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After police and the court returned the truck, Jeff’s grandfather told him something he’d never forgotten.
“The truck could never be as important to anyone as it is to you, Jeff. There are certain things in this world that you just have to take care of yourself, or they’ll never be done right. If you don’t trust your gut in these matters, you’ll have to live with the consequences for the rest of your life.”
A horn blast yanked Jeff back to Manhattan’s traffic and a decision.
So what am I going to do here, now?
He had no choice. He would search for his family on his own.
Where do I start?
He’d go back to the spot where it happened and start looking there.
He tried calling Sarah again and again. It rang to her message. Nothing. It had been about two hours since he’d last seen Sarah and Cole.
Where the hell are you?
Jeff stared at his phone, then, on impulse, he called the number for Hans Beck and got a recorded message saying the number was no longer in service. That’s strange, Jeff thought, unsure what to make of it.
After the cab dropped him off, Jeff allowed himself a moment to entertain the belief that Sarah and Cole had returned. That they’d have some wild explanation and they’d all laugh it off. How sweet the relief would be. He’d admit to her that he’d been a fool, that he was wrong for wanting to separate—no, confused, stupid and so sorry.
He’d tell her that he wanted to keep their family together.
Hold them and never let them go.
But his hope was overtaken by reality as he came to the spot. There was no sign of Sarah or Cole. Freddie, the wheelchair panhandler, was gone. Jeff got out his camera, cued the photo of Sarah and Cole and returned to the ponytailed man selling souvenirs at the pushcart where Sarah and Cole had been. Again, Jeff begged for his help, showing him the photos.
The vendor shook his head, his face a mask of indifference behind his dark glasses.
“They were right here,” Jeff said.
“I told you, pal. I don’t remember them.”
Deflated, Jeff lowered his camera to grapple with a million thoughts, horrible imaginings of what the phantom abductors could be doing to his family at this very moment. Slowly he turned in a full circle in the heart of Manhattan, one of the busiest cities in the world.
He forced himself to remain calm, to think.
Retrace your steps. Re-create the scene.
His attention came to the store where he’d bought the batteries, where it all started: Metro Manhattan Gifts and Things.
He entered.
Not as busy as before. A few browsers checking out the knickknacks; otherwise, a lull. Even the music was subdued. He recognized the same girl at the counter.
A good sign.
She had her nose in her cell phone, thumbs flying.
He needed her. Don’t interrupt her. Not yet.
He assessed the store again, locking in on the security camera mounted on the wall above the counter. It was angled to the door, front window and the street.
Did it capture Sarah and Cole?
He had to see the camera’s perspective.
“Can I help you?”
The clerk had finished with her phone. Her bejeweled nostril sparkled as she smiled—nice bright teeth, sincere. He sensed a good heart.
“I was here a while ago buying batteries.”
“I remember you.”
“You do?”
“Your shirt, says Montana. I’ve visited Glacier National Park. It’s gorgeous.”
“Small world,” he said. “Look, I was hoping you could help me.”
“Depends on what you need.”
“My wife and son, we got separated out front, and I was thinking that maybe your security camera—” he nodded to it “—maybe it recorded them.”
She turned to it and back to him without speaking.
“I just need to see if it records the spot on the street where they were.”
“Why don’t you just look for them?”
“I did and a man who was near them told me they may have been abducted or robbed.”
“What? That’s a crazy scary.”
“I’m worried. I need to see where they went or what happened. Can I just have a look at your camera’s monitor, see it if picked up anything?”
“I don’t really want to get involved.”
“No, nothing like that. Just let me check it out, it won’t take long. No one has to know and I’ll pay you fifty dollars just to see. Just to have a look. If it doesn’t get the angle, then that’s it. If it does, I’ll give you more money to rewind it back?”
“I don’t know, I—”
“Excuse me,” a woman said.
A middle-aged man and woman approached with T-shirts, key rings, postcards. Jeff stepped aside as the girl rang them up.
“Can you tell us how to get to Central Park from here?” the woman asked.
“Go right out front and catch a bus on Eighth Avenue,” the girl said. “Or you can walk north on Eighth, but it’s about sixteen blocks.”
“Thank you.”
Once Jeff and the girl were alone again, he pressed his case. He showed her his digital camera and the photos of Sarah and Cole. The girl blinked at them—a typical American family vacationing in New York.
“We were right out front a couple of hours ago,” he said. “I just need to see what happened. I need your help.”
“I think you should just go to the police.”
