by Dana Mentink
Mack called out from the spot where the tree had fallen.
“I’m going to help clear the road,” Dallas said.
“I’ll help, too,” Mia insisted.
He started to protest and then sighed. “It won’t do any good to tell you to wait in the truck, will it?”
“Not one bit,” she replied, walking straight to Mack and the truck driver. “Thank you for helping us out of that mess. We’re ready to pitch in and clear the road.”
Mack chuckled. “And I had you pegged for a city girl.”
Mia shot him a sassy smile. “A city girl who’s ready to get home to her daughter. Are you going to fire up that chain saw or am I?”
Mack and Dallas exchanged amused looks. In a matter of thirty minutes, Mack sliced off enough of the fallen tree to allow vehicles to squeeze by. Mia, Dallas and the truck driver hauled the branches out of the way while Susan continued to try to get a cell phone signal.
After a shaking of hands all around, Mack and the driver loaded up in his vehicle and the others in Dallas’s truck. Mia could not hold back a sigh as she slid onto the passenger seat and Dallas got behind the wheel. The old, cracked vinyl felt like a cloud of comfort compared to the scraping she’d enduring traversing down the cliffside and back up again. It was sheer bliss to be out of the hammering rain. The mud clinging to her skin coated her with an earthy funk.
What she wouldn’t give for her favorite lavender lemon bath scrub that Gracie said smelled like candy. She sat up, a current of memory stinging everything inside.
“What?” Dallas said. “Are you hurt?”
“I just thought of something.” Mia turned to Susan in the backseat. “You followed Catherine to Peter’s house. How long was she there?”
Susan considered. “Only a few minutes. She pounded on the door, but he didn’t answer at first. Finally he opened up, they exchanged a few words, and Peter grabbed the photo out of her hand and slammed the door closed. She went around the back and looked through the windows but he refused to let her in. After she left, he came outside and that’s when I caught up with him.”
“It occurred to me that if Catherine lingered awhile, she also could have put something in Peter’s duffel bag while Susan and Peter were inside.”
Dallas let out a low whistle. “Is Catherine in on the whole business?”
Mia gave voice to the question that was burning inside her. Peter’s duffel bag was already in the boat when they arrived. “Did you see Catherine put anything in Peter’s duffel bag?”
“I couldn’t see down to the water from where I was in the house,” Susan said.
Mia bit back a frustrated sigh.
Was Catherine Elias an unwitting cog in Elias’s schemes? Or did she have her own part in Peter Finnigan’s death?
* * *
Though Dallas had the wipers set at full speed, they hardly kept up with the water sheeting across the glass. His head was pounding a rhythm that matched the throbbing in his ribs. There was no option to drive fast, though he had to fight the urge to ram the gas pedal down. Dr. Elias was a murderer. And his wife, Catherine, might be his partner in crime. Most likely, Elias had taken care of Finnigan, who could prove his guilt. But Mia and Susan could still expose him, and there was the photo tucked under the visor in his truck. The miles passed excruciatingly slowly back to Spanish Canyon.
They headed straight for the police station, against Susan’s wishes.
“That detective, Stiving, he won’t hear anything bad about the precious Dr. Elias. He’s protecting him. Could be the doctor has him on the payroll, even. We can’t go to the police here.”
“There isn’t much choice, Susan,” Dallas said. “We’ll talk to the chief.”
“And you trust him?” she demanded.
“He’s given me no reason not to.” But Stiving had.
Mia straightened, clutching her phone. “Got a signal. There’s a message from Antonia. She got word to evacuate a half hour ago. She packed up Gracie and Juno. They’re heading for the airport. She said she’ll wait in the parking terminal until we get there.” She groaned. “I feel like I should go meet them right now.”
