I Will Fear No Evil (Psalm 23 Mysteries Book 10) (21 page)

Traci jerked and the color drained from her face. “What?” she whispered.

“Yeah, and the nursing staff refused to let him go home to take care of things he needed to do. He was so weak he couldn’t even stand on his own and when he had tried to get out of bed he had collapsed on the floor.”

Traci’s hand was pressed over her heart and she had a look of pure distress on her face.

“He begged me to get him out of there so that he didn’t have to lie there as his life slipped through his fingers. I did manage to smuggle him out and Jeremiah had to carry him from the wheelchair to the car and then again into the house. We were about to start to look for you when we got a call from a very upset F.B.I. agent who was being grilled by the doctors about his disappearance. Meanwhile, he had collapsed entirely on the couch and was fading fast. Then, we heard the news that he wasn’t dying. Turns out when he told me his life was over and that he wasn’t okay and couldn’t be fixed, I thought he was talking about the poison. It turns out he was talking about the fact that you walked out on him.”

Cindy tried to say the last part without sounding accusatory, but she wasn’t sure how well she succeeded. She picked up her drink and took another sip. She was gratified to see that Traci had at least been showing signs of concern during her story.

“What happened?” Traci asked.

“We had to take him back to the hospital. It was a good thing, too. He’s going to pull through, but his body desperately needed to be confined to bed and to be taking certain fluids and medications. In convincing me to help him escape, which I did because I thought he was dying, he could have been gravely injured. And given that he did pass out before we could get him back to the hospital, he never had a chance to explain to us what happened.”

Traci was gripping her coffee with white knuckles. “I couldn’t take it anymore, almost losing him, wondering when he was going to finally get himself killed. I found out he was poisoned in that house and I had such a bad feeling when he told me about the first victim that I made him promise me he wouldn’t go back into that house again. And he did, and he didn’t even need to since Jeremiah and Trina seemed to manage just fine without him once he had to be taken away to the hospital. If he won’t take care of himself, try to protect himself for me and the kids, what can I do? I can’t put them through that uncertainty. It’s bad enough I lived with it for years but they don’t need to grow up that way.”

“They wouldn’t be the first children of a police officer,” Cindy said.

“No, but they’re
my
first children and I want better for them than a life of fear and uncertainty, particularly if their father isn’t willing to do his part to keep himself safe.”

“Mark doesn’t intentionally put himself in harm’s way.”

“Maybe not, but he doesn’t do what he could to avoid it either,” Traci retorted. “I told him I had a terrible feeling that he was going to die in that house. He should have listened to me. He should have respected me and cared about me and the kids enough to at least do that.”

“Sometimes guys are idiots,” Cindy said, vaguely aware that it sounded like something Wildman had said to her.

“And what does that make the women who stick with them even against their better judgment?”

“Loving wives.”

Tears glimmered in Traci’s eyes. “I love Mark. I do. I’m just tired of living with this uncertainty. Knowing that he broke his promise to me, that he went back there, and it didn’t even have to be him that did it.”

Cindy could understand where Traci was coming from. She could feel the other woman’s pain and heartbreak. But she had seen Mark’s and she knew that he could never live without her.

“Mark would walk through fire for you,” Cindy said softly.

Traci didn’t respond.

“I don’t know what he got a chance to tell you in the hospital, and he certainly was out of it later, but Jeremiah was able to fill me in on something that happened earlier today that you should know about.”

“What?” Traci asked.

“While they were in the house Lizzie called Mark, just for a second. She is being held captive by someone, she mentioned a woman. Before she could say anything else the call was disconnected.”

Traci let out a sob and Cindy reached across the table to grab her hand. “I know Mark will do everything in his power to find her.”

“Of course he will. That’s who he is.”

Cindy didn’t know what else to say so she just sat quietly and held Traci’s hand while she cried. She couldn’t help but reflect that it had been such a day of terrible lows, but then there had also been the one incredible mountain top experience when she had gotten to pray with those wonderful people and see a miracle happen.

They all needed a few more of those miracles. And suddenly she heard herself saying softly, “God, I lift up Traci, Lizzie, and Mark to You that You might protect them and guide them and bring them all back together safely.”

That was it, just the one small sentence, and she hadn’t even expected to be praying it out loud. Traci had gone very still and after Cindy was done she looked up at her.

“Thank you,” Traci breathed.

Cindy just smiled and squeezed her hand.

Mark woke slowly in the morning, feeling like he was coming out of some hideous nightmare. When he finally opened his eyes and saw where he was, though, he realized that the day before hadn’t been a dream. He shuddered as everything came flooding back.

There were a lot of memories that were ingrained in his mind, burned there, and he was sure they always would be. Others, especially later in the evening, were incredibly fuzzy and he actually wondered if a couple of them were real or hallucinations. He hadn’t actually managed to convince Cindy and Jeremiah to take him home, had he?

Of all the things swimming in his head, though, one was crystal clear. He needed to get hold of Traci. His phone was on the table nearby, charging. He grabbed it and as he pulled it free of the charging cable it began to ring.

It wasn’t Traci and for a moment he thought about not even answering. He did, though. “Hello?”

“Hello, I’m looking for Detective Walters,” a woman said.

“Speaking.”

“Oh, Detective, I’m so glad. My name is Martha and I work at the humane society. I helped you adopt your Beagle a while back during all of that craziness.”

“I remember. What can I do for you?”

