For His Name's Sake (Psalm 23 Mysteries) (3 page)

“Officer,” the paramedic said, rising and turning toward Mark.

“Yes? How is she?”

“Well, she hit her head pretty good against something. I need to get her to the hospital. She needs to get X-rays and be thoroughly checked out.”

“Fine, but you take her straight to the hospital and don’t stop for anything. Cindy here will be accompanying her every step of the way. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Good. Now go.”

“You okay to handle this, Cindy?” Jeremiah asked.

She nodded.

“Maybe I should go, too.”

“No, I need you with me and Joseph.”

“Why?” Jeremiah asked.

“I just do. Do me a favor and for once just do what I tell you.”

Jeremiah took a step back. “You’re the detective.”

“And don’t forget it,” Mark snapped.

Something was clearly bothering him. Maybe once they got out of here he’d be able to find out. Jeremiah glanced to the side and saw that Liam was busy taking witness
statements. He wondered if Mark’s partner was going to be accompanying them.

As if he’d read his mind Mark called over. “Liam!”

“Yeah?” the other cop answered.

“I need you to go the hospital with Cindy and Geanie. Don’t leave them alone for a second until you hear otherwise from me.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll fill you in later. Right now, you’re the one I’m trusting.”

Liam nodded and snapped shut his notebook and pocketed it. He moved over and stood next to Cindy even as the paramedic returned with another man and a stretcher.

They waited until they saw them all into an ambulance.

“We’ll take my car,” Mark said.

“Okay, but I have to get Captain first. He’s waiting in my car.”

“Fine, go. I’m parked just up that way,” Mark said pointing.

Jeremiah nodded and headed quickly back to his car. Captain was eagerly waiting for him and a minute later he and the German Shepherd were weaving back through the cars headed for where Mark was waiting for them.

They were almost there when Captain gave a sudden, sharp tug on his leash. Jeremiah glanced down. The dog was looking off to one side, pulling in that direction.

“We’re not going that way, boy,” Jeremiah said, snapping his fingers to get the dog’s attention.

Captain whined and turned back forward. They took two more steps and the leash went taut again. Jeremiah stopped. The dog was definitely fixated on something, although what he couldn’t tell. He scanned the area, looking for something that could have set Captain off.

Suddenly he heard deep growling. He looked down. Captain had his teeth bared and all his muscles were coiled. He had never seen the dog look so menacing in the entire time he’d had him.

“What’s wrong, boy?” Jeremiah asked.

The dog lunged into a small cluster of bystanders his jaws clacking together.

“Captain!” Jeremiah shouted as he tried to pull the dog up short. His left foot slid in something wet on the ground and he staggered, nearly falling as he struggled to keep the dog back.

The crowd of onlookers scattered with shouts of alarm and Captain changed directions, pulling suddenly to the left. Jeremiah went down on one knee before struggling back up. He got a hand on Captain’s collar and the dog swung his head toward him as if he were going to bite. He saw Jeremiah, whined, and turned away again. His claws scraped against the cement and he strained with all his might.

For one second Jeremiah thought of letting him go and following him. With this many people around, including this many police, he decided that would be a bad idea. Instead he began walking swiftly, letting Captain lead him. He finally broke into a jog. The dog continued to try to lunge forward, clearly impatient and growing more desperate.

Jeremiah heard the sound of squealing tires and looked around, but couldn’t see a car leaving the area. He picked up his pace and less than a minute later Captain stopped at a spot on the next street over. He sniffed at some fresh skid marks on the ground, continuing to whine deep in his throat. He then sniffed the surrounding area before finally laying down and looking up at Jeremiah with the most wretched look on his face.

Jeremiah crouched down and inspected the skid marks as he scratched the dog behind the ears.

“Who was it, boy, who did you see?” he asked softly.

The dog laid his head down and sighed deeply. His posture reminded Jeremiah of when he had found him laying on the spot where his previous master died. Jeremiah stood slowly, wondering if it was possible that the dog had seen the man who killed his former owner. It would explain his reaction.

If that was true, though, Jeremiah had his answer. The dog’s owner hadn’t been killed by the same people who had been killing homeless people and stealing their dogs back then.

It took another five minutes before he could convince Captain to leave the spot. As they walked back toward where Mark would be waiting for them the dog kept looking around, but his whole manner was off.

