by James Hunt
“Insurance policies?” Jim asked.
A look into a family's financials was always standard when dealing with an abduction. While it didn’t happen often, insurance fraud was always a possibility when it came to abductions, especially with a victim as wealthy as Ricky Teller.
“Looks like Mrs. Teller took out a new insurance policy three weeks ago, which includes a ten million dollar kidnapping clause,” Missy answered.
“I would say that’s a red flag,” Kerry said.
Jim boiled with anger. How could a mother do that to her child? How could she hang her little boy out to dry for money?
“Jim, how do you want to do this?” Kerry asked.
Several different scenarios ran through Jim’s head in response to that question, all of which would get him fired from the department. Instead, he was forced to settle for the interrogation room.
“Print out what you have, Missy,” Jim said. “It’s time to get Ricky’s mother to talk.”
17
Once Marcia Teller was cleared by the doctors at the hospital, Jim and Kerry requested the mother be transferred to the station. They had more than enough evidence to arrest her, but they held off on the official charges so they wouldn’t cause a stir with the media.
“Are you sure about this?” Kerry asked.
“If we charge her and we’re wrong, then the real pedophile knows we’ve fallen for his trap,” Jim answered.
“And if we’re right, we’re just delaying the inevitable,” Kerry said.
Jim knew what she meant. If the parents were involved, then the likely scenario didn’t bode well for a successful recovery of the child. Nine times out of ten, whenever parents tried to fake an abduction, it meant the child was dead.
It was always a difficult situation to be in, and Jim struggled to keep his anger in check at the possibility these parents had done something so vile. He couldn’t believe he was even thinking it, but he was beginning to agree with what former child star, Jamison Kent, had said about the parents of children who were in the spotlight.
When Marcia Teller arrived at the precinct, she was brought in through the front doors so the media could get a good look at her. It was another reason why Jim hadn’t wanted to press charges. She was simply coming in under the guise of learning new information about her son.
But Jim knew she had to have been nervous. Because even if she weren’t responsible for the abduction of her son, she was responsible for blowing all of his money. And the circumstances that surrounded her were incredibly suspicious.
Jim figured that was the reason Marcia Teller couldn’t sit still in the interrogation room. He watched her from the monitors for a little while. It was clear she was about to crack, but Jim wanted to make sure she believed she didn’t have any other choice but to tell them the truth. It was only a matter of time before they uncovered what really happened.
“You ready?” Kerry asked.
Jim nodded, finally taking his eyes off of the monitors as they headed for the room. Marcia Teller shuddered when Kerry opened the door and stepped inside. Her initial reaction was one of terror, not of hope of potential news of her son but of what this meeting meant for her. There was a clear distinction that Jim could always tell when he looked at a parent’s face. He had seen thousands of similar faces growing up in the foster system. He could always tell when an adult was going to be genuine with him or if it was all a show.
And right now, Marcia Teller was putting on a hell of a show.
“Did you find him?” Marcia asked. “Did you find Ricky?”
“Take a seat, Mrs. Teller,” Jim answered as he did the same.
Marcia collapsed back into her chair, but she remained on edge. “I kept thinking something terrible happened on my way over. The officers who brought me here wouldn’t tell me anything. They said they didn’t know what you found.” Her lips trembled as if she were about to cry, but the tears never fell. “Well?”
If time weren’t of importance in the case, Jim would have enjoyed letting Marcia Teller sweat it out. But alas, he didn’t want her son to suffer any more than he had.
“Why did you take out a ten million dollar insurance policy on your son three weeks ago?” Jim asked, sliding a copy of the paperwork toward Marcia Teller.
Marcia stared at it like she had never seen it before in her life. “I don’t—I didn’t do this.”
Jim flipped through to the last page and tapped on the line where Marcia had placed her signature. “You don’t remember signing that?”
Marcia stared at it, and Jim could tell she was struggling to come up with an explanation. “It was forged. I didn’t—I wouldn’t do something like that?”
“It’s not that you took out an insurance policy against your son,” Kerry answered. “It’s the fact that you did it less than a month before he disappeared. And you paid extra to include a kidnapping policy for the amount of the ten million.”
Marcia shook her head, furiously denying the allegations. “This is insane. You don’t understand. I didn’t—I could never—I was set up!” She slammed her fists onto the table and then stood, turning her back to Jim and Kerry.
Jim wasn’t sure if Marcia was crying or not, and he didn’t care. He just wanted to find Ricky. “This will go easier for everyone if you just tell us the truth now, Mrs. Teller. Because the moment we step out of that door, we’ll be charging you for the abduction of your son. At least have the decency to tell us where he is.”
Marcia Teller was quiet, and then she bowed her head. “I don’t know where he is.”
Jim sighed. “If that’s how you want to play this game, then so be it—”
“No,” Marcia quickly turned around. “It was me, okay? I helped plan it.”
Jim remained cautious. If he were about to get a confession, he wanted to make sure it would stick. “Who else was involved?”
Jim assumed it would have been the husband, but he was shocked at the name Marcia uttered next.
“It was Jamison,” Marcia answered.
