Chapter 9 - The Trial In The Ashes
The kitchen was filling with acrid gray smoke as one of Fernando’s men hurled a road flare through the shattered front window. Elena was coughing violently, pinned behind the kitchen island as Paloma’s remaining thug fired two rounds from a handgun through the drywall.
Suddenly, the flour bin flew across the floor.
Esperanza burst from the cellar opening like an avenging angel, her white habit blackened with soot, her eyes blazing with fury. Before the gunman could turn his weapon, Esperanza swung the heavy iron pry bar with both hands, striking him squarely across the forearm. The handgun flew from his grip, clattering across the linoleum. Elena instantly surged forward, driving the butt of her shotgun into the man's jaw, dropping him cold to the floor.
Outside, Fernando saw his men falling. Panic finally overwhelmed his greed. He turned and sprinted toward his SUV, determined to abandon Paloma and flee to the border before the county authorities mobilized.
He threw open the driver's door, only to find himself staring down the barrel of a service revolver.
""Step back, Monsignor,"" a deep, trembling voice said from behind the police cruiser that had just silently rolled into the yard with its lights off.
It was Sheriff Miller. And sitting in the front passenger seat of his cruiser, wrapped in an emergency foil blanket with an oxygen mask pressed to her face, was Mother Caridad.
The abbess had not died in the mortuary. The volunteer firefighters had heard her pounding against the pine coffin from inside the locked chapel and pried the doors open just in time. Despite her failing heart, Caridad had refused medical transport to the hospital until she had forced the sheriff to drive her straight to Elena Vance’s farm.
""Sheriff, thank God you're here!"" Fernando lied smoothly, raising his hands with practiced theatricality. ""Dr. Paloma and I were ambushed by—""
""Shut your mouth, Fernando,"" Sheriff Miller growled, his hand shaking with disgust. ""Mother Caridad told me everything. And state police investigators are tearing up the crypt under Saint Jude's right this second. They already found your cryo-freezers and the wire transfers from Switzerland.""
Dr. Paloma dropped to his knees in the gravel, sobbing into his hands. ""It was Fernando! He made the deals! I was just the technician! I only followed the protocols!""
""Save it for the federal grand jury,"" Miller said coldly, clicking handcuffs tightly around both men's wrists.
Esperanza emerged from the burning farmhouse, carrying Mateo in her arms while Elena followed closely behind, cradling little Sofia wrapped in a clean woolen blanket.
Mother Caridad stepped down from the police cruiser, her knees weak, tears cutting clean paths through the soot on her aged face. Esperanza walked toward her, dropping to her knees in the damp grass, resting her head against the older woman's lap.
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""You saved us, Mother,"" Esperanza whispered through her tears. ""You saved my babies.""
Caridad placed her frail, wrinkled hand on Esperanza’s head, her voice thick with emotion. ""No, my brave child. God gave those children life, but you gave them their freedom.""
