“What existing points of contact do they have outside the homeless center?” Liam asked. “Same school? Same employer? Same treatment facility for drugs or alcohol? Anything to give us a clue as to who they’re working with, why they’d still want to kidnap Iris after Oscar Underwood was killed and where they’d be keeping her now?”
“Nothing I can see,” Seth said.
But Mack knew someone who might.
“How wealthy are their families?” Mack asked.
“Hang on,” Seth said. “Just tracking their parents now...and they’re all pretty rich. Definitely in the top one percent. Multiple houses, country clubs, big businesses...”
Thank You, God. They might finally have a lead.
“So, they’re all from wealthy families,” Mack said. “And when it comes to people with money, I know someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of how they are connected. I need to make a call.”
Liam leaned back and dropped his phone into his hand.
Mack took the phone and dialed the one number he’d always know from memory. Determination swept through him as he prayed.
The phone clicked.
“Mackenzie!”
“Hi, Mom.”
“Are you okay?” His mother’s voice was breathless and filled to the brim with emotion. “Where are you? Your face is all over the news!”
“He’s been arrested, hasn’t he?” His father’s voice filtered in from somewhere behind his mother. “I told you we’d be his one call. What does he need? A lawyer? Bail? Whatever it is, you tell him he’s not going to get it.”
Mack gritted his teeth and swallowed back his own pride.
Lord, I’m never going to know what led my father to become the man he is today. Or what wounds and challenges he’s faced. Help me to remember that in his own way, he is very poor, and in some ways I am rich.
“Mom, listen to me,” Mack said. “I’m fine. The cops around me are really good people, and it’s all going to be sorted out soon. I need you to put me on speaker phone. Can you do that for me?”
“Okay, but your dad doesn’t want to speak to you...” she began.
“I know.” Mack just hoped he’d stick close enough to the phone to listen.
The phone clicked again.
“I know... I know... Patrick,” his mother was saying. “But he insisted.”
“I met someone,” Mack jumped in, “she’s amazing, Mom, and I really hope I can introduce you to her. You’ll love her. Dad, I hope you’ll see all the amazing ways she’s better than me. She’s in really bad trouble. I can’t explain. But her life’s in danger, and I need Dad’s help to save her.
“You know I’ve never asked you for anything,” Mack said. “I’ve been too proud and stubborn. But right now I need information to save her life. That’s all I need, just information about people Dad knows, and it’s urgent. I need to know what the grown children of three wealthy families have in common.”
His father was muttering under his breath. Mack could picture him standing there, arms crossed, shaking his head.
“Dad, you have encyclopedic memory when it comes to people in your sphere and how they’re connected,” Mack plowed on. “I’ve always admired your ability to remember facts about people. It’s something we share. Right now, I’ve got to find a connection between Joseph Peterson, Sara Ford and Elliot Jones. I’m sure you know everything there is to know about their families, their parents and their businesses. Come on, Dad. There’s something connecting them. I don’t know what. But the life of the woman I care about most in the world depends on my figuring it out and fast. Do you know what it is?”
He closed his eyes and prayed hard. The work he’d done in the past filled his mind along with all the vital pieces of information he’d pried out of difficult places.
Please, Lord, help me find Iris.
“Dad, I’ve never asked you for anything. But, please, I don’t want to live without her.”
Then he heard his father clear his throat.
* * *
Mack! Help me, Lord, I need to save him!
The singular thought shot through Iris’s sedated mind, jolting her back to consciousness.
She was lying down. The world seemed to sway gently, and she was so groggy that for a moment she couldn’t even open her eyes. Warmth filled her limbs, but she wasn’t wearing her coat, hat, mitts or boots. Then she opened her eyes and blinked slowly as the room around her came into focus.
She was lying on a couch in an office. The space wasn’t large, yet it was lavish and comfortable with warm, cream-colored walls. The faint pink of sunrise showed through oval windows on one side. Rows of smiling student pictures were mounted on the wall behind an antique desk. It was oddly familiar, and yet she knew she was somewhere she’d never been before.
