Walk Through the Valley (Psalm 23 Mysteries) (22 page)

“I’m not used to being lost, to not knowing my path,” he admitted.

“I’ve felt lost for so long that sometimes I think if I ever found my way I’d be truly terrified.”

“What happens now?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

There was a sound just outside the door and a moment later it opened. Cindy’s parents stepped inside. Don looked at Jeremiah. “Glad to see you’re both awake.”

Jeremiah wasn’t sure if the interruption was a blessing or a curse.

“How’s Kyle?” he asked.

“Better. Doctors say he should be fine. It’s going to take several months for him to heal, but no permanent damage it looks like.”

“That’s wonderful!” Cindy said.

“They’re actually transferring him out of the ICU.”

Jeremiah stood quickly. “Who’s watching over him?”

“The nurses I suppose. We came back to change into some fresh clothes and then we were going to grab some food before heading back over to see him once he’s settled in the new room,” Don said.

“Let’s get over there,” Cindy said, standing and heading for the door.

“What’s wrong?” Don asked.

“If they’re moving him he’s going to be that much more vulnerable if his attacker wants to try again,” Jeremiah said, following Cindy.

He heard her mom gasp, but he didn’t have time to make sure they were okay. He and Cindy hadn’t prayed so long and hard for Kyle just to have him killed anyway. He had no idea if Cindy had shared with them their suspicions that what had happened to Kyle wasn’t an accident, but they could deal with all that later. They made it down the hall to the elevator and he tried to focus himself through the interminable ride down to the lobby.

They burst out of the elevator and ran across the lobby, then outside and across the street before making it back into the hospital. “We don’t know what room,” Cindy said, veering suddenly for the information desk.

“Kyle Preston’s room number, please. I’m his sister and my parents said he was just moved from ICU,” she blurted out at the startled woman behind the desk.

“Oh, okay, let me see. He’s in...this computer is so slow...”

Jeremiah thought Cindy was actually going to leap across the desk and throttle the woman. For his part he was eyeing the group of people huddled in front of the elevator.

“Oh, here it is. He’s in room 211.”

“Stairs,” Jeremiah said and ran with Cindy to the stairwell by the elevator. He yanked the door open and they went flying upward to burst moments later out into the hallway on the second floor. They raced past a startled nurse and burst into Kyle’s room.

A woman gave a little yelp and scrambled to her feet from her seat on a chair next to Kyle’s bed. “What’s wrong?” she asked,
hand pressed to her heart.

“Bunni? Is everything okay?” Cindy panted as she stared around the room.

“Yes, why? Is something going on?”

“How long have you been in here?” Jeremiah asked.

“I don’t know, ten minutes or so. I came in right after they moved him in here,” Bunni said.

Cindy dropped into an empty chair and struggled to regain her composure. She wondered if there was still a plain clothes officer keeping watch over Kyle like Detective Sanders had said there was the other day. She’d never actually managed to spot someone that she thought might be him. If there was one, why hadn’t he responded to them running toward the room? Was it because he knew who they were?

“Hey, sis.”

The voice was weak, but it was Kyle’s. She got back up and walked around the bed to stand beside Bunni.

“Hey, how are you doing?” she asked, plastering a smile on her face and hoping he couldn’t see how stressed she was.

“Okay. Been better, but hey.”

“I was telling him about all the wacky stuff he missed out on while he was here and the rest of us were filming in Canada,” Bunni said brightly.

Cindy nodded. “Bunni, this is Jeremiah. Jeremiah, Bunni is one of the other travel hosts at the Escape! Channel.”

“Nice to meet you, Bunni,” Jeremiah said.

She could tell he relaxed slightly knowing that Kyle wasn’t in immediate danger.

“Yeah, she’s the best,” Kyle whispered.

“You’re just saying that,” Bunni told him, but her cheeks turned pink at the compliment.

A figure darkened the doorway and Cindy looked up to see her dad entering the room. “I convinced your mom to stay at the hotel. I figured it would be safer,” he said, face grim.

“Everything seems to be okay so far,” Cindy said.

Her dad moved farther into the room until he was standing on the other side of Kyle. “I’m glad to hear it,” he said.

“We need to set up a watch so that two people are here at all times just to be on the safe side,” Jeremiah said.

Cindy nodded. It was the smart move. A chill danced up her spine and as if compelled she turned her head and glanced outside. Two large men in suits were walking by in the hall. There was something ominous about them. One of them had his hand inside his jacket and the other was carrying a bouquet of large, yellow blooms.

Sunflowers.

They were heading toward Lisa’s room.

18

“Sunflowers!” Cindy shouted as she bolted from the room.

She collided with a nurse just outside the door and fell, sprawling on the ground. She landed hard enough that the wind was knocked out of her and she lay there, clutching her chest in apparent agony.

Jeremiah swooped down to help her, but she shook her head and pointed down the hall. He ran, not sure which room was Lisa’s so he looked in each as he ran by, scanning for someone with sunflowers.

At last he saw what he was looking for and he skidded to a halt and entered the room.

“Lisa, I presume?” he said to the terrified looking woman in the hospital bed.

She nodded mutely.

“I’m the rabbi. I’ve come to check on you to make sure your needs are being met. I know that they have kosher food options here at the hospital,” he said, stalling for time.

There were two large men in the room and they looked like criminals in nice suits. Possibly some sort of mafia connection. One of them was carrying sunflowers and the other was pulling his hand out of his jacket, leaving the gun he had underneath it in place.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to come and check in on you, but I’ve had to make quite a few visitations, most of them to people a lot older and sicker than you,” he said, forcing a smile.

