by Robin Cook
Jack opened the front door. A cool nighttime breeze wafted in off the street. A few yells from an intense basketball game on the neighborhood court were borne on the wind. “Looks like a real neighborhood around here,” Mark noted. “It’s almost eleven and the kids are still playing hoops. I’m glad to see it, and not just because it helps keep them out of trouble. I like it because it means it is a community.”
“It is a great neighborhood. Warren, whom you met upstairs, is one of the local leaders. He and I play hoops all the time, particularly on Friday nights. We’d be out there now if it weren’t for this ongoing tragedy.”
“Earlier I told you what had been accomplished so far in this case. All that pales to your cooperation and having a name and a description to apply to the victim. I’m sorry you are having to go through this, but you and your wife are, by necessity, key players. We need your help. In return, I give you my word that I, and everyone I command, will do everything in our power to get your boy back healthy.”
“Thank you,” Laurie and Jack said in unison.
With a quick parting salute, Mark bounded down the steps and entered a waiting unmarked official car. Both Jack and Laurie silently watched the vehicle head up to Central Park West and turn right on West Side Drive.
“I have a lot of confidence in him,” Laurie said, in an attempt to buoy up her spirits. “I’m exhausted, but I know I’m not going to be able to sleep.” She crossed in front of Jack and re-entered the house.
Before Jack went in, he looked over to watch the basketball game sweep up and down the court. Although he’d been actively avoiding thinking about consequences, he suddenly found himself hoping beyond hope that JJ would be found soon and not be harmed so as to be able to grow up and experience the multitudinous joys of life.
Back upstairs, Jack looked for Laurie. With all the excitement suddenly over, he was worried how she was going to cope, just as he worried about himself. He was surprised not to find her in the kitchen. Neither of them had taken the time to eat anything, as Detective Bennett had kept them busy answering questions about JJ and his complicated medical history. Bennett had also quizzed them about the kinds of service people who regularly visited the house and if any had their own keys. Next he’d had them gather objects likely to contain JJ’s DNA, find current photos of the child, and even try to figure out what he had been wearing when he’d been abducted.
Jack paused when he heard voices coming from the family room. He’d almost forgotten that Lou and Warren were still there. He was doubly surprised to find two additional men in the room. Both were talking to Laurie, who was listening intently.
“Ah, Jack,” Lou said. “Please come in! There are some people I want you to meet.”
“Yes, dear,” Laurie said. “Come in!”
Everyone stood as Jack advanced into the room, making Jack wonder about the apparent formality. He looked at the two strangers, neither of whom he had seen until that moment. Both stood ramrod-straight with shoulders back, with closely cropped hair and dressed in snug, carefully tailored navy-blue suits, crisp white shirts, and regimental ties. They both were slightly taller than Jack’s six feet and looked to be in their early forties. Particularly because of their svelte figures and hard, taut faces, they appeared to be in superb physical shape. Jack’s impression was that they were military, possibly Special Forces in civvies.
“This is Grover Collins,” Lou said, pointing to the stockier of the two men.
Jack shook hands, peering questioningly into the individual’s glacially blue eyes. The grip was strong but not too strong, more confident than anything else.
“Terrific to meet you,” Grover said, with a hint of an English accent.
“And this is Colt Thomas,” Lou said, gesturing toward Grover’s African-American partner.
“My pleasure,” Colt said with a handshake the mirror image of Grover’s. Jack hardly thought of himself as an expert in accents, but if he’d been forced to guess, he would have described Colt’s as Texan.
“Now, first let me apologize,” Lou said to Jack. “I have taken it upon myself to invite Grover and Colt here tonight because I think you and Laurie ought to hire them.”
Jack’s eyes went from Laurie and then back to the guests. “Hired as what?” he asked.
“I think time is of the essence,” Lou continued, ignoring Jack’s question, “and these gentlemen happen to agree with me. Is that fair to say, gentlemen?”
“Indeed,” Grover confirmed without hesitation. Colt merely nodded.
“Please, sit down!” Jack said, realizing he was the de facto host at this impromptu meeting.
Everyone returned to their seats. Jack brought over a straight-backed chair and sat down himself.
“I had the pleasure of working with these gentlemen a few years ago,” Lou continued, “and I was very impressed, which is the reason I called them tonight. They’re a relatively new breed. They’re kidnap consultants.”
“‘Kidnap consultants’?” Jack questioned. “I didn’t even now there was such a thing.”
“Actually, there are now quite a few of us,” Grover said. “We refer to ourselves as risk managers as we prefer to stay more or less in the shadows.”
“I was not aware of them, either,” Lou admitted. “Not until I had the pleasure of working with them on a kidnapping case—for a very successful outcome, I must add.”
“We’ve been born by demand,” Grover explained. “Kidnapping flourishes in circumstances of disorder and confusion, which the world has seen rather enough of these days, such that there has been a serious uptick in incidence of kidnapping the world over, but mainly in the Americas and Russia.”
“I was not aware of it,” Jack said, “but it does make sense.”
