She nodded soberly, her eyes wet.
“Okay,” he said. “Look, they don’t all turn out well. Most of them don’t. But it’s only been a week.”
“Did you investigate a lot of kidnappings?”
Frank nodded carefully. He and Laura had never talked about his work before. With Trudy, this had always been dangerous territory.
“I don’t know how you dealt with that,” she said. “It’s so sad and scary. I can’t believe it’s happened, here in this little town.”
“Kidnappings like this are usually about money,” Frank said. “so they can happen anywhere. It’s actually better than an abduction. The recovery rate for kidnappings for ransom is much higher.”
She nodded, listening.
“And there is a dialog going on,” he continued. “The kidnappers are talking to the family, which is very good.”
“Mom said the kidnapping cases were the worst for you,” Laura said, surprising Frank. He couldn’t imagine the two of them, sitting around the kitchen table, discussing Frank and his work. Talking about him when he wasn’t around, debating what bothered him. But of course they had talked—they’d had no one else to talk to. Laura continued. “She said you would go days without talking, after they ended...badly.”
He wasn’t sure what to say. His new policy of complete and absolute honesty faltered when he looked at her—he could see she was frightened and unsure.
“Those cases were bad,” he agreed. “But others ended well. I worked quite a few,” he said. “New Orleans was a big city. We never lived in town, so you probably never really experienced all the hustle and bustle. There were many cases a year, and it was one of the things I specialized in.”
“Until Katrina,” she said.
He didn’t answer. Frank wasn’t really prepared to talk about that. It took him by surprise, but it shouldn’t have—certainly, she would want answers. Just like Trudy had wanted answers. After a minute, he just nodded.
Another long, awkward pause threatened to settle over the room, and Frank didn’t want to let the conversation lapse into silence. He’d had years of silence, and it felt like they were connecting, really starting to talk. He wasn’t going to let St. Barts ruin this new opportunity. It had already ruined so many things.
Frank considered it for a moment. He didn’t want to come off sounding prideful, or like he was bragging. But he needed to roll the dice—to change the subject and, perhaps, raise her opinion of him a tad.
“Actually, the local police have approached me. They asked me to help with the investigation,” Frank said.
Her expression changed—a hint of a smile appeared.
“Really?”
“One of the officers came by my hotel room last night,” Frank said. “He laid out the case for helping them. Not sure how they knew I was in town. It was nice to be asked, but I passed. Not a lot I can bring to the table.”
Laura’s face changed—she’d been smiling, but now it had morphed into a combination of confusion and anger. Not the emotion he’d been expecting. Or hoping for.
“You’re not going to help?” she asked sharply.
“Ummm, no, I wasn’t going to—”
“Why wouldn’t you help them? They’re just two little girls, out there somewhere. Scared,” she asked, her eyes shiny again. “If you could do anything to help, you should. What if Jackson was missing?”
He was taken aback, confused by her sudden anger.
“No, that’s different,” he said, shaking his head. “Of course, if it were Jackson, I’d want to help.”
“So what is it?”
“I’m not getting involved,” he said, shaking his head. “I did enough of these types of cases, and I don’t think I’d be any help anyway…besides, they have a Bureau guy, up from the Cincinnati office. What could an old retired cop add to the mix?”
She shook her head.
“I read the papers—we’ve got great police here in Cooper’s Mill,” she said. “Except for DUIs, crime is practically nonexistent. They wouldn’t have asked you if they didn’t really need the help.”
He nodded. Frank had gotten that impression too, from Burwell. Laura looked at him, and he suddenly remembered a school play that she’d been in in elementary school. Her hair seemed similar, swept back and tied up in the back.
“I figured...I’m really just here to see you,” Frank said, looking at her. “I don’t want to get distracted. And I don’t do these kinds of cases anymore.” He could hear the panic starting to edge into his voice. He was losing ground, losing her.
“But if you can help out at all, people around here would appreciate it,” Laura said, leaning forward. “People are scared, really scared. A couple of the officers’ wives come into the salon. The case isn’t going well.”
He thought about what she was saying, then decided on a different tack.
“I’m surprised,” Frank said quietly. “I figured you’d be happy to hear I was staying out. Didn’t it drive you and your mom crazy, me being out in the world, all the time, in harm’s way? I know Trudy hated it. She told me enough times.”
