Silenced

came up with a gun. She was about to cuff her when Father Harris ran over. “Please, don’t treat her as a criminal. She’s been through so much.”

“It’s protocol, Father,” Lucy said.

Ivy shook her head and pleaded, “You have to let me go. I’m going to be late.”

“Late for what?” Lucy asked.

“He’s going to kill Mina.”

“Who?” Kate asked, handcuffs dangling.

“I don’t know his name! Wendy called them Dumb and Dumber.”

“There are two?”

“They’re brothers. I saw one of them when he ran us off the road. I’m sorry I left, I had no choice. Please. Mina needs me. He’s going to kill her.”

“Where is he?”

“If he sees any of you, he’s going to kill everyone.”

Kate repeated, “Where is he?”

Father Harris squatted beside the distraught Ivy. “Child, you need to let them help.”

Ivy’s cell phone rang and she stifled a scream.

“Is that him?” Kate asked.

She nodded.

“Answer it. I’m going to listen in.”

Ivy answered the phone. “I told you I’m coming!”

“Tick tock, Poison Ivy. Your ten minutes is now eight minutes.”

“Don’t touch her, you bastard!”

He cut off the call before she finished her sentence.

“How do you know she’s alive?” Lucy asked. “Have you talked to her?”

“He called right when you walked into the church. Gave me ten minutes. He let Mina tell me she was alive. There are kids inside!”

“Children?” Lucy blanched. “Is he at His Grace?”

“Yes. I tried Marti, but no one’s answering. Oh, God, why is this happening?” She looked at her watch.

Kate got on her phone. “Hostage situation, His Grace Church, Thirty-first Street-”

“No!” Ivy screamed and lunged for Kate’s phone. Kate got her into an arm lock so quickly Lucy almost missed it. “If he sees the police, he’ll kill them. Don’t you people listen?”

Kate looked at her sternly. “Sit down or I’ll cuff you.” Into her phone she said, “Code S, I repeat, Code Silent.”

“He’ll still know!”

“FBI SWAT is good. He won’t know,” Lucy said.

Ivy started crying. “I have to save her. She trusted me to protect her and I’ve let her down every time.”

Kate said to Lucy, “Get her in the car. We’ll drive there and figure out where this guy is holed up.” She looked at her phone. “Slater,” she answered. “Kate Donovan here, we got a hot call.”

They walked Ivy out of the church and to the car.

While making an illegal U-turn, Kate said to Slater, “We have a hostage situation, unknown suspect, extremely volatile, children are involved. He said he’ll start shooting the kids if he sees a uniform.” She turned to Ivy. “How many?”

“Um, I don’t know, I haven’t been there in a long time.”

“Guess.”

“No more than twelve. And it’s early, maybe only a couple.”

“Adults?”

“Just Marti and Remus, the custodian.”

“Church secretary?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Kate told Slater, “Up to twelve minors, preschool; up to three adults. One teenage hostage who’s the target.”

Kate made a wide turn, far out of sight of the church, and parked. “What’s your ETA, Slater?” Then to Lucy, she said, “Ten minutes.”

“That’s too late,” Ivy cried.

“Call him.”

“I can’t.”

“Will he call you?”

“To taunt me.”

“We’ll buy time.” Kate assessed the area, put the SWAT leader on speaker so she could pull out a map. “Slater, you still there?”

“Yes, we’re on our way. Do you have more intel?”

“No. I’m assessing possible breach points where the suspect can’t see us. Come around parallel to Thirty- first, park at the V. No line of sight from any part of the church property.”

“Roger that. Stay hot, but I need to switch channels.”

Lucy sat in the backseat with Ivy. “We spoke to Kerry this morning.”

“Is she okay?”

“Yes. She and her sister are with Amy in Richmond.”

Ivy stared at Lucy then closed her eyes, smiling widely. “Thank God. Thank God. They’re safe.”

“Ivy,” Lucy said, “you need to trust us. We’re here to help you and your sister, Sara.”

Ivy stifled a cry. “I’m not telling you where she is.”

“Kerry told us about your father. We’re not turning Sara over to him.”

“You’re right, because she’s safe, and she’s going to stay that way.”

“Your father has accused you of kidnapping. Without Sara’s statement, we can’t arrest him.”

“You won’t arrest him anyway! He’s too powerful.”

“I don’t care if he’s the president of the United States, if he raped a fourteen-year-old girl, he will be prosecuted,” Lucy said.

“I’d love to believe it, but I know how the system works. My father has hundreds of people who think he walks on water. I did go to someone after he r-raped me.” Her voice cracked for the first time. “I was so stupid. Growing up, I’d been told over and over that if there was any trouble at all, that the police would help. That I could trust them. So I went to the police chief. I knew him, he went to my father’s church. He was so nice … and then he brought me home and told my father what I’d said. Then do you know what my father did? Took me to a doctor, told him I was showing the same signs of mental illness as my mother. They put me on drugs. I was so out of it for months. And then I realized that’s how my older sister coped all these years. She has no emotions left, they’ve been drugged out of her.”

Kate said, “I’m going to check this building. I have an idea. Stay put.” She got out and ran across the street.

“I’m really sorry about yesterday,” Ivy said. “Is that detective going to be okay?”

“Yes. She was shot in the arm, had surgery, gets released tomorrow morning. Genie’s a tough woman.” Lucy hesitated, then said, “The next few days are going to be difficult, but it’ll be worth it.”

“I just want Mina safe.” She looked at her watch. “Less than two minutes.” She implored, “Please let me go.”

“He wants you dead, Ivy. You understand that? He wants to kill you. There’s no reason for him to leave Mina alive. Or any of them. As soon as you show up, he’ll kill you. And then what will happen to your sister?”

“I’ve made arrangements.”

But she was worried, because she wouldn’t look Lucy in the eye.

“We’ve pieced together some things, which you can help confirm, but we don’t why Wendy was killed.”

“I don’t know either. Except-” She hesitated, then said, “I think it was because of me.”

“You? Why?”