Restoreth My Soul (Psalm 23 Mysteries) Page 16

  “Thank you for calling. I’m going to go deal with this,” Mark said.

  He hung up and sat for a moment, stunned. There weren’t even words to express what he was thinking. Finally he shook himself into action. This was all ridiculous, the world’s worst misunderstanding, but given how fragile Cindy was at the moment, the timing could not have possibly been worse.

  He called his friend at the Bureau who picked up on the second ring.

  “It’s Mark.”

  “Hey, Mark, twice in one day, I’m a bit surprised.”

  “Vince, what in the he-what’s going on over there?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I just heard that two hours ago an agent named Davies and his partner arrested Cindy Preston, the church secretary. I want to know how that screw up happened and it needs to be resolved now.”

  “Slow down there, now what did you say has happened?”

  Mark repeated himself.

  “Okay, let me get back to you, I need to check and see what’s going on.”

  “You do that,” Mark spit out. “And call me back at this number.”

  The call ended and Mark sat, just staring at his phone, willing it to ring. This whole situation was not only inconceivable, but it was also intolerable. As the minutes ticked slowly by he decided that calling in the Feds had been the biggest mistake he could have made, regardless of the scope of the case and the international entanglements and implications.

  The phone rang and he jumped. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Mark?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is Cindy’s roommate, Geanie. I tried your cell first and then Cindy has this number listed below. I know this is probably going to sound strange, but she didn’t come home from work and I know she’s not with Jeremiah, and given everything-”

  “I can’t explain right now, but she’s going to be okay. I’ll tell you more when I can,” he said.

  “Oh, thank you.”

  “Uh huh.”

  He hung up, took a deep breath, and called Traci to explain why he was going to be later than he’d thought. She was even more outraged than he was and told him that he shouldn’t come home until Cindy was safe. Then she offered to bring dinner to him. As he hung up he acknowledged again to himself that he had the greatest wife in the world.

  When she showed up half an hour later with steak and roasted potatoes he was practically climbing the walls. He had just tried calling his friend again and had left a message when he didn’t answer.

  “No word?” Traci said, looking supremely worried, as she set two plates down on his desk.

  He shook his head.

  She reached out and squeezed his arm. “It will be okay. You’ll get this all sorted out.”

  “Hey, Mrs. Walters,” an officer said as he walked by.

  “Hello.”

  “Mrs. Walters!” another called from across the room.

  She waved back.

  It went on that way until nearly every officer had gone out of his way to greet her. It was a strange thing. As much as they all shunned him, they all universally embraced her. He wasn’t sure if it was because they knew that she had stood by him and been true blue or if it was because they knew that she had been the one to talk him out of killing the suspect he had tortured and had gotten him to leave the interrogation room. Whatever it was, she was adored by all.

  She sat down and they began to eat dinner. It wasn’t how he had wanted to spend an evening with her, but it beat sitting and waiting by himself. Her very presence had a calming effect on him. He figured it must have always been that way, but it’s something that he had taken special note of ever since the incident.

  “It will be okay,” she said again when they were halfway through their meal.

  He wasn’t sure if she was saying it for her own benefit or for his, but he was grateful either way.

  “It’s just so crazy,” he said.

  “I know, and they’ll see that and it will all be straightened out. She should make them crawl giving her an apology, though,” Traci noted.

  Mark smiled at that. “Cindy’s not the type.”

  “It would do her good to be a little more assertive every once in a while,” Traci noted.

  “I’m sure you could help her work on that,” Mark said.

  She nodded resolutely.

  It all felt surreal, but as he kept reminding himself, there really was nothing more he could do than wait. Storming down to the nearest Fed building would do nobody any good. In fact, it might just get him arrested, especially if he made the kind of threats he was in the mood to make.

  He took a deep breath. Jeremiah would be at the synagogue doing his rabbi thing. That was probably a blessing. By the time he found out about this it would all be over. He didn’t need him going all loose cannon either.

  As if she’d read his mind Traci suddenly asked, “What is the deal with Cindy and Jeremiah anyway?”

  He actually laughed out loud. “Darling, that is the million dollar question as it turns out. If you figure it out, make sure to tell me.”

  “Ditto,” she said with a smile.

  His phone rang and he snatched it up, dropping steak in his lap as he did so. “Hello?”

  “Mark, it’s Vince.”

  “Well, what’s going on?”

  “I’ve just been talking to the agents assigned to the case. They’ve spent most of the day going over what you sent them. They both agree that Cindy is in no way a suspect.”

  “That’s good news.”

  “Not the good news you’re hoping for. Mark, what I’m trying to say is, we didn’t arrest Cindy.”

  “What? But Agent Davies-”

  “That’s just it. We don’t have an Agent Davies working here. We have no idea who grabbed her.”

  15

  Mark turned to Traci who was staring at him, eager to hear the news. “It’s all happening again,” he whispered.

  “What?” she asked.

  He felt the receiver slip from his fingers and he heard it hit the desk. This wasn’t happening. There was no way he could call the rabbi and tell him.

  Traci reached over and snatched up the receiver. “Hello? This is Mark’s wife, Traci. What’s happened?”