Laura sipped at her coffee and nibbled another cookie before answering.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I guess it’s different for me, now. When I was growing up, you were always gone, out helping other people. Even after we left and moved to Cincinnati, you stayed in Louisiana. Mom said you didn’t get the hint.”
Frank nodded slowly.
“But now that I have Jackson, I understand how helpless I would feel if he disappeared,” she said. Laura was looking at the art on the wall again, and he felt his eyes drawn to them as well. “It makes me happy now, to know that you helped those people, people I never even met.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Frank said. “But still, I don’t think I would add anything to the case. Too many bad memories.”
Like that kid in Atlanta, buried.
Frank and Ben Stone had worked together for almost a year and had traveled up from Florida to help out on a kidnapping case with connections to a counterfeiting case they had been assigned. Frank did the work, followed up on a weak lead, and broke the case wide open.
They had found the empty lot—reconstructed from a photo taken by a driver passing a suspicious vehicle. Frank had figured it out. He found the empty lot and dug up the buried cardboard box and opened it.
Frank would never forget that dusty, abandoned patch of dirt.
According to the coroner, Frank had only been a few minutes too late.
“Too much history,” he said, mostly to himself.
“Well,” Laura said quietly, “if it were me, I’d want your help.”
He looked down at the carpet and thought about it. Thought about her asking for his help—if it were Jackson, he wouldn’t hesitate. Frank shut out the memory of Atlanta and tried to focus on the good cases, the ones that had turned out well. He had saved people, made a difference. After a moment, Frank nodded and looked at her.
“I guess…I guess I could think about it.”
She smiled and put her hand on his. It was the first time she’d touched him.
“I think you could be more helpful than you think,” his daughter said. “You can put all those skills to work, and if you can lend a hand, all the better. I remember a few of the things Mom told me. Didn’t you work like fifty kidnappings?”
He nodded.
“Fifty-two solved. But each case was different,” Frank said. “Some of them ended badly. Catching the kidnappers didn’t always lead to a good ending. Sometimes the kids…they didn’t make it. Or we never found them, and the kidnappers disappeared. Getting the groundwork done quickly was the key to keeping the victims alive.”
They sat, chatting for a few more minutes, drinking coffee and eating cookies. He told her about some of the cases he had worked, good and bad. Of course, he held back some of the details. But it was nice. Just sitting here with her, talking, without her mother getting involved, or having their whole history dredged up again. It was all in the past, anyway.
“So, you really think I should do it?” Frank asked, after they had been talking about his past cases for a while. She had asked lots of good questions and not shied away from the ones that ended badly.
“Definitely,” she said. “They are just scared little girls. Somebody has to help them, right?”
Frank nodded.
“OK, I’ll think about it.”
Laura nodded and handed him a cookie.
“Good,” she said with a smile.
George carried the trays downstairs and into the kitchen, setting them on the large island that seemed to take up half the kitchen. Most of it was covered with old containers from takeout Chinese food. Chastity was at the dining room table, reading a fashion magazine.
“Well, at least they’re eating,” he said, putting the plates into the sink.
Chastity looked up.
“I don’t care if they’re eating or not. They can starve. When are we getting paid?”
Starting in again.
“I don’t know, Chas. We’ll get the ransom tonight, then leave it at the airport for the boss. He’s got a whole plan. But the other guy’s in charge. Him and the boss will work it out.”
She shook her head and stood, walking over. He tried to ignore the fact that she was only wearing a pair of panties. She loved going around the house in next to nothing. It could be very distracting.
“You see what’s going on here, Puddin’?” she said. “They’re gonna get the money, and we’ll be stuck here with the girls. How do you think this is going to go down?”
George nodded.
“Please don’t call me that, Chas,” he said. “You know I hate that.”
She smiled as she approached, leaning into him.
“I know,” she said.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, backing away from her. “But they’re working on wrapping things up. That’s what the boss said.”
Chastity stood in front of him and crossed her arms, covering up her ample chest. It made it slightly easier for George to concentrate on what she was saying.
“You’re an idiot,” she said sharply. “What’s to keep them from taking our money? Or what if they call the police anonymously on us? We’re in jail for life, and they get away. With the money. No, I think we should just bail.”