“What kept you?” Mark asked when they finally arrived at his car.

“Captain needed a walk,” Jeremiah said shortly.

“Ah, good idea. Don’t need an accident in the car,” Mark said, opening the back door for the dog.

Captain got in and settled down on the backseat. Once the door was closed Jeremiah got into the passenger seat.

“So, what’s going on?” Jeremiah asked as Mark headed for Joseph’s house.

“I got a weird note. Anonymous, of course. It was found in an envelope outside the police building today.”

“What did it say?”

“It said ‘Ask him what his name is.’ It has to be a reference to Paul, but it makes no sense.”

Jeremiah nodded. It had been just over two months since Mark had asked his and Cindy’s help finding out the truth about Paul. With all the holidays, though, it had been rough to find time for anything that wasn’t work related in some way.

“It certainly seems like a reference to Paul.”

“It has to be. Who else could they be talking about?”

Me
, Jeremiah thought. Of course, that was highly improbable.

“So, what do you make of it?”

“I don’t know, he’s dead, there’s no way to ask him.”

“And the real Paul is dead so no way to ask him either,” Jeremiah said.

“So, let’s review what we know. The real Paul Dryer was kidnapped at the age of eight. Two years later a ten-year-old boy claiming to be Paul was picked up wandering on the side of the road.”

“But that boy was the changeling, the false Paul that grew up to be your partner.”

“That’s right,” Mark said. “According to his younger sister, Gretchen, she was suspicious of the imposter from the first, but no one would listen to her and even though he knew almost everything about the real Paul, there were some odd gaps in his memory. She also noted that he had an aversion to church and to the word Righteousness.”

“That’s what she told you,” Jeremiah affirmed.

“We know that at the time of his kidnapping there were supposedly a few other wealthy children kidnapped and back then police suspected a cult run by a guy named Matthew that operated up in the hills above town, roughly where the Green Pastures camp is now located.”

“Ransoms were paid but those children were never returned,” Jeremiah said.

“And the police could never pin anything on the cult leader, and one day the entire cult disappeared.”

“But when the one cabin was blown up at Green Pastures, dozens of bodies were discovered underneath it.”

“Including one that DNA confirmed as the real Paul Dryer, kidnapped at age eight.”

“Only a few of the other bodies have been identified, but no one that can be linked directly to the cult.”

“However, a man named Matthew Tobias lived in the town of Righteousness where he swindled a lot of people out of money before disappearing. The timing is right for him to have reappeared here going by the name Matthew. His Wanted poster in Righteousness bore an uncanny resemblance to the Paul that you and I knew. The few people who knew Matthew Tobias in Righteousness don’t recall him having a son.”

“Doesn’t mean he didn’t. Or he could have connected with the boy afterward, kidnapped him from his mother. It seems logical that our Paul was either Matthew’s son or some other blood relative, like a nephew.”

“It does. The problem is proving that. Aside from that incident in Righteousness, I can’t find any records for a Matthew Tobias anywhere, no marriage, birth or death records of any kind.”

“So, he was a conman, that was probably an assumed name. Find his real name, or more of his aliases and you have a better chance at finding a birth certificate with his name listed as the father.”

“Given that the fake Paul knew so much about the real Paul’s life, it stands to reason that he either met and spent time with the kidnapped boy or-”

“Or somebody prepped him with the information as part of a more elaborate con that somehow went wrong,” Jeremiah supplied.

“Exactly.”

“There were no fingerprints, dental records or DNA of any kind on file for Matthew Tobias so for all we know one of those dead bodies under the cabin could be his. Or he could have died somewhere else or even be alive and well and spending his money down in South America somewhere.”

“Can you try to match any of the DNA of the unclaimed bodies with our Paul’s DNA?” Jeremiah asked.

Mark shook his head. “The case is officially closed and given everything that’s happened it could cost me my job. Plus, I’m pretty sure the Dryer family has gone to some lengths to put this whole thing to rest. When I spoke to them, only the daughter was willing to believe that it was even possible that the boy who showed up two years after the kidnapping was not their son.”

“Have you tried running down families of the other kidnapping victims?”

“No, but that’s not a bad idea. Not sure if they could tell me anything, but it’s worth a try.”

They started up the hill leading to Joseph’s mansion, and Jeremiah switched topics. “You think someone is really after Geanie?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Coincidences don’t happen around Cindy. You either for that matter.”

