by Mike Ryan
“OK. I want you to go back home and get her information for me. When you get it, you call me on the phone I gave you with the number that’s in there.”
“You want me to just go get it and come back?” Ridley wondered.
“No. Coming back here again would be suspicious if someone’s watching. Just use the phone I gave you. It’s not traceable and they don’t know you have it. If you think of anything else, no matter how small or trivial, I want you to contact me.”
“OK,” Ridley agreed. “What are you gonna do now?”
“Now I’m gonna do some background investigation.”
“On Meghan and Deanna?”
“It’s a start.”
“Will you let me know if you find anything?”
“You’ll hear from me. Just keep doing what you were doing like I wasn’t involved.”
“Should I let my wife know?”
“That’s up to you. There’s one more thing,” Recker said, digging into his pocket, taking out the listening device and showing it to Ridley.
“What’s that?” Ridley asked.
“It’s a listening device. Put it on your phone when you get home. When the kidnappers call again, we’ll be able to hear what they say. We also might be able to get a line on where they’re calling from.”
“I just can’t believe this is happening. You hear about things like this…but you never dream it’ll be you,” Ridley stated, taking the square device out of Recker’s hand.
“I’ll get her back for you. You weren’t picked at random. Someone knows something or is involved somehow. I’m gonna find out who.”
Chapter 10
Recker and Jones spent most of the night finding information on both Meghan Carkner and Deanna Ambersome. They worked up until midnight before calling it a night. The following morning, Recker got back to the office about five. He figured he would’ve beat Jones in. He was surprised that when he got there, Jones was already knee deep in work.
“And here I thought I was actually gonna beat you in for once,” Recker stated.
“Perhaps if I had actually left, you would’ve accomplished your goal.”
“You mean you’ve been here working all night?”
“Well, I went on the couch for two or three hours,” Jones replied.
“I thought when we left last night that you were leaving right after me?”
“That was my intention. But I just couldn’t tear myself away. There’s a little girl’s life that may be at stake. Me losing a few hours of sleep is hardly significant compared to that. I can always catch up after this case is over. Besides, that was one of the reasons I got the couches in here. Long nights are inevitable sometimes.”
Recker nodded, agreeing, and understanding his point. He wound up only sleeping about three hours himself. He was hoping that he’d be able to turn the tables on Jones and give him the information this time.
“Find out anything yet?” Recker wondered.
“Indeed I have,” Jones said, turning around. “I’ve crosschecked everything I’ve been able to get my hands on to verify what Mr. Ridley told you about them not having problems with anyone. As far as I can tell, that’s completely accurate. He was also correct in that they’ve had no work done in their home that I can find.”
“So that leaves us the nannies?”
“Meghan Carkner, twenty four years old, college graduate in education from Temple.”
“Any sketchy characters in her family tree?”
“None that I can tell. Mom, dad, brother, none have ever had any brushes with the law, other than the odd speeding ticket,” Jones informed.
“How bout a boyfriend?” Recker asked.
“Currently single. No exes that would seem to fit the profile.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re saving the best for last?”
“Because I am,” Jones smiled.
“Deanna Ambersome, twenty eight years old. Before she became a nanny for the Ridley’s, she worked in retail and was fired from two different employers after she was found stealing merchandise.”
“That would jive with what the Ridley’s thought about her and why they terminated her. That doesn’t really prove anything, though,” Recker said. “It’s a long leap from stealing merchandise where you work to kidnapping somebody’s child.”
“Her family background would make her a more convincing candidate, however.”
“What you got?”
“Mom’s been in and out of jail several times for both drug possession and intent to sell. Dad’s currently in prison for armed robbery.”
“Sounds like a model family.”
Jones put his hand up to continue, “wait, it gets better. She currently has a boyfriend who’s been in jail twice, once for assault and once for a home invasion.”
“Home invasion? Pretty small jump from that to kidnapping,” Recker responded.
“There’s also a brother. He’s also been in jail once for burglary.”
“The family that crimes together.”
Recker sat on the edge of the desk and batted his eyes around the room, letting all the information that he just heard sink in. Jones swiveled his chair around to see what his partner was thinking.
“What are your thoughts?” Jones wondered.
“I’d say we definitely have a couple of good suspects. The background is there.”
“So, Deanna was upset at being shown the door and sought to get even somehow?”
“Sounds about right,” Recker answered.
A painful look took over Jones’ face as he tried to understand the motivations. “Even if that’s the case, why take a little girl? I mean, she has nothing to do with anything. Why do you put her in harm’s way to get back at the parents, even if you feel they wronged you in some way?”
“You’re trying to think like a normal, logical, caring person. These people aren’t any of those things. Remember what I told you, Mara and Deanna didn’t really hit it off anyway. The child means nothing to her. She has no attachment to her. If they did this, she doesn’t really care what happens to her at this point. It’s just a means to make money and get back at the people who fired you,” Recker explained. “Can you work your magic to find out where all these people are at right now?”
