Redemption (15 page)

Michael Zinkleman.

 

 

 

 

33

 

For a split second neither reacted.

He charged.

She kicked him in the gut.

He fell backwards, but the wooden ark stopped his fall. He bounced up as if he'd hit a trampoline instead of a rock-hard playground structure. He came at her arms up and ready to attack. His face was a mask of anger. “Where's Andrew? Who are you?” he yelled. “What have you done with my son?”

His words penetrated her adrenaline rush. Shocked, she stopped and stared at the man.

What was he talking about? He took the opportunity to pounce on her.

Jamie fought back.

They fell to the ground as each struggled to gain the upper hand.

Pulling her fist back, she punched him in the stomach. She heard a moan and took advantage by grabbing his hair.

A woman screamed somewhere. “I'm calling the police.”

Jamie looked towards the voice—Samantha Waters stood there with a phone in her hand.

Zinkleman stilled, but his hands clasped both her arms. He released Jamie and jumped up. “Don't do that.”

“But...”

“It's OK.” He turned to Jamie. “Tell her it was a misunderstanding. You don't want the police involved, do you? I'll do anything you want. I just want my son back.”

Her first thought was to scream at the woman to call, but why had he asked her where Andrew was? Instinct kicked in. “Will you come with me without a fight?”

He nodded.

She looked up at the woman on the step still holding the cell phone and looking terrified. “It's OK, Samantha. Just a little misunderstanding. We're both leaving.”

“Are you sure?” Samantha asked.

Jamie looked at Michael Zinkleman.

He nodded.

She turned back to the day care director. “I'm sure.”

Zinkleman held up both hands as if to show her he meant no harm. “Let's go. “

“Not without you in handcuffs.”

“I said I'd go with you and I will.”

“Handcuffs, first.”

“If you do that she'll be sure to call the police. She's still watching. “

“Fine with me. I'm not the one with an arrest warrant.” Jamie really didn't want the police here. It would only cause more problems. “Fine, you walk in front of me so I can keep an eye on you. One suspicious move and I'll be on top of you.”

“Where to?”

“To my car in the parking lot. It's the green SUV.”

At the car, he turned around and leaned against the side. “Let's keep this casual looking. I guarantee she's watching us and still trying to decide if she should call the cops.”

“I don't have a problem with her calling the cops. In fact I spent most of my day yesterday with them.” No reason to tell him she was under suspicion of murdering his friend.

“I don't care where you spent yesterday. I don't have time for mind games. I want to know where Andrew is.” His voice cracked on the name of his son.

“And you tell me you don't want to play mind games. Why would I know where Andrew is? I've never seen him.”

“You have to know where he is. If you don't know, then they took him.” His eyes were wild.

Jamie had seen a lot of liars over the years. Looking into his panic-stricken eyes, she knew one thing.

Michael Zinkleman wasn't one of them.

 

 

 

 

34

 

A siren wailed far off.

“Guess she called the cops after all.” Jamie looked at Michael Zinkleman.

“We don't have time for this. If we stay here, they'll drag us to the station. I have to find my son.”

“You keep saying that. Where is he?”

“I don't know, but I know I won't find him if I'm sitting in a jail cell.”

“Fine, get in my car.”

 

****

 

Enrique was at the fourth hardware store talking with the clerk. And he was having the same results as he'd had at every one of them. Nobody recognized Zinkleman. He'd either really changed his looks or he didn't live around Jackson Hole.

Enrique's phone buzzed.

He read the message:
911 motel.

His heart was in his throat. He immediately texted back.
R U OK?

I'm fine. Just hurry.

Enrique wasn't comforted by the cryptic message. He thanked the clerk and ran out of the store. Ten minutes later, he stepped out of his car and rushed towards Jamie's room. He raised his hand to knock, but it opened before he could.

“Thank God, you're here.” Jamie's shirt was torn and her hair was a mess.

