“Oh, that’s okay, Mrs. Hobart. I’m fine.”
“Well. . .” Vickie looked uncertainly at the boys. “I was going to give the boys some cookies and milk. We didn’t have dessert.”
Andy swiped his eyes and stood up. Abby took that as a good sign.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “I think I could eat a cookie. How about you, Gary?”
His lower lip trembled. “I don’t know. I want to see Dad.”
“We all do, honey,” Vickie said, “but we need to eat and sleep so that we’ll be feeling good when we do see him again.”
“You mean he’s not coming back ’til tomorrow?” Andy quavered.
Abby looked at Eddie, but he only gave her a tiny shrug.
“I can’t tell you when he’ll be back.” Abby looked straight into Andy’s eyes, then Gary’s. “I wish I could. And I’m sure he wants to be here with us.”
“Why can’t he?” Gary’s voice had an unnaturally deep timbre.
“We don’t know. But we do know that Daddy loves us. He planned to be with me tonight, and he wouldn’t leave any of us like this on purpose. So, he’ll be back as soon as he can. Whatever is keeping him away. . .” She ran out of words. She couldn’t promise them that Peter would return, but she didn’t want to spark in their minds all the horrors that bombarded her own.
Eddie walked over slowly and sat down in an armchair opposite them. “We could pray. God says he listens when we pray.”
Abby’s breath puffed out of her in relief, and she set her mug on the coffee table. Her stomach probably would rebel if she poured the acid into it, anyway. “Thank you, Eddie. You’re absolutely right. That’s the best thing we can do right now.” She looked up at Vickie. “Would you join us?”
“Of course.” Vickie took a seat in her Boston rocker and reached for Andy’s hand. He sat down beside Abby again, and she kept her arm around the little boy and took Gary’s hand on the other side. Eddie took a swig of coffee and set it aside. He leaned forward and clasped hands with Gary and Vickie, completing the circle.
“Eddie, would you?” Abby could barely croak out the words, her throat ached so.
“Sure.” Eddie bowed his head. They were new at this. Maybe she should have asked Vickie to lead off. But Eddie’s voice came firm, though soft and pleading. “Our Father, we thank you for this family. We ask you to keep Peter safe, and to bring him back.”
When he paused for several seconds, Vickie added, “Help the officers to find him, Lord. And please comfort the family of. . .anyone who’s hurt or scared tonight.”
Abby let out her breath. She hadn’t told the boys a man had been killed at the car dealership, and she’d feared for a moment that Vickie would spill it.
“Lord, we thank you for being there, and for putting us together,” she said. “Please be close to Peter and let him feel your guidance. And we thank you for Eddie and Harvey and the other officers who are working on this. Help them to find Peter.” Her mind whirled with pictures of her husband lying in some obscure place bleeding and helpless. “Let him come back soon, Lord.” Her voice caught.
“Amen,” Eddie said.
Before she could open her burning eyes, Andy said, “Please bring my daddy home, Jesus.”
Abby squeezed him.
Gary gave a little cough. “God, we just want him to be okay. Tell him to come back.”
After a short pause, Vickie said, “Amen.”
Abby and Eddie added their quiet amens, and they all opened their eyes. Tears streamed unchecked down Andy’s face, and Gary swiped at his reddened eyes with his sleeve.
Vickie stood. “I think we should leave this in God’s hands for a while. No one else is stronger or more capable. Now, how about those cookies?”
Eddie stood slowly. “Mrs. Hobart, I’d like to talk to you for a minute. Maybe Abby could help the boys with the milk and cookies?”
“Sure.” Vickie sank back into her chair.
Abby hustled the boys into the kitchen. She’d filled Eddie in on the way to the house about Peter’s concern over Carter and his plan to ask Vickie to look over the business’s financials. As she headed for the refrigerator and directed Gary to get the cookie jar, she heard Eddie say, “I understand Peter asked you to check the company’s financial records today?”
“Yes, I went to the store this afternoon,” Vickie said.
Abby got out the milk jug and closed the refrigerator door. She smiled at the boys. “Do you guys have special cups here at Grammy’s?”
