Once a Father

by Marie Ferrarella

Concern began to nudge at him. Adam shut the door, thinking.

  If Tracy had gone out for a walk with Jake, she would have taken the pig with them. She was adamant about giving the animal as much exercise as she could, because of the erratic hours she’d been keeping lately. She never knew when she’d be around for the pet and it made her feel guilty to neglect the animal.

  He looked down at the pet, who hadn’t moved since he’d come in. “You know where she is?”

  Shaking his head, Adam laughed to himself. Now she had him talking to a pig. The woman had turned his entire life on its ear and for some reason, it was bothering him less and less each day.

  Petunia went into high gear, obviously after something she couldn’t secure.

  “Hey, hey, what are you doing? There are no truffles growing in my carpet. What are you digging at?” He knelt down to move the pig aside, away from whatever it was that had caught her fancy.

  Something shiny embedded in the short shag strands flashed at him.

  Picking it up, he stared at the item.

  It was the pin he saw some of the policemen wearing. Flipping it over, he saw that the backing was missing, as if it’d caught on something and had been pulled off. Adam closed his hand over it. He knew this wasn’t here this morning.

  “Now what’s this doing here?”

  An uneasy feeling began to weave its way through him as he finally rose to his feet. The only people he’d seen wearing the pin, apart from that Brannigan woman who oversaw the Country Club, were policemen. Had any of them been here? Or was he just getting carried away?

  Agitated, Adam stepped outside his door again, looking toward Tracy’s spot, to make sure he hadn’t just imagined her car being there.

  He hadn’t. It looked as if it hadn’t moved since she’d arrived this morning.

  Had the police come while he’d been at the fire station? But why? And why hadn’t Tracy left him some kind of a note telling him where she’d be? She knew he was coming back early.

  Adam turned, about to go back in to get his jacket and drive around the complex on the outside chance that she had gone for a walk. Who knew, maybe the pig had committed some kind of transgression and she was punishing her. With Tracy, he was never sure of anything.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mrs. Wells trudging along, her arms wrapped around a large box. She was carrying it to the Dumpster located just beyond the block of mailboxes next to his door.

  Releasing the doorknob, Adam quickly crossed to her. Maybe she’d seen Tracy leave with Jake. The woman prided herself on missing nothing.

  “Here,” he took the box from her, “let me take that for you.”

  Relieved, the small, squat woman blew out a breath. She beamed her thanks at him, the wrinkles on her face folding themselves over and over again.

  “You’re such a gentlemen, Mr. Collins. Not like some of the others around here.” she looked accusingly over her shoulder at another apartment. “The old coot from 191 came out to get his newspaper and saw me struggling with this. Man just looked the other way.” She snorted. “Probably too busy with that tart he’s got in his apartment. Mind you—”

  He normally let her rattle on while his mind drifted elsewhere, but he needed answers. “Mrs. Wells, did you happen to see a policeman earlier?”

  She looked at him, happy to be able to impart the information he wanted. It was the first time he’d ever asked her anything.

  Amanda Wells preened. “I surely did. He went in a little while after you left. Then he came out again about eight, ten minutes later. Took your lady friend and the boy with him.” She raised her brows at him, requesting input. “Friend of yours?”

  There was no one on the police force he was friends with, certainly no one who would come to his apartment. This didn’t make any sense. “Not that I know of. What did he look like?”

  She shook her head sadly. “Didn’t get too good a look. The phone started ringing and it distracted me,” she confessed, then proceeded to knock his socks off with the description she didn’t think to be detailed. “Tall, thin, dirty blond hair cropped short like a soldier’s, shoulders that looked as if they’d cave in at any minute.” She paused, remembering. “Walked with a limp, I think.”

  The woman was a positive camera, he thought. She’d just described one of the two policemen who’d tried to question Jake in the hospital. If he’d come around to see if the boy was about to answer any questions yet, why would he take them to the police station? Jake couldn’t talk. And even if he had taken them to the police station, why hadn’t Tracy left a note to let him know?

