Painless (30 page)

Chapter 65

Dana held Carolyn’s hand as they stood waiting at the bus stop, mingling among five other rambunctious kindergartners. The story was that Barbara’s son and daughter-in-law, Nadia—being played by the actress named Dana—had just moved back in with them due to the recession and this was the first day at a new school for their daughter, Claudia.

The actress-in-training, Carolyn, seemed to be enjoying the role-playing. She was playing the lead role of Claudia in the off-Broadway performance of “The Muddle Huddle.” She was also excited about returning to school—even if she was a little apprehensive about going to a new one.
Will Ms. Stevens be my teacher? Are we gonna get to color? I really like to color. Will I get a water bottle like at my old school?
Dana did have to remind her that while she was four years old, she would be five on the kindergarten bus. The irony was like an anvil to the head.

Barbara continued chatting with the group of mothers. Some talked about the crazed kidnapper spotted in the area. “Those are things that happen in other people’s neighborhoods,” said a mother in curlers. “I figured school would be the safest place for my Lucy to be,” added a young Asian woman who was bundled in a heavy overcoat. They all agreed with the notion, and another mother mentioned that the mayor was just on the news and he encouraged families send their children to school, since it would be the last place a wanted fugitive would go.

 When Billy was formulating this plan, Barbara had explained that they never could have pulled this off a few years ago. Everybody in the neighborhood knew each other back then. Everybody knew each other’s kids. But that was a generation ago. The Kielys were now tops in seniority within the neighborhood, and had little connection with any family outside of the Garcias. All those they’d once been close to had moved away.

The school bus eased to a stop in front of the curb. Dana turned emotional, playing the role of a mother sending her child off to school for the first time, always a tearjerker. But her emotions were real, she wasn’t that good of an actress. The other mothers looked at her like they were remembering the time they sent their own children off for the first time. They understood.

“You be a good little girl,” Dana said.

“I promise, no Dracula jokes.”

Dana couldn’t help but smile at her. But it was short-lived, as an image shot into her mind of Beth splitting from her family. They hadn’t been seen since. But Dana knew this was the only way. The police would be looking for a man and a little girl. There was only one place she would blend into the woodwork—among a group of other children her age.

“You know how much we love you, right…
Claudia?”

Carolyn smiled mischievously. “Yes…
Mom.”

Barbara then seamlessly played the role of the comforting grandmother, putting her arm around Dana as they watched Carolyn board the bus, the real Claudia’s Hannah Montana lunchbox swinging at her side. Carolyn wore an autumn sweater, a plaid skirt with white stockings, and a shiny black pair of Mary Janes on her feet. Her hair was combed straight, without her usual bangs.

Dana wasn’t sure how they’d been spotted, whether it was Martin reporting them, or some random passerby. But regardless, they were now going to try to twist it to their advantage. Billy knew they would be looking for a little girl in a green and yellow Siena sweatshirt with double ponytails flowing off the sides of her head like a fountain. One of the few advantages in their favor was that nobody would suspect such an impromptu wardrobe change. To get clothes, they would have to buy them or steal them. But they didn’t count on Claudia Kiely keeping clothing and other items like lunchboxes at her grandparents’ house. And as luck would have it, she happened to be a similar size as Carolyn.

But then another surprise happened. A uniformed man got off the bus. He appeared to be a security guard and Dana’s heart somersaulted. Her paranoid eyes caught a glimpse of a gun in his waistband—he was armed.

“I just want to assure you that the Schenectady school district is taking all precautions to keep your children safe with this kidnapper on the loose. Security, like myself, will be on all buses, just as we will when your children return home,” he announced.

If not for their perilous circumstances, Dana might have laughed out loud at the notion that this rent-a-cop thought he could stop Operation Anesthesia. But as Carolyn marched happily onto the bus, another thought pounded Dana between the eyes.
What if he was one of them?

There was nothing she could do now. Carolyn moved to the back of the bus, energetically waving to Dana out the back window. A big smile erupted onto Carolyn’s face. She was happy to be going to school—a return to the structure children crave.

Dana held her breath, hoping it wasn’t her last image of Carolyn.

Chapter 66

Rich Kiely drove east on Lyndon. His tanned forearm was resting on the door of the convertible Camaro, as it always was, and he wore his mirrored sunglasses on this sunless day. He looked like he should be cruising down Sunset Boulevard, not a residential street in upstate New York.

Claudia was strapped into the backseat in a car seat she outgrew about a year ago. Her blonde hair was flying back in the wind like a cape. She wore a green and yellow colored Siena sweatshirt. It was by design.

Within minutes, they hit a police roadblock. As expected, suspicions were piqued by a thirty-something male transporting a young girl matching Carolyn’s description.

“Please step out of the car, sir,” a young officer said with an accusatory glare.

Rich Kiely didn’t act a bit guilty. He got out, his hands where the officer “could see them.” He was commanded to place his hands on the car, and he followed orders. They searched him, but found nothing of note.

“My name is Richard Kiely, and this is my daughter Claudia. We live in Troy. We were visiting my mother and father who live on East Lyndon Street.”

The officer reached into Rich’s pocket and removed his wallet. He handed it to another officer, while holding a gun on Rich with his other hand. This was no routine traffic stop.

The other officer trekked to his squad car, presumably to research the man who was calling himself Rich Kiely. He soon returned without a smoking gun. Or any connection to the kidnapper. The car was registered to Richard Kiely, the picture of the driver’s license matched him, and his story about living in Troy and the parents in Schenectady added up. Mainly because it was true. The truth will set you free. At least that was the plan.

After a few inquisition-type questions about the Siena sweatshirt, the young officer said, “We are sorry to bother you, Mr. Kiely. With a kidnapper on the loose, we can take no chances.”

