by Lisa Gardner
They’d set up a dummy company and they were off and running, billing the pension fund, collecting the funds, and hitting the tables.
How long had they planned on running the racket? A month? Six months? A year? Maybe they didn’t think that far ahead. Maybe it hadn’t mattered to them at the time. Eventually, of course, internal affairs had figured out the fraud and launched an investigation. Unfortunately for Brian and Shane, once such an investigation started, it didn’t end until the taskforce got answers.
Is that when Hamilton had decided to turn me into the sacrificial lamb? Or had that been part of the domino effect? When, even after stealing from the troopers’ pension, Brian and Shane had continued to be short on funds, borrowing from the wrong players until they had both internal investigators and mob enforcers breathing down their necks?
At some point, Hamilton had realized that Shane and Brian might crack under the pressure, might confess their crimes to save their own necks and deliver up Hamilton on a platter.
Of the two, Brian was definitely the bigger liability. Maybe Hamilton had negotiated a final deal for the mob. He’d pay off the last of Brian and Shane’s bad debts. In return, they’d eliminate Brian and help frame me for all the crimes.
Shane would remain alive but too terrified to speak, while Hamilton and his cohorts could keep their illicit gains.
Brian would be dead. I would be in prison. Sophie … well, once I’d done everything they asked, they wouldn’t need her anymore, would they?
So my family would be destroyed, for Shane’s survival and Hamilton’s greed.
The rage helped keep me awake as I drove three hours west, toward Adams, Mass., where I knew Hamilton kept a second home. I’d been there only once, for a fall barbecue several years ago.
I remembered the log cabin as being small and isolated. Perfect for hiking, hunting, and holding a young child.
The fingers on my right hand wouldn’t work anymore. The bleeding had finally slowed, but I suspected the bullet had damaged tendons, maybe even nerves. Now inflammation had further compromised the injury and I couldn’t form a fist. Or pull a trigger.
I would proceed left-handed. With any luck, Hamilton wasn’t around. One of his officers had been killed in the line of duty tonight, meaning Hamilton should be in Allston-Brighton, tending to official matters.
I would park at the bottom of the long dirt drive that led to the cabin. I would hike in through the woods, bringing the shotgun, which I could fire left-handed from my hip. Aim would be lousy, but that was the joy of a shotgun—impact area was so large, your aim didn’t have to be any good.
I would scope out the cabin, I rehearsed in my mind. Discover it deserted. Use the butt of the shotgun to break out a window. Climb in, then locate my daughter sound asleep in a darkened bedroom.
I would rescue her and we would run away together. Maybe flee to Mexico, though the sensible thing would be to head straight back to BPD headquarters. Sophie could testify that Hamilton had kidnapped her. Further investigation into the lieutenant colonel’s affairs would reveal a bank balance far greater than it had any right to be. Hamilton would be arrested. Sophie and I would be safe.
We would move on with our lives and never be frightened again. Someday, she’d stop asking for Brian. And someday I’d stop mourning him.
I needed to believe it would be that easy.
I hurt too badly for it to be otherwise.
Four thirty-two in the morning, I found the dirt road that led to Hamilton’s cabin. Four forty-one, I pulled off the road and parked behind a snow-covered bush.
I climbed out of the car.
Thought I smelled smoke.
I hefted up the shotgun.
And heard my daughter scream.
43
Bobby and D.D. had just turned off the Mass Pike for the dark ribbon of rural US 20 when her cellphone rang. The loud chime jerked D.D. out of her groggy state. She hit answer, held the phone to her ear. It was Phil.
“D.D., you still headed west?”
“Already here.”
“Okay, Hamilton has two property addresses. First one’s in Framingham, Mass., near state HQ. I’m assuming the primary home, as it’s listed jointly under Gerard and Judy Hamilton. But there’s a second home, in Adams, Mass., solely under his name.”
“Address?” D.D. demanded crisply.
Phil rattled it off. “But get this: Police scanner just picked up a report of a residential fire in Adams, near the Mount Greylock State Reservation. Maybe it’s a coincidence? Or possibly Hamilton’s cabin is the one on fire.”