*****
Jimmy Cook returned just after the medical examiner supervised the removal of the body. Harvey had shut the press conference down before the M.E. even arrived and had sent the reporters off to prepare their stories for the late news and morning papers. He’d given them minimal details on the shooting, and at the last minute he’d decided not to mention Peter’s disappearance.
“Hey, Jim, what did you get from Ms. Harding?”
“Not a lot, but she seemed open and cooperative.” Jimmy took out his notebook as they walked into the showroom. He paused just inside the door and leafed through his notes. “Peter asked her yesterday to go over their accounting records. She didn’t find any anomalies, and she suggested he might want to have somebody else come in for a second opinion, so he got his mother. She used to be the bookkeeper here. Ms. Harding didn’t seem resentful at having someone else take a look.”
“Did Peter say anything to her after his mother was here?”
“Yeah, according to Ms. Harding, Peter seemed satisfied that everything was okay, but he hadn’t really given her a reason why he wanted her and Mrs. Hobart to do that in the first place. Ms. Harding said that at first she was afraid he thought she’d done something wrong, but he assured her it wasn’t that.” Jimmy looked at his notes. “Peter said he was concerned about something else and wanted to make sure the books were okay before he got into it deeper. Ms. Harding claims she doesn’t know what that other concern was.”
“Did you believe her?”
“Yeah.” Jimmy frowned. “I poked a little more, and she said she did overhear Peter kind of scolding Carter Ulrich the other day for coming on too strong with a customer.”
“Okay, that fits with what Abby said. Anything else?”
“The trainee, Kevin Lane, is right out of school and green as grass, and I guess Peter put him with Andrea Gallis because he thought she’d be good at training him.”
“Not Carter Ulrich.”
“Right,” Jimmy said. “And Sylvia Harding said Ulrich has been here longer than Ms. Gallis. So, I’m thinking maybe that didn’t sit well? But it hardly seems like something to get shot over.”
“Okay.” Harvey looked at his watch. “The dead man is almost certainly Ulrich. Tony and Nate went to his apartment building, but no one was home. They reached out to a neighbor, and she said he lives alone. Divorced.”
“Interesting,” Jimmy said. “Maybe this financial thing has something to do with that. Divorce can be expensive.”
“Yeah. The CSIs are going to be here a while longer. I’m sending you and the other guys home, and I’ll meet Eddie over at the Hobarts’. He’s taking Abby home, and we’re setting up an overnight police presence for her. I want you and Nate and Tony to get a good night’s sleep. In the morning we should have some lab reports, and we’ll talk to all the other employees and see if we can get a line on what Ulrich was up to.”
Jimmy nodded. “Okay, boss. Nothing from Mr. Hobart, I guess.”
“Not a word. I admit, I’m worried about him.”
Jimmy eyed him closely. “No chance he booked it?”
“None whatsoever. I know Peter, and he wouldn’t do that. His kids and Abby are his world.”
“So, what about the kids?”
“The grandmother will keep them, at least for tonight. I’m sending a patrol by her house at least once an hour.” Harvey wished they could afford to keep an officer with Vickie and the boys around the clock until he found out what happened to Peter, bu
t that wouldn’t wash with the administration, unless they found evidence that Peter’s family was in danger.
“So we’re treating this like a kidnapping?” Jimmy asked.
Harvey nodded. “We’ve got patrol officers out looking for him, in case he was dumped somewhere close by.”
“If they tossed him in the bay, we may never find him.”
“Don’t say that.” The last thing Harvey wanted to think of was Peter being dead, but Jimmy was right. Never knowing would be worse for Abby and the boys. Far worse.
“Sorry,” Jimmy said. “I know you were tight with him.”
Harvey squared his shoulders. “Unless I see proof, I won’t believe Peter left here voluntarily. I just hope he’s still alive.” He drew in a deep breath. He needed to call Jennifer again. She and Leeanne were probably still together. They wouldn’t sleep much tonight. “Go tell the guys to go home, okay? I’ll see you all at the office at seven.”
