by JC Ryan
Exhausted with the effort of remembering, Sarah dropped off to sleep, only to be awakened by the door opening again. A straw was thrust at her lips, and she drank the water greedily. “Thank you.”
Then hands were at the back of her head, and suddenly bright light flooded her perception. She squinted against it. When her eyes adjusted, she looked around to find five people wearing full balaclavas in the room with her, including a woman whose build put her in mind of a character in a movie, a mannish woman who was the villain, along with the little girl’s parents. Matilda flashed into her mind, followed quickly by Miss Trunchbull. That she could remember anything encouraged her a little. That it was so irrelevant to her predicament was frustrating.
The Trunchbull woman held out a cell phone, positioning it so she could see a photo. “Does this ring a bell?”
Sarah stared curiously at the man in the image. Handsome, manly face with a firm, square jaw, that seemed to have a kind expression on it. Blue eyes, light brown hair, a little tousled. As far as she knew, she had never seen him before in her life, and said so. The phone was withdrawn, and the woman slid her finger across the screen, evidently looking for another photo. Then it was thrust in front of her face again. The same man, this time full body, standing next to a pretty young woman.
“How about this?” the Trunchbull woman said. Sarah shook her head. Pounding the wall behind Sarah’s head and making her jump, the woman shouted into her face. “Don’t tell me you don’t recognize your boyfriend! There he is standing right beside you.”
That’s me? Sarah thought. Sadness for the loss of the memory flooded her. I must have loved him, she thought, seeing the happy look on the woman’s face. How can I save him?
Aloud, she said, “I’m so sorry. I don’t recognize those people. If you say that’s me and my boyfriend, I have to believe you. But I’m telling you, I don’t remember. It will do no good for you to hurt him. Even if I remembered him and wanted to save him more than I want to save myself, I can’t tell you what I don’t remember.”
With a frustrated growl, Trunchbull withdrew the phone again and again searched through the photos. Once more, she thrust it in Sarah’s line of vision. A pleasant-looking man with a receding hairline and smile lines in his face, standing next to a lovely older woman with blonde hair going to gray and a brilliant smile. Her heart lurched. “My parents,” she gasped.
A flash of teeth in the mouth of the balaclava, and the voice revealed triumph. “So, you do remember. Yes, we have your parents, too. And if you don’t start talking, you’ll be seeing them soon, one piece at a time.”
Sarah burst into tears, begging as she had never begged before. “Please, no, please. Give me a chance to remember. I don’t know!” She was wailing as the last word came out of her mouth, but the woman was shaking her head as if at a recalcitrant child.
“We don’t have time. You’d better have it when I return, or it will be the worse for them. All of them.”
~~~
Ryan, Luke and Daniel drove to the police lab where Ryan was to give a blood sample. Sarah’s car would be towed to a garage where forensics would go over it minutely, then it would be released if nothing was found to indicate it was part of the crime scene.
Their errand to the lab accomplished, the three returned to Sarah’s house, where Luke made a rapid search for surveillance equipment, finding and removing a listening device in Sarah’s land line. After a short discussion, they agreed that trying to keep unwanted listeners from hearing anything was like locking the barn door after the cows were already out, so Luke used the land line to call David. The first thing he said was to warn David that their line wasn’t secure.
“Friend,” he said, “are you in the clear?”
David answered with caution, “Relatively. Where are you calling from?”
“You remember the young lady we discussed?”
“Of course.”
“Her house. Land line. She’s in trouble, can you come?”
“I’ll text my ETA.”
This cryptic conversation took all of 25 seconds. Even if there were highly sophisticated Homeland Security listeners being flagged that Sarah’s phone was in use, a trace couldn’t be accomplished in that time. Luke could only hope that David’s phone was secure enough that a back trace of the line after the fact wouldn’t lead to him. On the other hand, he was certain that the only group capable of that kind of effort were the good guys…CIA or possibly NSA. After he said so, Daniel muttered that he wasn’t so sure those groups were good guys. Luke couldn’t blame him, so he said nothing.
There was nothing left to do but wait for something to break. They hoped to hear about the possible blood sample match before too many more hours passed. Then Luke thought of something else. Was it possible that the campus had security cameras? Surely they would, in the wake of all the mass shootings occurring on college campuses and in high schools across the country. It would be foolhardy not to. A call to Sgt. Jackson revealed that he had just received a call from someone high in the police chain of command that federal agents had an interest in the case, and that he was to give his full cooperation. He sounded a little miffed, confirming the popular fiction concept that there was bad blood between the FBI and local police forces, but when Ryan told him he thought it was CIA rather than FBI, Jackson exploded.
“What are those mothers doing involved in a domestic case?” he shouted.
Ryan held the phone away from his ear until Jackson was through venting. “Your guess is as good as mine, but we think it’s time everyone put their cards on the table. We’d like to come in and give you our theory of what’s happened here, and why my daughter is a victim rather than a perp. And then we’d like to offer our help in the investigation.”
“I’ll take any information you can give me,” Jackson replied. “But I’m not sure about involving civilians in a police matter. You’ll have to take that up with my lieutenant.”
