That Dark Place

by W. Franklin Lattimore

  He tapped the messaging app and scrolled until he saw his dad’s name.

  Dad, can you do something for me before coming home? Go to the business park. The rear. See if Elizabeth’s car is still there in front of Alcorn Company.

  He wasn’t sure if he’d gotten the company name exactly right, but if his dad saw the name Alcorn and no sign of Elizabeth’s car, then everything probably was okay, and he was still trying to find a way to be Elizabeth’s hero when there was no reason to keep trying.

  BRENT RECEIVED AND read Jamie’s text.

  He shouldn’t have, while driving. It was illegal for him to be doing what no one else should be doing. But he’d fallen into some of the same sorts of self-made allowances that most cops gave themselves.

  It hadn’t occurred to him to go to the business park.

  Apparently, something’s not sitting quite right inside Jamie too. Attaboy.

  Brent turned his patrol car around at a corner gas station and headed back down Wilson Boulevard.

  Turning onto Narrow Road, he saw the entrance less than a quarter mile away.

  How’d you end up going in there, James Lawton?

  Finally, he turned into the well-lit business park. Several dozen small companies occupied the generic business buildings at the front of the park. Toward the rear of the park, the larger companies had their specialized buildings.

  He rounded the last building on the left and saw Elizabeth’s car. Immediately, he picked up his phone and called Tony Morelli.

  Chapter 70

  D

  rew decided not to return to his mother’s property. He still had things to quickly sort out.

  Like evidence.

  His own home was filled with many things that would show that everything he’d done was preplanned and very calculated.

  Would eliminating that information be helpful if things were to turn against him? He didn’t know.

  What he did know was that it wouldn’t be there if the police ever did search his home.

  He looked at his GPS. He still had another fifteen minutes before he’d get there.

  BY HER COUNT, Elizabeth had already cried four times since Drew left. She had no idea how long he’d been gone, but it felt like hours.

  She had made one valiant attempt to open the door with the lip of one of the metal trays she’d seen on the table.

  Soon after she no longer heard Drew in the house, she had rolled the chair to the door of her darkroom cell. She’d discovered that if she turned the knob and pushed, a little bit of a gap existed between the door and the door stop.

  The only thing that was thin enough to wedge into the gap—and that she could lift—was the tray. Unfortunately, the thin aluminum didn’t hold up well with the effort.

  She’d thrown the tray back across the room.

  Elizabeth now sat with her arms resting on the metal table, staring at something called a “Beseler condenser enlarger.” She wasn’t exactly sure what it did, but she assumed that it somehow made film pictures bigger.

  She sighed. Again.

  What she wanted to do was cry. Again. But she didn’t think she had another tear left in her.

  Elizabeth sat back in the chair and tried to flex her knee. The pain was still horrible. She knew that her injury was going to require a trip to the hospital.

  What she could really use first, though, was another bottled drink and a bathroom.

  Despite the light from the red bulb, the room was still somewhat dark. The red light provided her with the additional unpleasant effect of eeriness.

  Red was the color of blood.

  Blood meant life. But it could also mean death.

  Although death, right now, seemed most likely for her, she begged the red bulb to keep illuminating the room. The very idea of losing it left her unsure of how she’d respond.

  Screaming and pounding on the door, she thought.

  Being in the darkroom also brought Elizabeth’s thoughts to Drew’s mom, the photographer. She’d shared her passion with her son, who had also become quite skilled.

  What kind of people had Drew’s parents been? He seemed to have loved them both. That meant that they had to have loved him too.

  It was probably good that neither was around to see what he’d become.

  As if she had any room to talk. What would her own parents—past or present—have said about who she had become?

  She was ashamed.

  What was it that the Lawtons’ pastor said about shame? “It’s only a shame if you keep it.”

  Where was God in all of this?

  Certainly, he wasn’t chasing her around, since she hadn’t chosen to chase after him.

  A yearning grew inside of her—a yearning for something lost.

  No, a yearning for something I’ve never had.

  A yearning for what Tara has.

  Her bottom lip began to tremble. There were a few tears left within her after all.

  Elizabeth thought back to a conversation she’d had with her “mom.” Tara had given Elizabeth her “testimony” on how she’d become a Christian.

  Elizabeth had been shocked when Tara had used the word evil to describe herself. But after she’d explained who she was as a teen and what she’d done to both Brent and a girl named Marta, there really was no other word for her actions or her mindset.

  Then God had spoken to her soul in a very real way, letting her know that he still wanted her, irrespective of what her past looked like.

  Elizabeth sighed. Again.

  She did want to know God … if everything she’d learned about him was true.

  But she’d heard from a student at the school she’d attended, before meeting the Lawtons, that Christian churches were “filled with hypocrites who want you to do what they say but go on living however they want.”

  It sounded awful, Christianity.

  Was it true of the people at Restoration Church? Were they just a bunch of self-righteous, sinner-condemning hypocrites? She didn’t really know people there, but if there was one group of people who attended the church who were definitely not hypocrites, it was the Lawtons.

