Page 15 of Axton
My eyes grew. “Take her back with us?”
He drew in a deep breath like he had bad news. “We have the brother. He stumbled into our club asking for help, by the advice of a friend who is a priest we’ve worked with in the past and his firefighter brother is prospecting with us. He was injured and we’re having him looked at now. He was on his way to Indiana, but said he hadn’t called yet because he didn’t want to leave a trace of them while traveling. His plan was to call when he made it close enough to need directions. All he knew was that you were in southern Indiana. He had kept his cell phone turned off. He said they were being chased by members of their community on the orders of a false prophet. They were able to get away, but then crashed when a motorcycle came from nowhere and cut them off. He was knocked out and when he woke she was gone. There was another crash not far away from Holbrook and the driver was deceased. I believe this young lady had someone watching out for her from above because I believe she was forced on that motorcycle, and she was in that crash as well. I honestly think she may have jumped off the bike and that’s what caused the crash. We identified the man as a member of Satan’s Disciples, an MC not far from here. He had a very colorful criminal history, but we haven’t figured out why he wanted her. Her father is the bishop of a religious sect that was formed well over a hundred and fifty years ago. They call themselves The Veiled Order of the Unseen Hand. They’re often confused withMormons, but they have no affiliations with that religion. The bishop is always a man that claims to have prophecies, and he has the ability to receive auditory guidance from God. This is what was told to us by the brother, and we’ve not had a chance to do any research on it. We don’t know much about them. We never had a reason to doubt they weren’t law abiding citizens, but when I looked at her birth certificate, I realized they have a practice of marrying child brides. The brother won’t say much about their practices, but has said she is not married and lived with their father and her mother. I think he is trying to protect them because they are his family, but at the same time escape from their practices. He doesn’t seem to be a believer in their religion or their practices.”
“What about his injuries from the crash?” I asked.
“Ford is checking him out now. He may have a dislocated shoulder and needs a few stitches, but he’ll be alright. I’d like Ford to get the girl to our clubhouse until she’s ready for travel to Creed’s Lake. The brother said their father is in his final days and their compound is not safe for her.”
“I’m not sure about taking her to Creed’s Lake. That hasn’t even been discussed.” I didn’t work much with our DV division and wasn’t sure that would have been what the girl wanted either.
“If that false prophet is affiliating with the Satan’s Disciples, she is in a great deal of danger.” He said.
Bolton turned toward me. “Creed’s Lake is the safest place for her.”
“It’s not a DV case though, Val. We’d have to get clearance from Creed.” Dammit, Creed’s Lake wouldn’t be able to stay so secret if we invited everyone to come live there. We didn’t have funding for those kind of cases. Sure, we took pro-bono cases, but theywere usually gathering intel then handing what we found to the proper authorities. Our foreign contracts needed to be our top priority. “Plus, she’s a teacher. We really need to get Morgan some help.” She added.
“How do you even know what she wants? Maybe she wants to stay close to what she knows. Maybe there’s another community of religious fanatics that she’d rather go to, since I can’t imagine she wants to live around people with violent pasts.”
Crock spoke up. “Her brother was taking her to Creed’s Lake. It was their destination, so yeah, I think you should plan to take her with you. Listen, we are a small club with only twenty members. We can’t take on Satan’s Disciples. There’s no way in hell we can handle an entire motorcycle gang. If we could, we would have locked them up years ago. We aren’t like Clint’s group. We aren’t all cops. We are more of an upper middle class group, and I am one of very few cops. You did meet Dr. Ford, right? He’s the prime example of men who I’m working with here. We aren’t equipped to protect her.”
I groaned in frustration then looked at the girl. Dammit, she needed us. “I’ll talk to Creed.” I looked at Crock. “So, you really think she’s in danger?”
“I’m certain of it, and in the meantime, I’ll be calling my contacts with the FBI to take a look into this religious sect.”
“Who is this false prophet?” I asked.
He pulled out a small notebook from his breast pocket and opened it. “It’s a Jeremiah Brown, thirty-year-old white male that resides at 27 Oak Street and lives by himself, from what we have found so far. The brother stated the man refuses a bride until the girl’s father dies because he will not give his consent. This false prophet wants Miss Ashford as his legal wife, and hewill not take any other wives until she is pregnant with his child. It sounds like there is a bit of an obsession issue. The only thing that has kept her safe so far is the father being alive. The church will not recognize any marriage if the father doesn’t consent. If the father is dead then the oldest brother must consent. It sounds like the oldest brother has prematurely given his consent and she can be forced into a spiritual marriage as soon as the bishop passes away. Once that happens and he wants her as a legal wife she will comply. The spiritual marriage is all that really matters to them and the wives become possessions that have no personal rights. At least this is what the brother is saying. He won’t go any further in depth. Judging by her birth certificate, I’m guessing the brother is trying to protect members of his family that have taken child brides.”
“I don’t think Dr. Ford wants to wake her up for a few more days. If he wakes her up too soon she will be in a great deal of pain.” That was a concern.
“I’ll consult with him and see if there’s any options to move her before she’s ready to wake up. This hospital doesn’t exactly have the best security.” Crock said.
“I’ll stay with her tonight and maybe the testing Ford does will tell us more as far as waking her up and moving her. I don’t like the idea, I’d much rather have her put on a medical flight and taken to Louisville or Indianapolis.” It would have been expensive as hell.