“As soon as we report what you...” He broke off as they took the main road into town. The paved surface was covered by inches of water. Shop owners and police officers worked side by side in the rain, filling sandbags. They were fighting a losing battle, as the water was already lapping the sidewalks. Soon it would be spilling through doorways and flooding the businesses all along the block. The police station was obviously evacuating, officers and volunteers carrying boxes and equipment to a waiting van.
Dallas tried to park nearby, but he was waved at by a drenched police volunteer. “Can’t stop here. Cantcha’ see we’re flooding?”
“It’s an emergency.”
He eyed Dallas and Mia skeptically. “Wet and dirty, but y’all look fine to me. Nobody’s getting into the station right now.”
Dallas kept his temper with serious effort. “We have to speak to the chief. It’s urgent.”
“Chief’s already gone to our mobile station in Pine Grove. Stiving’s out on a call, and every available officer is assisting the fire department. Sorry, can’t help you unless you want to drive to Pine Grove and see if they have time for you.”
Dallas was about to fire off an angry reply when Mia took his arm. “We’ll go to Pine Grove. It’s on the way to the airport, anyway.”
A pang of grief stabbed at his insides. The airport would be their goodbye, the last time he would ever see her and Gracie. He rolled up the window and drove through the water. Pine Grove and the airport. End of the line. There was no way to stop it. He knew it was better, anyway. Mia and Gracie needed to be safely away from the floods and Dr. Elias. Once they were away, securely settled in Florida, Elias would pay for what he did to Cora, Susan and Finnigan.
Dallas would see to it.
They took the road to Pine Grove, which would provide a higher elevation for the police to regroup. The locals told of floods that had occurred some twenty years before, but nothing like this, and the town was simply not prepared for such a magnitude of disaster.
“Where will you go, Dallas?” Mia said, breaking into his thoughts. “Will you wait until the water recedes and live in the trailers still?”
Why would he? The only thing that meant something was his Search and Rescue classes and he was only filling in for a temporary vacancy. The job would be gone soon, too.
“Dunno. I’ll have to ask Juno what he thinks.”
Mia smiled and closed her eyes as they drove. She looked very young with her wet hair framing her face, smudged with both dirt and fatigue.
His thoughts wandered. If things had been different and they’d met under other circumstances. Would he have risked a relationship with her? Would she have allowed him past the protective wall she’d built? Might he have stuck around long enough to chip away at it?
Maybe he wouldn’t have been brave enough to attempt it. He would have packed up his unfinished puzzle and his uncomplaining dog and left town rather than face his own vulnerability. He would never know if he would have let the most amazing woman he’d ever known walk out of his life because now it was too late. She was flying away, and it felt like she was taking his heart with her. Despair felt as weighty as the oppressive storm.
He almost didn’t have time to slam on the brakes. A car he didn’t at first recognize, was stopped in the road, doors open, hazard lights on. Juno stood next to the car.
“It’s Antonia,” Mia cried, leaping from the truck. He was behind her in a flash. Juno raced up to him, electric with some kind of excitement.
Antonia stood in the rain, body shaking, mouth tight with terror. “Oh, Mia. She’s gone. She’s gone.” Tears rolled down her cheeks as Mia gripped her forearms.
“What h
appened, Antonia?” Mia demanded, voice hard as glass. “Where’s Gracie?”
Antonia tried to answer, but no sound came out. Mia’s hands tightened, viselike, around her sister’s wrists. “Where is my daughter?”
Sucking in a breath, she tried again. “He took her.”
“Who?” Mia’s words rang with anguish.
“There was a chair overturned in the road. I got out to remove it. When I turned back, a man was there at the passenger-side door. He...he took Gracie and ran up the road. I heard him get into a car and then he was gone.” She heaved in a breath. “Juno barked, but I had him leashed in the back and he couldn’t get out. I called the police. They’re coming.”
“No.” Mia’s hands flew to her mouth. “No, no. This can’t be happening.”
“He always wins,” Susan said, her own eyes round.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Antonia kept repeating.