Jones turned back to the computer and started pounding away on the keyboard again. “Working on it as we speak.”
While Jones was busy trying to dig up their addresses, Recker went over to the gun cabinet. He opened it and examined his choices. He pulled out two pistols and an assault rifle, not to mention plenty of ammunition for each. He set them down on the desk as Jones continued to work his magic.
“Got it,” Jones excitedly said.
“Where are they?”
“Looks like Deanna and her boyfriend are currently renting a three bedroom twin home in Frankford.”
“I’ll send the coordinates to your phone,” Jones told him, looking at the weapons on the desk. “Do you really think you’ll need all that?”
“Like I always say, I like to be prepared. If they’re there, and Mara’s there, they may not want to go away quietly. And I’m not leaving until I have that child,” Recker replied.
“Should I accompany you as backup?”
Recker smiled at the notion, but didn’t think Jones would be much help if a gunfight broke out. He’d probably be more of a liability than not, as it’d be one more person Recker would have to look after.
“You’ll be better off here. Besides, if they’re not there, that’ll take you out of the game for a little while. You’re of more use right where you’re at. I can handle whatever’s there,” Recker told him.
Recker grabbed his guns, putting the pistols in their holsters, while putting the rifle in a bag to conceal it. He checked his phone on the way to the parking lot for directions. Ambersome and her boyfriend had a house rented on Bermuda Street. Recker drove a little faster than usual, wanting to get there as quickly as possible, just in case Mara was actually there. He got there in ju
st over twenty minutes. He found the address and parked along the street a few houses down. He got out of his truck and threw the rifle over his shoulder, his trench coat able to conceal it. He stood a few houses away from Ambersome’s address, waiting to see if he noticed any activity in the building. It was a two story, brick lined building with a covered porch. There were two white chairs just in front of the window. It seemed to be a decent area, all the homes appeared well kept, no shuttered or abandoned houses that Recker could tell. He waited about ten minutes without seeing any movement from in or around the house. Assuming he wasn’t likely to see anything else, Recker started walking toward the house. He got to the porch and put his left foot on the first step leading up to it, putting his right hand on the pistol inside his coat. He turned his head slightly, trying to hear anything from inside the house. He picked his head up when the door to the neighboring house swung open, an elderly woman stepping onto her porch. Recker sized her up for a minute to make sure she wasn’t a threat. She appeared to be in her fifties, and had a newspaper in her hand as she sat down on her rocker. The woman looked at the stranger stepping onto the neighbor’s porch and wondered what he was up to. He looked like a cop, so she didn’t say anything to him. Now fully on the porch, Recker stood next to the window out of sight, and carefully looked inside.
“Nobody’s home,” the neighbor finally said.
Recker looked over at her, then back inside the window again. Satisfied that he was leveling with her, he stopped looking through the window and walked over to the small metal fence that separated the two porches. “You know the people that live here?”
“Yeah. You a cop?” she asked.
“Do I look like one?”
“Yeah.”
“Then there’s your answer,” Recker played off.
“Which one you looking for?”
“Deanna and her boyfriend,” Recker replied.
“What do you want them for?”
“Routine investigation. Their names have come up as suspects in a case I’m working on and I need to talk to them.”
“Good luck with that. They ain’t been here in at least a couple weeks,” she told him.
“Really? How many people have been living here?”
“Just Deanna and her boyfriend. Her brother comes around a lot too.”
“You know where they might’ve gone?”
The woman shook her head, “no idea. Me and them weren’t friends. I’m glad they haven’t been around. Maybe their lease ran out, not sure.”
“Why’s that? They cause a lot of trouble?” Recker wondered.
“Nothing too bad. Just a lot of small stuff, you know? Music too loud, parties late at night, that sort of thing. Actually, now that I think about it…,” she mentioned.
“What’s that?”
“A few weeks ago, just before they disappeared, I heard them talking on the porch. I was inside, but they were talking loud enough for me to hear.”
“What were they talking about?”
“I’m not sure. Seemed like a big disagreement at first, but the boyfriend smoothed it over.”
“What were they saying?”
“Couldn’t hear everything clearly, but the boyfriend said something like, “if we do this right and pull it off, we’ll never have to worry about money again”. Sounded like they were gonna rob a bank or something.”
“Well, I got a warrant here to search the house, so I’ll be in there for a little while,” Recker told her.
“They didn’t really rob a bank, did they?” the woman worriedly asked.
“No. Something a lot worse.”
Recker didn’t say another word and kicked the door open. Before entering, he looked back at the neighbor and smiled.
“Aren’t there supposed to be a lot more of you during these searches?” the woman asked. “On TV, there’s always like ten or fifteen guys looking through houses.”
“We’re a little shorthanded today,” Recker responded. “Couple guys called in sick.”