Chapter Nine
Axton
Idid some research on The Veiled Order of the Unseen Hand, and didn’t find much. Just a website and a contact number. It did state that they were a ritualistic religion guided by the word of God. I did find a Reddit thread about them, mostly it was former members giving advice on how to escape. I also did a little research on Jeremiah Brown, and he was squeaky clean, a typical boy next door type. He didn’t even have a single parking or speeding ticket. Graduated from a state college with a degree in architecture, and had a business designing tiny homes, and a construction company that built them in a factory then had them shipped across the country. There was a website for that, and it looked like he did some quality work.
When Bolton left, she took Clint to the airport then went to pick a few things up for the girl. She was going to need clothes and some other personal items. She had to guess her size because the dress she was wearing must have been handmade and didn’t have a tag, but she was able to get a shoe size.
Crock left with the promise of speaking with Dr. Ford about moving the girl. I had a feeling it wasn’t as easy as cutting off the medication and pulling the tubes.
The next day, Creed sent over the report from Allred that detailed everything she knew about the religious cult. From what I read, there was only one bishop, which was Belle’s father, but they had communities in several states and one in Canada. The females left school as soon as they learned to read, and the males had an option to seek an education at certain designated colleges.
The religion itself had quite a few rituals, that included group prayer, speaking in tongues, laying of hands, snake handling, and of course prophecies. Marriage was a very big part of their religion, and men were rewarded for their dedication and faithfulness with young brides. As young as twelve years old. They saw a girls first menstruation as a sign from God it was time to marry and bring God’s children into the world. Men worked outside their community, but they turned over their pay to the church who then distributed fifty percent to the living expenses of its members, twenty percent to spreading the word of God, another twenty for the church, and ten percent to the bishop, who was always the prophet and leader. It seemed like everything was a sin, but I read between the lines. They didn’t want the feds looking into them, so they made everything from speeding to cheating on taxes a sin. Allred also wrote about a big change that occurred about twenty years ago where they no longer offered the choice to leave the cult without consequence. The attempt to leave was also a sin. They didn’t celebrate holidays and didn’t allow idle hands or thoughts. If you weren’t working, sleeping, or doing daily chores, you were required to pray and study the Bible. They did not own televisions or radios, but they were allowed cell phones and computers that were restricted to only certain content. It pretty much sounded like pure hell. I almost laughed out loud when I read that brides came with pretty much an owner’s manual. It listed not onlyacceptable behavior for women, but also listed approved sexual behavior for married people. What the hell did that even mean? Honestly, I didn’t care to know. Whatever they were doing was with children and the thought turned my stomach. I had one question for the brother. If their father didn’t want Belle to marry Jeremy, why didn’t she marry someone else? Why was she off limits?
I was thankful for the bathroom attached to the hospital room. It also had a shower, which I realized was probably there for family since the patients in that unit wouldn’t have been taking showers. I ate my words when I woke up to a text from Creed asking if I shaved yet. He knew I was full of shit, but dammit he was going to hold me to it. Fuck it, the beard wasn’t going anywhere. I was still pissed at him, and he wasn’t getting shit from me. I knew what his problem was, and it was the very reason he was being so nosy. His life changed a lot, very quickly, and Creed was an operative through and through. He was bored because he wasn’t taking missions anymore and he had an itch. Hell, you’d think after Syria he would be satisfied staying grounded, but no, he missed his old life. I thought that would change once the twins were born. He would probably be too exhausted and busy to even think about missions.
After getting cleaned up for the day, I sat and looked at my email. There wasn’t anything exciting, mostly emails from Morgan wanting something or another. We were already building a small school with a lunch room, five classrooms, and a playground, but now she wanted a library. Not a small library in the school, but she wanted us to build on to the community center and build her a typical public library. What the fuck was she thinking? Clarity had a library. If she wanted to check out a book, either go there or order one online. That would definitely be a no vote from me. It was like she wastrying to turn us into a little city of our own. That was never what Creed’s Lake was meant to be, it was just supposed to be a small community with homes, a safe place for medical care after missions, and a few perks to make things fun. It wasn’t meant to alienate everyone from the outside world. That was why we pushed public education for the children, and we stayed active with charities and fundraisers in the county. Last week she asked for a democratic election system. She wanted a mayor and community council. Creed really needed to bring her back down to reality. By the way she was going, even Creed would be broke in a few years. I knew what she wanted, and I understood, but it was something she brought on herself. Just because she was famous and brought a lot of attention to herself, didn’t mean life was like that for everyone. She was trying to make it, so her kids never had to leave Creed’s Lake and be hassled by the paparazzi. She wasn’t going to be able to shelter them forever. We needed to be more conservative with our land. It was bad enough when we started a DV division, but I didn’t think she understood that it was also to help keep our secrets. It was literally a front that helped better explain the privacy our community required. The foreign contracts were always to be our main priority.
I was still looking through my emails when Dr. Ford stepped into the room.
“Looks like she did well overnight.” He said.
“I wasn’t aware there could be changes.” Did he expect her to do more than sleep?
“I wanted to let you know that she will have another scan, and we will check that brain bleed. I’m aware you want to move her, but I’m just not comfortable with it yet. It’s been over twenty four hours and there’s a chance the swelling may have come down. We’ve had her on blood pressure medication, and we need totake a look at the small hematoma. There’s still a chance she may need surgery if it grows any larger. If I see the swelling has stopped and the hematoma hasn’t grown, we can discuss waking her up. I might be comfortable moving her tomorrow if everything looks as good as I hope. That does not mean I want her on a jet or traveling far from here for at least a day or so. I’d advise against any sort of air travel for at least a couple of weeks. The air pressure itself could cause the bleed to start again. I will still need to monitor her and in better circumstances I’d have her admitted for a week or two following these injuries.”