“Who?” Dallas said. “Who was the man? Did you recognize him?”
The look she gave him was pure agony. “I know his face because I looked him up online when you told me he fired Mia.” She swallowed. “It was Dr. Elias.”
FOURTEEN
Mia saw the ground rush up to meet her as her legs failed. Dallas caught her before she hit the asphalt and carried her back into the passenger seat of his truck. She did not feel him lift her, she could not feel anything except a cold river of terror that seemed out to numb her limbs, her mind, her soul. He had Gracie. Dr. Elias had taken her baby.
“Sit for a minute,” Dallas’s soothing voice urged.
She felt pressure and realized that Antonia was gripping her hand, squeezing hard enough that her sister’s nails bit into the tender skin of her palm. She was speaking, and Mia tried to follow. Antonia told the story in halting bursts. “After I called the police, I checked back with the trailer park. They haven’t been ordered to evacuate, yet. It was a hoax.”
Dallas said. “He probably pretended to be with the fire department. He told you there was an evacuation order so he knew when you’d be passing by.”
Antonia nodded, grief stricken. “He must have been watching, parked around the turn in the road, waiting for us. I should have known. I never should have left her in the car alone. Oh, Mia, what have I done?”
It was as if Mia was watching it all from a distance, like a dramatic play unfolding on the stage in front of her. She should comfort her sister. Decide on the next step. Find a current picture on her phone to give to the police. Isn’t that what the parents of missing children were supposed to do? The faces on milk cartons materialized in her mind. She’d seen the pictures, the sweet little faces printed there, smiling in moments of innocence while the world fractured into a nightmare for the parents who searched desperately for them.
She should take action. Every moment idle meant Gracie was that much farther away.
But she could do nothing but shake, her body vibrating to the rhythm of the shock which her mind could not grasp. The hands in her lap, the hair hanging across her eyes, did not seem to belong to anyone real. Gracie, her heart, the most precious person on the planet, was in the hands of a murdering madman. And Mia was reduced to a mindless zombie.
How could it be real? She was dreaming, in the grip of a nightmare.
The phone in Mia’s purse rang. “You should answer it,” Dallas prodded gently.
She could not force her fingers into life, so he removed the cell from the outside pocket of her purse and thumbed it awake.
“Hello?”
“I’m glad I thought to get the numbers off your cell phone when you left it in the office. This is Dallas’s number, isn’t it? The loser? Mia, your choice in men is terrible. Did we learn nothing from the last criminal you became involved with?”
Dallas stiffened. “Elias? Where’s Gracie?”
Mia sucked in a breath and forced her teeth to stop chattering. Dallas put the call on speaker phone and the four of them bent their heads together to listen.
“Don’t talk to the police,” Elias said. “I don’t want them involved.”
Calm, collected, as if he was orchestrating every terrible moment. “What have you done with Gracie?” Mia tried to shout. Instead it came out as a pathetic whisper.
“She’s with me, as you are aware, I’m sure.”
“This isn’t going to accomplish anything,” Dallas snarled. “It’s all over. We know the truth about Asa Norton.”
He paused. “The truth is relative. I want the photo. I will contact you soon with the location.”
“Please,” Mia said, her voice breaking. “Don’t hurt Gracie.”
His tone was slightly offended. “I don’t want to hurt her, Mia. I’m a doctor after all.” Elias sounded almost as if he was talking to a patient, discussing treatment options or surgical procedures. “This is strictly a matter of self-preservation. Practical. Keep the police out of it, give me the photo, and there won’t be any need for me to use violence. She will be returned, in perfect health. I’ll call you back soon.”
“No,” Mia screamed, grabbing for the phone. “I want my daughter. Give me my daughter!”
There was no answer. Dr. Elias had disconnected.
Panic burgeoned through her senses. Gracie, Gracie, Gracie.
Dallas was talking, saying something as a police car pulled in behind them.
