by Cara Putman
CHAPTER 50
SATURDAY, APRIL 22
Asurge of satisfaction flooded Andrew as he moved around the fair. While the area only covered a couple blocks, it overflowed with families and smiles. The event was bringing people together. If this built unity and defrayed the sense of isolation many immigrating families had, it would be worthwhile.
He moved through the crowd, stopping to say hi and a quick word to each person he passed. On occasion he introduced families, and could hear continued conversations behind when he moved to the next.
It was the coming together he’d prayed for.
He passed a bounce house and smiled at the shrill happiness erupting inside.
“Looks like you’re a politician after all.” Senator Wesley strode up, a big grin on his face. “Your mother wanted to see your shindig for herself. You’ve done well, son.”
Andrew allowed the words to wash over him. “Thank you, sir.”
“We can’t stay too long, but I’m glad we could stop.” His father did a slow one-eighty where he stood. “This is impressive. Did you organize it all?”
“Oh no.” Andrew quickly recounted the various sources of help. “I’d say I managed the process, but that was Emilie’s doing.”
“How is she?”
“Hanging around the game booths. Stubborn gal won’t leave the work to us.”
“Then give her management. It always works for me.”
Andrew’s mom walked up to them, looking elegant in a navy pantsuit with a colorful scarf adorned with butterflies looped around her neck. “Nice job, Andrew.”
“Thank you. I didn’t expect you to come.”
“Nonsense.” His mother leaned in for an air kiss and smiled. “This is a worthy cause and a great photo op.”
Andrew groaned. “Mom, that’s not what this is for.” Activity over by the tables where his board was serving the foil-wrapped hot dogs and bottles of water snagged Andrew’s attention. “Excuse me.”
As he neared the tables, Hayden hurried up to him, her face pale and strained. “Have you seen Jorge?”
Hayden fought to keep her voice low. The last thing she wanted was to create a scene and cause a panic. Jorge had been beside her one minute, and the next he was gone.
She frantically scanned the crowd as she waited for Andrew’s answer.
His parents had followed him, and he turned to them. “Mom, Dad, I need to help Hayden.”
“Sure.” Senator Wesley seemed unabashed by her edge of panic. “If you see Lilith, tell her we’ll be ready to leave in fifteen minutes.”
Andrew nodded, then led Hayden to the side under a shade tree. “What do you mean ‘where’s Jorge’?”
Hayden didn’t seem to hear him. “So that’s why Lilith is here.”
“You’ve seen her?”
“Yes, and she sticks out. She was looking for someone . . . probably your parents.” She forced her shoulders down from her ears, but couldn’t get her body to relax. Something was terribly wrong.
Andrew, with his extra height, looked over the heads of the crowd. “I think I see Jorge.” Then he frowned. “Why is he going with Lilith? Come on.”
He took off at a quick clip, and Hayden hurried to keep pace.
Hayden stood on her tiptoes and bounced, trying to see where Lilith was taking Jorge. “Looks like they’re headed toward the parking lot.”
Just then a large Hispanic man stepped in front of her, cutting her off from Andrew, who didn’t seem to notice. Hayden side-stepped around the man, intent on keeping Jorge in view, but then froze as she noticed the man’s tattoo: a snake that twisted up his neck. This man looked like the one the kid on the bench in the courtyard at the juvenile detention center had described. Could he be the man from the Cherry Blossom Festival and the hospital, too? He was large, intimidating, with the right kind of tattoo. What was he doing here? She picked up her pace trying to think. She pulled her cell from her pocket and prepared to hit the emergency button. What could she tell the dispatcher? A man was following her in a crowd? It would take too long to explain why that mattered.
She hurried away, but when she glanced back the man walked toward her. Steady. Determined. With an edge of brutality. Hayden shivered and kept moving. She looked around for Andrew and saw he’d been stopped by someone new, so that left her to get Jorge.
Hayden dialed Andrew’s number, and prayed he’d hear the tone as she continued searching for Jorge. He didn’t pick up, so she ended the call.
