by Liz Talley
As soon as he heard Annie’s words, he tossed the bag down and sprinted for his car, where he’d left his gun and radio. He put the call out to the station as he rounded the corner of the church, streaking through the festivalgoers who look bewildered by the scene playing out.
He reached Annie at the same time Carter and Tawny did. Annie ran her keys over the plastic restraint on Jane’s wrists.
“Here,” he said, taking a knife from his pocket and slicing through the cuffs easily. “What’s going on?”
Jane turned, flexing her wrists. “I took Spencer to the bathroom. He was in that one.” She pointed to the stall next to her. “I had to go, too, so I called out for him to wait on me.”
Tawny whirled on Brick. “Where were you? You were supposed to stay with him.”
Brick flushed. “I went to get the damn cotton candy he wanted.”
Carter stammered. “I thought you caught the guy. How did this happen?”
Jane shook her head. “I don’t know. I stepped inside and she shoved me from behind. I tried to turn around, but she kneed me in the back of my thighs and slapped a piece of tape over my mouth and I hit my head on the seat.” Jane stopped to shiver. “Then she held the knife to my cheek.”
“Give us a description,” Nate said.
“I don’t know. She had on shorts and a T-shirt with maybe a logo on it? I think her hair was brown. Just plain brown.”
“Plain brown,” Annie said, getting that faraway look he’d seen before.
“I couldn’t see anything else,” Jane said. “But she sounded Southern.”
“Plain brown hair,” Annie repeated looking at Tawny. She tilted her head. “Plain brown. Like mine. Like your sister.”
“Who?”
Tawny’s eyes widened. “Teri? No. She wouldn’t.”
Carter had remained silent, looking ashen and non-Carter-like. “Teri? You think she’s the one who’s been doing this? She’s not smart enough.”
Tawny stiffened. “Yeah, she is, and she’s capable of anything when she’s using. Not to mention she’s pissed at me.”
Jane cocked her head. “You know, she did look a little like you.”
Tawny shook her head. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe it, but it makes sense. The last time I spoke to her, I told her I wasn’t going to send any more money because she used it for meth. She told me it didn’t matter. She had a new man and he had a plan.”
“That bitch,” Carter growled, thrusting a hand into his sunny hair. “When I get ahold of her, she’ll wish she’d stayed her hillbilly ass in Crowder, Arkansas.”
“So how did no one see her?”
Annie looked at the port-o-let. “The woods. That’s why Shaffer was there. He was scouting out the vicinity because they knew about the festival. Knew it would be a good time to take a kid.”
“But Teri didn’t know Spencer would be here,” Tawny interrupted.
“But there was a good chance a kid would show up where there’s cotton candy and bounce houses. They’d probably been scouting out a couple of opportunities.” Nate pulled his radio out, stepped away and called in the description. He put an APB out for the car, basing it on the one he’d seen Shafer driving days before. He was certain the car was a rental or one Teri had borrowed.
He stepped back and looked at Annie. “We’ve got uniforms coming. Bayou Bridge P.D. is patrolling the city limits. She can’t have too much of a jump on us.”
Annie nodded, but then stopped. “Shouldn’t there be a ransom note?”
He turned toward the port-o-let Spencer had used. Sure enough, a piece of paper was stuck to the door, held by duct tape. He left it hanging but read the missive.
Birdie, birdie in the sky
Tawny’s too dumb and let him fly
Leave five hundred grand in the old sugar mill
Or sweet, sweet birdie I’ll have to _____.
No police. No trace. No funny business.
Leave money where they found Della’s shoes.
You’ve got till 5:00.
“Oh, my God, she’s crazy,” Tawny cried, her shoulders shaking with sobs. “How could I let this happen? How did I not know?”
Carter put his arms around his wife. “You didn’t. It’s not your fault, baby. We’re going to get him back.”
