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“You know where he might be? Is he bunking with a girlfriend?” Lucas asked.
Georgia shook her head. “Who knows. What’s he done now? Last time I saw him he told me he was trying to get his life together. Told me he was tired of gangbanging and such.” The old woman seemed to shrink in size as misery darkened her eyes. “I should have known not to believe him.”
“Please, Mrs. Troulous, can you think of anyplace we might find him? It’s important. I have a little boy who is missing.”
One of Georgia’s gray eyebrows lifted. “You looking for the wrong person. Remy might be guilty of many things, but he’d never harm a child.”
“I still need to talk to him,” Lucas said. “If you see him before I do, tell him I’m looking for him.”
Georgia nodded, and together Mariah and Lucas returned to his car. “What now?” she asked. “Surely you have an idea where this Remy might be. We’ve got to find him. He’s the only lead we have.”
Lucas started the car engine and puffed out a deep sigh. “I know dozens of places he might be.”
“Then we start at the first place and don’t stop until we find him.” She couldn’t stand the idea of another night passing without Billy being home with her.
The afternoon passed with failure after failure as Lucas checked all the known friends and places where Remy might be. Nobody had seen him—or, at least, nobody would admit to it.
Lucas checked with all his deputies throughout the day, but nobody had anything to report.
At two, Wally called Lucas to tell him that an FBI agent had arrived. Lucas and Mariah drove to the office and met with Michael Kessler, a young, earnest agent who listened to the facts of the case dispassionately, then indicated that he’d be doing his own investigation and would appreciate the support of Lucas and his deputies.
“Only one agent?” Mariah said as they drove away from the sheriff’s office. “They only sent one man?”
“He’ll have more resources than we have,” Lucas replied. “Besides, even if they sent a hundred agents, we won’t get any answers without a viable lead.”
At seven they grabbed hamburgers at a local drive-through. Even though food was the last thing on her mind, Mariah ate, knowing that if she didn’t, she’d make herself sick.
Was somebody feeding Billy? Or was he hungry and scared and crying for her? The last of her burger remained uneaten as haunting thoughts filled her head.
They were still parked in the drive-through when Lucas’s cell phone rang. Mariah’s hope instantly soared. Maybe Billy and Jenny had been found. He answered and she watched the play of emotion on his face as he listened to the caller.
“We’ll be right there,” he said, then hung up and turned to look at her.
The hope that had momentarily buoyed her up inside crashed back down to earth as she saw the shadows that darkened his eyes. “We need to get back to your place,” he said. “There’s been another phone call.”
Chapter Four
“I don’t know if it’s a crank or not,” Wally said as Lucas and Mariah walked through her front door. “I’ve got it taped and I checked the number the call came from with the phone company. It was the pay phone behind Jimbo’s gas station. I already called Jimbo to see if he saw anyone using the phone, but no one did. I also sent Maylor over there to check out the phone and try to lift some prints.”
Lucas had little hope that the caller had been dumb enough to leave prints, and he wasn’t surprised that nobody had seen anyone using the phone. The area behind Jimbo’s was filled with old wrecked cars and used tires. It was more a junkyard than anything else, and Lucas figured few people even knew there was a phone back there.
“Let’s hear it,” he said, and gestured to the recording equipment.
Mariah leaned against one of the kitchen chairs, her face as pale as paper as she stared at the phone. He couldn’t believe the strength she’d exhibited so far. Most women would be in the care of a physician, swallowing tranquilizers to get through the ordeal. She’d definitely earned his respect.
Wally punched the Play button and his voice filled the air. “Harrington’s residence,” his taped greeting said.
“I know the sheriff isn’t there, and I have no desire to talk to you, so just give him this message.” The voice was low, a guttural whisper. It was the same person who had called Lucas on his cell phone.
“A game isn’t fun unless two can play. I’ll give you a little clue for the day. They’re safe in a place where no one can hear, where the cries of the dead ring loud and clear.” The caller paused. “Tell Sheriff Jamison to send his men home, to send everyone home. I don’t like extra players in my game. Tell him I’m watching his every move and trust me, he doesn’t want to break my rules.” There was an ominous tone to the already creepy voice.
“Listen, why don’t you—” Wally’s reply was cut off by an audible click as the caller hung up.
For a moment the three of them said nothing, but simply continued to stare at the machine, as if answers to their questions were forthcoming.
It was Mariah who broke the silence. She drew in a deep breath and met Lucas’s gaze. “He said they were safe and sound.” Her voice trembled slightly but also held the hope of a woman grasping at anything.
“That’s what he said,” Lucas replied. There was no way he was going to tell her that the word of a kidnapper wasn’t the most reliable in the world.
Mariah turned her gaze to Wally. “You have to go. You heard what he said, he wants everyone to leave and he’s watching us. I don’t want anyone here except me and Lucas.”
