Gone (13 page)

“Tomorrow. What are we going to do? Hand over the money and hope that Howard keeps his word?”

“I don’t see how we can do anything else. We came here in good faith, with as much money as we could get together.” He yawned. “I suppose we’ve got to believe that Howard will be acting in good faith, too.”

“That’s what bothers me. You told me that you think Rhoda really loves Joshua. I think so, too. Look at everything she was doing for him—teaching him, taking care of him. I’ll bet there’s no way he can convince her to give him up.”

Joe didn’t know how to answer Marcie. She’d echoed his very thoughts. He tried to think of something to say to reassure her but he was acutely aware of the silence stretching out.

“You don’t think we’re going to get him back, do y—?” Her voice broke. “Oh, Joe, I don’t know if I can live if we don’t get our baby back.”

Joe turned over and sat up, leaning back against the rough plank wall of the house. “I don’t know, Marcie. I wish I did. I wish I could say that I’m sure everything will go just as we planned tomorrow. My fear is that, while Howard may have thought up the blackmail scheme, Rhoda’s really the brains of that outfit. But if Rhoda is behind this, she may have a plan to take the money and run.”

Marcie sat up, too, and pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them. “I’m so scared,” she said, starting to cry. “My little boy. What will I do if I never see him again? What will I do?”

Joe put his arm around her but she remained stiff and unyielding. Her shoulders shook as she cried silently. He wished he could do something to make her feel better. Wished he could reassure her, but whether it was Howard or Rhoda running the show, he didn’t believe for one minute that they were planning to give Joshua back to them.

He kept his arm around her, kept patting her arm and murmuring to her. He didn’t know how to make her feel better. He never had. He’d failed at comforting her after Joshua was taken. He’d been too consumed with guilt then. The job with the NCMEC had helped, but he still carried around plenty of guilt and it still weighed him down, keeping him from being able to lift up Marcie.

He had to do something, but what? He had no idea. All he knew was that he’d give anything, even his life, to put their child back into her arms. To that end, he had to come up with a plan to counter Howard’s.

After a long time, Marcie’s sobs quieted, her shoulders stopped shaking and she laid her head against his chest. He figured she was asleep, and he pressed his cheek against her hair and closed his eyes.

After a few minutes, she spoke. “Joe?”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you for hiding in the trunk.”

“You already thanked me for that,” Joe said.

“Well, it’s worth two. It was a very brave thing to do.”

“No, it wasn’t,” he said. “You’re the brave one. You drove out here to confront Howard all by yourself.”

“But that’s just it. I wasn’t by myself. You promised me you’d be here when I needed you, and you were.”

He pressed a kiss to her temple, wishing he were as brave as she made him sound.

They sat in silence for a while, watching the orange coils on the space heater. After several minutes, Marcie spoke. “Tomorrow, if everything goes well, we’ll have our baby back.” She sighed. “What then?” she asked in a trembling voice. “When we get Joshua back? What then?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“How...will we handle that?”

“You mean Joshua? We’ll just have to do everything we can to help him. He’ll grieve for Rhoda, of course. And it will take a while for him to learn to trust us. We’ve got the resources of the center that we can use. There are a couple of really good child psychologists we refer reunited families to, and—”

“Joe,” she interrupted, sitting up straight. “I know you have the knowledge and the resources to do all the right things for Joshua. I’m talking about us—the three of us.”

He had no idea what she wanted him to say. What he’d like to say was,
We’ll all be together and we can get on with being a family, like we were before. We can be three again.
But that wasn’t his call. It was hers. She’d never had a problem expressing her opinion, so if that was what she wanted, she’d tell him.

No, this was a deeper question. They both knew that they’d been drifting apart since before Joshua was born. Trouble was, he wasn’t sure why. “The most important thing is to be there for him. Once we make sure we can do that, then we’ll see.”

Marcie heard the hesitation in Joe’s voice and understood exactly what was bothering him. She’d said horrible things, unforgiveable things, to him. She’d even told him that she never wanted to see him again because seeing him reminded her of what he’d done. Right after that he’d moved out. She wanted to tell him she was sorry for the hurtful, unforgiveable things she’d said. But when she opened her mouth to say the words, they wouldn’t come out. There was a big gap between wanting to make peace for the sake of their son, and forgiving him for letting Joshua be stolen.

