Abduction (28 page)

It was over.
No more running. No more safety. It was over. They would take the child away.
She’d go to jail for kidnapping and she’d never be free again.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as the officer
snapped the handcuff around her other wrist and turned her around. She hadn’t
been able to save the child after all. And she hadn’t been able to save
herself.

#

“I don’t know
about this, Ray.” Karen pulled the front door closed and followed her brother
down the front steps and across the lawn. The night air hinted at a warm
summer, and she barely needed the sweater she was wearing and clutching closed.

“It’ll be
fine. I like Rene. And we need to get together and pray about Jessica. And for
you.”

“But Ted
doesn’t like me to be around Rene.”

“Ted isn’t here, and he doesn’t run your life. He
probably does
n’t
like Rene because he
knows she sees right through him and he did
n’t want her cluing you in.”

“He said she
would be a bad influence on me.” She jogged up Rene’s front steps behind Ray.

“In his mind
she would be.”

Rene opened the front door at Ray’s knock. Ray
smiled. “Hey, Rene.”

She stepped
back and held the door wide. “Come on in. I think just about everyone is here.”

Karen expected
to see a small group. She was wrong. At least fifteen people were milling
around the living room. Rene introduced everyone. Karen didn’t bother trying to
remember names. As they were about to get started, the doorbell rang.

“Excuse me a
minute.” Rene went to answer the door and re-turned a few minutes later with
the last person Karen ever expected to see at a prayer meeting.

“Excuse me,”
Rene said loud enough to get everyone’s attention. “This is Zoe Shefford.”

Karen leaned into Ray and whispered, “That’s the
psychic I was
telling you about.”

“Really?” Ray
stepped forward and offered his hand to Zoe. “Hi. I’m Ray Timms. It’s nice of
you to join us.”

#

JJ was fuming.
No, he was more than fuming; he was ready to explode into a fireball of white-hot
rage. “The woman went too far this time! She practically begged the killer to
take her on! Has she lost her ever-loving mind?”

“Not if the
killer is her father,” Matt reminded him from his chair across the room.

JJ glared at
him. “Keyes Shefford was never a viable suspect and you know it. Do you think
this is just a ploy to make me look at someone besides her father?”

Matt shook his head. “No. I think it’s exactly
what you said it is: a deliberate and calculated attempt to get the killer to
come after her.

“And I talked
to him, by the way. Keyes Shefford. He and Mrs. Shefford are at his summer
house up on Lake Erie. I have to get to know this man. His house is in
Marblehead. Best walleye and perch fishing in the country. And there’s a
lighthouse there that’s over a hundred years old, and—”

“Matt. Shut
up.”

Matt raised
his eyebrows a notch. “Touchy.”

“Zoe Shefford
is deliberately taunting a cold-blooded killer, and you want to talk about
fishing?”

“Well, no. I
was just trying to tell you that he called to let me know where he was and
would happily answer any questions I might have. He said he went there because
the killer came into Mrs. Shefford’s store, and he and Zoe thought it best to
get her out of town. For her own safety.”

JJ felt his
temper rise another notch. “The killer was in Mrs. Shefford’s store and no one
told us? Did anyone stop to think that she could give us a
description of
the man?”

Matt flinched.

People out in
the bullpen stopped, turned, and looked, but JJ
didn’t care. He couldn’t believe this had slipped through the cracks.
“Call him back. Talk to Mrs. Shefford. Find out what the man looks
like!”

“JJ?” Matt spoke in a soft, even voice. “It’s
done. As soon as he told me she could ID our man, I arranged for her to meet
with the state police up there and work with a sketch artist. It’s being done
even
as we speak.”

Standing up,
Matt looked down at JJ with disappointment in his eyes. “I’m not stupid. I know
my job. I thought you always believed I was good at it.” He turned and walked
away.

JJ slumped
behind his desk and ran his fingers through his hair. He was losing it. Yelling
at Matt like that. And Matt was right. He’d never questioned Matt’s ability
before. He was jumping out of his skin and it was unacceptable.

