Blind Justice Society (eBook)

THE BOOKHOUSE

“I, Sadie Barker, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, with no mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties for which I am about to enter. So, help me, God.” It had been five years since Sadie stood at her graduation ceremony from the FBI training facility at Quantico, Virginia, and raised her right hand to say those words. She graduated at the top of her class as she’d done in high school and college. An all-star lacrosse player and marksmen in the rifle club, she earned a complete scholarship to an Ivy League college. A criminal justice major at the top of her class, she was invited to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Now for the first time, Sadie was on undercover duty with a new partner. She was anxious.

Her assignment: to expose the members of the Church of the Prophets, who appeared to be laundering money through their followers. Several agents tried. None of them figured it out. The agency recognized Sadie’s extraordinary sense of figuring out cases. She called it What’s out of the ordinary.

She moved into the residence across the street from the church with Nigel. Sadie was thirty, lanky and slender, with long brown hair. Nigel was an agile well-muscled ninety-five-pound German Shepherd who operated as her service dog. Her persona faked that she was blind. Nigel wore a service vest that contained state-of-the-art technology, along with a weapon. Sadie and Nigel had been observing the church for several weeks now.

There was some out-of-the-ordinary behavior from the male members of the church. Sadie wrote in one of her reports that she’d seen several men walking into the church with one color shopping bag and coming back out with different colored ones. What men walk around with shopping bags? Many large and heavy suitcases were in and out of the church. They rolled easily across the parking lot. Sadie felt confident this was a cash transfer, but she required further evidence to get a search warrant.

The Church of the Prophets members had been identified to have anti-American ideologies. The government had captured several members planning and plotting against the United States. They were known for donating vast amounts of money to radical groups, but the government had never prosecuted them. The agency hoped Sadie would be the one to do so.

Every morning, Sadie and Nigel would take their walk, trying to identify everything or anyone that might provide a clue to the money laundering scheme. They had run into several members, some friendly and others cold. The men were cool, and they didn’t like the dog. Nigel felt the same. The fur on his back would rise up, his ears pointed forward whenever he was near them.

On one walk, Sadie noticed a man standing at the neighborhood book exchange house. The place was small, the size of a child’s dollhouse. It contained used books the individuals of the neighborhood donated. A man was poking through them. That wasn’t unfamiliar. But the man was Abraham, the head of the church.

Tall and middle-aged with a dingy beard that contained thick grey streaks and a jagged scar stretching across his right cheek, he was easy to recognize. Sadie had met Abraham when she first moved in. They had spoken many times during her walks. He had asked her if she had been blind since birth or lost her sight later in life. She explained that she was born with a disease that had taken most of her sight, but that she nevertheless saw shadows. Sadie explained they considered her legally blind. What Abraham didn’t realize was her dark glasses concealed a camera, a computer, and a cell phone that understood voice commands. Her cane was both a weapon and a voice recorder.

Abraham selected a book and crossed the street. He and Sadie came together at the corner. “Good morning,” he said in a friendly tone.

“Good morning,” replied Sadie.

He asked how she could always identify him. She explained that she could identify his footsteps, how his shuffling his feet on the ground created an unmistakable noise.

As they strolled up the street together, they passed the entrance to the church. The side door opened, creating a squeaking noise that startled Nigel and Sadie. A tall young man with dark hair resembling Abraham stepped out and spoke to them.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hi,” answered Sadie.

“This is my son,” replied Abraham.

They exchanged a few words and she excused herself and headed home. Something about what she had just encountered gave her a sense of uneasiness. This wasn’t commonplace, and she couldn’t get it out of her mind. Sadie would have to keep a tighter watch on the church.

A few hours later, several cars pulled up in front of the church. A tall, broad-shouldered young man with dark hair got out of his car. It was Abraham’s son. He wandered over and gave a man in another car a book. The man gave him one too. This went on with all the vehicles. Then they all sped away. They never spoke a word to each other. Sadie realized it was a way to send messages. She would have to figure out what these books were and try to get her hands on one. Sadie needed to find out what these individuals were doing. She would have to be discreet since they realized her vision was too weak for her to read.

It was after midnight. The street was dark and vacant. Sadie dressed in black to blend in with the darkness. She snuck down the hill. The streetlights appeared dim. They gave off an eerie sense of supernatural flickering. Strange shadows and sounds echoed off the church, delivering a chill up her spine. She had left Nigel at the end of their driveway. Sadie needed to peek into the neighborhood book exchange house and scan the books there. Her mind raced and perspiration flowed down her forehead. Opening the small door to the book house, she scanned the books with her glasses, which took pictures of the titles. Rushing back over the street, she hustled up the small hill. Signaling Nigel, she continued up the driveway to the house.

She placed the chip from the camera into her computer and downloaded the information. Then she clicked the file and started reviewing the titles. Nothing out of the ordinary here. It would take nights to compare all this information. Sadie sent her boss a text message informing him what she was doing. His responded, Be careful because the night has eyes.

The weekend brought even more surprises. Sadie was enjoying her early morning coffee when an old beat-up truck pulled up in front of the church. It seemed familiar to her, but she couldn’t place it. A slender, long-haired man dressed in a camouflage jacket and jeans got out. He strolled over to the side door of the church and punched in some numbers on the keypad. It didn’t work. He tried repeatedly. He then sauntered up to the other building of the church and knocked on the door. No answer. He tried the windows on the first floor, even pulling on the air conditioners. He couldn’t get in. Sadie started filming the man, thinking to herself, “Who breaks into a church?” As she observed him, she realized he had left a substantial plastic sack in the bed of his truck. A bomb?

Sadie panicked. What should she do now? Could she just ignore this? The man was speaking on his phone. Stomping back to his truck, he snatched the plastic sack and opened his truck door. He flung the door and walked over to the window of the structure. He held the plastic bag and a crowbar in his hand. The intruder started prying the window open. Sadie’s mind raced. Three men occupied the second floor. Why had they not responded to the man’s knocking? Buildings and homes surrounded the church. People could get injured or killed. She grabbed her phone. The man pried the window open. As his feet slipped inside the window, Sadie gave the street address to the police dispatcher.

“What the hell,” she said.

Sadie grabbed Nigel and her service revolver. Before she could get out the door, police were all over the street. Sadie sighed an instant relief. She wondered if she had been the only one watching the church. Within moments, the police hauled the man out of the building and onto the ground. They searched him and the old beat-up truck. When the search was over, the police left. It confused her. There was a sudden hollow echo of knuckles knocking on the door. Sadie grabbed Nigel and put on her glasses.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“Sergeant Lewis. City Police,” a deep voice replied.

She could see through the door window. A tall, broad-shouldered police officer stood waiting for her to open the door. Did he know her cover? Sadie opened the door with caution.

“I wanted you to know the man was here to paint the inside of the church.”

Sadie’s expression on her face must have looked bewildered.

“The church told him to break in. Also, you never called. We never had this conversion.” He turned and left.

Sadie was confused and not clear if her boss would understand why she...