Marcie’s eyes welled with tears again, but this time she was crying, not only for Joshua, but also for herself. She pulled away from Joe and lay down on the hard floor, turning her back on him and closing her eyes. She didn’t sleep for a long time. Her brain swirled with all the things she’d never said to him. All the times she hadn’t reached out to soothe his pain.

The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was that Joe was still sitting up, his back propped against the wall.

Chapter Twelve

The screeching and static of the walkie-talkie split the air, shocking Marcie awake. She shot upright, her heart hammering against her chest. Walkie-talkie.
Howard.

She glanced around. Where was it? Then she remembered it was next to the heater, plugged into the same extension cord. As she threw off the blanket so she could crawl toward the walkie-talkie, she looked for Joe.

She didn’t see him. “Joe?” she said softly, just as Howard’s awful voice came through the walkie-talkie.

“Marcie! Time to rise and shine,” Howard said on a rough laugh. “Hope it’s not too early for you.”

Joe appeared from out of the shadows on the other side of the cabin as she was picking up the walkie-talkie. He offered her a tin cup of water but she shook her head and held out the radio.

“Answer him but don’t tell him anything. Just see what he wants,” Joe whispered. “I’ve got an idea.”

She frowned. Joe seemed different this morning from last night. Today he had an air of confidence that she hadn’t seen before. “What? What’s your idea?” she asked, then realized that she was whispering, too. Howard couldn’t hear her unless she pressed the talk button on her device, but like Joe, she was still afraid to speak loudly, even if the button wasn’t pushed.

Static sounded. “Marcie! Hey, woman, wake up! Don’t you want your kid?”

Joe nodded at the radio.

She pressed the talk button. “I’m here,” she said. “Where’s my son? I want him
now!
” Releasing the button, she looked directly at Joe. “What idea? Tell me.”

He shook his head. “You don’t need to know that right now. Just listen to Howard.”

“What? I don’t need—?”

Howard’s voice interrupted her. “Yeah, yeah. You’re awfully demanding for somebody who’s not controlling things. Hold your horses and listen to me.”

“What do you mean I don’t need to know?” she said shortly to Joe. “How am I supposed to—?”

“Hey! Are you listening?” Howard asked.

Glaring at Joe, she pushed the button just long enough to say, “Yes, Howard. I’m listening.” Then to Joe, she said, “Now tell me what your idea is, so I’ll know what I’m talking about.”

“All you need to do is agree with whatever he says. Just do that, would you?” Joe said impatiently.

“In exactly twenty minutes,” Howard continued, “I want you out of that house and down the stairs. Got it? So here’s what you do. You bring the bag of money and nothing else down the stairs and out to the road.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Marcie asked Joe, who was frowning.

Joe nodded toward the walkie-talkie. “Talk to him.”

She stood there, her thumb poised over the button, so furious at Joe her ears burned. “I don’t know what to tell him, now do I?”

“Marcie, just answer him.”

Just answer him,
she mocked in her mind as she pressed the button. “Okay,” she said into the speaker. “Down to the road. Nothing but the money.”

“Dammit, woman!” Howard growled. “What are you doing over there? You’d better answer me when I talk to you or I can stop this right now and you’ll never see your kid again.”

“I was—I was getting the bag of money,” she said, trying to sound afraid, although she figured it came across as more angry than scared.

“You’ve got twenty minutes to do that. Right now you pay attention to me.”

“O-okay.”

“Now you listen good. Bring the money and the walkie-talkie with you. Wait at the foot of the stairs until I call you and tell you what to do next.”

Marcie pressed the button. “Howard? Why all this spy stuff? I’m here, right where you told me to be. I have the money with me. Just bring me my son!”

“Don’t make me mad, Marcie. I’m getting tired of this. Have you forgotten what’ll happen if you don’t do exactly what I tell you?”

“No,” she said quickly, Howard’s threat to cut off Joshua’s finger blossoming in her mind in full color. “No, no, I haven’t. Okay. Twenty minutes. Bottom of the stairs. I swear, Howard, if you—”

Joe raised his hand. Marcie gave him a look that should have dropped him where he stood, but she let go of the button. “What?”

“Watch what you say. And remember, he doesn’t know I’m here. That’s our ace in the hole.”

She rolled her eyes. “Thanks. I couldn’t possibly have figured that out by myself.”

