Safe and Sound (13 page)

“Have you heard from him?” Keller began.

“No,” she cut him off. She looked at the clock. Nine-forty-five.

“Tell me as much as you can remember,” Keller said.

“What he said. How he said it.”

“He sounded…He had a funny accent. I couldn’t place it. Kind of…I don’t know.”

“What did he say?”

“Oi hev yer boy,” she mimicked. “That’s how it started. I thought at first it was Carson, calling to gloat. But then he said that I had to do exactly as I was told or he—Jack, he threatened to cut one of Ben’s fingers off.”

“Did he let you talk to Ben?”

She nodded, tears brimming in her eyes. “Yeah,” she said. “For a second. He was…It was like Ben was drunk. He only said a few words, but I could tell it was him. When the man came back on, he said that Ben was going to sleep for a while.”

“The guy drugged him, maybe.”

She shook her head. “Jesus, who’d do that to a little boy?”

“Somebody who wants to keep him quiet,” Keller said. “That may mean he’s near somewhere public. Someplace he’s afraid of making a fuss.”

Marie grimaced. “Nice that you can be so analytical.”

He shrugged. “I’m just trying to help.”

“I know, Jack,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’m just on edge here.”

“Yeah,” Keller said. “I don’t blame you.”

They waited the next few minutes in silence. The digits on the clock seemed to take an eon to change. When it clicked over to ten, Marie made a small sound in her throat and looked at the phone. It remained silent.

“Easy,” Keller said. “It’s not like you synchronized watches. And he may be trying to fuck with you. Make you wait. Just try to stay—”

The phone rang. Marie crossed the room in a few strides and snatched it up. “Hello…Yes. He’s here.”

She looked at Keller. “There’s an extension in the bedroom. He wants to talk to both of us at the same time.”

Keller went into the bedroom, picked up the phone on the bedside table. “Keller,” he said.

“You had a meeting set up for later today,” the voice said. Keller picked up on the accent right away. You hed a meeting sit up for lighter todye.

“Yeah,” Keller said.

“With the lawyer,” the voice said. “She won’t be able to make it, I’m afraid.”

Keller felt a sinking feeling in his gut. He kept his voice calm. “And why is that?”

“She’s a little under the weather right now,” the voice said. “And the boy will be joining her, unless you do as you’re told.”

“What do you want?” Marie’s voice quavered on the other extension.

“I want to have a meeting with the same people,” the voice said. “I want to straighten out some misunderstandings we’ve had.”

“Like you had a disagreement with David Lundgren?” Keller said.

There was a silence on the other end. “Poor David,” the man said. “If he’d just been honest with me, he could have saved himself a lot of pain. A. Lot. Of. Pain.” He spoke the last words with heavy and unmistakable emphasis. Then his tone turned businesslike. “I want to keep the same thing from happening again. But I don’t think my former partners trust me anymore.”

“I wonder why,” Keller said.

The man chuckled. “Well, you can help me fix that. They’ll show up and see you there. They trust you.”

“They asked for Tammy Healy,” Marie said.

“But they’ve never met Healy. They’ll think you’re her. They’ll give you the little girl, I’ll give you your boy, then my brus and I will have a chat and get everything straightened out. Everyone wins.”

Except you’ll kill us all the minute you get the chance, Keller thought. The man on the other end sensed his hesitation. “Tune me grief,” he said harshly, “and that little boy will wake up to the longest and hardest day of his life. Also the last
one. Unless I decide to take my time and get creative. Then his dying could take a lot longer.”

“Okay,” Keller said. “How do we work this? Do we meet you somewhere?”

“I know where the meeting place is,” the voice said. “I’ll see you all there. Don’t be late.” There was a click as he broke the connection.

Keller hung up the phone. He walked back into the living room. Marie was standing there, the phone still in her hand. She was looking down at an object on the phone table. Keller walked over and looked down. There was a dimly glowing LED screen on the base of the phone. There was a name displayed in dark gray letters against the green background.