  They all loved God and each other. And even her.

  Would that still be the case after all of this? They would obviously come to see how secretly messed up she was.

  Jenna had told her something once: “The church is like a hospital; it’s where all the hurt and broken people go to get healed. There’s no one who goes in who isn’t in need of God’s help.”

  If there was a single person who needed God’s help now, it was she.

  Something Pastor Jonathan had said: “Jesus left the ninety-nine sheep who were already safe to go find the one who wasn’t.”

  Goose bumps.

  “I am here.”

  The gentle words felt like they were spoken directly into her heart—to the very yearning she was needing answered.

  Elizabeth suddenly felt a little afraid. She swallowed hard.

  “A still, small voice,” she said in a whisper. She remembered that too. The Holy Spirit spoke in a still … small … voice!

  Her heartbeat became noticeably quicker. She felt a tingling in her fingers and a warmth rise in her chest.

  She could scarcely speak. But she did get one word out.

  A name.

  “Jesus.”

  “JAMIE, GET YOUR mom and put her on speaker with you. Round up Jenna, as well.”

  With his dad’s words, Jamie knew something important had taken place after he’d asked his dad to look in the business park.

  “Did you find her car?”

  “I’ll explain everything in a minute. Go get the others.”

  “They’re right here. I’ll put you on speaker. One sec.” Jamie looked at his phone and hit the speaker icon. “Okay, Dad, go ahead.”

  “Tara? Jenna? You can all hear me?”

  “Yeah, Dad.”

  “Yes, hon.”
/>
  “In case Jamie didn’t tell you, he texted me a short time ago and asked me to check for Elizabeth’s car in the Millsville Business Park. It was there.”

  All three of them looked at each other, astonished. Jamie, a little less so.

  Jamie’s mom was suddenly beside herself, needing to make sure of what she’d heard. “Her car’s here?”

  “It is. I’ve called Tony Morelli, the captain at Millsville P.D., to send a forensics team out to investigate the area surrounding the car. I don’t know if you remember a server at the diner named LeAnn, but she remembered that Elizabeth had quite a bit of interaction with a man at the diner about a week ago. She said that she was pretty taken with him professionally. Apparently, he photographs models and gave her one of his business cards. LeAnn had found one of his cards under the table he’d sat at. The number on it has him from New York City.”

  “You think this guy’s kidnapped her and taken her to another state?” asked Jamie, not handling the information very well.

  “Hold on, Jamie.

  “I just called both Tracy Larkin and John Eldredge too. Tracy’s going to meet us at our house. I gave John the information on the business card and asked him to look into pinging Elizabeth’s phone. We’ve never had to do it before, so I don’t know how long that’s going to take before we hear back on it. But John had gotten it done once when he was a cop near Columbus.

  “As for me, I’m heading back to the house right now. Jenna, I’d like you to grab Elizabeth’s laptop and bring it downstairs. Start it for me. Hopefully, she doesn’t have it password protected.

  “I’ll see the three of you in about five minutes.”

  His dad ended the call.

  Jenna got up right away and darted up the stairs.

  Tara dropped to her knees in front of the recliner. Leaning into it, she started to pray.

  Jamie began trying to analyze the situation, thinking about what he might be able to do. The last thing he wanted was to just stand around.

  Chapter 71

  W

  hen Drew arrived at his condo, he tore into his home and darted for his kitchen.

  He’d thought about the things he needed to do.

  First, get a trash bag.

  Second, go into his office and rid it of all printed material used in his ruse. Unused model photos, any and all printed photos of Elizabeth, and the unused business cards.

  Next, he looked for the receipts for the rental and purchase of the camera equipment.

  Lastly, he needed to grab his laptop.

  He didn’t have time to stand around while a hard-drive shredding program did its thing, but he could start the process and allow it to do its thing while he drove back to Hallisburg and Elizabeth.

  It took him all of seven minutes to round up everything.

  He hoped it was everything.

  He walked a quick lap around his home, looking for anything that might be identified as a clue.

  Drew knew he was in a state of panic. He knew that a panicked mind was a reckless one. But he didn’t have the time to be methodical like he had been when he’d planned everything out surrounding Elizabeth.

  He couldn’t find anything else.

  He started for the door.

  Grabbing the doorknob, he froze. Ice coursed through his veins!

  He turned and darted back to his office and pulled the small black trash can out from beneath his desk.

  How could he have nearly forgotten about that? He tipped the container into the trash bag, watching as rejected and errantly cut photos tumbled out.

  Cinching the white plastic bag, he turned with a feeling of extreme relief and walked back to the front door.

  He’d see Elizabeth again in just under thirty minutes. And he hoped that she hadn’t figured out a way to attack him with something when he unlocked the darkroom door.

  Even if she did have some love for him, he’d done nothing to make her happy during the past hour plus.

