Danny stepped out on the front porch as the first rays of the sunrise streaked across the sky like red welts. He breathed deeply, but other than filling his lungs, the cold air did nothing to clear the fog brought on by a sleepless night. What he wouldn’t give for a run right now. But he couldn’t leave. The kidnappers might call again.
Tires crunched on the drive, and he turned as a sixties-model Ford pickup eased past the house. Charlie. Bailey’s dad was taking this hard. The door opened, and Kate joined him. “Where’s Charlie going?”
She held out a steaming cup of coffee. “He had to get out, said if he stayed around here all day, he’d go crazy. I told him to go, otherwise it’d be us he drove crazy.”
Danny knew how he felt. “Thanks,” he said and took the mug. “How’s Solana this morning?”
“Weak. I can’t get her to eat. Angel is upstairs now trying to get cream of wheat down her.”
They stood quietly facing the sun until Kate sighed. “It’s a beautiful Sunday morning for so many things to be wrong.”
He grunted. Nothing would be beautiful until Bailey and Maria returned safe and sound.
The sun broke over the horizon, scattering the earlier red and purple streaks. “How can you stand here so calmly? Aren’t you worried about her?”
“Of course I’m worried, but I know God is in control. He loves my daughter even more than I do, and that gives me peace.”
“So you think we’ll save them?”
“I didn’t say that. I pray we do, but God’s the only one with that answer.” She shivered and rubbed her arms. “I better get breakfast started.”
After Kate left, Danny sipped his coffee. It was hard to understand how Kate could trust God so much. It seemed like she was just letting God off the hook—even if this turned out bad, God didn’t get the blame.
At 7:55, eight pairs of eyes stared at Joel’s phone on the coffee table as though that would make it ring. Edward had arrived not long after Ben. Raines and the tech had spent the night in Kate’s living room in case another call came in. Danny flexed his fingers. What if the man didn’t call back? He certainly hadn’t called and let them talk to Maria or Bailey. He flinched as an alert sounded on the phone. “What’s that?”
“An email.” Joel picked up the phone and tapped the message. His eyes widened. “It’s a picture of Bailey and Maria with today’s paper.”
“He’s not going to let us talk to them,” the FBI agent said. “But maybe this will buy more time.”
Danny didn’t see how that helped. “What do you mean?”
The room stilled as Joel’s phone rang.
“Answer it and tell him the picture looks like it’s been photoshopped. Insist on talking to Maria and Bailey.”
Joel nodded and pressed the answer button. “Hello.”
“Do you have the money?”
“I haven’t talked to Bailey and Maria. No money until I do.”
“I emailed you a photograph.”
“Yeah, a picture that’s been doctored. If you want me to pay, I have to talk with them first.”
“In two hours I will call back, and you can talk. Then the money. Do not think you can negotiate this business transaction—I expect the full amount at that time.”
Joel looked at the phone. “Did he hang up?”
“Yeah.”
“Where was he?” Ben asked.
“Another pay phone at the corner of Polk and Linden.”
Ben relayed the location to his deputies, then shook his head. “Not that he’ll still be there. And it’ll probably be just like Walmart and no security camera anywhere near.”
Eric spread a city map out on the coffee table. “Bradford County has twenty pay phones in Logan Point and ten in the county. I’ve marked all their locations—the city in red and the county in blue. How many deputies do you have available?”
“Ten, eleven counting me.”
“We need you here. Show me which of these locations would be the best place for him to make the call.”
Ben leaned over the map while Angel and Danny looked over his shoulder. Danny tried to picture the area around each circle. Most of the phones were in congested areas that the kidnapper would avoid for fear Bailey would be recognized. The best location was the one he’d just called from, and he wouldn’t use it again. “He’s called twice and both times from a public city phone. Why do you suppose he hasn’t used one out in the county?”
“Not as many people, and perhaps he feared he’d stand out,” Angel said. He shifted his attention to his uncle. “When will the money arrive?”
“By noon. It’s coming from a bank in Memphis.” Edward stood and rolled his shoulders. “But I hope we find them first. Even the bank in Memphis didn’t have a million dollars in cash available.”
“How much did you get?” Danny said.
“Half a mil,” Joel said.
Danny tapped his foot on the floor. Something was different about Joel this morning. “How’s your dad?” he asked.
Joel startled, and the look on his face made Danny think it was the first time the man had thought about his father.
“I talked to Mom last night when he was still on a ventilator. He was stable. I haven’t called today.”
That was understandable, but Danny doubted he could be so disconnected if it was his dad. But then, he’d never seen Joel excited about much of anything. Still, something nagged at the back of his mind . . . but maybe it wasn’t Joel that was bothering him. Perhaps something about the call . . . He’d have to think about it. “Did you get a fix on where the photo came from?”
“Yeah,” the tech replied. “The McDonald’s here in Logan Point. All he had to do was boot up his computer in the parking lot and send it. Then it’s about a five-minute drive to the pay phone.”
“And once again,” Ben said, “no one saw anything.”
“Any fingerprints on the phone at Walmart?” Danny asked.
“Only about a hundred on yesterday’s. Evidently, no one cleans those phones. Ever,” Ben said.
