Swingin' in the Rain (25 page)

  “You’re lookin’ for Carver unofficially?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Does that mean you’re not gonna arrest him?”

  “That’s up to him.”

  The boy chewed his bottom lip, then backed away and said, “Come on in before somebody sees us.”

  Jakes stepped inside warily, wishing his .38 was closer than his ankle. But the inside of the house was empty—neat, clean and empty.

  Holder led him to a large, spacious living room-spacious because there was very little furniture.

  “I’ve had to hock a lot of it,” Holder said, as if reading Jakes’ mind. “My father left me this house, but not much else.”

  “Things are tough all over,” Jakes said.

  “Yeah, they are.”

  “That way you got yourself involved with Vince Carver? For money?”

  Holder swallowed and said, “Not exactly.”

  “Fear, then.”

  Holder didn’t answer.

  “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Freddy,” Jakes said. “Fear is a powerful incentive.”

  “Yeah, well . . . it’s a bitch when you’re on the wrong end of it all the time.”

  “You tell me about Carver, and I’ll see to it you don’t have to worry about him, anymore.”

  There was one sofa in the room, and that was it. Holder flopped onto it, gnawed on a finger nail.

  “There’s no way I can be sure,” he said.

  “Look, I told you I’m a cop—“

  “That don’t matter,” Holder said. “Carver says—“

  “What?” Jakes asked. “Carver says what?”

  Holder gnawed the nail so hard he drew blood, but hardly noticed it.

  “Oh, I think I get it,” Jakes said. “He told you he’s got a cop in his pocket.”

  Holder looked surprised. “How’d you know that?” he asked. “Unless . . .”

  “No, son, it’s not me,” Jakes sad, “but I know who it is, and I want him, too.”

  “You’re gonna take down a cop?”

  “I’m gonna take them both down, but I need your help.”

  “What can I do?”

  “Answer some questions.”

  “That’s all?”

  “That’s it.”

  Holder thought a moment, then shrugged and said, “Okay.”

  “How do you know Vince Carver?”

  “He knew my dad.”

  “They were friends?”

  “No,” Holder said, as if the idea was preposterous.

  “Then they had the same kind of relationship that you and Carver do?”

  “That’s close enough.”

  “Okay,” Jakes said, “let’s forget about your father. All I really want to know is, how did Carver get your car?”

  “He told me I had to loan it to him.”

  “Did you take it to him?”

  “No.”

  “Do you know where he is? Where he’s staying?”

  “No.”

  “Is he supposed to bring the car back?”

  Holder shrugged. “Who knows? He might decide he likes it, and keep it.”

  “Okay, okay,” Jakes said. “You loaned him the car, and he came here to pick it up.”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean, no? You just said you didn’t bring the car to him.”

  “I didn’t,” Holder said. “He had somebody come and pick it up. Why don’t you ask her where he is?”

  “I will,” Jakes said. “Just tell me her name.”

  “I don’t know her last name,” Holder said, “only her first.”

  “Okay, then give me that.”

  “Toni?” Holder said. “No, maybe it was Tracy . . .”

  “Fred.”

  “I’m tryin’!” Holder said. “She came to the door, said Carver sent her, and then she said her name was . . . Tonja. That was it. Her name was Tonja.”

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  When my phone rang again it was Jakes.

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m driving to Tonja’s,” I said. “My mom went over there and said nobody was home.”

  ”Okay, listen to me,” Jakes said, “go to Tonja’s but don’t get out of the car. Wait for me there.”

  “She’s supposed to be there with Sarah, Jakes!” Even I could hear the edge of panic in my voice.

  “Alex, just listen. Don’t try to go into her house. Wait for me.”

  “What is it, Jakes?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

  “Alex—“

  “Tell me!”

  He hesitated, then said, “It’s Tonja. I found out she’s connected to Carver.”

  “What?”

  “I have an informant who says it was a girl named Tonja who picked up that car for Carver.”

  “How—how can that be? Tonja’s my neighbor.”

  “I don’t know. It’s too much—it can’t be a coincidence.”

  “Then you’re saying Carver may have my daughter?” I pressed my foot down harder on the gas pedal.

  “Alex. Don’t panic. Don’t do anything foolish. When you get to Tonja’s wait for me. I’ll only be about ten minutes behind you.”

  I hung up.

  I pulled up in front of Tonja’s house, screeching my tires. There were no lights inside and that made my stomach drop. I didn’t think about giving Jakes’ words about waiting for him even a second’s consideration before I got out of the car and ran to the front door. I pounded, keeping myself from screaming at the top of my lungs—although I don’t know how I did it.

  My mother came running up holding a raincoat over her head.

  “I found Harry, Alex. He’s in the house, now. We think he was drugged. He says Tonja gave him a cup of coffee and that’s all he remembers.”

  “Mom, go back to the house. Stay there, please.” I was desperately trying to hold it together.

  “What’s going on? Where’s Sar...”

  Then I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Please! Go back!”

  My mother’s mouth opened in shock as she quickly made her way back to our house. She looked almost as terrified as I felt.

  I ran around the back of the house trying to find an open door or window. Finally I found a lawn chair and using every fiber of my being, I hoisted it over my head and into the back door window. It crashed through, leaving a huge gaping hole. I reached in and opened the door.

  “Sarah! Sarah! It’s Mommy.” Nothing. I heard myself let out a wail. “Not my baby. Not my baby.” I ran through the house, opening closets, looking for anything that might tell me where Sarah was. And then I realized the house was completely furnished as if someone lived there but every closet was practically empty, every drawer the same. It looked like a movie set. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. And then I understood why Tonja had never invited me over.