  Mrs. Wells stopped beside the enclosure that framed the Dumpster. It represented the complex management’s attempt to keep the surroundings aesthetically pleasing. She cocked her head, peering at him as he tossed in her box.

  “She in some kind of trouble, your lady friend?” The eager curiosity in her voice was unsuppressed.

  God, I hope not. He dusted off his hands. “I guess I’ll have to go down to the police station and find that out. Thanks for the information.”

  The round, almost elfin face sank into a deep frown as Adam began to walk away.

  “Didn’t look as if they were going to the police station,” she called after him. “I had to answer the phone, but when I got back, I saw the squad car going in the opposite direction. West.”

  And the police station was directly east from here, he thought. Where the hell was the man going with them? Adam turned around to look at Mrs. Wells, something cold squeezing his heart. “West? There’s nothing out there but the woods.”

  She thought for a moment. “Maybe he was taking them to the cabin.”

  “Cabin?”

  Amanda Wells nodded, her beige-tinted hair fluttering in the breeze. “Chief’s got a cabin out there. Has these big barbecues for all his men once or twice a year. Well, most of his men,” she amended. She straightened a little before him, puffing up her more than ample chest. “My John and I used to go before he retired.” And then she sighed forlornly. Her husband had been dead for a little more than two years. “Now, of course, I don’t get to go anywhere any more—except to the Dumpster and back.”

  He ignored the dramatic performance and cut to the heart of the matter. For reasons that were beyond him, something was horribly wrong and every minute might count. “Do you know where this cabin is?”

  The smug smile was back. She knew what people said about her behind her back, that she was a gossip, a snoop, but that just wasn’t so. She just liked knowing things. Nothing wrong with that. Look how eager the young fireman was to find out all she knew.

  “Somewhere by the creek,” she told him. “There are mountains in the background. You follow the road until it disappears. Have to leave the car some fifty yards away. The incline gets too steep.” Finished, she sighed again. “Can’t be any more specific than that.”

  It was a great deal more than he’d known a few minutes ago. Without Mrs. Wells, he wouldn’t have known where to start, much less where to go. In a burst of enthusiasm that was completely foreign to him, he grasped the small woman by her shoulders and kissed her soundly on the mouth.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Wells, I owe you more than you could possibly know.”

  Overwhelmed, she began to fan herself as she tried to refocus again. “But you’ll tell me, right?” she asked eagerly. “Everything?”

  “Every last blessed detail,” he promised. “Just as soon as I get back.”

  She smiled to herself, running small, pudgy fingers over her lips.

  Adam rushed back into his apartment to get his car keys from the kitchen table where he’d thrown them. He still had a lot of territory to cover, but at least he knew where to start.

  Turning to grab his jacket, he nearly tripped over Petunia. Steadying himself, Adam looked down at the animal.

  Petunia.

  A thought suddenly came to him. Hell, it was just crazy enough to work.

  “Okay, pig, Tracy says you can find her almost anywher
e. We’re going to play a really elaborate game of hide and seek. I promise if you find her, you never have to dig for another truffle again for the rest of your life.”

  Looking around, he saw the animal’s leash on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. He picked it up and hooked the leash onto Petunia’s collar. He would have felt a lot better if he’d had a bloodhound to depend on, but there wasn’t time to try to round one up. The pig was going to have to do.

  He went to the bedroom to retrieve something that belonged to Tracy.

  Tracy’s scalp tingled. Time was moving by as if in slow motion, despite the fact that they were going well over the speed limit. They had been ever since they’d left Mission Creek behind.

  They were heading deep into the woods.

  If the policeman meant to kill them and dump their bodies, no one was going to find them for a very long time. No one knew where they were.

  What if Adam didn’t find the pin she left? What if Petunia ate it? The pig didn’t have a taste for metal, but that could change.

