by Dale Mayer
“Exactly,” Greyson said in a grim voice. “So please stay safe. I’m only a few minutes away.”
Greyson quickly opened the gate into the backyard, and, all of a sudden, Kona’s ears perked up, and she growled, pulling hard on the rope and dragging him to the rear veranda. All the commands that he gave her went ignored. She was on a mission, and he could do nothing but try to stay close to her. She raced up to the door and barked at the glass. He quickly opened the glass door to see a very startled Jessica looking at him in surprise.
“Something is wrong,” he snapped. “Have you checked on Danny?” She gave him a startled look and bolted up the stairs. Greyson and Kona were right behind her. As she went into the bedroom, she started screaming, and he knew. He let Kona’s rope go, and she jumped onto Danny’s bed and barked.
Searching, Kona went racing back downstairs and clawed at door to the garage. Greyson picked up her lead, opened the door, and went in. By now the garage door had been opened with the remote, and her car was gone. He stood at the empty driveway and stared. Kona was at the door, sniffing back and forth, looking hard, but she had lost the trail at the car. Greyson turned to see Jessica shaking and screaming in a muffled tone.
“What’s your license plate?” he snapped out.
She shook her head.
He reached over, grabbed her shoulders, and gave her a hard shake. “This isn’t the time to break down,” he said, “Danny can’t be very far away. What’s the license plate?”
She stammered it out, and he quickly phoned Badger and explained. He gave him the license plate number and then called the cops. With that done, he said, “I’ll go get my vehicle, and I’m taking the dog with me.”
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
“You get ready. I’ll get my truck and meet you out front in two minutes,” he said.
He headed out the back door with Kona at his side. They raced through the backyard and down around the corner where the alley was. He got into his grandfather’s small truck and put Kona in the jumper seat of the extended cab. He pulled out through the alleyway and headed up the block. When he came around to the front of her house, she stood there waiting impatiently. He unlocked the door, and she quickly pulled it open and hopped in.
“Nobody has called me yet on his direction,” he said. He looked at Kona and said, “Kona, which way? Left or right?” It was almost as if the dog understood because, when he would go left, she barked terribly; so he turned right instead, and the dog sat and watched.
“Does she really know?” Jessica asked, tears silently running down her face, her fingers clenched together tightly, knuckles quite white.
“She knows, but she can’t necessarily confer what she knows,” he said. “Tell me about your car.”
“It’s just a Pontiac sedan,” she said.
“Do you keep the keys in it?”
“No,” she said. “But they’re hanging on a hook just inside the kitchen door.”
“So, it wouldn’t have taken much time for him to grab the keys and get out.”
“No,” she said, crying. “Dear God, he’s got Danny.”
“We’ll find him,” he said. Just then his phone rang, and he put it on Speaker. “Badger?”
“Yes, we’re running satellite right now,” he said.
“I don’t suppose you have anything from like fifteen to twenty minutes ago, do you?”
“We’re running traffic cams. At the moment I don’t have anything visual. I wanted to confirm that a car seat is in the vehicle, right?”
He turned to look at her, and she nodded.
“That doesn’t mean the kidnapper put the child in the seat though,” Greyson reminded him.
“No, but it’s another identifying mark for the rear window view,” Badger said. “I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”
Greyson kept driving forward, trying to reconstruct the block in his mind to figure out where it ended. He thought a cul-de-sac was up ahead. “Is there another way out of this block?”
“If you know the area, yes,” she said, sniffling, her crying down to a silent stream down her face. “This alleyway connects to another street.”
He quickly followed her instructions and came out on a different street. “And, if he’d been casing the area,” Greyson said, “he would have known.”
“But he should have had his own wheels, right?”
“But that would make him highly visible,” he said. “Besides, the cops may have taken it away already.”
“So mine was the next-best bet,” she said bitterly. “God, I checked on Danny so many times.”
“You couldn’t have known,” he said. “Guys like this, they’re very determined.”
“But you knew, and that’s why you went out hunting him.”
“And lost him and finally backtracked him here again,” he said grimly. “But that’s why I know it couldn’t have been too long ago.”
Badger called again. “Satellite has picked him up about four miles from the house.”
“Which direction?” Greyson asked, giving his own location.
“Take a right, stay on this two blocks up, then take a left.”
Another voice came over the line. “This is Stone,” he said. “I’m part of Levi’s security company. Badger contacted us because we have a fully running satellite system. I understand we’ve got a missing boy.”
“Yes,” Greyson said, “and, hey, Stone. I did two tours with you about nine years ago.”
“I remember,” he said. “We got this, buddy. Just keep following instructions,” he said. “I’ve got you on satellite now too.”
“How far ahead are they?”
“You’re closing the gap a little bit. Once you hit that freeway, you’ll have to start funneling through the traffic and picking up some speed.”
“I think the on-ramp is coming up,” Greyson said.
“Change lanes to the right and take the next right, and you’ll be on the freeway then.”
