Amish Country Ambush
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She wasn’t sure if he bought the story about Hudson. It was all the truth, but how was he to know it? She’d been attacked, and he might conclude that the terror of it had her mind playing tricks on her, making her believe her attacker was her brother-in-law simply because he was the man in her past she feared the most. And as for the reasons she’d had to fear Hudson in the past, she hadn’t told anyone about her brother-in-law...not about his brutal temper, or his charismatic personality. Nothing. And now Diana was dead. In retrospect, she had been trying to wipe him from their lives.
Seeing him today had been a shock. Even knowing in her soul that he’d survived the car crash and that he was responsible for Karalynne’s death, still she hadn’t been prepared. How had such a cruel, malicious man tricked her sweet sister into falling in love with him? And then to father such a beautiful little boy like Mikey...
Where had Leah taken Mikey? Was he cold, too? Hungry?
Leah hadn’t known anything about the monster searching for her, but the girl had known the danger was real. The fear in her voice during that phone call had proved that much. Elise had to hold on to the belief that the Amish girl had taken her nephew somewhere safe. Worry rattled in her heart for Leah’s family. Ryan would protect them, wouldn’t he? But how much could he do?
What if Hudson had found them already? Leah couldn’t have gotten too far on foot, and Hudson was a very large man. It would have taken so little for him to overpower her and...
No, no, no! She was not going to give in to her fear and despair. She’d talked to the Amish girl enough times to take her measure. Leah was a hard worker and she was clever, and she knew the woods and roads around this town much better than Hudson ever would.
The door creaked open, Elise tensed. For a moment, all she could think was that he had found her again. She slumped back against the stiff pillow when Ryan’s headed popped around the door. After he observed that she was awake, he opened the door and let himself fully into the room. She allowed her eyes to skim his face, his posture, searching for any clue of doubt or skepticism. The masculine face above her gave nothing away. The bland expression could have meant anything. All too well she remembered the pitying looks she’d received from the Chicago police when she’d insisted that Karalynne had been murdered by her husband.
She remembered one officer saying, “No matter how much you didn’t like the man, miss, he’s dead. You need to accept that.”
Oh, how she had wanted to scream! They had no idea what that man was capable of, the lengths he would go to in order to deceive and get his way.
Not like the officer standing in front of her. Ryan was the antithesis of Hudson. Strong. Honest. And way too handsome for his own good. She shook her head. She didn’t have time for those thoughts. Plus, her experience with Brady had taught her caution. Even thinking of her ex-fiancé was painful, so she shoved those memories away.
Peeking under the fringe of her bangs, she watched the handsome sergeant. Well, he wasn’t giving off any condescending vibes, as if he thought she was too irrational to give an accurate report of what had happened.
None of this was important. Whether or not he believed her didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was the safety of Mikey and Leah. Once again, she sent a prayer up for their safety. Part of her wondered if it did any good.
Sorry, God. After all He’d pulled her through, she wouldn’t allow herself to doubt Him now.
Ryan grabbed the chair closest to the bed and dragged it six inches closer before seating himself next to her. A flush rose in her cheeks at his intense scrutiny. She squirmed, uncomfortable. A snarky comment rose to her lips. She bit them to hold it in. Sarcasm was a natural defense for her, but it probably wouldn’t be wise to use it in the current situation.
Instead, she waited him out. Surely, he’d say something eventually. The wait just about gave her hives, but she forced herself to be patient.
“Okay,” he finally said. His voice was soft, with a firm edge to it. The kind of voice people instinctively quieted down to listen to. She realized she had leaned in his direction to catch his voice. Embarrassed, she made herself sit back. “I have an Amber Alert out for your nephew,” he said. “As Leah is Amish, I have no pictures to send out, but that can’t be helped. At least we have your description.”
Elise felt a frown work its way across her face.
“I wish we could get a picture out. I’m sure that Leah will protect Mikey, but I would feel a whole lot better if the police were able to find them before—” she stopped herself from mentioning Hudson’s name “—before my attacker does.”
A flicker of doubt crossed his lean face. Was he doubting her story? She braced herself to be shut down again.
