The Boy from the Woods(62)

You will see a special folder set aside for the truly damaging tape. We know the tape exists, so please do not pretend otherwise. The link will be useless again at exactly 5PM.



If we don’t get what we want, your son will face the consequences.



That was it. On the bottom was indeed a hyperlink with lots of jumbled numbers, letters, and symbols of all sorts.

Hester read the message several more times. Wilde watched her and waited. Eventually Hester handed the phone back to Dash. Both of their hands were shaking.

“You want my advice?” Hester asked.

“Of course.”

“Contact the FBI.”

“No,” Delia said.

“You read the message,” Dash added. “No law enforcement.”

“I get that, but in my view, contacting the professionals gives you your best chance. Only the four of us have seen this email, am I correct?”

They both nodded.

“So Wilde leaves now. We know people at the FBI. Good people who will keep it quiet. Wilde tells one of those people what’s what—”

“No,” Dash said. “No way.”

“Delia?” Hester said.

“I agree with my husband. For now, we do this on our own.”

They were not going to change their minds, not yet anyway, so Wilde shifted gears. “According to the time stamp, the email was sent a little more than an hour ago. What time did you first see it?”

Dash made a face. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Delia replied, “Pretty much right away.”

“That’s when you called me?” Hester asked.

“Yes.”

Hester saw where Wilde was going with this. “And may we make an observation?” she asked.

“Of course.”

“You didn’t tell your chief of security about it.”

Dash let loose a sigh. “I wanted to.”

“Yes, but your wife didn’t.” Hester faced Delia. “Because you see what I see.”

“And what do both of you ladies see that I can’t?” Dash asked with a hint of irritation.

“Gavin Chambers works for Rusty Eggers. His loyalty is to him, not you. I didn’t send him out of the room just because he could be legally compelled to talk. I wanted him out because you aren’t his first priority. Protecting Rusty Eggers is. Do you understand?”

“I do,” Dash said, “but even if I agree with that, our interests here are the same.”

Hester tilted her head. “Are you sure about that? I mean, let’s say hypothetically that the choice is your son dies or all your tapes are released to the public. Which side do you think Rusty Eggers is going to take?”

Silence.

“And I want you to consider something else,” Hester went on. “If this really is a kidnapping, who would be your most likely suspect?”

“Radicals,” Dash said.

“Well, that’s pretty vague, but let’s go with that. Let’s say it was radicals. So these radicals figured a way to get your son to go out on his own into the woods and then, what, they nabbed him on your own property and dragged him off at, I don’t know, gunpoint or whatever?” Hester rubbed her chin. “Does that seem likely?”

“So what are you saying?” Delia asked.

“Nothing yet. I’m spitballing. Honestly. That’s all. It could be, for example, that your son concocted all of this.”

Delia looked skeptical. “I don’t think so.”

“Maybe Crash just ran away. Maybe he’s fine and safe and hiding. Maybe he sent this email.”

“Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know. Spitballing, remember? But that’s a possibility, right? Another possibility is that Naomi Pine is involved. We know she ran away already. Did she give him the idea? Are they together? We know that Crash and Naomi were classmates. So maybe the two of them are in this together. I don’t know, but that’s another possibility. Are you with me so far?”

Dash frowned, but Delia said, “I think so.”

“So now let’s suppose the kidnapping is on the up-and-up. I don’t mean to sound cold and analytical, but for now, let’s try to keep emotion out of our thinking, okay? Let’s say someone found a way to lure your son out into the woods and grab him. One possibility is that, yes, it’s just as it appears. Many, uh, radicals want Rusty Eggers to go down. So a team of experts—CIA or military trained—carried out this operation. Doubtful but okay, maybe. Which leads me to the one last possibility I can’t get out of my head.”

Delia said, “We’re listening.”

“Gavin Chambers is behind this,” Hester said. “He is the complete insider. He knows the CCTV setup. He knows everything. He told your son to come meet him out in the woods. And he took him.”

Dash made a scoffing noise. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Motive?” Delia asked, ignoring her husband’s reaction.

“Maybe Rusty told him to do it. Maybe Rusty wants to flush out any secrets you might have.” Hester thought that maybe she scored on that one—with Delia at least. She took a step closer. “Listen, Delia, you felt something, didn’t you? That’s why you didn’t tell Gavin Chambers. Something about him made you hesitate.”