The Redeemed (17 page)

“How am I supposed to save her after we all come to the eulogy?” Hirst wiped at tears. He didn’t want to cry, but the thought of losing Janice—and the pain she must’ve gone through already at this maniac’s hands—drove him nearly insane with anger and sadness.

“You’ll have to trust me. Once the eulogy is complete, I will hand you this remote and explain how to deactivate the collar. There is a way and only I know how. In the unlikely event that I die before tomorrow mid-afternoon, Janice will die, too. Please don’t be stupid, Mr. Hirst. Do what is asked of you and tell no one of our arrangement. There is nothing that can stop Janice’s death except you listening to my instructions.”

Tears dripped down his cheeks. He wiped at them.

“Try to kill me now,” Father Adams continued, “and your wife dies.” Father Adams stepped backwards, keeping his gun trained on Hirst. “I expect to see you tomorrow with Sarah and Parkman at church. It’s been far too long, I’m sure.”

Father Adams got to the stairs and paused.

“Any questions?”

How could Father Adams be alive unless he didn’t attack Sarah in the hospital room? But the autopsy was performed on Father Michael Adams. There was no doubt. That left the notion of identical twins.

Father Adams had to be a twin. But a twin that no one knew anything about?

“You’re examining your options?” Adams shook his head back and forth. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. There is only one option here. The only way out of this is to have everyone show up at the church tomorrow. When my eulogy is over, I free your wife, and then I die. You won’t get the chance to arrest me. That is all I can offer you.”

Father Adams headed up the stairs.

Detective Hirst bowed his head and wept. When he was done, he wiped his eyes and looked up at his unconscious wife’s face. He had failed her. He had done this. He couldn’t wake her because he would have to face her. It was better if she slept through the pain.

He unplugged the large freezer in the corner of the basement and pushed it toward Janice as quietly as he could. Then he grabbed a throw blanket and laid it across the white top of the freezer. Once he was ready and the freezer was lined up, he slid it under his wife’s dangling body. First her knees, then her butt lay on the freezer. When it was completely under her, her body weight was no longer pulling on her hands. Then he used part of the throw blanket to cover her mostly naked body.

Without another look at her, he walked out of the basement.

At the front door, Hirst grabbed his holster, strapped it on under his suit jacket, picked up his car keys, and locked the door on the way out.

Why did Father Adams have it in for Sarah and Parkman? What was their connection and why use Janice as leverage to get them to the church?

A cop’s wife was off limits. Sarah, Aaron and Parkman brought this on. They brought this to his family’s doorstep. He was sure he would learn everything he needed in room 444.

But to make sure, he pulled out his cell phone.

It was time to call in a few favors.

Chapter 33

Aaron pulled the minivan into the parking space at the hotel. He turned to Sarah. “Do you need a hand?”

“Nope.” Sarah opened her door, pulled her crutch out and hopped down. She slammed the door behind her and started for the hotel lobby.

“Help Parkman,” she called over her shoulder. “Let’s go. We need to talk. I need to think. We’re running out of time. I’ll meet you two in the room.”

She got to the elevators and rose to the fourth floor. Once inside the room, she sat in the plush chair by the window and waited, staring outside.

Moments later, Aaron helped Parkman through the door and eased him onto the couch. He winced, but didn’t utter a complaint. Aaron turned on the kettle, then came and sat in the chair opposite Sarah.

“Is Hirst on his way?” she asked.

Aaron nodded. “He’s coming.”

“We’ll wait for him. I need to think until he gets here. I don’t want to say everything twice.”

“Tea or coffee while we wait?” Aaron asked.

“Coffee.”

“Nothing for me,” Parkman mumbled.

Aaron prepared the cups quietly.

“I need the hotel stationery,” Sarah said. “When you’re done over there, can you bring it to me? Vivian has a few things to explain and I’m not sure how she wants to go about that.”

Aaron tilted his head and looked at her. “Not sure? What does that mean?”

“You’ll see shortly.”

Parkman rested his head back on the couch and closed his eyes. Minutes later, Aaron brought her a cup of coffee and the notepad from the desk. He grabbed his coffee and sat down.

Nothing solid came to her immediately. Only the faint whisper of an idea. Like an echo calling through the trees, a hollow sound accompanied by a light breeze. Her sister’s voice, the susurrations of her soul, her existence, her essence. What was once Vivian, the young girl, now an old soul on the other side, was a mature woman filled with pleasure and joy. The pain that came with Vivian, the loss, was something external, something she talked about, but didn’t actually feel anymore on the other side. Not like a memory bank, more like a memory vault, sealed away behind walls Vivian could travel through by thought.

Sarah had begun to feel Vivian’s memories like her own, but they were still foreign enough to know the difference.

Someone knocked on the door. Her eyes popped open. Aaron jumped up to answer it. Parkman sat in the same spot, rubbing his eyes.

There was feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

Detective Hirst brought friends, but they remained hidden in the hallway. Hirst was angry. He wanted answers and he knew more than what Aaron had said on the phone.

Aaron let Detective Hirst in the room. Sarah sipped her coffee, then she spit it back in the cup.

“It’s cold, Aaron. Didn’t you heat it up?”

“Sarah, you’ve been out for half an hour.”

That surprised her, but she didn’t show it. The paper in her hand was empty. This new way Vivian talked to her was so fresh that she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to tell everyone. She had felt Vivian’s pain locked away. A darkness so deep it swirled against its confines, injuring the vessel that contained it. Sarah had mentally stood near the vault that held Vivian’s pain and was sure it would explode and cover her, but it didn’t.

What the hell, Vivian?

