Page 78 of Glimmer in the Darkness

Ella.

Cassidy imagined the photograph that had been circulated of Ella. The girl had worn a huge smile in the picture, her head tilted to the side, her shoulders up just a bit as if she were embarrassed. She had long brown hair braided in two strands.

This hair tie would be perfect to secure a braid.

Ella had been in that cave. This hair tie was proof. If only Cassidy had thought of it in time to tell James. Then, he could have told the police.

But what had it been doing there, near the secret entrance? Cassidy considered the area. If the kidnapper had taken Ella out of the cave and down the other path, the slow way, he’d have had to pass that spot. Had Ella dropped the hair tie on purpose? Had she hoped someone would find it?

Cassidy pulled the new no-contract phone from her grocery sack and turned it on. It was a cheapie, but the map would get her back to Coventry and Mt. Ayasha. She didn’t know yet what she’d do when she got there. She’d figure that out on the way.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

How come James could sleep better on a rocky hillside than on a thin mattress?

Because no bars had kept him on the mountain.

He shifted on the crappy bed and squeezed his eyes closed, telling himself to go back to sleep.

There were no windows in this cell, but the clock on the far wall told him it was seven o’clock. Despite the thoughts buzzing like flies, he’d slept for a few hours.

Had Cassidy? Where was she?

Not for the first time since he’d last seen her, he lifted a prayer for her. When he’d been tossed into the cell, when he’d heard the click of the lock, he’d understood the fear he’d heard in her voice when he’d suggested they call the police. He understood in a way he never had before. The bars, the charges, the people in authority looking at him as if he were a felon…

He had to get out of there.

But he couldn’t leave. That was the most stressful part. Not the angry looks he’d gotten from the cops, most of whom he’d known all his life, but the fact that he couldn’t leave. Being in jail was like the longest, most boring high school class in history, only he had no idea when the bell would ring.

And what a… a foolish, childish way to look at it. James had thought himself an adult, but one night in jail had broken him.

No.

He sat up. Unbroken. Alive and well and determined to do the right thing. Lord, what is the right thing?

No answer. Not an audible one, anyway, but James wasn’t surprised. He’d hardly been on speaking terms with God for a decade. That he was now was a testament to his desperation. And his hope. Because, while these walls seemed to be closing in on him, they weren’t. And while Ella was still missing, her body hadn’t turned up. She was out there, and God knew exactly where she was. And while Cassidy had disappeared again, the police hadn’t found her. If they had, she’d be in the jail cell next door. God was good and had a plan for all of this. He had to. Right, God?

Again, no answer, but Scriptures James had memorized years before had been flitting through his brain all night long. Promises like I will never leave you or forsake you reminded him he wasn’t alone. Promises of justice and righteousness reminded him that God cared as much as James did, more, he figured, that Hallie’s murderer be held accountable for what he’d done. That Ella be rescued. The verse he kept coming back to was from John. Simple, powerful words. The truth will set you free.

What was the truth, though? Cassidy hadn’t kidnapped Hallie, but who had? And where was that person now? Where was Ella?

He didn’t know, but he was going to find her. If he ever got out of there.

At eight-thirty, he was taken by a uniformed police officer he’d never met to appear before the judge in the courthouse next door. The attorney he’d called the night before entered a plea of not guilty, and the judge, after hearing arguments on both sides, set his bail at fifty thousand dollars.

Because, apparently, they feared James would skip town with Cassidy.

Never mind that the judge had been a friend of his father, that James had known him as long as he could remember.

Never mind that he’d graduated with the city’s attorney.

Never mind that he owned property and a business in Coventry. He was associated with Cassidy. Therefore, he wasn’t to be trusted.

While his attorney filed paperwork, James tried to decide whom to call to post his bail. He couldn’t very well call Reid.

Vince was the one who’d put him in there in the first place.

He had no family nearby.