He stared at
the newspaper again. Taunting the killer. Was she out of her mind?

He picked up
the phone and called her. There was no answer. Grabbing his jacket, he ran out
of the building.

chapter
23

Monday, April 24

Z
oe
sat on the edge of the sofa, bent over, with her forehead resting on her knees.

Sobbing.

She couldn’t
help it and couldn’t have explained why in a million years.

At first, when
everyone started praying for the police to find Jessica and Ted and for the
families of the little girls to have peace in His arms and for Karen to have
faith, she merely sat there, eyes closed, and listened to them pray, one after
another. But then Ray started praying for her, and suddenly she felt like
everything raw in her had been touched.

Caressed.

It felt
wonderful. Warm and loving. And it brought tears to her eyes that quickly
turned to uncontrollable sobs. She couldn’t stop. Someone came over and put an
arm around her. She didn’t even look up to see whom. She didn’t care.

Oh, God.
This is You, isn’t it?

“Trust Me.”

I want to.
Oh, how I want to. But someone has to stop him.

“
Trust Me.”

Why do you
keep saying that?

“Because
you trust no one. Trust Me.”

#

Gerry Otis stared at the fax in his hand as he
talked on the phone with the police officer in Altamonte Springs. “Say that one
more time?”

“We have the
woman in custody.”

“No. The other
part.” Gerry closed his eyes and wished for a miracle.

“And we have
the little boy.”

So much for a
miracle. “That’s what I thought you said. Are you sure it’s a boy? We’re
looking for a little girl. Jessica Matthews.”

“No. This is
definitely a little boy. I changed his diaper myself a few minutes ago in the
lounge.”

Gerry sat
down, his mind spinning. “Could you put the woman on the phone? I think we may
be able to clear this up in less than five minutes.”

“Hold on.”

Gerry waved
Matt over while he waited. He put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. “I
think the Darrington woman is a dead end.”

“Why?” Matt
pulled up a chair and sat down.

“They have the
woman in custody. There is a child with her, but it’s a boy.”

Just then, a
woman’s voice came on the other end of the phone. She sounded defeated.

“Mrs.
Darrington? This is Detective Gerry Otis. The child you have with you. Can you
tell me whose child that is?”

“Mine. My son.
John, Junior.”

“When you were
living here and helping Mrs. Matthews, where was your child?”

He heard her
sniff. “With friends. Friends I had in college that my husband didn’t know
about. They kept him while I got some money together.”

Gerry leaned
back and nodded at Matt, indicating that his suspicions had been true. She
hadn’t kidnapped Jessica Matthews.

“Mrs.
Darrington, would you like me to keep your whereabouts a secret from your
husband?”

Suddenly hope
seemed to alight in her voice. “Would you? Could you do that for me, please?”

“I can and
will. As far as he is concerned, we never found you. I just have one more
question for you. Do you have any idea who might have taken Jessica Matthews?”

There was
silence for a long moment, and it started to make Gerry a little nervous, but
then she spoke up. “No. I can’t say that I do. Karen loved that child. She must
be going out of her mind.”

“What about Ted Matthews? Did he seem the loving
father to
you?”

“I can’t say
that he did. He was aloof. Indifferent. I wasn’t around him all that much. He
usually didn’t get home from work until after I left for the day, so it could
be that I was just catching him on bad days or something.”

“Is there
anything you can tell me about Ted Matthews that might help us?”

Again there
was a moment of silence. “I don’t know if it would help you find Jessica, but I
do know that Ted Matthews was having an affair with a woman from his work.”

Gerry grabbed
a notepad and wrote quickly. Matt read as Gerry wrote; then his eyebrows shot
up. He grabbed the pencil from Gerry and wrote, “Any idea who the woman was?”

“Mrs.
Darrington. Do you have any idea who the woman was? Her name? Anything?”