“I did. I just returned from talking to detectives at the precinct.”
“There you go.”
“They said they’re looking, but I’m looking, too. Please, put yourself in my shoes. Wouldn’t you do everything you could?”
Considering his point and his plight, she glanced around, caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Jeff pulled out two twenties and a ten. She glanced at the cash.
“Just a quick look.” He gave her his wallet, his phone, everything. “You hold this. I’m just trying to find my wife and son.”
Searching his eyes she saw the emotion and desperation broiling behind them, his plea eroding her resistance.
“Please,” he said.
After another glance around she put Jeff’s items under the counter. Then she went to a wire mesh door that separated the counter from the rest of the store. She unlocked it and ushered him inside to the counter and the monitor on a lower shelf. The monitor screen was sectioned into quarters, four small clear color screens.
“It changes all the time,” she said.
Jeff passed the fifty dollars to the girl and lowered himself. On one of the screens he saw a miniature, partial view of the ponytailed vendor and the street—it was very limited but it was something.
“I need to enlarge this one.” Jeff tapped the top right quarter. “I need to rewind this one to the time I came in.”
“I can’t,” she said. “It’s locked so thieves can’t take it. See?”
She tapped a steel mesh case around the control console.
“What’s your name?”
“Mandy.”
“Mandy, I’ll pay you more. Is there anyone in the store with the key who can access the controls and can operate this? I need to see what happened to my wife and son. Then I’m gone.”
Mandy took stock. The store was quiet. She looked to the rear.
“Chad has the key. He’s in the back.”
“Can you get him? Please, I just need to rewind it and see what happened.”
Mandy pulled out her cell phone and sent a text message.
“Excuse me?” An old man rapped his knuckles on the counter and Mandy rang in his two sodas, two chocolate bars and two bags of chips, then came back to Jeff.
“Sit here and wait.” Mandy pushed an overturned plastic milk crate toward him so he could sit behind the counter unseen. A few minutes later a lanky man in his early twenties appeared at the wire mesh door. He was not the same young man Jeff had seen on the ladder a few hours earlier when he’d entered the store for batteries.
“What do you want, Mandy?” Then, seeing Jeff by the monitor, he said, “What the—? Who’s he? What’re you doing?”
She went to Chad, opened the door and updated him in a hushed tone loud enough for Jeff to hear. Chad’s neck was tattooed with flames. He was harder than Mandy. Listening to her, his eyes narrowed as he gave Jeff an icy appraisal.
“Two cops were here,” Chad said, “asking to see our surveillance footage. They didn’t tell me why.”
“When?” Mandy asked. “I didn’t see them.”
“It was twenty minutes ago when you and I were out on our break. Kyle told me when we got back.”
“Did they find anything in the footage?” Jeff asked.
“They never saw it because Kyle doesn’t have the key. I have the key. The cops told Kyle they’d be back later. Guess they’re asking around at other places. It’s probably got something to do with your situation.”
“Will you help me?” Jeff asked.
“Maybe. You gave Mandy fifty bucks?”
“Yes.”
“I want two hundred and all you get is a look. No copies.”
“Deal.”
“First, let me copy your driver’s license, to cover my ass.”
Jeff retrieved his wallet from the counter. Chad placed Jeff’s Montana license on the small photocopier, then Jeff pulled out the cash, nearly all he had left. Chad shoved it in his pocket, then unlocked the console.
“What time do you need?”
Jeff consulted his receipt for the time and Chad expertly rewound the footage. Tiny people moved backward in fast motion. Then he enlarged the images and let the recording play at normal speed. A time and date stamp ran across the bottom.
The footage offered a clear color overhead view of the counter, the front area of the store, the door and suspect height marker. It also captured the front window, and the area above all the items on display. It only showed a limited view of the street.
People bustled by in both directions on the sidewalk, bordered by street vendors and vehicle traffic—but beyond the sidewalk the view of the vendors and the road was restricted. Jeff eyed every movement of every stranger when—bam!
“That’s them!”
His pulse raced. There was Sarah taking Cole’s picture, then Cole taking one of him with Sarah.
“Slow it down.”
Jeff stopped breathing.
He concentrated on Sarah—feeling her slip her arm around him. Now the tourist was taking the shot of the three of them. The image tore at Jeff. The tourist looks at the camera. Dead batteries. Jeff has the camera and leaves for the store. He stops to talk to Freddie with the beat-up wheelchair. Jeff gives him money.