  I stumbled down the hallway, ending up in Tonja’s bedroom. I threw open the closet and stood there in shock. There was a recording system on the floor. Tonja had been spying on me.

  The front door opened with a crash.

  “Alex! Where are you?” Jakes yelled.

  “Sarah’s gone, I have to find her!” I ran into Jakes arms. “We have to find her.” 

  “Oh my God.” Jakes had seen the recording equipment.

  “Did she ever really live here?”

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  I couldn’t even guess who had put Tonja in the house to become my neighbor, or why, but this wasn’t the time to figure that out.

  “Where is she, Jakes? Where’s Sarah?”

  At that moment my cell phone rang.

  “Maybe that’s the answer,” he said. “Take the call.”

  “Hello?”

  “You want your daughter back?”

  “You sonofabitch—“

  Jakes cut me off with a wave of his hand. “Put it on speaker,” he whispered.

  I did.

  “Watch your language, Miss Peterson,” the voice said. “That’s no way to talk to the man who has your Sarah.”

  I looked at Jakes. He mouthed “Carver” at me. I didn’t know if he recognized the voice, or just figured it wasn’t Rockland, so it had to be Carver.

  “W-what do you want?”

  “Well, for one thing I want you to take me off speaker phone. This is just for your ears, not your boyfriend’s.”

  I looked at Jakes and he nodded. I took the phone off speaker.

  “All right,” I said.

  “Good. You’ve got something I want, Alex,” the man said.

  “What’s that?”

  “Some DVD’s. We looked around your place and couldn’t find them. That is, that dumb bitch Tonja couldn’t find them. I assume you watched them.”

  So Tonja had trashed my house looking for the DVDs.

  “What if I did?”

  “Then you know why I want them.”

  “I know why Detective Rockland might want them.”

  “Yeah,” he said, “Sam wants them, too.”

  “I want my daughter.”

  “Yeah, I bet you do.”

  “Is she alright?”

  “She’s fine.”

  “Is Tonja taking good care of her?”

  “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”

  “No,” I said, “I guess I’m pretty dumb, or I wouldn’t have been taken in by her.”

  “Aw, don’t feel too bad,” he said. “She’s a real good actress.”

  “If you hurt my daughter—“

  “I’m not a man who hurts children, Alex,” he said. “Now Rockland . . . I can’t speak for him.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “I’ll trade you the DVD’s for your little girl.”

  “When?”

  “Tonight. Now.”

  “Will Rockland be there?”

  “Sure. Bring your boyfriend, too. It don’t make a difference to me. But if I see any other cops you’ll never see your daughter again.”

  “Where?”

  “Come to Randy’s house,” he said. “We’ll make the exchange there.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Why not?” he asked. “I get what I want, and you get what you want.”

  “I want to talk to my daughter.” It was silent for a moment.

  “Sure.” I could hear him yelling for Tonja. And then.

  “Hi, Mommy! Are you getting close?”

  I couldn’t get my breath I was so relieved to hear her voice. I tried to compose myself as I choked back a sob. “Yes, Baby. I’m close. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Tonja and I are having fun. We’re winning at the game, right Mom?”

  “What game, Sweetheart? What game?”

  “Tonja said we’re playing hide‘n seek. Tonja and I are hiding. You and Jakes are seeking.” I heard muffled voices.

  “Sarah? Sarah?” She was gone.

  “Come and get her,” Carver said. 

  I started screaming. “You son of a bitch! You touch one hair on her head and I’ll rip your heart out, you piece of shit!”

  But he had hung up.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Jakes ran into my house and grabbed the DVD’s from the cupboard I had put them in. I couldn’t risk seeing my mother, having her ask me to explain what was going on. Jakes told her and Harry that we had everything under control—which couldn’t be further from the truth.

  “I don’t understand,” I said, as Jakes drove his car. “Why would Carver say it’s okay to bring you?”

  “Because then we’re all in one place,” Jakes said. “Carver and Rockland want to finish this all at one time. Nice and neat.”

  “How are we going to do it, Jakes? How?”

  “Believe me,” he said, “I’m thinking about it.”

  “Maybe this’ll help.”

  I took the gun out of my purse, the one that had slid out from under the seat of the car I was driving.

  “Holy crap,” he said. “Where’d you get that?”

  I told him.

  “Who’d you borrow that car from? A gang banger?”

  “A mechanic.”

  “A hit man?”

  “A car mechanic,” I said. “Although he looked a bit like a banger. Why?”

  “That’s a Glock,” he said. “Cops and bangers are carrying them, these days.”

  “Well, here,” I said, holding it out to him.

  He took it and tucked it into his belt.

  “I have one for you.” he reached down to his ankle and came up with a gun I recognized as a revolver. “It’s my off duty gun, a thirty-eight. Take it.”

  I did.

  “Put it in your bag. All you have to do is point and pull the trigger. Can you do that?”

  “If it means saving Sarah, hell yes.”

  “Let’s hope you won’t have to.”

  He turned his attention to his driving. The rain was coming down hard again; the inside of the car smelled damp. Our clothes were soaked.

  “Thought of anything yet, Jakes?”

  “We’re gonna get Sarah back, and take those bastards down, Alex,” he said. “That’s what we’re gonna do.”

  “But how?” I needed something concrete to hold onto before I lost it completely.

  “I’ll know by the time we get there.” He reached for my hand. “Take some deep breaths, Alex. It’s gonna be okay.” I looked from him to the rain outside, praying he was right.

  We were within a block of Randy’s house when Jakes pulled over to the curb and stopped.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Hit the redial on your phone,” he said. “We want to hear Sarah’s voice again to make sure she’s there.”