Cold Betrayal (27 page)

“So this floor is entirely deserted at the moment?” Leland asked, enjoying his pizza and sipping at his own cup of vending-machine cappuccino.

Sister Anselm nodded.

“How did you make that happen?”

“After two rounds with Gordon Tower, the hospital administrator already regarded Enid’s presence here a problem. I may have slightly overstated the danger I thought her family members might pose to other patients and staff members. His initial solution was to transfer her to another facility tonight, but I nixed that idea based on her current condition. After that, I had him.”

“You did indeed,” Leland agreed.

A moment later, however, Sister Anselm’s face grew somber. “That Bible was evil, you know,” she said.

“Evil?” Ali asked. “What do you mean?”

Sister Anselm shrugged. “Maybe it was just the man who handed it to me, but the idea of whiting out the name of someone who died—the name of the mother of your child? That’s odd. And that’s not all. As I was opening to the proper page, I scanned through the first couple of pages as well. A number of names were crossed out with the letters N.C. written next to each name. I can’t imagine what that means, but I’ll bet it’s not good.”

She stood up then, collected a new plate, and scraped the two remaining pieces of pizza onto it. “As late as it is, I doubt there’ll be any more trouble tonight, so I’ll go downstairs and relieve Mr. Upton. I’m sure he’s been here far longer than he intended.”

“Who’s Mr. Upton?” Leland asked once she was gone.

“He’s the guy who was driving the car that hit Enid.”

“So the driver who injured the girl is allowed into her hospital room while her own father isn’t?” Leland asked with a frown. “Has Sister Anselm gone barking mad on us?”

“So it would seem,” Ali agreed.

Her phone rang, and B.’s photo appeared on the screen. “I’m home,” he said. “There’s no sign of you and no sign of Bella. Where are you?”

“You’re home,” Ali repeated. “I thought you weren’t coming home until tomorrow.”

“I wasn’t, but another blizzard is due to hit the East Coast early tomorrow morning. It’s predicted to be bad enough that I had a choice of ducking out of town tonight or being stuck in Manhattan for the whole weekend. When I managed to snag a last-minute flight, I canceled tomorrow’s meetings and came home. I didn’t call because I was hoping to surprise you. Turns out the joke’s on me.”

“I’m having a pizza party with Sister Anselm and Leland on the maternity floor of St. Jerome’s Hospital in Flagstaff.”

“And Bella?”

“Leland dropped her off with my folks. They’re not allowed to own a dog, but this was regarded as an emergency.”

“So maybe you should bring me up to date. I talked to Stu as I was driving up from Phoenix, but I have a feeling that there’s a lot more to the story.”

It was not a particularly happy conversation, and it took the better part of an hour. By the time it was over, Ali’s iPhone was burning her ear, the battery power was down to 5 percent, and B. was over being pissed at her for, as he called it, “going off half cocked.” By the time they said good night, though, things were better.

“All’s well that ends well, I suppose,” B. said finally, “but there goes that Leland—saving the day again. Whatever are we going to do with the man?”

“Keep him around, I guess,” Ali said. “Now let me go. My phone’s going to die any minute if I don’t find my charger.”

By the time she found the charger, an outlet, and had her phone plugged in, Ali realized that Leland was curled up on a nearby sofa, sound asleep. She prowled around the floor long enough to find a linen cart stocked with clean blankets. She collected several and took them back to the waiting room. She used a couple of them to cover Leland and wrapped one around her own legs. She didn’t know if the temperature in the waiting room had really gone down or if she was simply dealing with the dissipation of adrenaline.

She was glad Leland was sleeping, and she hoped Sister Anselm was, but Ali herself was wide awake and chewing on the way Richard Lowell had been dressed—his spiffy suit and tie, as opposed to the homespun crap and thrift-shop rejects in the box containing Enid Tower’s personal effects.

It was close to midnight when she sent Stu an e-mail, copying Cami as she did so.

Richard Lowell paid us a visit at the hospital earlier this evening. I believe Cami said he was probably the guy in charge right now, since he lives in the house closest to the church. I want to know everything there is to know about him.

