Torn Apart (16 page)

“No, no,” he pleaded. “Not that. I’ll be quiet.”

“Sorry,” Newt said. “You were naughty shutting the door in my face earlier. Now you have to accept your punishment.”

Bobby’s nostrils flared as he watched the gag coming closer.

In a last ditch attempt to defy his captor, he blurted out, “My daddy is going to be mad at you.”

Newt slapped the gag over Bobby’s mouth, then tied it tighter than usual just to prove that he was the one in charge.

In mute panic, Bobby felt the knot growing tighter and tighter, and feared what was going to happen next.

To his relief, the man just got up and moved across the room to the closet.

That was when Bobby closed his eyes and started to pray.

Please God, please help Daddy find me.

Indifferent to the kid on the bed for once, Newt was digging through the closet for the loosest shirt and pants that he owned. It would be hell having to wear clothes, but he couldn’t show up at the doc’s office wrapped up in a sheet or they would start talking hospitalization. He couldn’t let that happen.

Just before he left to go meet Sam, he glanced back at the bed. The kid was out like a light.

“I’ll be back,” he said softly, as he pocketed his checkbook, blew Bobby Earle a kiss and left to catch his ride.

Katie was on a mission. She didn’t know how to feel about the news she’d been given. Part of the time her heart soared from the unfettered joy of knowing Bobby had not died in the tornado, and part of the time she felt sick to her stomach, knowing that he had been kidnapped. Her only hope lay in believing that J.R. had been the one who took him, because that meant he would be safe. Even if J.R. wanted to hurt Katie, he would never hurt his son. She was betting her life, and the life of their son, on that. But she couldn’t just do nothing. Not when she’d been given a new reason to live.

Within an hour of hearing Chief Porter’s news, she’d talked Penny into driving her to the bank to get cash from her account. From there they’d gone straight to Target, where she’d purchased three changes of clothes, along with shoes and underwear, toilet articles and a prepaid phone.

It was kind of Penny to give her a place to stay, but she couldn’t start running up Penny’s phone bill trying to find her missing husband. Even though Chief Porter had assured her that he was trying to find J.R., she wasn’t willing to wait.

She was going to start making calls on her own until she got some answers. In her heart, she couldn’t believe he was the one who’d taken Bobby.

Unless…

And this was where doubt crept in.

Unless he had truly grown to hate her.

Unless he no longer wanted to be married to her and had no intention of sharing custody, so he had abducted their son with the intent of disappearing and living somewhere new under a false identity.

She knew things like that happened when families broke up. She didn’t want to believe it of J.R., but the fact that he had not cared enough to come to Bordelaise and check on them, and had not returned calls from the hospital or the police, made him seem guilty as hell. She knew Angela, the secretary at Macklan Brothers, would know what was going on. Angela knew everything, and she was going to call her as soon as they got home.

She tossed the sacks with her purchases in the back of Penny’s car and then got inside. Penny was right behind her with bags of her own.

Penny winced as she slid behind the wheel. The leather seats were scorching. “It’s so hot! Thank goodness the power has all been restored so people can run their air conditioners again.”

Then she realized how unimportant that was in the grand scheme of Katie’s life. “I’m sorry, Katie. That was a thoughtless comment. I’m sure the weather is the least of your concerns.”

Katie frowned. “My troubles don’t supersede everything else. It
is
hot, and it
is
a blessing power has been restored.”

Penny frowned. “What are you going to do about your house? Are you going to rebuild? Do you need help contacting your insurance company…or anything like that?”

Katie shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. My whole future hinges on finding my son.”

“Do you think J.R. really took him?”

Katie frowned, then looked away. “I don’t know what to think.” Then she added, “But I do want to thank you for all your help.”

Penny reached across the seat and took her hand. “Honey, it’s my pleasure. I wish I could do more. I wish I had
done
more. I still can’t believe I let—”

“Stop! Stop right there!” Katie said, and held up her hand. “You didn’t let anything happen. You didn’t cause the storm. You didn’t order up a man in a blue pickup to swing by the playground and snatch my son when no one was looking. If there is blame to be laid, it belongs at my feet.” Katie’s eyes welled. “Oh, God…none of this would have happened to Bobby if I’d only agreed to move like J.R. wanted.”