Greyson quickly followed instructions, knowing that Jessica was silent and locked into a tiny ball in the front seat beside him, almost crippled by the circumstances. Which was totally understandable, given her son was being driven farther and farther away from her.
“How far ahead is he?” Greyson asked Stone.
“Too far for you to see. Try to pick up any opening you can. You need to make up at least two miles on him.”
With that, Greyson returned to his training and immediately wove through the traffic, going faster, picking up a few feet at a time when passing each vehicle.
“Okay, you’ve cut the distance in half,” Stone said in approval. “Keep going. We need to gain about that much distance again, and then you should be within a few vehicle lengths.”
Focusing, Greyson quickly maneuvered through the traffic, honking his horn as he swept in, taking chances he wouldn’t normally take but needing to under the circumstances. And very quickly he pulled ever closer.
“There’s an off-ramp,” Stone said. “Coming up on your right. The vehicle is crossing four lanes of traffic to get there.”
“That’s a sudden decision then,” Greyson said.
“He is already in the second lane on the right,” Stone added.
“I can make it into the right lane,” Greyson said. “Let me know if he takes the off-ramp.”
“He’s off,” Stone said.
“Next right?”
“Yes.”
Suddenly the exit was right here, and he took it at full speed, only braking as he headed into the corner, pulling around, whipping forward with a speed that he could see was bothering Jessica. But he was in full control. There was nothing quite like the driving training he’d been put through. He knew how to handle any vehicle. He could even fly a plane if he had to. Helicopters? Well, that was a whole different story.
“The vehicle is four ahead of you now,” Stone said.
Greyson hit the gas and passed the next vehicle. “Three then?”
; “Three.”
And soon it was two.
“So he’s the second car in front of you right now.”
Greyson leaned forward, looking through the windshield. “Wish we had better lighting,” he said. “I can’t believe how dark it is still.”
“You got a heavy cloud cover,” Stone said. “It’s causing us some troubles too.”
Greyson quickly passed the next vehicle and came up on the passenger side of the car. He looked over at her. “Is that your car?” he asked.
She looked at him, looked at the car beside them, and gasped. “Oh, my God. Yes. See? That’s the car seat in the back.” She leaned forward and tried to look.
“Don’t bother,” he said. “The car seat is empty.”
She gasped and sank back against her seat. “What does that mean?” she said, her hands trembling.
“What it probably means,” he said, “is that Danny is asleep in the front seat, all buckled in with blankets. The kidnapper probably didn’t want to take the time to figure out the car seat.”
She shook her head. “It’s not like Danny to sleep this long. He should be waking up.”
“We won’t deal with that right now,” he said. “What I need to do is get this guy to slow down.”
They were running neck and neck, but the other guy didn’t appear to even be watching what Greyson was doing. He eased back slightly and tucked in behind him.
“What are you doing?” she cried out. “You just caught up to him.”
“We don’t want to put Danny in danger,” he said.
She just stared at him—at a loss for words—and sank back into the seat.
“I know this is tough,” he said. “I get that, but you need to trust me now.”
She nodded slowly. “I’m working on it. That’s my car for sure, but what the hell are we supposed to do now?”
Up ahead were cop cars with their sirens blaring. The Pontiac quickly dodged lanes and took a left. Greyson was right on his tail and took a left too.
“Hey, Stone. I’m gonna need another route, or he’ll think I’m following him.”
“He probably already thinks that.”
As the Pontiac took a quick right, Greyson passed it and took the next right. “Where’d he go?”
“He’s still running parallel to you, so keep going,” Stone said. “You’re a block apart and both of you are heading in the same direction.”
Greyson picked up speed. “Where will this take us?” He looked over at Jessica.
She shook her head. “I have no idea. I don’t know this area at all.”
“You’re in an industrial area,” Stone said. “All kinds of places for him to hide. If you can make a block over, I need you to do that quick, somewhere in the next block.”
Just like that, Greyson pulled over and took a hard right, then drove down and took a fast left. “Now where?”
“He just took a left,” Stone said, “and not this block. On the next block, three-quarters of the way through, there should be a parking lot or underground parking or something. It’s really hard for us to see.”
Greyson pulled up slowly and took a driveway. “It’s a chemical plant,” he said. “Looks like the headquarters or front offices for a chemical plant.”
“No sign of the vehicle at this point,” Stone said. “Maybe get out with Kona.”
“Got it. I’ll keep you in the loop.” With that, he pulled into the first parking lot, hopped out with Kona, and asked Jessica, “You coming with me?”
She was already out, saying, “Absolutely.”
They walked quickly down past the vehicles they had already driven past, looking for anywhere her vehicle could have been hidden. Up past the front entrance were several other vehicles. He looked at them and shook his head, but he saw a loading bay off to the side.
He ran over to the side, and, sure enough, a small car was parked down below. With Kona at his side, he raced to it. Running to the front passenger seat window, he looked inside to see a bundle of blankets. Quickly he jerked open the door and checked. There was Danny.
He quickly scooped the baby up in his arms, and, turning, he passed him over to Jessica, just as she got there. She immediately cried out, grabbing the child, holding him close.
