Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Perhaps I should have left my card when I visited you in the hospital.”
The voice on the other end of the phone had an odd, almost cold tone to it. Certainly nothing like the warmth Eliana heard when she spoke to her family. But then, she and Lydia Rosenberg didn’t know each other.
Did they?
“Yeah, perhaps you should have,” Eliana replied by reflex. “It would’ve made it easier to contact you.” Then, reaching down deep inside her, she discovered an innate bravado she didn’t realize she possessed.
One that didn’t back down when Lydia chuckled, the sound containing no humor. Just the grating noise like metal moving. “You seem to have done just fine. And now you can save my number.”
“Only so I can hand it over to the police when I tell them that you’re the one responsible for Carlos being kidnapped by those two detectives.” Eliana made a fist with her free hand.
In her periphery, she was aware that the taxi driver looked in his rearview mirror at her, probably listening to the entire conversation. Nevertheless, he threaded through city traffic, taking her closer and closer to her apartment.
What she expected to find there, she wasn’t sure. That building was no longer a place of solace, even if she had her own little pocket of peace behind her front door. She’d much rather pack a bag and go to Carlos’s house. But with him not even there?
She gripped the phone. “Are you still there?”
Lydia came back on the line. “I’m having some of my people look into this matter.”
“Is that the same as you denying you had anything to do with it?”
“Your friend was never in any danger from me,” Lydia said. “It seems to me as if he may have been targeted because of his job. Or his sister. Or you.”
“You think this is my fault?”
“You’re right, it’s far more likely that Carlos was taken because he ID’d Detective Raquel Maloney as being part of the Reverence Sisters.”
Eliana gaped. “You know about that?”
The car beside them honked, and the taxi driver responded in kind.
Eliana continued, not bothering to wait for Lydia, “First they try to kill me. Now they have Carlos. Who’s next?”
“You need not concern yourself with the two men from that apartment. They have been dealt with.”
Eliana shook her head. “What on earth does that mean?”
“I have taken care of the threat.”
“You’re the source of the threat,” Eliana said. “You’re the one who ordered them to coerce me into that apartment. It all happened because of you, because you’re the Mother.”
Lydia started to chuckle again. “What a quaint notion, that I would run a cult.”
“No, you’re just a murderer.”
Sylvia had talked her through the cases they found.
Unsolved murders everywhere that Lydia had lived.
Proof that she was some kind of monster behind the serene veneer, the qualifications, and the high-priced outfits.
Despite all the good she seemed determined to do in the city, nothing could erase the fact that she was rotten to the core.
How could she not be the one who’d ordered them to take Carlos?
Lydia said, “All we can be is who we are.”
Eliana didn’t even want to ask about all the layers that made up this woman. The little she knew, she already wished she didn’t. “Did you take my friend Carolena, then? Is that what you’ve been doing?”
“Let’s stay on topic, shall we?”
“I’d rather you just tell me what you’ve done.”
“And where would the fun be in honesty? After all, you’re only going to go to the police and tell them a wild tale that they will never believe.
I’ve worked hard to generate a stellar reputation in this city.
There’s nothing you can say to convince the police I’m a monster. Besides, you have no evidence.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Lydia that the police and the Shrine had files on her.
Sooner or later, they would connect every unsolved crime to Lydia Rosenberg.
But then, if there had been no evidence at the Shrine when Doctor Splitfield was discovered, how could they possibly pin the crimes on her as the perpetrator?
So either she left no evidence at all—or someone in the department had covered up her involvement.
“Tell me if you’re the one behind the canisters, the theft from the vault, the murders, or the Reverence Sisters.”
“That is a long list of crimes. Of course, I would need time to think about it.”
“You know what you’ve been up to,” Eliana said. “What kind of game are you playing?”
“Finally,” Lydia said. “Now you are starting to ask the right questions. I just knew that if I pushed you a little bit, the part of you that takes after your mother, not just in looks, would start to show itself. Once you fully realize who you really are, then the game will begin.”
“You think I’m your adversary? I’m a security guard.” Eliana closed her eyes, squeezing them shut. Wherever the cabbie drove, hopefully they would eventually reach her apartment building. But right now, she didn’t really care.
“We both know you’re far more than that.”
Eliana sighed. “How long have you been interfering with my life?”
“It depends on what your mother has told you about that day in the woods.”
“You mean…my dream?”
More like a nightmare. The one that had haunted Eliana off and on for years. Lately, it had morphed into something entirely different, but were there snatches of memory hidden deep inside the troubling images?
She didn’t want to know what they meant and wasn’t sure this woman was prepared to give her the truth either.
Lydia finally spoke. “You and I both know very well that often it’s the nightmare that is the truest thing we can experience.
Peace and safety? Those only bring about complacency.
