Amber Alert, page 18
I haven’t felt this lonely in a long time.
* * * *
The morning isn’t kind to me. I’m cold and sore, and the mirror image that greets me in the bathroom would probably work well scaring away children on Halloween. I wash my face, uncomfortably reminded of crying and feeling sorry for myself. It has to stop. I find the pills I should have taken hours ago, and turn on the shower.
By the time I start the coffee, I’m almost back to human, with the pills kicking in and the chill finally gone from my body.
I can’t turn things around, and this is not just about me, after all. Joey might have been sent to spy on me, and the task force, but two can play that game.
As for Cal…I can see how he had a point when he suggested taking it easy. Somewhere in between that first time and the present, expectations have been creeping in, much as I’ve been trying to deny it. He’s never going to be the guy to take to family dinners. Yes, Mom, I say in my mind, giving her that answer. For the most part, I was happy. I don’t think I am anymore. Does that mean it’s time to let go?
After a quick check-in at the department and my promised visit to Chrissie, Rachel and Rosie, I’ll find out what my partner is up to on a free Saturday. I’ll be a silent shadow.
* * * *
There’s hardly anything to make your priorities clearer than playing with a two-year-old baby for a couple of hours. I feel less guilty when I’m at Joey’s apartment later, doing a systematic search. They came for Rosie, and he probably knew. He did nothing to stop them.
Cal would not be pleased, but he’s not the boss of me. This is personal on every level. If Joey’s innocent, I’ll find a way to apologize, but it looks less and less that way. Why would the FBI waste resources on him otherwise? I don’t think Cal told me the whole truth yet, and I’m not even sure he knows everything.
I go through photo albums, family pictures. The siblings at all ages. There’s Ryna, the sister who works at the Middleton institute. When Joey told me she was in legal trouble, was that another smokescreen, or did she know about the kidnappings? How far do the Middletons reach, when they targeted children here, hundreds of miles away from their location?
There’s the sound of a key in the door. I close the album and put it back, retreat into a corner. I’ll get my answers, any way.
* * * *
Lin doesn’t know what is happening, but the frantic activity after the phone call scares her. Sherry is crying, and she and Adam speak in hushed, worried tones as they pack clothes into suitcases. They have gone on a trip together before, but it wasn’t like this. They had sat down with Lin first and explained where they were going, and the sights they were going to see.
Nobody is explaining anything to her at the moment. They are too busy. Adam and Sherry have retreated into the bedroom, asked her to wait here in her room.
Lin looks down at her feet, the purple boots she is wearing. She could just walk out of the house, and probably no one would notice…She wonders if they told Andrew and Martin where they are taking her, or if they are even still interested in knowing. They haven’t called at all!
She needs to find out.
Lin can still hear the voices from the bedroom. She gets up, picking up her backpack. There’s a wallet in it with a little money. She doesn’t know if it will pay for a bus ticket, but she will try.
Usually, Adam and Sherry don’t let her go out alone, but there are other kids outside, and no one is paying much attention to her. Only after a few steps, her beautiful bedroom and the nice people she’s been living with seem far away, fading. It’s not where she belongs. She wants to go home.
Lin reaches up to touch her hair, frowning, when she remembers the older girl at the mall who wanted to play dress up, and later cut Lin’s hair. She was nice, even drew a picture for Lin, but she had tricked her too. She’d said they would play a prank on Andrew and Martin, and get back to them right after, instead…Tears well up in her eyes.
Are they mad at her for what she did? It was supposed to be fun. She doesn’t like the new haircut, but the older girl had insisted. Lin wishes she had never met her.
When she tells the bus driver her destination, he looks at her quizzically, but gives her a ticket for less than she expected. He asks her if she knows that she has to change buses along the way. When Lin hesitates, he takes out a flyer that shows all the lines and marks the stop for her.
“You have someone waiting for you, sweetie?”
“Yes, my Daddy is going to pick me up.”
She doesn’t say “Daddies,” because Lin has noticed some people frown at that, and she doesn’t want anything to go wrong. Going out by herself for the first time has given her new hope and resolve, and she’s excited about the long bus ride to come. Probably, Andrew and Martin did call after all, and nobody told her, because they know she’s missing them so much.
Imagine how surprised they will be to see her!
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Sure I can keep him for the weekend, but you have to lay low for awhile. The FBI will be back soon, and this time, they’ll have something on Roger and Trisha.”
“What do you suggest, to leave my family and my job and go underground?” an irritated female voice asks. There’s a child with them, a boy singing some tune from a comic.
“I don’t know, at the moment it sounds like a good idea,” Joey says.
I feel sick listening to them. The woman is probably his troubled sister, but at this point, I wonder if the kid is even hers. I wait until they settle in the living room. Footsteps, someone opens the fridge, the clinking of glasses and plates.
Roger and Trisha.
