Abduction (30 page)

Zoe stood
there gaping.
Mom and Dad are getting married again?
“You and Mom. Well,
that’s. . .great.”

“I think so.
She seems to think so, too. I believe she’s out making me pay for past
transgressions with my gold card as we speak.”

Zoe laughed.
“Nah, not Mom. If I know her, she’s using
her
gold card.”

Keyes smiled
widely. “You’re probably right, just to prove to me that she can.” He opened
his arms wide. “Do you think you could handle giving me a hug?”

Zoe hesitated for a moment. Then she found
herself launching into his arms. His embrace felt safe. Just like she was a
child. Suddenly she was crying again. What in the world was happening to her?

“I’ve missed
you, Zoe,” he whispered in her ear.

“I’ve missed
you, too, Dad. And I’m sorry for treating you the way I have. I was just so
hurt.”

“I know. I
know, baby.”

The phone rang
and her father slowly released her. She backed away from him and picked up the
phone. “Hello?”

“That wasn’t
smart at all, calling me a coward. I was going to let you live a little longer,
you know. Now I can’t.”

“You don’t
scare me—”

“I’ll give you
one gift before you die.”

Zoe turned her
back to her father. “And what’s that?”

“Want to know
where Amy is?”

Before she
could respond, he hung up. She closed her eyes and set the phone on the table
in slow motion.

“Who was that,
Zoe?”

Zoe shook her
head, unable to answer. The killer knew exactly which card to play. Amy. What
would she pay for such a thing? What would she risk? Everything. To bring Amy
home.

The killer was
very smart indeed. And now she would be forced to play this game his way.

chapter
25

Tuesday, April 25

J
J
knocked firmly on Karen Matthews’s front door. He was surprised to find a
barefoot man standing there in jeans.

“Yes?”

“Detective Johnson. I need to talk to Mrs. Matthews
if she’s home.”

“Come on in.
I’m her brother, Ray.” He held out his hand and JJ shook it, liking the man
immediately.

He followed
Ray into the living room, where Karen was going through an old photo album.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Mat
thews
,
but I need to speak to you if I could.”

“Have a seat,
please. You’ve met my brother, Ray?”

“Yes. Would
you prefer we do this alone?”

Karen shook
her head. “Not at all. Ray can be here.”

JJ took the
nearest chair. “Have you ever heard the name Theodore Matthew Bateman?”

Karen tilted
her head and shook it. “I don’t think so, why?”

“Because
that’s your husband’s real name.”

“I knew the
man was up to something!” Ray exclaimed.

Karen looked
from Ray back to JJ. “I don’t understand.”

JJ scratched
one eyebrow, searching for the right words. “What, if anything, has he told you
about his family?”

Karen
shrugged. For once, her hands were calmly in her lap, her eyes meeting his
without wavering or shifting. JJ made a mental note of the changes to ponder
later.

“Not a great
deal. He was an only child. His father died when he was young. His mother
passed away in a fire when he was in his early twenties. That’s about it.”

“Well, some of
that is true.” JJ leaned back in his chair, glancing from brother to sister.
“Ted’s father died in a car accident when Ted was three. His mother remarried
and had another child—a girl, Marsha. When Ted was ten, he murdered his half
sister in a rage because he felt she was getting all his mother’s attention.”

Karen’s hands
flew to her mouth, and her eyes widened in horror as the color drained from her
face. Ray shook his head as if none of this surprised him.

“Ted was tried
as a child and remanded to juvenile detention until he was twenty-one. Two
weeks after he got out, his parents’ house was torched and they died in the
fire. No one was able to prove Ted did it, but the police had their suspicions.
Ted collected the insurance money, changed his name, and moved.”

Karen sank
back, tears streaming from her eyes. “I married a monster. How could I marry a
man and live with him all these years and not know? How could he seem so
normal?”

“That’s the
way these people are, Mrs. Matthews. They fool everyone. Jeffrey Dahmer’s
neighbors thought he was a wonderful man. These psychopaths make a science out
of blending in with society to appear just like everyone else.”