Carter Keene’s eyes met Nate’s over the bowed head of his wife. The message was unmistakable. Whatever means necessary. Nate felt a chill run through him. Tawny’s sister knew about Della, about the Dufrenes’ history with kidnapping. Of course, most everyone in the area knew the story. Billy and Sal had left Della’s shoes beside the evaporators as proof they had his sister. Why would Teri set it up there? Was she needling him? Reminding him what he’d lost long ago? Proclaiming a dark harbinger?
The old Dufrene sugar mill was ten miles away. If they could get to Teri before she got to the mill…
“So she took him through the woods. Maybe we can get to her before she gets to the mill. Annie?”
Tawny looked up and blinked. “Why do you keep flippin’ asking Annie what she thinks? She’s a nanny.”
Everyone turned to look at Annie, but she looked caught up in her thoughts. Again.
She cocked her head. “Tawny, this is important. The night Spencer made Play-Doh spaghetti, did you sneak out to meet up with someone? Mick, perhaps?”
Tawny frowned. “Of course not. I don’t even like Mick. He’s been a shit to Jane.”
Jane nodded. “Yeah, he’s pretty much a shit.”
“I took Jane gumbo that night so I could poke around a bit.”
He heard Jane huff, but couldn’t tear his eyes from Annie.
“I had to get gas and saw a woman going into a motel room. The light caught her face, and I thought it was Tawny. She wore a ball cap and looked extremely cautious. But it wasn’t Tawny. It was Teri.”
Tawny looked confused. “Why were you spying on Jane?”
Carter sighed. “Annie’s not a nanny, babe. She’s an undercover private security officer. Former FBI.”
Tawny shoved Carter. “And you didn’t tell me this? Why?”
By this time quite a crowd had gathered. All were whispering low, including Picou, Della and Jason.
Nate turned as Carter tried to soothe his distraught wife and addressed the crowd. “Look, everyone, we need your help. Spencer Keene is missing.” A collective intake of breath came from the crowd. Nate caught his mother’s eyes. They were unfathomable. She’d been here before and she didn’t want to be here now. “He’s five years old and we think he’s with a woman wearing shorts, T-shirt and a ball cap. She has dark hair.”
“I saw them,” Father Benoit said, pointing past the bounce houses still wiggling with jumping children. Already some parents ran toward the inflatables. “She didn’t seem threatening because they were laughing. I thought nothing of it. They walked toward the woods. I stopped watching because Mrs. Honeycutt came to speak to me.”
“Okay, we need some of you to spread out and search the woods. We’re going to treat this as if it’s a missing child until we get more information. Keep a phone with you and if you find anything, call 911.”
Several in the crowd nodded.
He felt Annie before she touched him. “I’m going to the Super Six to see if she’s there. Can you call ahead and get me a key?”
“As soon as Blaine gets here, I’ll follow behind you, but don’t do anything until I get there with backup. She’s likely not there, but if she is, we don’t know what to expect. Get information from the desk clerk, get the key and then wait on me.”
Annie’s eyes flashed irritation. She didn’t like taking orders from him, but she nodded before hurrying off. He felt itchy about letting her go alone, but if she could do the preliminaries with the motel clerk, they’d be clear to search the room when he got there. They wouldn’t need a warrant.
He turned back to his community. “The sheriff’s office and Bayou Bridge P.D. are canvassing the streets. Let’s see what we can do here to help.”
Carter had Tawny back in his arms. “What do we need to do?”
“Get a suitcase. I’ll call my cousin at Community National Bank and get the money…just in case.”
Carter nodded, his eyes determined. “No problem. I’ll cover with a check.”
Nate walked toward his mother. “This isn’t going to happen again.”
His mother grabbed his arm. “I have faith in you, Nate.”
“And I do, too.” Della touched his arm. Somehow her fingers on his arms, so like the ones that had gripped him twenty-four years before in much the same way, gave him strength. He’d gotten his sister back. He’d get Spencer back, too.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ANNIE FELT LIKE AN idiot for not having seen the threads to pull in this case. For God’s sake, she’d heard Tawny tell Carter she’d cut her sister off. Annie hadn’t made the connection and she should have. First rule of law enforcement—suspect the family.