Penny shook her head vigorously, making her salt-and-pepper curls bounce. “I think we both need to stop talking about blame and look at things from a different angle. We were given a miracle today. In a manner of speaking, your little boy came back from the dead. He might be missing, but I won’t let myself believe that he’s dead. Not now. Not again. All we have to do is start praying for the police to find him.”

Katie’s eyes narrowed angrily. “I’ll pray, all right, but I’m not waiting. I’m going to start looking on my own, and the first person we need to find is J. R. Earle. I pray to God he has Bobby, and then
he
better pray to God I don’t kill him.”

“Is there anyplace else you need to go?” Penny asked.

“No.”

Penny started the car. “If you don’t mind, I need to pick up an order at the garden center before we go home.”

“You do what you need to do, but I’ll wait in the car. I’m not in the right frame of mind to start talking to people about anything…you know?”

“Absolutely,” Penny said, as she drove out of the parking lot. “It won’t take long, and I’ll leave the car running so you’ll be cool.”

“I bought a prepaid phone. I’m going to start making calls while you’re inside. If I ever get J.R. to answer his phone, it will take more than an air conditioner to cool me down.”

Nine

C
harlotte Perkins was finally getting the hang of her temporary job at Macklan Brothers. It was often hectic, but there were the down times, as well. And the best part was that she hadn’t disconnected anyone since yesterday, and she had also lost the urge to cry every time Brent Macklan walked past her desk.

She glanced at the clock, gauging the length of time she had left on her lunch break, then took another bite of her sandwich. She’d made an executive decision to put the switchboard on voice mail and was in the break room, scanning through her new issue of
People
magazine as she ate, relieved that, for the moment, the office was peacefully quiet.

Brent Macklan had gone to lunch with a client, and except for a geologist who was at the next table studying maps, she was alone.

A couple of calls came in, but she ignored them, knowing voice mail would pick up. She reached for her drink as she turned a page, took a quick sip, then kept on reading.

Katie couldn’t believe it! The world had gone completely to hell. The phones at Macklan Brothers never went to voice mail. Frustrated, she disconnected without leaving a message. She didn’t want to talk to a machine. Her hands were shaking as she dropped the phone into her lap. This didn’t make sense.

“Damn it, J.R…. where are you? Why don’t you call?”

Struggling with a growing panic, she didn’t know what to think. She’d always been able to contact him—anywhere in the world, any time of day or night. And if for some reason she’d been unable to get to him directly, she’d always gone through the home office. It was beginning to seem like a conspiracy, and she was the only one who didn’t know the game or the rules.

She just couldn’t believe J.R. would take Bobby and scare her like this. But what else explained his lack of concern when the police and hospital had tried to contact him? Why else wouldn’t he call back?

The only reason she could think of was that he just didn’t care what happened to Katie, and he knew Bobby was fine.

But the minute she thought it, her heart rejected it.

She picked up the phone. “One more time, John Robert. I’m going to call you one more time—and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll answer.”

Her hands were shaking as she called his cell again.

“Please, God…please, God…please,” Katie whispered, as she began to count the rings.

Once.

Twice.

Three times it rang.

And on the fourth, it went straight to voice mail. She couldn’t listen to his voice again, telling her he was away from the phone and to leave a message and he’d call them right back—because that was a lie. She ended the call with a lump in her throat, then leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes.

A car pulled into the parking space beside her, but she chose to ignore it. She didn’t want to see someone she knew and have to talk. She couldn’t bear the pity on their faces.

But when she heard the high-pitched voice of a child, the longing in her was so intense that she had to look.

The result was to be expected. The pain of seeing someone else’s child happy and healthy increased her guilt. If she’d been a competent parent, none of this would have happened.

