“Working on it,” he said and tapped the screen. The call went to a message saying the voicemail hadn’t been set up. He tried again and got the same answer.
“Can you trace the call?” Ryan asked.
“Possibly. My partner notified Special Agent Reid. He’s on his way and will be able to answer your questions.”
Grace groaned and dropped to her knees. Ryan squatted next to her and rubbed her back. “Johnny’s alive. He’s alive and safe.”
“Safe with Mara? That lunatic? Who knows what she’s capable of?”
“Did you hear how strong he sounded? He had the strength to get mad at us. He said Mara’s taking good care of him. This is great news, Grace. Johnny’s alive!”
The basement door opened, and Alec came in rubbing her eyes. “Did they find Johnny?”
“No, he called,” Officer Perez said, and played the recording for her.
“Oh my God, he’s alive. Our boy is alive. When are we going after him?” she asked as Agent Reid came in with Scott Michaels.
“Thank you for getting here so fast,” Ryan said.
“We were still at the office,” Scott said. “Get us up to speed.”
Officer Perez played the recording one more time.
“Copy that and get it sent to the techs to be analyzed,” Agent Reid said.
“Was the call long enough to trace?” Alec asked.
“Calls don’t need to be a certain length to trace. That’s a myth. All we need is to learn where the call originated,” Scott said. “I have a standing warrant to request phone records from your carrier. Agent Shepherd is contacting them now. It shouldn’t take long to find out where the call was initiated. Pinpointing the general location will take longer. It’ll be much quicker if the origination was local, but we doubt that’s the case. I wager Mara’s halfway across the country with Johnny by now if they’re still in the States.”
Grace stood and faced him. “They’re close. Mara would be foolish to take Johnny too far from his doctors and pharmacy, at least at first. She’ll need his medical and prescription records. That might help you catch her.”
“That might be true, but she’s had a long time to plan this,” Ryan said. “Can’t she just falsify the records when they get where they’re going?
“It’s possible, but she’d make things harder on herself,” Scott said. “Let’s hope you’re right, Grace, but keep in mind, she’s not rational. We might be able to use that to our advantage.”
The agents and officers went into the kitchen, leaving the three of them alone. Alec hugged Grace. “Things will move fast now,” she said. “Johnny will be home by morning.”
“From your mouth to God’s ear,” Grace said. “Should we wake Steph?”
“Let her sleep. If you’re right, Alec, Johnny may be here to greet her in the morning,” Ryan said.
“I’ll text Adam in case he’s awake worrying, but I won’t call. He’s got his hands full with Rosie and her broken arm.”
Grace went to the living room and sank onto the couch. After the shock of Johnny’s call, her stomach was reeling, and every muscle ached. Johnny had to be home by morning. She wouldn’t survive the trauma for another day.
Johnny shoved Mara’s phone in the pocket of his sweatpants when he heard her bedroom door creak. She stomped down the stairs and stopped inches from where he sat.
“Who were you talking to? Answer me. No games.” When he hesitated, she grabbed the collar of his t-shirt and pulled his face closer to hers. “Tell me,” she hissed.
“I called Grace,” he said.
She gripped him tighter. “How?”
His body started to shake. He hated to show weakness and did his best to hide it from Mara, but she was too close not to notice. It wounded his pride to be afraid of this little woman. If he had the use of his legs, she wouldn’t have dared threaten him. He pulled her phone out and handed it to her.
“You snuck into my room and stole my phone?”
“Borrowed.” The word came out as a squeak, so he cleared his throat. “I was going to put it back after I called Grace and Ryan to rub their face in it. You should have heard them begging me to tell them where we are, but I didn’t.”
Mara loosened her grip in slow motion, but Johnny sensed her rage building. He reached for his crutches, but she kicked them out of reach.
“You idiot. I told you they can track our phones.”
Johnny smiled nervously. “I made sure to keep the call short.”
“How long you were on doesn’t matter. They could trace it the instant the call connected. You don’t know anything. This isn’t a game.”
She ripped the back off her phone and took out the sim card. Johnny watched in shock as she tossed the card into the sink and turned on the garbage disposal. She let it run for a full minute. She took the rest of the phone to the garage without a word, and Johnny heard hammering a few seconds later. When the pounding stopped, Mara came in carrying the shattered bits of her phone in a zippered baggie.
“We have to leave. Go pack your things,” she ordered and ran up the stairs.
Johnny lowered himself to the floor and dragged his body the five feet to his crutches. It took all his strength to get to his feet, and even longer to climb the stairs. Mara was ready to go by the time he made it to his room. He picked up his backpack, but she yanked it from his hands.
“Let me do it, or we’ll be here for a week.”
She tossed his shoes at him and started stuffing his few belongings into the backpack. Johnny kept his eyes lowered while he put on his shoes and tied the laces. He hated to admit it, but she was right to be mad at him. He’d made thoughtless mistakes and screwed up her plans. Because of him, Mara was being forced to abandon her home.
“Where are we going?” he asked as he followed her down the stairs.