“Are you hurt? What's going on?”

“I'm fine. Come in.” Jamie locked the door.

Enrique stared at a man sitting on her bed. The hair color was different and he had a beard. He was at least thirty pounds lighter, but it was Michael Zinkleman.

“You're under arrest.” He continued on with the Miranda warning.

Michael stared at him and said nothing.

“He's already in cuffs. I found the extra pair in your luggage.” Jamie told him. “I wasn't taking any chances.”

Enrique nodded and motioned for Jamie to follow him. The two walked away so they couldn't be overheard.

Jamie whispered, “I haven't talked with him yet. I wanted you to read him his rights before he talked, but he claims not to know where Andrew is.”

“You're a mess. What did he do to you?”

“We had a bit of a tussle.” Her hand moved to her cheek.

“He hit you.” Enrique's gaze moved to Zinkleman, anger in his voice.

“Yep and I hit him right back. I can take care of myself, Ricky. Don't worry about that right now. What we need to worry about is that he keeps saying he doesn't know where Andrew is.”

“He's lying. They always lie when they get caught.”

“I don't think he is. He sounds sincere.”

Their gazes met.

“We'll see. Where'd you find him?”

“He found me. As I was leaving one of the daycare centers, he showed up demanding I tell him where Andrew was. And he came with me willingly. Well, not at first, but eventually he came with me willingly.”

“Did you hit her?” He raised his voice to Zinkleman.

“She attacked me first. I had to defend myself.”

“You are never to hit a woman.”

“She knew self-defense moves, she knew exactly what she was doing when she started the fight. Tell me you wouldn't if someone attacked you.”

“It's my job.”

“He's my son and she was there asking about him. She was not getting away from me. I need to know where Andrew is.”

“OK, tell me your version of the truth.” Enrique knew his tone was hard.

“Ryan flew up and told us we had to leave. He was sure she had found out where we were. And it was only a matter of time before she found us.”

“Wouldn't a phone call have sufficed?”

“He was going to fly us somewhere new. I couldn't leave right away. I needed to take care of a few things. Anyway, when I got home yesterday, no Ryan. No Andy. I looked everywhere I could think of. Where are they? Do you have them in custody?”

Enrique's gaze moved to Jamie. A slight shake of her head told him she hadn't told him what happened to Ryan. He debated the best way to play this situation. If Zinkleman was telling the truth, he would freak when he found out about Ryan's murder. “It seems a bit too coincidental that you showed up at the daycare at the same time as she did.”

“It wasn't coincidental. My neighbor's daughter called and told me someone was at the daycare looking for us. I'd told them my deceased wife's family had vowed to kidnap Andy, so she let me know someone was there asking questions. Where's Ryan. Where's my son?” The guy sounded convincing, but he'd had a lot of time to perfect his story.

“Before we talk about them I want you to talk about the embezzling of your employer's money.”

Zinkleman shook his head, his shaggy brown hair flopped. “I'm not talking about anything except my son. Where's Andy?”

“No problem.” Enrique looked at his watch. “I'll call my boss. Tell him you're in custody and arrange for transport back to Ohio. Then you can get a lawyer.” He slid out his cell phone.

“Please.” A sob escaped from Michael. “I need to know Andy's safe. That's all I'm asking.”

Enrique trusted Jamie's judgment. He gave her a nod.

“We don't have Andrew, Michael.” Her voice was soft, filled with emotion.

“Now you're the one lying.”

“Do you want to file a missing person's report on him?”

“He's not missing. He's with Ryan and I trust him.”

Enrique's gut twisted. Had they almost found Andrew Zinkleman?

“Andrew's not in our custody,” Jamie said. “Who was he with the last time you saw him?”

“He was with Ryan. Andy's safe as long as he's with Ryan.”

Enrique put a calming hand on Jamie's shoulder.

 

 

 

 

35

 

Jamie wasn't sure if she could find her next breath.