“Shit!” D.D. jerked to attention, fully awake. “Phil, contact local authorities. I want backup. County and town officers, but no state troopers.” Bobby shot her a look, but didn’t argue. “Now!” she stated urgently, ending the call, then immediately plugging the Hamilton’s address into the vehicle’s navigation system.
“Phil got us the address, which apparently is near the scene of a fire.”
“Dammit!” Bobby pounded the steering wheel with his hand. “Hamilton’s already there and covering his tracks!”
“Not if we have anything to say about it.”
44
Sophie screamed again, and I jerked into action. I grabbed both the shotgun and the rifle, pouring shotgun shells and rounds of .223 ammo into my pants pockets. The fingers on my right hand moved sluggishly, dumping more ammo onto the snow-covered ground than into my pockets. I didn’t have time to pick it up. I moved, relying on adrenaline and desperation to get the job done.
Weighed down with a small arsenal of weapons and ammo, I careened into the snowy woods, heading toward the smell of smoke and the sound of my daughter.
Another scream. An adult cursing. The sizzling sound of wet wood catching flame.
Cabin was straight up. I bounced from tree to tree, struggling for footing in the fresh snow, breathing shallowly. Didn’t know how many people might be present. Needed the advantage of surprise if Sophie and I were going to get through this. Don’t give away my position, find the higher ground.
My professional training counseled a strategic approach, while my parental instincts screamed for me to charge in and grab my daughter now, now, now. The air grew denser with smoke. I coughed, feeling my eyes burn as I finally crested a small knoll on the left side of the property. I discovered Hamilton’s cabin on fire and my daughter struggling with a woman in a thick black parka. The woman was trying to drag Sophie into a parked SUV. My daughter, wearing nothing but the thin pink pajamas I’d put her to bed in four nights ago and still clutching her favorite doll, Gertrude, was thrashing wildly.
Sophie bit the woman’s exposed wrist. The woman jerked back her arm and slapped her. My daughter’s head rocked sideways. She stumbled, sprawling backward into the snow and coughing raggedly from the smoke.
“No, no, no,” my daughter was crying. “Let me go. I want my mommy. I want my mommy!”
Shotgun on the ground—couldn’t risk it with my child so close to the target. Finding the rifle instead, yanking out the magazine, fumbling in my left pocket. Always load an M4’s stack magazine minus two in order to keep it feeding evenly, my police training dictated.
Kill them all, my mother’s instinct roared.
I hefted up the rifle, racked the first round.
Fresh blood oozing from my shoulder. Sluggish fingers curling laboriously around the trigger.
The woman towered over Sophie. “Get in the car, you stupid little brat,” she screeched.
“Let me go!”
Another scream. Another smack.
Anchoring the butt of the assault rifle against my bleeding shoulder and sighting the dark-haired woman now beating my child.
Sophie crying, arms curled around her head, trying to block the blows.
I stepped clear of the woods. Zeroed in on my target.
“Sophie!” I called out loudly across the crackling, acrid night. “Sophie. Run!”
As I’d hoped, the unexpected sound of my voi
ce captured their attention. Sophie turned around. The woman jerked sharply upright, trying to pinpoint the intruder.
She looked right at me. “Who the—”
I pulled the trigger.
Sophie never glanced behind her. At the body that dropped suddenly, at the head that exploded beneath the onslaught of a .223 slug and turned into a puddle of crimson snow.
My daughter never turned. She heard my voice and she ran to me.
Just as a gun cocked in my ear, and Gerard Hamilton said, “You fucking bitch.”
D.D. and Bobby followed the GPS system through a winding maze of rural roads, until they came to a narrow dirt road lined by fire trucks and grim-faced firefighters. Bobby killed the lights. He and D.D. bolted out of the car, flashing their creds.
News was short and bad.
