Deceived

Deceived

Copyright © 1994 by Patricia Rushford
First e-book produced in 2014 by Blackstone Audio, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Trade: 978-1-4815-1577-1
Library: 978-1-4815-1576-4

Dedicated to
Ryan, Scott, Jason, and Jerry and to Tony and Davin

PATRICIA RUSHFORD is an award-winning writer, speaker, and teacher who has published almost twenty books and numerous articles, including
What Kids Need Most in a Mom
,
The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome: Putting Yourself Back Together Again
, and her first young adult novel
, Kristen's Choice
. She is a registered nurse and has a master's degree in counseling from Western Evangelical Seminary. She and her husband, Ron, live in Washington State and have two grown children, six grandchildren, and lots of nephews and nieces.

Jennie McGrady walked along a deserted wharf. She had no idea how she'd gotten there. Jennie only knew that she'd gone to meet her father, Jason McGrady, who had been missing for five years. Her leather-soled shoes made a faint scraping sound against the wooden planks. She stopped in a halo of light near a fishing boat. A chilling mist swirled around her.

Jennie stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jacket. A car door slammed in the distance. She listened for footsteps, but heard only the sound of water lapping against the pilings. A tall bulky form emerged from the shadows. The man wore a hat and trench coat and a Humphrey Bogart mask. Jennie backed away. “W-who are you?” she stammered.

“Your father. You wanted to see me.”

“No,” she whispered, fear gripping her in icy tentacles. “I…I mean, yes, but you're not…”

The man reached up and pulled at the mask, distorting its features. Hollow black eyes slimed into a deformed nose. Like a rubber band it broke away from his face and snapped against his hand.

Jennie took another step back. Her gaze shifted from the mask to his face.

Her father smiled. “Hello, Jennie.” His eyes looked black in the dim light.

“Dad?” Her fears vanished.

He lifted his arms in welcome and Jennie ran into them. “I knew you'd come.” When he didn't respond, she drew back to study him. The man in her arms was no longer her father.

Jennie screamed and wrenched out of his grasp. The stranger, face distorted now with pain, dropped his arms to his side and walked away.

Jennie waited for the red light on Front Street to change. The frightening dream drifted in and out of her mind like an outgoing tide. She tried to grasp it again and hold on to its meaning. Not all of it, of course, but the part about Dad being alive. That was what had motivated her to come this far. Dad was alive. That was what she needed to remember.

Jennie drove another two blocks, then pulled into the parking lot near Portland's new glass-domed skyscraper. She'd changed her mind a dozen times that morning—almost as many times as she'd changed her clothes.

The lavender and pink floral dress and denim jacket seemed like a good choice, but what did she know? It was one of the outfits her mother had okay'd for going to church. For the first time in ages she hadn't asked her cousin and best friend, Lisa, to advise her. Unfortunately, she couldn't risk letting Lisa or anyone else in the family know what she was about to do.

Stepping out of her white Mustang, Jennie glanced up at the twenty-story building and gave herself another pep talk.
You have to do this, McGrady. It may be the last chance you'll ever have to find Dad.

True
, her more cautious side agreed,
but Mom's going to kill you when she finds out.

Ignoring the protesting voices in her head, Jennie grabbed her black leather backpack and, after turning in her keys and collecting a ticket from the parking lot attendant, merged into the foot traffic on the crowded sidewalk. She hauled in a deep breath and crossed the street. The stench of exhaust fumes and the aroma of fresh bread competed for space in the warm spring air.

The immense marble foyer of the KKNG Building looked cold and intimidating. A small glassed-in cage at the far right of the elevators held a receptionist captive. According to the instructions Jennie had been given, her name would be on the receptionist's security list. “Just introduce yourself,” the man had said, “and they'll let you in.”

She swallowed hard. A warning voice that sounded a lot like Mom haunted her
. Don't do it, Jennie. You're making a terrible mistake.

For months her mother had been saying, “It's time to stop living in the past. Your father is dead. We all need to accept that fact and get on with our lives.” Mom had gotten on with her life all right. Boyfriend and all.

Jennie ignored the nagging voices and straightened to her full five foot ten inches. McGrady stubbornness propelled her forward. She had no intention of giving up. Especially not when she had the proof she needed in her backpack.

“Can I help you?” The receptionist, whose name badge read
Charlotte
, looked up and smiled. Her cute little nose, blond hair, and yellow suit reminded Jennie of Woodstock, Snoopy's bird friend in the Charlie Brown comic strip. She didn't seem to mind being locked up in the glass cage. Jennie felt claustrophobic just thinking about it.