“Mia.” He pressed his mouth to her ear. “Do you want to involve the police? I think we should, but I don’t know if we can trust Stiving.”
The words circled slowly in her mind. Police. Stiving.
The police car ground to a halt on the shoulder. Stiving got out and walked over to them. “What’s this all about?”
Antonia looked at Mia. She gave a slow nod. What choice did she have, especially after Antonia already called them?
“It’s Gracie. She’s been abducted.” Antonia shook her head. “Aren’t you here about my call?”
His gaze narrowed. “No, I’m here for Mia. Who’s been abducted?”
Antonia stared at Mia. She felt Dallas’s weighty gaze on her, also. They were asking what she wanted to do. Should she trust that this officer could rescue Mia from Dr. Elias? What was the alternative? She didn’t even know where to start looking for her daughter. Panic constricted her lungs until she feared she was going to pass out.
“I’m here to arrest you,” Stiving finished.
The words sizzled through her addled senses. Arrest her?
“What?” Dallas barked.
“The tests came back like we thought. Cora’s blood-pressure medicine capsules were emptied out and filled with cocaine. It caused her to fall into a coma and stopped her heart. Fire Captain says she wasn’t alert enough to snuff out the candle on her bedside table which started the fire.”
“I didn’t do anything to her medicine,” Mia heard herself say. “I just picked it up from the pharmacy. Dr. Elias tampered with it. He must have taken it out of my purse at work while I was in the file room.”
Stiving raised his eyebrows. “Pretty crazy scenario. A respected doctor in this town murders an elderly volunteer. With a street drug.”
“Cocaine is used in nasal surgery all the time. He had easy access,” Susan chimed in.
Stiving shot her a look as if he had not noticed her there until that moment. “And why would he do that, exactly? To gain what?”
“Because he’s not the man you think he is,” Mia said desperately. “He’s a murderer, and Cora was onto him. She—”
Stiving held up a hand. “All right. One thing at a time. You’ll have a chance to tell me everything when I get you to jail in Pine Grove.”
Dallas slammed a hand on the truck. “Listen. She’s telling you the truth. He’s got her...”
“Enough,” Stiving snapped. “There are only two sets of fin
gerprints on that poisoned medicine, Mia’s and Cora’s. If the doctor has access to cocaine at the clinic, then chances are Ms. Sandoval did, too, not to mention the fact that she inherited Cora’s property. All of that put together gives me more than enough to arrest her. We’re going to jail now and if any of you interferes, you can join Ms. Sandoval.”
Stiving was an enemy, Mia knew it then. By the time she convinced him that Gracie had been taken, that Dr. Elias was not the man he seemed, Elias might have killed her. The doctor’s words came back to her again.
“You’re afraid that you can’t trust yourself, your choices, your judgments.”
He’d seen right down deep into the core of her, the real essence of her weakness. He was a master manipulator, and he was still in control, still pulling her strings as if she was a helpless marionette.
Mia could not trust herself, nor her ex-husband, or the police officer who stood there with the satisfied half smile on his face. She could not trust in the life she had built for her child, the possessions she’d accumulated, the schooling she was so determined to complete. It was not even a certainty that the town of Spanish Canyon would still be there tomorrow, threatened as it was by the menacing floodwaters set to swallow it whole. There was nothing on this earth that she could count on.
From somewhere deep down in her soul, came snippets that she had heard long ago when she was a child, maybe not any older than Gracie.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart...
Seek His will in all you do...
He will show you which path to take.
Trust God. Could she do something so simple and ultimately so very difficult?
Trust God.
Standing in front of her were two people who had done exactly that.
Dallas let the Lord rescue him from a minefield of sin and come out the other side a changed man. Antonia gave up years of anger and bitterness and the Lord transformed her life and filled it to the brim with love. It was time to trust Him to show Mia the way. There was a reason He had given her life and kept her living and right now, that reason she believed with every tiny atom inside her, was to save Gracie.