‘So at least they didn’t kill anyone to pass off as me,’ Mercy said quietly. ‘They did that for Gideon and Eileen. Maybe others.’
‘A few others,’ Amos said sadly. ‘I see that now. I’ve been wondering if anything I’ve been told for thirty years was truth. But all I knew when I heard DJ say your name was that I had to get out. To warn you. And to save Abigail.’
‘How did you end up in the back of DJ’s truck?’ Rafe asked.
‘I faked being sick to give an excuse not to leave my hut for the next day, so no one would look for us. Then I cut down a tree to block the road and waited with Abigail. I’d heard DJ say he’d be “there” tonight, so I knew that was my chance. When he stopped to move the tree, Abigail and I hid in the truck bed. We stopped at a house. I didn’t get out of the truck bed until I heard DJ driving away in another car. So I jumped out and took the truck.’ He glanced at Gideon. ‘If I’d known that he’d stopped to kidnap and kill that poor young woman, I would have found a way to tell someone.’
‘I know,’ Gideon said softly. ‘I believe you. What happened after you drove away in the truck?’
‘I drove. Just . . . drove. I knew we’d come from the north, so I went south and didn’t stop until I got to Reno.’ His lips quirked up. ‘Everything looked different, except for McDonald’s, so we stopped there.’
‘Good old golden arches,’ Rafe murmured. ‘They’ll be around a thousand years from now. How did you contact my mother?’
‘I didn’t, not right away. I met a lady at McDonald’s who thought I was Amish. She took me to the public library after her shift. Her name is Edie. She was so kind. She showed me how to use the computer at the library and . . . well, it was a lot. I still don’t know what to think about your Internet. I mainly focused on news stories about you, Mercy. But I read that you were alive too, Gideon, and . . .’ He blew out a breath. ‘It was like a gift. Of course, the other articles weren’t so precious. I saw that Ephraim had tried to take you at the airport.’ He leaned around Mercy to smile at Rafe. ‘Thank you for rescuing her. My heart nearly stopped when I saw the film online.’
‘I could have done nothing else,’ Rafe said simply.
‘I still owe you a great deal. Anyway, Edie wouldn’t let me read one of the articles. She said it was “Internet trash.” But she did let me see the second article written by Jeff Bunker. She showed me how to email him.’
Irina picked up the story. ‘When Jeff saw the email, he called the house and spoke to Zoya, who contacted me. I was already in Reno, with Sasha and Erin at the hospital just a few miles away from the library. We got there before the FBI did, which was a good thing.’ She gave Molina an accusing look. ‘Those agents wanted to arrest him!’
‘Jeff had forwarded Amos’s email to me, too,’ Molina said. ‘I sent local field agents to check it out. Edie, the woman who wrote the email, had left a phone number for the library. I didn’t tell them to arrest him,’ she added, aggrieved. ‘I said for them to bring him in for questioning. Which they did.’
‘Irina insisted she ride with us,’ Amos said with a grateful smile. ‘It was less scary that way, to be sure.’
Rafe frowned. ‘Where’s Sasha?’
‘She stayed at the hospital with Erin,’ Irina said. ‘She’ll drive them both home tomorrow in my car. It’s all fine, Raphael. Everything is fine.’
‘Except that now both DJ and Ephraim are after Mercy,’ Gideon said with a sigh. ‘DJ wants to cover up his lie and Ephraim . . . Hell, he could just want her because she got away.’
‘Or,’ Mercy added, ‘if DJ was that surprised that I was still alive, he must have thought I died in that parking lot at the Redding bus terminal. DJ is Pastor’s favorite. Bringing me back to Eden would allow Ephraim to prove that DJ had lied. Ephraim could usurp DJ’s place as favorite.’
‘Which makes him even more determined,’ Gideon said grimly.
‘And dangerous,’ Rafe added, very quietly.
‘So, things are not so fine,’ Irina acknowledged with a sigh. ‘But we are all here and safe, yes?’
‘Yes,’ Mercy told her. ‘We are all here and we are all safe.’ She held on to Amos’s hand, pushing her fear away for the moment. She didn’t shove it into the box in her mind, but she was able to set it aside to focus on the stepfather she’d missed so much. ‘I bought one of your pieces yesterday. At the general store in Snowbush.’
‘The jewelry box.’ Amos nodded, his smile almost bashful. ‘DJ said so on that call to the store owner.’
‘“Surely Goodness and Mercy”,’ Mercy murmured. ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes.’
‘I carved it into all of my larger pieces,’ Amos said. ‘It was the only way I could think of to remember you.’
Mercy gripped Amos’s hand tightly. ‘I remember how you used to sing to me. I tried to get more information about you. About Eden. But all my questions got poor Ginger killed. We have to find them – DJ and Ephraim. We have to stop them.’
‘Do you know where Eden is right now?’ Gideon asked. ‘I’ve been searching for it for so long.’
Amos shook his head. ‘I know it’s near a network of caves and tunnels. I know it’s north of Snowbush by a few hours. I know we’ve stayed there once before. Pastor chose it because winter was upon us on the last move and it would provide us with adequate shelter. But I don’t know anything else. It was a valley. No matter how high I climbed, I could never get a sense for where we were. And I tried, please believe me, I tried. But as you will remember, even leaving the compound is forbidden in Eden, so exploring is nearly impossible. I got special permission because I needed to find the best sources of wood, but I could never be gone too long or be sure I wasn’t being watched.’
‘I believe you,’ Gideon said again.
‘We do know another thing, thanks to Mr Terrill,’ Molina said, her eyes brightening. ‘On that call DJ made to the store owner, he told the guy that he didn’t have any more “product”. That they’d had to leave it behind. That was half true. We found evidence of an underground grow house at the Snowbush site. The equipment was gone, but a few spores had sprouted in the dirt they left behind. Now that we know that they’re selling psilocybin, we can listen and watch for new suppliers to that geographical area.’
‘Shrooms?’ Mercy turned to Rafe. ‘That’s their new cash crop?’
‘New cash crop?’ Amos asked, stunned. ‘You knew that the Elders were selling drugs? How?’