by Laura Scott
“He lost the trail?” Eva’s hopeful expression collapsed, and her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t believe this is happening. What if they hurt him, Finn? He’s just a little boy! We need to find him!”
“I’ll call the team. We’ll have all officers drop whatever they’re doing to search for Mikey.” He used his radio to call for backup, putting out the word that a three-year-old child had been taken from Griffin’s. He requested an Amber Alert, too, informing the dispatcher of what Mikey had been wearing. A red-and-white-striped shirt with navy shorts and slip-on athletic shoes.
“Eva, do you have a recent picture of him on your phone?”
She nodded and quickly texted it to him. He in turn sent it to the dispatcher to use for the Amber Alert.
Within five minutes, additional cops and their respective K-9 partners arrived. He held out Mikey’s raincoat to the newcomers—Carter Jameson and his white German shepherd, Frosty, Reed Branson and his bloodhound, Jessie, and Tony Knight and his chocolate Lab, Rusty. They were the first three responders, and he was grateful that each of their K-9s were trained to follow a very specific scent. Even those who weren’t would join in the search, but he appreciated the extra expertise.
“Use Mikey’s raincoat for his scent,” he directed. He wasn’t the highest-ranking officer there but took charge anyway. “Abernathy followed the trail outside to the intersection. The scent ended there, and I’m afraid that likely means the kidnapper had a ride waiting for him. We need to divide up the city, searching quadrant by quadrant.”
“Done,” Carter Jameson agreed, concern darkening his eyes. “You’re taking charge of this operation, so let us know where you want everyone to go.”
A feeling of helplessness washed over him. The two men who’d taken Cocoa and now Mikey could be anywhere in the massive city of New York. He hoped and prayed that concentrating on the Queens borough was the right thing to do. It made sense to him that these guys must be staying somewhere close by. Especially considering how frequently they’d been striking out at Eva and those around her.
Carter pulled out a map of Queens and spread it on the table. Finn bent over it, concentrating on the best strategy. “I’d like to take Forest Hills, since that’s where a lot of the incidents took place.” He glanced up at the three officers surrounding him. “Carter, I’d like you to take Rego Park. Reed, maybe you and Jessie could take Corona.”
“You want me and Rusty to take Elmhurst?” Tony Knight asked. “Those are the three closest areas to where we are now. Assuming that the bad guys are smart enough to stay away from Jackson Heights, since that’s where our headquarters is located.”
“Sure, although I’d like officers to stay around here, too. Griffin’s is the location of the crime, so we can’t ignore it.” There was so much ground to cover, and the bad guys had a vehicle to go wherever they wanted. Yet by his estimation and, apparently, the others as well, these were the most logical places to start. When more officers arrived, he doled out more assignments until they had pretty much an entire circle around Pete’s place and Griffin’s covered. Between searching and putting out the Amber Alert, he thought they had a good chance of getting Mikey back soon.
The alternative was unthinkable.
“Eva, stay here at Griffin’s for a while, I’ll check in with you if I find anything,” he said as he prepared to leave.
“No. I’m coming with you.” The stubborn thrust of her chin and steely determination in her eyes made him groan. There wasn’t time to argue. He wanted to hit the streets now, before too much time had passed.
Each minute would feel like a lifetime to a three-year-old child.
“Fine,” he capitulated, unwilling to waste another second. “Let’s go.”
Eva nodded. She accompanied him outside as they hurried back to his SUV. The drive to Forest Hills took longer than he wanted, but his gut told him that these two men would be staying someplace close. They’d accosted Eva near the preschool and at the training center, both located in Forest Hills. This was the place he knew instinctively they’d be found.
“This is all my fault,” Eva said in a low, tortured tone. “I never should have taken my eyes off Mikey, not for a second.”
“It’s my fault for suggesting we go to Griffin’s in the first place,” he countered in a grim tone. “I thought we’d be safe surrounded by so many cops. Stupid to assume any such thing.”
Eva shook her head. “I’m the one responsible for watching over Mikey in Pete’s absence.” She pulled out her cell phone. “I need to call him again, before he hears about it on the news.”
Knowing the Amber Alert would go out on the local news and possibly be picked up by the national networks, he nodded. This time she reached Pete, who’d tried to call her earlier, but she must have missed his call while in the noisy diner. Listening to her side of the conversation, it was easy to hear the alarm in Pete’s voice after Eva explained what had happened.
“I can’t believe they kidnapped my son!”
“I’m so sorry, Pete. I failed you and Mikey.” Eva’s voice grew thick with tears.
“Ask for permission for a drug-sniffing K-9 to search his house,” he whispered. Finding the missing package would be the best way to negotiate with Mikey’s kidnappers.
She did, and Pete must have calmed down some, because Eva nodded to him. “We’ll let you know if we find anything,” she promised.
Finn missed the next part of the conversation.
“If you can get a flight home, that would be great,” Eva finally said. “Just let me know when to expect you.”
Finn wasn’t surprised that Pete’s plan was to fly home immediately. That was exactly what he would do if it was his son who had been taken. The way Eva sat looking so forlorn made him long to offer comfort. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, willing the traffic to part like the Red Sea, allowing him through.
