Missing Child (30 page)

‘I don’t care whether you take my word or not,’ said Caitlin. ‘But you better steel yourself for some nasty surprises. Westy is not the man you think you know.’

Noah was speaking to Sam Mathis, whom he reached as he was getting into his car at the hospital parking lot. ‘Sam,’ he said, ‘Westy Bergen tied Caitlin up and locked her in a closet here in his workshop. He’s desperate. Don’t leave him alone with Dan. Dan is our only link to Geordie. Yeah, we’re on our way over there.’

‘Dan?’ Paula said. ‘My Dan?’

‘He tried to kill your Dan,’ said Caitlin bitterly.

‘No. That’s preposterous. He adores Dan.’

‘Maybe Dan found out about his other hobby. Sexually assaulting little boys.’

‘You bitch,’ said Paula. ‘Take that back.’

Caitlin looked at Paula and she didn’t know whether she felt contempt or pity. How could you be so oblivious? How could you not know this about your husband? she wondered. And yet, it happened every day. We all think we know our partners, Caitlin thought. We just hope that we are not deceived. She looked at Paula’s carefully constructed façade of calm and competence and saw it breaking apart from this blow. Caitlin couldn’t deny that she felt some contempt, but pity won out. ‘I can’t take it back, Paula,’ she said, meeting the other woman’s horrified gaze. ‘I’m sure you’d rather die than believe it. But it’s true.’

Noah ended the call, stood up, and examined Caitlin’s bandaging job. ‘They’re going to have to redo this for you at the hospital,’ he said.

‘Whatever. We’ll worry about that later,’ said Caitlin. ‘Let’s go.’

They heard a door slam and looked up. The next sound they heard was the roar of a car engine. The workshop door was closed and Paula was gone. Noah rushed to the door and looked out.

‘She’s gone. She took my car,’ he said.

‘We’ll go in mine. We’d better hurry.’

Haley slowly set her pocketbook back down on the floor and resumed her seat in the chair by Dan’s bed.

‘What are you doing?’ Westy demanded. ‘I thought you were leaving.’

‘I changed my mind. I think I’ll stay.’

Westy struggled to control his anger. ‘You’re not wanted here,’ he said.

Haley saw his rage and felt strangely calm. ‘I thought you were just saying how much you liked me. How much you wished Dan and I had stayed married.’

Westy shook his head. ‘Well, I was trying to make you feel better. Actually, I think it’s kind of pitiful the way you chase after him now. He’s moved on, Haley. Hanging around him isn’t going to change anything. You should go. Just go and let him get on with his life.’

Haley placed her hand over Dan’s, curving her fingers over his. ‘No. I don’t think so. I think I’ll stay right here, like I planned. You can go if you want.’ Haley felt the pressure of Dan’s fingers squeezing hers.

‘Do I have to get the cops to remove you?’ Westy demanded. ’Cause I will. There’s a cop right outside the door. I’ll tell him that you’re interfering with my son’s recovery,’ said Westy.

‘You do that. And I’ll tell him that you tried to suffocate your son with a pillow.’

Westy glared at her with hate-filled eyes. Haley gazed right back at him.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened again, and Officer Wheatley walked in. ‘Mr Bergen,’ he said, ‘I just received a call from Detective Mathis. There’s a young woman making an accusation against you. I’m afraid you’re going to have to come down to the station and answer a few questions . . .’

‘What young woman?’ Westy demanded.

Officer Wheatley glanced over at Haley. ‘You’ll have to ask them down at the station.’

‘No, I’m not going anywhere with you,’ Westy protested. ‘I’m staying here with my son.’

‘I’m sorry about your son but this isn’t actually a request,’ said the officer. ‘You can either come willingly or I’ll have to arrest you.’

‘Arrest me?’ Westy cried. ‘The world has gone mad.’

‘There’s no need to make this worse than it is,’ said Officer Wheatley. ‘Just come along. If we can straighten everything out you will be back at your son’s bedside in no time.’

‘Don’t let him come back,’ said Haley in a shaky voice. ‘He tried to suffocate Dan with a pillow.’

Westy turned on her in a rage. ‘You shut up . . .’

‘That’s enough,’ said the officer.

Westy shook his head. ‘No, I’m not going.’

Officer Wheatley reached out to take him by the arm. Westy batted his hand away and slapped the officer across the face. Officer Wheatley fumbled for his gun and pulled it out. ‘All right. That’s it. Assaulting an officer. Mr Bergen, you have to come . . .’