“The caller ID says that that call came from Tammy Healy,” Marie said.

“Healy’s dead,” Keller said. “He got the information he needed from her and then he killed her. He probably has her cell phone.”

“What information?” Marie demanded. “What’s going on?”

Keller told her about the phone call and the meeting that had been set up to return Alyssa Fedder. “Tammy was nervous. She didn’t want to go alone.”

“And she trusted you,” Marie said. “And this,” she said slowly, “explains why one of the most expensive divorce lawyers in town is willing to take my case for peanuts. And to wait for the peanuts.”

“It seemed like a reasonable trade,” Keller said.

She didn’t say anything for a few moments. Then she turned away. “I guess I should thank you, Jack,” she said.

“We’d better get going,” he said. “It’s a long drive.”

“Where are we going?” Marie said.

“The Blue Ridge Parkway. Near the Tennessee border.”

Marie took a few moments to throw some clothes into a gym bag for Ben. “Put your weapon in there, too,” Keller said. “Just in case.”

“But…,” Marie started. Then she fell silent. She went into the bedroom. When she came out, her face was grim. “Got it,” she said. They heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.

Keller went to the window and looked out. “Damn it,” he muttered. “It’s Wilcox.”

“What the hell does he want?” Marie asked.

There was a knock at the door. They looked at each other. “Both our cars are in the driveway,” Marie said. “It’s no use pretending we’re not home.”

“Fuck,” Keller growled. He went to the door and opened it. “You’re up early,” he said to Wilcox. He didn’t stand aside to let the CID man in.

“You’re probably going to have a lot more company pretty soon,” Wilcox said.

“What do you mean?”

“Tamara Healy was murdered last night. The local cops are just finishing up at the scene. I imagine they’ll want to talk to the two of you.”

Marie came to stand behind Keller. “What happened to her?” she asked.

Wilcox looked at her evenly. “You’re saying you don’t know anything about it?”

“Neither of us is saying anything,” Keller said, “without a lawyer. She’s just asking.”

Wilcox spoke slowly, unemotionally, his eyes gauging their reactions. “Healy was in her office,” he said. “Some unknown person or persons entered by picking the backdoor lock. They nailed her wrists to her own desk. Then they tortured her with a lit cigarette, possibly for several hours, before shooting her in the head.”

Keller looked at Marie. She had gone white, her hand covering her mouth. He looked back at Wilcox. “Any suspects?”

Wilcox shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. They just let me know about it because it might intersect the Lundgren investigation.”

“Well, thanks for the heads-up,” Keller said. He made as if to close the door. Wilcox blocked the closing door with his foot. “You folks going somewhere?” he said.

Keller looked back at Marie. She was holding the gym bag. She glanced down at it, then back up, a look of guilt on her face.

“I think you two need to stay right here,” Wilcox said firmly. He pushed against the door. Keller pushed back.

“You need to leave,” Marie said, her voice cracking with strain.

“What’s in the bag, Ms. Jones?” Wilcox demanded.

With a sob, Marie stuck her hand inside the bag. Wilcox went into his coat and swiftly drew his own weapon. He stepped back, holding the pistol in front of him, moving it back and forth from Keller to Marie. “Take your hand out of the bag,” he commanded, “and put it on the floor. Now!” He barked the last word.

A tear ran down Marie’s face as she dropped the bag. “Please,” she begged, “just let us go. It’s important.”

“No one goes anywhere,” Wilcox said, “until I find out what’s going on. Hands on top of your heads. Both of you.” They complied. “Back away from the door, Keller,” Wilcox said. “You too, Jones. Leave the bag on the floor.”

They complied slowly, Marie moving like a sleepwalker.

Wilcox came into the house. “Back against that wall,” he said.

Keller calculated his chances of getting the gun away from Wilcox. Not good. He joined Marie against the wall.