Ali

She had no sooner sent it than a response came back from Stu. Didn’t the man ever sleep?

Hey, I thought you’d be downloading some zzzzs about now, but I wanted you to know that I got the drone thing handled. A buddy of mine is using drones to do aerial surveys of all BLM land abutting Grand Canyon National Park. I asked him to do the job for us and made it worth his while. Since he’s already done some work in that area, it won’t be any trouble for him to get himself and his equipment where we need them. He’ll be there bright and early tomorrow. Make that today.

And yes, I’ll start digging on Mr. Lowell. Cami’s right. Since he lives in the big house, he’s probably the big cheese.

Oh, and did you know B. is home? He called me on his drive up from Phoenix, but he asked me to keep it a secret because he wanted to surprise you. Felt like I was caught between a rock and a hard place. Hope you don’t mind.

Stu

Relieved to know the supposed greenhouses might soon give up their secrets, Ali sent her response immediately:

A tale of two bosses. Not to worry. Thanks.

Ali

Having done as much as she could do for the night, Ali rested her head against the back of the love seat and pulled the blanket more tightly around her legs. She had just drifted off when her phone startled her awake. When she picked it up and Kate Benchley’s photo peered back at her from the screen, Ali realized that the bag with Gordon Tower’s cheek swab in it was still in her pocket rather than in a FedEx envelope on its way to Banshee Group.

“You said it was urgent, and we treated it as urgent,” Kate said when Ali answered. “I know it’s the middle of the night there, but we’ve got a match, and I wanted you to know right away.”

Ali was still on the groggy side.
A match?
she wondered. Of course there was a match. Baby Ann was Enid’s daughter, after all. Why wouldn’t there be a match? Maybe the note Ali had sent along with the samples hadn’t been clear. She thought she had said she just wanted the profiles. But the urgency in Kate’s voice put Ali on edge.

“Don’t worry about waking me. I was still up, sort of, but what kind of match do you mean?”

“Two of them actually,” Kate answered. “Not exact matches, but near matches.”

Now Ali was truly mystified. “Matches from where?”

“One came from a victim from the tsunami in Thailand and the other from a mass grave at the scene of a Colombian drug cartel massacre. I’m looking at the forensics reports right now. Both were female and both were estimated to be no more than six or seven years old. One is a second cousin of the sample labeled Baby Ann and the other is a half sister of the one named Enid.”

Ali was thunderstruck. “How’s that possible?” she asked. “Baby Ann is barely two days old. She and her mother live with a group of people, a cult actually, that carves out a meager existence in northern Arizona. I can’t imagine any relatives of theirs being able to travel outside the U.S. How could they?”

Kate took a long steadying breath. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” she said. “Those girls didn’t go traveling of their own free will. In the world of sex trafficking, girls that young are the crown jewels. I’d guess they were smuggled out of the United States and sold on the black market for a ton of money. The one in Thailand was found virtually intact and tossed up on a hillside days after the tsunami. The one in Colombia was skeletal remains only.”

Kate was still speaking when Ali took the phone from her ear. For a moment she stared at it in disbelief. Then, as she tried to suppress her gag reflex, the phone clattered to the floor. Throwing off the blanket and scrambling to her feet, she raced for the nearest restroom. At least she managed to heave the last few undigested bits of her pepperoni pizza into the toilet rather than onto the floor.

26

W
hen Ali finished in the restroom and staggered back out to the waiting room, Leland was sitting up on his sofa with Ali’s cell phone clutched in one hand. His white hair stood on end, reminding Ali of that iconic photo of Albert Einstein, but she was too heartsick to mention it.

Seeing what must have been a desolate expression on her face, he immediately pushed himself to his feet and hobbled across the room to hand over her phone. “Madame,” he said, taking her arm to lead her back to the love seat. “Whatever is the matter? Are you ill?”

“I am,” Ali said. “I’ll tell you in a minute. First I need to call Kate back.”

She redialed the number. “What happened?” Kate asked. “It sounded like you dropped the phone.”

“I did drop the phone,” Ali said. “I had to. I was about to barf my guts out. The whole idea makes me sick to my stomach. How do you do what you do?”

