“Detective Soldano has been very open with us,” Grover continued, “and he has shared with us the file from the Real Time Crime Center. He’s also let us read the threatening letter which you had received and ignored.”
“There were reasons,” Laurie said, embarrassed anew.
“I can understand why you might have ignored it,” Grover said. “So don’t be hard on yourself. It only mentioned you, not your son. But the combination of your son’s abduction and the letter tells us that this case needs to move forward quickly to minimize the threat to your child, and that’s the way we will approach the case if you decide to employ us. Knowing the police and how they work, my strong sense is they will be conservative and wait for the abductors to communicate here and begin a negotiation, as they already have done. The passive approach, which is a tried-and-true method, isn’t appropriate in this situation. We believe the approach should be more proactive by anticipating consequences. Although it’s generally difficult to discover where a victim is being held, the opposite is true in this case for a number of reasons. We think these kidnappers are not experienced. The snatch was poorly planned and executed. Experienced kidnappers don’t start the game off with a homicide, as Lou can tell you.”
“It’s true,” Lou offered. “On the last and only kidnapping case I was involved in, the snatch was the most carefully planned part of the whole deal.”
“Second,” Grover continued, “there was no apparent research as to the extent of personal wealth. If I’m not mistaken, there is no huge payday here, like a huge family fortune that can be tapped.”
“Hardly,” Jack responded. “All of our savings are tied up in this renovated house.
“Let me tell you, in a kidnap-for-ransom case these days, it is extraordinarily rare for the perpetrator not to have done extensive research into the victim’s finances. It suggests that the kidnapping was done not for monetary gain but for something else entirely. The talk about money is probably a distraction at best.”
“If the threatening letter is associated with the kidnapping, as we believe it is, the real issue is for you to stop investigating the case mentioned in the letter, at least in the short run. What can you tell us about it?”
“It’s a case I’m taking over,” Lou said, speaking up before Laurie. “It was initially thought to be a natural death, but Laurie has proved otherwise. We also have a name: Satoshi Machita. Just this afternoon Laurie has established quite believably that it was an organized crime-sponsored assassination. Beyond that I cannot say.”
“Interesting,” Grover said, pausing while he pondered this new information. “The possible involvement of organized crime is an important new wrinkle.”
“It’s certainly going to quickly influence my homicide investigation,” Lou added.
“I’m also curious about the tone of the letter,” Grover said. “It’s as if a third party was involved, making me think there might have been an element of extortion playing a role. I mean, why this anonymity?”
“My thought exactly,” Lou said. “And there was a situation of such extortion in OCME about fifteen years ago. Remember, Laurie?”
“Of course I do,” Laurie said. “Vinnie Amendola had been indebted to the Cerino Mob for saving his father way back when. And today Vinnie was acting very out of character. In fact, he took an emergency leave, supposedly for a family emergency.”
“Did he say where?” Lou questioned.
“He didn’t,” Laurie said.
“Well, I know what I’ll be doing first thing in the morning,” Lou said.
“That could be helpful,” Grover said, “but I don’t think we should wait until this Vinnie is located and questioned. I’m concerned about the child’s safety. Whoever the abductors are, they surely don’t mind killing, as evidenced by how they did the snatch, and I’m worried what they will do with the child once they believe they have achieved their goal of getting Laurie out of the morgue to keep her from discovering what she’s already discovered, which I’m assuming they don’t know as of yet.”
“What exactly would you do?” Jack asked. He did not see anything else that could be done other than wait for the abductors to call and then trace the call. “All I can see is what the police are doing, trying to get the bad guys into a negotiation. JJ could be anywhere, anywhere at all in the whole state or neighboring states.”
“I think your child is nearby,” Grover said. “Considering the way the case has gone so far in terms of a near total lack of planning, your son is probably at one of the participants’ homes. In many respects, handling and housing an infant is logistically easier than an adult. With an adult, all sorts of precautions have to be taken for them not to know where they are secreted away and a method for housing them such that they never see their captors, unless, of course, the abductors never plan to release them. But killing the victim makes getting anything in return impossible because of elaborate proof-of-life mechanisms developed for the exchange process.”
“Okay,” Jack said. “I understand all that, but how do you propose to find out where our child is being held? That seems impossible to me.”
“It is often difficult, if not impossible,” Grover agreed. “But there are unique situations that can help, as I believe there are in this circumstance. First, there is the strong possibility Vinnie Amendola may be able to help by providing information about who the kidnappers are. But we shouldn’t wait for that possibility, although we will encourage it. No, the unique circumstance is the fact that you are living in a city with true neighborhoods. People who are not New Yorkers probably would not understand, as they see New York as a massive, impersonal city. While we’ve been here waiting to speak to you and your wife, I’ve had the pleasure to talk with your friend here, Warren Wilson, who is very concerned about your child and eager to help.”
Grover gestured toward Warren, who nodded in confirmation.
“He’s told me,” Grover continued, “that you and your wife are respected and universally liked members of this neighborhood, which is close-knit, and have been so for almost twenty years. He also mentioned your generosity, in respect to the playground across the street, and about young men who have stayed in school and gone off to college because of you. It’s a wonderful story, which is now going to come back and reward you.”
“How so?” Jack asked.
“One thing that CRT has learned over the years in handling hundreds and hundreds of kidnapping cases is that the kidnappers often watch over their victim’s families, mainly to ensure that the families comply with their demands. One demand, which is always a part of the kidnapping scenario, is to keep authorities away from the action. The only way they can do that is by watching that there isn’t police or FBI traffic in and out of the family’s residence. If they see that happening, they bring it up on the next call and make another distant threat that such and such will be done to the victim.
“And if we are correct in assuming this particular kidnapping is not primarily a kidnap for ransom but rather a way to keep your wife from her work, there is even more reason to suspect they will have a watcher on duty, at least during the daylight hours.”
“So you intend to catch this watcher? Is that the idea?”
“It is indeed. The reason that it works, which we’ve been able to use maybe a half-dozen times before, twice in São Paulo, Brazil, is that these are stable, tight neighborhoods where the residents quickly recognize people hanging around who don’t belong. Warren has offered to do that for you, starting early tomorrow morning. He assures us this is a very tight community with experience picking out strangers to keep gang violence to a minimum.”