And they had. They just hadn’t found anything on Teri that would make them suspect her of threatening her nephew. Annie should have dug harder, spent more time with Carter and Tawny. Then she would have picked up on Tawny’s relationship with her sister.
Maybe Nate had distracted her.
Nate definitely had distracted her.
She shook her head and concentrated on what she needed to do in the next few minutes, no time to get sidetracked on what she should or should not have done.
The Super Six motel was shoddy and run-down. The lobby had plastic palm trees, badly in need of dusting, and a tired-looking kid slumped behind the check-in desk.
“Need a room?” he asked, not bothering to look up from the phone he held in his hand.
“No, I need a key.”
“What key?” He glanced up and eyed her with spaced-out muddy eyes. “You the chick the police dude called about?”
“Yeah. I’m the chick.”
He nodded. “Cool. Here’s a key. You know how to use it? Just stick it in the card slot.”
Annie took the card. “What room number?”
“Um, let’s see. 162. She also got another room a few days ago. Wanted the adjoining room.” He shrugged, pocketing the phone. “The maid said no one’s used it yet.”
Annie held out her hand. “Give me a card for that one, too.”
He tapped on the computer, slid a card through and handed her the second room key. “It’s 160. Is there gonna be any shooting or anything?”
She stared blankly at the kid.
“Right.” He sat, pulled out his phone and started tapping on the screen.
Annie stepped outside the lobby and climbed back into her car, cranking it and pulling it around, parking near the large blue Dumpster, kitty-corner from the room Teri had presumably been staying in. She didn’t see the silver Chevrolet the woman had been driving. Strong possibility Teri would never come back, but her room might hold a clue to her plans.
Had she hurt Spencer?
Just thinking about it made Annie hurt. Surely Teri wasn’t so callous, so evil as to hurt a small boy, a boy whose own blood ran in her veins. But Annie knew differently. She’d seen too many cases end badly. Too many times someone stepped over the broken body of the innocent to get to what he or she wanted. The thought of what humanity could do froze her blood.
She glanced down at her watch. Two hours, thirty-five minutes left.
Where was Tawny’s sister?
Where was the boy she, despite all her vows, had grown to love?
The minutes ate at her—tick, ticking away until she felt shrink-wrapped by her own skin.
Then she saw the car. It did not roll cautiously into the parking lot—it roared, the gears grinding as the driver shifted into Park.
Teri, sporting dark sunglasses and the ball cap, threw the car door open and climbed out. It might as well have been a normal day, maybe a beer run or a quick trip out for a burger—not a kidnapping with a ransom. The woman looked positively unconcerned. Then she cast a glance about before opening the back door of the car and pulling Spencer out.
Annie covered her mouth.
Not unexpectedly, he’d been crying. Annie couldn’t see the tears from the hundred or so yards between them, but she saw his scraped, bleeding knees. The woman had likely pulled him when he’d stumbled. Maybe in the woods. But it didn’t matter.
Annie was pissed.
Spencer wasn’t her child, yet he was, and Teri the Meth-head had messed with the wrong kid’s nanny.
Annie pulled her phone from her pocket.
Nate hadn’t called yet.
He said he’d be behind her, so where was he?
She glanced up as Teri dragged Spencer into the room adjoining the one on the end. Annie saw the door slam.
Looking back at the blank screen, she wondered what to do. She had no gun, no badge, no true authority. And that pissed her off even more.
She dialed Nate, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, eyeballing the motel door the whole time. The call went to voice mail. What the hell?
The man knew where she was and what she was doing. Voice mail? Really?
She looked around her rental for anything she might use as a makeshift weapon. There was nothing, save an umbrella. She knew Teri had a knife, and she doubted springing an umbrella her way would serve as much defense.
Annie was screwed. Spencer sat yards away, and she was helpless.
