Hearths of Fire (19 page)

By the time Neal took inventory and examined the compound from afar, he’d counted
six guards planted at various intervals. From their apparent lack of interlocking
fields of observation and improper placement on the terrain, one thing was strikingly
obvious. It was an unprofessional detail that demonstrated the Ashes didn’t know anything
about force protection. They were a typical run of the mill cult that used brawn versus
brain without a single veteran among them.

“What have we got here?” Neal murmured, setting his sights on the church. Garreth
was walking toward the building with Mandy on his arm, both grinning and then exchanging
embraces with his parents. Neal’s fingers tightened on the binoculars, wishing he
wasn’t witnessing this false act that only further drew Mandy into the web of lies.
“Son of a bitch.”

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Garreth would bring Mandy to Sunday’s service.
After all, it would be the perfect time for the Ashes to announce something of this
significance to their members. It technically worked in Neal’s favor because he would
only need to worry about the men posted to watch for intruders. The haphazard way
they were watching the property would allow him easy access through the one of many
gaps in their coverage to search the premises.

Neal felt his phone vibrate in his coat pocket. He’d purposefully pushed all thoughts
of Charlotte to the far recesses of his mind. Thinking of her and how she desired
to take things further than what they should have would serve no purpose and only
break his concentration. Unfortunately, he couldn’t take the chance of not answering
in case something went wrong at home. Keeping the binoculars against his face, he
pulled his cell from his pocket and gave it a quick glance.

“Daegan. What’s up?”

“That was my line,” Daegan said, although he answered the question without any more
preliminaries. “Patricia Ashe was arrested two years ago in an attempt to abduct a
fifteen year old girl.”

“What the fuck?” Neal lowered the binoculars although his gaze remained fixed on the
probable lane of enemy approach from the area around him. “I pulled everything there
was to find on Robert
and
Patricia. There was nothing.”

“That’s because the arrest was thrown out and somehow her lawyer managed to get it
expunged.”

“Which is why it didn’t show up in the standard records check,” Neal muttered, finishing
off where Daegan was going with this. Neal also read between the lines. “Did you get
this information from the chick in the operations intel cell? You’re so going to get
our collective asses canned.”

“Being the good old boy from next door isn’t going to get you what you want.” There
was a pause on the line and Neal had to wonder if the woman in question wasn’t by
Daegan’s side as he relayed the information. His Irish blue eyes had a way of capturing
the attention of every lady within a ten-mile radius. “It took some deep searches
in following Ashes to Dirt’s history and then pulling up the local newspapers before
getting a hit on the small article that didn’t even make the front page. It turns
out that the girl later recanted her statement and said she made false claims against
the Ashes after she was back home in late October.”

“Let me guess,” Neal said, bringing his binoculars back in place. “This girl’s birthday
falls on Halloween.”

“Hold on.” Rustling papers could be heard in the background along with the clicking
of a keyboard. Neal might have been wrong about Daegan’s informant being in his bed.
“Here it is. Melanie Stewart. Her birthday is…October thirty-first.”

Neal thought back to what Becky had told Charlotte in regards to a ritual along with
the Ashes thinking their son was the messiah. He didn’t know much about cults or the
various beliefs, but combine those with rituals and All Hallows’ Eve and it couldn’t
be good. If Patricia Ashe would go so far as to try and abduct a girl for her son,
what other lengths would they go to? Had they taken Becky? There was only one way
to find out.

“There is one week before Garreth Ashe turns eighteen. I’m doing some recon now, but
my gut is saying they abducted Mandy’s friend thereby keeping her from going to the
sheriff.”

“Do the Ashes not realize that several people already know what this girl overheard?”
Daegan asked, his skepticism coming through the phone line loud and clear. “You said
that you relayed the information to the sheriff.”

“It’s hearsay and not enough to get a search warrant.” Neal sat back on his heels
and calculated the odds of being able to search the entire property. “Once I have
a better feel for the place I’ll call you back.”

“Wait. Is your girl going with you?”

“Charlotte would only get in the way,” Neal said, not wanting to engage in this topic.
Daegan would undoubtedly have some fucking Irish radar that would give away the fact
that Neal had slept with her. “I’m losing time here. I’ll touch base soon.”

Neal disconnected before Daegan could say anything else, feeling somewhat satisfied
that he’d stopped that conversation in its tracks. Having already picked out the route
he would take onto the property, he quickly packed the binoculars back into the bag
and exchanged them for a pair of lineman’s pliers—which he stuffed in his back pocket—and
a pair of gloves. There was no telling what he’d find once he was inside the compound,
but there wasn’t much that a good pair of lineman’s pliers wouldn’t help out with.
He swiftly gathered some leaves and a few long reeds to camouflage his bag as a precaution
for anyone on roving patrol who might stumble across his hide while traversing this
area.

It didn’t take him long to access the property as well as slip past the two men guarding
the east side of the compound. Neal looked at his watch, waiting for the seconds to
hit the minute mark. He pressed the side button that would start his timer and give
him the forty-five minutes needed to scour the property. He was erring on the side
of caution. Most likely the sermon that was being given would conclude within an hour.
He wouldn’t take the chance of getting caught trespassing and tampering with any evidence
that might be needed at a later date.

