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“Too bad Lane’s team isn’t doing that.”
“I’m sure they’re throwing everything they have into this, Hadley. Missing children are top priority on every police force in America.”
He opened her door for her and then rounded the truck and slid behind the wheel.
Hadley had to admit that her mother had taken the news like the fighter she was. She’d ordered the nurse to get her clothes and dared anyone to try and stop her from leaving the hospital.
A failed attempt to sit up by herself had allowed Dr. Gates and Hadley to convince her that the best way she could help was to provide them with information. She’d tried and then become furious at herself when she couldn’t give them what they needed.
To the detective’s credit, he hadn’t harassed her mother. In fact he’d been almost too accommodating and a lot of his time had been wasted on idle chatter. At least it had seemed that way to Hadley.
“Did you find the detective’s interaction with Mother odd?” she asked as Adam backed from the parking spot.
“You mean the fact that he talked more about you and your relationship to your mother and to the girls than he did about people with access to the house?”
“Exactly.”
Hadley’s cell phone rang. Her pulse pounded—until she saw the caller ID. “A friend from high school who I haven’t heard from in years. Evidently the girls’ identities have been released.”
She let the phone ring without answering. Even if the phone hadn’t needed to stay free for the kidnapper’s call, she couldn’t bear to go through the details again. Her friends would understand.
Adam shifted out of Reverse and headed toward the exit. “I’m hoping he was just trying to put your mother at ease.”
“I guess. But the girls have been missing for hours now. We have to find them before dark. They’ve never spent the night away from me.”
Hadley could feel herself sliding to the edge of hysteria. She took a deep breath, determined to stay in control. Losing it wouldn’t help find the girls.
Adam turned to look at her. “Have you eaten anything today?”
“Not that I remember, but I’m not hungry. I doubt I could even swallow.”
“You have to keep up your strength. Collapsing won’t help anybody.”
“I know. I’ll try to eat something later. But if you’re hungry we can stop somewhere.”
“I can wait. I had breakfast.”
He pulled out of the parking lot and into a stream of cars. “So is it back to the house?”
The empty, silent house void of Lila’s laughter and Lacy’s high-pitched chatter. No footsteps running down the long hallway no matter how many times she cautioned them to walk.
No one there to call “Momma.”
“I don’t think I can face going back there yet.”
“Where would you like to go?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t just sit and do nothing while waiting on the kidnapper to call with a ransom request or the police to call with good news. The waiting is driving me insane.”
“We can backtrack where the cops have been, search the nearby parks, go house to house and ask if anyone saw or heard anything last night.”
“But that would only be reaching the same people who’ve already been questioned.”
“What about going on television?” Adam suggested. “You can personally plead for the kidnapper to let them go or for someone to come forward with information.”
“I like that.” Hope spiked her pulse as the idea took hold. “Dallas has a big heart.”
“It’s the fastest way to reach hundreds of thousands of people,” Adam agreed. “You can offer an award for information leading to the safe return of the girls. That might get a response from someone from the city’s criminal element who actually knows the kidnapper.”
“Or someone involved in the kidnapping,” Hadley said. “If we act now, I may be able to get on the evening news broadcast of every local TV channel.”
“At least you should be able to make the ten o’clock news.” Adam agreed.
“I’ll call Detective Lane right now and see if he can set it up.”
She grabbed her phone. Adam reached across the space between them and laid a hand on hers. “Just a suggestion, but if I were you, I think I’d bypass Lane with this and go directly to the local TV stations.”
“Do you think the detective would have a problem with my decision?”
“I think he has his own way of handling things and might object,” Adam said.
“If he has legitimate objections to my making a public plea, I’d like to hear them. I don’t want to take any unnecessary risks where the girls’ safety is concerned. I can’t afford a dangerous mistake.”
“I can’t tell you what to do with this, Hadley. It’s your daughters.”
But not hers alone. “I’d appreciate your honest opinion,” she said. “As a friend and as a male point of view.”
Before he had time to answer, her cell phone rang again. This time it was a close friend who she hated to ignore. She took the call and accepted the empathy. Another call buzzed in.
Detective Lane. She told her friend a quick goodbye and took the detective’s call. “Have you found Lacy and Lila?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
Her spirit plunged. “What about the construction workers involved in the remodeling project? Did you check them out?”
“We’re working on it, but at this point it doesn’t appear that any of them have a criminal record.”
Desperation forced her to ignore Adam’s words of caution. She had to do something, and Lane could probably make the arrangements quicker than she could on her own.
“I want to go on television and plead for the girls’ safe return,” she said.
There was a long, silent pause before the detective responded. “We can discuss that possibility.”
“I don’t need to discuss the possibility. My mind’s made up. The only question is will you help me arrange it or should I proceed on my own?”
“I’ll set it up, Hadley, but we need to talk first. Do you mind if I call you Hadley?”
“Please do, and I’m not questioning your expertise or your methods, Detective. But unless you can assure me that you have a credible lead in finding Lacy and Lila, I insist we go forward with the TV spots immediately. There is no time to waste and no reason to talk about it.”
“I agree, but we have a new development in the case.”
She held her breath, a wave of dread rushing through her. If this was bad news... “What’s the development?”