Fear is something that makes us come alive.
It tells us who we really are—and who we’ve been denying that we always will be. ”
Eliana was terrified of losing Carlos. That no matter how hard she prayed, or what she did to try to get him back, she might’ve already lost him for good.
God’s answers to her prayers weren’t wrapped up in her actions, intentions, or how much she could do for Him to earn His favor.
But that only meant she might be completely ineffectual, given that He was in complete control of her life and everything else.
Who wanted to give up total control and have things get worse?
Could she really give Him so much trust that she allowed Him to take away the one person she wanted to keep hold of?
Eliana would’ve said that she’d yielded her life to the Lord.
But if she wasn’t prepared to let Him be in control of everything—if she even wanted to keep an inkling of one thing for herself—she hadn’t really surrendered to Him.
Eliana gripped the phone. “What are you afraid of?”
Dead air was her only reply.
Eliana lowered the cell, realizing the call had ended.
The cab driver slowed the vehicle, and she spotted the entrance to her building. She swiped up on the screen of her phone and held the device to the unit on the back of the seat that displayed her total. A notification popped up on her phone, indicating that the receipt was being sent to her email.
“Thanks for the ride.” She pushed the door open and climbed out, slamming it behind her.
“You want to tell me what that was?”
Eliana glanced to the right and saw her town car parked on the curb, and Tony standing on the sidewalk. “I needed some air.”
He strode over to her, his body tense and frustration on his face. “You’re going to hide in your apartment? Until when?”
“Maybe I just need to take a shower and change my clothes.” She also wouldn’t mind checking on Patience, even if it was late in the day.
“And then what’s the plan?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“How about letting the Shrine figure that out? We will loop you in, and you can be part of the investigation.”
Eliana didn’t respond right away. It still seemed entirely too much like signing on for a lifetime of being part of a group most people considered to be criminals at best. “I’m so tired I can’t think straight.
I’m worried about Luci. I’m worried about Carolena.
I’m worried about Carlos.” She lifted her hands, then let them fall back to her sides.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, or what questions to ask. ”
“What did Lydia Rosenberg have to say for herself?”
Eliana lifted one eyebrow. “You mean you weren’t listening to the conversation?”
Tony shook his head. “We know you spoke to someone. The fact it was Lydia was a guess.”
Seriously? And she’d walked right into giving up the caller’s identity. “Can you find her from the number? Maybe hack into her life and uncover all her secrets?”
Tony almost smiled. “The number was blocked.”
“Well then, I guess you had better try and find some other way of figuring this out aside from using me to do it. That’s probably why you’re following me around.
Not to protect me, but because things keep happening to me and if you’re near me the next time, then you’ll have all the intel there is to know.
” She spun around and stomped over to her front door, not really caring if she looked like she was throwing a teenage tantrum.
Why did she have to be an adult anyway?
Eliana used her key to open the front entrance and went in with Tony right behind her. He grabbed the door and held it for her as she entered. “I’m not going to say thank you,” she muttered.
He did chuckle then. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
She turned to him before going up the stairs. “Why are you following me?”
“Because things keep happening around you, and if I’m next to you, then I might get intel.” He frowned. “Or I’ll learn all the intel there is to know. Is that what it was?”
She stood perfectly still, not reacting to that. Not even shifting her expression.
“Look me in the face and tell me you don’t need a bodyguard.”
Her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Carlos needed a bodyguard, but no one was there to help him.” Maybe Halstood, but look how that turned out? Anyone else with him might’ve been killed just as easily.
Tony touched her shoulder. “I’m going to work with the Shrine to find him. But I’m also here to keep you safe, and right now that’s the priority.”
“Why did Maizie call you Bear?”
“Let’s get to your apartment, drink some coffee, and I’ll explain the whole story.”
Eliana figured she didn’t have much of a choice.
He was going to hang out at her place for the duration of the time she spent there, whether she liked it or not.
If she got a good story out of it and learned something about her family history, that would be a good thing.
Or, at least, less of a waste of his time.
She trotted up to her floor and spotted Patience’s door, slowing her roll. “That’s my neighbor’s place. The door shouldn’t be open.”
Tony drew his weapon. “You’re going to remain here, by the door. I’ll check out the place and come back to find you standing exactly in this spot.”
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “You see if she’s okay. Her name is Patience, and she’s eighty-four.”
Tony nodded. “We know.” He disappeared into the apartment and less than a minute later returned to the door. “She isn’t here. Maybe she went out.”
Eliana pushed her way into the apartment and looked around for herself, but the whole place was empty. She turned and found Tony in the entryway.
He lifted his chin. “Like I said, she’s gone.”
A hundred questions rushed through her mind, but none tumbled from her lips. She just stood there, staring at him with those burning tears spilling down her face. “What is going on?”