Howard started talking again. “And, woman? You better hope you’ve got enough money there, or you won’t have your money or your kid.”

“I want to talk to Joshua,” she said.

Joe scowled and held up his hand.

She sliced her hand through the air in the universal gesture for
shut up.

Increased static announced Howard opening his mic again. “Someone needs to teach you how to do what you’re told.” As he spoke, Marcie could hear something in the background. Something that sounded a lot like a child crying.

“Oh, I hear him. Please. Let me talk to my baby. I’ll do anything you want.”

“I swear, woman, the kid’s gonna be the one that suffers if you don’t stop yammering.”

“I’m—I’m sorry. I’m just so afraid. How do I know I can trust you to bring my child to me?” She let go of the talk button.

“I told you not to say anything. Just to agree to what he says,” Joe said.

“You haven’t been here. I’ve begged him to let me talk to Joshua every single time he calls. I need to keep that up.”

Howard’s voice broke in. “Well, I reckon you’re just going to have to decide—do you want your kid back or not?”

Joe held her gaze for a few seconds, then nodded. “Do what you think is best.”

Marcie wondered if he were being sarcastic, but his gaze was clear and earnest and his tone was respectful. “Thanks,” she said.

Joe nodded his approval of what she was saying.

She pressed the talk button. “I want him back, Howard. I want him
now!
”

“I’ve had enough of you.”

“Howard?” she said. “Howard! When are you coming?” She sniffed in frustration and released the button. “It sounds completely dead now. Do you think he turned the walkie-talkie off?”

“Maybe.”

She stomped over to set the walkie-talkie in the charger. Then she confronted Joe with her hands propped on her hips. “What was all that? I have handled this alone up to now. Why couldn’t you trust me?”

“I didn’t want you to make him too angry. Like I said before, it’s good, in fact it’s essential to keep the upper hand, but it’s a fine line—”

“Stop it!” she cried. “Just stop with the damn closing remarks. I hate it when you sound like a lawyer.”

He raised his brows.

She drew a long breath. “Okay,” she said, raising her hands, palm out, in a gesture of surrender. “Okay. I’m sorry. Can you tell me now what your big idea is? Now that there’s no chance of me spilling it to Howard?”

“That’s not why I didn’t want to tell you.”

“Then why?” she demanded.

“I’d wanted to talk to you before he called. I wanted to tell you what I was thinking, see if you thought it was a good idea, and I didn’t want to be telling you while you were trying to talk to him.”

“Oh.” Joe’s explanation made sense. The irritation and frustration burning inside her eased. “Okay,” she said. “Tell me about it.”

“I was hoping that Howard would want you out of the house for the exchange. Out in the open is much safer for him. You can’t surprise him with a weapon or have an accomplice sneak up on him. That way he can control the swap.”

“That makes sense—for him.”

“Right. That’s why you’re going to refuse to come out of the house. Here’s what we’re going to do.”

* * *

M
ARCIE
CLUTCHED
THE
walkie-talkie to her chest as she stared out the window. Behind her Joe had his elbows on the counter and was scribbling something with a pen on the back of an envelope Marcie had found in her purse.

“What time is it?” Marcie asked.

“About three minutes later than the last time you asked,” Joe muttered.

“Seriously. What time?” she insisted.

“Eight-thirty.”

“It’s been at least twenty-five minutes. Why doesn’t he come on?” she said. “I’m going to be a nervous wreck by the time he gets here.” She turned around and looked at Joe. She hadn’t asked him what he wanted the pen and paper for. At first she’d thought he might be working out how he was going to overpower Howard, since his lawyer’s brain worked better from an outline, no matter what he was planning. But he’d been writing too long and too consistently. “What are you writing?”

He didn’t answer. The pen continued to scratch on the paper. Marcie didn’t ask again. She had the sense that whatever he was writing was extremely important to him. She turned back to the window to watch for Howard’s green pickup truck.

“A will,” Joe said.

Her breath caught in her throat. “A w-will?” she stammered. “What do you think is going to happen?”

“Nothing, but I’ve never done a will. You’d think I of all people would have already taken care of that, but I guess even attorneys are subject to the arrogance of youth. Besides...” he began, then stopped.