“Well, we’ve had...something happen here at the humane society. Something awful, actually. I called the police, but the one I spoke with really didn’t seem to understand the urgency of the situation. And I remembered you were an animal lover and you worked on that case with the dogs of the homeless being kidnapped, so I decided to take a chance and call you.”

“What exactly happened?” he asked.

“Someone broke in last night and they stole several animals.”

“That’s terrible. Any chance that someone just really wanted a couple of dogs and didn’t want to go through channels?”

“No chance, I’m afraid,” she said her voice distressed. “I’m convinced that there is a terrible, sinister reason behind the kidnappings.”

“Why?”

“They only stole the black cats.”

18

“Black cats?” Mark asked, sitting up abruptly.

“Yes, and I’m afraid that I don’t have to tell you, Detective, that there are a lot of sick people out there. We won’t even adopt out black cats during the month of October. We’re all so very worried for their safety.”

“You were right to call,” he said, his mind racing. “I’m going to send my partner, Liam, down there with a forensics team. Please, try to keep people away from the crime scene as much as possible. They’re going to try and get fingerprints, that kind of thing.”

“Bless you, Detective,” Martha said, sounding like she was about to cry. “I’ll do that.”

He hung up and called Liam. Fortunately his partner picked up right away.

“Liam, you’re on. I’m laid up in the hospital for at least a day or two.”

“What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later. Right now I need you to grab some forensic guys and get down to the humane society right away. Last night someone broke in and kidnapped their black cats and I think whoever did so could be linked to whoever’s killing these girls and has kidnapped Lizzie.”

“We know for sure that Lizzie’s been kidnapped?”

“Yeah, like I said, I’ll fill you in, but get down there now. Martha will be waiting for you.”

“On it.”

Next Mark checked the number that Lizzie had called in on yesterday. He cursed silently at all the time wasted because of his being poisoned. Next he called the precinct and was shortly connected with Daniels, an officer he’d used before when he needed someone with computer skills.

“Detective, what can I do for you?” the other man asked.

“I’m going to give you a phone number. I need it traced as part of a kidnapping case and I need it five minutes ago.”

“Okay, go.”

Mark rattled off the number and then hung up. He took a deep breath and tried calling Traci’s number. It rang several times, but then went to voicemail.

“I love you, call me,” he said and then hung up.

He leaned his head back. His mind was racing. There was so much to do and he couldn’t believe that he was stuck there.

A few minutes later a nurse came in to check him over and another brought food which was terrible. He forced himself to scarf it down anyway. He wasn’t going to convince anyone to let him out of this place if he didn’t eat. While he was doing so Daniels called him with the disappointing news that Lizzie had called on a burner cell phone which had since been disabled. There was no way to track it. He hung up and went back to eating as he waited for more news.

He had just finished when the door opened and Trina walked in. “Looking better than yesterday, I see,” she noted.

“Certainly feeling better.”

“You’re lucky to be alive. You wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for Jeremiah’s quick thinking and obvious know-how.”

“I’ll be sure to thank him. Did you guys turn anything else up at the house?”

“Only thing of significance was a black cat that had been hiding in that hidden room. He was significantly the worse for wear. We got him to a veterinarian who was able to fix him up and check him over. He had a broken leg, several bruises, and was missing massive chunks of fur. He was also deeply dehydrated. Fortunately he’s already on the mend and he was chipped so his owner will be able to retrieve him shortly.”

“What was the cat’s name?” Mark asked.

“Whiskers. Not terribly original.”

“At least that’s one kidnapped cat found,” he said.

“One?”

“Yeah. Did they find anything on him?”

“There was human blood on his front paws and claws. They’re trying to match it. Hopefully he scratched our killer. Now, what do you mean by one cat found?”

“Another cat from the same neighborhood that belonged to one of the wiccans was kidnapped around the same time as Whiskers. She was also a black cat. Then, the humane society was broken into last night and whoever did it stole their black cats. I’ve got my partner over there now looking into it.”

“Sounds like I’m getting here at just the right time for the info dump,” Jeremiah said, poking his head in the door.

“Yes, come in,” Mark said with a wave of his hand.

The rabbi entered and took a seat. “So, there are more black cats out there that might be victimized by whoever attacked the one we found yesterday?”

“Yes,” Mark said. “And the number Lizzie called in on yesterday was a burner phone that has almost certainly been dumped since then. Other than that, we’ve got nothing new.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Trina said.

“Here either,” Jeremiah answered.

“Okay, Trina you go then Jeremiah,” Mark said, sitting up a little more and pushing his empty food tray farther from him.

“The prayer chain people gathered last night around Samuel and when it was all done he woke from his coma.”

“Were you able to talk to him?” Mark asked eagerly.

“I was.”

“And what did he say?”

“He said that Lizzie cursed him.”

“He actually said that?” Mark asked, startled.

“Yes. Apparently they’d started having fights because he was afraid that her new coven was pulling her to the dark side. She wanted him to join, but he refused. He said that the people in it scared him and that they were into things that made him uncomfortable. He finally told Lizzie that if she didn’t understand that, if she continued on the path that she was on, that he didn’t think they could be together.”

“I bet that went over well,” Jeremiah said drily.

“Yeah. Apparently the fight grew to epic proportions and when she stormed out of his place she swore she was going to make him pay. She said he’d see that without her, he had no life at all. It was right at the start of finals week and he said he decided he just had to buckle down and get through his exams and then try to talk to her after she cooled off some.”