Rich nodded pleasantly. “As you can see, I have a daughter myself, officers. Keep up the good work.”

Then Rich Kiely and Claudia drove away toward the spot Billy Harper designated they go.

Chapter 67

After the bus left, Dana and Barbara hurried back to the Kiely’s house where Ken’s Dodge Ram pickup truck was waiting for them, the engine already running. They followed Carolyn’s bus toward Elmer Avenue Elementary School at a safe distance, traveling northwest, directly opposite Rich and Claudia. They made a slight right onto Carman Road, drove less than a mile, and then took a right onto Curry Road. The bus made three stops.

Then in muddle huddle fashion, they veered away from the bus. Dana had to force herself not to take a last look at Carolyn, which took all her strength. They merged onto the highway, I-890 West, and drove for three miles before taking the Michigan Avenue exit.

At the bottom of the exit ramp was the expected flashing lights of a police blockade. Dana pulled down her baseball hat as far as she could, her stomach tumbling. She knew if Martin or the Pennington caretaker had been the one to ID them to police, then they likely mentioned the female accomplice who matched Dana’s description. But they were betting that the police were focusing on a male kidnapper and the little girl who’d been missing for three days. Time was always of the essence in these cases and the police were already playing catch-up. And it wasn’t like Carolyn could be stashed in the trunk. It was an open pickup cab. But she knew if they lost this bet, the price would be Carolyn’s life.

Like Dana, Barbara also wore a midnight blue Yankees baseball cap with a dark ponytail flowing out of the back. They could pass for mother and daughter, which was the plan.

The officer checked Barbara’s ID without a blink. Then he made her remove her hat and sunglasses. He turned to Dana, who did the same hat removal, hoping whoever ratted them out didn’t give a good description of the female accomplice. She didn’t like the way he looked at her, but she was suspicious of the way everybody looked at her right now.

“While we’re young, miss,” the officer said with his hand out.

Dana looked perplexed. “What?”

Barbara stepped in. “This is my daughter. We’re traveling to my son’s home in Troy for the evening.”

“All well and good, ma’am, but I’m going to need some ID.”

“I don’t have any ID on me,” Dana said with her most convincing look of puzzlement.

“Why would she have ID on her? She isn’t driving,” Barbara stepped in on her “daughter’s” behalf.

“I guess I could go back to your house,
Mom
, and get it.”

“I guess we’ll have to,” Barbara said with a frustrated moan. She pulled out her phone and began to dial. “I’ll call Rich and let him know we’ll be a little late.”

The officer’s heavy sigh indicated they were wasting his time. “Go ahead,” he said with the hint of an attitude and walked to the next car.

Barbara and Dana let out sighs of relief. They then drove to the train station, where Dana purchased three Amtrak tickets to Penn Station in New York City with her credit card.

Chapter 68

Mitchell Jones had set up shop in Schenectady, and was tightening the noose around Carolyn Whitcomb.

Not only were they chasing Carolyn, but they also had to beat the local police to her. The police and FBI had been tripping over themselves since they discovered Carolyn Whitcomb and Billy Harper didn’t die in that fire on Lake George. When the parents then turned up “missing,” they became suspicious of a possible kidnapping. Security cameras caught Harper and the girl at train stations in Schenectady and Albany last night. But it wasn’t until a cab driver reported that he thought the kidnapping suspects might be his passengers, after hearing a radio report about a kidnapped girl, that they were able to pinpoint Harper to Rockland Drive. A police dragnet was immediately coordinated in the area, making Jones’s job more challenging. But he smiled, exposing his stained teeth—he lived for a challenge.

The capture of Carolyn Whitcomb was not the job they would highlight in bold on their résumés.
But what do you expect when they put Stipe in charge?
Jones thought. Stipe had his day, but he never adapted—he was an arrogant dinosaur. Creatures that were strong, aggressive, and arrogant, but what did it get them? Only the fittest survive. And mental fitness was just as important as the physical, and often more vital.

The arrogance so clouded Stipe’s head that he often missed the obvious, and had done so again in this case. He was so focused on his prey—the Carolyn trophy he’d hang on his mantle—that he didn’t see the significance of their search of all the Steve Penningtons in the area. Jones knew of this search because he took the extra step to pay the whistle-blowing cabbie a visit, disguised as an FBI agent, to discuss a few loose threads. Could it be a simple coincidence that they sought out the father of Nathan Pennington, one of Operation Anesthesia’s first ever recruits? Jones knew it wasn’t. But why?

As he continued to chomp on his cigarette, it hit him. Operation Anesthesia had never found Elizabeth Pennington; she had been on Anesthesia’s
Most Wanted
list for over twenty years.
Beth
Pennington. And what was the common denominator that connected Harper to this? Harper was living with Elizabeth Whitcomb.
Beth
Whitcomb. He laughed out loud. They had captured her and didn’t even know it—Elizabeth Pennington was Beth Whitcomb!

His first instinct was to go to the old Pennington house on East Lyndon Street. Maybe the ghosts would talk to him. But he didn’t see anyone. The new owners seemed to be away on vacation. He sat across the street in a Range Rover, hidden in the shadows, plotting his next move. That’s when he noticed the students boarding a school bus across the street. His eyes locked onto one of the little girls climbing aboard.

It was Carolyn Whitcomb.

His eyes then caught Dana Boulanger, who was trying to act the part of a doting mother sending her child off to school. He could’ve grabbed Dana, but he had no use for her. A better plan was to follow the school bus to its destination and secure the girl. She was the precious cargo. And when he pulled it off, there was no way they could overlook his talents again. He would be made head trainer.