He wanted desperately to take Miles with him, but if the kidnappers had wanted Miles, then the boy wouldn’t have been there. If the day care center was being watched—if Boldt was under surveillance … He mired down in uncertainty and paranoia, up to his axles in it. Poisoned with fear, faint and weak, he placed his son down and said to Millie Wiggins, “I didn’t want Miles feeling left out. Thought I should stop by,” hoping this might sound convincing. It fell short. His mind whirred. “It’s one of those mornings where I can’t tell up from down. I even forget where I was when we spoke this morning. Which line did you call?”
“I called nine-one-one, just as you told me,” she reported. “I spoke to you, hung up, and dialed nine-one-one. They put me through.”
The ECC lacked any means to relay a call to headquarters. It was technically impossible. Boldt knew this; Millie Wiggins clearly did not. Her explanation baffled him. “You sure it was nine-eleven—nine-one-one, and not—”
“You told me to call you back on nine-one-one!” she reminded him, viewing him suspiciously.
She had it wrong. It was the only explanation. Why should she remember? he wondered. It was important only to him. Memory played tricks on people.
He declined to push her any further. He felt aimless and lost.
She snapped her fingers. “I almost forgot.” She hurried into the busy room and returned as quickly. She brought her hand up for him to see. “The lady police officer wanted me to give you this. Said it was a private joke, that you’d understand.”
In her outstretched hands she held a dime-store penny whistle.
About the Author
Ridley Pearson is a New York Times bestselling author of crime fiction (Probable Cause, Middle of Nowhere); suspense/horror (The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer); and children’s chapter books (coauthor of Peter and the Starcatchers). His forty-plus novels include Undercurrents, Chain of Evidence, and The Body of David Hayes. In 1991 he became the first American to be awarded the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in detective fiction at Oxford University. Ridley, his wife, Marcelle, and their two daughters currently divide their time between the Midwest and the Northern Rockies.
www.ridleypearson.com
Also by Ridley Pearson
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red
(writing as Joyce Reardon)
Peter and the Starcatchers
(co-written with Dave Barry)
Cut and Run
The Body of David Hayes*
The Art of Deception*
Parallel Lies
Middle of Nowhere*
The First Victim*
The Pied Piper*
Beyond Recognition*
Chain of Evidence
No Witnesses*
The Angel Maker*
Hard Fall
Probable Cause
Undercurrents*
Hidden Charges
Blood of the Albatross
Never Look Back
*features Lou Boldt / Daphne Matthews
WRITING AS WENDELL MCCALL
Dead Aim
Aim for the Heart
Concerto in Dead Flat
SHORT STORIES
“All Over but the Dying” in Diagnosis Terminal,
edited by F. Paul Wilson
“Close Shave” in Murder Is My Racquet,
edited by Otto Penzler
COLLECTIONS
The Putt at the End of the World,
a serial novel
TELEVISION
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer
(Movie, ABC TV, May 2003)
Investigative Reports: Inside AA
(A&E Network, June 2000)
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All characters are works of the author’s imagination; no similarity to persons living or dead is intended. Any factual mistakes or liberties taken are the author’s responsibility—I offer my apologies, up front, for any such errors.
Copyright © 1997, Ridley Pearson
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information address Hyperion, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the original print edition of this book as follows: Pearson, Ridley.
Beyond recognition / by Ridley Pearson. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7868-6240-8
I. Title.
PS3566.E234B4 1997
813’.54—dc20 96-21125
CIP
eBook Edition ISBN: 978-1-4013-0514-7
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First eBook Edition
Original hardcover and mass market editions printed in the United States of America.
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