  She upbraided herself for not grabbing Jake’s hand and trying to get away while they were still in the apartment complex. But the fear of having Jake hurt had stopped her. The look in his eyes had reflected sheer terror. She knew that he was counting on her to get him out of this.

  If only she could.

  “You don’t have to do this,” she told Bancroft. “Whatever you’re involved in can’t compare to what you’re planning to do.” She didn’t want to say the word murder, afraid of upsetting Jake even more. But that was what this amounted to.

  “You have no idea what I’m involved in,” he snapped at her. Damn it, how had everything gotten so fouled up? “Look, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

  If he was sorry, if he was having any kind of regrets, maybe she could still get to him. “Then don’t do anything to be sorry for.”

  “It’s too late for that.”

  They were close. He knew the signs even though the cabin wasn’t visible from here. They were going to have to leave the car as soon as the road ended.

  Bancroft sighed, relieved. There was a phone at the cabin and he could call Malloy. His part in all this would be over with soon.

  And then he was going to have to explain to Stone why he hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger. He could feel his armpits sticking together with sweat despite the cold day. The chief didn’t like anyone disobeying orders. Maybe Malloy could be bribed to keep his mouth shut.

  He stopped the car.

  Instantly alert, Tracy reached over the back of the seat and grasped Jake’s hand. The boy’s fingers were like ice. He didn’t need this. It wasn’t fair. He’d already gone through so much more than a boy his age usually endured.

  “Why are we stopping here?”

  “To take in the view,” Bancroft snapped. “Why the hell don’t you stop asking so many questions?”

  “I just want to know where we are.”

  “It’s not going to make a difference to you.” It wasn’t his nature to terrorize women and children. What the hell had happened to him? He pushed back his hat and mopped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “This is just a place I know. You’ll have to stay here for a while.”

  A while. The phrase echoed in her head. Maybe he wasn’t planning on killing them after all. Maybe this was some kind of elaborate kidnapping plot.

  She looked at Jake. Once the matter of finances was settled and the red tape untangled, the boy was going to be worth a lot of money, far more than she surmised the policeman was destined to see in his lifetime.

  Maybe Bancroft just wanted to ransom the boy. She clung to the thought. It bought them time.

  “And then what?” she prodded.

  His patience snapped. “Stop asking so many damn questions.”

  Getting out, his gun drawn, Bancroft hurried around the hood and grabbed Jake before Tracy had the opportunity to get the boy out of the squad car and make a run for it. He held the boy before him like a moving target.

  “Walk,” he ordered. “Get in front of me where I can see you.”

  “I don’t know which way to go,” she said innocently.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll guide you.”

  Fear had a very real grip around her insides. With slow, precise steps, she began to walk. Patches of snow and ice pockmarked the area, cracking beneath her boots.

  Adam drove his car as far as the road would allow him. Petunia was in the back, doing who knew what to his upholstery. He knew that anyone watching would have thought he’d lost his mind if they knew what he was attempting to do: track down a boy and a woman using a pig that had a fondness for both and a weakness for the truffles Tracy seemed to be endlessly producing out of her pocket.

  Maybe he had lost his mind. He was expecting an order of pork loin on the hoof to act like Lassie.

  Adam sighed. He didn’t even know if Tracy and Jake were even out here. But he’d never known Mrs. Wells to be wrong. The woman was a human blotter for any and all information that came her way, retaining everything.

  He made a mental note to take the older woman out on the town if he found Tracy and Jake.

  When, he corrected adamantly. When.

  Stopping the car, he got out and opened the rear door. Petunia jumped out far more daintily than her species warranted.

  He picked up the strap winding it around his hand. “This had better work,” he told the potbellied pig. “Okay, find Tracy,” he said, the way he had the last time Tracy had insisted on demonstrating the pig’s abilities to him. Then she’d hidden in a closet. This place was a hell of a lot bigger than a closet.

