Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(71)

Amy’s eyes found Oaks. He shook his head and tapped his wrist, as though tapping a watch. It wasn’t enough time.

“That’s too soon,” Amy blurted. “We’re not—we don’t have all the money yet.”

“Oh, Amy,” he said with a sigh. “Do you want to see Lucy again or not?”

“Of course I do,” she said. “Please, I—”

“I’m sure you’ll manage. Remember, no police. No FBI. If I see even one of them near either of the drop sites, Lucy is dead. Do you hear me? Dead.”

Josie and Oaks looked at one another. She mouthed: either of the drop sites? He shook his head. This was not a good sign.

“Please,” Amy cried. “Don’t hurt her. I’ll do whatever you say. We just need more time. The money—"

“Tonight. Six o’clock. Both of you. Alone. No tracers, no trackers, no marked bills. Nothing that allows the FBI to follow the money. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand,” Amy said.

“You take one half of the money to the center of the football field of Denton East high school. You. Just you. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Just me. The football field.”

“Your husband takes the other half and delivers it to Lover’s Cave.”

Amy’s brow furrowed. “Wait. Lover’s Cave? What’s that?”

“You’ve got a whole army of police and FBI agents. Figure it out.”

“Okay, okay,” Amy said. “We’ll find it. Just please don’t hurt Lucy. Please.”

“I will hurt her if you lie to me, Amy.”

“I won’t lie.”

“Leave the police and FBI at home, both of you. You got that?”

“Yes, I promise. What about Lucy? Will you bring her? How do we get her back?”

There was a moment of silence. Then he said, “If you do what I say, she’ll be released to you twenty-four hours after the drop, in the same place that you lost her.”

“You mean the carousel?” Amy said, but he had already hung up.

Amy set the phone down and looked around at the faces in the room. One of the agents on the laptops said, “The number is registered to a Violet Young.”

“Oh Jesus,” Josie said.

Amy covered her mouth but not before everyone heard her shriek the word No!

Colin said, “What is it?”

“That’s Lucy’s teacher,” Amy said. “My God.”





Forty-Seven





Josie squeezed in between Oaks and Mettner behind where the agent sat so she could look at the map. The agent pointed to a small red circle on the screen and said, “This is Violet Young’s address, but that’s not where the GPS puts the phone.”

“She must be out somewhere then or he stole her phone,” Josie said. “Where is the phone?”

The agent tapped on some keys and then dragged his fingers across the mousepad. Finally, another map appeared, and another small red circle hovered over a map of East Denton where a branch of the Susquehanna River flowed through that side of the city. “That’s a bridge,” Josie said. It was the bridge in Denton under which many of the homeless and drug-addicted took refuge. Had Violet Young been near there? Had the killer merely taken her phone and gone there to make the call? Or had he kidnapped Violet, dumped her body elsewhere and then taken her phone?

Oaks said, “Let’s go.”

Josie and Mettner rode together behind a caravan of FBI vehicles, speeding through Denton until they reached the bridge. Josie called Noah as Mettner drove, explaining what was going on. “Call the school,” Josie said. “And try to locate her husband, would you?”

“You got it,” he said. “Be careful out there.”

Mettner pulled over behind the rest of the caravan, all the vehicles crammed onto the side of the road, a strip of gravel and weeds just before the bridge. FBI agents flooded the area, all wearing bulletproof vests with the letters FBI emblazoned on them. Josie and Mettner pulled their own vests out of the trunk and threw them on. Everyone gathered around Oaks, who had to yell to be heard over the traffic crossing the bridge and the rush of the river below. “The phone’s signal is still strong at this location. Let’s split up into six teams of two. Three on that side and three on this side, meet in the middle below the bridge.”

“Wait,” Josie said. “Be advised that there is a large homeless camp under the bridge. There’s a lot of drug activity that goes on down there. Stay on your toes.”

They split up into their teams and descended on the area beneath the bridge, searching for Violet Young, the kidnapper, or both. Several makeshift tents had been erected on the riverbank. Josie and Mettner stayed together, checking each one and finding nothing. No one was willing to talk to cops.

The six teams met up in the middle. There was no sign of Violet Young or the kidnapper. Josie said, “The phone has to be here. We should spread out, widen our search area along the riverbank.”

Oaks nodded and gave a signal with his hand for his agents to move. With two FBI teams searching parallel to them, Josie and Mettner searched nearest the water, picking over rocks and trudging through mud. She was a half mile from the bridge when she spotted a small flash of color in the mud. She squatted down for a closer look. It was a cell phone with a bright purple glittery cover. “Mett,” Josie called, waving him over.