Wally looked at Lucas, his forehead wrinkled into a hundred frown lines. Lucas felt the weight of his next decision in the very pit of his gut where tension burned with hot flames. Although he didn’t want to play games with a criminal, he was also aware that he wasn’t willing to gamble with Billy’s and Jenny’s lives.
“Wally, head back to the office and keep all the men away from here. Let Agent Kessler know what’s going on. I’ll be in touch with each of you on my cell phone.”
“Are you sure?” Wally asked.
Lucas nodded. “I can’t risk not playing by his rules, at least for the moment.”
Dusk was deepening into night as Lucas walked Wally to his patrol car. “I’ve got Louis checking out Phil Ribideaux. The rest of you try to locate Remy Troulous. If you find him, bring him in and call me. Keep questioning whoever you think might have any information that might help us find Billy and Jenny. It would help if we could find somebody that saw them yesterday. Keep me posted on progress. I’m putting you in charge of coordinating things from the office. Make nice with Agent Kessler. If he needs anything, see that he gets it, but just make sure all the men stay away from here.”
Wally nodded. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, see what you can dig up on a Frank Landers, last known address in Shreveport. The authorities there haven’t been able to locate him, but I’m not sure how hard they’re looking. And check around, see if anyone has noticed any strangers hanging around lately.”
“Got it,” Wally said.
Lucas watched Wally drive away. He stood for several minutes in the driveway and stared around the area. Tell him I’m watching his every move and he doesn’t want to break my rules.
The people who lived on this street were good hardworking people who valued family and friends. He knew these people … or did he?
Suddenly every drapery drawn at a window might hide a kidnapper, every closed door implied secrets. Was somebody watching from next door? Across the street?
With a sigh he returned to the kitchen where Mariah was seated at the table, playing the message again. She pushed the Stop button when he came in. “The clue. I’ve been thinking about it.” Even though the timing was completely inappropriate, he couldn’t help but notice how pretty she looked with her hair coming loose and springing around her shoulders and her cheeks filled with color that had been lacking for most of the day.
“What about it?”
“He said they’re where the cries of the dead ring loud and clear. It’s got to be the cemetery, Lucas. Maybe they’re in a crypt. We’ve got to go there and check it out.”
“Whoa. We aren’t going anywhere. I’ll go and take a look around.”
“If you think I’m going to stay here, you’re crazy,” she replied. “I can either ride with you or I can take my own car, but one way or another, I’m going to the cemetery. That’s where the clue leads and that’s where I need to be.”
“It could be dangerous,” Lucas protested. “You know that even under the best of circumstances the cemetery isn’t a good place to hang out, especially at night.”
She stepped closer to him and placed a hand on his arm. This close he could see that her blue eyes had silver flecks. Those eyes pleaded with him. “Lucas, please. I have to go with you. It’s my son. I don’t care about any danger. This is the first real clue we’ve had. Don’t make me fight you on this.”
He tried to imagine somebody trying to keep him from going to find Jenny. There was nobody on the face of the earth who could stop him—and he wouldn’t be the one to stop her.
“All right, then, let’s go.”
Minutes later they were in his car heading toward the north side of town where the Conja Creek Cemetery was located. His car beams penetrated the deepening darkness, and tension coiled like a snake in the pit of his stomach.
“We could be walking into a setup,” he said.
“What kind of a setup? If somebody wanted to kill either you or me, they could have done so without all this drama,” she said. “If we’re the targets, then why involve Jenny and Billy?”
He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “I don’t know. I can’t get a handle on this.” The words fell from him involuntarily, and he hit the steering wheel with his palm. “He’s obviously playing with us and I don’t know why. This is probably nothing more than a wild-goose chase.”
“Don’t say that,” she exclaimed with fervor. “Right now my hope is the only thing holding me together. Please don’t take that away from me.”
He glanced in her direction. “You’re one of the strongest women I think I’ve ever met. Most women would be basket cases by now.”
“I’ve had to be strong to survive the choices I’ve made in my life.”
Again he realized how little he knew about her, and new interest stirred inside him. “Bad choices?”
“Only one. I married the wrong man. Why aren’t you married, Lucas?”
“I was once. I’d just graduated college and gotten married when my mother died. Jenny was twelve, and so I moved back to the family home with my new bride. The marriage lasted for six months, then Kerry told me she hadn’t applied for the job of helping to raise a twelve-year-old. She gave me an ultimatum—make other arrangements for Jenny, or she was leaving. I helped her pack.”
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you,” she said.
He offered her a tight smile. “I’m not. Oh, it hurt at the time, but I hadn’t realized until that moment how selfish Kerry was. She definitely wasn’t the kind of woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”
“And there hasn’t been anyone since?”
He wasn’t sure if she was really interested or if she was just making conversation to keep her thoughts off their destination and the high stakes involved.
