Dana R. Lynn - Amish Country Ambush

Ryan popped back into the room. Elise was exhausted, he could tell. This couldn’t wait, however. Besides, even if he left her alone to rest, he very much doubted that she’d be able to sleep. Not with her nephew and Leah missing.

The moment he entered the room, the quiet conversation the others had been having ceased. Elise speared him with her hazel eyes so full of hope it caught him off guard. The weight of the trust she had in him pressed down on him. What if he failed her? Lord, let me be Your instrument. Help me to bring the child back to her and keep all of them safe.

In a few quick words, he explained his plan. They all agreed. Ryan pulled up Langor’s image from the DMV database and sent it to Rebecca’s phone. Using that as a starting point, Rebecca began to gather the information about what changes needed to be made for an accurate sketch while Miles acted as her interpreter. Half an hour later, Rebecca handed him the updated image of Hudson Langor. Glancing between the two, he whistled. Elise was right. He would have walked right past him and not even known.

A few minutes later, Miles and Rebecca left. Ryan took a few minutes to get the sketches sent out. Better get the search started now. Who knew how far away the girl was with the child. Or if the pyscho brother-in-law had made any progress in his quest. He hoped not. There wasn’t much more he could do tonight.

His other concern was that the man seemed to feel Elise was a loose end that needed to be eradicated.

Ah, well. At least she was in the hospital for the night. There were nurses and doctors coming to check on her throughout the night. He’d have a chat with security, before he left, to put them on alert. She should be safe. Maybe she’d be able to get enough rest so that she could remember something more, anything more, that might help them figure out where her nephew and the Amish girl had headed.

* * *

It had long since gone dark outside. The faint glow of the moon splashed over the floor now. Even though she knew it wasn’t, it looked warm, as if touching it would chase away some of the chill she was feeling in her heart. It was a comforting glow, reminding her that the Creator of everything was near. A twinge of guilt pricked her conscience. She hadn’t given God much attention lately.

Elise sighed. She was stuck here, in this narrow, uncomfortable hospital bed with a needle in her arm. The doctor who’d checked her out had declared she was dehydrated from her illness earlier that week. Sergeant Parker had left. Was he coming back? He hadn’t really said. It surprised her to realize that she was kind of hoping the handsome officer would return.

She needed something to distract her thoughts. Thinking about what could be happening out there with Mikey was driving her crazy. Even though she wasn’t his mother, he was her baby. Her whole world had revolved around the adorable boy with the dark brown eyes and curly brown hair for over two years. The ache inside her intensified as her imagination pictured him cold or sick or scared. Phantom whimpers filled her ears.

Squeezing her eyes closed, she forced her thoughts to focus on something else.

Sergeant Parker’s face flashed through her mind. The warmth in his chocolate-brown eyes. She especially liked his smile. It was unusual. Quirky. Kind of lopsided. He had a nice square jaw, too. When he had left, he had been sporting a slight five-o’clock shadow. She wondered what that roughness would feel like if she lifted her hand to his face. Her eyes popped open. That wasn’t helping. Frankly, she was surprised her mind had even gone there. After everything that had happened with Brady, she’d been against even the idea of entering a relationship. Besides, taking care of Mikey had been her priority—he was the only male she had time for her in her life.

The door opened and the man himself entered the room. She flushed, embarrassed to have been thinking of him in such a way. She didn’t even really know the man! True, she’d met him a time or two, and had been talking to him for two years on the radio, but that wasn’t the same as actually spending time with a person.

“Hey, Elise. How ya doing?” He smiled slightly. Wow. He really did have a great smile, with the slightest hint of dimples appearing in his cheeks. She hadn’t noticed that before.

Oh, wait. She needed to answer him.

“Been better. But I’m okay. Sergeant Parker—”

He cut her off. “Ryan. Please. What’s on your mind?”

“I want to know what’s happening. While you search, I mean. I don’t want to be kept out of the loop.” She held her breath. Would he brush her off? Tell her that police business was just that?

“I understand,” he responded in his velvet voice. Her breath left her in a whoosh, she was so relieved. “I will give you all the details I can. In the meantime, I am going to leave for the night. First thing tomorrow morning, as soon as you are released, we have some planning to do.”

“So no one will be looking for Mikey tonight?” She didn’t like the sound of that.

“That’s not what I said. The Amber Alert has gone out, along with the sketch of your brother-in-law, and back at the station several people are still looking into it. Checking on leads. But I need to get some sleep if I want to be able to function, and so do you.” He turned to the door. “Good night. I will see you in the morning.”

And he was gone.

She couldn’t believe it. She was so worried she was ready to tear out her hair. And he’d just left! In all fairness, she didn’t know what else he could do. The man wasn’t a machine. He did say people were still searching. There really wasn’t anything more that she could ask him to do.

Sighing, she lay against the pillows, trying to shift this way and that to find a comfortable position. She’d shut her eyes, then open them five minutes later. Her nerves started to get to her.

Her door was shut, but every once in a while she thought she heard footsteps stop at her door.

Was Hudson in the hall?

She strained to listen, trying to separate the different sounds outside the door. Her doorknob seemed to rattle slightly. Then it stopped. Goose bumps formed on her arms. A scream crawled up and lodged in her throat.

The footsteps moved away from the door.

Her night nurse entered to check her vitals. The woman was coolly professional, her voice soothing as she checked the IV and the monitors and made notes on the chart attached to the clipboard.

Feeling ridiculous for her fears, Elise forced herself to ask the woman the question that was screaming inside her mind. “Was there someone hanging around outside my door?”

The pitying glance the nurse gave her made her want to shrink down inside the blankets and hide.

“Honey, no one has been outside your door. You’re completely safe here.”

Elise grimaced. Well, at least she knew.

She thanked the woman and watched her leave.

At some point, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep. She woke up at one point when she dreamed that she heard Mikey crying out for her. There were tears on her lashes when she lifted them. Her head jerked around when her door opened. A male nurse entered wheeling a medicine cart in front of him. She glanced at the clock. Two thirty in the morning. Sighing, she gave the man a tired smile.

He didn’t smile back.

Actually, he didn’t even make eye contact. Feeling uneasy, she watched him look at her chart. Maybe he was just shy. Or not a social person. Whatever. She was not impressed with the bedside manners of the staff in this hospital. Owning to herself that she was being ridiculous, she shut her eyes again, listening to the sound of him moving around her room.

She opened one eye. He was watching her. The moment he caught her glance, he looked away and continued with his work.