Lord, where am I? And how do I get out of here? Her mouth and throat were so dry she felt like she’d been inhaling sawdust. She tried to sit up, but her head felt heavy and a headache overwhelmed her. Tears filled her eyes.
Disjointed memories filtered through her mind like a slow-motion nightmare she couldn’t escape. Jackals had invaded the diner... She’d been hit with two tranquilizer darts... Some of the street youth she’d been worried about had appeared and helped her escape...
No, that couldn’t be right. Was it? What would they have been doing there?
And she’d left Mack behind.
Fresh tears rushed to the corners of her eyes. His face filled her mind. She saw the determined wrinkle he got between his eyes when he was focused on something and the soft lines that twitched at the corner of his mouth when he was fighting the urge to laugh. She remembered the way his shoulders tensed whenever he sensed danger, how his hands rose instinctively when he was prepared to fight, and the million little ways he made her feel safe and protected, from brushing a hand on her back to pulling her close to his side.
When Mack hugged her, it was like he was gathering up all their broken parts and squeezing them back together. She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t thought she was falling in love with him, even if she hadn’t been ready to admit it to herself.
She sat up so quickly she nearly fell back down. Instead, Iris gritted her teeth, dragged her legs over the edge of the couch and pressed her hands into her knees, forcing herself to stay seated upright.
There was a door at the end of the couch, with pale light shining through a glass window at the top. Fear stabbed her heart. Through the window, she caught a glimpse of the strong, unrelenting bulk of the green-masked Jackal guarding the door.
Any tiny sliver of hope that she wasn’t actually someone’s prisoner seeped from her.
Her jacket was slung over a chair by the door and her boots under it. She shoved her feet into the boots and pushed her arms through the sleeves of her coat. Then she saw the clock, large and ornate, hanging on the wall behind her. She blinked. It was seven thirty. It had been over two-and-a-half hours since she’d been sedated. And Mack hadn’t found her yet. Which meant either she’d been very well hidden or something really bad had happened to Mack.
Looked like it was up to her to find something she could use as a weapon, get the Jackal to open the door, take him out and escape.
Then she’d find Mack.
Iris pushed herself to her feet and stumbled toward the desk. The floor seemed to shift beneath her. There had to be something she could use to escape. She’d use the desk chair if she had to.
She heard the Jackal tell someone she was awake. Then his bulk moved away from the glass, the door swung open and a burst of cold air rushed the room as a striking woman with long and glossy gray hair strode in, clad in slacks, an expensive trench coat and heels.
“Iris! You’re up! What are you doing on your feet?” The voice was caring and commanding all at once.
Iris blinked as the woman came into focus, forcing her
mind to register the picture in front of her.
No... It couldn’t be...
It was Lisa Kats, the mayor of Toronto.
She had to be hallucinating.
“Now, sit.” The mayor gently but firmly took her arm, led her to the couch and pushed her back down. “You should be lying down. The doctor’s on his way and until he gets here, I don’t want to risk you getting any sicker than you already are.”
The door closed behind her. Iris listened for a latching sound and didn’t hear one. Did that mean they hadn’t been locked in?
“I’m not sick,” Iris began. She just felt like she’d been drugged and was still not quite awake.
“Of course you’re sick.” Mayor Kats crossed her arms. “You got severe motion sickness in the helicopter. Don’t you remember? My bodyguards had to practically carry you. I wanted to take you to the hospital, but you were determined to still meet with me and said you were feeling better and it was just airsickness. But once you got into my office, you lay down on my couch and passed out right away. So I called my personal doctor and he’s on his way.”
No, no, that wasn’t right. She couldn’t remember any of that happening.
“I need to talk to the police,” Iris said.
“You already did.” The mayor blinked. “Don’t you remember?”
“No...” This didn’t make sense. It couldn’t be real.
