“But wouldn’t—”
Amanda cut him off. “You’ve had your turn. Give the others a chance.”
Will heard some of the more seasoned local reporters snicker. For his part, Will was more interested in Abigail Campano. She was searching in her purse again, her head down. She was leaning too far forward in the chair. For just a moment, it seemed like she might fall to the floor, but Paul caught her at the last moment, putting his arm around her, shoring her up. He whispered something in her ear and Abigail numbly nodded her head. She looked up at the people crowding in on her, the crush of humanity seeking to drain every emotion from her face. Her mouth opened for air. The camera flashes blinked wildly. Will could almost hear the reporters trying to come up with adjectives for the captions: devastated, crushed, mournful, broken. Amanda’s plan had worked beautifully. Abigail had swayed them all without even saying a word.
More questions were allowed, each asking for details that Amanda skillfully sidestepped. Some were valid—they pressed again on what clues had been found, what progress had been made. Some were meant to be inflammatory, like the man who asked again whether or not this was the work of a sadistic serial killer who was “targeting affluent young girls.”
Amanda gave them nothing, rapping her knuckles on the podium like a judge ending a court session, then leading the Campanos off the stage.
Another barrage of photographs were taken as Amanda followed the parents back toward the exit. Abigail could barely walk on her own. She leaned into Paul like a crutch. The reporters kept their distance, not crowding the group. If Will didn’t know any better, he would have sworn they were being respectful.
Outside, Amanda made all the right noises. She took Abigail’s hand, saying, “You did perfectly.”
Abigail nodded, obviously not trusting herself to speak. The ordeal had taken the last bit of strength out of her.
Amanda said, “The second call from the kidnapper is in three hours. I’ll be with you at the house.”
Paul said, “Thank you.”
Amanda shook Paul’s hand. She gave Will a sharp look. “My office. Ten minutes.”
He nodded, and she walked off toward the stairs.
For the first time since this had all started, Paul seemed concerned about his wife. “Are you okay?”
“I just got a little too warm,” she murmured, hand covering her stomach.
Will offered, “There’s a bathroom down here.”
She didn’t look at him. Still leaning on her husband, she made her way to the ladies’ room. Outside the door, she put her hand to his face, then his chest. “I’m okay.”
“You sure?”
She pressed her fingertips to his mouth, then went into the bathroom. Paul stood outside, facing the closed door as if he could still see her.
Will found himself feeling something like jealousy, coupled with confusion. How could someone like Abigail love Paul? How could she have a child with this man? He’d never been attractive, but Paul had let himself go over the years. He’d put on more than a few pounds. His hairline was receding. This, coupled with his roving eye, did not exactly make him a catch. What did she see in him that was attractive?
And why was it that even after almost thirty years had passed, Will was still comparing himself to the bastard?
Paul let out a long sigh. He walked a few feet away, then turned on his heel and walked back, as if keeping sentry. Will put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall, wondering why he kept ending up outside the ladies’ room.
Paul stopped. He indicated his own face, asking, “Does it hurt?”
Their fight the day before was the last thing on Will’s mind, though the bruise that spanned the bridge of Will’s nose and ran under his eyes was reminiscent of an Egyptian Pharaoh. Instead of answering the man, Will looked down at the ground, noting that his shoes were badly scuffed.
“Here.” Paul held out the stack of photographs that Will had spotted in Abigail’s purse. All of them, he knew, would show Emma in various stages of happiness. “My wife wanted you to have these.” He did not look at the photos. “She wanted you to know what Emma looks like.”
Will took the photos, but did not look at them, either. The girl’s face was already seared into his mind. He did not need more visual cues.
Paul lowered his voice. “You hit back a lot harder than you used to.”
Will tried not to take that as a compliment.
“Anyway,” Paul said, but nothing else followed.
Will could not stop himself. “You’re a dumb bastard to cheat on her.”
“I know.”
“She’s too good for you.”
“I can’t look at her.” He kept his tone low, mindful his wife was on the other side of the door. “You heard her yesterday. I know she blames me.”
Will felt his radar come on. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No,” Paul told him. “Believe me, I wish there was. I wish there was some guy out there I pissed off, or somebody I fucked over, who I could point to. I’d beat the shit out of the fucker.”
“What about this girl you’re seeing?”
“She’s a woman,” Paul said, putting emphasis on the word. “It’s a casual thing. She works at the dealership. She was there when I was talking to Abby—when all of this started.”
“Is she married?”
“No.”
“Does she have a jealous ex-boyfriend?”
Paul shook his head. “She lives with her parents. She knows I’m married. She was just looking for some fun. Trust me, she’s had fun like this before. Lots of times before.”
“I’m still going to need to talk to her.”
“I’ll write down—” He stopped himself. “Give me your business card. I’ll tell her to call you as soon as I get home.”
Will took out his wallet and fished around for a card. “You won’t listen to me, so listen to your father-in-law. Let us handle this. We know what we’re doing. I know what I’m doing.”