She ran from the man. “Jorge.” Hayden yelled as she ran, and Jorge’s head turned as if he wanted to find her. “Wait for me, buddy.”
The Hispanic man kept coming, his face frozen in an intent mask. She needed to get help now. She’d have to explain why she knew he was after Jorge and her later. She pushed the emergency button as she searched for the boy.
Hayden ducked into a family group walking the same direction as she scanned the area for Jorge and waited for the dispatcher to connect. The parking lot looked empty as she jogged into it, so she headed to the black SUV that looked similar to the one the congressman and his entourage had used in Texas. As she stepped forward, Lilith stepped out of the shadows between the vehicles. “Time to get in the vehicle, Miss Priss.” A gun pointed from her grip.
Hayden frantically looked around as she held her hands up. Could the dispatcher hear anything if they’d finally picked up? “Where’s Jorge?”
“In the back. Cooperate and you can join him.”
“What do you want with a young immigrant boy?”
“Get in the car.”
Lilith cocked the hammer on her gun and waved it toward the vehicle. “Drop your phone.”
Hayden hesitated and then Lilith pointed the gun at the vehicle’s back door. “I’ll shoot.” Her words were cold, and Hayden hurried to comply even as she knew dropping the phone ended her hopes of alerting the police.
Lilith waved toward the door. “Climb in. It’s your choice: easy way or hard.”
“Easy.” At least for the moment, while she formulated a plan. Hayden obeyed, relieved to find Jorge on the floorboards. Then she saw a welt rising across his cheek and lips. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing serious. Just what was necessary to gain his cooperation.”
Hayden pulled the boy next to her on the seat and turned her full glare on Lilith, who was already pulling from the parking slot. “You’ll pay for taking us.”
“Not anything like the price I’ll get when I get this kid’s father what he wants.”
Jorge clamped his lips together at her words, but a whimper escaped.
“His father isn’t here.”
“Au contraire. I’m meeting him at Theodore Roosevelt Island at two thirty. I doubt he’ll want you, but that’s up to him. Maybe I’ll get a reward for bringing both of you.”
Hayden’s mind was racing. How could she escape with Jorge?
She took a deep breath and said a prayer for guidance and peace. “Why are you doing this, Lilith?”
“A very powerful man told me to jump, and my only response could be ‘how high.’” The words were matter-of-fact, brooking no argument.
“Why would a man like that be able to tell you what to do? You’re an accomplished woman with a good career on Capitol Hill.” Yet here she was, wielding a gun and kidnapping.
Lilith took a turn and plummeted down the hill from Fairlington toward Shirlington. In the distance Hayden could see the Pentagon and beyond that the DC landmarks. A city filled with power, yet Hayden was powerless to get help. Jorge shifted against the seat, his eyes wide. Hayden had to make sure he stayed calm. The car was plummeting too fast down the hill for her to try to get out, but that could change.
“You think you’re better than me, but you’re wrong. One secret, that’s all I need.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ask Andrew. One secret can make people do anything I want. So when someone asks me to do something and they’ll pay me, I listen.”
&nbs
p; Jorge turned his panicked gaze on her, and Hayden reached out and squeezed his arm. We’ll be okay, she mouthed, hoping she could honor that promise even as Lilith’s words confused her. The woman acted like what she said made more sense than it actually did. Then it hit her. “You were the one threatening Andrew about the cartoons.”
“How it stayed unknown is beyond me. Andrew always acts so superior. Not anymore.”
Lilith jerked the wheel to swerve around a minivan turning into an apartment complex, and Hayden slammed into Jorge. “Sorry.” She turned her attention back to Lilith. “Nothing will happen because of that. People expect cartoonists to have opinions.”
“They don’t expect them to be related to a senator.”
Jorge took a breath, and then another, followed by another in quick succession.
“Jorge, look at me.” She couldn’t risk him hyperventilating, not when she might need him to cooperate on an instant’s notice. “Take a deep breath. Like this.” She demonstrated and did it again until he mimicked her. “Good.”
