”
“You can’t just break into a church, especially without proof that the killers are in there. We’ll have the Vatican on our ass! Call the church, see if someone answers,” Chester said, “and I’ll call the West Virginia Diocese.” The team Leader dialed the phone number listed for the church. A recording came on. “You have reached Our Lady of the Angels” the message said, “No one is available right now to speak with you. Please leave a message at the sound of the beep and have a blessed day.” He left a message with his cell phone number and asked to be called right away. Chester called the local archdiocese and found out that Father Mitchell Wallington of Our Lady of the Angels had left for a 5 day vacation and was due back late tomorrow afternoon. The only other people with keys to the church were the church secretary, whose name and number he was given and the Woman’s Auxiliary Floral Committee who provided fresh flowers every week. No, the Bishop did not know their names or phone numbers and he did not know when the women brought in fresh flowers, but he would have his secretary look for that information and get back to the officer. He offered his prayers for the brave officers who were hunting these killers and said he would pray for their safety. Chester then called the number for the church secretary, but there was no answer.
Kentucky team leader called back. “No answer at the church. I don’t know what to think, Sir, it would be a good place to hide, but they could be anywhere. I hate to waste resources on this one location based on a dog. But Ricky is one of the best police dogs in the country. His handler tells me he’s never wrong about a thing like this. He says we should breach the door and search the premises.”
“Well we can’t break into a church because a dog is focused on a window,” Chester answered. “It could be anything up there, I just don’t know.”
“Sir, the dog handler is insistent. He says this dog knows his business and thinks we should breach the church and see what’s up there.”
“That’s all well and good,” Chester replied “but it’s my ass on the line with the Vatican. We need more proof before we breach. Search outside again find me something, a footprint, a weapon …something. Come up with anything hinky I’ll call the Bishop myself. If we have to we’ll go to court and get a warrant. In the meantime, keep trying to get that secretary, maybe she knows what’s up on that third floor.”
CHAPTER 44
VANTAGE POINT
The killers crouched down and listened hard. They were desperate to peek out the side of the blanket they’d strung up across the window, but were afraid that the dog would see them. “That’s one smart bastard,” Jake said referring to the dog, “I ought to just shoot him…”
Slim and Custer lurched forward with objections, “You can’t shoot the dog, for Christ’s sake, the cops are on our ass as it is.”
“I know, I know,” Jake mumbled, “I just want to, is all. I know I can’t do it.”
They crawled across the room and peeked out the window on the other side. They saw the other Shepherd patrolling the side of the building. For a moment, she stopped and looked up in their direction. She sensed they were there. She stood stark still, listening, sniffing and staring at the window. Her handler noted her interest and did nothing to distract her. It seemed to him this was probably the same room her team mate was focused on.
He picked up his hand set and called his team lead, “Lucy’s stopped on the other side of the building. Staring at a window on the third floor, could be the same room as on the other side of the church. I think there’s something up there. Both dogs are alerting to that area.” The Team leader thought about this for a while then called Chester, “How are we doing getting into this church? I’ve got both dogs alerting to the third floor of this church.”
“Let me call the Archbishop, again,” Chester said. The Team waited for him to call back. Ricky sat and watched the high window. Lucy sat on the other side and watched an identical window. There was silence and no movement.
From their position, the killers could see into the woods behind the church and could see police moving in the distance. “I think I faked them out,” Jake whispered, “I changed clothes and threw them off my scent.”
“That was real clever, Jake,” Custer said. He was terrified that they were going to be shot at any minute. Jake had led them into a trap. He was a crazy bastard, completely out of his mind. He didn’t care what happened to them; he only cared about what he wanted. Custer looked at Slim and thought how much things had changed since they left the cabin. That was their first dumb move. Since then, the old Slim was back. He was his old ruthless self. Back to being buddies with Jake, again. Shooting people! That depressed Custer. He thought when Slim was more on his side he had a chance to get away. Now that the old Slim was back, he was screwed. There was no way he could get out on his own and no way that this Slim was going to want to go with him. He shot Earl Raines with probably 30 cops a few feet away. Slim got off on stuff like this…the excitement, the thrill of the chase. Outsmarting the cops! Hell that’s what Slim lived for. He loved this shit.
When he peeped out the window and saw all those cops, Custer thought he should just run outside and give himself up. Surrender to the cops and stop all this craziness. Then he decided against it. Jake would shoot him in the back before he made it out the door. He looked over at Jake, hyped up like he was on drugs. Full of excitement! He was tense and scared, sure, but he loved this game of chase. It’s what he lived for, that and all the stuff about those girls. Those are the things that made Jake tick.