Firefighters had arrived just in time to hear screams followed by gunshots. Residential home was an eighth of a mile straight up, surrounded by deep woods. Judging by smoke and heat, the building was probably fully engulfed in flames. Firefighters were now waiting for police to secure the scene, so they could get in there and do their thing. Waiting was not something any of them were good at, particularly as one of the guys swore the screaming came from a kid.
Bobby told D.D. to stay in the car.
In response, D.D. stalked to the rear of her vehicle, where she donned her Kevlar vest, then pulled out the shotgun. She handed the rifle to Bobby. After all, he was the former sniper.
He scowled at her. “I go first. Recon,” he snapped.
“I’ll give you six minutes,” she retorted just as sharply.
Bobby donned his vest, loaded the M4, and walked the edge of the steep property. Thirty seconds later, he disappeared into the snowy woods. And three minutes after that, D.D. hit the trail right behind him.
More sirens in the distance.
Local officers finally arriving at the scene.
D.D. focused on following Bobby’s footsteps.
Smoke, heat, snow. A winter inferno.
Time to find Sophie. Time to get the job done.
———
Hamilton yanked the rifle from my injured arm. The M4 fell bonelessly from my grasp and he scooped it up. The shotgun was at my feet. He ordered me to pick it up, hand it over.
From the top of the knoll, I could see Sophie running toward me, sprinting across the property below, framed in white-dusted trees and bright red flames.
While the barrel of Hamilton’s gun dug into the sensitive hollow behind my ear.
I started to bend down. Hamilton relented an inch to give me room, and I hurled myself backward into him, yelling wildly, “Sophie, get away! Into the woods. Get away, get away, get away!”
“Mommy!” she screamed, a hundred yards back.
Hamilton pistol-whipped me with his Sig Sauer. I went down hard, my right arm collapsing beneath me. More searing pain. Maybe the sound of something tearing. I had no time to recover. Hamilton hit me again, looming over me, slicing open my cheek, my forehead. Blood pouring down into my face, blinding my eyes as I curled up in the fetal position in the snow.
“You should’ve done what you were told!” he screamed. He was wearing his dress uniform, topped with a knee-length black wool coat, his wide-brimmed hat pulled low over his eyes. Probably donned the ensemble upon receiving news that an officer had been killed in the line of duty. Then, when he realized it was Shane, and that I’d escaped, was still on the loose …
He’d come to get my daughter. Dressed in the official uniform of a Massachusetts State Police lieutenant colonel, he’d come to harm a child.
“You were a trained police officer,” he snapped now, looming over me, blocking out the trees, the fire, the night sky. “If you’d just done what you were told, no one would’ve gotten hurt!”
“Except Brian,” I managed to gasp. “You arranged his death.”
“His gambling problem was out of control. I did you a favor.”
“You kidnapped my daughter. You sent me to prison. Just to make a few extra bucks.”
In response, my commanding officer kicked me full-force in the left kidney, the kind of kick that would have me peeing up blood, assuming I lived that long.
“Mommy, Mommy!” Sophie cried again. I realized with horror that her voice was closer. She was still running toward my voice, clambering over the snowbank.
No, I wanted to cry. Save yourself, get away.
But my voice wouldn’t work anymore. Hamilton had knocked the air from my lungs. My eyes burned with smoke, tears pouring down my face as I gasped and heaved against the snow. Shoulder burned. Stomach cramped.
Black dots dancing before me.
Had to move. Had to get up. Had to fight. For Sophie.
Hamilton reared back with his foot again. He lashed out to hit me square in the chest. This time, I dropped my left arm, caught his foot midkick, and rolled. Caught off guard, Hamilton was jerked forward, falling to one knee in the snow.
So he stopped hitting me with the Sig Sauer and pulled the trigger instead.
The sound deafened me. I felt immediate searing heat, followed by immediate searing pain. My left side. My hand falling down, clutching my waist, as my gaze went up, toward my commanding officer, a man I’d been trained to trust.
Hamilton appeared stunned. Maybe even a little shaken, but he recovered quickly enough, finger back on the trigger.
Just as Sophie crested the knoll and spotted us.