“And leave the money?”
“There ain’t gonna be no money!” she screeched, exasperated. The barn owl was back. “We’re gonna get screwed out of our money anyway, so why not take some of that pot and what money we do have and leave?”
George thought about it for a minute, looking down at the ground. It was hard to think, staring at Chastity. She was so pretty. But she had a point.
“We don’t have a car that’ll get us far.” he said.
She nodded. “Yes we do, Puddin’. The Corolla works fine, and that Mustang is just sitting out there.”
He shook his head.
“The boss knows those cars, knows the plates. He’d catch us in a minute.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “If I want to, I can get a car. I can go into any bar in Troy right now and some idiot will let me borrow his car. I know how to get guys to do what I want. Or, better yet, bring him back here and tie him up—then it would take longer before the guy reports it. And he’d take the fall for the girls.”
“I dunno, Chas. That seems awfully risky,” George said, not even wanting to start that conversation about what she’d need to do, or show, to get a car. He didn’t like to think about what she did when she went into town. She would always come home late, or some random car would drop her off a mile or two up the road. And she always had money and sometimes a little bag of coke or weed. George shook his head. “I’m not ready to go yet, but I’ll call the boss and see what’s going on. I’ll tell him the Mustang is ready, and we’re ready. But what about the girls?”
Her face went red, and for a second George thought she might punch him. She got exasperated a lot.
“George! Jesus,” she shouted. “I don’t give a shit about the girls. I’m worried about us.” She stepped closer and putting her hands on his shoulders, pressing her breasts against his crossed arms. He looked down at them. She kept talking, but he didn’t look up. “We gotta get ready to go, if we have to,” she purred. “Get packed, so we can leave in a second. Right?”
He nodded. He always found it difficult, at times like these, to contradict her.
Long shadows stretched over the downtown as Chief King and the rest of the CMPD stationed themselves at various locations around the historic downtown shopping district. To the west, a train rumbled through town at exactly 5:58 pm, eight minutes ahead of the time for the ransom drop.
The money was ready and in a black leather satchel, as requested. Nick Martin was standing next to King on the steps of the Cooper’s Mill Public Library, nervously adjusting the bag on his shoulder. King waited, looking east up Main Street. On the steps around them, and around the entrance to the library, a dozen carved and decorated pumpkins littered the stoop. Other Halloween decorations hung throughout the downtown, decorating every shop window. Eight-foot-tall corn shocks adorned each light pole, a simple but effective project by a downtown booster organization that really gave the downtown a “harvest time” feel.
“$1,000,000 is a lot of money,” King said, making conversation. Nick Martin was fidgeting, and King needed him calm and collected. Even with cops stationed all over town, and roadblocks to the east and west and south, by the tomato cannery, things could go wrong in a hurry.
“It’s worth it,” Nick responded.
Chief King was still trying to gauge whether or not the father was in on it. He looked sufficiently nervous, but King had heard about things like this going down before—not in Cooper’s Mill, of course, but in larger towns. Kidnappings were rare and complicated, and Chief King knew they almost always turned out to involve someone in the family or close to the family.
Nick Martin was a local celebrity, though, so that made the demand for a huge ransom a little more believable. King knew that everyone in town thought that Martin was wealthy, mostly because of where he lived and what he did for a living. But King had learned over the last week the truth: the Martins weren’t as well off as everyone thought. Much of their “Martin Construction” company money had gone away with the housing and construction downturn in 2008 and 2009. The rest went to keeping the lights on in their offices and the Martin’s palatial home on Hyatt Street, one of the largest in town.
In fact, some of the money in the black leather satchel hanging from Nick Martin’s shoulder was borrowed. There had been no way the man could gather all the needed money that quickly. Nick had sold off two large investments, including his share in a Dayton condominium project near Dragon’s Stadium. Even then, he’d had to borrow money from the FBI.
It had been an interesting discussion, helping Nick decide what to sell off. Nick Martin had wanted to keep the projects that might be the most lucrative in the future, but his focus was clearly his daughter and raising the money. He’d also been partial to some of the smaller projects. King and Nick Martin and the other senior officers had been sitting around the big conference room table in the police station, going over the finances. That was yesterday afternoon, after the call from the kidnappers.