He drove straight to Peter and Abby’s house. The Princess Anne was probably a hundred or more years old. The details rivaled those of some of the old Victorians in Bayside, but this house was smaller. Harvey glanced at the roof brackets and mix-and-match shingle siding as he walked up to the wraparound porch. He recalled Abby saying once that Peter would have become an architect if his father hadn’t died so young. This house probably satisfied some longings for Peter.
Eddie and Abby were already there.
“Hi. I checked the house over,” Eddie said when he walked in the front door. “Everything’s clear.”
“Okay, thanks. Where’s Abby?”
“Kitchen.”
Harvey found her loading the dishwasher.
“I left the dishes. I guess people will be in and out of here tomorrow, though.”
“You don’t have to clean the house, Abby.” Harvey went to stand beside her.
“Mom would.” Her eyes filled with tears.
Harvey put his arms around her and held her for a moment. “We’ll find him.”
“I know. I just. . .I know you can’t make any guarantees on how you’ll find him. His condition, I mean.” She sniffed.
Harvey pulled away and took a handkerchief from his pocket. “Here.”
She took it and looked at it as if it were an oddity. “A cloth hanky.”
“Yeah, I’m old-fashioned.”
“Aw, come on, I know you use it to pick up evidence with.” She managed a smile as she wiped her eyes.
He pulled a latex glove from his side pocket. “Actually, I’m not that outmoded, unless I have to be. We carry these all the time nowadays.” He glanced at the wall phone over near the cellar door. “You have a landline here at home, right?”
“Yes. Peter sends faxes occasionally, and he just likes the quality of a landline better when he’s talking business.”
Eddie came into the kitchen. “How do you want to play this?”
“You can go home,” Harvey said. “I’ll stay here.”
Eddie shook his head. “You’ve had a lot of stress today. You ought to go home to Jennifer.”
Harvey wavered, and Eddie seized on his hesitation.
“Have you even told her what happened at lunch?”
Abby blinked at him. “What happened at lunch?”
“Nothing important,” Harvey said, immediately feeling a stab of guilt. Even if the girl didn’t belong to him, she was not unimportant. “I’ll tell you about it sometime.” He pulled in a breath. “Okay, Ed, I’ll go home and see Jenny and get something to eat. You stay here with Abby until I get back, and then, if nothing’s come up, you can—”
A tune played softly. Abby froze for an instant then clawed her phone from her pocket.
Chapter 4
Abby glanced at her phone, then she stared at Harvey.
“The number’s blocked.”
Harvey reached out to steady her. “Nice and easy. It might be anything, but I want you to put it on speaker.”
“Okay, if I don’t mess up.” She squinted at the phone as it continued to ring, pushed a button, and said, “Hello?”
“Abigail Hobart?” said a scratchy male voice.
Her eyes widened.
Harvey nodded.
“Y-yes?” she said.
“Your husband is with me. If you want him back with you, then listen up.”
Harvey whipped out his notebook and began writing.
“Who is this?” Abby cried.
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is, you got to get us some money. You understand? Cash, I’m talking about. Your man says you can get it.”
“I don’t—” Abby looked to Harvey, her eyes panicky.
He turned his notebook around where she could see clearly the words he had printed. PROOF OF LIFE.
She pulled in a shaky breath. “How do I know Peter’s with you? I want to know he’s alive before I do anything for you.”
Harvey nodded and patted her shoulder.
“Just you listen,” the man said. “He’s alive now, but not for long if you don’t get us three hundred grand.”
Abby caught her breath then steadied. “Let me speak to him.”
“You just concentrate on getting the money.”
“Not until I have proof that Peter’s alive. I want to talk to him right now.”
The man swore, then there was silence.
Abby looked down at the phone. “I think he hung up. I lost the connection, anyway.” Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Oh, Harvey, what if they kill him because of what I said?”
“Easy, now. They want that money badly.”
“So, this is good,” Eddie said.
“What?” Abby whirled to glare at him.
“Don’t get all prickly on me, BFF,” Eddie said with a face of mock horror. “It’s now officially a kidnapping, and we can maybe get a line on them.”