Recker went inside and started turning the place inside out. It was already a little messy, a few dirty clothes on the floor and whatnot. He threw the cushions off the couches, looked through cabinets and closets, searched all the rooms, looking for any piece of evidence he could find that would indicate where the suspects had gone off to. He spent an hour in the home, going through each room several times, just in case he missed anything the previous time. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find a single shred of evidence of where they were going. Not a piece of paper, not a receipt, no credit card statements, nothing at all. Recker sighed and shook his head, frustrated that he wasn’t able to find anything. Standing in the middle of the living room, he let Jones know of his findings.
“Professor, just got done tossing the place,” Recker said.
“And how did you fare?”
“Came up empty. They were either very careful, or just lucky, that they didn’t leave anything behind.”
“Or maybe they didn’t yet know where they were going,” Jones stated.
“Kidnapping a child and asking for ransom isn’t something you do on a whim. You need a plan. A good one. And it needs to be in place before everything unfolds.”
“I’ll start checking former addresses on my end. They didn’t, by chance, leave any computers behind, did they?”
“No.”
“Too bad. If they had, I could’ve searched through their history and possibly come up with their current location from there.”
“No such luck,” Recker replied. “We’ll have to do some more digging. What about cell phones?”
“I’ve already checked into that. It appears they’ve smartly gone with the prepaid variety. Even if they hadn’t, the signals bounce off towers, I wouldn’t be able to get an exact location anyway, just a general area.”
“Better than anything we got right now. What about credit cards? Can you track them?”
“Yes, I could. But that would presume they had them and were using them.”
“So they’re not?”
“They have them, though they’re currently over their spending limits,” Jones informed.
“So I take it that they’re not using them.”
“That would be correct.”
“I don’t suppose the boyfriend or brother have current jobs, do they?” Recker asked, not confident about the answer.
“They do not. At least, not of the legal variety.”
“Man, we’re really striking out here.”
“Why don’t you come back to the office and we’ll figure out a plan from there?”
Recker did as Jones wished and went back to the office, where both of them worked the computers, shuffling back and forth between several computers at a time. Once they found the former addresses of Ambersome, her boyfriend, and her brother, Recker went to each location, hoping to turn up one of them. Since posing as a cop worked the first time, he played the part again, hoping it’d work just as well. He spent most of the day checking out the addresses, driving all over the city. Just like the first time, though, each one turned up nothing of value. Each house was occupied by either new tenants or homeowners, none of whom knew the current whereabouts of the people who lived there before they did. The cop routine worked again as well, somewhat surprisingly to Recker.
After exhausting the search of their former addresses, Recker and Jones spent the rest of the night in the office, still continuing their search. Once again, they worked right up until midnight. This time, neither one of them left to go home. They both took up residence on one of the couches to get a few hours of sleep. Recker woke up around five from the sound of the door closing. It was Jones with a couple cups of coffee, fresh from the neighborhood convenience store. Recker sat up on the couch as Jones handed him his cup, taking a few minutes to fully wake up.
“What time’d you get up?” Recker asked.
“About four.”
Jones sat down at the desk and started going to work, still trying to fin
d some kind of connection to their suspects. A few minutes later, Recker joined him at the desk, taking one of the other computers. Throughout the entire morning, anytime they came up with a lead, even the smallest of leads, Recker went out to run it down. Each time was as frustratingly as the time before. Ambersome and her cohorts didn’t seem to be the type of criminals who’d excel at covering their tracks since it wasn’t their usual type of crime, but they appeared to be doing a masterful job at it. Recker got back to the office at noon, and he wasn’t in the greatest of spirits. Jones picked up on his mood as soon as he walked in and attempted to lift it. He called him over to the desk immediately to see what he picked up on.
“This just came in about five minutes ago,” Jones told him, playing an audio file. “It’s from the device Mr. Ridley put on his phone.”
“Have you got the money yet?” the man asked.
“I’ve only got some of it,” Ridley answered. “The rest is gonna take a couple more days.”
“Your daughter doesn’t have a couple more days!”
“Please, I’m trying to come up with it quickly. It takes time though. I don’t just have that much money in the bank. It takes a couple days to sell everything and get the money in my account.”
“I don’t wanna hear excuses. You have until five o’clock tomorrow night. If you don’t have it by then, you might as well start making reservations for the cemetery, cause that’s where your daughter will end up!”
“Please, no! I’ve done as you’ve asked. I haven’t brought in cops or anything. Please just don’t hurt her.”
“No more excuses.”
Nothing but silence came after that. “Is that it?” Recker asked.
“Yes,” Jones replied. “But it was enough for me to get a small trace on it.”
“You got their location?” Recker asked, surprised, hope in his voice.
“No. Not quite. It wasn’t long enough for me to do that. I can tell that it’s somewhere in the city though.”
Recker slumped into a chair, dejected. “That really doesn’t tell us anything then. We already knew that. We’re not any closer to finding her than we were two days ago.”
“Don’t lose faith, Michael. Us getting frustrated won’t help get Mara back,” Jones said.