“Elise, I talked with the police who dealt with your sister’s death. Are you positive your attacker today was Hudson Langor?”
Hot waves of anger started to swirl in her gut. She opened her mouth, then shut it. Ryan’s expression wasn’t one of disbelief. Would he give her a chance?
“Yes, it was Hudson. I’d recognize his voice anywhere. Even though he doesn’t look anything like the man I knew, his voice is the same. It’s a very distinctive voice. And the things he said... He blamed me for his problems with his wife, demanded that I turn over his son. Why would anyone other than Hudson say those things? He wants me dead. And the evidence he thinks I have against him. And his son. In that order.”
He placed his hands on his thighs and pushed to his feet. “If you’re sure, that’s good enough for me. I guess you’d know the man if you came face-to-face with him.”
“I would. You might not, though.”
“Huh?” His brow wrinkled quizzically.
“He’s changed. The face I saw earlier today was not the same as the one I had known. He’s been through a fire. I’m guessing it’s from the car accident that supposedly killed him. Or something worse. But his eyes and his voice, they were the same.”
“So you’re saying...?”
“I’m saying that you could have his picture right in front of you and still not recognize him.”
He rubbed his hand down his face. “Well, that adds a new level of complicated to this case. Hold on. I have an idea.”
Turning on his heel, Ryan went to the door and opened it, yanking his phone out of his pocket as he walked. She didn’t know whether to be amused or dismayed at his abrupt exit. The moment she heard the door click shut behind him, though, fear for her nephew swamped her again.
In a short time, it would be dark. Mikey was terrified of the dark. He had a special night-light and a specific stuffed animal at home to help him sleep. Now he had neither.
She couldn’t stay here! She had to go out and find him! The police had a vague idea what Leah looked like, but not a definitive image. And who knew how close Hudson was? That thought drove her on.
Sucking in her breath against the pain that flared with every movement, Elise pushed back the covers and twisted to move her legs over the edge of the bed, intent on escaping.
THREE
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”
Ryan dashed back into the room, appalled to find Elise swaying beside her bed. He hadn’t meant to shout, but seeing her bloodless face and huge eyes starting to roll backward had shaken him to the core. He was amazed she wasn’t flat on her face.
The nurse rushed in after him, no doubt alerted by his shout. Her face puckered in disapproval. She made tsking sounds with her tongue, urgently moving to settle her patient back in bed. “Miss St. Clair! You are in no condition to be moving about! The doctor gave you some medication that will make you drowsy. You have to let it wear off.”
Elise did not return to bed quietly.
“I have to leave! My nephew is in trouble. He needs me.” Her voice was hoarse. Ryan could see that the effort of getting to her feet was already draining her energy. She sagged against the edge of the bed and finally allowed the nurse to tuck her back under the covers. Just what he needed. Not only did he have a child and an Amish teenager to find, he had an overzealous aunt determined to risk her own health and safety. Even though she could barely walk. He had to admire her grit, though. Judging by the pallor of her skin, she was in considerable pain. If he’d been the doctor his father wanted him to be, maybe he could have helped her deal with that.
But God had wanted him to be a police officer. There was no going back on that decision.
“Elise, enough.” He strode closer until he was directly in front of her. “You need to let me do my job. I will find Mikey. But you need to remain in the hospital until the doctor releases you.”
“Which is not going to be tonight,” the nurse interjected.
Elise huffed out an annoyed breath. There was a storm brewing inside her, that was for certain. Hopefully, he could persuade her to accept his plan.
“Ryan, I’m the only one here who knows what Leah looks like. It makes sense for me to help.”
He couldn’t help it. The sarcastic snort left his mouth before he could stop it.
She opened her mouth, no doubt to argue. He didn’t know her that well, but he had already learned that she was bone stubborn. And since he was the one who was literally standing between her and what she wanted at the moment, that meant he was going to get the brunt of it. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he waited for her argument. None came. Instead, her eyes widened as she caught sight of something over his shoulder.
