Hackett stopped their sedan at Cora Martin’s house. A man answered the door. The two agents held up ID.
“Special Agents Earl Hackett and Bonnie Larson. FBI,” Hackett said.
“Jack Gannon.” He swung the door open. “My sister’s over here.”
He indicated the woman sitting on the couch, twisting a tissue in her fists. Her hair was messed and her eyes reddened. After the agents introduced themselves, Hackett said: “Cora, a lot of people are going to work full tilt to get Tilly home safely but we’re going to need your help.”
“Anything.”
After assessing the house and making calls for support, Hackett and Larson talked further with Cora.
“Will you volunteer your property to be processed by our Evidence Response Team, who will look for anything to aid us?”
“Yes.”
“Good. While they do that, would you and your brother come to the Bureau with us now to help us with a few questions?”
“Leave? No. I don’t want to leave-the kidnappers could call.”
“We’ll put an agent here and we can arrange to have any calls that come to your landline go directly to a dedicated line at the Bureau where you can answer. We will not miss a call.”
Upon returning to FBI headquarters, a redbrick and glass building at Indianola Avenue and Second, the agents took Cora alone to a separate meeting room, leaving Gannon to wait in a reception area.
“Would you like something to drink?” Larson asked Cora.
She declined.
“All right, tell us what happened,” Hackett said.
Cora recounted everything. Hackett grilled her, often coming back to the same questions several times. What did she remember about the men? Had she ever seen them before? Height, build, scars, tattoos, accents? What did they touch? Did she still have the duct tape they’d used to bind her? Did she get a look at the car, a plate? The model, make? Prior to the kidnapping had there been any strange incidents? Did Tilly report anything odd at school, like strangers watching her, approaching her?
What did she know about Lyle Galviera? Did the five-million-dollar demand mean anything to Cora or the business? Was he a drug dealer, a drug user, a gambler, a big spender? Did he have debts? What kind of businessman was he?
“Let’s go over this again.” Hackett read his notes. “The kidnappers told you that Lyle uses his company to distribute their product, launder money and that he’s stolen five million dollars from them. Do you know which group or gang this is linked to?”
“No. I wish I did but I don’t.”
“More than twelve hours went by before you called police,” Hackett said. “I need you to explain the delay to me again.”
“I told you, they said that if I went to the police they would kill Tilly. I told absolutely no one. I did all I could to try to find Lyle. I don’t know where he is. When nothing worked, the only person I told is my brother, Jack. I begged him to help me and he told me to call the police.”
Hackett let a few moments pass in silence before he and Larson left Cora alone in the room.
The agents sent for Gannon, leading him to a separate room where Hackett sipped coffee from an FBI mug and flipped through his notes.
“And what’s your line of work, Jack?”
“I’m a correspondent with the World Press Alliance.”
“You’re a reporter with the newswire service?”
“Yes.”
“And you were in Mexico when she called you?”
“Yes.”
“Where in Mexico?”
“Juarez.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“And what were you doing there when she contacted you?”
“I was working on the WPA’s series on the drug trade.”
Hackett and Larson exchanged a look of unease.
“Is that right?” Hackett asked. “Yes.”
“Who did you talk to down there? What were you doing?”
“I talked to other journalists, morgue officials. It’s all in the profile that I wrote. The WPA will put out a day-of-death feature.”
“A ‘day-of-death’ feature?”
“Yes, it’ll likely run in tomorrow’s Arizona Republic, and about two thousand other papers around the world.”
“I’ll have to read it,” Hackett said. “Is it possible there’s a link to your activities in Mexico and what’s happened to your niece? Like maybe you pissed somebody off? Cartels have been known to go after journalists.”
“I know, but I doubt it,” Gannon said.
“Why?”
“I’ve only been there a few days and my sister said that the people who took my niece asked for Lyle Galviera, said he owed them five million dollars. Until today, I’d never heard of the guy.”
“Would you say you and your sister are close? Keep in touch regularly?”
“No. She ran away from home when she was seventeen and I was twelve. I never saw her again, until today.”
“So it’s fair to say you don’t really know your sister that well?”
“It’s been difficult, yes.”
“And here you are, directly from Juarez, Mexico?”
“That’s right. Here I am.”
Hackett stared at him for several long seconds before he and Larson met with other people in the Bureau and made a few calls. Then they led Gannon to the room where Cora had been waiting and questioned them together.
“Cora,” Hackett started, “I need to know more about Tilly. Does she have any medical condition we should know about?”
“No.”
“Does she have a boyfriend?”
“God no, she’s eleven.”
“Does she use drugs? Is she flirtatious? Does she spend a lot of time chatting on the internet?”
“No.”
“Is she a good student?”
“Yes. She has above-average grades. She likes school.”
“Describe her relationship with you.”
“She’s a good girl. We have a strong relationship. There’s just the two of us in our family. We’re as close as any mother and daughter can be.”
“Where’s Tilly’s father?”
“I don’t know. He’s been out of the picture from the start. I raised her alone.”
“Again, characterize your relationship with Lyle Galviera. You indicated it’s more than boss-employee.”
“I started working there five years ago and last year we started dating.”
“Are you engaged?”
“No. A few months ago we talked about marriage but we decided to keep dating, see where things go.”
“Describe Lyle’s relationship with Tilly.”
“He adores her and she likes him.”
“Can you think of anyone who would have reason to take this kind of action against you?”
Cora was stabbed by the memory of California.
No one must know what happened. It can’t be connected to Tilly’s abduction. She can’t be the one to pay for my mistake. I have to keep that night in California secret. No one must know. Not Jack, not the police, no one. I have to protect Tilly. This is the one thing I have to keep secret until I know who took Tilly.
The one thing.
The kidnappers said this was about Lyle, not me. Please let that be true.
“No.”
“What about Lyle and his company-any enemies?”
“I can’t think of one. Everyone likes Lyle.”
“Is the company involved in the trafficking of narcotics?”
“I told you, no, not to my knowledge. I know we were facing some hard financial times. Lyle had to lay off a couple of people and told me to watch office costs, but drugs? No, this is all wrong.”
“You said that this morning the kidnappers called you at your office?”
“Yes. When I got loose, I went there immediately to try to find some clue as to where Lyle was. They called me on my cell phone and put Tilly on.”
“Did she give you any idea where she was?”
“No, it was only for a second and she sounded so scared.”
“How did they get your number?”
“Tilly would have given them my cell phone number.”
“Have you ever been involved with illicit drugs, Cora?”