The three of them peered out the side window and saw the other dog staring up at the window. Jake cursed and snuck back across the room to see if the big police dog was gone. Jake crept up to the curtain and slid the edge away just slightly so that his right eye could peep through the slit. Ricky’s amber eyes met Jake’s blue one. The dog barked one single sharp bark and instantly his handler stared up at the window just in time to see the curtain move slightly. “I think they’re up there,” he shouted, “I saw something move.”
“We can’t break into a church, Man,” the other officer objected. “Besides, I didn’t see anything up there, maybe it was a breeze or something. These old buildings are full of drafts.” He pressed redial on his phone to see if the secretary had returned home. There was no answer.
“Chester,” he called, “how about sending a squad car over to this secretary’s house. We need to get into this damn church.”
“In a minute, Kentucky, we have an emerging situation,” Chester’s voice came back.
“We’ve got to hide,” Jake said urgently, “they’re going to break in here any minute.” Custer and Slim started looking around at the walls and paneling.
“Sometimes, these old buildings have secret passages in them,” Custer sa
id, “I saw it in a TV show.”
“Well, Smart Ass, find us a passage,” Jake jeered. He was scared now. He had hoped they’d be able to hang out here for days. Anxiously, the three of them started pressing and pushing on the walls in the priest’s room, the hallway and other third floor rooms. They jumped when they found a hidden doorway with a ladder up to the bell tower. Quickly, they grabbed their stuff and one after the other climbed up the ladder to the bell tower. The wind had picked up blowing snow off the trees. It swirled and howled as they emerged alongside the large church bell. They inched past it careful not to touch it. That would be all they’d need. Ding dong! Great way to hide!
They had no real idea what they were going to do now that they were on the roof, but as luck would have it, a huge oak tree spread its branches across the roof of the church and Jake thought if the police breached the building they would climb into the tree and get away. The howling wind and blowing snow added extra cover for them as they crept over to the edge of the roof, lay flat on their stomachs and peered at the police congregating on the church parking lot.
Police were waiting for orders to enter. Either Chester would say to break down the door or a squad car would arrive with the secretary and unlock the door. Either way, the team was going in to search this church. Time passed and nothing happened. Then the police radio buzzed and everyone rallied round. They had just gotten a call and that demanded immediate action. The killers watched in amazement as the police hurriedly closed down their working site, piled their dogs and equipment into their vehicles and sped away from Our Lady of the Angels, siren’s blaring.
CHAPTER 45
HOMEGROWN HEROES
She was nervous as a cat in a roomful of Rottweiler’s. Hands shaking, she sat at the computer issuing, and re-issuing, the pre-determined subject line signals. ‘Google Search’ meant there was breaking news and ‘Plan a Hawaiian vacation’ meant get out of town. She had to reach her. She was desperate. Gina was in trouble. Big trouble! The news was all over town. Her fingers flew over the library computer’s keyboard as Edna Goodwin alternated between subject line messages and pressed send. She and Gina had always kept in touch this way. They felt it was their only safe way of communicating with each other. She had to tell Gina what was happening. She needed to talk to her but a phone call was too risky. The best she could do was to communicate the urgency of the situation and get her to check the internet for information. The Raines family had been investigated, the killers had gotten to the farm, Earl Raines was dead, Hattie in the ICU, the FBI was at the courthouse slogging through thousands of old court records and Reggie/Gina’s cover was about to be blown. This was the worst scenario imaginable! Edna Goodwin knew Gina had to be warned.
Three years ago, she had traveled to Illinois and met with Gina in an out of the way restaurant. It took them weeks to set up the meeting, to find a suitable location and to hide their tracks so no one could follow them. The two of them spent hours talking over dinner and coffee. She learned about Gina’s work and her life. Gina Reynolds had become a remarkable young woman and she had developed a good life for herself. There had not been much in the way of a social life but Gina seemed to want it that way. She felt as long as Jake was alive he’d try to find her. Right or wrong, she firmly believed this, and she felt that people close to her would be in danger if he ever did find her, so she remained a bit aloof, cultivating few close friends. Gina’s isolation heightened Edna Goodwin’s feeling of responsibility. More than anyone, she had rescued her and she had to make sure she was alright.
