Dark Prison: A Dark Falls, CO Romantic Thriller

by Lori Ryan

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Kemal opened the door and Eve damned near swallowed her tongue. Kemal must have been working out. He was dressed in sweatpants and a form-fitting t-shirt that clung to the chiseled planes of his chest. A sweaty chest that was having a ridiculous affect on Eve’s ability to think straight.

  She’d always thought Kemal was attractive but it had been easy to ignore his good looks given his arrogance and controlling ways. Besides, it wasn’t something she would act on. He was her mentor’s son. She wasn’t going to go there.

  But, damn, she’d also never seen him like this. When he pushed open the door and let her in, explaining he was about to take a shower, she might have whimpered.

  Kemal’s smirk said he was reading her mind. And didn’t that suck? The last thing she needed was him thinking she was attracted to him. She wasn’t. Not really. It was sweaty shirt induced lust. Nothing more.

  “You can wait in the living room. Pops’ll be right out.”

  Eve forced her mind off Kemal when Glenn came into the room. His hair was still long and the beard scruffy looking, but he was wearing slacks and a clean shirt.

  “Tell me what you’re thinking,” Glenn said, sitting on the couch across from the chair she’d settled into.

  Eve’s eyes shot to his. How the hell had he picked up on her thoughts? As a woman on the police force, she’d had a lot of practice hiding what she was thinking and she was pretty freaking good at it most of the time. First Kemal had picked up on her thoughts and now Glenn. What the hell was happening to her?

  “About the church,” Glenn said, shooting her a strange look. “What are you thinking? Is the reverend a killer?”

  Eve’s heart slammed back into place and she shifted gears. He was ready to talk shop. Thank the Lord, because she needed to think about anything other than the man upstairs in the shower.

  “It could be him, but I have to say, I saw genuine shock on his face when he found out Samantha was dead. I could be wrong—”

  “But you rarely are,” Glenn finished for her. He’d worked with her. He knew her gut was pretty good.

  “The church is a creepy place, though. The women didn’t speak up for the most part and they all dressed like they were on the set of Little House on the Prairie. They said Samantha lived there for years and was engaged to one of their members. To the reverend’s brother, actually.”

  Glenn sat forward. “You think he might be good for this?”

  Eve didn’t want to say for sure. “I don’t know. It’s possible, but again, I got the sense he was genuinely upset that she left. Although, I can’t say it seemed like he loved her. The dynamics between the men and women in the church were strange. We’ve got records of old complaints filed about them back in the day when they were much bigger and recruiting heavily, but nowadays it seems like half the church’s membership is the family of the reverend.”

  Glenn sat back in his chair again, nodding he was listening, so she went on.

  “John Sevier pulled up what we had on the place. It looks like it was a legitimate tent revival type of church when Richardson’s dad was running it. When Richardson took over in the early eighties, it grew and that’s when the complaints started up. There were people who said their relatives were brainwashed there. Not only teens whose parents wanted them out of there, but family members who said their loved ones signed over property and bank accounts to the church. But,” she started but he cut her off.

  “Yeah, I got it. Hands tied until you find something more to point to the church.”

  “I’m not giving up on it, Glenn.” She glanced at the steps, making sure Kemal hadn’t come down. “This isn’t public and I don’t plan to make it that way any time soon.”

  Glenn nodded, his own eyes checking the stairs.

  “Samantha delivered at least one baby in her lifetime. We need to find that child and make sure it’s okay.”

  Glenn cursed, echoing how Eve felt. She wanted to know what had happened during the time that was missing from Samantha’s reported sightings and where that child was.

  Footsteps on the stairs told them their time for talking about the case was over. She would pick Glenn’s brain more as things developed but for now, she needed to get through this dinner without having any more feelings about Kemal surface. This wasn’t a development she welcomed.

  Kemal returned wearing a form-fitting Henley and jeans and she damned near rolled her eyes at her body’s response to him.

  Yeah, he must be working out more. Or maybe she needed to get out and date someone so she wasn’t so easily drawn to the first hot man in her path.

  Getting dinner on the table was a joint effort.

  “I know neither of you made this,” Eve joked as she carried the tray of lasagna to the table, Kemal following with a basket of rolls and salad.

  “I’ll have you know I made the salad myself,” Glenn said. He sat and began passing food around for serving as soon as Kemal and Eve found their seats.

  “That lasagna comes from a neighbor. She sends over trays full of home cooked stuff for us to freeze,” Kemal said. “The woman is an angel.”

  Eve saw a shadow pass over Glenn’s features and she would guess he was thinking about his wife. Dahlia Goodwin had been an amazing cook. Eve had walked out of the house feeling ten pounds heavier after meals. Kemal’s mother had been born in the south and she brought a lot of the traditions with her when she and Glenn moved to Colorado. Eve remembered a woman who worked hard but was always there with a warm smile.

  Eve cleared her throat. “I might need to get to know your neighbor. This lasagna is incredible.”

  Kemal and Glenn didn’t respond. Eve felt the lasagna turn to dust in her mouth as she struggled to think of something to say to diffuse the heavy weight of Dahlia’s absence.