She glanced in the rearview mirror and caught Lilith’s mocking stare. “If he doesn’t have what his daddy wants, he might as well die here.”
“His daddy?”
“Señor Rodriguez pays well when I do what he asks. Tell the boy I’ll let him go if he gives the item to me.”
“No lo tengo.” His words were low and earnest.
Hayden scrambled back to her college Spanish. “You don’t have it?”
He shook his head then glanced toward the front seat. “No lo tengo.”
CHAPTER 51
They had disappeared.
One moment Hayden stood beside him, dodging a large man, and then Andrew had been stopped by one of the college interns. When he turned back around, Hayden and Jorge were gone.
Okay. Take a minute. Assess the situation.
There were a lot of people. The fact that he couldn’t immediately see two in the crowd didn’t create a problem.
Andrew pulled out his cell phone and dialed Hayden’s number before he slowly turned. His height should help him find Hayden in the crowd. Her colorful top would be easy to track, but the small fair area was filled with a kaleidoscope of moving pieces. It was impossible to track one person.
Hayden didn’t answer her phone. In itself not worrisome. The crowd was loud with lots of laughter and yelling from excited kids. Then why did it feel like a gray streak of worry had overshadowed the afternoon?
“Son, have you seen Lilith? She’s supposed to take us to the next event and isn’t responding.” His father shielded his eyes and mimicked the circle Andrew had completed earlier. “It’s not like her to disappear.”
“She’s not the only one disappearing.” Maybe everything was related, like Hayden thought. The question was how. Andrew took off toward the parking lot. He had to find Jorge and Hayden, because something warned him it was urgent.
What was Lilith talking about? What was the thing Jorge didn’t have? Obviously Jorge knew exactly what she meant. Otherwise, he couldn’t insist he didn’t have it.
But what was it?
That was the missing piece of the equation. If Jorge didn’t have whatever it was, then getting out of this by talking could be impossible. Her thoughts scrambled. Whoever broke into Jorge’s apartment was looking for something, and since they hadn’t found it, they now wanted Jorge.
“Is this about Miguel Rodriguez’s father?”
The confused look Lilith gave her in the rearview mirror made it clear the question didn’t make sense to the woman driving this crazy train.
Lilith slowed and turned into Shirlington Village, then parked near the movie theater.
“Do you know how stressful it is to keep the senator organized and on task day after day? Do you know how little he pays me? When Señor Rodriguez asked for a little help and promised a big payday, I agreed. The senator’s planning a presidential campaign, making the Senate race a dress rehearsal. When he asks for something, I get it for him. His passion for immigration reform was the perfect foil for me to learn more about specific immigrants. It worked every time.”
Hayden frantically glanced around and tried the handle of the door, but the child safety locks must have been engaged.
“Why are we here?”
“Killing a minute until my help arrives.”
A small domestic sedan pulled in, its color muddied by a coat of dirt. The man from the fair stepped from the car and then climbed into the SUV. He turned and looked at her and then Jorge, eyes full of intelligence yet empty. “Vamos.”
“Yeah, yeah, big guy.” Lilith pulled back onto the road and soon headed up 395 toward the George Washington Parkway. She executed the turns and in less than fifteen minutes pulled into one of DC’s hidden treasures. After this Hayden doubted she could ever see the peaceful island the same way.
Lilith parked in a small lot. A second, smaller black SUV drove up and stopped next to them. The door opened, and the man who had been the client Gerard was worried to see stepped out. He fastened his jacket button as he scanned the surroundings. He looked like a man who knew exactly what he was looking for, and as his gaze landed on her, Hayden realized he wasn’t surprised to see her with Jorge. Had that been the plan all along?
“Son.” The word lacked warmth.
“Papá.” Jorge’s voice sank as if coming from his toes.
Daniel Rodriguez turned to Lilith, and his face looked like it had been set in flint. “Where is the device?”