“I wonder why he doesn’t use a throwaway phone,” Angel said.
“I don’t know.” Ben looked to Raines. “Any thoughts on that?”
“Who knows what’s going on in his mind. Could’ve figured pay phones would catch us by surprise.”
Angel nodded but didn’t seem satisfied. Danny caught Angel’s eye and barely lifted an eyebrow before grabbing his coat. “I need some fresh air. I’m going out to the barn to see if Charlie has come back.”
“I can use some exercise. I’ll come with you,” Angel said.
Outside, the wind cut through his jacket, and he pulled it closer.
“You wanted to talk?”
“Yeah.” They reached the barn, and Danny looked around for Charlie’s pickup. “I wonder why Charlie hasn’t come back?”
“Do you know where he went?”
“No. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” He turned to Angel. “Does anything seem odd to you about the ransom demand?”
“The whole thing has been odd. What’s bothering you about it?”
“I don’t know. Something’s off, but I don’t know what. My mind keeps going back to the phone call. Like I should be catching something.” He replayed the call in his mind. “That’s it!”
“What?”
“The caller said something about not negotiating a business transaction and expecting the full amount. Does that sound familiar?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Raines said almost the same thing yesterday. It’s like the kidnappers can hear what we’re saying. Maybe there’s a bug at the house.”
“Or someone’s feeding them information.”
Bailey tried not to disturb Maria as she slept. The child’s fever had returned, and if they didn’t get out of this damp room . . . She didn’t want to think about what might happen. At least they’d brought in some oatmeal and left the light on, and she’d fed her a few bites.
While the constant light wasn�
��t as bad as the darkness, she still couldn’t tell what time of the day or night it was or how long they’d been captive. Sometime between the taking of the photo and when she realized Maria’s fever had returned, Bailey had given up asking God to send someone to rescue them. She couldn’t control whether help came or not. That was up to God. It surprised her how freeing that realization was.
It had taken coming to the end of her rope to understand that she wasn’t in control. He was. And she didn’t believe that God had sent Danny to rescue them last week only to let them die today.
Another thing she believed—Danny would not let Joel or Edward hand over any amount of money without hearing her voice or Maria’s. She would get the opportunity to talk to her family, so she had to be ready to send them a message.
The sound of a scuffle outside the motel jerked her straight up. Hope soared until the door opened and one of the men entered, carrying something over his shoulder. Without ceremony, he dumped her father on the floor. Maria grabbed Bailey and clung to her.
“Daddy!” Bailey stared at blood oozing down the back of his head. “What did you do to him?”
“The fool was snooping around outside. He’s lucky I didn’t shoot him.”
She scrambled off the bed and stretched as far as the cuffs would let her, but she couldn’t reach him. “Please unlock these so I can help him.”
“No.”
This wasn’t the same man who took the picture. This one wore a full gray beard and sunglasses. She widened her eyes, pleading. “Then take them off so I can go to the bathroom.”
The sunglasses obscured his eyes, so she couldn’t tell if he was softening or not. Then he motioned her to move to the other side of the bed. “I will unlock them for now. When the old man comes to, you better convince him to cooperate unless you want to see him dead.”
“I will. He won’t bother you, I promise.”
He pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the cuffs. “I’ll be back in five minutes. Don’t get any bright ideas of trying to escape—I’ll be right outside the room.”
As soon as the door closed behind him, Bailey ran to her father. He was breathing. Then she checked on Maria. The child was burning up. “Stay here and rest,” she said softly.
“Is Uncle Charlie going to be okay?”
“Yes. I’m going into the bathroom, and I’ll be right back. Okay?”
Bailey took care of business, then found three washcloths and soaked them in cold water and wrung them out. She put the first one on Maria. “This should make you feel better.” She checked the front door. Nailed shut. No surprise there, but she’d had to see. She kneeled beside her dad and cradled his head in her lap and wiped the blood from his hair. She laid the other cloth across his forehead. Slowly, he began to come around.
He groaned. “What hit me?”
“I don’t know. Probably the butt of a gun. Does anyone know you’re here?”
He blinked open his eyes. “No. I was just following a hunch.”
“If you can sit up, I’ll help you get to the bed.”
He raised up and pressed his hand against his eyes. “The room is moving.”
“Sit there a minute. Do you have your cell phone with you?”
He felt his pocket. “Whoever coldcocked me must have taken it.” He winced. “Along with my .38.”
She squeezed his shoulder. Her hero. She’d rarely seen him when she was a small child since he’d spent so much time at sea as a merchant seaman. But he was here for her now. “Let’s see if you can make it to the bed.”
He stood on shaky legs, then took a deep breath. “I can do it.”
She turned as the side door opened and both men came into the room wearing the same disguises as earlier.
“You.” The man in the old geezer mask pointed at her. “Over here.”
When she hesitated, he shifted his gaze to Maria. “Right now or I’ll take the girl.”
Bailey moved to where he pointed.
The one with whiskers clamped one end of the cuffs on her wrist and the other on his. “We’re going to take a little trip.”
“Maria?”
“She stays here with the old man.” He turned to her dad. “And if you try to escape, I’ll kill this one,” he said, jerking his head toward Bailey. “Got it?”