Karen’s voice
shook. “Do you think. . . Do you think he killed my baby?”

“I don’t think so, Mrs. Matthews. We believe he
has her though.
Of course, there are any number of scenarios, and we
plan to examine them all.”

JJ hesitated a
moment, gathering his thoughts. “We know he was involved with someone else.
She’s missing now, too.”

Karen closed
her eyes for a moment. “I suppose I should be upset about another woman, but at
this moment, I’m more concerned about my child.”

“Mrs.
Matthews. . .” JJ took a deep breath. “I want to apologize for being so hard on
you. Your husband fooled me, too. And that isn’t easy for me to admit. He had
me believing you were the one behind your child’s disappearance.”

She nodded and
attempted something close to a smile, but he knew the pain she was feeling made
it difficult to smile.

JJ stood up.
“I’d like to ask a favor. I can get a search warrant if you prefer, but I’m
hoping you’ll give me permission to go through your husband’s desk, computer,
and personal papers.”

“If it will help you find him and my child, please
do. You have my permission. His office is down the hall, second door on the
right.”

#

“Zoe? Who was
that? Was that him?”

Zoe turned and
walked into her father’s arms. “Yes. He was just taunting me. I don’t think
it’s time to worry yet.”

“I’m already
worried. I’ve
been
worried.”

“Everything is
okay.” She stepped back and tried to smile. “I was just about to make some
dinner. Are you hungry?”

“I could eat.
But don’t cook. Let’s go out.”

“Okay. That
sounds good. Let me just change my shoes.”

#

All the way to
the restaurant, Zoe fretted over the haunting words:
Want to know where Amy
is?

When they were
seated in a booth at the back of a nearby steakhouse, her father shook out his
napkin, placed it in his lap, folded his arms on the table, and looked at her.
“Tell me what he said to you, Zoe.”

Her father
looked so much different than when he’d rushed into her house with slumped
shoulders and dark shadows under his eyes. There was still worry in those eyes
of his, but there was also a sparkle. Something her mother had put there, no
doubt. Today he walked with shoulders squared, chin up, and determination
streaking across his face the way the gray streaked his hair.

Zoe busied her
hands playing with her napkin, picking up and
setting
down her water glass, moving silverware. After a few moments
, her father
reached over and placed one of his hands over hers. Stilling her. Calming her.

She took a
deep breath. “He asked me if I wanted to know where Amy is.”

He hissed an
audible confession of shock. “He knows your weak spot.”

“Yes.”

“She’s not
there. You know that, don’t you, sweetheart? Those are just bones. They don’t
mean anything. Amy is with the Lord.”

“I know, Dad.”

His eyebrows
rose and she knew she’d managed to surprise him once again. “You do?” he asked.

“Last night I
went to a prayer meeting. I can’t explain what happened there; I just know I
couldn’t get enough of whatever God was doing to me.” She lifted her eyes to
his. “I know now that Amy is with Him. She has been for a long time.”

“Thank You,
Father,” her dad murmured softly.

Now it was her
turn to raise an eyebrow. “You, too?”

“Who do you
think gave me the strength to wait for your mother all these years? To keep
believing that someday I’d have my family back?”

“I didn’t
know.” Zoe reached over and took his hand. It was warm and comforting. Not
unlike what she’d felt the night before. Suddenly it dawned on her. “But then
you knew my being a psychic was not a good thing.”

“Yes,” he
admitted in a voice so low she could barely hear him.

“Then why
didn’t you say something?”

He tilted his
head. “I had the distinct impression that if I would have come to you and told
you what I thought, you would have shown me the door.”

Zoe couldn’t
argue with that. She definitely would have shown him the door—and thrown in a
few choice comments to accompany a door slamming. “Okay, fair enough. When did
all this happen to you? Becoming a Christian, I mean.”

“After Amy
died. I was so completely. . .done in. I was lost. You and your mother had each
other. I was grieving. I felt guilty for not being there, but I knew you didn’t
want me there. I was forced to go through it alone.