Mayor Kats shook her head as if she was more worried than Iris was.
“When the RCMP rescued you from the hostage situation at the diner, you spoke at length to the officers on board and gave a full and complete statement.” The mayor’s voice grew firmer. “I’ve been following your situation closely, Iris, and your story really touched my heart. I understand you came from an impoverished family who have a lot of financial needs, and the center you were running for the homeless and street youth was closed. I wanted to help, so I asked to be informed immediately if you were found. When I heard police were airlifting you to safety, I insisted on coming personally to meet you at the RCMP helipad.”
Then why didn’t she remember talking to police or Mayor Kats coming to pick her up? Yes, she’d been hit with two tranquilizer darts, but had she really blanked out that much?
Yet, the mayor’s voice was so confident, it left no doubt that she expected to be believed. Either Iris’s memories were completely wrong, she was dreaming, or Mayor Kats had kidnapped her and was lying about it.
“Somebody kidnapped me,” Iris said. “I’m being held prisoner. Right now, there’s a masked Jackal guarding the door.”
“No, no, of course not!” Mayor Kats laughed. Her smile was so wide Iris suddenly felt foolish. The mayor stood in front of her desk and her wall of smiling teenagers. She leaned back against her desk and crossed her arms. It was the posture of someone who was comfortable both with power and herself.
Iris glanced back to the door. The Jackal was gone, and Iris could see nothing but pink-streaked morning. Was she strong enough to run? If so, where would she go? And what if her memory really was wrong?
She clenched her teeth and willed her mind to clear. All those days she’d camped out in front of the mayor’s office trying to get her to listen and pay attention to what really mattered... She didn’t know what was more implausible, that she’d finally gotten a meeting with the mayor while being too sedated to remember it, or that the mayor had kidnapped her.
“Where’s Mack Gray?” Iris asked. “I need to talk to Mack, now.”
“I’m so sorry.” Mayor Kats shook her head, something like compassion flooding her voice. “I was told that your kidnapper might’ve used some form of sedation to keep you compliant and confused.”
Iris might be confused about some things, but Mack Gray was definitely not one of them.
“Where is Mack?” she repeated.
The mayor frowned. “Detective Gray has been arrested.”
“For what? Paying some hit man to kill Oscar Underwood? Mack’s innocent!”
“Detective Mack Gray is far from innocent.” The mayor’s voice grew colder and it filled the room. “He’s a professional liar and con artist. He befriended you under false pretenses and fed you a steady stream of lies. He manipulated you into believing a completely ludicrous story about Oscar Underwood’s henchmen sedating and kidnapping homeless people, because apparently taking a man down on employment violations wasn’t a big enough case for him.”
“But the Jackals were kidnapping people,” Iris began.
Hadn’t there been one guarding the mayor’s office door just moments ago? Hadn’t they kept coming after her?
The mayor continued, “Detective Gray was suspended from duty for his behavior on the Oscar Underwood case and disobeying a direct order.”
“He was protecting me,” Iris countered.
“Did he tell you that?” Mayor Kats asked. “I have no doubt that’s what he wanted you to believe, when he tracked you down and talked you into going on the run with him. He can be very convincing.”
So can you, Iris thought.
“I realize the past fourteen hours have been very difficult for you,” the mayor went on. “I can’t imagine how persuasive that man can be, seeing as he met you under one identity, and then when he found you and told you he was a cop, he somehow managed to manipulate you to go on the run with him in a matter of hours. But now that’s over. You’re safe.”
Iris’s head fell into her hands. No, no, none of that was true. Well, maybe parts of it were, but not in the way the mayor was spinning it and twisting it and trying to turn it into something ugly.
“You obviously have a really good heart and you care about people a lot,” Mayor Kats said. “We need more people like you in our city. I get it, you want to save everyone. So do I. That’s why I created my scholarship program. Detective Mack Gray took advantage of you. He didn’t tell you he was from a wealthy family, did he?”