“Yeah,” Charlie growled.
“Good.” Whiskers handed her a black sleep mask. “Put this on.”
“But I won’t be able to see.”
“That’s the point.”
Once she had the sleep mask in place, he jerked her arm. “This way.”
Half stumbling, she went where he led. The sleep mask slipped as they stepped outside the motel, allowing Bailey to see peripheral objects. Her heart sank. Bars covered all the windows. A car door creaked opened, and Whiskers put his hand on her head. “Get in the car.”
Bailey felt for the seat, then half climbed and half fell into what she decided was the backseat. The car lurched forward, jerking her back, then made a sharp turn. She didn’t know how long they were driving before the car made another turn and stopped.
One of the kidnappers spoke to her. “In a minute, I will hand you a phone. Tell the person on the other end you and the girl are all right. Tell them to pay the money. That’s all you say. Got it?”
She nodded and heard the sound of numbers being pressed.
“Hello?”
Bailey recognized Joel’s voice through the speaker on the phone.
“I have the woman.” Whiskers nudged her. “Speak.”
“Joel?” she said. “Maria has a fever.”
Whiskers nudged her again.
“Pay them the money.”
“I don’t know what kind of trick you’re trying to pull, but this isn’t Bailey,” he said.
“It is the woman,” Geezer insisted.
There was a pause, then Joel said, “If this is Bailey, tell me who Danny is.”
“Go ahead,” Geezer said.
“Danny is my fiancé. Tell him not to stop reading his Bible, and if this goes bad, Job 39 will comfort him.”
“That’s enough. I will call you in two hours with instructions on the exchange.”
Bailey sank back against the seat. Now it was up to Danny.
28
Will the money be here in two hours?” Danny had not seen any activity that indicated money would be delivered to the house.
Joel shook his head. “We don’t need it yet and don’t even know how much we’ll need. When he calls back, I’ll offer $250,000.”
“Are you trying to get them killed?” Angel demanded. “That amount will just make them mad.”
Edward stood from where he’d been sitting on the couch. “They will expect a low counter offer.”
“Not that low. And what about Maria—Bailey said she was running a fever again. We need to speed this up.”
“We can only go as fast as they allow,” Joel retorted.
“Arguing will get us nowhere,” Ben said. He turned to the tech. “Did the call come from a pay phone again?”
“Cell phone. I’m triangulating the coordinates now.” He looked up. “Got it.” He walked to the map. “It pinged off this cell tower.”
Ben examined the map. “He drove over the state line it looks like. Have you pinged it again?”
“Yeah. It hasn’t moved.”
“Probably decided to use a throwaway this time. I’ll call the sheriff over there and have his deputies search for it.” He turned to Danny. “What do you think Bailey meant by the reference to Job 39?”
“I assume she was trying to tell us where she’s being held,” Danny said. He grabbed the Bible on the end table. “Where’s Job?” he asked Kate.
She took the Bible and flipped almost to the middle. “I told her to read Job earlier this week,” she said to Danny.
“I have it up on my computer screen,” the tech said. “There are thirty verses here.”
Eric Raines and Ben gathered around the computer. “I wish she’d
pinpointed it with a verse, but that probably would have gotten her killed.”
“Do you have another Bible, Kate?” Joel asked.
“Every bedroom has one,” she replied. “I’ll take this one into the kitchen and see if I can understand what she’s trying to tell us.”
For the next few minutes, the house grew quiet as everyone pored over Bibles. Danny motioned for Angel to follow him into the kitchen. He sat down beside Kate. “Have you found anything yet?”
“I’ve scanned the verses, and nothing jumps out. The message was to you, so it’s probably something only you will put together.”
Danny glanced at Angel, then back to Kate.
“What’s going on?” she said.
He lowered his voice. “I don’t trust everyone in the house. If you think you get the message Bailey is trying to send, tell me first.”
She held his gaze. “I assume it’s Joel and Edward you don’t trust.”
He nodded.
“Something about this whole deal is wrong,” Angel said.
Danny worried the watch on his arm. “Our first priority is getting our girls—”
“But if possible, we’d like to get whoever is responsible for taking them too.” Angel’s hands curled into fists. “And those men who took them are only acting under orders from someone else.”
Kate frowned. “Surely it isn’t Maria’s uncles.”
“I hope not,” Danny said.
Angel folded his arms over his chest. “Me too. I’d hate to have to kill one of them.”
Danny stiffened as he realized Ben hadn’t returned his gun. He turned to Angel. “Do you have your gun?”
He patted his ankle. “Yes, Logan returned it to me.”
“He still has mine. Do you have another?”
“Not with me.”
Kate stood. “Charlie has a .38 revolver. I’ll get it.”
While she was gone, Danny read Job 39. He grabbed a notepad Kate had on the table and scribbled notes as he read. Wild animals, wilderness, city, pasture . . . He looked up when Kate returned, her face pale. “What’s wrong?”
“His gun is gone.” She glanced toward the door. “And he always tells me where he’s going, but he didn’t this morning . . . I thought he’d be back by now or at least called.”
Silence in the Dark Page 27