He turned to the men. “Gentlemen, how do you do? I’m Rabbi Silverman.”

They nodded at him, faces hostile. He pretended not to notice. In his mind he had already formulated a plan for how he would take them both down before they could draw their weapons. He was about to make a move when a nurse bustled in.

“Oh good, rabbi, I’m glad you found the right room,” she said with a smile.

“Yes, thank you,” Jeremiah said, realizing Cindy must have sent her. “I was just getting ready to have a nice chat with Lisa,” he said.

“We should go,” the first thug said to the second one. The second one nodded and put the bouquet of sunflowers on one of the tables. “See you around, Lisa,” the first one said, his voice dripping menace.

Lisa didn’t say a word.

The nurse bustled around, doing her duties. Cindy appeared a minute later in the doorway, pale but apparently alright.

Jeremiah walked over and stood next to her. “We scared them off.”

She nodded. “I called Detective Sanders. As soon as the nurse leaves, though, I think we need to have a talk with Lisa.”

“I think it’s past time.”

As soon as the nurse left Jeremiah pulled chairs up on either side of Lisa’s bed.

“I’m, I’m not in the mood for company,” she said.

“I’m not sure that’s anyway to greet the man who just saved your life,” Cindy said.

Jeremiah nodded. “Yes, because I’m pretty sure that’s what just happened. Care to tell us who those guys were?”

“No,” Lisa said, fear written all over her face.

“I know that whoever hit you and Kyle was coming after you, not him. That’s what all the sunflowers are about. The ones with the morbid note, the picture someone put on your phone that I’m sure the detective showed you, and those guys with more sunflowers. Is this all connected to the client you mentioned in that magazine article who had the obsession with sunflowers?”

“Yes,” Lisa whispered.

Cindy glanced at him. Now they were getting somewhere.

“Who is the client and why is he coming after you now?” Jeremiah asked.

“We can’t help you if you won’t tell us what’s going on,” Cindy said after waiting for several seconds in silence.

Lisa shuddered and it shook her entire body. Tears filled her eyes. Cindy reached out and took her hand. “It’s going to be okay. We can help. We’re good at this sort of thing,” she said as reassuringly as she could.

Jeremiah nodded supportively.

“Shut the door,” Lisa whispered.

Jeremiah got up and did so then came back to his seat.

“When I was just out of college, my parents wanted to help me out,” Lisa said. “They helped me get my first design job with a...a friend of theirs. My father did some work for him.”

“What kind of work?” Jeremiah asked softly, suspecting that it was not entirely above board.

“My parents own a restaurant. No one ever eats there, but a lot of money goes through it anyway.”

“They laundered money for him,” Jeremiah said quietly.

She nodded. “I didn’t understand until I was an adult that that was what was going on. When I took the job redesigning his house, though, I already knew. I knew what he did for a living, but I needed experience. I needed work. So I said yes.”

“What did you do for him?” Cindy asked.

“I redesigned everything. I mean, it was a dream come true, especially for someone just starting out. There were things, though, that he wanted that I knew...I knew they weren’t right. But I did the job. I was afraid not to after a while. He had secret rooms put in all over for all kinds of things. There was a panic room and a few different safes. I designed an entire weapons room where he could store things. The more I gave him the more he let slip details about the things he needed and why he needed them. Then, the final part.”

She came to a halt and tears started running down her cheeks. “He needed one last special room with a furnace that could burn at 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. I knew,
knew
what it was for, and yet I got it for him anyway.”

That was how hot you needed it to burn to cremate bodies. He glanced at Cindy and could tell by the look on her face that she had come to that conclusion as well.

“I did my job. I did everything he asked. I even gave him his horrible sunflower carpet that he wanted. He said it was a constant reminder that life is fleeting and precious. I swore to myself that I would never again be in that position, afraid of my client. I finished the job and I left.”

“But not before you took pictures of everything,” Cindy said.

Lisa nodded. “I documented everything. I kept those files for insurance, you know, just in case. Then a few years passed and nothing happened and I thought...I thought I was safe. Then, when that car hit us, I knew it was because of him. In my mind I thought that it had finally caught up with me. I was just sorry that Kyle was there.”

“He had read the article about you and suddenly he realized you probably had information about all his secret rooms, enough to give to the police if you ever wanted to,” Cindy said.

She nodded.

“Where are the files now? Do you keep them at your office?”

Lisa shook her head. “No, not those. They are where they’ve been since the day I finished that job. They’re in a safe deposit box here in town.”

“Lisa, you have to go to the police with this,” Cindy said.

“No! The only reason he hasn’t killed me yet is because he doesn’t know where they are, what I’ve done with them. He wants me to give them to him and that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Then he really won’t have a reason not to kill you,” Jeremiah said.

“He won’t. He values my dad’s services too much.”

Jeremiah and Cindy exchanged glances. He could tell she was thinking the same thing. Lisa was a dead woman either way.

Mark had managed to go nearly a whole day without having to think about or talk about Milt’s death. He could feel himself beginning to unwind. Vacation was definitely good for him and he couldn’t tell how much of Traci’s happy glow was inspired by Tahiti and how much was because of the baby. All he knew for sure was that she looked amazing and he couldn’t be happier.

It was time for lunch and they had made their way to the restaurant. He was even getting used to the leisurely meals on the island. Lunch generally took two hours. Dinner took a minimum of three with course after course of food arriving.