“There are thousands of cases each year in hot spots like Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil. We have about forty field operatives in our firm, CRT Risk Management. We’re active all around the world, and the only thing we handle is kidnapping. I’m just back from Rio, and Colt returned yesterday from Mexico City.”
“Are you ex-military?” Jack asked.
“How could you tell?” Grover smiled. “I’m ex-SAS, and Colt is ex-Navy SEAL. Returning to civilian life after military service has been difficult for us Special Forces fellows, and this kind of work seems to have been tailor-made. Sitting in a La-Z-Boy smoking a pipe and watching reruns of game shows is not a possibility for any of us. We love our work.”
“Tell them what you told me,” Lou said. “Why you could particularly help in their situation.”
“Having been briefed about your case, several things jump out at us. First of all, the NYPD, like all police departments in the USA, have had limited experience running a kidnapping. It’s just the opposite with us. It’s all we do, and as kidnapping has grown worldwide, it’s become more sophisticated, both in terms of how the abductors work and how we professionals respond.
“Second of all, our motivation is different from that of the authorities. The authorities actually have conflicting goals. They, of course, want to rescue your child, but that’s only one of their objectives. They also want to catch the perpetrators, and I say ‘perpetrators’ specifically, because modern kidnapping is a team sport, and often they want to catch the perpetrators with about equal zeal as they want to free the abductee. In other words, there are political ramifications for the police and the FBI. Also, what else is occasionally troubling is that the authorities often are competitive with each other, which is hardly the kind of situation that is the most successful.
“None of that is applicable to us. Bringing your child home safe is our one and only goal and concern. We don’t care about the perpetrators. We don’t care if they get arrested; we don’t care if they get convicted. If they do, all the better, but it is not our goal, whereas with the police or FBI it most certainly is. As far as your son is concerned, we then have a step on the police or FBI. We don’t worry about warrants for searches or listening devices; we don’t concern our
selves with Miranda rights, and we can and are, on occasion, heavy-handed with suspects. When we need information, we get it. Let’s put it that way.”
“Do you consider yourselves vigilantes of sorts?” Laurie asked.
“Not in the slightest,” Collins said. “Our sole goal is the safe recovery of your child as soon as possible. That’s the mission. If an abductor gets hurt, that’s their problem, not ours, but we’re not about to punish anyone.”
“You’re only talking in generalities, Grover,” Lou complained. “Tell them what you told me about specifics. Tell them why you would be good for this case in particular.”
“Detective Soldano has been very open with us,” Grover continued, “and he has shared with us the file from the Real Time Crime Center. He’s also let us read the threatening letter which you had received and ignored.”
“There were reasons,” Laurie said, embarrassed anew.
“I can understand why you might have ignored it,” Grover said. “So don’t be hard on yourself. It only mentioned you, not your son. But the combination of your son’s abduction and the letter tells us that this case needs to move forward quickly to minimize the threat to your child, and that’s the way we will approach the case if you decide to employ us. Knowing the police and how they work, my strong sense is they will be conservative and wait for the abductors to communicate here and begin a negotiation, as they already have done. The passive approach, which is a tried-and-true method, isn’t appropriate in this situation. We believe the approach should be more proactive by anticipating consequences. Although it’s generally difficult to discover where a victim is being held, the opposite is true in this case for a number of reasons. We think these kidnappers are not experienced. The snatch was poorly planned and executed. Experienced kidnappers don’t start the game off with a homicide, as Lou can tell you.”
“It’s true,” Lou offered. “On the last and only kidnapping case I was involved in, the snatch was the most carefully planned part of the whole deal.”
“Second,” Grover continued, “there was no apparent research as to the extent of personal wealth. If I’m not mistaken, there is no huge payday here, like a huge family fortune that can be tapped.”
“Hardly,” Jack responded. “All of our savings are tied up in this renovated house.
“Let me tell you, in a kidnap-for-ransom case these days, it is extraordinarily rare for the perpetrator not to have done extensive research into the victim’s finances. It suggests that the kidnapping was done not for monetary gain but for something else entirely. The talk about money is probably a distraction at best.”
“If the threatening letter is associated with the kidnapping, as we believe it is, the real issue is for you to stop investigating the case mentioned in the letter, at least in the short run. What can you tell us about it?”
“It’s a case I’m taking over,” Lou said, speaking up before Laurie. “It was initially thought to be a natural death, but Laurie has proved otherwise. We also have a name: Satoshi Machita. Just this afternoon Laurie has established quite believably that it was an organized crime-sponsored assassination. Beyond that I cannot say.”
“Interesting,” Grover said, pausing while he pondered this new information. “The possible involvement of organized crime is an important new wrinkle.”
“It’s certainly going to quickly influence my homicide investigation,” Lou added.
“I’m also curious about the tone of the letter,” Grover said. “It’s as if a third party was involved, making me think there might have been an element of extortion playing a role. I mean, why this anonymity?”
“My thought exactly,” Lou said. “And there was a situation of such extortion in OCME about fifteen years ago. Remember, Laurie?”