Reflexes had him spinning to face whatever she had seen. He came face-to-face with the grinning countenance of his friend, Sergeant Miles Olsen. Miles was holding the hand of his pretty wife, Rebecca. Rebecca had grown up in an Amish family. She’d chosen to leave before being baptized, which meant that even though she didn’t live in the Amish community, she still had a relationship with her family. When Ryan had asked Miles about Leah Byler, he had responded that Rebecca had known her, although not well. Leah’s family wasn’t originally from the community where Rebecca’s family lived.
“Good, you’re here.” It was about time. He could use some reinforcements.
“Hey, Parker. No problem. Always glad to help.” Miles nodded, and his floppy blond bangs bounced on his forehead. Miles always looked like an overgrown Boy Scout. Until he got into serious police mode. Then his demeanor could be as fierce as any other officer’s.
“What’s going on?” Elise’s soft, husky voice was rife with suspicion.
“Nothing to get worked up about.” He walked back to her side so he could look down at her. Man, she was pretty. Wait, where had that come from? That thought did not belong in his head right now. “This is Sergeant Miles Olsen, and his wife, Rebecca.”
Her eyes focused in on the couple. He was surprised to note that she didn’t gawk when Miles started signing to his wife. Rebecca was deaf, and Miles often served as her interpreter with the hearing community. Some people had a problem with it and found it embarrassing to be around her. Others reacted like it was the most fascinating sight they’d ever encountered. Elise didn’t seem to be bothered at all. Good for her.
“Okay. It’s nice to meet you both. So why are you here?”
Miles smiled at her. He signed while he spoke. “Ryan said that your nephew was probably with Leah Byler. We know her. Or at least Rebecca does.”
Rebecca nodded and started signing, her slim hands flashing too fast for Ryan to catch every movement. Fortunately, Miles was far more experienced at this, and interpreted. “Yes, I know Leah. She moved here recently from New Wilmington and is staying with her cousin. I talked with the bishop of the community. Normally, no pictures are allowed—either photographs or drawings. However, since a child is at risk, he made an exception this once and gave me permission to do this.”
Rebecca reached deep inside the bag she had slung over her shoulder. Elise gasped when the blonde woman pulled out a hand-drawn image of an Amish teenager with brown hair. It was a profile picture, not a full image. But Elise recognized the subject instantly, which gave her hope that maybe it would be good enough for a stranger to recognize her. And if she had a toddler with her, it would make her all the more memorable.
“That’s Leah! Did you just draw that, from memory?” Elise leaned forward, squinting as she took in the image on the paper.
“Yes. I am not sure if I got the eyes right.”
Elise beckoned with her left hand, the one not hampered by the IV. Rebecca moved in closer to the bed. Ryan edged away to let them have room.
“I think the eyes are pretty close. At least it will give the police a good idea of who they are looking for.”
Ryan peered at Elise. There was a faint flush in her cheeks, dispelling the sickly appearance she’d had at first. Her voice was livelier, too. He knew what he was seeing. Hope. A sudden dread clenched his heart. He did not want to fail this woman, to watch the hope fade into anguish. He’d disappointed far too many people in his life.
Stop it! He mentally shook himself out of his morose thoughts, like a dog shaking off the water after a swim, sending his doubts flying. He had no room for them. Those insecurities—that was his father speaking. The father who never talked with him without expressing his disappointment that Ryan hadn’t followed both his parents and his older brother into the field of medicine.
You could have made something of yourself, Ryan. That was his father’s favorite refrain.
It didn’t matter, though. Medicine was not his calling. He had known since high school what he was meant to do with his life. And if God approved, well, his family was just going to have to learn to accept it.
Which didn’t make his father’s disappointment any easier to bear. He shrugged his shoulders, mentally pulling himself back to the crisis at hand. Now wasn’t the time for nostalgia.
Now was the time for action.
“If the picture is accurate, then I will send it out. It will be easier to search if we know who we are searching for. I will also use the pictures you’ve given me of Mikey and circulate them. We have already put out an Amber Alert on him.” After pulling his phone from his pocket, he scanned the drawing with an app, then forwarded it. He thought of something. “I will also pull up your brother-in-law’s photo from the DMV and send that out.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Okay. But I already told you, it won’t do you any good. He doesn’t look the same now. I wouldn’t have recognized him if I hadn’t heard him speak.”