Jim leaned forward. “You worked with him?”
“We made a deal!” Marcia shouted, stomping her foot like a child who wasn’t getting her way. “I told him if he took Ricky and kept him safe, I would do a stunt for him in his campaign for child actors. It was supposed to be a collaboration. That’s all.”
“You let someone take your child for a stunt?” Kerry asked, disgusted.
“I need the money all right?” Marcia shouted. “We don’t have anything left, nothing! I lost it all.” She collapsed into her chair and grabbed her head like she was holding it in a vice. “Christ, what have I done?”
“So the real reason for the video, the abduction, the rouse, it was all to make it look like we were chasing the real cyber predator,” Jim answered.
“It was Jamison’s idea, okay?” Marcia said. “He assured me Ricky would be safe, and I believed him! He has spent his life trying to make things better for kids.”
“I don’t think kidnapping a child is the best way to make things better for children,” Kerry said.
“Where is he?” Jim asked. “Where are Jamison and Ricky?”
Marcia continued to break down. She cried, apologizing, assuring Jim and Kerry that nothing went wrong with the abduction. “I wasn’t supposed to know,” Marcia said. “So it wouldn’t come back to me.”
Jim walked around the table and stood next to Marcia. She couldn’t even look up and stare him in the face.
“You know what kind of person does this to their own child?” Jim asked. “A monster.”
Marcia Teller finally looked up, eyes red and filled with tears. The tiny muscles along her face started to spasm as she struggled to hold herself together. “You can go ahead and judge me all you want, but you weren’t there in the early years. When we had nothing.” She looked at Kerry, snarling. “I bet you think I’m a terrible mother, don’t you?”
“That’s just one of the many things I’m thinking about you right now,” Kerry ans
wered. “But I would definitely put that at the top of my list.”
“You think that what we earned, the life we built, was easy?” Marcia asked, growing more hysterical. “Do you think it was just making videos and posting them online? The hours I put into that channel, the blood, sweat, and tears I gave up so that I could provide a better life for my child!” She slammed her fist onto the table. “I was a good mother! I was a mother who could see beyond the moment. I wanted to give my kid something I never had, a future where he didn’t have to scrape by with nothing.” She scoffed. “It was all Daniel’s fault, really. He was the one who could never make enough money for the family. He was the one who couldn’t take care of us. So I stepped up to the plate.”
“I think you’re forgetting about Ricky’s contributions to all of this,” Jim said.
“It was just a game for him!” Marcia said. “He loved doing those videos. He was basically playing the entire time!”
“That’s what you think, huh?” Jim asked, and then he reached for the evidence file they had put together for the case, removed Ricky’s journal, and tossed it in front of Marcia. “Why don’t you read through that and then tell me how much your son loved making those videos.”
Marcia picked up the journal as if she were afraid of it and then opened it to the first page.
“You killed the joy in his life,” Jim said. “All of the things that he loved, you ruined because all you cared about was making money. That’s not what a mother’s job is. You failed!”
Jim was panting and sweating. His voice had gone hoarse from yelling, and he was trembling because he was so tired.
Jim stepped out of the room, leaving Marcia alone with her son’s journal to learn the truth about how he really felt about him being the sole financial supporter of the family.
Kerry caught up with Jim at his desk. “You shouldn’t have gone off like that, it only gives her ammunition for the lawyers.”
“And she shouldn’t have tried to fake her son’s abduction,” Jim retorted. “We need to locate Jamison. Let’s get units over to his house now.”
“Detectives,” Desk Sergeant Hale walked over and dropped a large envelope onto Jim and Kerry’s desk. “Mail, it’s marked as urgent.”
“Everything’s urgent today,” Jim said, heading toward the lieutenant’s office.
But Kerry hung back, reaching for the mail. The pictures that spilled out onto the desk confused her at first, but when she picked them up and saw that they were photographs of her children, she felt very cold.
“Jim,” Kerry said.
Jim turned away from the lieutenant’s office, and when he saw the look on her face, he hurried back to her side where he saw the origin of her concern.
“It’s my kids, Jim,” Kerry said. “It’s pictures of my children.”
Jim saw the photographs of Kerry’s kids at school and walking home. The images were recent, having been taken yesterday. But Kerry’s kids weren’t the only photographs in the envelope.
Jim’s foster parents, Mary and Ray Swisher, who continued to take care of children to this day, were also photographed. There were also pictures of the children his foster parents were currently raising.
“There’s a note,” Kerry said, handing Jim a scrap of paper.
The handwriting was clear and legible, and the message was simple.
Back off.
18
Kerry didn’t know how long she stared at the photograph of her children, but when she heard Jim speak her name, she knew it wasn’t the first time he’d tried to get her attention.
“Who sent these?” Kerry asked, but she already knew the answer. There was only one person out there who would be daring enough to go after her children and to go after Jim’s family. This was the Broker’s doing.
“I need to call Brian,” Kerry said and used her cell phone.
“Hey, honey—”
“I need you to get the kids,” Kerry said, cutting her husband off. “Get them out of school now.”