Before he could finish his sentence, Westy seized the gun from Officer Wheatley’s hand and fired it at him, point blank.

Haley screamed and then threw herself over Dan, covering him with her own body. Westy fired again. Haley slumped onto Dan’s chest, shot in the back. Dan cried out as if he were the one who had taken the bullet. The door to the room opened and several orderlies, a nurse and a doctor tried to enter.

Westy wielded the gun wildly, yelling threats. The people in the doorway jumped back as he commanded, and he pushed his way past them and into the hallway.

‘Watch out!’ someone yelled. ‘There’s a gunman.’ People dove back into doorways, under desks and behind rolling trays. The floor looked suddenly deserted. Westy had it all to himself as he ran for the emergency exit and bolted down the stairs.

THIRTY-TWO

N
oah insisted on driving. As they approached the hospital they could hear the wail of sirens and see flashing lights. Sticking her head out the car window, Caitlin was able to see that a gate had been lowered in front of the main entrance to the hospital and anyone who tried to enter was turned away. The traffic was backed up and at a standstill as people passing in their cars gawked at the commotion. ‘I’m going to get out and run,’ Caitlin said.

‘Are you crazy? There’s obviously some kind of stand-off going on. Stay in the car. You could get hurt,’ Noah said.

‘I can’t stand this,’ said Caitlin. ‘What is happening up there?

As they inched closer they could see a raft of police vehicles assembled in the parking lot of the hospital. There were officers with guns drawn and their attention seemed to be focused on one area of the parking lot near the emergency exit. A plainclothes officer with a bullhorn was addressing someone, but what he said was unintelligible.

‘That’s Sam Mathis!’ Caitlin cried. ‘I recognize him.’

A uniformed officer in a bulletproof vest loped out into the busy intersection and began to direct the traffic to get it moving. He gestured for the next car in line to pass, and suddenly Caitlin recognized Noah’s vehicle.

‘That’s your car. That’s Paula in there.’

Even as Caitlin recognized Noah’s car, the driver made a sharp right turn, floored the gas pedal and ploughed through the barrier, breaking it into pieces as she entered the parking lot.

There was a screech of brakes as the officer directing traffic ran out in front of the oncoming cars and followed her into the parking lot. ‘Hey, stop!’ he cried.

Noah hesitated and then made a decision. ‘Hang on,’ he said to Caitlin. ‘We’re going in, too.’ He pulled out of the line of cars and onto the shoulder of the road. He cruised down to the splintered gate and passed through it.

Meanwhile, in the hospital parking lot, Paula was ignoring every warning, every sign, and every barrier. She drove up into the middle of two rows of cars, stopped the car, got out and left it. Noah pulled into an emergency space and he and Caitlin jumped out of their car as well. Paula was hurrying toward the emergency exit of the hospital.

Caitlin heard somebody yell out, ‘It’s his wife. Don’t shoot.’

Noah and Caitlin crouched down and scuttled along behind the parked cars, zigzagging toward the scene of the confrontation. The police were focused on Paula as she ran out in plain sight, impervious to their shouts, seemingly unconcerned by the danger.

‘It’s Westy,’ said Caitlin. ‘I knew it. What if Dan is dead? What if we can’t find out. What if we never know . . .’

‘Don’t,’ Noah advised her grimly. ‘Jesus Christ, what is going on up there?’

As if in answer to his question a shot rang out, and everybody in the parking lot ducked except for Paula, who continued to run in the direction of the gunfire.

Caitlin and Noah stayed low but kept moving forward. They could see Westy clearly now. He was holding a gun to the head of a young blond woman in nurse’s scrubs, using her as a shield.

Caitlin heard Sam Mathis’s voice, calm and deliberate, through the bullhorn. ‘Put the gun down, Mr Bergen. Let Sharon go. We can end this peacefully.’

Caitlin, grasping at straws, took comfort from this. ‘Maybe no one has been hurt yet,’ she whispered to Noah.

‘Let’s hope,’ he said.

Several officers rushed out to Paula and tried to call her back but she waved them off. She continued in the direction of her husband.

‘Westy,’ she called out in a demanding voice. ‘Let that young woman go. She didn’t do anything to deserve this. Let her go.’

‘Get away from me, Paula. Don’t help them,’ he called back.

‘Let her go. Take me instead,’ said Paula.

Caitlin held her breath. She had to admire Paula’s courage in the face of Westy’s obvious derangement. Although, Caitlin thought, the truth about her husband that she was going to have to face might be worse to her than any hail of bullets.

‘Come on, Westy, please.’ Paula raised her hands as if to show that she was unarmed. ‘I don’t care what happens to me anymore.’