I had a vision. My daughter’s pale, sweet face. Her hair a wild tangle of knots. Her eyes, a bright, brilliant blue as her gaze locked on me. Then she was running, the way only a six-year-old could run, and Hamilton did not exist for her and the woods did not exist for her, nor the scary fire, or the threat of night or the unknown terrors that must have tormented her for days.
She was a little girl who’d finally found her mother and she tore straight toward me, one hand clutching Gertrude, the other arm flung open as she threw herself on top of me and I groaned from both the pain and the joy that burst inside my chest.
“I love you I love you I love you,” I exhaled.
“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy.”
“Sophie, Sophie, Sophie …”
I could feel her tears hot against my face. It hurt, but I still brought up my hand, cradling the back of her head. I looked at Hamilton, and then I tucked my daughter’s face into the crook of my neck. “Sophie,” I whispered, never taking my gaze off him, “close your eyes.”
My daughter clung to me, two halves of a whole, finally together again.
She closed her eyes.
And I said, in the clearest voice I could muster, “Do it.”
The darkness behind Hamilton materialized into a man. At my command, he raised his rifle. Just as Hamilton placed the barrel of his Sig Sauer against my left temple.
I concentrated on the feel of my daughter, the weight of her body, the purity of her love. Something to carry with me into the abyss.
“You should’ve done what I said,” Hamilton hissed above me.
While in the next heartbeat, Bobby Dodge pulled the trigger.
45
By the time D.D. made it to the top of the property, Hamilton was down and Bobby stood over the lieutenant colonel’s body. He looked up at her approach and shook his head once.
Then she heard crying.
Sophie Leoni. It took D.D. a second to spot the child’s small, pink-clad form. She was on the ground, covering another dark-clad figure, skinny arms tangled around her mother’s neck as the girl sobbed wildly.
Bobby dropped to one knee beside the pair as D.D. approached. He placed his hand on Sophie’s shoulder.
“Sophie,” he said quietly. “Sophie, I need you to look at me. I’m a state policeman, like your mother. I’m here to help her. Please look at me.”
Sophie finally raised her tearstained face. She spotted D.D. and opened her mouth as if to scream. D.D. shook her head.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. My name is D.D. I’m a
friend of your mom’s, too. Your mom led us here, to help you.”
“Mommy’s boss took me away,” Sophie said clearly. “Mommy’s boss gave me to the bad woman. I said no. I said I wanted to go home! I said I wanted Mommy!”
Her face dissolved again. She started to cry, soundlessly this time, still pressed against her mother’s unmoving body.
“We know,” D.D. said, crouching down beside them, placing a tentative hand on the girl’s back. “But your mother’s boss and the bad woman can’t hurt you anymore, okay, Sophie? We’re here, and you’re safe.”
To judge by the look on Sophie’s face, she didn’t believe them. D.D. couldn’t blame her.
“Are you hurt?” Bobby asked.
The girl shook her head.
“What about your mommy?” D.D. asked. “Can we check her, make sure she is okay?”
Sophie moved slightly to one side, enough so D.D. could see the dark stain on the left side of Tessa’s dark flannel shirt, the red blood in the snow. Sophie saw it, too. The girl’s lower lip started to tremble. She didn’t say another word. She simply lay down in the snow beside her unconscious mother and held her hand.
“Come back, Mommy,” the girl said mournfully. “Love you. Come back.”
Bobby scrambled down the slope for the EMTs.
While D.D. peeled off her own coat and used it to cover both mother and child.
Tessa regained consciousness as the EMTs went to load her. Her eyes popped open, she gasped sharply, then reached out frantically. The EMTs tried to hold her down. So D.D. did the sensible thing, grabbing Sophie and lifting the child onto the edge of the gurney.
Tessa clutched her daughter’s arm, squeezed hard. D.D. thought Tessa might be crying, or maybe it was the tears in her own eyes. She couldn’t be sure.
“I love you,” Tessa whispered to her daughter.
“Love you more, Mommy. Love you more.”