Ryan was dead, and Andrew was missing.

Jamie opened her mouth to tell Michael the truth, but stopped. Honesty was not usually the best policy when it came to interrogating criminals.

“Jamie, I need to talk with you in private.” Enrique's words tumbled out in a rush.

Their gazes met.

Enrique dead bolted the exterior door, shot a warning glance to Michael, and motioned for Jamie to step in the doorway of the other room. “You can't tell him the truth about Ryan being dead. If he's telling the truth about Andrew being missing and he finds out Ryan was murdered, he'll fall apart. We won't get any more information from him.”

“I don't care about the money he embezzled. I just want to find Andrew. For Zink.”

“That's what I want, too.”

Their gazes locked.

“Really, I do, Jamie. It's important to you, so it's important to me. But we can't tell him the truth until we get whatever information he has. Anything he tells us could help us find Andrew.”

“I'll let you decide when to tell him, but we need to make sure people are looking for Andrew.”

He pulled out his phone. “I'll take care of that right now.” He stepped further into the room, leaving Jamie at the doorway watching Michael.

Enrique finished the call. “They're putting out an alert. We don't have much information, but that's the best we can do for now. I'll call again when we get more information from Michael.” He put a hand on her arm. “I hope we'll have time to talk later. Really talk, but for now we have to focus on Ryan and the embezzling scheme.”

“What about Andrew?”

“We need to know the whole situation if we want to find Andrew. If he's been kidnapped, there must be a reason. Only Michael knows the reason. If he falls apart we don't get the reason and we don't find Andrew.”

“But—”

“Trust me on this, Jakowski.”

“I do trust you.”

“Does that mean we can talk about a way to fix some of my mistakes later? After we find Andrew?” He stepped closer, his arms encircled her.

“I…I think that might be a good idea.”

He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. A promise of things to come. “OK, then, let's go find Andrew.”

He gave her a gentle squeeze, and then his arms fell away.

They went back into the other room to face the man sitting on the bed, who had no idea his best friend was dead and his son was missing.

Jamie pushed the jumbled thoughts about Enrique out of her mind. It was time to focus on Michael. He had to know something that would help them find Andy.
Please God; we couldn't have come this close only to fail.

 

 

 

 

36

 

They'd decided she had more of a connection with Zinkleman, so she might get more information from him if she did the talking. “OK, Michael. Before we talk about anything else, you have to tell us about the embezzlement. My partner here convinced me of that. You tell us what you know and then we'll talk about Andrew.”

Michael's shoulders slumped, and he began to speak. “I didn't embezzle anything. Someone else embezzled the money and made it look like I did.”

“Oh, here we go.” Enrique snarled, angry that the man would try such a weak ploy. “Playing the old I'm-innocent card. Gosh, I've never heard that one before.”

“I am innocent. You can believe me or not, but that is the truth.”

“And you just happened to kidnap your kid and disappear the very same week you were to be arrested. I guess that was a happy coincidence.”

“I had to leave. It was the only way to protect my family.”

“I'm sure Zink will be happy to hear how well you protected her and her son. The son she hasn't seen in two years.” Jamie's voice was indignant.

Michael glared at her. “Don't talk to me about protecting Andrew. You're the one who led them up here. Now he might be in danger thanks to you.”

Jamie jumped on his statement. “Exactly who did I lead up here, Michael?”

“I don't know who they are. I only know they are dangerous.”

“Nobody followed me up here without me knowing it.” That wasn't exactly true.

Ryan had followed Jamie and she'd not known it. But that wasn't the point. “And even if they had, it's still your fault for kidnapping your child in the first place.”

“You're right, but I didn't know what else to do. I knew I had to leave, and I knew I couldn't take Suzie with me. Sooner or later, she would have insisted we turn ourselves in. And if we did that, they would kill us. I knew if I left Andrew with her they would have kidnapped him or hurt him as a way to get to me.”