He put in a call to Stone. “We’ve got the boy,” he said, “but we need a lockdown on this area so we can find the kidnapper.”
“Cops are on their way,” he said.
“They haven’t been much help so far,” Greyson said in a hard voice. “And they’ve been chumped by the same guy twice now.”
“Give them a chance,” Stone said. “If you need some extra men, just let us know. We’ve probably got somebody nearby we can pull in.”
“I might need to,” he said. “Can you fill Badger in? I’ll put Jessica and the baby safely into my truck and leave Kona to watch them. Then I’ll be hunting.”
Chapter 8
She sat in the truck with one cop beside her, hoping to get an explanation. She kept trying, but the words came out jumbled; then she would squeeze her son tight and burst into tears again. Kona sat near her and Danny, whining.
Finally the cop said, “Just relax. Relax,” he said. “You’ve got your son back.”
“I got my son back,” she said, “but no thanks to you guys. Somebody was standing guard, and he left,” she said. “This stalker-turned-kidnapper guy must have known somehow. He must have seen that they left.”
“Well, we are dealing with a staffing shortage,” he said apologetically.
She shook her head and rocked back and forth. “That’s no excuse, considering all the problems I’ve already had due to this one guy,” she said.
“But your ex-husband got the baby back,” he said.
“He’s not my—”
“So that’s the main thing. But I sure as hell wish he hadn’t gone off on a vigilante justice mission, looking for the guy.”
“Of course he did,” she said. “He knows perfectly well that if he doesn’t—”
“We can’t have him off pretending like he’s law enforcement.”
She glared at him, and the look must have gotten his attention. She was fed up with his constant interruptions. “I don’t think you understand,” she said. “First, he’s not my ex-husband. Second, Greyson is a friend. And I don’t know too much about his military background, but this is what he does. And you can count on the fact that, now he’s gone down this pathway, he’s not likely to stop.”
At that, Officer Winston suddenly looked interested and not in a good way, “Can you give us more details about him?”
She provided Greyson’s name and phone number. “Beyond that you’ll have to find out what you need to know on your own,” she said. “And please don’t leave me alone again.”
“I’m not leaving you,” he said. “I’ll stand right here and make some phone calls.”
She sat inside the truck’s cab and watched as the cop walked back and forth several times. Her heart and mind still couldn’t quite function on the same page. She held Danny close in her arms, but the problem was that there was no reason for him to be sleeping at this point. She noted the bruise on his temple. That asshole had knocked out her child.
If the kidnapper had woken up Danny when taking him, and Danny didn’t recognize where he was, he would have started screaming. A blow to the head would have taken care of any noise coming out of a toddler like this instantly. She wanted to get Danny checked out, but she also didn’t want to leave Greyson. At the same time, she wanted to get a hell of a long way from here. Like mainland USA sounded about far enough away.
While she sat here, gently rocking her son, waiting for an ambulance to provide immediate medical attention, her phone rang. She glanced down to see Unknown Caller once more. “Hello?”
She couldn’t believe that this guy had been so brazen as to come right into her home and steal her son. It still didn’t feel like it had anything to do with her ex-husband. It didn’t make any sense that her ex-husband wo
uld do this, except for the threatening words from this guy. So, if it wasn’t her ex-husband, who else would it be? She stared down at the phone. Nobody had answered. She hung up, and then it rang again. She opened the window to the cop who was just getting off the phone.
She held out her phone and said, “This is one of the prank calls I’ve been getting for the last few weeks. Nobody ever speaks at the other end of phone.”
“Put it on Speaker, and answer it so I can hear,” the officer said.
She did just that. There was nothing on the other end. He looked over at her and raised an eyebrow.
She shrugged and said, “By the way, George, your tactics failed, and I have my son again.” There was a weird sound, as if somebody were shocked. “Yes, you asshole,” she snapped. “The fact that you even thought something like this was cool just means I’ll happily watch as the jail cell door slams in your face,” she roared. And it seemed that once she got going she couldn’t stop. “How dare you try to steal my son from me after all this time! You made it perfectly clear you didn’t want anything to do with him.”
She didn’t know exactly what it was that she said, but somehow something must have triggered him because he snapped, “Shut the hell up, bitch.” And then the phone went dead. She took several long, slow breaths. Meanwhile, Kona growled. She patted the dog to calm her.
“Was that George?”
She looked at the stunned policeman and slowly nodded. “I think it was.”
“In that case,” he said, “I need everything you know about your ex-husband.”
She sagged back into the seat, her heart racing and her mind overwhelmed that it very easily could have been George on the phone just then. She shook her head and told the cop what little she knew. “I don’t know what else to tell you,” she said, when she finally fell silent.
“Well, I mean, some of his identifying information would help.”
“I don’t know his social security number,” she said with a frown. “Though I do have some old paperwork from his income taxes at home.”
“Any way to access it from here?”
She frowned, brought up her emails, and said, “I was asked that question by my accountant because it was missing on one of the forms.” She quickly sorted through her emails and finally brought up the email and handed it to him.