“We’ll be right over.”
Less than half an hour later, the four were seated in a conference room at police headquarters, with a stenographer discreetly taking notes. Jackson started the proceedings by clearing his throat and saying, “Okay, shoot. Depending on what you have to tell me, my lieutenant is standing by to let you state your case. Let’s start with Mark Simms.” His last sentence was stated in a firm tone of voice, while looking at Daniel. Ryan and Luke also stared at him, leaving Daniel with no choice but to reveal to the police officer what Simms had to do with their research. He began with the background.
“Sgt. Jackson, I apologize for not being totally forthcoming with you when you interviewed us about Simms. We didn’t want to believe it had anything to do with our professional relationship, but it seems there’s no question now. If you have a few minutes to indulge me, I’d like to start at the beginning.”
“That’s as good a place as any,” Jackson said dryly.
“Okay. It’s an open secret that Sarah and I were on the trail of a mysterious code in the Great Pyramid at Giza.” This seeming non sequitur had Jackson frowning in puzzlement immediately, but he held his tongue as Daniel went on.
“It started as an assignment for my column at the New York Times,” he explained. “Sarah became involved because my editor and Prof. Barry were old friends,” he continued. “Barry assigned Sarah to vet my work, make sure the methods of investigation I used and the conclusions I came to, were scientifically sound and defensible. But, after we worked on it for two months and missed my deadline, my editor pulled the plug on the story and I was forced to work on it only on the side.”
Jackson interrupted now, “Is there a point to this history lesson?”
“I’m getting to it,” Daniel huffed. “Keep your shirt on. So, by this time, Sarah and I had developed a personal relationship, and although we didn’t advertise it widely, we were still looking for the key to the code. Along the way, we became convinced that the key was mathematical in nature, so Sarah asked Mark to help us. That’s how he became
involved.”
“I’m still waiting for the point.”
Daniel plowed on, unwilling to interrupt his story to have a pointless fight with Jackson. “Long story short, Sarah saw something and Mark found the key to the code. He sent some data to the linguistics department and got a partial message back that tended to prove our theory. There’s a lot of information hidden in the stones of the Great Pyramid, and we had only begun to translate it, when Mark was killed. We have reason to believe that someone was spying on us from the beginning. Whoever that is must want that information badly. Clearly, neither Mark nor Barry would give it up, I don’t know why. And now they have Sarah.” The last was said with such sadness and desperation that even Jackson was moved by it.
“Son, why didn’t you tell us this before?”
Eyes blazing, Daniel shook off the unwanted familiarity and said, “If I had thought there was a snowball’s chance in hell that it would have brought Mark back, I would have. We took precautions, obviously not enough, but we didn’t have any reason to believe that they would kill Prof. Barry. We screwed up. Sue me.”
Ryan laid his hand on Daniel’s arm, but addressed Jackson. “There’s no need to lay blame. Everyone around them except Simms, and people they didn’t even know existed, had dismissed Daniel and my daughter as a couple of crackpots chasing an illusion. They didn’t know until Mark was killed that they were on the right track and that it was a dangerous secret.”
“Dangerous to who?” Jackson said, heedless when Daniel winced at the grammatical error.
Ryan answered. “We don’t know, but your instructions to cooperate lead us to believe that the CIA is already working this case. My brother,” he said, glancing at Luke, “may be able to tell you more about that.” A steady look passed between them, during which Luke must have decided that his niece’s recovery was more important than his consulting business. He nodded and cleared his throat, gaining Jackson’s attention.
“I’m ex-CIA,” he stated simply. “I contacted an old buddy when Sarah and Daniel came to us after Simms’ murder. He’s told me only that there is something that interests the government in their research, that they were monitored from the beginning. Yes, I know,” he said, holding up his hand to stop Jackson’s retort. “They aren’t supposed to be involved in domestic surveillance, that’s the FBI’s bailiwick. Why do you think the agencies hate each other? CIA thinks FBI is incompetent and has no compunction about illegal activity, because they have a way around it. They spy on our allies’ citizens and governments and in turn our allies spy on us. Then they trade material. It’s been going on for as long as the Company has been in existence, and probably will continue. It’s immaterial to our problem.”
Jackson was now thoroughly confused, but had no intention of giving up his case, cases actually, to a group of civilians and a spy agency that was acting illegally. “And you see your problem as…?” he asked with his old sarcasm showing through.
“Getting Sarah back,” Daniel said first. “Nothing matters to me except getting Sarah back. They can have the key to the code, I don’t want anything to do with that damn pyramid anymore. I want Sarah back! Unharmed,” he added in a whisper.
Once again Ryan’s hand steadied him as he addressed Jackson. “We believe my daughter has been kidnapped and the perpetrator is questioning her. The best outcome would be if she gave them what they wanted and they let her go, but we can’t count on that. Her loyalty to Daniel may make her hold out, or the perpetrators might consider her a liability and kill her once they have what they want.” Daniel tensed as Ryan said the unthinkable in a calm manner, as if he were unaffected by the possible murder of his daughter. Ryan’s hand squeezed his arm harder, and Daniel tried to calm his nerves.