“Pete’s never going to trust me with Mikey again.”
“Eva, please stop berating yourself. The real fault lies with the men who would stoop so low as to use a child as hostage to get a package back.”
Eva wiped the tears from her face. He pulled into Pete’s driveway and got out from behind the wheel. After freeing Abernathy from the back, he approached Eva. Fresh tears streaked her cheeks, ripping at his heart.
“You don’t understand,” she said as he approached. “Remember how you asked me if I’d noticed anyone following me?”
He frowned, trying to understand where she was going with this. “Yes, but you can’t beat yourself up for not noticing someone tailing you. You’re not a trained police officer and, even then, clearly we were followed tonight without my knowledge. No one is invincible. And these guys could have two vehicles for all we know. Switching them out would make it even harder to find a tail.”
She shook her head, looking impatient. “No, it’s not that. I wasn’t entirely truthful with you.” She took a deep breath, as if bracing herself, before she met his gaze head-on. “I didn’t tell you about the problem with my vision. About how my peripheral vision is limited. Not only that, but it’s hard for me to see clearly in dim lighting. Facial features are often blurry.”
He was surprised by her admission. “Is that something new you’ve been dealing with? Maybe you need to see an eye specialist.”
“I have seen a specialist, and no, it’s not anything new. I have a degenerative vision disorder called retinitis pigmentosa. It’s a progressive blindness disorder that is hereditary in nature. I’ll likely be deemed legally blind in three years.”
Finn was shocked at the news, although it helped drop a piece of the puzzle into place. He understood now why she hadn’t been able to give a detailed description to the sketch artist and why she was so in tune to the way the two men sounded and smelled rather than how they looked. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you say anything before now?”
&nb
sp; “I had my reasons, and really, none of that matters right now. I wanted you to know the truth.” She glanced down at Abernathy standing patiently at his side. “Let’s keep searching for Mikey.”
Finn wasn’t keen on the idea of dropping the subject as if it were a rotten tomato, but she was right about time being of the essence in finding the boy. Yet, as he put Abernathy to work, his thoughts whirled. Was her limited eyesight the real reason she’d pulled out of his arms earlier in the day? He didn’t like thinking she was ashamed of her diagnosis.
He made a mental promise to approach the issue of her eyesight later, once they’d found Mikey safe and sound.
* * *
Eva should have felt better after telling Finn the truth, but she didn’t. Plagued by guilt, she couldn’t help thinking that if her eyesight had been better—or if she’d told Finn the truth before now—Mikey wouldn’t have been kidnapped right under her nose.
They walked up one street and down the other, a painstaking process wherein Finn worked hard to encourage Abernathy to pick up Mikey’s scent. They stopped at each apartment building, each intersection, anywhere that one of the two men who’d kidnapped the boy might be holding him hostage.
She replayed the conversation with Pete in her mind, wondering if he’d got a flight home yet. As Finn and Abernathy took another detour up to a rather run-down apartment building, she used her phone to call him.
“Did you find him?” Pete asked, his tone betraying his hope.
“Not yet,” she said, feeling even more miserable. “We’re doing our best, and everyone is helping in the search.”
“Eva, I can’t lose Mikey—I just can’t.” Pete’s voice was full of harsh desperation. “I never should have come to this stupid conference. I don’t care if I’m the training coordinator. I should have told my boss to forget about it.”
“I’m sorry, Pete. I feel terrible. Did you get a flight home?”
“Not yet. There’s a huge thunderstorm moving in, so there is a delay on all outgoing and incoming flights.” He sounded upset, not that she blamed him. “I’m trying to find another option, see if I can rent a car to get to another city that is outside the range of the storm.”
“Pete, don’t do something rash,” she cautioned. “The storm might blow past before you reach your next destination. Stay put for now. I’ll update you on a regular basis, okay?”
There was a long silence from the other end of the line. When Finn and Abernathy turned away from the apartment building, her hopes plummeted. But she did her best to sound upbeat for Pete’s sake.
“Pete? Really, we’re going to find him. We have cops and search-and-rescue K-9s combing the entire Queens borough.”
“This is all because of some stupid package Malina took from them?” Pete finally asked.
“Yes. I’m afraid so.” She fell into step beside Finn and Abernathy. “I’ve searched the entire house twice but haven’t found anything. Are you sure you don’t know of any other hiding place Malina might use?”
“I’ve been racking my brain about it since you called. I don’t know of anywhere she would use other than her work or our place. You have my permission to search every nook and cranny.”
She wasn’t sure if Pete knew Malina had been fired from the guide dog training center but decided this wasn’t the time to tell him. There was something else nagging at her. “Did Malina have a gym membership?”
“She used to,” Pete acknowledged. “But we stopped paying for it a few months before she died.”
“Yeah, okay.” She vaguely remembered Malina talking about some new gym she was going to that was located near her home. The Fitness Club. “Stay in Atlanta until it’s safe to fly,” she repeated. “And I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”
“Thanks, Eva.”