  She went with work. “Pete Montross made lieutenant last month.”

  Glenn grinned. “Good for him. That kid was sharp. I always liked him.”

  Eve returned the smile. It always amused her when Glenn called Pete “kid.” He was six feet seven inches tall and all of it was pure muscle. He’d been a professional wrestler for years before joining the force. But even more, he was no kid. He’d joined up later in life and had been older than all the other patrol officers he came up with in the ranks. But to Glenn, everyone was “kid.”

  “And Tressie Davis is going to retire next month.”

  Kemal frowned. “Dad doesn’t need a play-by-play of what’s happening at the precinct, Eve.”

  Glenn rolled his eyes. “I can handle hearing what’s happening at work without getting too stressed out. My heart can take it.”

  Eve looked from Kemal to Glenn. Was there more to the issues with Glenn’s heart or was Kemal worrying over nothing and Glenn being overly dramatic in his reply?

  “It’s not your work anymore, Dad. You’re retired.”

  “And I stopped caring when I left the building? Is that what you think? That you take off the blue and it changes who you are in an instant?”

  Eve knew what Glenn was thinking. The people you serve with are your brothers and sisters, your family. You don’t forget about them or stop caring when the job is finished. Wearing the badge meant you were never truly finished. It was in your blood, your bones. It was who you were.

  Any response Kemal might have had was cut off by the doorbell.

  He stood and left the room to answer it without meeting her eyes. She had a feeling he didn’t want her coming back for dinner anytime soon. To him, she was a connection to the job he didn’t think his dad should have.

  Eve wished she could get him to see that his dad might get through some of the bouts of depression faster if he was able to get back the connection to his work. He’d been the kind of cop who loved what he was doing, who believed in their work. It had never been easy being a black man and an officer. More than once she and Glenn had talked about the dichotomy of working on the force but knowing there were things happening between the black community and pol
ice officers that couldn’t be written off. He’d struggled with his identity as a black man and an officer, but in the end, he always chose to stay with the force.

  Glenn had done it because he wanted to serve. He believed in it. It was part of who he was. She could understand Kemal not wanting his dad to bury himself in his work after his wife died, but Glenn was burying himself in the house, alone with his thoughts and memories, alone with the grief and heartache.

  Getting him back out into doing something he cared about could only help. She had to believe that. She should have been coming over to talk shop with him more often. To remind him he still had friends on the force, still had family there.

  She heard muffled voices from the front hall and none of them sounded happy. When a young boy of about eight came into the room with a backpack slung over one shoulder and a scowl on his small face, Glenn stood.

  “Antoine,” Glenn said, standing and wrapping the boy in a bear hug. “What are you doing here?”

  The kid looked a hell of a lot like Kemal and for a minute Eve wondered if Kemal had a son. There was no way Glenn wouldn’t have mentioned that, though, so she dismissed the thought.

  The kid’s answer was muffled by the way Glenn had Antoine’s face pressed to his chest. The front door slammed and Kemal came back into the room. He shot a look to Eve and she turned to gather her jacket and car keys.

  “I’ll call you later,” she said to Glenn. She was trying to ignore the fact that the boy had Kemal’s eyes. Hell, it wasn’t just his eyes. It was everything. The kid was a dead ringer for Kemal. Not that it was any of her business.

  As she let herself out the front door, she heard Kemal tell his father that Antoine needed to stay with them for a while, so his mom could get her shit together.

  She had to laugh at Glenn’s response. He was lecturing Kemal on his language when she shut the front door.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Eve wouldn’t admit to anyone that Kemal had shown up in her dreams that night. Hell, she wasn’t even willing to admit it to herself, instead turning to a brutal run at six a.m. to try to rid all thoughts of the man who had no business being in her head like that.

  She’d mostly succeeded by the time she walked into the precinct. She had a case to work and still had a call from the mayor’s office she wasn’t looking forward to answering.

  She called Rhys Evans into her office first. Rhys was good at digging out details and she needed someone who could get her a lead on Samantha Greer’s case. She’d put him on the case the day before and was hoping he had something for her to look at.

  “What have you got?” she asked, when he entered her office.

  Rhys handed over a stack of papers. “I followed up on the missing persons cases you had already found that mentioned the church. All but one have since been found so the cases are closed.”

  She looked down at the top sheet and recognized one of the cases she’d already seen. A fourteen-year-old girl named Katie Frye was reported missing by her friend, Becky Waller. She and Katie had both been runaways but they’d survived on the streets together for two years.

  She looked up at Rhys. “Katie Frye’s case is the open one?”

  Rhys nodded. “As you can see there’s not a lot there. This took place eight years after Samantha went missing. Her friend said Katie had gone to one of the church’s meals where they offered food and a bible study to some of the homeless kids. Katie said she was thinking of going back but then changed her mind. A few days later, Becky left Katie in the building they were squatting in to try to find food for them and Katie was gone when she got back. After four days, Becky got up the nerve to come in and report her friend missing.”

  Eve scanned the paper. Katie Frye had gone missing thirteen years ago. “Do we have any idea where Becky is? I’d like to talk to her if we can.”