“No,” he said quickly, cutting off anything she
might have been on the verge of saying. “Don’t feel sorry for me. Granted, it
was the worst time of my life. I’d lost everything important to me and I was
wallowing in my grief. But at some point I realized the Lord was holding out
His hand to me, so I grabbed on and haven’t let go since.”

“Dad?”

“Yes?” He
handed her a menu and opened his to peruse the offerings of the day.

“I’m scared.”

#

Matt sat in
his truck and stared out the windshield. This was stupid. Not only was it
stupid, he was absolutely sure he’d lost his mind. There were plenty of fish in
the sea. Yeah, she loved him.
Big deal.
A lot of women loved him.

Okay, maybe
they didn’t love him the way Paula did, but she wasn’t exactly the last woman
on earth.

Just the last
person he wanted to lose.

Turn the
key, Casto. Start the engine. Drive away. Don’t look back. She bailed on you.
A light tap on his window startled him. He caught his breath and then slowly
rolled down the window.

“You going to
sit out here all night, hot shot?”

“Maybe,” he
said belligerently.

Paula shook
her head. “Guess you need some more time growing up.”

She turned and
headed back into the house. Matt hesitated about a half second before jumping
out of his truck and running after her. “Wait a minute! I came here to talk to
you!”

Paula sat down
on the front step. “So talk.” She propped her elbows on her knees, resting her
chin on her fists, and stared up at the evening sky. The sun was sinking low in
a blaze of orange and blue. It was spectacular.

“I have never
cheated on you, Paula Horne.”

“I never said
you did,” she countered.

“I saw you
with another man,” he parried.

“I’ve seen you
with a lot of other women.”

“They never
meant anything. Lunches and dinners with coworkers because I hate eating
alone.”

She smiled
knowingly. “Exactly.”

“Stop it, Paula! You have me so twisted up I
can’t think straight.”

“Good.”

“Why are you
doing this to me?”

She stood up
and brushed off the seat of her pants. “Because you needed to know one way or
the other.”

“Know what,
one way or the other?”

“That you love
me.”

Matt opened
his mouth but couldn’t find words. She opened the front door, slipped inside,
and shut it firmly behind her.

#

JJ was
summoned to Harris’s office with little fanfare. Stepping into the office, he
was surprised to find two men standing there in dark suits. He knew immediately
what was up. One man was tall and thin with blond hair and blue eyes. He was
probably in his late twenties to early thirties and had the kind of charming
good looks that would draw women like flies. JJ dismissed him as an FBI “FIT”—Feebie
In Training.

The other man
was older, perhaps late fifties, with the neck of a bull, the shoulders of a
gorilla, and the paunch of a beer lover. He had deep-set eyes that brimmed with
good humor and acute intelligence. This was a man to be reckoned with.

JJ turned to
Harris. “You called in the FBI.”

“Have a seat,
Johnson. And I didn’t call them in. That news story saying this guy has killed
dozens of little girls brought them running. They’re not here to take over.”

“And pigs fly
with blue wings,” he muttered under his breath.

The bull
stepped forward and held out a beefy hand. “Jack Fleming.” He nodded his head
toward the heartthrob. “This is my partner, Don Bevere. Adam Zahn filled us in
on some of the particulars. We’d like to be of assistance.”

JJ’s lips
twisted in a mock smile. “That’s a polite way of saying this is now your case.”

Fleming shook
his head as he unbuttoned his jacket and shoved one hand into his pants pocket.
“Not at all. I could push, if you prefer it that way, but I’d rather we blend
into the team you already have, get caught up on the files, and help out
wherever we can.”

JJ would have
liked to tell the men to hit the road, but he knew he needed their help. He
stood up and waved a hand through the air. “Welcome to the team.”

Harris beamed.

JJ looked at
him. “We’re going to need more space.”

The smile
vanished and was replaced by a scowl. “I’ll see what I can do.”

JJ hid his
smile as he motioned for Fleming and Bevere to follow him. Once he was out in
the hall, the smile broke out across his face. Bevere was the first to notice.