Saying a prayer occurred to him. He couldn’t bring himself to start. He was too worried. Too angry. Surely, God wouldn’t take kindly to a plea that came from such an unforgiving heart.
If anything happened to Samantha—his Samantha—he would never forgive himself. Or his chief. Whether Kelso had meant for her to get so deeply involved or not, he hadn’t taken steps to stop her.
As far as John was concerned, that was the same as sending an unarmed novice into a cage full of hungry lions.
These were not biblical times and Samantha was not Daniel. The way he saw it, if she got too close to solving the crime, her chances of emerging unscathed were zero to none.
FIFTEEN
Rays from the setting sun were blindingly bright. Squinting, Samantha lowered the driver’s side visor.
“How much farther do you think it may be?” she asked Lindy. “We’re running out of daylight.”
“I don’t know.” There was a catch in the other woman’s voice. “Trying to find the way to the cabin was probably foolish but I just couldn’t sit home and wait for news that something terrible had happened to my Danny.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Sam said. “I don’t think it’s at all silly to do whatever we can. We’re not hurting anything. Even if there’s only a slim chance, at least we’re trying.”
The police chief had assured Samantha that there was going to be someone discreetly following them, although she hadn’t been able to spot any specific car. Considering the serpentine road that led to and from Sylamore, that wasn’t very surprising.
She checked her mirrors. Still no visible tail. That might be a bad sign if they actually found the cabin they were looking for. Since they hadn’t seen anything that had jogged Lindy’s memory so far, however, that was not likely to be a problem. Samantha figured it was enough that she’d gotten the woman to admit to a possible hideout. The police could use that lead to search for both Danny and Ben later.
Weary, she eased the car onto the gravel shoulder of the road as soon as it was wide enough to safely do so. Her hands were cramping from gripping the steering wheel so tightly. She shrugged, rotated her neck and limbered up her arms to help ease painful knots in her muscles.
“We’ve covered the section of road where you said you thought the cabin cutoff was,” Samantha said. “Don’t you think we should head back to Serenity? They might have had word about Danny by now.”
Lindy nodded slowly, sadly, and pulled her cell phone from her purse with trembling hands. “I gave the police my number. They haven’t called.”
Her pleading expression and obvious pain touched Samantha’s heart. She checked her own cell and noticed a series of missed personal calls—all from John’s number. Uh-oh. If he had good news, fine. If he’d been calling merely to chew her out for ditching him—even for a good reason—that was another story.
Choosing to lay aside the phone and reassure her companion before replying to the missed calls she said, “Okay. We’ll go a few miles farther. But then we’re turning around. It’ll be dark before we get home as it is.”
Lindy grabbed her hands and held tight, as if she might somehow draw on Samantha’s strength. “Thank you so much. I don’t know what I’d do if I had to be by myself right now.”
“You have friends you can call to stay with you when you get home, don’t you?”
“Yes, and no. Like I said before, since Ben got so touchy, a lot of folks have been avoiding us.”
“Have you told Brother Logan Malloy about the physical abuse?” Samantha asked gently, mentioning the familiar pastor. The shock she saw on her companion’s face made her anticipate a denial.
Instead, Lindy averted her gaze as if embarrassed and shook her head. “No. I haven’t told anyone. It wasn’t so serious when Ben slapped me, but when he began to hit my son I stood up to him.”
“Then how did Danny land in the hospital this last time?”
“I didn’t see it coming in time to intervene and Ben…” Lindy cupped her face in her hands and began to sob as if her heart was breaking.
Empathetic, Samantha patted her shoulder, handed her a packet of tissues, sat back and let her cry. There was catharsis in tears. And if anyone was entitled to weep it was this poor woman.
Eventually spent, Lindy sniffled, blew her nose and apologized. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lose control like that. I just can’t stop thinking about my poor little boy.”