by Haylen Beck
Audra finished the thought. ‘Then the case dies with them.’
‘Exactly.’
She sat still and quiet, her gaze on the floor.
‘Do you think I’m crazy?’ Danny asked. ‘Some nut job who just showed up here to mess with you?’
She did not look up. ‘I don’t know what you are. My right mind says to kick you out of here, but …’
‘But what?’
‘But at this moment I don’t have anyone else on my side.’
Danny leaned forward in the chair. ‘Let’s get one thing straight. I’m on my side. Not yours. If I help you, it’s because it helps me get to the men who took my daughter. And, if she’s alive somewhere, maybe even find her. I’m not your Good Samaritan.’
‘Then let me get another thing straight,’ Audra said. ‘I’m only hearing you out because I’ve got no other choice.’
‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘But here’s one more question: Why should I trust you? What if they’re right about you?’
‘You wouldn’t be here if you thought that.’
‘So neither one of us has reason to trust the other. But here we are.’
Audra exhaled and said, ‘Here we are. If you’re right, do you think they’ll have handed Sean and Louise over yet? Or are they still holding them somewhere?’
‘Hard to know,’ Danny said. ‘My guess is they’ll want to move them soon, if they haven’t done it yet. Either way, there isn’t much time.’
Now she looked at him, hard. ‘How do I get them back?’
Danny realized then that this woman was not like Mya. She possessed a strength that Mya had not. Whatever she had survived in her past had put steel in her.
‘There’s only one way,’ he said. ‘We use the cops. You said it was the sheriff who arrested you, and the deputy took your children.’
‘That’s right,’ Audra said. ‘Her name’s Collins.’
‘All right, we go through her. We take her, put a gun to her head, and give her a simple choice: she tells us where the kids are or she dies.’
Audra got to her feet, started to pace the room, shaking her head. ‘No. No, I can’t do that. I’m not that kind of person.’
‘Maybe not,’ Danny said. ‘But I am.’
She stopped mid-stride, looked down at him. ‘Have you killed someone before?’
He didn’t answer the question. ‘We need to take the deputy soon. Tonight, if we can.’
‘No,’ Audra said. ‘We can’t. If it goes wrong, if she gets hurt, then they’ll crucify me. The press haven’t said anything about Whiteside and Collins, I guess because they haven’t been told what I said. As far as the public’s concerned, Collins is just a sheriff’s deputy doing her job. We hurt her, it’ll only make things worse. There has to be another way.’
‘If you’ve got a better plan,’ Danny said, ‘I’m listening.’
‘The FBI agent. Mitchell. We go to her. You tell her everything you told me. She’ll question Whiteside and Collins.’
‘You told her about them already,’ Danny said. ‘Has she questioned them so far?’
Audra looked away. ‘No, not yet. But she hasn’t heard your story.’
‘There was an FBI agent attached to Sara’s case too. Child Abduction Response Deployment, right?’
Audra nodded.
‘My agent’s name was Reilly. I told him all this right before I … Well, I don’t know if he didn’t believe me or just didn’t want to deal with the fallout. Either way, he didn’t do anything.’
‘But Mitchell will,’ Audra said. ‘I know it. She’s a good person.’
‘Good people can make mistakes. They do it all the time.’
‘Let me try.’ She hunkered down in front of him, her hands clasped together, a gesture of pleading. ‘If I can get her to listen, will you talk to her?’
‘That means putting myself at risk,’ Danny said.
‘Of what?’
‘Maybe I don’t want the FBI or the cops looking too close at my case.’
‘Why? What did you do?’
He couldn’t hold her gaze. ‘I won’t talk to the cops or the feds. They won’t help. Not without leverage.’
‘Leverage?’
‘Outside pressure,’ Danny said. ‘If Mitchell hasn’t acted on her own, then maybe a push from elsewhere will force her hand.’
Audra stood and walked from one side of the room to the other, chewing a nail that looked like it hadn’t much left to give.