  He heard her scream as if it was coming from somewhere far away. He couldn’t live through this again. He stood up. He had to go. He had to do...something...if only he could remember what it was.

  Everyone in the precinct had stopped when they heard Traci scream and they were facing them, staring, wondering what was happening. Then he felt Traci’s hand gripping his shoulder, putting a tremendous amount of pressure downward on it. It got his attention and he turned to look at her.

  She was climbing onto his desk with a look on her face he had never seen before. What was she doing. She stood up in the middle of his desk and shouted. “Listen up, people!”

  She already had their attention but her shout had the effect of making everyone freeze in place, as though transfixed by the sound of her voice. Everyone was staring up at her. “We’ve just had word from the F.B.I. that a man and a woman masquerading as agents kidnapped Cindy Preston from First Shepherd Church earlier this evening. That’s right, I said Cindy Preston. You all know the name and with good cause. She’s just a church secretary but she’s done more for this precinct and the people of this community in the last two years than most people could hope to accomplish in an entire lifetime. Now she’s in trouble and only we can save her. I need every man here working on this case and nothing else until it’s solved and she’s been found!”

  Mark stared, stunned. Traci had no official connection to the police department. She couldn’t make such demands. But there she stood, fierce, determined, glorious in her certainty that this would be solved. He glanced around the room and he realized that the respect the other officers held her in had been transformed in a moment to awe.

  He wanted to say something, to stop her, but he was powerless. She had become a force of nature. H
e turned and saw his captain standing outside his office, arms folded across his chest, a stern look on his face and he cringed inside. The man hadn’t wanted him back on the force, he’d made that very clear. This was just the excuse he needed to get rid of Mark permanently. And then there’d be nothing he could ever do to help Cindy again.

  Silence fell as Traci stopped speaking. You could have heard a pin drop. And then, from his position next to his office, the captain boomed, “You heard the lady, everyone move, now, now, now!”

  The room exploded into a flurry of action. Officers were heading for the doors, others were picking up phones and calling in those who were at home. Mark just stood, dumbfounded.

  “Walters, get in here!” the captain barked, jerking his thumb toward his office.

  “Yes, sir,” Traci said, as she climbed down off the desk.

  “Not you,” he said, his face softening slightly. “Send your husband in.”

  Traci put a hand on the small of his back and shoved. Mark stumbled forward. He was going to face his doom, but at least there would be others to try and find Cindy.

  He made it into the office and slumped into his chair. The captain leaned against his desk.

  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t fire you and hire your wife,” he snarled.

  “I was smart enough to marry her,” Mark said.

  “Okay, fair enough.”

  “Listen. We all owe Cindy and most of us heard what happened to her over there in Hawaii. I’ve looked over the files and this entire case is the biggest mess I’ve ever seen in my thirty years on the force. It stinks to high heaven and nobody’s going to come out of this smelling good. The Feds are going to do whatever they’re going to do at this point. The three dead people, the art, all that crap, leave it to them. The only thing I want you to do is find the secretary and get her back because she’s going to be the last thing they’re thinking about at this point.

  “I know you know how to get things done when you set your mind to it,” the captain said ominously. “Don’t be shy. Grab somebody, whoever will partner up with you on this, and go get it done. I don’t want to see your face back in this office until she’s home safe. You got me?”

  “I got you,” Mark said, standing up and heading to the door. He felt like he was walking in a dream. He couldn’t believe his captain had been implying what he thought he had been. Still, he wasn’t about to question him, not at this point. He walked to his desk, picked up the phone and called Liam.

  “Get down here as fast as you possibly can and prepare to be out until the job’s done.”

  “What’s the job?”

  “I’ll fill you in later. And Liam, bring your guns?”

  Liam paused. “My service weapon?”

  “How many other guns you got?”

  “Quite a few. My grandfather was a collector.”

  “Bring them all.”

  He slammed the phone down, turned and spied an officer in the crowd. “Daniels!”

  The officer in question turned, startled. “Detective?”

  “You’re a hacker, right?”

  “I’m good with computers, but I’m not-”

  “Cut the crap. I don’t have time for it. Are you or are you not?”

  Daniels turned beet red. “Are.”

  “Good, get over here, you’re with me.”

  “What should I do?” Traci asked, breathlessly.

  He put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “I’ve got a really important job for you.”

  “What?”

  “I need you to go tell Jeremiah what’s happened. You’re the only messenger I can send that I don’t think he’ll kill.”

  “I’m on it,” she said with a nod. She grabbed the back of his head, kissed him hard, and then spun on her heel and headed for the front door.

  “Yup,” Mark said. “Smart enough to marry her.”

  “What is it you’re going to need me to do?” Daniels asked.

  Mark turned. “You’re the best computer guy in the office, and I’ve heard rumors about some of the things you do on your own time.”

  “I don’t do anything illeg-”

  “I don’t care,” Mark interrupted him. “I need you to track a vehicle that left the First Shepherd parking lot at approximately 4:50 p.m. There are traffic cams at the intersections closest to that church. Can you do that?”

  Daniels grimaced. “I’ve been telling the captain for two years that if we got the Ghostrider software and some equipment we could track vehicles no problem like they can in some of the bigger cities.”