“Jenny has managed to take up most of my time and energy. There’s never been much left for anyone else.”
“Jenny has been an adult for a while now. Don’t you think it’s time you give her less time and attention?”
“I think the reasons we’re here now put to rest the idea that Jenny doesn’t require my time and attention,” he replied dryly.
“You still think Jenny had something to do with all this?” Her voice held an edge of exasperation.
He didn’t answer for several long seconds. Mostly because he wasn’t sure what was in his heart. He desperately wanted to believe that Jenny was nothing more than an innocent victim, but he just wasn’t sure.
“Jenny doesn’t always make the best choices in her life,” he finally said.
“From what I’ve seen, Jenny rarely makes any choices in her life,” she countered. “You make them all for her.”
He cast her a sharp, sideways glance. “Are you trying to pick a fight with me?”
She flushed and looked down at her clenched hands. “No. I’m sorry. Your relationship with Jenny is really none of my business.”
There was something in her tone, a vague disapproval that made him want to continue the conversation, but at that moment the rusted ironwork of the gates to the cemetery appeared in his high beams.
Conja Creek Cemetery was like dozens of other Louisiana burial grounds. Sun-bleached tombs rose up from the earth, some simple square structures, others like miniature houses complete with fencing around them.
There was no caretaker living on-site, and the cemetery was on the edge of town with no surrounding houses or buildings.
“I’ll get the gate,” he said as he put his car in Park. He pulled his gun as he got out of the car, his eyes scanning the area and his ears listening for any sound that didn’t belong.
The gate screeched in protest as he opened it, announcing to anyone who might be inside that they had arrived. He stared inside the gate to the narrow rows that led between the structures. Cities of the dead, that’s what people called the cemeteries in Louisiana. He just hoped this particular city of the dead didn’t hold the bodies of Billy and Jenny.
MARIAH DIDN’T THINK her heart could hurt as much as it did as Lucas pulled the car through the cemetery gates and parked in the space provided just inside.
Was Billy here? In one of the tombs? She reached her hand in her pocket and touched his inhaler, as if it were a talisman that would lead her to him.
She was light-headed and sick to her stomach, a combination of too much coffee and too little sleep. She just wanted her baby back home where he belonged.
“You stay in the car. I’ll check things out,” he said as he turned off the car engine.
“I’m not staying in the car,” she replied. “If you find them, and Billy is in a full asthma attack, he’s going to need immediate medical attention. I didn’t come all this way with you to sit in the car.” She opened her car door and ignored his muttered curse.
The night air was thick, hot and steamy, and for a moment she leaned against the car door and tried to imagine Billy in this place of death. The very atmosphere itself would work against him, so thick and sultry. Add fear and stress, and he could be in real physical danger.
Lucas joined her and put an arm around her shoulder. For a moment she leaned into him, drawing from his strength. She might not like the way he treated his sister, but at the moment she couldn’t think of anyone else she wanted by her side.
“Stay close to me,” he whispered. “We don’t know what we’re walking into.”
She straightened and nodded as he once again pulled his gun. Together they left the car and headed for the first “street” between tombs.
“Billy!” The scream tore from Mariah’s throat. She waited to hear an answer, but there was nothing.
The area was lit with small electric lights low to the ground, the illumination creating a contrast of eerie shadows. They walked slowly and checked each tomb to see if one might hold a sign that Billy and Jenny were inside.
“Billy, are you here?” Over and over Mariah cried out, desperate to hear the sound of her son’s voice.
Lucas moved slowly, cautiously. He’d take a few steps then stop and cock his head, as if listening. The only thing she heard was the buzz of mosquitoes and the continuous click of insects.
Billy, where are you? Her heart screamed as loud as her mouth.
“Jenny, are you here? Make a sound, give us a clue, do something to show us you’re here,” Lucas called.
Mariah had never been afraid of places. Scary movies didn’t bother her. Spiders, snakes and gators didn’t concern her. The only fear she’d ever felt was of the man she had married. Frank.
Was he behind all this? Certainly a sadistic game of hide-and-seek wasn’t out of character. One of the deputies had called Lucas earlier to let him know that her news story had been picked up by the wire services.
If Frank wasn’t behind this, and if he’d been watching television and had seen her, then he would know that she and Billy were in Conja Creek. She rubbed her left wrist—the wrist that he’d broken on the day she’d left him.
The thought of seeing him again sent a shiver of fear through her and she moved closer to Lucas, as if he could keep all the boogeymen out of her life.
As they continued to search, the hope that had filled her began to waver. Had they perceived the clue incorrectly? Where the cries of the dead ring loud and clear, that’s what the caller had said. Where else could that be but a cemetery, and this was the only cemetery in the town of Conja Creek.
When they reached the last wide aisle between the tombs, despair quickly usurped hope. And when they reached the last tomb on that aisle, the strength that had been holding her together vanished.