Marcie filled in what he didn’t say. People thought about wills when they had someone they wanted to make sure would be cared for. Joe had lost his son and his wife. So why would he make a will? Her eyes filled with tears for about the two hundredth time since she’d seen her baby in the backseat of Rhoda’s Nissan. She’d have thought she would have been empty of tears and sadness by now. But apparently those wells were bottomless. Now Joe had hope again. Hope that he once again might have a wife and son to care for. And...he thought he might die before the day was over. Her heart wrenched so suddenly and tightly in her chest that she gasped.

“Marcie?” he said, glancing at her in concern.

“Joe, you’re not thinking that Howard is capable of killing, are you?” She heard the click of the ballpoint pen and the paper being folded.

“I think everybody is capable of killing.”

“Don’t philosophize, please. Just answer the question.”

“I’m not philosophizing,” he said. “I really do think everybody could kill if they had to. You’d kill for Joshua, wouldn’t you?”

She nodded without hesitation.
And to save you.

“There. See. And I certainly would. For Joshua or you.”

Marcie realized that she believed him, and believing him gave her a depth of courage and determination that she’d never felt before. “What would Howard kill for, I wonder?”

“I think he’d kill for Rhoda. I believe he loves her. And I think that’s what makes him dangerous. The fact that he’d do anything for her.”

The implications of his words stabbed into her with the force of a knife. She realized that she’d never thought about Howard as a person. She’d never considered that he might love someone, or that he was doing this for any other reason than greed. But now that she thought about him in this new light, the implications were horrific. He would kill Joe and her if it meant that Rhoda could keep Joshua.

She turned to face Joe. In his gaze, she saw the answer to her next question. But she asked it anyway. “You think he’d kill to keep Rhoda from losing Joshua, don’t you?”

He dropped his gaze as he nodded.

“That’s why you don’t want me to go out there.”

“All he has to do is shoot you, then he’s got the money and Rhoda’s got the child she always wanted.”

“Oh, my God,” she said. “I didn’t think about that at all.” She turned back to the window. “Joe? You’ve told me what I’m supposed to do, but what about you? What are you planning to do once he comes inside?”

“Don’t worry about that. Your biggest job is to forget that I’m even here. You
have
to stay focused on Howard. Don’t even think about me. If you do, you might give me away.”

“I can handle it, Joe. I know I can.”

“Just remember. Everything we’re doing is for Joshua.” He held out the folded envelope. “Put this in your purse.”

“Joe—you don’t need this,” she began, but the determination in his expression stopped her. She meekly tucked the envelope down into her bag. Just as she did, the walkie-talkie screeched. Marcie jumped and almost dropped it. As she was scrabbling to catch it, Howard’s voice crackled through the static.

“Where the hell are you, woman? You’re supposed to be down here in the middle of the road.”

Marcie glanced at Joe and saw his slight nod, then pressed the talk button. “I’m here, Howard. In the house.”

“Well get your butt down here like I told you. I’ve got the kid and I’ve got a sharp knife. If you ain’t down here in the next ten seconds, I’ll cut off a finger. I swear I will.”

“Oh, no, you won’t,” Marcie growled. “If you touch one hair on his head, I’ll burn this money. I swear I will.”

“You won’t do that,” Howard said. “That house’ll go up like a box of matches, with you in it. Now get down here.”

Joe watched his wife. He’d told her she needed to be totally focused on her job, which was to get Howard up the stairs and into the house. Well, she was focused all right. He was pretty sure if Howard were in the same room with her, she’d have his eyes clawed out inside of a minute.

She was like a mother lion, protecting her cub. Joe hadn’t imagined how good she would be at her part of their plan. As for his role, he had no idea if it would work. He just had to react to what Howard did. He hoped he could manage to keep Howard busy long enough to allow Marcie to run to the pickup. He hadn’t told her what she’d have to do yet because he wanted her full of adrenaline and ready for anything. Then when he yelled at her to make a run for it, he was counting on her reacting on instinct rather than stopping to think about what she was doing.

“I’ve tested some of the money to see if it burns fast. It does, Howard. It does.”

Through the walkie-talkie, Howard cursed.

“I’m not coming down there. You come up here.
And you bring my son.
Do you understand?”

The other end of the walkie-talkie stayed silent, so Marcie pushed the talk button again. “Howard? I want to talk to him. Hold the walkie-talkie so he can talk into it. I want to hear him now!”

After a pause, she heard the mic click on. “You bitch. You can’t order me around. I’ll shoot the house down. I’ve got my rifle.”