“Hi. I'm Jennie McGrady. I have an appointment with John Hendricks.”

“McGrady,” Charlotte murmured as she scanned the list of names. “Oh, right. You're here to tape a segment for
Missing in America
. That's such an incredible show. Did you see it last week when the lady from New Mexico was reunited with her husband? I still get misty-eyed over it. I mean…just think about it. He'd been missing for fourteen years.”

Jennie nodded. The show had revived her hopes. She had called the producer the next day and told him about her father. He was so impressed he asked her to come to the local affiliate station, KKNG-TV, to tape an interview. “That's why I called. I thought maybe—”

“Your husband is missing?” Charlotte interrupted. “You don't look old enough to have a husband.”

“No.” Jennie paused, wishing Charlotte would stop twittering and just let her in. If she thought too much about what she was going to do, she'd change her mind again. “It's my father.”

“Oh.” Charlotte scrunched her face up in an empathetic frown. “You poor thing. I hope you find him.” She lifted a clipboard from her desk and handed it to Jennie. “We need you to sign a release form.”

Jennie glanced over the paper, ignored the part where kids under eighteen needed parental permission, and signed her name. Okay, so she wasn't eighteen. What else could she do? Jennie swallowed back her niggling conscience and handed the clipboard back to Charlotte.

“Have a seat in the reception area and I'll call Mr. Hendricks.” The receptionist pointed through a window to a love seat and two chairs positioned on a plush mauve carpet near a wide-screen television set.

The door to Jennie's right buzzed and she pushed it open. Charlotte flashed her a smile and chirped, “Good luck with the taping,” then turned to answer the phone.

Jennie sank into the floral-print chair facing the stairs. The two o'clock soap opera was just coming on and Jennie wished she had a remote control so she could click it off. She hated soaps. Partly because they were depressing and partly because she didn't want to be reminded of her own dismal love life.

The guy on screen was a tall, blond, blue-eyed hunk who looked a little too much like her boyfriend, Ryan Johnson. Jennie turned her gaze from the television set to the stairs, but Ryan's image lingered in her mind. Thinking about Ryan used to be fun. These days it saddened her. Ryan was still in Alaska working on a fishing boat and probably would be all summer. Before he left, they'd moved from being good friends into something more…Jennie almost laughed aloud at the word that popped into her head. Intimate? Hardly. She hadn't seen him for so long she had no idea how she felt—or worse, how Ryan felt.

“You must be Jennie.” A man's deep voice interrupted her thoughts. A guy in his mid-thirties wearing round wire-rimmed glasses and a business suit appeared at the top of the stairs. “Hi. I'm John Hendricks. Welcome.” He reached a hand toward her as he approached. Jennie stood and shook it, trying to act as if she taped television interviews every day.

Being at eye level with him helped, but not much. She opened her mouth hoping something intelligent would come out, but nothing did.

“You're nervous,” Hendricks grinned at her. His glasses slipped forward. He pushed them back and kept talking without missing a beat. “Most people are. Being on television can be unnerving, but once you get into your story, the butterflies will quiet down.”

Jennie nodded. “I hope so.” She followed him down a winding staircase, along a maze of hallways, and through a door with a sign that read CAUTION—DO NOT ENTER WHILE RED LIGHT IS BLINKING. The red light was blinking. They went in anyway. A cavernous, charcoal gray room swallowed them. A dozen or so people roamed around laughing, talking, and drinking out of Styrofoam cups.

“Great. You're here. Just in time.” A tiny dark-haired woman in tight black jeans, a white silk shirt, black leather vest, and a headset appeared at Jennie's side and gave her a quick, firm handshake.

“This is Toni Baker,” Hendricks said. “She'll be producing the segment for us. Toni's the best in the business. All we need to do is follow orders and we'll have a great program.”

“Okay, guys, get the lead out,” Toni barked at a group of people gathered around an industrial-sized coffeepot.

“We've got a show to do.” Turning back to Hendricks she said, “Take Jennie up to the set. Get a mike on her and fill her in.” She looked down at the clipboard and back at Jennie. “Pictures. You got the pictures you want us to show?”

Jennie nodded and unzipped her pack. She pulled out the large, framed picture of her dad and handed it to Toni. Then from a small envelope, Jennie drew out the photo she'd gotten in the mail from Debbie Cole.