“I haven’t had time to figure that out thanks to you. How could you be so stupid? Haven’t you ever played a video game or watched a crime show?”
“I’m sorry, Mara. I was angry and wanted to get back at Grace. I didn’t think.”
“No kidding. I’m warning you, no more stunts like that.” They reached the front door and she motioned for him to stop. “Wait here while I make sure no one will see you getting into the car.”
She left the front door open while she carried their bags to the car. After checking the street, she waved for him to join her. It was the first time Johnny had been out of the house in more than two days. The chilly night air felt good on his skin. He wished he had time to enjoy it but climbed into the car as quickly as he could. It wasn’t fast enough for Mara who barked at him to hurry until his seatbelt was hooked.
Johnny watched the house fade in the side mirror as Mara sped down the street. Even though he’d been a prisoner there, he’d just started getting used to the old house and was sad to leave. Who knew where his crazy new mom would take him next?
Agent Reid instructed the driver of the SWAT unit to park a block from the address they’d gleaned from the phone records. Their initial drive-by assessment had yielded little information. The house was dark and there was no sign of activity. Reid asked to see the live drone footage on the laptop in Agent Cameron’s hands. She shook her head as she handed it to him. Nothing there either. After commanding twenty similar raids, Reid’s gut told him they were too late. He radioed instructions to his team waiting in their assault gear.
“We don’t know what awaits us inside the house. Mara may be armed, but my hope is she’s fast asleep, blissfully unaware we’re coming. Elliott, take your group and set up along the north street. Prince, your team covers the back. Enter through the gate off the alley. The rest of us will take the front. Cameron will monitor the drone feed to make sure no one goes out a window or other egress. Pull up in front of the house,” he said to the driver before going back on his radio. “Let’s get our target and bring Johnny home, alive and well.”
The driver pulled up to the curb in front of the narrow two-story corner house. R
eid’s team silently spilled out of the van and was in place within seconds. When Reid gave the signal, his team rushed the front door. It was unlocked and ajar. They moved in just as Prince came in from the back with his team. They swarmed the house and found no one. What they did find was evidence that Johnny had been there.
“Damn it. Missed them but not by much. The house is warm even though the front door was cracked. Get forensics in here,” Reid said before calling SAC Michaels to give him the news. “We’re on her heels, sir. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Get back here while we wait for the forensics report. We’ll see what other leads we can dig up,” Michaels said.
“Yes, sir,” Reid said and hung up. “Elliott and Prince wait here to work with forensics. I’ll send a driver for you later.”
The agents nodded, and Reid rounded up the rest of his team. He was determined it would be the last time Mara slipped through his grasp.
Johnny woke up wanting his life back.
After leaving Mara’s house the night before, they’d driven around greater Richmond for two hours before ending up at the drab motel on the rundown edge of the city. Johnny had tried to stay awake to memorize the routes Mara took, but riding in the dark car at three in the morning had lulled him to sleep. Next thing he knew, Mara was shaking him awake after she checked in. Once inside the room, he’d fallen onto the hard, squeaky bed without even bothering to take off his shoes. He was out in two minutes.
It was still dark when he woke, but he wasn’t sure if that was from the blackout curtains or the hour. He instinctively reached for his phone and swore when he realized it was gone. He looked across the small room to see if Mara had heard him, but her bed was empty. A sliver of light glowed under the bathroom door. Johnny wondered if Mara had slept at all. He felt like he’d only been out for an hour or so, not that it mattered. He could nap all day if he wanted. He had nothing else to do.
He rolled back onto his pillow and imagined what he’d be doing if he were home. First, he had to figure out what day it was. He was more disoriented and adrift than he’d been at Mara’s. He’d lost track of time. If he’d had his phone, he could tell not only the time and day but where he was with the GPS, too.
He depended on his phone for so much. He wanted it back, just like he wanted his clothes, his friends, and the comfy bed that was long enough, that his feet didn’t hang off the end. He felt a rush of emotions but couldn’t decide which was more powerful, his anger or his homesickness. If he could make himself dig deep enough to forgive Grace, he would escape from Mara and go home, but he didn’t even have the strength to think about it that morning.
He picked up the remote, turned on the TV, crossing his fingers for cable. When the channel guide popped on, he sighed in relief. He doubted the motel had any kind of decent internet, so at least with cable he wouldn’t be completely isolated from the world.
The display on the TV read 7:15, Thursday morning. Only a week had passed since Thanksgiving. It was almost impossible to wrap his mind around after all he’d been through in the past seven days. He recalled talking with Grace in his room after Thanksgiving dinner. Part of him wished he could turn back time and return to being Blissfully Ignorant Johnny.
He flipped to a news channel to find out if the world was still talking about him. Sure enough, there was his horrible school picture from a few months earlier. Why had his mom picked that picture and the one with the pumpkin pie to give to the FBI? His mom’s phone was full of better ones where he didn’t look like a grinning idiot.
The image switched from his photo to the sketch of Mara. He was about to click it off when she came out of the bathroom and told him to wait. She moved inches from the screen and stared.