  Rhys was already shaking his head. “The officer who took the report went to call social services to try to get Becky in the system and she fled. I looked around in records and things but I think she was using a fake name. I didn’t find anyone who matched the right age in the area then or now.”

  Eve wasn’t surprised. Frustrated, but not surprised. She flipped to the next set of stapled pages.

  Rhys narrated as she skimmed. “I expanded the search, going back before Samantha went missing and extending the range outside Dark Falls. I figured the church might be focusing on surrounding cities, too, since they’re on the outer border. I found several cases where adults were reported missing but were found living on the church property and were reportedly happy and didn’t seem to be under duress. There were a few cases where minors were reported missing and later found in the church and the parents got them out.”

  “What does that mean? Got them out?” She was picturing one of those TV shows that told stories of cults and services that kidnapped the kids back and did counter-brainwashing or whatever to save them.

  Rhys must have read her mind because he shook his head. “Nothing major. They went to the church and got their kid back. There have been people who claim the church is a cult but there isn’t any real evidence of them acting like one. Their church holds public church services where anyone is welcome and they seemed to let these parents take their kids out of there with no problem.”

  “They don’t report it when they have a teenager show up looking for a place to live, though,” Eve said.

  Rhys went on, giving only a nod of acknowledgement to her comment. “As far as minors whose cases were never cleared, there were four more cases with some mention of the church.”

  Eve looked up and he continued.

  “Carina Nelson, age sixteen from Clifton. She went missing before Samantha.” He scanned his notes. “Twenty-five years ago. Her parents said she was having problems in school and drinking. She had run away a couple of times. There’s a note in the file that a friend said she went to services at the church with another friend a week before she disappeared.”

  Eve looked at the girl in the grainy photo attached to the file for Carina. Her face looked much younger than sixteen. Eve felt sick inside at the idea of someone taking this girl.

  “Susie Norman,” Rhys continued. “Age fifteen. Missing from Orchard Mesa six years after Samantha. Similar story. She was another foster child only she was in a group home. She often ran away and had been using drugs. She was on the verge of being kicked out of her current placement because of her drug use. She had gone to two or three of the bible studies at the church. A friend said she was saying she found God. The church said they saw her for a few meetings but then she stopped coming and they had no way to reach out to her to find out why.”

  Rhys leaned back in his seat as Eve flipped to the final packet in front of her. “This last one is much more recent than the others. Camille Gallagher, fourteen years old. Missing from Glade Park last year.”

  Eve’s head shot up. “You get ahold of the detective who worked the case?”

  Rhys shook his head. “I got some details. Said you might want to talk to him directly.”

  Eve nodded. “Same story?”

  “She was a runaway. Living on the streets with a group of kids in an abandoned building, but she had started reaching out to her family. She and the mom had problems, didn’t get along, but they were working on it. One day, she’s gone and the other kids thought she’d gone home. A week later, the mother comes looking for her and finds out she hasn’t been around in a week. She filed the missing persons report.”

  “And the link to the church?”

  Rhys shrugged. “It’s not a strong one. The kids said they sometimes went to the church for a free meal. They hadn’t been there in almost a month, though. I talked to the detective who worked the case. He said he called the church and asked about her, but that was as far as he went with that lead. I got the sense he thought the girl just took off when she got tired of trying to work things out with the mother.”

  Eve grit her teeth before catching herself and forcing her jaw to release.
She didn’t want to spend another day in the dentist chair listening to her dentist lecture her. Hell, he’d probably try to make her do deep breathing exercises again.

  She looked back to the file. It was a common thing for people to write off runaways. She knew it was tempting for any detective to do that, given the workload they all carried. Still, she couldn’t condone it. Kids on the street needed as much, if not more, protection as far as she was concerned.

  Eve spent the next two hours on paperwork she’d gotten behind on before poring through the reports Rhys had left with her. She didn’t find anything in them that he hadn’t already told her.

  Not able to put it off any longer, she picked up her phone to call the mayor back—more than a little surprised he’d left her alone all morning. With the way things had been going lately with them discovering falsified evidence and a serial killer in the ranks of the Dark Falls Police Department, the mayor was hitting public perception and media control pretty hard. And he liked to remind her that he had taken a keen interest in overseeing the work of her and her detectives.

  Before she was able to dial, a uniformed officer knocked on her door jamb, Kemal standing behind him.

  “Hi,” was all Eve could think to say.

  The officer apologized and looked uneasy as he explained Kemal had asked for an escort to her office.

  Eve waved him off. “It’s fine. He’s a friend. Thank you.”

  Kemal’s grin as the officer left made her heart do a little flip-flop and she mentally slapped it back into place. She wasn’t at all the kind of woman whose heart did little dances. Not that she wasn’t a woman under the stark black suits she wore to work each day, but she wasn’t that kind of woman. There was nothing fru-fru about her.

  But here she sat, feeling pretty damned fru-fru at the sight of this man.

  “Friend, huh?” Kemal said, eyes lit with humor.

  She shrugged. “The reality is a little complicated for a short explanation.”