She closed her eyes momentarily, thinking that she was the last person Pete should be thanking. “We’re in this together,” she finally said. “And we won’t rest until we find him.”
“I know.” Pete didn’t say anything more as he disconnected from the call.
“What was that about a gym?” Finn asked.
“Malina used to go to a place called The Fitness Club to work out, but Pete says that they let their membership lapse a few months ago. I keep thinking of the stinky guy and how he reminded me of how a gym smelled.” As they started down another block, Eva noticed the sun was slowly beginning to set. In another hour or two the city would be shrouded in darkness.
Her heart squeezed painfully. Surely the two men wouldn’t hurt the boy, but would they understand he was afraid of the dark? Would they care enough to put a night-light on for him? Would they give him a bath and a snack before bed?
Of course they wouldn’t, and the overwhelming feeling of despair almost sent her to her knees. She stumbled, instinctively reaching out for Finn.
“Eva? What’s wrong?”
“I just...can’t stand it. The thought of Mikey being scared and alone, it’s killing me.”
Finn put his arm around her shoulders, giving her a reassuring squeeze. “Let’s pray for Mikey,” he suggested. “Let’s pray that God will watch over him, keeping him safe. That he’ll be strong and brave, secure in the knowledge that we’re coming for him.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Dear Lord, we ask that You please keep Mikey safe in Your loving arms. Give him the strength he needs to hang on until we can get there. Guide us on Your chosen path and provide the light we need to find him. Amen.”
“Amen,” she echoed. “Thank you, Finn.”
“Let’s keep going,” he encouraged. “There’s another place up ahead that has potential as a hiding spot.”
She nodded and kept pace with Finn and Abernathy. As she walked, she repeated Finn’s heartfelt prayer over and over in her mind.
It was strange to open her heart and her mind to God. Yet, despite her fears, she felt a slight measure of peace at knowing that Mikey wouldn’t be all alone with those evil men.
God would be there with him.
The next building was a dead end, as was the next one. Abernathy worked tirelessly, and she appreciated having the K-9’s keen scent offering them assistance.
She’d kept the Amber Alert on her phone, looking down at Mikey’s smiling face periodically as a way to reassure herself that everything possible was being done to find him.
Fighting fatigue, she kept pace as they started down another street. Finn had identified that houses with for-sale signs were sometimes used as short-term rentals, so they went to each of those, as well.
Her phone rang again and, assuming it was Pete, she answered it quickly. “Did you get a flight?”
There was a moment’s hesitation before a mechanically distorted voice said, “If you want to see the kid again, find the package.”
“You have Mikey?” Her gaze clashed with Finn’s, and he rotated his index finger in a way she knew meant do everything possible to keep the caller on the line. “How do I know he’s alive? I’m not turning over anything to you without some proof that you haven’t harmed the child.”
“He’s fine, or he will be if you bring the package,” the mechanical voice repeated. “If you don’t...” The caller let his voice trail off.
Eva gripped her phone harder, aware of Finn talking to headquarters, asking for a trace on her phone. There was some kind of noise in the background, but she continued to press her point. “Please, he’s only three years old. Just let me talk to him for a moment. He won’t be afraid if he knows I’m coming to find him.”
“Find the package.”
The call ended abruptly, and it took all her willpower not to throw her phone against the closest brick wall.
If she knew where the package was, she’d gladly trade it for Mikey’s life. But she didn’t.
And was very afraid these men wouldn’t blink at hurting
a little boy to make their point.
NINE
“We didn’t get the trace.”
Finn let out a harsh breath and drew his hand down his face at their technical specialist Danielle Abbott’s response. “Thanks for trying.”
“We’ll keep her phone queued up so we can trace the next call.”
“Thanks.” He’d known tracing the call that had come in on Eva’s phone was a long shot, especially since it had taken precious seconds to get the phone pinged, but he’d hoped for something—anything—they could use to find Mikey.
He hated to admit that he and Abernathy were coming up empty-handed.
“They want the package,” Eva’s voice was dull with resignation. “I don’t understand why they haven’t figured out that I would have already turned it over if I’d had it.”
Finn didn’t know what to say to that. If the package was drugs or money, they’d have to get permission to use it as a way to draw out the kidnappers. No way would they be allowed to simply hand it over to secure Mikey’s freedom. There would be a whole task force involved, something he sensed Eva wouldn’t appreciate. Since it was a moot point, he decided not to go down that path.
“What exactly did he say?”
“If I want to see Mikey again, I’ll find the package.” She looked as if she might cry. “He refused to let me talk to Mikey, and at the end of the call repeated the demand to find the package. I tried to see if I could hear Mikey in the background, but I can’t be sure.”
Adrenaline spiked as he moved a step closer. “Think, Eva. You have astute hearing. Go over the call again in your mind. Can you remember if you heard any background noises during the conversation? Anything that would give us a clue as to where Mikey is being held?”
She shook her head automatically, then frowned. “Wait, maybe.”
“What was it?” He practically held his breath as he waited for her to respond.
Eva was quiet for several long moments, then she started to hum a few bars of a tune.