  “Yeah, time to prove that you can do that without the fancy software.”

  “Traffic cams, sure, but if we need to pull from parking lot security cameras and ATMs we need to talk to the banks and the stores and get permission and access to their feeds.”

  Mark stepped close so that his nose was inches from Daniels. “No. We. Don’t.”

  Daniels stared at him for a moment.

  “Understood?”

  “Understood,” Daniels said before dropping his eyes and turning away. “Let me get to my computer.”

  The larger stores, the chains, and banks had their security feeds networked instead of on a closed circuit. Mark knew that someone with the right skills could access that information without him having to track down branch and store managers after hours and save them a lot of time.

  In his gut he knew that they didn’t have time to waste.

  Jeremiah was grateful for once that it was a light service that evening. Few people at his synagogue attended the night that Rosh Hashanah started, instead spending that time with family or alone in reflection. The services the next two days would be much more packed. He was going to have to give in when he got home tonight and take some of the stronger pain killers so he could get enough sleep to be prepared.

  He was dead on his feet and the pain was gnawing at him. It didn’t help that he was taking pains to hide the fact that he was injured. His congregation worried enough as it was without giving them more reason to. Thanks to Marie he already had a second mother, he didn’t need a hundred more.

  “It is our duty to praise the Master of all, to ascribe greatness to the Molder of primeval creation ... Therefore, we put our hope in you, L-rd our G-d, that we may soon see Your mighty splendor... On that day, the L-rd will be One and His Name will be One,” he said, reciting the Aleinu prayer used to close out most services.

  He took a deep breath. “L'shanah tovah,” he said.

  “L'shanah tovah,” those in attendance responded.

  As everyone began to leave he was grateful that no one seemed intent on lingering and mingling. It was a good sign that they were focused and reflecting as they should be. It was an even better sign that he might be able to get home shortly.

  He’d promised Cindy that he would call for a ride home. As he headed for his office he called her. The phone rang several times and then went to voicemail. He left a message. He was about to try her home when a shadow crossed his path.

  He looked up quickly. A woman was walking toward him, the light from the building nearest the parking lot shining behind her. He squinted, wondering for a moment if it was Cindy and if she had been waiting for him. If he’d known he would have invited her to sit in the service.

  A moment later, though, he realized it wasn’t her. He recognized Traci, Mark’s wife. He didn’t need to see her face to realize that something was dreadfully wrong. They barely knew each other and he couldn’t fathom what would have caused her to drive to see him in person when she could have called. It wasn’t like her husband didn’t have his number. Unless, something had happened to him.

  “What’s happened?” he asked as she came to a stop in front of him. “Is Mark okay?”

  “Not really, but he’s not the problem,” she said.

  “I don’t understand. If something didn’t happen to him, then why are you here?”

  She reached out and put a hand on his good arm.
“I’ve come to tell you that Cindy has been taken.”

  “That’s not funny,” he said.

  “It’s not meant to be.”

  “She was taken from the church by two people pretending to be F.B.I. agents. We have every man on the force working on finding her as we speak.”

  “Taken from the church?” Jeremiah repeated. “When?”

  “A few minutes before five.”

  “How long has Mark known?” Jeremiah asked, feeling a deadly cold settle into the pit of his stomach.

  “That she wasn’t being held by the F.B.I.? About twenty minutes. He sent me here to tell you while he works on finding her.”

  Jeremiah balled his hands into fists. Mark was more clever than he realized. He had sent the one person he was sure Jeremiah wouldn’t hurt to deliver the news. “He should have told me the moment he knew something had happened to her.”

  “I don’t disagree,” Traci said, “but what’s done is done. There’s nothing we can do now but wait.”

  “I beg to differ,” he said.

  He turned and sprinted toward the parking lot.

  He heard a startled cry and then the sound of high heels chasing after him. He made it to the parking lot, vaulted the hedge separating the synagogue parking lot from the church parking lot, and barreled onto church grounds. His mind registered that the gate was already open.

  Moments later the church office came into sight. The door was open, lights blazed from the windows, and he could see police officers just inside the door. He slowed to a halt. They would have already contaminated the crime scene.

  Traci ran up beside him and he was surprised at how quickly she’d made it. “You see, I told you, every officer on the force is working to find her,” she said.

  He ground his teeth.

  A familiar figure walked out of the office and Jeremiah made a beeline for him.

  Dave turned. “Jeremiah,” he said, “what are you doing here?”

  “Same thing they are. Tell me what happened.”

  “I was in my office, getting ready to go home for the night when I heard screaming outside. It sounded like Cindy. I ran out of the building, but couldn’t see her. All I saw was Roy, the head pastor, standing in the door to the office. I thought for a moment she was in there, but then I realized she couldn’t be. I heard her shouting for someone to help, to call the detective or you. It sounded like she was in the parking lot. By the time I got out here, she and whoever took her were gone. I called Mark and left a message. I tried calling the synagogue, but I just got the answering machine. I didn’t see your car and I didn’t know your home number. When Mark called me back I told him what had happened. Then he called me a few minutes ago and asked me to open up the church for officers.”