I’m not willing to trust anyone who’s on a first name basis with these people. The woman and child are still talking in the living room when Joey comes into the office, picking up the folder I went through earlier, some copies of bad quality. The names were blackened in the file, but after studying up on the missing children and their families, it wasn’t so hard to make a connection.
“Interesting stuff.”
He doesn’t even jump, just turns around slowly to face me. I guess the mask is going to fall? I want to kick myself for not paying attention earlier, for allowing myself to be weak.
“I’m okay, thank you. Although, breaking into my apartment and sneaking up on me is a funny way of checking up on me…?”
“Cut the crap, Joey. You knew where Rosie was. I can’t even…believe what you got yourself into there, but if you talk to the FBI and they can bring those kids home, maybe you can get out of this with some dignity left.”
He shakes his head, whether at the accusation or the fact that I’m bold enough to come here and make it, I don’t know. “You misunderstood.”
“Where are they?”
He opens a drawer in the desk, and my hand is on my gun the next moment.
“You don’t think—I saved your life yesterday!”
“Well, sorry if I forgot to say ‘thank you.’ I’m really grateful. Now, back to the subject.”
“I know how this looks.” Joey slumps into the chair, tossing the file onto the desk. “It’s not what you think. I swear.”
“Then you won’t mind picking up the phone and explaining why you called your sister Ryna on the day Rosie was found, so she could warn your friends Trisha and Roger? Wow, that was some great acting on your part, yesterday morning, when we watched the show. I even believed that you were a little disgusted like every sane person would be listening to this bullshit!”
“It’s not that easy.”
“I’ve got time. Try.”
He casts a solemn look at the door. “I don’t know where those kids are.”
“Give me a break.”
“I didn’t lie to you,” Joey says, holding my gaze.
Wow, he’s got a lot of nerve. “Right.”
“Ryna asked me for help because she was worried there could be something going on in the institute that wasn’t entirely legal. We didn’t want to do anything that would put her job on the line if we weren’t even sure!”
“Does she know where the documentation on the missing children is, the background research of this file? Maybe it’s her I should ask. Are you so sure she’s telling the truth?”
“Ann, don’t. She’s got enough trouble as it is.”
“She doesn’t have to worry if her kid is dead or alive, in the hands of some predators or lunatics who tell themselves some made-up story why she isn’t fit to be their mother.”
“For some of us, the world isn’t as black-or-white as it is for you, Detective.”
We both turn to Ryna who is standing in the doorway.
“Do you have children, mortgage payments you worry about? Sometimes, your own family has to come first.”
I can tell from Joey’s irritated expression they already had this conversation.
“Indeed,” I say. “They kidnapped my niece. That makes it personal. I understand about family ties. However, if you helped cover up these kidnappings, you committed a crime too. The best you can do for your family is work with the authorities.”
Joey sighs. “She is right. This isn’t going to work out.”
“You promised!” she says, disbelief showing on her face. “Mom and Dad said you would help me!”
I don’t know what to make from his abrupt turn, but one way or another, we’re going to figure this out today.
* * * *
“Before you make that call, could you please hear me out?”
Oh, sure, these families have been living in terror for weeks, months in some cases, what damage can a few more minutes do? Unbidden, my mind flashes back to last night and Ronnie Sherman’s violent reaction, then, to a memory that’s even more unwelcome.
“Don’t take too long.”
In my family, we watch out for each other too. You don’t ask each other to break the law.
“I called Ryna to talk to her about her work situation that day, and later she was asked to help move some files. She didn’t know what was in them, and I didn’t tell her that the FBI was coming with a search warrant. Later, we put two and two together, and she tried to figure out where they put the real records of those adoptions. I didn’t know where your niece was, I promise you.”
“You’ve made a lot of promises lately, to your sister, to me…What does it even matter if I believe you?”
“It matters to me,” Joey says. “Okay, I did something stupid that might cost me my career at worst, but if I had any information about these children, I wouldn’t keep it to myself. I don’t condone what these people do.”
“These people you’re on a first name basis with?”
“We’ve met, that doesn’t mean we’re best friends. People are very tight in communities like that.”
“I feel better already.”
Joey ignores my sarcasm. “If they are responsible, I want to get to them as badly as you do, but I had to make sure that Ryna’s out of the line of fire first.”
“Congratulations. She’s right in the middle of this mess now.”
“Neither of us really knows anything. I would have gone to Davis and Martinez first. I would have told you—Ann. You said you’d give this a try.”
If I did, it seems like a long time ago, and yesterday’s dramatic turn of events will not sway me.
“It was a bad idea from the start.”
“There was a time when you didn’t seem to think so.”
“I changed my mind?”
“So this is it?”
“If I was you, I’d worry about other things right now.”
Joey gets up and follows me to the door. On the other side, his sister and nephew are still waiting. I ponder how fragile our idea of reality is, the things we take for granted. A couple of weeks changed everything.
For a long moment, we just look at each other, a strange standoff, an unspoken challenge. I remember when we first met, my reluctance to work with him. He was eager to learn, surprisingly willing to listen to a woman calling the shots.