‘The press,’ she said. ‘I talk to the press. If Mitchell won’t tell them what I said, then I will. Let the public know. Then she’ll have to question them.’
‘It’s risky,’ Danny said. ‘You hit out at the sheriff that way, then he’ll hit back.’
Audra stopped pacing. ‘I’ll take that chance. They want a story? I’ll give them a story.’
31
AUDRA SHOUTED, ‘HEY!’
Some of the reporters turned her way, most didn’t.
‘Hey! Over here!’
More saw her now, and they scrambled. Microphones, cameras, cell phones, anything that could take a picture or record a sound.
Audra stood on the top step outside the guesthouse door. She’d tried to tidy herself up, but she still looked a mess. So long as I don’t look crazy, she’d thought as she checked a mirror in the hall. Mrs Gerber had called to her as she walked to the door, said don’t go out there, but Audra had ignored her. Now she stood waiting, watching the press people scurry toward her like pigs to a trough.
The first of them reached her, microphones outstretched, right under her nose. They shouted questions, but she didn’t hear. She held her silence until all of them had gathered round, jostling with each other for the best angle. Still the shouting, one voice buried by the next.
‘Quiet,’ Audra said.
They only grew louder.
‘Shut up!’ Loud enough to hurt her throat. ‘I have something to say.’
Now they hushed, and the noise of the street seemed to swell around them. Across the road, Audra saw Sheriff Whiteside staring at her from his place on a bench outside the diner. Death in his eyes. The idea of turning around and going back inside fluttered through her mind, but she chased it away. Say it, she thought. Say it for Sean and Louise.
‘I did not hurt my children,’ Audra said.
The clamor grew once more, and she raised her hands to quiet them.
‘Sean and Louise were with me, a little hot and tired, but they were safe with me when I was pulled over just outside of town two days ago.’
She pointed across the street. Whiteside’s lips thinned.
‘That man, Sheriff Whiteside, pulled me over. He told me my car was overloaded. Then he looked in the trunk and found a bag of marijuana. The bag wasn’t mine. He planted it there so he could arrest me. My children were in my car while he searched and handcuffed me. He radioed Deputy Collins to come get Sean and Louise. I asked him where she was taking them, and all he said was, “Somewhere safe”. Deputy Collins drove away with them in the back of her car. That was the last time I saw my children.’
The microphones jockeyed in front of her mouth. A chorus of questions. Audra ignored them all.
‘When Sheriff Whiteside brought me back to the jail, I asked for my kids. He said I had no children with me. He’s been lying ever since, him and Deputy Collins. I’ve told this to everybody, the state police, the FBI, everyone, and nobody believes me. They didn’t even tell you people, the press, what I said. But I’m telling you now. My children are out there somewhere, they’re alive, and that man knows where they are.’
She pointed at Whiteside once more, and he moved away from the front of the diner, along the sidewalk toward the station.
‘Go ask him,’ Audra said. ‘See what he’ll tell you.’
Some of the reporters split off, headed in Whiteside’s direction. He quickened his pace to a jog, looking nowhere but at the front entrance of the station.
‘That’s all I have to say.’
<
br /> She turned to the door, her back to the hail of questions. Inside, she barred the door behind her. She watched through the glass as the rest of the reporters set off toward Whiteside. Then she walked into the dim shadows of the hallway.
Mrs Gerber waited in the doorway to the kitchen, almost hidden by the stairs, watching her.
‘You just bought yourself a whole load of trouble,’ she said.
Audra didn’t answer as she mounted the stairs and climbed.
‘You know what I think of Ronnie Whiteside,’ Mrs Gerber said, coming to the first step. ‘But Mary Collins. She’s a nice girl. Are you sure about her?’
Audra paused on the turn and said, ‘Yes, I’m sure.’
‘You think you know a person. Do you still want that coffee and cake?’
‘Yes, please,’ Audra said. ‘Can you make it for two? I have a guest.’