No, Mack hadn’t. Maybe Mack hadn’t told her the full story of his life. But she knew his heart. She knew who he was on the inside. And she trusted his feelings for her were real.
“But I saw the Jackals with my own eyes,” Iris said. “There were men in masks with faces painted on them. They tried to kidnap me yesterday and they tried again at the lake in the middle of the night and sank my trailer. Then they robbed the diner this morning.”
“I don’t doubt you remember it that way,” the mayor said. “But what I need you to do right now is forget everything that’s happened since yesterday afternoon. Put it out of your mind. Pretend it didn’t happen and never think of it again. Because you’re right, there’s been a tragedy that has impacted the most vulnerable people in the city and I need your help to set it right.”
“My help?” Iris asked.
“Your help,” Mayor Kats repeated. She pointed at Iris. “You’re a champion for the underdog. You’re the biggest heart this city has. You’ve been hurt by bad men, and I want to help you with that. First Oscar Underwood took advantage of some vulnerable people with some very bad employment and hiring practices that I can’t endorse or get behind—”
“It was way more than that!” Iris tried to interject.
“And then the detective investigating him behaved criminally—”
“No, I’m really sure he didn’t!”
Why was her head still swimming? Why did it feel like the room was rocking?
“I’ll be honest,” the mayor said. “I’m days away from receiving the Order of Canada for my charity work. The ceremony and media coverage will shine a huge light on the city of Toronto and our success in cleaning up the city’s homelessness problem...”
But the city hadn’t been cleaning up the homelessness problem. People had been disappearing.
“Getting rid of people isn’t the same as helping them!” Iris said. “Other parts of the country sent their homeless here, and Oscar abducted the
m and took them somewhere else. That’s just getting needy people out of your sight, so you can ignore the problem. I showed up outside your office for weeks trying to get you to listen, only for your big hulking chief of security to practically shove me outside.”
The corner of the mayor’s mouth twitched and Iris suddenly remembered that Mack had told her that this very aggressive man the mayor had once hired as her chief of security—Travis Otis—had violated both his parole on an assault charge and a restraining order.
Something else was niggling in the back of Iris’s mind. Why couldn’t someone who’d built her entire reputation on helping needy youth not see it was wrong to accept glory for reducing the city’s homelessness under these circumstances?
Iris looked past Mayor Kats to the near identical pictures of young people on the wall, posing with the mayor. The mayor’s scholarship program was such a large part of her reputation. But somehow, seeing the rows and rows of pictures of kids standing beside the mayor with the same stiff smile on her face, they looked less like people the mayor actually had a relationship with and more like trophies.
“Let me be blunt.” Mayor Kats crossed her arms. “You have a major problem. You have no job, no money, no home in the city to return to and a family who can’t afford to support you. But I have a solution. I want to give you a job, with a very generous salary and housing allowance, as social awareness coordinator for the city’s homeless problem. I want you out before the cameras talking all about that big heart of yours and how everyone in this city matters. I want to create new, bright, clean homeless shelters, drop-in centers and programs that you can be the face of.”
For a moment something swelled in Iris’s heart. She was being offered everything she ever wanted. A job she cared about, a good apartment and money to help her family.
This is everything I’ve prayed to You for. Why does it feel so wrong?
“I want this all nailed down so I can announce it before the ceremony,” the mayor went on. “There’ll be some paperwork to sign and legal matters, especially as to how you talk about the uncomfortable situation with Oscar Underwood and Mack Gray. But my lawyer can help your messaging with that. Of course, there will be some restrictions as to what kinds of things the homeless and street youth program entails and the type of people we help. We don’t want the wrong kind of people causing problems for city staff. You’ll have to sign a nondisclosure agreement and we’ll have to carefully manage your appearances to make sure you’re on point. But you’ll be able to save the city. You’ll be this city’s champion. And everyone likes a champion.”
Runaway Witness Page 15