But like someone witnessing a wreck, even though it was painful, she couldn’t look away. She was mesmerized by the animation on the little boy’s face, by hearing the rapid-fire cadence of his questions as he held his daddy’s hand.

And in that moment time turned backward and she was walking down the street with Bobby, listening to their last conversation together as they were on their way to church.

He’d been so happy and carefree, and she’d been so wrapped up in her own misery that she’d failed to savor the joy of the moment. When the child’s face began to blur, she turned away.

The knot in her stomach was growing. Despite everything Chief Porter had told her this morning, one thing still hadn’t changed. Her child was lost to her, and she didn’t know where to find him. Awash in despair, she finally gave in to her sorrow.

And that was how Penny found her—doubled over in the seat with her head on her knees, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Oh, honey…oh, Katie…bless your heart.”

By the time Penny got them both home, she was crying, too.

Talking to Katie Earle had been difficult for Hershel. On the one hand, he’d given her hope, but then, on the other, he’d taken it right back. He was close to convinced that J. R. Earle was the one who’d taken Bobby.

Couples separated. Kids got caught in the middle. Every so often one of the parents flipped out and went on the run with the kid. It happened all the time. Just because he knew these people, that didn’t automatically preclude them from acting irrationally. Still, he knew he had to cover all the bases.

By the time he got back to headquarters, he had a running list of avenues to investigate regarding Bobby Earle’s abduction, and they needed to be followed up ASAP.

He needed an up-to-date listing of all the registered sex offenders in the parish, as well as a listing of everyone who owned a blue and, from Holly’s description of it as “shiny,” late-model pickup.

He strode into the office with his hat jammed on his head and a frown on his face. It was a look that Vera, the dispatcher, had seen before, and she knew it meant trouble.

“Call Tullius. Get him back here on the double,” Hershel snapped.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Hell, no, everything’s not okay, and you know it. I’ve got four missing prisoners. We buried three of Bordelaise’s finest citizens today, and I have a child whose status has gone from dead to just plain snatched.”

Vera’s mouth dropped. “Bobby Earle? Are you talking about Bobby Earle?”

Hershel yanked the hat off his head and slapped it against his thigh in frustration.

“Yes, I’m talking about Bobby Earle. According to Frances Maxwell, her daughter witnessed a man in a blue truck snatch the boy while the siren was blowing last Sunday.”

Vera gasped. “Lord have mercy! Why is she just now telling?”

Hershel sighed. “It’s complicated, but it only works if you’re thinking like a seven-year-old with very specific ideas about God and how you get to heaven.”

“What in the world?”

Hershel nodded. “That’s what I first thought. But it seems that Holly Maxwell heard all the adults around her talking about Bobby being in heaven and safe with God—you know the drill—and what she saw got tangled up with what she heard, until she decided that what she’d seen was God coming after Bobby in a blue pickup truck.”

Before Vera could comment, Lee Tullius burst into the room.

“Chief! Is it true what I just heard? About Bobby Earle being alive?”

Hershel’s shoulders slumped. “How fast news does fly,” he said. “And yes, it seems to be true, only we don’t know where he is. However, I’m glad you’re here. Whoever took him has more than four days’ head start on us. There’s something I want you to do.”

The phone rang, and Vera answered.

Hershel moved away from the desk so that their voices wouldn’t interfere with the call.

Lee followed, anxious to hear more. “I don’t understand, Chief. If we know he’s alive, why don’t we know where—”

Before Hershel could answer, Vera called for his attention. “Chief, phone call for you.”

“Is it an emergency?” he asked.

She shrugged. “DEA?”

He sighed. “I’ll take it in my office. Wait here,” he told Lee, then headed down the hall. Once inside his office, he took a seat and then picked up the receiver.

“Chief Porter here.”

“Chief. Stewart Babcock, Captain, DEA. I understand you have some prisoners in your jail. By any chance, is one of them a man named Nick Aroyo?”

Hershel frowned. “He was here, but he’s not anymore,” he said. “Not him and not the drug ring he was running with.”

“You turned them loose?”