“Turn it up,” she ordered. Johnny pressed the volume button a few times. “More.” He did it again until she nodded.
“There is a $25,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of this woman, known only as Mara, and the recovery of Johnathan James Walker,” the news anchor said.
Mara whipped around and glared at him. “Did you tell someone what I look like?” When Johnny shook his head, she leaned closer to him. “How did they find out about me? How do they know what I look like? It had to be you.”
“How could I have told anyone? I never left your house until last night.”
“You called Grace. Who else did you call? The police?”
Johnny scooted closer to the headboard. “Why would I do that? I stayed with you by choice, remember? Grace was the only person I called. You would have seen that if you’d checked your phone before smashing it to death. I only had your phone for five minutes before you came storming down the stairs like a maniac.”
She shifted her gaze back to the TV and tapped her chin. “Then it must have been Grace. She saw me one day at your physical therapist’s office.”
“She did? When?”
“I didn’t think she’d remember me after so long,” Mara said, like she was in a trance. “She’d only seen me once before. In the ER the day I lost you. She must have told them.”
“She does have a photographic memory.”
Mara paced the small room in high gear before grabbing her purse and heading for the door. “I have to go.”
Johnny reached for his crutches. “Where are we going?”
She turned and stared at him like she’d forgotten he was there. “Not we. Just me.”
“You’re not abandoning me here, are you?”
“Don’t be stupid. I have an errand to run. There’s breakfast on the table.”
Johnny looked where she pointed. How had she had time to make a food run and do it without him hearing?
“Stay here, and I mean in this room. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Chain the door.”
“You’re nuts, lady,” he said, as he locked the door behind her.
As he ate his breakfast of powdered donuts and cold, hardboiled eggs, he wondered what life would have been like if that hurricane had never happened when he was a baby. Mara and Criminal Rick would have been his parents. He would have been a normal kid with healthy legs and no headaches or seizures. He would have been able to play sports and go hiking or rock climbing. He’d have a whole different set of friends and a different family. He wouldn’t know the Walkers or Emersons, or even Darnell and Ty. The big question he had to answer was whether he was grateful for the hurricane.
He thought next of the other possibility. If Mara and Rick hadn’t taken him from the hospital, Craig Stuart would have been his family. He would have grown up in New Mexico without a mom. He’d never been to the southwest and couldn’t begin to imagine what that life would have been like, but anything would have been better than being on this mad adventure with Mara.
Mara pounded on the door an hour later. Johnny looked through the peephole to see a woman with short, spiked blond hair. She wore heavy eyeliner, thick purple eyeshadow, and a lip-ring. If Johnny hadn’t recognized Mara’s eyes, he wouldn’t have unhooked the chain.
She came in and set groceries bags on the small table. After fishing a pair of pink-rimmed glasses from one of the bags and putting them on, she said, “What do you think? Would Grace recognize me now?”
“No one will,” Johnny said. “What will they say at work?”
She unwrapped a breakfast burrito and dumped hot sauce on it. “I can’t go back to the hospital. Someone might recognize me from that sketch. I have to find a different way to get money.” She pulled a phone from her back pocket. “I have to get my number changed until I can afford a new phone.”
Johnny’s eyes widened. “Where did you get that? I saw you destroy your phone.”
“This is the phone I brought from Portland, the one I used for work. The one I destroyed was my secret phone. I’m hoping changing my number will be enough to throw them off my tail.” Johnny watched her shove nurse’s uniforms and an ID badge into one of the grocery bags. “I have to dump this, too. Pack up while I’m gone. We need to move again. The guy at the motel
desk saw me last night.”
Johnny groaned at the idea of having to pick up and move to another place, but he got up to lock the door after her and watched through the peephole until she was out of sight. Whichever family Johnny ended up with in the end, life with Mara would definitely be the most unpredictable.
11
Reid tapped on Michaels’ open door. “Any word from forensics yet?”
“Just going over the preliminary reports,” Michaels said. “Johnny was at that house, but I’m not sure how knowing that helps. He already told us he was with her.” He gestured at a sealed clear bag laying on a table in the corner. “They found some of his clothes, including what I think he was wearing when Mara nabbed him.”
“I can run those over to the family if forensics is done with them. I’d like to tell the Walkers about the raid myself,” Reid said.
“I called an hour ago and told them Mara got away. We have enough other items of Johnny’s in evidence, so those can go to the family. I was going to send Shepherd. Don’t you have a strategy session with your team scheduled?”
“There’s nothing to strategize about until we have the final forensics reports. My guys are still canvassing the neighborhood, not that I’m expecting to turn up much. Residents in that sort of neighborhood usually keep to themselves and aren’t too willing to share with the authorities.”
“It was the middle of the night when Mara left with Johnny. Wouldn’t have been many people out that late in the cold, and Mara’s smart enough to check. Maybe we’ll get a lucky break. God knows we need one in this case.”
Reid ran his hand through his hair. “I hate that we got so close and missed them.” He paused and looked at Michaels. “What’s your gut telling you about our chances?”
The Complete Arms of Grace Series Page 42