“You want a coffee, Detective Hirst?” Aaron asked as he closed the door behind him.

Hirst ignored him. He moved into the center of the room, assessed Parkman, looked at Sarah, then back at Aaron.

“Why am I here?” he asked.

“You looked pissed,” Sarah said.

“Why am I here?”

“To talk.”

“About what?”

“Things.”

“Stop fucking around,” Hirst shouted. His face reddened and his eyes bulged for a second. “Why call me and drag me all this way to play games? Tell me what you have to tell me.”

“What’s got you all riled up?” Sarah asked. “We’re the ones who got shot.” She pointed at Parkman. “And rammed into the ground.” She gestured at her face. “While being body-fucked by a snake. You invited us down here and you’re angry at us?”

“According to him,” Hirst pointed at Aaron, “it’s not over.”

“Take it easy,” Aaron said, stepping closer. “Lose the attitude. We’re all friends here.”

Hirst didn’t want to anger Aaron because Hirst would get hurt and Aaron would get arrested. Cops weren’t in his good books after what happened to his sister Joanne a while back.

“Detective Hirst,” Sarah said, “if you want to save your wife, sit down, shut your mouth and listen to what I have to say.”

All three men turned to stare at her. Comically, all three frowned and held their mouths open at the same time. Any reference to saving the wife was new to Parkman and Aaron. Just as new as it was to her.

“I don’t know how I know that, but Janice, I think that’s her name, could use our help. Would you agree?”

Hirst nodded and walked over to sit beside Parkman.

“I’m so confused,” Hirst said.

“Me too,” Aaron added.

“What’s really going on?” Hirst asked as he rubbed his thighs back and forth.

“You’ve been through a lot, Detective. Why don’t you tell us what happened at your house today? It’ll help coming from you as I’m only getting snippets of it. I know it’s supposed to be confidential, but Father Adams can’t hear us here.”

Hirst told them what happened and what Father Adams instructed of him.

“He had a brother,” Aaron said. “That’s crazy. All this time there were two killers acting as priests.”

“Tell me something solid, Sarah,” Hirst said. “Help me out here.”

“What do you want to know?”

“What happened to your foot?”

Sarah looked down at the Robo boot and recalled being tied to a couch in the Rankins’ house, held by a murdering cannibal.

“I understood you already knew some of what happened in Canada.”

“I do, but what I don’t understand is how your sister would direct you with all this information and allow you to be in harm’s way.”

Sarah understood what he was asking. Could she, with her celestial contact, work to make sure Janice was saved?

“You know my attacker in Canada was a cannibal?”

Hirst nodded.

“Had I drove into Kelowna, told the police that a cop’s wife was a murderer who eats her victims, how much proof would I have? What if I told them that I knew where the victim’s bodies were? Could they execute a search warrant on the word of a mid-twenties American girl who had never been to Kelowna in her life?” She lifted her cold cup and gestured for Aaron. He grabbed it and began fixing her another coffee. “If all that panned out, would that cop, Barry Ashford learn any lessons? Would he keep hurting girls at his massage parlor?”

“Okay, I get it. But you do this at great personal risk. You could’ve been killed.”

“I could’ve been killed a thousand times by now, but I do this because I have to. I needed to go to Kelowna, piss that cop off, attack him and expose him. He was so vile, that even his own wife wanted him dead. Once she did that on camera, and she imprisoned me, all the evidence the authorities needed was easily collected. Sometimes things get a little out of hand and I get hurt. To take Barry and his wife off the streets, it’s worth it. I can heal. And I don’t believe Vivian would send me to my death. And even if she did, I would wake up on the other side and be able to slap the shit out of her for letting me die because as a team, we’re doing some good here.”

Hirst looked like he was starting to relax. “Can you help my wife? If so, how?”

“We go to the church tomorrow and listen to the eulogy. But before we do that, we make sure all the emergency exits are unlocked and ready because I think Father Adams wants to go out in flames.”

Aaron stepped back into the main room with Sarah’s coffee. He exchanged a look with Parkman.

“Fire?” Aaron said. “Do you know anything else about his plan?”

“Just that he wants the three of us dead along with him.”

“Great. That kinda sucks.”

“I know. I’m not looking forward to it either.”

Sarah looked to the side and stared at the wall for a moment. She turned her eyes to the carpet.

“What is it?” Aaron asked.

Slowly, she looked up and stared at Hirst. “You’re wondering why Adams wants us at the church. You don’t think we’re telling you everything. In your mind, what he did to Janice is somehow our fault.”

Hirst looked between Aaron and Sarah, then turned to Parkman.

“I’ve known you a long time, Parkman. I asked for help. I know I brought this on myself, but you assured me that she—” he pointed at Sarah, and Aaron moved in to deal with the offending arm, but Sarah waved him off— “that she was safe and that she didn’t kill that cop in Canada. I should’ve listened to my colleagues. I should’ve never asked for her to come here.”

“You were right in bringing Sarah,” Parkman muttered. “Without her, this wouldn’t be over. She led us to that building where you found Father George. She led us to the parking lot where Evelyn worked. And she will lead us through this ’til the end.”

Hirst was shaking his head. “No, she won’t.” He got to his feet. “It ends here. It ends now. You three will come with me and tell us everything. When we’re done, we’ll bring you to the church tomorrow and find out what Father Adams wants to do. He will release my wife and then he’ll die like he said or he’ll go to prison for a very long time.”

It was Sarah’s turn to shake her head. “That doesn’t work.”

Aaron moved closer. He stood two feet from Hirst.

“You don’t have a choice,” Hirst said.