The FBI guy had kept his mouth shut—he evidently didn’t have any experience in the area. Sergeant Graves, one of them at the table, suggested Nick Martin sell off the Holly Toys Lofts project. Nick had a lot of dead money tied up in that, and weeks before, his business partner, Matt Lassiter, had offered to buy him out.
The building was a former toy factory and sort of a local landmark. When the property had come onto the market, Nick and Matt had bought it, planning to turn the massive brick building into block of luxury condos. It would have been a smart play, as well—there were no apartments or condos that close to the historical downtown, and the units would have been beautiful, fully-appointed homes. And they would have cost a pretty penny. But then the market tanked. The building was still sitting empty, with only one condominium completed as a model unit.
But Nick evidently had a soft spot for the property. “I think that could be very lucrative,” Nick had said, smiling. “Plus, I used to play on the tracks right there.” After a long discussion, they had finally helped him figure out two deals to close, including selling the Holly Toys building. In a matter of two hours, he’d raised almost $850,000.
King wished he could pick up the phone and make that kind of money appear from thin air.
The FBI Liaison, Ted Shale, arranged for the rest, and now they were here on the stone steps of the Library, waiting. The clock on the Monroe Township Building began to chime, ringing loudly, six times.
“Okay, six minutes. Everyone ready?” King asked into his radio. He had cops stationed on both ends of Main Street in squad cars, along with several more in discrete locations. There were two in plain clothes, Detective Barnes and Deputy Peters, sitting on the wooden benches in front of O’Shaughnessy’s Restaurant. King also had police in from Dayton and Troy to help man the roadblocks downtown. There was even a roadblock uptown near the Taco Bell, blocking access to the highway.
“Yup, we’re good,” the voice came back. It was Sergeant Burwell, stationed on the east end of Main, near Ricky’s. That was the only way in and out of town to the east, unless you jogged several blocks north or south—and both directions were covered.
“Yeah, me, too,” answered Sergeant Graves over the radio. He was up at the corner of Fifth and Main, next to the railroad tracks.
Burwell and Graves were good cops. Along with Detective Barnes, they were his three top guys, and King would feel comfortable with any of them taking over after he was gone. With Burwell blocking access to the east, and Graves making sure no one got over the tracks and uptown, the place was bottled up tight.
There was no way these kidnappers were getting away. And even if the real kidnappers sent a go-between to retrieve the money, capturing them would put the investigation on the fast track to recovering the girls.
King nodded to Nick Martin, who started down the steps and started walking slowly up the sidewalk east, up Main Street.
Nick passed the alley and the Harvest Moon Cafe, another popular downtown restaurant that featured a rooftop lounge. As Chief King watched, Martin passed the toy store, passing in front of the oversized Lego people in front, and stopped in front of the Italian restaurant on the corner, waiting for the light.
King scanned the pedestrians and traffic. It was a Tuesday evening, so there were quite a few people out window shopping. King had chosen to not shut down all vehicular traffic in and out of downtown to make the place look busy. He thought it might spook the kidnappers if the place was a ghost town. But now, with several cars cruising up and down Main, he was regretting that decision.
When the light changed, Nick Martin crossed the street and stopped in front of the Old Hotel, a collection of shops built into an old hotel on the corner of Second and Main. The intersection constituted the center of Cooper’s Mill. Although all the streets downtown were numbered westward from the canal, this was the busiest intersection in town.
Nick Martin took the black leather bag off his shoulder and set it on the lip of a large, decorative trash can, attached to the sidewalk in front of the Old Hotel. King watched as Nick Martin tipped the zipped black bag over—it fell through the round opening and into the trash can. Martin glanced around and, unsure what to do next, retraced his steps, crossing Second Street and heading back toward the Library and Chief King. After a long minute, Martin walked up and stood next to the Chief.
“Now what?”
King nodded at the bag. “We wait.”
Ten minutes passed with nothing happening. Three small groups of pedestrians walked in front of the trash bin, but no one reached inside. Another group of shoppers admired the Halloween displays in the front windows of A World Apart, a home decorating shop across the street from the toy store.
Chief King stood next to Nick Martin, as they watched impatiently up the street, but nothing was happening. A breeze stirred the fallen leaves and blew them down the street, skittering against the sidewalk and gutter.