‘Why not?’ he demanded.

‘After what you’ve done?’ She let out a bark of laughter that was also a sob. ‘What difference does anything make?’

Westy’s eyes narrowed and then he shook his head. ‘Forty years of this marriage and you don’t even give me the benefit of the doubt . . .’ he said disgustedly.

‘I tried to,’ she protested unconvincingly.

‘No, you didn’t. You never did. You never respected me. You always treated me like I was foolish.’

A van with a SWAT team had entered the parking lot and rolled slowly toward the scene. Four men in fatigues, holding telescopic rifles, clambered out the side of the van.

‘Mr Bergen, you have to give this up,’ Sam Mathis called out. ‘Let the hostage go. Let Sharon go. No one else needs to get hurt.’

‘No one ELSE?’ Caitlin cried. ‘Does that mean that someone was already hurt? Are we too late?’

‘Take it easy. We don’t know that,’ said Noah.

‘Westy, you have to stop this,’ Paula said, trying to keep her voice calm. ‘Look, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. But you need help. That much is obvious.’

‘I don’t need help,’ Westy insisted. ‘Why do I need help? Because I won’t do what you want?’

‘They said you molested children!’ she cried. ‘They said you were the one who hurt Dan.’

‘You didn’t even ask me if it’s true. Right away, you believe them. You just immediately start barking orders.’

‘Mr Bergen,’ Sam said through the bullhorn, ‘Your wife is trying to help you. Listen to her.’

‘Help me?’ Westy cried petulantly. ‘She’s ashamed of me. She doesn’t believe a word I say.’

‘That’s not true,’ Paula called out to him. ‘I do. I do believe you. No matter what they say, I know you would never hurt Dan.’

For a moment, Westy measured Paula’s sincerity with his gaze. ‘Your darling Dan. You think you know all about Dan. You always thought he was yours. But Dan and I used to have something special together. Something much closer than just father and son.’

Paula shook her head. ‘Don’t say that.’

‘We did, Paula. I’m sorry, but we did. And, in spite of that, he turned on me,’ he said. ‘He’s a traitor. He betrayed me. After all we shared. I am angry. I admit it.’

‘What are you saying?’ she cried.

‘I had to silence him,’ Westy said indignantly. ‘He was going to put all that we shared out like garbage, in front of the world. I couldn’t let him do that.’

‘Oh my God.’ Paula doubled over, as if he had struck her. She fell to her knees, rocking back and forth, and holding her arms close to her body, as if to keep her insides from spilling out onto the pavement.

‘You bastard!’ Caitlin cried, jumping to her feet from behind the parked car. She felt as if her heart was exploding in her chest. ‘Where is Geordie? What have you done with him?’

‘Caitlin, don’t!’ Noah cried. He rose also and came after her.

‘Get down,’ Sam thundered through the bullhorn. ‘Caitlin, get down.’

But it was too late. Westy turned and saw Caitlin howling in despair, coming toward him. He held onto his hostage as a shield, but turned the gun on Caitlin as Noah seized her from behind.

‘Get back,’ Westy ordered her.

Noah tried to drag her back out of harm’s way. Caitlin flailed against him, determined to get to Westy.

‘You sick, perverted son of a bitch. Where is my boy?’ she cried.

‘How do I know?’ Westy demanded.

Sharon, the hostage, realizing that she was no longer the one under the gun, hesitated, and then seized her opportunity. She pulled Westy’s hand close to her face and bit down on his wrist. Westy howled in pain and released his grip on her. The young woman bolted away from the gunman and dove behind the nearest car.

Caitlin shook off Noah’s grasp and rushed toward Westy. Westy wheeled, raised the gun and aimed it straight at her.

‘Now!’ Sam cried.

The SWAT team sharpshooters, already peering down their sights, steadied their weapons and fired.

THIRTY-THREE

C
aitlin and Noah stood on the front steps of the red-brick townhouse and rang the bell. ‘The last time I was here,’ she said, ‘I was convinced that Dan had Geordie in this house. When he let me in I stood in the vestibule and started screaming for Geordie like a madwoman.’

‘You were almost right,’ said Noah. He took Caitlin’s hand and squeezed it. ‘It’s only a matter of hours now,’ he said.

Caitlin smiled at him. ‘Thank God.’

The door opened and Paula Bergen stood there. She did not register any emotion at the sight of them. Her face was drawn and haggard, and her eyes were lifeless. ‘Come in,’ she said, as if she were a servant. ‘He’s in the living room.’