Paul looked at Will’s business card, his eyes moving back and forth over the words. His voice was barely more than a whisper when he spoke. “You and me—we lived that life. We knew that there was always a bad guy around the corner. With Em, I thought it would be different. You saw my house, man. I’m a fucking millionaire. I’ve got more money than I know what to do with.” He stopped, his emotions catching up with him, tears flooding into his eyes. “I’d give it all up if I could have my little girl back.”
Will was uncomfortable being in the position to assure the man that everything was going to be okay, not least of all because they both knew better.
“Fuck me,” Paul whispered, sniffing, wiping his eyes. “I’m like a fucking girl here.”
Will looked back at his shoes. He’d paid seventy-five dollars for them a year ago. Maybe he should get some new ones. He looked at Paul’s shoes. They gleamed as if they’d been freshly polished. He probably had people who did that. At night, he put his shoes in the closet all scuffed, and then in the morning they were perfect again. Or maybe he just bought new ones when the old ones got marked up. How many hand-me-down shoes had they both suffered through at the children’s home? Pinched toes, blistered heels. If Will had Paul’s money, he’d have a new pair of shoes for every day of his life.
Paul let out another stream of breath, oblivious to Will’s observations. “I’ve been letting myself think about all the bad things he could be doing to her.”
Will nodded. Paul would know firsthand the nasty things men could think to do to children. Will had seen the scars, the bruises. He had heard Paul screaming in the middle of the night.
“You’re the only one I can talk to about this kind of shit.”
“Abigail doesn’t know?”
“She’s still with me, isn’t she?”
Will could hear the shame in the man’s tone. It was a familiar sound to his ears. He looked back up at Paul. “Why did you hate me so much when we were kids?”
“I dunno, Tr
ash, it was a long time ago.”
“I mean it, Paul. I want to know.”
Paul shook his head, and Will thought that was the only answer he was going to get until the man said, “You had it down, Trash. You knew how to do the time.”
“What do you mean?”
“You just accepted it. Being there, trapped at the home for the rest of your life. Not ever having anybody.” He stared at Will as if he still could not believe it. “You were content.”
Will thought about all the visiting days, all the times he combed his hair and changed into his best clothes and prayed that some couple would see him coloring pictures or playing on the swing and think, “That’s him. That’s the boy we want for our son.” No one did. No one ever did. That wasn’t contentment, that was resignation.
He told Paul, “It wasn’t like that at all.”
“That’s how you made it seem. Like you didn’t need anybody. Like you could handle everything. Like you were fine with whatever they gave you.”
“It was the exact opposite.”
“Maybe it was,” Paul admitted. “You know, when you’re a kid, you see things differently.”
Will heard the words come out of his mouth before he could stop himself. “I’m going to get Emma back for you.”
Paul nodded, obviously not trusting himself to speak.
“You’re going to have to be strong for her. That’s what you need to be thinking about: how you can help her.” Will added, “She’s got you, Paul. That’s the difference. Whatever she’s going through right now, she’s got you waiting at the end of it to help her.”
“I wish I could be strong,” he said. “I feel so fucking weak right now.”
“You’re not weak. You were the meanest bastard in a house full of bastards.”
“No, buddy.” He seemed resigned as he patted Will on the shoulder. “I was just the most scared.”
Behind the door, the sink turned on, water flooding out of the faucet. The paper towel dispenser screeched as the crank turned, then the door opened. Abigail’s makeup had been fixed, her lipstick reapplied.
“Okay,” Paul said, more to himself. He reached out his hand and she took it, nothing awkward in the gesture. Will led them down the hall and pressed the call button. Abigail had her head on Paul’s shoulder, her eyes closed as if she was willing herself to get through this. When the doors slid open, Will reached in and pressed his code into the keypad. Emma’s parents got on.
Paul gave him a stiff nod—not a thank-you, but an acknowledgment that Will was there.
Abigail didn’t give Will a second glance as the doors closed.
Will looked down at the photographs in his hand. Emma Campano smiled back at him in a toothy grin. He thumbed through the pictures. In some, she was with her parents. Others showed her with Kayla Alexander. Younger shots showed Emma with a group of girls in the school choir, another group on a skiing trip. She seemed even more vulnerable with a group than when she was alone, as if she could feel her separateness, her outsider status, as keenly as the prick of a pin. He saw in her eyes the trepidation of a kindred spirit.
Will tucked the photos into his pocket and headed toward the stairs.
Amanda’s corner office was on the opposite side of the building from Will’s and a lifetime away from the squalor in which he toiled. Ahead was the ubiquitous view of the Home Depot parking lot. Up the street, the city loomed—skyscrapers, regal old buildings and in the mist-covered distance, the greenery of Piedmont Park.
Her desk was not the requisitioned metal type whose sharp corners had taken out more than one poor civil servant’s kneecap. Polished wood gleamed from under her leather blotter with its pink phone messages Caroline had left her. Her in and out trays were always empty. Will had never seen a speck of dust in the place.
Pictures of Amanda with various dignitaries hung alongside newspaper articles touting her triumphs. The walls were painted a soothing gray. The ceiling was made of crisp white squares rather than the dingy, water-stained tiles that were the hallmark of every other office in the building. She had an LCD TV and her own coffee bar. The air really was better up here.