  Bending down, he held out Tracy’s sweater in front of Petunia’s snout.

  To his undying amazement, the pig took off. Petunia seemed to know exactly what to do.

  No one was ever going to believe this.

  He didn’t even know if he did. Holding on tightly to the leash, he followed the animal. Right past the squad car parked to the left of a heavily wooded area. A second one caught his eye, parked a little farther away.

  Something was definitely wrong.

  Adam recalled Mrs. Wells’s description, that the cabin was some fifty yards ahead. But in which direction? Just then, Petunia pulled hard on her leash, squealing. She’d caught the scent of truffles, although he had no idea how.

  And then he saw it.

  The cabin. With the mountains behind it and a stream running not too far away from its location.

  Stunned, Adam blessed all the strange beings who had come into his life to make this discovery possible.

  Chapter 15

  Adam made his way to the incline slowly, wishing he had brought a gun with him. But at least he had the element of surprise on his side, he consoled himself.

  That, and a pig.

  Somehow, he was going to have to figure out a way to use at least one of the two to his advantage. He looked around for some sort of a weapon to arm himself with. There were several broken branches lying on the ground, probably victims of the last electrical storm by the looks of some of the severed areas. He picked up one he felt he could swing hard.

  It wasn’t much, but then again, with the element of surprise working for him, it just might be enough.

  The incline was even steeper than he’d thought. Mrs. Wells hadn’t exaggerated. Worse than that, he’d be exposed, out in the open the entire way down.

  All he could do was hope that whoever the squad cars belonged to weren’t looking out the window when he came down. Once he was on flat ground again, there was a line of trees around the perimeter of the cabin. He could use those for cover until he was right at the cabin, ready to make his move.

  Whatever that was going to be.

  He looked at the pig. If he were to take a guess, he’d say she was going to have trouble going down.

  “How surefooted are you? Or is that just for goats?” Petunia was still straining at the leash. He hoped that Tracy had been right about the pig being able to
track her anywhere.

  Deciding not to take a chance on having the pig slide and pull him all the way down to the bottom along with her, Adam picked Petunia up and started his descent. Mentally, he crossed his fingers.

  There were two of them now. And whatever chance she thought she and Jake might have with Bancroft, Tracy knew no such chance existed with the second man. If the eyes were the windows to the soul, the man surely had none. His eyes were as dead as a raided tomb.

  Nervous, her mind scrambling for a way out, Tracy was sitting on the chair where the policeman had ordered her to sit, holding Jake on her lap. Her arms were wrapped around him protectively.

  The second man, wearing civilian clothes, had arrived only a few minutes ago and her blood had run cold when he’d looked at them.

  Belatedly, she recognized him from the hospital. He was the second policeman, the one who had leered at her. Who had gotten too incensed when she’d told them to leave.

  This wasn’t about kidnapping anymore, if it ever had been. This was about something far more deadly. They meant to kill them, here, in this two-story cabin that looked so cozy.

  She thought of what Jake had told her just before the policeman had come to the apartment. This had to have something to do with what he’d seen at the country club. But what?

  Tracy tried to make sense of what he’d said. Jake had told her that he’d seen some men dragging sacks out of the security room to a truck in the parking lot. What was it that they’d been dragging? Money? Things they’d stolen from the country club, or the members who frequented it? Maybe while the members were at the club, enjoying themselves, these men, whoever they were, went to their homes and stole things.

  But that didn’t make sense. Why bring the things to the club? And she hadn’t heard of a rash of break-ins.

  Maybe what had been in the bags was a body that had been cut up. No, that would have left a trail of blood that Jake would undoubtedly have noticed.

  None of this was making any sense. What was in the bags? And who were the men Jake had seen?

  She looked at her captors as they stood off to the side, talking, their voices low and menacing. Were these two men a part of whatever it was that Jake had seen? They obviously were afraid of what they thought he’d seen. Afraid that he could expose them. A cold shiver slid down her spine.