<< Go Back

Sacred Trust

By Carrie Daws

Order Now!

We make our own plans, but the Lord decides where we will go.
Proverbs 16:9, Contemporary English Version 

MONDAY, MARCH 14

You will find her, Samu.
Detective Samuel Campos jerked up, grabbing the 9mm handgun from his bedside table and aiming it blindly at the door to the bedroom.
“Sam?”
Blinking, he willed his eyes to clear and his mind to work in the pre-dawn light. Never shifting his aim, he turned his head to the left, then the right to look at the corners of the room. The shadows were lessening with the rising sun, but nothing moved. Well, nothing except for his wife sitting up in their bed.
“Samu?”
His wife’s voice penetrated his mind. Her use of the familiar nickname from his childhood battled with the state of alertness coursing through his body. She wouldn’t use the moniker if she was afraid.
He lowered his weapon and rubbed his face with his free hand. “It’s okay, Jules. I just—” He paused, not having the words to finish his sentence. What exactly had just happened? The voice had been so clear, so close.
He looked at his wife, who was watching him closely, waiting for an answer.
“I thought I heard something.”
“Heard something? Like someone in the house? Or God?”
As his wife, Julie, heard from God occasionally in dreams, the Almighty speaking to her didn’t sound particularly strange. But the Creator of heaven and earth wasn’t usually so open with him. He usually got the more subtle indications that people in his career field regarded as gut instincts.
“I’m not sure.” He shook his head. “I’m going to check the house, just to be safe. You go back to sleep.”
“Not much point.” She sighed, got out of bed, and headed toward their bathroom door, located directly behind where Sam stood. “Alarm’s going off in about twenty minutes anyway. You check the house over and let me know. When you’re sure it’s safe, I’ll get the coffee started.”
As his wife closed the door, Sam thought back to the voice. Had it been real? His body had certainly thought so. But if it had been God, who exactly was he supposed to find?

—

“Stewart! Campos!”
Sam heard Captain Lawson bellowing down the hallway. A boisterous man who was so tall that he had to duck through doorways, he never did anything quietly. Sam poked his head out of his office doorway.
“Yes, sir?”
Sam saw Detective Dominic Stewart take a step out of his office two doors down, closer to the captain.
“Both of you. My office now.”
The captain turned on his heel, retreating back into his office at the end of the hallway. Uncertain what he wanted, Sam didn’t know whether to grab any of his files or not. He snatched his small notebook off his desk just to be on the safe side.
“Sit down, both of you.”
Captain Lawson believed in law and order, on the street and in the office. His furniture lined up neatly with the walls, and two empty chairs sat perfectly spaced in front of the desk that showed only the files he was working on at the moment. Dominic took the chair to the right.
“Sam, you heard about the missing teen?”
“The one all over the news, from Silver High School? Isabel, right?”
“That’s the one, and she’s disappeared without a trace. Stewart here is lead, the FBI is incoming, and a task force is forming from first responders here and in surrounding counties. I want you to join it.”
Sam shifted in his seat. His assigned cases were typically homicide, which included unaccompanied deaths, and arson. Missing kids, rare in their county, could include a call out for everyone to jump on board, but this request felt more specific. “Sir, do you mind if I ask why me?”
“I don’t want this to come across wrong, to either one of you, but I don’t know a better way to say it. This is an Hispanic teen missing from a tightly-knit Hispanic community.”
Sam glanced at Stewart, trying to gauge how his Irish Catholic co-worker was accepting this.
“Campos, coming from an Hispanic family yourself, you understand what they’re thinking. You’ll be accepted and trusted on a deeper level than the rest of us.”
Captain Lawson stood, his dark skinned arms crossed over his barrel chest. “Look, you both have been here long enough to know I shut down racism when I see it. But I also try to work within the cultures around us when appropriate. We need to find this girl. It’s already been thirty-four hours, and the community is nervous. Stewart, get Campos up to speed, and both of you be ready to update the rest of the team. First meeting is scheduled for noon.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sam nodded at the captain and followed Dominic down the hall to his office. Sam had to clear the air before he could turn his attention to the case. He hadn’t worked with Dominic much but knew him to be a good detective.
“We good?”
Dominic paused in reaching for a file to look at him, one copper-colored eyebrow arched high. “Man, look. Quite honestly, I’m grateful. The mom and grandma are all over me, and I could use the help. There’s not a lot to go on, and every possibility is still on the table—from kidnapping to runaway. Not to mention the family keeps slipping into Spanish, and I’m working with a high school first-year fluency here.”
Sam smiled. “So you can ask for a glass of water or where the bathroom is?”
Dominic motioned for Sam to have a seat while he sat down behind his desk. “Pretty much. I remember the difference between buenos dias and buenos noches—”
“Buenas noches,” Sam said, emphasizing the second syllable on the first word.
“What?”
Sam chuckled. “Maybe you should stick to si and no.”
Dominic shook his head. “What’s the word for headache? Dolor de la …”
“Hang with me, gringo. I’ll keep the dolor de la cabeza away.” Sam opened his notebook and grabbed a pen from Dominic’s desktop. “What do we know?”
“Mom and grandma left the morning of the twelfth to enjoy the weekend at the beach together. They do this once or twice a year, and usually Isabel goes with them. But the girl had a big algebra test coming up this week, and she wanted to stay home to study.”
“She chose studying over the beach?” That was never a choice Sam would have made in his teens. He wasn’t sure he’d make it now as a grown man.
“Honor roll student, near the top of her class.”
“Really? Those aren’t the type to go missing.”
“Which is why I’m leaning toward foul play. But, it’s not that clean cut.”
“What do you mean?”
“Apparently, she and the grandfather got into a heated argument about ten Saturday night. She wanted to go over to a friend’s house to study, but he refused to let her go. Said something along the lines of nothing good happens that late, I believe—nada bueno ocurre is what I wrote down.”
“Good translation. So, that’s the last time anyone saw her?”
“Essentially. He says he went to bed about eleven, stopping by her door. He heard her moving about but thought he’d leave her alone until morning.”
“And she was gone.”
Dominic nodded. “And she was gone.” He leaned forward to rest his arms on his desk. “That’s about all we know. I’d planned to head to the school this morning to talk to teachers. Mom was supposed to get me a list of friends to contact, although she’s been calling everyone she can think of in case Isabel ran to them. Her social media has gone quiet, which is highly suspicious for this girl. At this point, I got nothing.”
“Wow.” Sam sighed deeply. The dispute with her grandfather was interesting, but not alarming. “Let me grab my gear, and we’ll head over to the school together. Maybe they’ll give us more insight into this house than what you’ve been able to see so far.”
Sam headed down the hallway to his own office. He made sure his computer was locked and grabbed his backpack full of supplies for an emergency. A cop never knew when he was going to be pinned down and would need extra ammo, first aid supplies, or a bottle of water.
I will lead you to her, Samu.
Sam froze mid-step. He was sure it was the same voice he’d heard this morning. Now he was confident that God had planned this change in his plans for the week. He took a moment to pray under his breath. “Help me see your guiding hand, Father.”
He waited for God to say more. Instead, peace flowed over his heart and a confidence that this case would not remain unsolved. One way or another, he knew God would provide answers for this family. “Will we find her alive, Father?”
Sam waited, hoping.
“Ready to go?”
Dominic, his own backpack and a set of keys in hand, stood three steps away.
Sam nodded. “Let’s hit the road.”

Order Now!

<< Go Back