In Search of Eden (51 page)

“But Sarah was pregnant. She and David—”

“Lost their baby,” Miranda finished softly. “At seven months. Just before my mother called her long-ago camp counselor and asked if there was anyone she would trust with her grandchild.”

Some emotion washed over him—something between anger and grief. At his mother. His brother. At Sarah again. He stared into the past and his eyes finally came to rest on Miranda.

So now he knew what she had really wanted with him.

She opened up her mouth to speak again, but his telephone rang. He picked it up, taking the way out provided. He did not want to hear any more. He had already heard enough.

It was Loni, the dispatcher, calling from downstairs. “Lieutenant Williams,” she said. “I think you'd better come down here. Your niece just called and, well, just come down. I think it might be urgent.”

“I've got to go,” he said, leaving Miranda watching him with a grieved expression on her face.

He took the stairs three at a time and listened to Loni's terse report.

“How long ago did she call?” he demanded. Loni looked a little bit afraid of him.

“About ten minutes ago. She called in all of these plates and asked me to check them. I thought you ought to know.”

“Did you call her back?”

“I tried, but there's no answer.”

“What was the number of the phone she called from?”

Loni read it to him. “It's a cell phone. I called the company, and it's issued to a John Adair.”

He ran the name through his mind. It was Grady's father.

Loni continued. “The billing address was Number 8 Crabtree Drive, North Augusta, South Carolina.”

“Murphy Village,” he said with growing alarm. “He's a Traveler. I should have known.” He berated himself for not looking further into his niece's friends. “Did you run the plates?”

“I'm doing it now. The first three are stolen.”

He phoned his mother on his cell, cutting short any preliminary courtesies. “Where does Grady's father live?” he asked without preamble.

His mother hesitated.

“Now,
Ma. I don't have time to explain, but he's not to be trusted, and Eden might be with him.”

“Oh, Lord.”

“Where does Grady's father live?” he repeated. “I need to know now.”

“Down at the campground,” she said. “He's been doing some work for me.”

He hung up the phone and ran to the car. He had no time for anger now. He screamed down the highway, siren blaring, called for backup, and drove into the campground, knowing already what he would find. He drove past the lake to the RV hookups on the other side. Empty, but there were the tracks again. The RV and the truck. And Eden's bicycle hidden in the brush.

He radioed Loni again as he tore out of the campground. “Put out an APB with all the stolen plates,” he said. “For Virginia, North and South Carolina. A green Dodge Ram and a Jayco fifth wheel. And start an Amber alert.”

He had no idea where Adair was going. He could only think of one possibility. If he was a Traveler, they always went home after they'd finished the long con. He put on the siren and headed for Highway 81 and the Traveler village in South Carolina.

By the time Miranda finished repairing her face in the
washroom and stepped outside the police station, Joseph was gone. So. This was how it was to be.

She took a deep breath, got in her car, and drove back through town. She stopped suddenly when Hector bolted into the street in front of her, David following in his chair.

“We need your car,” Hector said. “Ruth called David. She was hysterical. Something about Grady's father and skipping town and Eden being with them. Eden was last heard from at the campground.”

“Get in,” Miranda said. She and Hector transferred David and stowed the chair in record time. She drove through the crowded streets as fast as she could. They had just turned onto the road to the campground when Joseph's car approached in its own cloud of dust, headed back the way they'd come. He stopped and rolled down the window just long enough to tell them to go home and he'd call them, then sped off again.

“I'm not going home,” Miranda said, swinging the car around in a screeching U-turn, spewing gravel and dust and barely missing the ditch.

“I'm not, either,” David said.

“I'm with you,” Hector said.

“Fasten your seatbelts, then,” Miranda said, gunning the engine to keep Joseph in sight. She had just found her daughter. She was not going to let some two-bit con man take her away.

chapter
55

E
den made her citizen's arrest when they stopped for gas in Bristol. It had been kind of exciting bumping down the road. Finally they had stopped, and she had climbed out of the cramped cupboard where Grady had stowed her, and she used her radio to call Uncle Joseph before making the collar. “We're at a Sheetz station right by the mall,” she said. “I'm going to take him in.”

“You'll do nothing of the sort,” he hollered, but she turned off the volume. Sometimes a person just had to do their duty, and hers was plain. She opened the door of the camper and walked right up to Mr. Adair as he was pumping the gas. He looked surprised, but she couldn't waste time on explaining things.

“Mr. Adair,” she said, “I'm going to have to make a citizen's arrest on you.”

He looked at her seriously.

“You have the right to remain silent,” she said. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense. Do you understand these rights, Mr. Adair?”

“I believe I do,” he said. “I've heard them before.”

She nodded. She felt kind of sorry for him.

He put the gas nozzle up and reached for his wallet. “I need to pay for this gas.”

“Go ahead,” she said. She went with him, though, just in case he decided to bolt.

“Do you mind if I move the trailer so folks can use the pumps?”

“I don't mind,” she said. She climbed into the backseat of the truck behind Grady. He looked like he might cry again.

“I'm sorry, son,” Mr. Adair said, and he really did look sorry.

He pulled the trailer to the side of the big parking lot. “Do you mind if I get us some doughnuts and milk while we wait?”

“Send Grady, if you please, sir.”

“A good suggestion,” he said. He handed Grady ten dollars, and he hopped out of the truck.

“Get me some with sprinkles,” Eden said, “and chocolate milk, please.”

Mr. Adair put on the radio, and they listened to the
Old Time Gospel Hour
out of Lynchburg while they ate the doughnuts. They were finishing the last one when Uncle Joseph drove up. He looked about as mad as she'd ever seen him.