“So noted.”
Ryan thought for a moment. She needed to speak with a photographic artist. Unfortunately, the woman the department normally hired was out of town for a few days. They didn’t have the time to wait. He excused himself from the room and went to call his chief.
“Chief Kennedy here.” His deep drawl might have sounded casual, but that was deceptive. Ryan knew that the chief was solid and would give his all to see justice done.
“It’s Parker, sir. I am at the hospital with Miss St. Clair. She says the man who attacked her is her brother-in-law. He was reported to have died in an accident a few years back, but no body was ever found. Apparently, he was changed by the accident, but his voice is the same—and he spoke about things only her brother-in-law would know. So if it’s not him, someone has worked very hard to put on a convincing act.”
There was a pause. “Well, most people know their own relatives. Therefore, I will assume for the moment that the man in question is not dead, but is in fact here in LaMar Pond. What do you need, Sergeant?”
“Sir, she says that his appearance has been altered drastically. I have Olsen and his wife here with me—”
“And you’d like Rebecca to draw a current image since our sketch artist is unavailable, am I correct?”
Ryan let out a breath. “Yes, sir.”
“I don’t have a problem with that, Parker. If anyone says anything about it not being official, I’ll accept the blame.”
“Thanks.”
Ryan popped back into the room. Elise was exhausted, he could tell. This couldn’t wait, however. Besides, even if he left her alone to rest, he very much doubted that she’d be able to sleep. Not with her nephew and Leah missing.
The moment he entered the room, the quiet conversation the others had been having ceased. Elise speared him with her hazel eyes so full of hope it caught him off guard. The weight of the trust she had in him pressed down on him. What if he failed her? Lord, let me be Your instrument. Help me to bring the child back to her and keep all of them safe.
In a few quick words, he explained his plan. They all agreed. Ryan pulled up Langor’s image from the DMV database and sent it to Rebecca’s phone. Using that as a starting point, Rebecca began to gather the information about what changes needed to be made for an accurate sketch while Miles acted as her interpreter. Half an hour later, Rebecca handed him the updated image of Hudson Langor. Glancing between the two, he whistled. Elise was right. He would have walked right past him and not even known.
A few minutes later, Miles and Rebecca left. Ryan took a few minutes to get the sketches sent out. Better get the search started now. Who knew how far away the girl was with the child. Or if the pyscho brother-in-law had made any progress in his quest. He hoped not. There wasn’t much more he could do tonight.
His other concern was that the man seemed to feel Elise was a loose end that needed to be eradicated.
Ah, well. At least she was in the hospital for the night. There were nurses and doctors coming to check on her throughout the night. He’d have a chat with security, before he left, to put them on alert. She should be safe. Maybe she’d be able to get enough rest so that she could remember something more, anything more, that might help them figure out where her nephew and the Amish girl had headed.
* * *
It had long since gone dark outside. The faint glow of the moon splashed over the floor now. Even though she knew it wasn’t, it looked warm, as if touching it would chase away some of the chill she was feeling in her heart. It was a comforting glow, reminding her that the Creator of everything was near. A twinge of guilt pricked her conscience. She hadn’t given God much attention lately.
Elise sighed. She was stuck here, in this narrow, uncomfortable hospital bed with a needle in her arm. The doctor who’d checked her out had declared she was dehydrated from her illness earlier that week. Sergeant Parker had left. Was he coming back? He hadn’t really said. It surprised her to realize that she was kind of hoping the handsome officer would return.
She needed something to distract her thoughts. Thinking about what could be happening out there with Mikey was driving her crazy. Even though she wasn’t his mother, he was her baby. Her whole world had revolved around the adorable boy with the dark brown eyes and curly brown hair for over two years. The ache inside her intensified as her imagination pictured him cold or sick or scared. Phantom whimpers filled her ears.
Squeezing her eyes closed, she forced her thoughts to focus on something else.
