***
O’Leary got the call around six thirty p.m., soon after leaving Miriam’s. Another abduction. A mother assaulted—punched in the face and left stone cold in the asphalt parking lot. Her daughter, Emily: nowhere to be found.
He was on the road when he got the call. “When did it happen?” he asked, holding his cell phone to his ear in disbelief.
“A little after five,” said his partner, Lou.
“I don’t understand,” O’Leary continued. “In the middle of a Safeway parking lot? In broad daylight?” He was beside himself.
“So far, that looks to be the case,” Lou answered.
O’Leary pressed the gas, trying to get to the crime scene as fast as he could. He was about an hour away and bound to hit traffic the closer he got to Palm Dale. He felt angry and defeated—like getting a punch to the gut. He was certain that the Snatcher had struck again and infuriated that the bastard had gotten away with it. His head throbbed. He couldn’t think clearly. It had to be some kind of sick joke.
Lou told him, “We knew that he was going to strike again. It was just a matter of time. Until we catch this guy, that’s all there is to it.”
“Not good enough,” O’Leary said. “This girl.”
“Emily?”
“Yes, Emily. We have to find her, Lou. There’s no excuses. Tell them to call the damn FBI. I don’t care.” He could barely see straight. Panic had seized his heart, almost as though his own child had been abducted. There would be significant fallout over another abduction; that much he knew. There had to be an answer—some way to catch the Snatcher before he disappeared once again into obscurity.
“The feds have already been called in,” Lou said. “Just get here as soon as you can, or we’re going to lose this one. We’ll be put on backbencher status before you know it.”
“Don’t let that happen,” O’Leary said. “Damn it, Lou. Hold out, whatever it takes. Where’s the mother?”
“She’s in the hospital,” Lou said. “Got banged up pretty bad. Broken nose. Ruptured disc in her back from the fall. She didn’t take the news about her daughter too well.”
“Of course not,” O’Leary said. “Who would?”
“Tried to run out of the hospital. Started hitting walls, kicking and screaming. Her husband just showed up, and he’s trying to calm her down.”
“Listen, Lou. We don’t have a lot of time. Make sure they cordon the hell out of that parking lot. I want witness statements, DNA, anything we can find.”
“Sure thing,” Lou said. “What the hell you doing out there in the first place?”
O’Leary glanced into his rearview mirror then at a flashing road sign off to the side that read, “Congested traffic ahead: Five miles.”
“I had some business to take care of. But I…” O’Leary paused, lost in his own thoughts.
“You still there, Dwight?”
O’Leary slowed down and pulled over to the shoulder of the road as his tires kicked up dirt and pebbles. He braked and stopped the car. Vehicles rushed past him. Then everything went still and quiet.
“Dwight?” Lou asked.
“Yeah… I’m still here. Listen, I have to bring someone in on this. That’s why I came out here.”
Lou sighed into the phone. “You still wasting your time with that Castillo chick? She’s done, Dwight. She quit the force a year ago, and you’re not gonna get anything outta her now.”
“I beg to differ,” O’Leary said. “I’ll be there soon. Get the feds on this thing, but don’t let them take it over.”
Lou scoffed. “That’s a hell of a contradiction, Kojak. You know that’s what they do.”
“I need time!” O’Leary said, frustrated.
“We don’t have any time, pal. The media are gonna have a field day with this one.”
There was no sense in arguing. O’Leary told his partner that he’d be there as fast as he could and said goodbye. He hung up the phone and sat there in silence, torn between two entirely different options. He still believed in bringing Miriam in on the case, for whatever reason. It just made sense to him, and he didn’t see the harm in it. The department frustrated him. He didn’t know who he could trust. There had to be a reason that he had come up cold a year later following Jenny Dawson’s disappearance. Would things be any different after Emily’s?
He held his cell phone in his hand, hesitant. Before he could even make his decision, his phone rang, buzzing loudly. He didn’t recognize the number, but he hoped it was who he thought it was.
“Hello?”
There was silence on the other end.
“Detective O’Leary?” A faint female voice.
“Sergeant Castillo? Is that you?”
“It’s me,” she said.
“There’s been another kidnapping.”
“I know. I just heard.”
“But how’d you—”
“Never mind that. I still talk to people on the force. Another girl. Right in front of her mother…” She paused as if holding back her emotions. “I don’t know what I could do to help you at this point, but I know that I have to do something.”
O’Leary fumbled through his pockets, looking for his notepad. It was an instinct. “I-I’d love to have you on board. What can you do?”
“I’ll give you a week.”
O’Leary paused. “A week?”
“I’ll take the rest of the week off and help you find this girl.”
A sense of relief rushed over him. He couldn’t explain it. Miriam had a gift. The gift of a skilled outsider. He felt ten times more confident with her on board, but he still couldn’t explain why. “A week would be great.”
“After that, I’m done with police work, no matter the outcome.”
“Of course, no problem. Thank you. Should I pick you up now?” He looked at his watch. “I’m about twenty minutes away.”
“I have to get a sitter for Ana and talk to my job.”
“I realize that, but I just want you to know why we need to get on this thing fast. They’re calling in the feds,” he said.
“I can’t leave my daughter on the drop of a dime. I understand that time’s critical. Just let me do what I need to do,” she said.
“Of course. When do you want to meet up?”
“Give me an hour or two,” she said.
O’Leary considered the gamble. The first forty-eight hours of any missing persons case were the most critical. He needed to get back to the station fast. But he was seldom one to deviate from an initial plan.
“Sounds good,” he said. “I’ll be over soon.”
Miriam said a quick goodbye and hung up. O’Leary sat in his car trying to think. There was a way to solve the case, he was sure of it. But he didn’t think he could do it without Miriam. She meant something. She had encountered the Snatcher, saw her partner get shot right in front of her, and quit the force soon afterward. She needed justice every bit as much as he did. That was the only answer he could come up with to explain why he was parked on the side of the interstate while a crime scene festered one hundred miles away.