I might not have always acted in a responsible way, but I have to remember it was him anyway who screwed things up.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” he says.
I can’t ignore that the despair behind his words is real. He should have known better, but there was no doubt a lot of pressure from his family.
“We’ll figure it out together,” I promise and open the door before my confusion can get the better of me.
* * * *
“Do not call the police,” she hears her father say to the adoptive parents. “We’ll take care of it.” The caller doesn’t believe him which prompts an angry and frustrated reaction. “I said we’ll take care of it!” He disconnects the call and slams the phone on the table.
Caitlin shrinks back from the gallery and retreats into her room. Terrible things are about to happen…again. She thought she had overcome her fear, by being brave, by doing the right thing over and over again, but the news have her on the brink of a panic attack.
Maryann, the little girl from the mall is missing.
She ran away from her parents, at the worst possible moment, when there’s a chance the policemen might return and bother Caitlin and her family some more. Her parents have explained it to her. They are warriors in a time where many people don’t understand, or try to discredit their mission, but that doesn’t make it any less important.
It takes a lot of sacrifices. Somehow, it will all be worth it in the end.
She leafs through the special files, story after story of children living with people that are not following God’s will, or so Caitlin’s parents have told her. They must be saved, any way. Some, like Lin, have already been placed in other families, but the majority of them is still waiting to be rescued. Caitlin can’t forget the little girl who was crying in the bathroom as she was dying her hair. She wants her back so badly.
Two years ago, maybe her parents were right when they said she couldn’t handle a pregnancy, and raising a child. Since then, Caitlin has come in contact with many different children, read them a story, sang a lullaby, made them trust her enough to walk away from their parents.
She is ready.
* * * *
“You got yourself into a lot of trouble, son.”
Cal’s words make me cringe as I’m watching from the other side of the two-way mirror. Joey seems as unsettled by them. It’s not just what they mean, but the way they signify the standoff that’s going on. He’s holding his own, though, making eye contact as he is telling his story.
“I want this case to be over as much as any of you do. If you think I need a lawyer, maybe I should call somebody first. I told Ann before, I was going to contact you or Martinez. I wanted to make sure that Ryna wouldn’t be caught in the crossfire.”
“You can thank your partner for the fact that we’re even having this conversation, Detective Parker. Besides, your sister put herself right in the middle of this by working for the Middleton institute.”
“Not every one of their employees is a criminal.”
“True, but they all support an ideology that is always flirting a little with the illegal, at least when they think the law isn’t giving them enough leeway to push their agenda.”
“Sometimes, they just want to feed their children. That’s not the point here though.”
“I agree, it isn’t. Look, we both know you made some poor choices here. It would be easier to make it go away if you hadn’t already attracted the Bureau’s attention, but I’m sure we can work something out here—if those children are home by tomorrow at the latest.”
“I told you Ryna doesn’t know where they put the files,” Joey says, his frustration audible.
“No, but you are going to help us find out. Middleton doesn’t know Detective McCoy, but he does know you. Both will work in our favor, and you might have a fraction of a chance to clear your name there.”
“Damn.”
I turn to Lieutenant Walsh who has entered the observation room. If my mind is still reeling from the new developments, I can imagine his is too.
“I’m almost used to Davis borrowing you for any case he pleases to, but this is getting difficult. What’s your take on the whole deal? You worked closely with Parker.”
“Well, you told me to.” My face is burning, and I turn my gaze back onto the scene behind the window. I take a deep breath and continue, “I think he’s telling the truth.” There’s a huge responsibility that comes with my assessment. “It was probably naïve to think he could keep his sister out of this, but that’s pretty much all the wrongdoing I can see. It’s her who worked for the institute and introduced them.”
In the reflection of the glass I can see Walsh nod as he’s contemplating my words. “I hope you don’t get too used flying around in special task force private jets. I’d like you to continue working for this department.”
“Me too.” I give him a wry grin.
“Parker kept his head last night. I’m willing to cut him some slack because of that.”
I’m glad everyone is agreeing on the subject, even if there’s no denying that there was negligence on Joey’s part. Chrissie and Rachel, or the Gales, the Tylers and Alicia Johnson will never know about the deals made behind closed doors, and maybe it’s better that way.
Family matters. It’s about time to reunite these children with their families.
“You two got cleared for duty very quickly after this. Are you sure you’re ready?” He’s asking me, I know, because Joey doesn’t have much of a choice. The memory of last night makes me wince with a real body memory. I straighten my shoulders.
“Yes, sir.”
* * * *
On the verge of falling asleep, Lin jumps when the bus stops on the side of the road. She’s craning her neck to try and see what’s going on, clutching her backpack tighter when she sees the police car. A woman in uniform exits it, walking towards the entrance. The driver opens the door and they confer, the police woman’s gaze taking in each of the passengers. Then she comes walking down the aisle.