Abby managed a weak smile.
“Right,” Harvey said quickly, taking out his car keys. “Eddie, I had the station send surveillance equipment to me at the car lot. It’s in my Explorer. Let’s get set up before they call back again.”
“You think they will?” Abby’s voice shook.
“I know they will,” Harvey said. “And I want a recording of the next call. You give permission for us to monitor your landline and the calls on your cell?”
“Of course.” Abby handed him her phone. “Do whatever you have to.”
Eddie was already out the door. Harvey called dispatch and asked for two trained officers to come to the house prepared to stay all night. Harvey didn’t want to wait for the others, so he and Eddie set up the equipment. Twelve minutes after the first call, Abby’s phone rang again.
Harvey looked at her. “Ready?”
“What do I say?”
“Stick to your guns. Ask to speak to Peter.”
“Right.” Her hand shook as she reached for the phone, so Harvey punched the speaker button for her.
“H-hello?”
“Abigail? It’s me.”
“Peter!” Abby’s knees buckled. Harvey grabbed her arm as Eddie shoved a chair in behind her.
“Sweetheart, listen. You need to do something for me.”
“Are you all right, Peter?” Her voice rose in panic.
“Yes, yes, I’m fine. Just do as they say. Get them money from the bank first thing in the morning.”
“But—they said three hundred thousand dollars. Peter, we don’t have that kind of money.” Abby turned her terrified gaze on Harvey.
“You’ll have to max out the line of credit for the business,” Peter said.
“Will they let me do that?”
Harvey nodded and patted her shoulder. He’d instructed her to keep whoever called talking as long as possible.
“I have a quarter mil line of credit for the business. Ask them at the bank.”
“But—”
“Hey, missy.” The scratchy voice was back. You do what he says. Things will go badly for all of us if you don’t.”
“But—all right,
I’ll try.” Tears ran down Abby’s cheeks. “How—how do I get it to you?”
“We’ll call at ten in the morning and tell you. When we get the cash, we’ll let him go. Got it?”
“I—”
“Lost him,” Eddie said.
“Did you get a location?” Abby asked.
“No.”
Harvey huffed out a breath. “Okay. We’ll have to go with what we’ve got.” He knelt beside Abby’s chair, took her phone from her, and handed it to Eddie. He reached for her hands. “Abby, this is a good sign.”
“Yes. Peter’s alive.”
Harvey nodded. “You’re positive that was Peter, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
“Good. I agree. And the man said they’d call at ten in the morning.”
“Why wouldn’t he tell me now?”
“They probably haven’t figured it out yet. They didn’t plan to kidnap Peter, so they need to get their ducks in a row.”
“He sounded so vile.”
“Probably disguising his voice,” Eddie said from the sofa, where he was fiddling with the recording equipment. “By the way, in case you didn’t notice, that call was not from Peter’s phone.”
“Was it the same one as before?” Abby asked.
“Not sure yet. We may get a report on that eventually, but the number was blocked on your cell again.”
The doorbell rang, and Abby flinched.
“That’s probably our techs,” Harvey said.
“I’ll get it.” Eddie headed for the front door.
Harvey patted Abby’s hands and stood. “You’re doing great.”
“Can I tell the boys?” she asked.
He considered that for a moment. “The kidnappers are using your cell phone so far. Why don’t you go use the landline, but don’t stay on it too long?”
“Thanks.” She hurried into the kitchen.
Eddie returned with two officers from Ron Legere’s detective squad, Emily Rood and Paul Trudeau.
“Hey, you guys had this training?” Harvey asked in surprise.
Emily smiled. “Yeah, after your computer training, it seemed like a good next step.”
“We both took it this spring,” Paul said.
“Fantastic.” Harvey admired officers who sought to improve their skills. “We’ve had two calls from the kidnappers, or rather one kidnapper, but he used the plural—we, us.” Emily and Paul nodded soberly. “Mrs. Hobart took both calls on her cell phone. She’s in the kitchen now, using the landline to tell her sons and mother-in-law the good news that her husband is alive.”
Ransom of the Heart Page 4