Dad's longtime friend from Florida had recently sent Jennie some old photos of their college days. But as Jennie soon discovered, they weren't all old. Because of the full beard and mustache she hadn't recognized him. In the photo, Dad's arms were draped around Debbie and Ken Cole. Jennie could still feel the goose bumps from the moment when she'd turned the photo over and read
Jason, Debbie, and Ken—Fort Myers Beach 7/7/98—
two months after Dad's disappearance. Hesitantly, she handed the photo to Toni.

As if reading Jennie's mind, Toni gave her a reassuring smile. “Don't worry. We'll take good care of them.”

“Let's get you wired,” Hendricks said as he led Jennie toward the set.

“I think I already am,” Jennie muttered, following him through the obstacle course of cameras and cables.

Hendricks chuckled. “You'll do fine. Just relax and talk to me. Ignore the cameras and be yourself.”

A stagehand appeared behind her as she sat down in one of the two chairs angled to look like a cozy living room. He clipped a tiny microphone to her vest, tucked the wire under her arm, and hid it behind her.

Three huge television cameras stood guard. Ignoring them would be like trying to eat a banana with an 800-pound gorilla watching. Jennie took several deep breaths and tried not to think about the fact that in a little over a week her story, and a plea to her father or anyone who might have seen him, would be broadcast to millions of people across the country.

“Don't I need makeup or something?” she asked.

“No…”Hendricks paused and scrutinized her face. “What you have on is perfect. Unless you'd be more comfortable.”

She shrugged, feeling relieved. Jennie never wore much makeup—didn't need to. She had dark blue eyes and long dark lashes. Mascara would have made her look overdone. She had touched up her cheeks with a brushstroke of blush and rubbed it until the edges disappeared. Normally she didn't need blush either, but the nightmare had left her pale and shaken.

Her already taut nerves tightened with Toni's countdown: “Five-four-three-two-one. Hit it!”

Jennie eased out the breath she'd been holding and turned to face John Hendricks.

“Five years ago,” Hendricks began, “Jason McGrady disappeared without a trace. McGrady, we've learned, was a federal agent, working covert operations with both the FBI and the DEA-the Drug Enforcement Administration. Authorities say his plane went down in the icy waters of Puget Sound, near Seattle, during a storm. Lost at sea? Perhaps.

“His daughter, Jennie, however, has another theory, and we'll be hearing her side of this mysterious disappearance today.

“Jennie,” he said, turning toward her, “tell us why you're so certain your father is still alive.”

Twenty minutes later the interview ended and Jennie couldn't believe how easy it had been or how quickly the time had gone.

“You did a wonderful job, Jennie,” Hendricks told her. “If your father is out there, he'll know you're looking for him. And I've got to admit, stories like yours make my job as a reporter challenging. In fact, I'm hoping to follow up on this one myself.”

Toni handed her the precious photos and added, “We'll Express Mail the tape to the head office in Los Angeles today and let you know when they plan to air it. It will probably be a week or so.”

Jennie left the building feeling relieved that the program had gone so well. The butterflies had vanished, but in their place a tight band of uneasiness wound itself around her chest.

She hated deceiving her family, especially Gram. But what else could she do? Gram and her FBI friend Jason Bradley had promised to help Jennie find Dad—which was great because, like her father, J.B. had ties with both the FBI and the DEA. The next thing Jennie knew, J.B. had whisked Gram off to Europe. An assignment, he'd said. Some assignment.

When they returned home, Jennie showed them the photo she'd received from Debbie. The next day Gram and J.B. told her that Debbie admitted she may have made a mistake and written down the wrong year, and that she couldn't even be certain the man in the photo was Jason McGrady. Then they
ordered
Jennie to stop trying to find Dad. Gram had totally changed her mind. And that wasn't all she'd changed.

For one thing, her name was no longer McGrady, but Bradley. Mrs. Jason Bradley. The memory still burned in Jennie's mind.

“I know you want to find your father, dear,” Gram had said. “I'd like nothing more than to have my son home again.” Tears filled Gram's faded cobalt eyes. “But we both have to learn to set aside our dreams and accept reality. Your father is gone and he's never coming back.” Jennie had been furious at first. Without Gram's police training and contacts with federal agencies, finding Dad would have been almost impossible. Almost. Thanks to
Missing in America
, Jennie had another option. Despite all the efforts of her family to dissuade her, Jennie held firm to her conviction. Dad was out there somewhere and she intended to prove it. As she'd reminded her mother dozens of times, “There's a big difference between being dead and being presumed dead.”