“Get you anything?” Caroline, Amanda’s secretary, asked. She was the only woman who worked on Amanda’s team. Will supposed this was because Amanda had come up during the age of tokenism, when there was only one spot for a woman at the top. Or maybe it was because Amanda knew that men were easier for her to control.
“No, thank you,” he said. “Did Amanda tell you we’re—”
“Expecting a phone call?” she interrupted.
“Thanks.”
She smiled and returned to her desk outside the office.
Will had called Evan Bernard, Emma’s reading teacher, first thing this morning. The man had agreed to look at the threatening notes that Adam Humphrey had been sent. As Faith had suggested, Will was hoping the teacher could give his opinion as to whether or not they were looking at the work of a dyslexic. A cruiser had been dispatched to show him copies of the letters. Bernard was supposed to call as soon as he got them.
Will checked the time on his splintered cell phone, wondering where Amanda was. The numbers didn’t glow as brightly. Sometimes it rang when someone called, sometimes it flashed silently. Earlier, it had started vibrating for no apparent reason, and he had to take out the battery to get it to stop. He was worried about the phone, which was three years old and about three million models out of date. A new one would require him to learn a whole new set of directions. He would have to change over all the numbers and program in the functions. There went his vacation. Or maybe not. You needed a job to take a vacation.
“Looks like we’re getting good feedback from the press,” Amanda said, breezing into her office. “Paul Campano denied getting into a scuffle with you. He said it was an accident, that you fell.”
Will had stood when she entered the room and he was so shocked that he forgot to sit back down.
“Hamish Patel and his big mouth say otherwise.” Amanda eyed him as she fanned through the notes on her desk. “I’m going to guess from your appearance that Campano took a swing at you?”
Will sat down. “Yeah.”
“And I gather from the black eyes and swollen nose that you valiantly suffered his blows?”
Will tried, “If that’s what Hamish says.”
“Care to tell me why he took the swing in the first place?”
Will told her a favorable version of the truth. “The last thing I said to him before he hit me was that we needed a DNA sample.”
“That puts it nicely back on me.”
He asked, “Did Paul give the sample?”
“Yes, actually. So, either he’s extremely arrogant or he’s innocent.”
Will would’ve bet on both, but he still could not believe that Paul had covered for him. He hadn’t even hinted at the favor less than half an hour ago. Maybe this was the man’s way of paying him back for being such a jerk all those years ago. Or maybe he was still the same old Paul who liked to settle his scores when the adults weren’t watching.
“What about his affairs?”
“I called the dealership as soon as I got back to my office. If she doesn’t get back to me by noon, I’ll send a squad car to pick her up.” Will had to add, “My gut tells me Paul doesn’t have anything to do with this. Maybe if it was just a simple kidnapping—but it’s not.”
“We’ll know soon enough,” Amanda said. “I’ve fast tracked the comparison between Paul Campano and the DNA we found on Kayla Alexander. Beckey Keiper at the lab is going to call you as soon as the results are in.”
“I sent a cruiser over to Emma’s school,” Will said, barely able to get past his shock. “Bernard should be calling us any minute.”
“It’s extremely ironic that our resident dyslexic can’t tell us, isn’t it?”
Will tried not to squirm in his chair. He had called his boss at home only one other time in the last ten years, and that was to tell her that a colleague had be
en killed. Last night, she had been even icier to him when he’d explained that he had been unable to see anything unusual about the notes someone, probably the killer, had slipped under Adam Humphrey’s dorm room door.
He cleared his throat. “If you want my resignation—”
“When you leave this job it’ll be with my foot up your ass, not slinking out the door like a wounded kitten.” She sat back in her chair. “God dammit, Will.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it right now.” She twisted the screw tighter. “Those letters are the first pieces of real evidence we have. ‘Leave her alone.’ ‘She belongs to me.’ Those are direct threats from our killer to one of our victims. If this is the work of someone with some kind of handicap—that’s our blood in the water, Will. We should have been circling this information as soon as we got it.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Where would we be right now in this case if you had followed up on the spelling yesterday afternoon instead of first thing this morning?” She didn’t let him answer. “We’re going on three days here. Three days. I don’t have to tell you what that means.”
“What else do you want me to say?”
For once, she seemed to be at a loss for words. The condition was fleeting. “We’re burning daylight. When is this teacher supposed to call?”
“The cruiser should be there any minute.”
“What time is Gordon Chew supposed to be here?”
She meant the fingerprint expert from Tennessee. “Around eight-thirty. He was going to drive down first thing this morning.”
“He drove down last night,” she said, but didn’t elaborate. “What do we have?”
“A lot of nothing,” Will told her. “Charlie found fibers and footprints at the Ansley Park house, but we need someone or something to match them to before we can use them.” The gray dirt Charlie had found also came to mind, but he kept that information to himself, hoping against hope that something came of it. He cleared his throat before continuing. “The ransom call yesterday came from Kayla Alexander’s phone. It bounced off a cell tower that covers most of north Atlanta on up to Kennesaw Mountain.”
The Will Trent Series 7-Book Bundle Page 65