  TRACY LARKIN KNOCKED on the door about ten minutes after Brent had arrived home. Brent appreciated that he’d taken the time to put on his uniform.

  “The laptop is right there,” he pointed out as Larkin walked into the living room.

  When Brent had arrived home, Jamie was crouched in front of Elizabeth’s computer, trying to crack the password to help in the investigation for clues, but Brent had asked him to stop and wait for Tracy.

  In his time working missing-persons cases, Brent had learned that when a family member searched a laptop for clues, it rarely turned out well. The things that people stored on their hard drives and the things that had been searched for with their Internet browsers oftentimes broke the hearts of the family.

  And while Brent doubted that Elizabeth was doing anything illicit, he didn’t want anyone in the family finding it if she was.

  Tracy said a solemn hello to all the Lawtons as he approached and picked up the machine. Taking it to the dining room and plugging it into the wall, he sat down, facing it away from the living room. He, too, knew that the family needed to be protected should he find anything.

  “The moment you find anything, Tracy.…”

  “Got it, Brent. If there’s anything on here, I’ll find it.”

  Everyone was tense.

  Tara was sitting next to Jenna, holding her hands. But she quickly let go when she had an important thought.

  “I need to call Karen! We need prayer support. I’ll call Pastor Jonathan too!”

  “Good idea, hon. We’ll need those two warriors on our team.”

  Tara grabbed her phone off the coffee table and walked upstairs to have a quiet place to talk.

  Jamie was unable to stand or sit still. He paced. But Brent could see, and sometimes hear, that he was praying too.

  That’s when Brent realized that he was doing it again. When emergencies occurred, he became logic-minded, thinking that his training and experience were all that was needed to fix or figure them out.

  God, forgive me for being blind to where my real help comes from. It comes from you. My talents and adopted skills come from you. Give me wisdom, Father. Give us wisdom. Keep pride from me. I don’t need to believe that I’m the one who is going to figure this all out. Help me to trust those who are working with me—those on my force, those of the Millsville Police Department, and those in my family. Give us all your wisdom and your insights into this situation.

  Father, please… Tears formed in his eyes. …please, protect Elizabeth. God be with her, wherever she is. She doesn’t know you, but she needs to.

  Please, Father, rescue her in every way possible.

  And, Father, help us catch the bad guy.

  Chapter 72

  E

  lizabeth thought she must have fainted again because what she was now seeing didn’t make any sense at all.

  She was standing in a beautiful field of flowers. The sky was the bluest blue she had ever seen. It was simply breathtaking.

  She felt completely at peace, no longer afraid of either her surroundings or her dire situation.

  She turned around to take in the entire vista. Her leg was pain free! She couldn’t grasp that it could be so.

  Her attention was grabbed again by her surroundings. The field was utterly flat—a horizon of blue reaching down to touch a surface of green. The landscape was bespeckled with an uncountable number of vibrant colors, many of which she knew she had never seen before. Other than the colors, there was nothing different as far as the eye could see.

  Until she saw the man walking toward her.

  Where had he come from, she wondered. She knew she had looked over the whole of the plain at least twice.

  He was still some distance away, but when their eyes were finally able to meet, he broke into a big smile.

  “Elizabeth!” he called, raising a hand in greeting.

  She didn’t recognize him but liked him instantaneously.

  She raised her hand
too, but her curiosity kept her from returning his verbal greeting.

  When he got near, he said, “What do you think of my boardroom?”

  She raised her eyebrows, unable to keep from giggling.

  “Not like any boardroom I’ve ever seen or heard of,” she said.

  The man extended his right hand, and she took it. He placed his left over hers.

  “I’m Joshua. You may have heard of me.”

  If it had been possible to pass out in the world in which she stood, she surely would have. Instead, she did what she was able to do: drop her mouth open and stare.

  “Yeah, I kinda get that all the time,” he laughed. “How are you?”

  Her eyes got big with the question. Had Brent’s Joshua just asked her how she was doing?

  “I’m not just Brent’s Joshua, Elizabeth. I’m yours too.”

  Her heart wanted to burst with excitement! She wanted to shout for joy! She wanted to dance at the idea that he—that Jesus—wasn’t dismissing her as unwanted!

  “Elizabeth, I would never reject you, so long as you would have me.”

  She was filled with an insatiable urge. And she had to find out if she was permitted. He was, after all, the King of all kings!

  “I … can I…?” She began to cry. “Please! Oh, Joshua, please … can I…?”

  “You don’t even have to ask, my darling girl.”

  Elizabeth had only intended to wrap her arms around him and hug him tight when she began to surge toward him, but she found herself springing into his arms, wrapping her legs and arms around him as tightly as she could.

  The greatest, most wonderful feeling of her life occurred when he hugged her back.

  “My dear Elizabeth. How long I’ve desired to hold you.”

  She was overwhelmed with delight that she couldn’t contain! She knew tears were coursing down her cheeks and into his shirt, but he didn’t seem to mind. So, she held him and wept and wept and wept.