Ryan went on, “We can’t just wait and see what happens. Please, let us help gather information for you. We won’t get in your way. Surely you can use another pair of eyes on the security tapes, another person to help interview the students who may have seen something in passing.”
Jackson was shaking his head. “You’re not trained observers, it wouldn’t be the help you think it would.”
“There’s where you’re wrong,” Luke spoke up. “I’m a trained observer, and I might claim to be better than you if I wanted to piss you off. As a reporter, Daniel is, too. And my brother is highly detail oriented, as an engineer. I know we can help. Let us talk to your lieutenant.”
Sensing that he would get no peace if he didn’t at least let them state their case, Jackson led the way to the lieutenant’s office, while the stenographer left to type up her notes. When the conversation began to show signs that it would be a repeat of the last one, Daniel could no longer contain his impatience. “While we sit around and beat this thing to death, Sarah may be suffering terrible things! Let’s do something!”
Jackson, surprisingly, came to his support. “He’s right. Lieutenant, these folks have some unique skills. They say they can help the investigation, and if they hang around here pestering me, they’re going to interfere with it. I need you to either say they can help, or lock them up so I can get some work done.” Daniel gaped at him. Would they really lock us up? he thought. Just then, the stenographer arrived with the transcript of the previous conversation. The lieutenant accepted the papers and scanned them rapidly. When he put them down, he held the gaze of each of them in turn, then said, “Okay, you can help, but under the direction of Jackson here. If I hear you’ve put the investigation in jeopardy, I will lock you up on charges of interfering with a police matter.” Going on a little more kindly, he looked at Daniel. “We’ll get your girl back, son.”
Because of their experience in observation and interview techniques, Daniel and Luke would join the effort to interview all students and staff that were on campus between noon of the day of Barry’s death and noon of the next day. Ryan was tasked with watching hours of security tapes and noting on a data sheet the license numbers of cars passing the cameras at every parking lot on campus. It was a monumental task, but helped by the fact that all approaches were gated and the cars had to first pass through the gates with a clear shot of the license plates.
Ryan was joined by several uniformed police officers to help with the work. Because they now believed a victim was alive but at risk, a massive number of officers were tasked to finish both aspects of the investigation as soon as humanly possible. It was just after six p.m. when the lieutenant had given his blessing to the Clarkes and Daniel being involved in the investigation. It was midnight when Ryan realized that he had let the last few minutes go by without really seeing the tapes. He declared a halt in the interest of not missing a vital clue. He had to have some sleep, even though he doubted that he could get any.
Luke and Daniel had dragged in only a couple of hours before, after staying on campus interviewing passing students for hours. David had arrived around eight, looking like he just stepped out of a GQ advertisement.
After establishing contact with Jackson and his lieutenant, he had set about arranging for police protection for the Clarkes and Daniel, and FBI protection for Emma and Sally in Colorado. It was the last that convinced Daniel once and for all that his research had blundered into something huge. In addition, he had their cell phones fitted with surveillance equipment to trace any incoming call immediately, in case a ransom demand came through.
No one had any hope of that, though. Surely they would have been in touch within the first twenty-four hours if ransom was the goal. Ryan didn’t say it, because he had seen how such a thought made Daniel sink further into depression, but he was afraid Sarah was holding out on the information and that the kidnappers were employing coercion. His daughter had inherited a stubborn streak, a mile wide from him and, not for the first time, he regretted it intensely.
By six the next morning, the three were busy checking and cross-checking all cars that were registered to park on campus against the cars that had entered. There were none that didn’t belong. Bleary-eyed and fatigued, they pondered the implications
. Then, Luke said, “It’s got to be someone from the university.” Daniel seized the thought. “Probably from the Institute. Who else would be interested in pyramid secrets?” Luke looked at him and slapped himself with the heel of his hand on his forehead.
“Daniel, who was the linguist that Mark Simms got to translate the code?” Jackson, walking into the room at that moment stopped in his tracks, a thunderstruck look on his face. Ryan held his breath for Daniel’s answer. The let-down was palpable as Daniel said, miserably, “We never knew. Mark didn’t say, and he was killed before we thought to ask.”
Jackson said, “We’ve got to put all of them under police protection. Whoever it was is next, if they know who it was, and if they don’t, they might just be ruthless enough to go after them one by one until they find the right one.” Daniel heard this with despair. If Jackson thought the killers were going after linguists, it meant he thought that Sarah was a lost cause.
“Why don’t we just ask them?” he said.
Jackson replied, “That’s all well and good, but if the perps don’t know who it is, they may still go after them by process of elimination. Which one of you wants to go with me to interview them?” Daniel stood up, while Ryan and Luke said they’d each call their wives with an update. They agreed to meet at a restaurant for a delayed breakfast at ten. Daniel tossed his keys to Ryan and then followed Jackson out. David hadn’t put in an appearance yet this morning, so Ryan and Luke intended to wait for him and fill him in when he got there.
Chapter 34 – Held For Ransom