The door of Teri’s room opened and the woman stepped out again, casting a look in each direction before walking back to her car. Annie ducked down, praying having her car in place before Teri arrived had given the woman false security.
Annie peeked over the steering wheel.
Teri was back inside her car and backing out without even so much a glance toward the Dumpster or Annie’s vehicle.
Huh.
She’d left him?
Or…
Annie didn’t want to think about anything other than getting to the child. She looked down at the console where the plastic key cards sat. She snatched the one that would open the room where Teri had stashed Spencer then she looked back at the nearly empty parking lot.
Strike hard. Strike fast. No hesitation.
Annie unlocked the door just as her phone started jittering in the cup holder.
Nate.
She pressed the button. “He’s here at the motel. Just saw Teri take him from the car, put him in a room and leave.”
“Hang tight. I’m almost there.”
“She drove away. I’m going in. You get her. She turned toward the interstate, heading for the drop-off. She’s really a dumbass. How did she think she’d pull this off?”
“Wait for me. You’re not carrying, no backup, and you can never predict the behavior of someone as desperate as this woman.”
Annie knew it was the sensible thing to do. All her years of training had taught her to rely on the rules of engagement, taking precaution. Nate had a point, but Spencer was scared and bleeding. And this could be a matter of life and death.
She looked back at the key card.
“I’ve got to get him out. He’s hurt. No telling what she’s done, Nate.”
“Don’t. Wait for me. I’m close. Two minutes out.”
But it was too late. She pressed end. She respected Nate. He was smart and knew his job, but if he were minutes away, it was close enough.
She opened the door and ran for the room Teri had roughly shoved Spencer inside, clutching the key card, making sure it was in the right direction. She jammed it in, heard the lock mechanism move, click and give a green light. She pushed the door open into a darkened room.
Spencer was crying.
Fumbling for a switch at the bottom of a ceramic lamp, she flicked the knob, illuminating the water-stained ceiling with dim light before hurrying to where the sound was coming from.
His crying broke her heart. She pulled the mirrored door of the closet open to find a little boy balled into a knot in the corner. His body shook with terror.
“I�
�m here, Spence,” she said, not touching him.
He stilled, cupping his hands over his ears, eyes screwed tight.
“Annie?”
“It’s me, baby.”
He unwound, reaching blindly for her. Annie figured there had never been such a good feeling as those two hands twining around her neck. She lifted him, pulling him for a quick hug.
“We’ve got to get out, Spencer. Come on, sweetie.”
But he clung to her, wrapping both legs around her waist in a death grip.
She sensed the movement before she felt something slam into her temple.
Pain blinded her as she staggered toward the ratty flower-strewn spread on the bed. Spencer fell away.
Shit, it hurt. Teri knew where to hit. But what had she used to hit her? A gun? A bat? Darkness spotted her vision, but she fought it off.
No time to think.
Move.
Annie bounced on the mattress and came up swinging. Her fist landed right in the middle of Teri’s windpipe. Yeah, Annie fought dirtier.
“Argh.” Teri gasped for breath, clutching her throat. Annie saw her mouth open and close, desperately trying to drink in a breath. She fixed on Annie with pain-crazed eyes before reaching behind her, withdrawing a gun from her waistband.
Instinctively, Annie crouched, launching herself at the woman’s knees. Get low. Center of gravity. She used her left hand to sweep above her, hopefully colliding with Teri’s right arm, the hand most people used to shoot with. Annie heard the gun clink against the bureau at the same time Teri crashed into the ancient TV stand. They both went down.
“Get off me!” Teri shrieked, thrashing beneath her. Annie rose, going for the gun, which had landed at the foot of the bed. Spencer stood pressed against the wall, eyes big, knees bleeding. A keening emerged from his throat.
Teri’s hand opened and closed, searching for the gun, but she wasn’t faster than Annie. Annie’s hand closed around the grip before the woman could scramble close enough. Annie kneed her hard in the stomach and rolled to her knees, fixing the gun on the woman, aiming for a body shot.