“I saw them
just that once at the mall at lunch. It was my day off, and Mr. Matthews didn’t
see me. He was buying her perfume and he called her Mary Anne. Or Marion.
Something like that. That’s all I know.”

Gerry jotted
down the information. “Thanks. You’ve been a
big
help. I’m really sorry about the mix-up. If you can put the detective back on
the phone, I’ll see about having you released to go on your way.”

Gerry spoke to
the detective and then got off the phone. “Whattya think?” he asked Matt.

“Maryanne
Bubeck. The woman who disappeared just before Ted Matthews did. Coincidence?”

“Want me to
check her out?”

Matt stood up.
“Yeah. Her address is in the file. See if you can find out where she is.”

#

JJ sat in Zoe’s driveway, drumming his fingers on
the steering wheel. The house was dark except for the light on the front porch,
and Zoe’s car was gone. He hoped she hadn’t gone to meet the killer.

Suddenly old
memories washed over him. And they weren’t warm and fuzzy.

“The
psychic says no one is stalking me, Josiah. I’ve been imagining it, you see. I
have nothing to fear.” Macy smiled up at him, her eyes shining like blue
diamonds in the candlelight.

“Macy, I
never believed anyone was stalking you. You have nothing to prove to me.” He
reached up and ran his fingers lightly down her cheek. Oh, how he loved this
woman. His soul mate. No. His
soul.
She was the essence that brought him
life.

“You
thought I was being foolish. Weak. A typical woman who faints at the sight of
blood or something. Admit it.”

“I did
not.”

Macy
laughed, a high, tinkling laugh that always made him smile. “Yes, you did. I
could see it in your eyes. I was simpering, cowering. Wasn’t I?”

JJ shrugged. “Okay, maybe a little, but I didn’t
love you any less for it.”

Macy
crawled over the sofa cushion and into his lap, wrapping her arms around his
neck. “My big, tough macho man. Going to be a cop and save the world.”

“Come on,
Macy.”

“I love
you, Josiah. Everything about you. Including the fact that you fear nothing.”

“I fear
losing you.”

“I’ll never
leave you, Josiah. We’ll get married as soon as you’re out of the academy and
we’ll have lots of babies.”

“Whoa. Not
more than four, okay? Cops don’t make tons of money.”

Macy
laughed again and laid her head on his shoulder. “Okay, no more than four
babies that all look like you.”

“Please,
anything but that.” JJ pulled her close. “The psychic was certain no one is
stalking you?”

“That’s
what she said. She said it was just my imagination. That I had a secret
admirer, but that he wasn’t a danger to me or anything like that. Everything is
fine.”

“
Well, if the psychic says everything is fine, then
everything is fine.”

But it hadn’t
been fine. Macy had disappeared less than forty-eight hours later, and it was
three days before her body was found in the basement of a student who had been
writing her anonymous love letters. His obsession had led to stalking Macy and
then murdering her.

The psychic
had been wrong.

Dead wrong.

JJ bent his
head, his forehead resting on his hands on the steering wheel. Macy had been
snatched out of his life because some voodoo psychic didn’t know her crystal
ball from her tarot card. She was a fake. A phony. A real con artist. And he
had been a fool for believing her.

Oh, Macy. I
wish you were here.

#

Zoe groaned
when she pulled into her driveway and found JJ parked there, waiting for her.
He was in quite a temper from the dark looks he was shooting her.

“What were you
thinking? Have you lost what was left of your mind? Or did you just decide to
commit suicide and figured this was a heroic way of going about it?”

Zoe brushed
past him. “I have nothing to say to you.”

“Well, I have
plenty to say to you! That was the most asinine thing I’ve ever seen! Do you
have any idea what that man wants to do to you?”

“Kill me,” Zoe
said quietly as she unlocked her front door, flipped on the lights, and walked
in. JJ remained on her heels.

“And I suppose
that’s just fine with you?”

She tossed her
purse and keys on the coffee table. “No, it’s not.”

“All right.
I’m sorry I said what I did about your father. That was out of line. We know he
isn’t a suspect.”