‘A guest? I don’t allow visitors in the rooms. Who’ve you got up there?’
Audra thought about it for a moment before saying, ‘I’m not sure.’
She made her way up to the second floor and back to her room. Danny waited there, still sitting where she’d left him.
‘Well?’ he asked.
‘Well, I told them,’ Audra said. ‘We’ll see if it shakes anything loose.’
Danny got to his feet, his hand delving into the thigh pocket of his cargo pants. ‘I’m guessing they kept your phone. Here.’
He tossed a cheap-looking cell onto the bed.
‘It’s prepaid,’ he said. ‘One number in the contacts list. Mine. You call me straight away if anything happens. I’ll keep my phone switched on. You do the same.’
Audra lifted the cell, flipped it open. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’
‘All right. I should get out of here now.’
‘Wait,’ Audra said, surprised at her own eagerness for this stranger to stay. She realized she’d been alone since her children were taken, and she didn’t want to be alone again. Not yet, anyway. ‘The landlady, Mrs Gerber, she’s bringing up some coffee. And cake.’
Danny shrugged and sat down. ‘Well, if there’s cake …’
32
ALL EYES TURNED to Whiteside as he entered the station. The state cops, the FBI, all stared at him. Including Special Agent Mitchell, who marched toward him from the rear of the room.
‘Well, I guess everyone heard that,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t change anything. Woman’s crazy, is all.’
‘It changes a lot,’ Mitchell said.
‘You know she’s talking nonsense, right? Maybe she believes it herself, but it’s all bullshit. You can’t take it seriously.’
‘I’m taking everything seriously.’ Mitchell folded her arms across her chest. ‘I have since I got here. And I’m not ruling anything out right now.’
‘Come on, then,’ he said, stepping in close. ‘Arrest me. Interrogate me. Hook me up to a goddamn polygraph machine. I’ll take everything you got. Your people searched Collins’ car, right?’
‘That’s correct,’ Mitchell said.
‘And did they find a trace of those children ever being there? No? It was clean, wasn’t it?’
‘It was very clean,’ Mitchell said. ‘We found nothing but a few traces of bleach, like it had been scrubbed out.’
‘How about my cruiser?’ Whiteside said, letting his voice harden. ‘You want to search that too? Or maybe my house? I got a cellar. You want to look in there?’
‘That won’t be necessary,’ Mitchell said, turning away. ‘For now.’
‘Release the pictures,’ he said.
Mitchell stopped. ‘What?’
‘The T-shirt and the jeans. With the blood on them. Release those to the press, let them know they were found in her car. That’ll put this to rest.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ Mitchell said. ‘Is that all?’
‘Yeah, that’s all.’
Whiteside scanned the room as Mitchell walked away, dared anyone to look at him now. They all made themselves busy with their maps and their laptop computers.
‘Anyone got something they want to talk to me about?’ he asked, his voice booming.
Not a one of them looked up.
‘Didn’t think so,’ he said.
He went to the side door, hit the push bar, and stepped out onto the ramp. A dry want at the back of his throat. Not for a drink. He craved one of Collins’ cigarettes, imagined the heat of the smoke in his chest.
As if summoned by the thought, his cruiser pulled into the parking lot. Collins had been using it while the feds searched hers. She drove to the rear of the lot to find an empty space, the rest taken up by the state cops and the FBI vehicles. He descended the shallow ramp and walked in her direction, met her halfway.
‘You hear the news?’ he asked.
Collins looked over his shoulder, made sure no one else was in earshot. ‘Some of it. What do we do?’
‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘The press still think she’s crazy. They still want to see her burn. I might be able to encourage them a little.’
‘How?’
‘Let me worry about that.’
‘Maybe …’
She stood there, her mouth opening and closing, an idea too fearful to reach her tongue.
‘What?’ Whiteside asked. ‘Just say it.’