Lilith bobbed her head in a quick acknowledgment. “I don’t think the kid has it.”
“Where is it?” He raised a gun and pointed it squarely at Hayden, who refused to flinch even as Jorge tightened into an even smaller ball next to her on the seat.
Hayden held her hands up as confusion raced through her. “Where is what?”
“The information my son stole from me.”
“Miguel? But what did he have?”
“Do not play dumb with me, woman. You are his attorney. You have his belongings. You must have found it.”
Hayden’s mind scrambled. The break-in at Elliott & Johnson had been after Miguel’s backpack arrived. When whatever he wanted wasn’t found, he must have applied pressure to Gerard. If Gerard was as confused as she was, had that confusion led to his death?
“I don’t have it.”
“But you know what I want.” His gun never moved, as if his arm had turned to steel. Then it swiveled to Jorge. “I will kill him if you do not give it to me.”
Hayden’s thoughts scrambled as she positioned herself between Jorge and the gun.
“Don’t be a hero, Hayden. Just give him what he wants.” Lilith stiffened her posture, but Hayden could see the fear in the woman’s eyes. Fear that turned to terror as the man shifted and fired one bullet between her eyes. Lilith folded to the ground without a sound, and Hayden stared in horror as blood seeped into the ground around Lilith.
The sound had been muffled, too silent to draw attention, but she doubted he cared, if he killed a senator’s staffer in such a public way.
CHAPTER 52
Andrew turned to his dad, the ticking of a clock incessant in his ears. “Does Lilith have her government phone?”
“Sure. She always does.”
Andrew’s mom leaned around him. “You know your father expects his staff to be available at all times. You never know when an emergency will arise.”
“Let’s get the find-the-phone app working. I have a really bad feeling about this.”
“I have a bad feeling about your father missing his next event.”
His father patted his mother’s arm, then tucked it through his. “We still have plenty of time. Let’s find Lilith, then worry about that.”
Andrew watched as his father placed a phone call and waited several minutes that felt like they stretched into hours. He said a couple words, then looked up with a frown. “Her phone’s at Theodore Roosevelt Island.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Andrew’s mom
frowned, a pucker developing between her carefully botoxed eyebrows. “That’s twenty minutes from here.”
“Fifteen on a weekend with no big DC events.” Andrew tugged his phone and pulled up the information for Detective Harlan. After a quick introduction, he got right to the point. “This could be off base, but my father’s staffer has disappeared to Teddy Roosevelt Island and we’re concerned. Hayden McCarthy has also disappeared, and I’m wondering if it’s related to what happened to Emilie.”
“I can send a car out there and have the National Park Police meet them.” There was a pause and Andrew could hear scratching. “You were on my list for today. I’ve got a possible suspect for the attack on your cousin. I’d like you to come by and look at a photo.”
“Could you text it to me?”
“I’d rather see your reaction.”
Andrew let the pause lengthen, ready to hand the phone to his dad.
“Fine, I’ll text it, but make sure you let me know if you recognize him.”
A minute later his phone dinged, and Andrew opened the image. It was a rough sketch, but the tattoo twining up the man’s neck convinced him this was the man Jorge had described.
The knot in his stomach tightened, and he turned to his dad. “Do you need a ride anywhere?”
“I’ll get Dan out here. Where are you going?”
“Roosevelt Island.” He looked around the crowd still enjoying the festival. “I’ll get a board member to take over.” He couldn’t leave Hayden and Jorge to deal with whatever trap they had walked into.
Hayden felt the silent scream she couldn’t release echoing in her ears.
Lilith’s shell lay on the ground, the pool of red spreading beneath her head.
Jorge had dropped to the floorboards of the SUV, his arms clamped over his head, curled tight as a ball. Hayden looked around, but there was no place to run. Rodriguez turned back to her, but she kept the tattooed man in her peripheral vision.
“Now you see I am deadly serious.” Rodriguez’s voice was arctic and detached. “Where is the device?”