“The lieutenant is sending officers over to the school now,” Jim said. “The principal is pulling them from class.”
At the sheer mention that her kids were alive and still at school, Kerry lost her breath for a moment; she was so relieved.
“Officers are on their way now, and the principal pulled the kids from class,” Kerry said.
“Are they okay?” Brian asked. “What the hell is going on?”
Kerry stared back down at the pictures in her hand, and she cleared her throat. “The kids are being targeted from the case I’m working.”
Brian’s spat of silence was audibly noticeable. “You’re talking about the Broker?”
“Yes,” Kerry answered. “That case.”
Every parent knew about the online predator terrorizing families and children across the state. Kerry and Brian had always been careful when it came to social media with their kids, but ever since this Broker stepped into the spotlight, they had doubled down on their efforts. But no amount of shielding could protect their children from a potential stalker.
“All right, I’m on the way over now,” Brian said. “I’ll call you when I get there.”
“Okay,” Kerry said. “You’ll have an escort home, and there will be a team to sweep the house for any bugs.”
“Jesus,” Brian said, whispering under his breath. “Okay. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Bye.” When Kerry ended the call, she felt a piece of herself break away. She had never wanted the job to affect her family, but over the past year, they had taken just as many blows as she had. It was getting harder and harder to separate her job from her family, and if she couldn’t even protect them with her badge, Kerry didn’t know what else to do.
“Are you all right?” Jim asked, and then he shook his head. “Stupid question. Don’t answer.”
Kerry knew Jim meant well, but he also had his own problems. She gestured to the photos of his foster brothers and sisters. “Did you speak to your parents?”
“Everyone is accounted for,” Jim answered. “I have a unit heading over to their house to keep everyone on lockdown. The older kids won’t like it, but they’ll have everything they need to hunker down until this is over.”
“Will this be over?” Kerry asked. “Because we still don’t know how to find the Broker.”
Kerry knew Jim had been struggling with this case and trying to stop the pedophile they were chasing. And she didn’t want to pile onto his stress, but they needed to start asking themselves the hard questions.
“These pictures mean he’s getting desperate,” Jim said. “We’re getting close.”
“But is worth it?” Kerry asked.
“What are you saying?” Jim asked.
Kerry gestured to the note the pedophile had left behind. “Maybe we listen.”
“You can’t be serious,” Jim said. “We can’t be bullied into submission, Kerry.”
“Maybe we can?” Kerry asked. “Maybe this is the way forward?”
“We give in to this guy and it will only embolden him,” Jim answered. “The only reason he’s doing this is because of who we are. He’s scared, Kerry.”
“Well, so am I!” Kerry barked at him, and she sensed the other crew in the room grow still and quiet. “My children are in this predicament because of what I’m doing, and if I have the ability to keep them safe, then it’s not insane for me to consider it.”
Deep down, Kerry knew she was only scared, and she had a right to be. She also knew that giving up now wasn’t the right thing to do. But she had been doing nothing but the right thing ever since she had started her career with the department.
“My entire life, I have been trying to erase the damage done by my father,” Kerry said. “His reputation put a stain on my family name. But I will not sacrifice the safety of my children to uphold that ideal, Jim. I will not put them in harm's way again.”
Jim nodded. “I understand.” He picked up the note again and stared at it for a moment. “You kno
w, this was one of my worst fears. It was the reason I didn’t ever really want to get close to anyone. At least, that’s what I always told myself. I never wanted to be put in a position to lose someone. But now I am close to someone,” he looked at Kerry. “You. My parents, my foster siblings, Jen. If I lost any of you, I would lose my mind.”
“It’s okay to have people in your life you care about, Jim,” Kerry said, and then she had a moment of realization. “It’s the reason we do what we do. It’s the reason we’re cops. And you’re right,” she snatched the note out of Jim’s hand, “we can’t let this guy push us around. We give him an inch, and he’ll take a mile. We need to send him a message that we won’t be shoved around.”
Jim nodded. “Agreed.”
The pair found Lieutenant Mullocks already with Missy in the cyber room. After Brian called to let Kerry know he had the kids, Kerry breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of her children’s voices.
“We’re okay, Mom,” her daughter said.
“Yeah!” Jake shouted. “We’re getting ice cream!”
“There is nothing in the world that ice cream can’t fix,” Brian said.
“I’m glad everyone is all right,” Kerry said.
“We’re good, honey,” Brian said. “You do what you need to do.”
Kerry knew her family was as safe as they could possibly be, considering the circumstances. And she knew Brian would be there to keep her children calm while they figured out what was happening with the abductions.
“I love you,” Kerry said, speaking to all of her family. “I love you all so much.”
A unanimous “We love you, too” shouted back through the speakers of the phone, and she hung up, feeling a renewed sense of purpose in her mission.
“Everyone all right?” Lieutenant Mullocks asked.
“Yeah,” Kerry answered. “Any thoughts on how this bastard managed to track down my kids?”
“Well,” Missy said, swiveling back toward her screens. “I know you said you’ve been monitoring your kids’ account, but it looks like your daughter created one in secret.”