‘Maybe there’s a way out. Maybe it’s not too late.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘We tell her she can have her kids back if she swears not to implicate us. We find them out wandering somewhere, we’ll be heroes, so long as they keep their mouths shut. There’s the half-million reward the father put up. It’s not as much as we wanted, but it’s not nothing.’
He grabbed Collins’ upper arm, squeezed hard. ‘Stop it. You think like that, you’ll finish us both. Just hold your nerve. We do the exchange tomorrow, then it’s over. All right?’
Her eyes brimmed as she nodded. ‘All right.’
‘Good,’ he said. ‘Now pull yourself together. One more day, that’s all.’
Whiteside turned to walk away, but Collins spoke again.
‘The girl’s sick,’ she said.
‘Sick how?’
‘She’s got a fever, a rattle in her chest, sleeping a lot.’
‘What about the boy?’
‘He’s fine. It’s just her.’
‘Shit,’ Whiteside said. He put his hands on his hips and stared at the hills as he thought. ‘You have medicine at your house, right? For your boy.’
‘Some,’ Collins said.
‘Any antibiotics? Penicillin, Amoxicillin? Anything like that?’
‘Amoxicillin,’ Collins said. ‘I need to keep it on hand in case Mikey gets an infection.’
‘Okay, give her some of that. Bring it out this evening if you can. Give her a double dose to get her started.’
‘But it’s Mikey’s.’
‘Then get him some more.’ He looked around, lowered his voice. ‘Goddamn it, Mary, you gotta start thinking right. Don’t fuck this up.’
Whiteside walked back toward the station, willing his anger to be still.
33
Private Forum 447356/34
Admin: RR; Members: DG, AD, FC, MR, JS
Thread Title: This Weekend; Thread Starter: RR
From: DG, Friday 6:02 p.m.
RR – Are we still going ahead? I don’t know what anyone else thinks, but I’m getting a little nervous. We’ve never had media attention like this before.
From: MR, Friday 6:11 p.m.
I’ve been wondering the same thing. Should we cut our losses at this stage?
From: FC, Friday 6:14 p.m.
I’ve paid my half mill already. I assume we all have. I didn’t throw down that kind of money just for the evening to be cancelled over some news reports.
From: MR, Friday 6:18 p.m.
FC – There’s a lot more at stake here than money. If you can’t afford to lose half a mill, then you don’t belong in this group.
From: FC, Friday
6:20 p.m.
MR – Fuck you. I can afford to lose more than you made last year and not even break a sweat. If you want to chicken out, go ahead.
From: MR, Friday 6:23 p.m.
FC – Easy to say, when you’ve got your father’s safety net to catch your fall.
From: DG, Friday 6:27 p.m.
Gentlemen, please be civil. This isn’t some Facebook comment thread, and there’s no need to squabble. Let’s just wait and see what RR has to say.
From: JS, Friday 6:46 p.m.
Any word, gentlemen? I must admit, I’m nervous too. It’s all over the news.
From: DG, Friday 6:50 p.m.
Calm down, everyone. RR will let us know in good time.
From: RR, Friday 7:08 p.m.
Gentlemen, we proceed as planned. The seller has been in touch and made assurances that everything is under control.
Also, I have sourced some imported goods, so even if something goes wrong, we will have entertainment for the evening. We all prefer locally sourced goods, of course, but these will suffice if we can’t acquire the intended items – and I have no reason to believe we won’t.
FC & MR – bicker like that again and you’re out.
See you all tomorrow.
34
SEAN WAITED IN the darkness beneath the stairs. A few seconds ago he had been lying with Louise, holding her close, her body burning against his chest as if she had a furnace inside. The front of his shirt still damp from her sweat, it now chilled him. Her breath rattled and wheezed.
He had risen from the mattress when he heard the buzz of the motorcycle approach. Now the footsteps above, crossing to the trapdoor. The rattle of the lock, the snap of the bolt, then light breaking in. He stepped back, let the shadows swallow him.
Collins trudged down the first few steps, stopped a third of the way from the top. Sean raised his hands.