Rhoda Eades sat across the room watching. They were in this together. Rhoda had been staring at the same newspaper page for nearly 20 minutes, watching for trouble. Neither of them knew if the killers were computer savvy or not. They didn’t know if the killers would know how to track them on the library computer. But they thought when word leaked out about the court records all their names would be public knowledge and they could be tracked down. The women believed that as long as the killers were running around the woods, they would not be fooling around with computers but TV was another thing entirely. They couldn’t be sure what the killers knew or who might be helping them. They worried about their own safety out in the open using a public library computer. They agreed to take turns on the computer issuing the different messages so that no one in the library would get suspicious. In the meantime, the one acting as ‘watcher’ would look for any odd activity among the people milling around. The ‘watcher’ examined everyone who entered the library. Edna had called Rhoda as soon as school was cancelled that morning. Although the FBI man on the TV announced that killers were loose in the community, he didn’t specify exactly what had happened. The rumor mill, however, was full of information. Her friends who worked in the courthouse and at the police department had called and filled her in. Yes, it was the Raines family. Yes, it was that nephew the family had raised. Yes, it was the killers of all those young blonde girls that they’ve been looking for all these weeks. Edna and Rhoda felt sick. Deeply invested in Reggie/Gina’s rescue, they had been the ones to house her, initiate the ‘emancipation’ process in the court and use the domestic violence underground network to rehouse her in out-of-state foster care. They cared about her and wanted to protect her. They also were just a bit worried about themselves. What if the killers found out who they were? What if the killers tracked them down to find out where Reggie was? They knew that if that happened they’d be killed, probably horribly. They also knew that they would eventually tell the killers what they wanted to know. They were realistic enough to know that.
So they typed emails and in the body of the emails they wrote ‘breaking news’. Usually, Gina responded to her emails immediately, within minutes, even if it was just ‘ok’ on the subject line. But, now there was no answer and they couldn’t understand that. Had Gina run already? Was she hurt? The killers were here in Hurricane so Gina should be safe yet they couldn’t understand why she was not answering. Email notifications went directly to her iPhone which issued an alert. Usually Gina saw it within minutes and responded in some way unless she was in surgery or something. Edna just couldn’t imagine what was going on. She was terrified for her; she still thought often about little Reggie Lee Raines and remembered her as she was that morning on her doorstep. Beaten, bloody and shaking in the frigid morning air, a lost waif with no one to help her. Mrs. Goodwin had known her from school, of course, but, not as well as she later came to know her. Reggie Lee was a good student, never any trouble, polite and kind to the other students. She often came to sit in her office and talk about college and what courses to take. Mrs. Goodwin always knew this girl had secrets, dark and horrible secrets. But, you couldn’t push a girl like Reggie. Mrs. Goodwin thought she’ll tell me when she gets ready. In the meantime I’ll just be here for her. She would welcome the girl warmly each time she came by and push whatever work was on her desk aside to talk with her. It was clear early in the process that the girl was not coming to talk about her schooling. She just needed someone kind to talk with - somewhere safe to be. Mrs. Goodwin was going to provide that for her.
It was easy to care about the girl. She was so sweet, polite and alone. Not to mention lovely. People were just drawn to her. She emanated an energy that was hard to resist. Although she and Rhoda had helped dozens of young girls who were in trouble and needed to use the Woman’s Shelter network to escape their situations, Reggie Lee had captured their hearts. And look at the success she had become. It was a miracle, really. She had been neglected and abused, and yet she was kind and generous and had been able to use her brilliant mind to achieve academically and professionally. She had done beautifully with her foster family, gone to college and even became a doctor, a specialist, a wonderful, famous one. She had accomplished so much it was just amazing. Of all the doctors in the world, she was one of a few assigned to help those poor twins in Chicago. What kind of injustice would it be if her dedication to sick babies led to her discovery and death? That was exactly what th
ey thought could happen. Her success would be her undoing.
In Hurricane, the situation was spinning out of control. The police for sure now knew her identity and knew who the killers were pursuing. They would be seeking her too to protect her or set up a trap for the killers. Edna was terrified that the police would inadvertently lead the killers to her doorstep. And all this news coverage, about the conjoined twins, the media was sure to get wind of it. That was only a matter of time before chaos reigned, Edna thought. She and Rhoda had just switched places. She was wandering up and down the American History Aisle when she noticed a tall man with hunched shoulders who kept glancing at Rhoda. He would look at her and look down at his hands. He seemed puzzled. He then started walking up and down the aisles. He’d pick up a book here and there and look at it, but none of the books held his interest. They were props. He was looking for someone. Through her years as school counselor Edna had developed good people sense and she had a sense about this man. She ‘knew’ he was looking for her. The man didn’t make sense... he was out of place and odd. He wore an old brown hat and had a green plaid scarf around his neck. He kept one hand in his pocket; the other hand held against his chest clutched something he kept peering at from behind his wire rimmed glasses. His eyes wandered between his hand and the computer terminal where Rhoda sat. She could see he was puzzled. Edna didn’t know the man, but she knew he was watching Rhoda and she was not who he expected to see. He was expecting to see her, a grey-haired white woman not a large black one. Keeping her back to him and her head down, she studied his reflection in the library windows. Who he was, she could not imagine. He was not one of the killers posted on TV. He was not the police. Who he was, was a mystery to her. Maybe he was a contract killer. Yes, that must be it. A contract killer had come to the library to kill them.
Relentless (Elisabeth Reinhardt Book 1) Page 26