She hopped out of the truck and walked over to greet him, but he just said he would deal with her later and went over and started talking to Mr. Adair. Then Miranda drove up with Dad and Hector, and Miranda grabbed her and kissed her and said, “Are you all right? Are you all right?” And Eden said, “Of course I'm all right. Now let me go so I can turn over my prisoner.”

She finally got untangled and went back to the truck where Uncle Joseph was with Mr. Adair. She officially passed custody to Uncle Joseph then and tried to tell him that she'd already read Mr. Adair his rights, but he just told her to keep quiet, and he went on and told them to him again. Then he put the handcuffs on Mr. Adair and sent her back to stand with Miranda and Dad and Pastor Hector. Dad had to hug on her, too, and she was
missing everything, but finally she had them all calmed down enough to watch what was going on.

Uncle Joseph sent Grady first and was just leading Mr. Adair around the truck and camper to put him in the police car when Eden thought Miranda might faint. Grady came first, and Miranda said hey to him, and then Mr. Adair came in front of Uncle Joseph, and Miranda's face looked white as a sheet, just like she'd seen a ghost.

Mr. Adair smiled sort of sad-like and said, “Hey, Mirandy.”

Eden was surprised, because now that she thought about it, she didn't think Miranda had ever met Mr. Adair. But what Miranda did next surprised her even more.

“Hello, Daddy,” she said.

chapter
56

R
uth was as exasperated as she'd ever been in her life. “Henry, maybe you can talk some sense into him. I've tried and so has Hector, but he has them both in jail and says he won't let them out until everything is sorted out.”

Henry looked weary, and Ruth supposed it was understandable. None of them had gotten much sleep last night. She had spent hours the night before sorting things out with Miranda and Johnny, but to tell the truth, she felt invigorated. David and Sarah were here, too, Sarah having decided that her daughter's almost abduction merited a return trip home. They had brought Eden down to the jail at her insistence, and actually, they both looked livelier than they had in weeks. Ruth herself had taken charge of Grady until all this was sorted out.

“Now, tell me this again?” Henry said, and Ruth went through it for the third or fourth time.

“I called the bank yesterday, and they said Mr. Adair never cashed my check,” she said. “He deposited it back into my account.”

“Then why's he in jail?” Henry asked.

Hector spoke up, sounding apologetic. “There are a few other
warrants. Something about some heat pumps.”

“He paid them all back,” Ruth said. “Call and ask them. He told me he stopped by each house yesterday on his way out of town and left each of them a check in their mailboxes. What they paid and extra for their trouble.”

Henry looked interested. “Were the checks good?”

Ruth hesitated. She actually hadn't thought about that. “I'm sure they were,” she said firmly. “But a simple phone call can verify that.”

“Even if he paid them back, what he did is still against the law,” Henry said, shaking his head.

Ruth was exasperated again. “Well, at least let Miranda out. She had no idea her father was doing anything illegal. In fact, she says she didn't even know he was here. She says she hasn't seen him in years, and I believe her.”

Henry looked incredulous. “Joseph has Miranda locked up?”

“Big as you please,” Ruth said. “I've tried to tell him he should let her go, but he won't listen to a thing I say.”

“Where's Eden?” David asked. “She was here a minute ago.”

“She borrowed my cell,” Hector said. “She's calling Miranda's attorney for her. Said she wasn't allowed to make her one telephone call.”

David grinned. Ruth smiled, too, then turned serious again. “Really, Henry, can't you do something?”

“I'll talk to him,” he said, “but don't expect too much. When he gets like this, there's no reasoning with him. He's out for revenge.”

David and Sarah looked sober at that. All of them were quiet.

Henry took Grady aside and spoke to him, found Eden and questioned her, then went to Joseph's office. Ruth followed him and listened from the hallway. Joseph was at his desk, glowering, filling out the arrest report, she supposed. Reports, plural.

“Joseph,” Henry said, “I've got four upstanding citizens out here who think you've got one too many people in that jail.”

“She played me for a fool, Henry.”

“I don't think so, but even if she did, that's not against the law.”

“What makes you think she wasn't in on the scams?”

“For one thing, none of the victims say anything about a woman. There's no evidence linking her to the frauds. Which might not even be frauds, because they did sign contracts, and he has returned the money, according to a reliable witness. And he redeposited the check your mother gave him. He may have slipped by you this time, my friend.”

Joseph suddenly looked more tired and puzzled than angry. “I completely read her wrong, Henry. How could I have done that?”

“Did you really?” Henry asked. “Maybe she's telling the truth. I mean, what's she really done?”

“Came here under false pretenses. Used me to get information about my family. Lied to me about her father and helped him perpetrate a fraud.”

“I'll admit it looks suspicious,” Henry said. “But just because one woman couldn't be trusted doesn't mean they're all liars.” He paused, letting that sink in.

Joseph said nothing, but Ruth thought the bullish look on his face softened a little.

Finally Henry spoke. “You do what you think is right, Joseph.”

Ruth smiled triumphantly from her listening post. There was no other charge that Henry could have given Joseph that would accomplish what she wanted more effectively. Joseph would do what he thought was right, even if it meant his own hurt.

Henry left, giving her a wink as he did so. Ruth went out to the waiting room and told the others it would only be a matter of time. “Let's all go home now, so he can save face,” she said. God loved humility but not humiliation.

chapter
57

M
iranda sat in the holding cell, thankfully by herself. She sat on the thin mattress and looked around at the concrete fixtures, but oddly enough, the overriding emotion she felt was an absurd urge to laugh. The Hound of Heaven had chased her right into this cell and now sat patiently waiting for her decision.

She had spent the long night dozing and reading from the New Testament the female guard had supplied her when she requested a Bible.

To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life
was scribbled inside the front cover. Oh, she was thirsty. She knew that now, and she knew she would not leave this place without making the transaction she had been running from all her life.