Unspeakable Prayers by John Ellsworth

Author:John Ellsworth [Ellsworth, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Mystery, Thrillers & Suspense, Legal, Thriller & Suspense, Historical, Thrillers, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense
Amazon: B00QQTHLN8
Publisher: Subjudica House
Published: 2015-01-26T11:00:00+00:00

Book 3

Chapter Eighteen

THE HUNT

Thaddeus Murfee stood up from his desk, slammed the lid on his laptop, and stormed over to the window overlooking Lake Michigan. His tower was in downtown Chicago and his office, on the building's east side, had an unobstructed view of the lake, roiling and curling under the whip of the blustery March winds. Streaming down across Chicago was a late-winter snow, big clumpy flakes sticking. But at the moment, he saw none of it. His face was mottled red with an anger that had him in its grip and blinded him to an essential truth he was facing. Not five minutes ago he had received a frantic call from his daughter, Turquoise. She was a senior at Evanston High East and she was calling from the Cook County Jail.

The call had come through as a "no-ask" call, meaning in his office the receptionist didn't bother asking Thaddeus if he wanted to take it. Instead, “no-ask” calls were put straight through, as they were always from family.

"Dad?" she had said in a trembling voice.

"Turquoise?"

"Dad. Something horrible has happened."

"Go ahead. I'm right here."

"I’m in jail. They're letting me make my one phone call."

The air had immediately gone out of him and he had slouched back in his chair. He pushed his round eyeglasses onto his forehead and pinched the sweet spot between the eyes.

"Okay, don't tell me what happened, not on the phone. Just tell me what they are saying you did."

"We were riding down Michigan Avenue with the top down on my car."

"Who's 'we'?"

"Melinda and me. They pulled me over and found drugs. Some were in my purse."

"Drugs? You? I don't believe it."

"Dad, I'm not lying. There were drugs in my purse. They say."

"Why would you have drugs?" he asked, violating his own rule cases never be discussed on the phone.

"It's a long story. Let's just say there wasn't much."

"Did someone put them in your purse?"

"Dad!"

Thaddeus' heart sank. Never in a lifetime would he have thought Turquoise would ever get mixed up with drugs. His mind raced over the last two years—the move from Flagstaff to Chicago where Turquoise planned on attending college, the new house out in Barrington—horse country—where Turquoise and Sarai kept horses, the 4.0 GPA—none of this indicated there were drugs in her life. In fact, these markers indicated the opposite; she was a healthy, happy seventeen-year-old enjoying her life and her adoptive family. He closed his mouth and tried to be there for her, to be someone who listened without judgement.

"I love you, Dad."

"We love you, Turq. That's never a question."

She had become one with them after the adoption two years ago. She rarely spoke of the past and indicated no desire to remain in touch with her birth father. He was out of her life and Thaddeus and Katy were fine with that. There had been weekly counseling for the abuse she had suffered out on the Navajo reservation, but not a whisper about drugs. But now this? Drugs? And what about

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