Chapter 37
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Nora looked down at the search log. Every line ended with the same conclusion.
Negative.
She reached for her pen, and pain flared through her wrist. Nearly six hours had passed since her last ibuprofen. She opened her purse and searched the side pocket.
No bottle.
Then she remembered taking it out that morning while sitting in the car. She must have left it in the center console.
Nora told the volunteer beside her where she was going and pushed away from the table.
Cold air hit her as soon as she stepped outside. Clouds had gathered over the mountains, turning the afternoon gray. Search vehicles covered most of the church lot, and the trees beyond them moved restlessly in the wind.
The first raindrop struck her cheek as she hurried toward her car.
She dug the keys from her pocket. Her ribs protested when she quickened her pace, but she kept going.
Then she saw something white fluttering beneath the windshield wiper.
Nora slowed.
An envelope had been tucked beneath the blade on the driver’s side.
A name was printed across the front in the same careful block letters she had seen two nights earlier.
CHRISTIAN LOVELESS
The rain suddenly felt colder.
Nora glanced at the fellowship hall. People moved behind the windows, but no one appeared to be watching her. Nora reached for the envelope, then stopped.
The last one had been left on her porch.
This one had been placed on her car in the middle of a church parking lot crawling with deputies, firefighters, and volunteers.
Whoever had done it wasn’t afraid of being caught. Whoever had done it most likely blended in.
That meant they were probably a local. Maybe even someone trusted around town—or trusted by her.
The thought stopped her cold. Jacob had already deceived her. Could someone else also be in a position to break her trust?
She had to ask herself why—why were these boys being taken? Had Christian been abducted and then when he escaped, someone needed another boy to replace him? But if that was the case, why had Jacob come into her life before Christian returned?
So much didn’t make sense.
She used the sleeve of her coat to pull the envelope free, then ducked beneath the overhang beside the sanctuary.
Rain tapped against the metal roof as she slid one finger beneath the flap.
Her breath caught.
Another yellowed hymnal page waited inside.
She carefully unfolded it. The title appeared above the music in faded black lettering.
“Trust and Obey.”
Black lines had been drawn beneath two phrases.
Trust and obey.
For there’s no other way.
Nora read them again. Without the rest of the refrain, the familiar words sounded different. Someone was telling Christian to obey—and making sure he understood there was no alternative.
A chill crept across her skin.
These pages were prayers that had been twisted into threats, hymns that had been corrupted into commands.
Someone had taken the language of faith and weaponized it.
Her jaw tightened.
Nora wasn’t sure what that said about the person leaving them. But she was increasingly certain it said something critical about what they believed faith was supposed to accomplish.
Did this mean the culprit was someone religious? Or was he mocking their religion?
She looked through the fellowship hall windows again.
Dozens of people Nora had known most of her life lingered inside. Any one of them could have walked past her car. Any one of them could have left the envelope.
Her thoughts returned to the figure she’d glimpsed at the edge of the woods behind her house. She had dismissed it as a shadow—something exhaustion had created.
But what if someone really had been standing there, watching them?
Nora looked down at the page again.
The first message had said, Calling. Come. Home.
This one sounded like an order.
An order for Christian.