Never taking his eyes from them, Wilcox walked to the bag. He was crouching down to pick it up when the soft burr of a cell phone sounded at his belt. Without taking the gun off Keller and Marie, he straightened up, pulled the phone out and flipped it open. “Wilcox,” he snapped. A look of shock crossed his face. The gun never wavered, however. “What?” Wilcox said. “How do you…They…” His face became angry. “Like hell,” he snarled. He listened for another few seconds, then shut the phone with a savage gesture. He stared at them for a few seconds, his face expressionless. Then he lowered the pistol and slid it inside his coat.

“We’ve just gotten a new lead in the case,” he said. “I need to get back. Sorry to bother you.” He stepped back through the open door and pulled it shut.

They stood for a moment, totally dumbfounded. “What the hell just happened?” Marie said.

“You think they got the guy?” Keller said.

“If they did…then maybe they have Ben.”

“Why wouldn’t he just say that, then?”

Marie shook her head. “What do we do now?” she said.

Keller thought for a minute. “Only safe thing to do is keep the appointment until we hear something definite. I’ll call Angela from the road and ask her if she can find out what’s going on.” He picked the bag up off the floor. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Blue Ridge Parkway winds for nearly five hundred miles along the crests of the Southern Appalachian Mountains in western Virginia and North Carolina. It passes through no towns. It was built as a scenic route, so it is mostly tourists who drive slowly along its narrow roadway and gaze wide-eyed at the ever-changing panoramas that explode into the eye seemingly around every curve. The heaviest traffic is in the fall, when the dying of the leaves turns the hills ablaze with oranges, reds, and yellows, like the final defiant flare of stars as they expire into the cold and dark of winter. In spring and early summer, flowers cover the upland meadows: rhododendron, Queen Anne’s lace, mountain laurel. There are also plants with odd and evocative names: witch hobble, Solomon’s seal, Dutchman’s-breeches. Now, in midsummer, most of the flowers had gone, their short lives given to the task of fertilization and reproduction. Now the views were of mile after mile of rugged mountains, like titanic knees propped up under blankets of hardwood forest, the green of the trees turned to a sapphire by the ever-present haze.

Night comes early to the Parkway, even in summer, as the evening sun slips behind the shoulders of the mountains. As the views fall into shadow, the tourists descend the long exits off the Parkway, heading for restaurant meals and motel beds in the old towns nestled in the valleys that live by their trade. In the gathering gloom, Keller and Marie saw almost no other vehicles as they made their way up the Parkway. Marie had to strain to make out the wooden mile markers that ticked off
the approach to their destination. Their ears popped with the changes in altitude as they went up and over the ridges and down into the saddlebacks between them.

“I can’t see shit,” Marie muttered. She leaned forward and peered out the windshield.

They had said little on the long drive from Fayetteville. Marie had huddled in the passenger seat, her arms crossed across her chest, wrapped around her anxiety. Keller had struggled to find words to reassure her, but anything he considered sounded empty and foolish. They were there because it was their only chance, and that chance wasn’t much.

Every few miles, where the views were particularly striking, the Park Service had built overlooks. Some were just tiny spaces where one or two cars could park and their drivers could get out to admire the scenery. Some were larger, with space for a dozen or more cars, and equipped with picnic tables and the beginnings of trails for hikers. Most of the overlooks were deserted; there was little to see. The valleys were in shadow, with only the tallest peaks catching the last of the summer sun. It was as if the darkness was rising like a tide, up from the lowlands, to drown the peaks in night.

They passed an overlook on their left. There was a single vehicle parked there. No one was outside to watch the stars come out. It was the only vehicle they had seen in the last fifteen minutes. Marie looked back at the vehicle as they passed, turning around in the seat to watch. “That could be him,” she said.

“Or the people we came to meet,” said Keller. “Is he starting up?”

She craned to look harder. They went around a curve and the vehicle disappeared. She slumped back in the seat.