“Of course I do,” Laurie said. “Vinnie Amendola had been indebted to the Cerino Mob for saving his father way back when. And today Vinnie was acting very out of character. In fact, he took an emergency leave, supposedly for a family emergency.”
“Did he say where?” Lou questioned.
“He didn’t,” Laurie said.
“Well, I know what I’ll be doing first thing in the morning,” Lou said.
“That could be helpful,” Grover said, “but I don’t think we should wait until this Vinnie is located and questioned. I’m concerned about the child’s safety. Whoever the abductors are, they surely don’t mind killing, as evidenced by how they did the snatch, and I’m worried what they will do with the child once they believe they have achieved their goal of getting Laurie out of the morgue to keep her from discovering what she’s already discovered, which I’m assuming they don’t know as of yet.”
“What exactly would you do?” Jack asked. He did not see anything else that could be done other than wait for the abductors to call and then trace the call. “All I can see is what the police are doing, trying to get the bad guys into a negotiation. JJ could be anywhere, anywhere at all in the whole state or neighboring states.”
“I think your child is nearby,” Grover said. “Considering the way the case has gone so far in terms of a near total lack of planning, your son is probably at one of the participants’ homes. In many respects, handling and housing an infant is logistically easier than an adult. With an adult, all sorts of precautions have to be taken for them not to know where they are secreted away and a method for housing them such that they never see their captors, unless, of course, the abductors never plan to release them. But killing the victim makes getting anything in return impossible because of elaborate proof-of-life mechanisms developed for the exchange process.”
“Okay,” Jack said. “I understand all that, but how do you propose to find out where our child is being held? That seems impossible to me.”
“It is often difficult, if not impossible,” Grover agreed. “But there are unique situations that can help, as I believe there are in this circumstance. First, there is the strong possibility Vinnie Amendola may be able to help by providing information about who the kidnappers are. But we shouldn’t wait for that possibility, although we will encourage it. No, the unique circumstance is the fact that you are living in a city with true neighborhoods. People who are not New Yorkers probably would not understand, as they see New York as a massive, impersonal city. While we’ve been here waiting to speak to you and your wife, I’ve had the pleasure to talk with your friend here, Warren Wilson, who is very concerned about your child and eager to help.”
Grover gestured toward Warren, who nodded in confirmation.
“He’s told me,” Grover continued, “that you and your wife are respected and universally liked members of this neighborhood, which is close-knit, and have been so for almost twenty years. He also mentioned your generosity, in respect to the playground across the street, and about young men who have stayed in school and gone off to college because of you. It’s a wonderful story, which is now going to come back and reward you.”
“How so?” Jack asked.
“One thing that CRT has learned over the years in handling hundreds and hundreds of kidnapping cases is that the kidnappers often watch over their victim’s families, mainly to ensure that the families comply with their demands. One demand, which is always a part of the kidnapping scenario, is to keep authorities away from the action. The only way they can do that is by watching that there isn’t police or FBI traffic in and out of the family’s residence. If they see that happening, they bring it up on the next call and make another distant threat that such and such will be done to the victim.
“And if we are correct in assuming this particular kidnapping is not primarily a kidnap for ransom but rather a way to keep your wife from her work, there is even more reason to suspect they will have a watcher on duty, at least during the daylight hours.”
“So you intend to catch this watcher? Is that the idea?”
“It is indeed. The reason that it works, which we’ve been able to use maybe a half-dozen times before, twice in São Paulo, Brazil, is that these are stabl
e, tight neighborhoods where the residents quickly recognize people hanging around who don’t belong. Warren has offered to do that for you, starting early tomorrow morning. He assures us this is a very tight community with experience picking out strangers to keep gang violence to a minimum.”
Jack looked at Warren, who again nodded in confirmation.
“Once you catch the so-called ‘watcher,’ what do you do?” Jack questioned.
“Best not to ask,” Grover said. “First we make certain the individual is a watcher on the case in question. Then we ask him or her where the victim is being held. As I said earlier, in contrast to the police or FBI, our hands are not tied by legal niceties. Our interest and concern are finding and rescuing the victim. Sometimes it takes more persuasion than others.”
“And once you have the location, what then?”
“It depends to an extent on how concerned we are about the victim’s plight. If the risk is low, we’ll try to determine before a raid where and under what conditions the victim is being held. Sometimes, like with your son, we would move on a rescue immediately. But that’s when Colt here comes into play. He is CRT’s major rescuer. His talents are legendary. He’s capable of entering a home and taking pierced earrings out of people’s ears without waking them.”
“If we hire you,” Jack questioned, “how will the police react? Do you or we tell them or keep it a secret?”
“We tell them. Actually, we try to work with them, even to the point of giving suggestions when appropriate. We never tell them what to do, just what we’ve done in the past that seemed to work. Plus, we’re all for the police to have the credit when the victim is rescued or exchanged. We truly do not want the credit in the media, because we do our job better with anonymity.”