“Someone claiming to be the kidnapper has made contact.”
Chapter Four (#ulink_5f4d04af-959b-51a5-a35d-c40ff844fb87)
Hadley’s heart was pounding as Adam pulled into her mother’s driveway. At her frantic urging, Adam had broken the speed limit more than once on the way here.
Detective Lane had refused to give her any additional information on the phone except that there had been a ransom demand along with a promise by the kidnapper that Lacy and Lila were alive and well.
Alive.
The word echoed in her heart. But the detective’s word choice continued to haunt her—someone claiming to be the kidnapper.
Please, God, let this be more than a claim.
She spotted the detective on the covered porch, standing in the stalking shadows cast by a pair of aged oak trees. She jumped from the truck as it rolled to a stop and raced to hear the rest of the story.
The detective was not smiling when he greeted her. She paused a few feet away as her gaze zeroed in on a FedEx envelope the detective held in his right hand along with a small plastic bag. When she looked closer she recognized the bag’s contents.
A pink ribbon with a row of intricate hearts that she’d last seen tied around Lacy’s ponytail.
She took a deep breath. “That’s Lacy’s ribbon. Where did you get it?”
“It came in the envelope with the message.”
She gulped in air and relief. “Then the man isn’t just claiming to be the kidnapper. He has my girls.”
“You’re sure about the ribbon.”
“It looks exactly the same.”
Only Hadley was certain Lacy’s hair had not been in a ponytail when she’d gone to bed last night. The loose red curls had been spread about her pillow when Hadley tucked her in and kissed her good-night as well as when she’d checked on them just after one.
Now that she thought about it, Lacy’s hair hadn’t been in a ponytail when they’d taken her mother to the hospital. Lacy must have taken the ribbon out when she and Lila were playing dress-up with their grandmother’s old hats, shawls and shoes just after lunch yesterday.
The kidnapper must have taken it from the dresser for this very purpose. “May I see the message?”
“Yes, but I think we should go inside and sit down first,” the detective said.
“How much is the ransom demand?” she asked.
“Worry about that later,” Adam said. “First, we should hear the detective out.”
As if she had a choice. She fumbled in her purse for the house key before she remembered that Adam had locked up. He opened the door, and she led the way to the small formal living room where the detective had questioned her that morning.
Adam waited until she sat down and then dropped beside her on the sofa.
Adam Dalton, the man who had once thrilled her with his smile and made her blood run hot with his kisses. Adam, who had captured her heart so completely only to shatter it when it suited his purpose.
Letting him back into her life was likely the worst choice she could make for so many reasons. But this wasn’t about her or protecting her heart or hiding her secrets.
Nothing mattered now except Lacy and Lila and bringing them safely home again.
Detective Lane took the chair directly across from Hadley and then took his time pulling a sheet of paper from the FedEx envelope. “This is only a copy,” he said. “The actual note is considered evidence and is being checked for fingerprints and DNA residue.”
The note was written in the type of scribbled print a first grader might produce. Hadley read it quickly before taking a deep breath and reading it a second time, this time out loud.
“Your daughters are safe and being well taken care of. If you want them to stay that way, do exactly as you’re told from this point on. You have two days to get the ransom together. I want five million dollars delivered in unmarked twenty-dollar bills. Believe me, I will know if they’re marked and you’ll never see the twins again. Stay tuned for further instructions. Lacy and Lila send their love.”
“Bastard.” Adam followed that outburst with a string of muttered curses. He took the note and read it for himself before returning it to the detective. “Is that the envelope the note came in?”
“No, like the note, the original packaging has been taken as evidence. But the envelope was delivered at 5:32 this evening.”
Hadley checked her watch. Just over an hour ago. “Was it delivered to the police station?”
“No. It was delivered here and addressed to you. The officer we had watching the house signed for it.”
“I don’t recall you mentioning this morning that officers were staking out the O’Sullivan home,” Adam said.
“It’s routine in a case like this.” Lane reached across the coffee table and handed the plastic-encased ribbon to Hadley. “I need you to officially identify this without taking it out of the bag.”
“It’s Lacy’s hair ribbon,” Hadley said again. “But she wasn’t wearing it when I tucked her into bed.”
“When was the last time you saw the ribbon?”
“Yesterday afternoon, before we left for the hospital.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. I put her hair in a ponytail after lunch, but she must have taken it down when she and Lila were playing dress-up.”
“So the ribbon might have been taken at any time yesterday afternoon?”
“Or taken when the girls were kidnapped.” Adam shifted and sat straighter, meeting the detective’s questioning stare head-on.
“Possibly,” Lane agreed.
“How about just saying what you have to say, Detective, instead of playing games?” Adam said.
“The ransom note was dropped off at a downtown FedEx location at five minutes past nine last night,” Lane said. “12:00 a.m. is the last pickup from that station for next-day delivery in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.”
“That can’t be right,” Hadley said. “The girls were here and asleep at eleven after one. I checked on them myself.”
“Maybe the clock you checked has the wrong time,” Adam said.
“I don’t think so,” Hadley said. “But there’s a quick way to find out.” She bolted to the bedroom with Adam and the detective at her heels.