Sergeant Parker’s face flashed through her mind. The warmth in his chocolate-brown eyes. She especially liked his smile. It was unusual. Quirky. Kind of lopsided. He had a nice square jaw, too. When he had left, he had been sporting a slight five-o’clock shadow. She wondered what that roughness would feel like if she lifted her hand to his face. Her eyes popped open. That wasn’t helping. Frankly, she was surprised her mind had even gone there. After everything that had happened with Brady, she’d been against even the idea of entering a relationship. Besides, taking care of Mikey had been her priority—he was the only male she had time for her in her life.
The door opened and the man himself entered the room. She flushed, embarrassed to have been thinking of him in such a way. She didn’t even really know the man! True, she’d met him a time or two, and had been talking to him for two years on the radio, but that wasn’t the same as actually spending time with a person.
“Hey, Elise. How ya doing?” He smiled slightly. Wow. He really did have a great smile, with the slightest hint of dimples appearing in his cheeks. She hadn’t noticed that before.
Oh, wait. She needed to answer him.
“Been better. But I’m okay. Sergeant Parker—”
He cut her off. “Ryan. Please. What’s on your mind?”
“I want to know what’s happening. While you search, I mean. I don’t want to be kept out of the loop.” She held her breath. Would he brush her off? Tell her that police business was just that?
“I understand,” he responded in his velvet voice. Her breath left her in a whoosh, she was so relieved. “I will give you all the details I can. In the meantime, I am going to leave for the night. First thing tomorrow morning, as soon as you are released, we have some planning to do.”
“So no one will be looking for Mikey tonight?” She didn’t like the sound of that.
“That’s not what I said. The Amber Alert has gone out, along with the sketch of your brother-in-law, and back at the station several people are still looking into it. Checking on leads. But I need to get some sleep if I want to be able to function, and so do you.” He turned to the door. “Good night. I will see you in the morning.”
And he was gone.
She couldn’t believe it. She was so worried she was ready to tear out her hair. And he’d just left! In all fairness, she didn’t know what else he could do. The man wasn’t a machine. He did say people were still searching. There really wasn’t anything more that she could ask him to do.
Sighing, she lay against the pillows, trying to shift this way and that to find a comfortable position. She’d shut her eyes, then open them five minutes later. Her nerves started to get to her.
Her door was shut, but every once in a while she thought she heard footsteps stop at her door.
Was Hudson in the hall?
She strained to listen, trying to separate the different sounds outside the door. Her doorknob seemed to rattle slightly. Then it stopped. Goose bumps formed on her arms. A scream crawled up and lodged in her throat.
The footsteps moved away from the door.
Her night nurse entered to check her vitals. The woman was coolly professional, her voice soothing as she checked the IV and the monitors and made notes on the chart attached to the clipboard.
Feeling ridiculous for her fears, Elise forced herself to ask the woman the question that was screaming inside her mind. “Was there someone hanging around outside my door?”
The pitying glance the nurse gave her made her want to shrink down inside the blankets and hide.
“Honey, no one has been outside your door. You’re completely safe here.”
Elise grimaced. Well, at least she knew.
She thanked the woman and watched her leave.
At some point, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep. She woke up at one point when she dreamed that she heard Mikey crying out for her. There were tears on her lashes when she lifted them. Her head jerked around when her door opened. A male nurse entered wheeling a medicine cart in front of him. She glanced at the clock. Two thirty in the morning. Sighing, she gave the man a tired smile.
He didn’t smile back.
Actually, he didn’t even make eye contact. Feeling uneasy, she watched him look at her chart. Maybe he was just shy. Or not a social person. Whatever. She was not impressed with the bedside manners of the staff in this hospital. Owning to herself that she was being ridiculous, she shut her eyes again, listening to the sound of him moving around her room.
She opened one eye. He was watching her. The moment he caught her glance, he looked away and continued with his work.
Now she was frustrated—and annoyed with herself for her own frustration. The man was just here to do a job. He wasn’t Hudson. Even with his changed appearance there was no way Hudson had shrunk five inches. She was starting to get paranoid.