“Janney, I know you’re in on this. If you hurt my little girl I swear to God I’ll kill you.”
“Now, there’s no reason for threats here. Let’s just calm down now. Why don’t you tell me where you are? I can have one of my men escort you in. That way you won’t get slowed down, you know, get lost or something like that. This is, of course, assuming you are planning to come here.”
Jack sensed the sheriff was playing to the people around him, including Lauren. Threatening to kill the man when he didn’t know who else was listening on the line probably wasn’t the best PR move. “Just don’t hurt her. I’ll do anything to get her back. Anything.”
The sheriff paused for a beat. When he did reply he was still soft spoken, in control. “I’d like you to come in and talk. I have some questions for you. So does your wife.”
Jack didn’t answer. There was nothing in Janney’s tone to suggest negotiation was possible. He wondered how much the sheriff knew about the last two days. Had Lauren told them about last night? About the baseball bat? Had they convinced her that he was on some hallucinogenic binge? Then it hit him. How had he been so stupid not to see it sooner? He knew there was something in Lauren’s voice that bothered him, and it was more than disbelief over Huckley.
“Put Lauren on the line,” Jack said, barely managing to keep his voice steady. “Right now, Janney. Put her on the line.”
“She’s not available. Tell me where you are, Jack. If you didn’t do anything, then you have nothing to worry about, right?”
“You son of a bitch. You’re trying to make Lauren think I kidnapped my own daughter.”
“Are you coming in or not?”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes, you bastard. You better be there.” He slammed the phone on the dash of the Bronco. “Godammit!”
Lonetree looked over at him. “That went over well.”
“Yeah, real well.”
“You know you can’t go to the hospital, right? If you show up he’s going to figure out a reason to arrest you.”
“At least I could tell the story. Tell people about the cave. The missing girls.”
“Every person there already thinks you’re crazy. Including your wife. What do you think would happen if you showed up talking about ritual sacrifices and underground caves full of skeletons? Strait-jacket time. Not only that, but within an hour of being in custody, you’d be dead. Probably shot while you were allegedly attacking a deputy or attempting to escape.”
“No one would believe it.”
“Are you kidding? After your performance on the phone? People would think it was a damn shame, but they wouldn’t lose sleep over it.”
Jack shook his head. “This is crazy. I know who has Sarah but you’re saying not to do anything about it?”
“I didn’t say that. You didn’t want to use Sarah as bait, but it’s already happened. Now we have to use it to our advantage.”
“You mean your advantage. Don’t act like you care what happens to Sarah. Don’t play me.”
“O.K. Fair enough. But we do have the same interests here. You may not believe in the ritual performed down in that cave, hell I have a tough enough time believing it myself, but there’s been enough strange shit to make me believe it’s at least possible. Somehow, every sacrifice makes these bastards stronger. And, if they’re willing to take all these risks over Sarah, then…”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she’s some kind of key for a whole different level of power.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “This is nuts.”
“Think about it. Why else would they take so many risks? You told me that Huckley said something about her being the one they were looking for, right? What do you think that means?”
“I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “But I still don’t see how this helps.”
“Huckley said they’re planning to bring Sarah to the cave, right? So, we know they have to keep her alive until then.”
“O.K.” Jack said. “So we got back to the cave and wait for them.”
Lonetree shook his head. “If it was just Huckley, maybe. He’s impatient and brash enough to go ahead whether or not he knows where are. But there’s the leader of the group, the one Huckley called the Boss. He’s careful. Careful enough to keep his identity secret. So I’m guessing he’s smart enough to tie up loose ends before he allows Sarah to be brought to the cave.”
“So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying we need to force the issue. Go on offense. Make this Boss guy do something. Hope for a mistake.”
“That’s our plan? Hope for a mistake?”
“Well, we could call them up one by one, tell them we know who they are and threaten to kill them. Worked well with Janney.”
“Listen, I don’t care about your revenge. I just want to get my girl back.”
“Fair enough.”
“You still haven’t told me where we’re going.”
Lonetree reached into a stack of papers wedged into the space between the driver’s seat and the console. He pulled out a folder and tossed it over to Jack. “Take a look at that. You’ll see why I still need you.”
Jack flipped through the papers Lonetree had tossed him. The last page was a large photograph. It took his breath away. “Is this for real?” he asked.
Lonetree nodded.
“Jesus,” Jack whispered
“You’re going to get one chance at this. You have to be ready for some dirty work if you want to save your daughter. Tonight might be your best chance to get her back alive. Your only chance.”
Alive. Before that moment, Jack hadn’t contemplated Sarah being anything other than alive, and the idea of his little girl being hurt in any way made it difficult for him to breathe. The thought of her being killed was not within his ability to process.
Jack took a deep breath and studied the photograph he held in his hands. Just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse. “All right. Tell me what I have to do.”
SIXTY
A half hour had passed since the phone call and still no Jack. Lauren tried his cell a half-dozen times, but it went directly to voicemail without ringing. Janney hovered nearby whenever she picked up the phone. Each time she hung up in frustration he gave her a thin, patronizing smile. She wondered if that was the effect he intended. If it was an attempt to comfort her it didn’t work. If anything, Janney’s presence, his squinty eyes and creepy smiles, made her more anxious. What was she doing trusting the sheriff’s judgment over Jack’s?
She looked over and saw Janney on the phone in a nurse’s station. A glass window separated them, but the door was open so she caught snippets of the conversation. He was giving a detailed description of Sarah and telling whoever was on the other end of the phone what had been done so far to search for the girl. When he was done, he gave a full description of Jack. Janney turned in mid-sentence and made eye contact with Lauren through the window. She looked away, and couldn’t shake the feeling that Janney had turned to make sure she could hear him. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Then again, she scolded herself for the hundredth time that hour. If she had been more paranoid about leaving her children alone, none of this would have happened.
“Dr. Tremont.” The voice shocked her out of her thoughts. It was Janney, back from his phone call. “I have good news. That was the FBI. They’re treating it as a kidnapping now.”
“Wh-what does that mean?”
“They don’t work kidnapping as much as they did before they became primarily anti-terrorism. But they still have great resources available. They’ll check all major transit points, train stations, buses, airports, you name it.”