“It’s not easy,” Kate replied. “And you’re not alone in being disgusted by this. I’ve already been in touch with my contact at Interpol. His name’s Sean Fergus, and he’s part of their international Human Trafficking Division. I told him what I found, and I’m sending copies of the DNA profiles directly to him. Of course, he wanted more details. Since I didn’t have any, I referred him to you. I’m sure he’ll be in touch, probably later today. You need to be prepared, Ali,” she cautioned. “There may be more near matches waiting out there.”

Ali thought about the names in Richard Lowell’s family Bible, the ones Sister Anselm mentioned that had been crossed out and designated with the initials N.C. The name of Richard Lowell’s deceased wife, Anne, had been whited out of the list, but Ali now suspected that the N.C. notation represented a fate that was infinitely worse.

“You’re right about that,” Ali said. “I suspect those two victims may be just the tip of the iceberg.”

“That was Kate Benchley on the phone?” Leland asked when Ali ended the call. “The young woman who did the DNA testing in my father’s homicide when we were in the UK?”

“That’s the one,” Ali answered. “Sister Anselm obtained DNA samples from both Enid and her baby. We sent them to Kate in hopes that there would be some way of matching their profiles with ones from an unidentified mother and child who were murdered near Kingman years ago. Instead, we’ve found matches to two near relatives, young girls, whose unidentified bodies have been found years apart and half a world away. Kate thinks we’ve stumbled into some kind of international human trafficking organization.”

“Oh my,” Leland said. “And that Lowell person who was here earlier—you think he has something to do with it?”

“There’s a good chance he’s the person in charge.”

During Ali’s phone call, Leland had resumed his seat. Now he stood back up and paced back and forth. “If I’d had any idea,” he said, brandishing his cane, “I’d have given that man a good thrashing on the spot!”

Sister Anselm returned and looked anxiously back and forth between them. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Has something happened?”

Ali gave her a condensed version of Kate Benchley’s call. With an ashen face, Sister Anselm sank into the nearest chair. “What do we do now?” she asked.

“Kate says someone from Interpol, an agent who deals with human trafficking, will be in touch later today,” Ali answered. “I guess we’ll see what kind of suggestions he has to offer.”

Sister Anselm rose to her feet. “I tried to convince Mr. Upton to go home, but he was adamant. Since he’s still in the room with Enid and the baby, I believe I’ll go down to the chapel and pray for direction.”

The nun was almost to the elevator when her phone rang. She listened for a moment. “I’m sure that’s fine,” she said. Hanging up, she turned back to Ali and Leland.

“That was the hospital administrator. An expectant mother and father just showed up downstairs. Their doctor is demanding access to the maternity floor. The administrator has been forced to declare the crisis over and is in the process of reopening the maternity floor. He’s also lobbying for Enid’s safety and for the well-being of other patients and staff that she and the baby be transferred to another facility without delay.”

“Are they up to being moved?” Ali asked.

“Possibly,” Sister Anselm said. “I’ve spoken to their doctors and suggested the possibility of taking them by air ambulance to Physicians Medical Center in Tucson. If need be, once Enid and the baby are well enough to leave the hospital, they can stay with my friends at the All Saints Convent until it’s safe for them to return to this area.”

Recalling the time Ali had seen the nuns from All Saints in action, she knew that Enid and the baby would be in good hands at the convent.

“Also,” Sister Anselm continued, “additional security personnel have been authorized for the remainder of the night, so if you two want to go back to Sedona . . .”

“Absolutely not.” Leland sat back down and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not leaving. If’s there’s even the smallest chance that either one of those vile men or some of their associates might return, I intend to be here to greet them in an entirely suitable fashion.”

Despite everything, Ali couldn’t help smiling at that. When it came to being in a tight spot, Leland Brooks was always a good guy to have around.

“If he’s not leaving, neither am I,” Ali added.

Resigned, Sister Anselm nodded. “Somehow I already knew that’s what both of you would say.”

27

S
till churning over what she had learned from Kate Benchley, Ali didn’t doze off until sometime in the wee hours. When she awakened, the first face she saw was B.’s. Standing over her and shaking her shoulder, he held out her phone.