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She nodded. “That’s good to hear. I know how hard it can be to maintain things like that after a big change in the family. It takes a while to adjust. Divorce is rough.”
She smiled, and it was warm, though I knew she was trying to be patient and supportive. She needed to get out of me whatever she could, and rudeness wasn’t the way. A lesson she’d learned the day before with her partner. She was probably afraid Doctor Captain America would come back in here and kick her out.
“Okay, so you went with your mom and dad. So, what next? What do you remember after that?”
I shook my head. “No. I went with my dad. Only. Just him. I honestly have no idea why my mom was there. She wasn’t supposed to be. Hell, I hadn’t even seen her in probably six months. My dad definitely would have mentioned it if he knew, so it was a surprise.”
Just talking about it brought the images of my mother lying on the floor, a single bullet hole in her forehead, while my father’s dead body lay on top of her. Nothing in the world could convince me he didn’t die protecting her. I knew he did. He still loved her. He always would have.
“Maybe she wanted to surprise you both. Do you remember seeing anyone else there who normally wasn’t?” Detective Abbott asked.
I closed my eyes and thought. Try as I might, I couldn’t remember anything. I sighed again and shook my head.
“No. Everyone there were regulars in one way or another. They were either thereeverySunday or like us, coming most of the time. No one stuck out.” There was a pause as I tried to remember up to the last moment before the blackout began. “I remember Pastor Montgomery welcoming everyone.”
“Okay, that’s good,” she said, coaxing me along. “Anything else?”
I gasped and my eyes darted up to meet hers. “I remember the doors bursting open. I turned around, and I saw…” I paused as I shakily recounted what happened. The images were incredibly fuzzy, but they were partially there. “I think I saw four men? Honestly, I can’t remember exactly how many. Definitely close to that. I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t help much.”
“No, no, no. That’s great,” she said with another reassuring smile. “Do you remember anything about their faces? Skin color? Hair color? Tattoos?”
I paused again, but I didn’t have to for long. “No. There was nothing. They were clothed from head to toe in black. Hoods and masks. Gloves. I only remember a glimpse of them, but I recall feeling afraid… And then everything goes black. Pastor Montgomery said there was an explosion, but I don’t remember any of that. I remember nothing else until I woke up on the floor—apparently with a chunk of a church pew stabbed into my side and some broken ribs.”
“Okay, okay,” she said as she wrote down some things. “What about voices? Anything stand out about them?”
I shook my head again. “When I first woke up, my ears were ringing. I could hear voices, but I couldn’t make anything out. Everything was a jumble in my brain.” After thinking for a moment, I remembered something odd. “One of them touched me.”
“One of them touched you?” Detective Hauer asked. “Touched you how?”
“When I was in the process of waking up, my brain came to before my body. I couldn’t move. It was like sleep paralysis. And as I laid there, I remember someone grabbing my face like this.” I lightly gripped my chin and turned my head from side to side. “And then they touched the side of my neck. Then they walked away, and the next thing I know, a deep voice yelled for everyone to move out.”
The detectives looked at one another. Detective Hauer’s eyes returned to me. “That sounds like they checked to see if you were alive. Touching the side of your neck… He was checking for a pulse. Clearly, you were alive and had a pulse, so why would they leave you alive when they’d killed everyone else?”
“Well, they didn’t kill Pastor Montgomery either. I don’t know if he was unconscious at the time, or if he just stayed quiet to keep them from noticing him, or if they just let him go. But he lived until we got here yesterday.”
I paused, trying to remember more. “I remember cries even after they left. I don’t know if that was my imagination or if it was Pastor Montgomery calling out for someone, but I remember hearing them. By the time I got to help him out from under the pew, they’d all stopped. I figured they’d died while I was wandering around, but I suppose it’s possible they were already dead. The screams and cries I heard might have been when I was under. I was so out of it. It’s hard for me to know anything definitively.” I shook my head, my eyes filling again. Clearing my throat, I said, “I’m sorry. I wish I could have saved them, but I couldn’t even process what was going on.”
Detective Abbott reached out with a sympathetic hand and placed it on my foot. “You were in shock. No one expected you to do anything. You’re not in any trouble here, and we don’t think you are responsible for those other people, so don’t worry about that, okay? We’re just here to figure out what happened.”
“Yeah, we caught video footage from a traffic cam. There were five men in an SUV heading away from the church. All of them wearing black with hoods and masks, just as you said. We just needed to know if they were the ones we should be looking at for this or not,” Detective Hauer said.
I sat up a little and immediately regretted it. I laid back again, clutching my side. “Does that mean you know who they are?”
They both sighed and shook their heads before Abbott answered. “Unfortunately, no. The vehicle was stolen. We found it down by the river—torched. Any evidence that was inside is gone, and any traffic footage we’ve managed to find has all of them suited up the whole time. They knew what they were doing.”
“Was it a robbery? Were they after someone? What happened in there?” I asked.
“Wallets, keys, phones, purses, and anything else valuable were missing from several people there. Mostly those closest to the aisles. The collection plate was missing as well. Seems they ran in and grabbed whatever they could and got out,” Detective Hauer said.
I shook my head in disgust. “That’s a lot of trouble and a lot of death for a few hundred dollars.”
“Well, some of the elderly women in the church had jewelry worth thousands all together. So, it seems there was a lot more to be had than just a few hundred.” Detective Abbott patted my foot again. “Look, don’t worry. We’ll get these guys. I promise.” She walked to the side of my bed and left a card on my table. “There’s my card. My cell phone is on there. Call me if you needanything.Okay?”
I nodded. I knew what that meant. “I’ll call if I remember anything. Thank you both. I hope I can be of more help. Maybe healing will bring back some memories.”
“Don’t stress yourself out,” she said. “It takes the time it takes. But definitely call if you do. My aunt and uncle were in that church. I promise, we want to catch these bastards. We really do.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said automatically.