The first three buildings were housing structures, containing ten cots per building.
Each assembly had a small kitchen and bathroom attached, although there were no personal
belongings other than various black clothing. By the time he’d made it to the renovated
church, fifteen minutes had passed. Neal could hear the murmurs of voices through
the wooden planks. The sermon was in progress, so he stole around the back and had
to waste at least four minutes of his time while one of the guards took his time before
returning to the other side of the barn. It would be impossible not to be seen by
walking around the front of the house, so Neal hastily made his way around back and
tried the door. It was locked.

“Fuck,” Neal muttered, weighing his options.

He kept his eye out for anyone close to the residence as he tested all of the windows.
Every single one of them was bolted tight, which didn’t leave him much of a choice.
He could either break one of them and hope that the noise didn’t carry or work his
way around the front and take the chance that the front door was unlocked as well
as moving by unseen. It would have to be the quiet route since the noise would carry.
If the front door was dead-bolted he’d have to come up with another scenario.

It took another five minutes as he lay in wait for the cult member in front of the
church doors to decide to walk around the other side. Where the other buildings were
situated on the west side, he didn’t have to worry about being spotted by the two
guards working that area. Neal grabbed the railing of the porch and hopped over, landing
quietly on his feet. Closing the distance to the entrance as swiftly as he could,
he pulled open the screen door and placed his hand on the doorknob. When it turned
in his hand, he didn’t waste any time entering the house and quietly closing it behind
him.

Listening carefully and hearing nothing but stilled silence, Neal made sure to stay
away from the windows as he searched the first floor, looking for anything that would
indicate that Becky was on the premises. Nothing stood out so he took the stairs up
to the second level and entered the first bedroom. It was almost clinical with the
way the white sheets and blanket covered the mattress that laid on the floor. The
only furniture in the room was a dresser and he found that there were women’s clothes
inside…all black, of course.

Leaving things in place, Neal then made his way to the second bedroom. Same style
of detached design, although the dresser contained men’s clothing. Before he made
any assumptions he went to what a normal family would have considered the main bedroom.
Thinking he would find the same dispassionate taste, he wasn’t prepared for what he
saw when he opened the door. Yes, there was a mattress on the floor and a dresser
off to the side. It was the altar surrounded by black and red candles that caught
him off guard. A mirror hung in the middle so that whoever knelt at the makeshift
altar would be able to see him or herself. It was a safe bet that this was Garreth
Ashe’s room, whereas that meant that Robert and Patricia no longer shared a bedroom.

Neal didn’t waste time searching the closets and bathroom that was located on the
other side of the hallway. Nothing caught his interest and he made his way down the
stairs and back into the kitchen, opening up the door to the basement. A quick glance
at his watch gave him the amount of time he had left. He stood at the top of the stairs
with his head bent, listening intently but he couldn’t detect a sound. He pulled the
small flashlight off of his belt and clicked the button, shining the beam of light
down the steps. Taking one at a time and keeping his back to the far wall, he made
it downstairs in less than thirty seconds. The ray of light caught something of interest,
so once he did a clean sweep and determined that no one else was in the basement,
he walked over to the set-up on the wall.

“Son of a bitch.” Neal’s gut tightened as he took in the information before him. There
was a map of Hearth with specific places circled—one of them being Charlotte’s house.
He moved the flashlight from one end to the other, finding that there were pictures
of townsfolk tacked up on the board. Mandy was at the center along with around ten
other people. A couple he knew and others he didn’t. Taking his phone out of his pocket,
he snapped a few pictures while his mind tried to connect the dots. “What the fuck
are you people doing in our town?”

Shining the small beam on his watch, Neal knew it was time to finish his sweep of
the property. There was no sign of Becky and from what he’d gathered, she wouldn’t
be in the other housing structures either. That left the church, but would the Ashes
really keep her visible in front of the entire congregation? He made his way up the
stairs and made sure that everything remained the same before he left, using the back
door and ensured that it was locked from behind. It didn’t take long to clear the
other buildings and work his way to the end of the property.

Neal had just maneuvered his body through some barbed wire fencing that went the length
of the west side of the field when he came up short. An older man wearing all black
was leaning against a tree, as if he’d been waiting for Neal this entire time. A quick
glance around showed no one else and that the man wasn’t bearing arms, but Neal still
placed his hand on his sidearm.

‡

C
harlotte hung up
the phone, having just gotten an update from Pam. The store was operating fine and
her friend loved the extra hours, but Charlotte still felt guilty for taking so much
time away from what was her livelihood. Technically she could have gone into the shop
today, but that wasn’t going to happen after this morning. She refused to believe
that Neal wasn’t aware of the returning feelings from so long ago that they were both
experiencing. He didn’t seem to be harboring ill will toward her for past decisions,
yet he was acting as if this meant nothing but a few nights of sex. They were rediscovering
something between them and she wasn’t about to discard that.

Looking at the time display on the microwave, she saw that it was one o’clock in the
afternoon and neither Neal nor Mandy had returned. Anxiety was clutching her stomach
at the thought that Neal might get caught searching the premises and she couldn’t
even wrap her mind around the fact that Mandy was attending whatever services the
Ashes were providing. Scenarios were running rampant in Charlotte’s mind and her sitting
here would only blow them out of proportion. She’d just made up her mind to take a
ride into town when she heard the front door open.

“Mandy?” Charlotte knew it was her sister from the jingle of her keys. “I didn’t expect
you back so early.”