Jeremiah didn’t say anything. He had been thinking nearly the same thing. He had grown a little paranoid about Cindy’s safety, but not without good reason.

A couple minutes later they were pulling up outside Joseph’s mansion. He met them at the door and escorted them in, his face scrunched up in concern. Captain came in as well and began to wag his tail when he was greeted by one of Joseph’s poodles. The two headed off together while Joseph escorted Mark and Jeremiah to the living room. As soon as they were all seated, Joseph leaned forward.

“Okay, what’s happened?” he asked. “It has to be important or you could have just met me at the tux shop.”

“There’s been an accident. Geanie was knocked unconscious and she’s been taken to the hospital,” Mark said.

Joseph leaped up from his seat. “Why didn’t you say so? Let’s get to the hospital.”

Mark held up his hand. “There’ll be time to see her after the doctors check her over. For now, there are more urgent concerns.”

“What can be more urgent?” Joseph demanded, eyes wide.

“There’s some concern that maybe what happened to her wasn’t an accident.”

Joseph blinked slowly and then sank back down onto his chair. “What do you mean?”

Jeremiah still wasn’t sure why he was there. Perhaps it had been just because Mark wanted to talk to him about Paul on the way over. He could tell his presence in addition to Mark’s was spooking Joseph.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said softly.

“The bridal store she was outside of...blew up,” Mark said.

“What?” Joseph asked.

“There was an explosion while she was outside getting something from Cindy’s car. The explosion knocked her into the car and she hit her head. That’s why she’s unconscious. She didn’t appear to have any other injuries, but she’s been taken to the hospital to be completely checked out.”

“That’s awful.”

Mark cleared his throat. “Earlier in the day a car attempted to run her down while she and Cindy were out.”

“This is a joke, right?” Joseph asked, his face draining of all color. “A surprise bachelor party or something, just trying to get me off balance, right?”

“I’m afraid not,” Jeremiah said quietly. He reached out and touched the other man’s hand briefly, a gesture of support and sympathy.

Joseph seemed to collapse into the chair so that it was barely keeping him upright. “This can’t be happening,” he whispered. “We’re getting married in ten days.”

“And we’re concerned that perhaps this isn’t all just bad luck or coincidence. We’re concerned that this has something to do with the wedding,” Mark said.

“How, why?”

“That’s why we’re here,” Jeremiah said. “We’re hoping that you can help us figure that out.”

Joseph nodded slowly. “I’ll do whatever I can.”

“Good. That’s good,” Mark said encouragingly. “Let’s start at the top. Do you have any enemies? Anyone who might want to hurt you or Geanie.”

Joseph buried his face in his hands and his shoulders began to shake. The shock was getting to him. “No, no one. I treat everyone fairly.”

“Okay, anyone who might be jealous of you or your success?”

“I...I don’t know how to answer that.”

“Take your time,” Mark said. To Jeremiah he mouthed, “It’s going to be a long night.”

Cindy felt like time had been standing still ever since the ambulance reached the hospital. Geanie had been scurried from room to room, one test to another with her and Liam trailing behind and guarding outside when they weren’t allowed in. Finally they put her in a private room and after what seemed like more endless waiting a doctor came in studying a chart.

“How is she?” Cindy asked, leaping to her feet.

“At the moment, stable. There’s no obvious trauma of any sort.”

“But she’s still unconscious.”

“Yes, and obviously that’s a concern. At this point we just have to watch and wait. Hopefully she’ll wake up on her own in a few hours.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Cindy asked.

“Then, we’ve got other things to discuss,” the doctor said. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that.”

Coma. That’s what he wasn’t saying. Cindy felt herself panic slightly at the thought. She forced herself to take a deep breath. It was okay, she was going to wake up and be just fine. There was no sense thinking about the worst case scenario yet.

“I’ll check back in before the end of my shift,” the doctor promised.

“Thank you,” she said, forcing the words out around the lump in her throat.

The doctor left and she instantly dropped her head and began to pray.

She didn’t know how much time passed, but it felt like an eternity as she alternated watching and praying. She and Liam exchanged a few words occasionally and nurses came in and out checking up on Geanie whose condition didn’t seem to be changing. At one point she called Jeremiah and gave him an update so he could tell Joseph and Mark what was going on.