Kidnapped

  Luke knelt and scanned the area in a full circle, looking for the sight of gathering flies, the darker stains of blood. He braced to see it, for even a drop or two of blood would attract insects. Only a few gnats came to buzz near his ear. That’s a gift. No blood.

  He rose and glanced toward Caroline. She stood with arms wrapped across her chest, rocking up on her toes and then back on her heels. He wanted to warn her to temper the hope he could see in her face but couldn’t say the words. They would work concentric circles out from this point of impact and hope to find something.

  “Over here!”

  Luke turned to see a searcher raise his hand on the opposite side of the road a good fifteen yards toward the woods.

  “I’ve got snagged fabric on these brambles.”

  A straight line for someone taking off to the woods. The fabric could be old, from horseback riders who occasionally came this way, hikers or bird-watchers, or it could also be evidence of something that had happened yesterday.

  “And I’ve got small-print tennis shoe tracks,” a searcher five yards closer to the woods stopped and called.

  “Everyone hold where you are,” the sheriff ordered. “Clint, back that security tape another two hundred yards both directions. What do you think, Luke?”

  “Sharon’s car is forced to stop here by another vehicle; assume at least two people are in it since both cars were driven away from here. One person goes for Sharon, the other for Benjamin. Sharon yells for Benjamin to run and he sprints toward the woods . . .”

  “The dogs are working near the pond where Mark was found. They can be here in twenty minutes.”

  Luke felt an enormous sense of hope swell. “Clear the searchers out of this entire area. We don’t need them disturbing the scent.” He turned to Caroline. “I need something Benjamin wore recently.”

  She just about came out of her tennis shoes as she leaped on the request. “The shirt he wore to school Friday?”

  “Perfect. Get it.”

  Caroline sprinted toward the house.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The bloodhounds bayed as they clambered from the back of a van accompanied by their trackers. Luke took the shirt Caroline had brought over to the trackers. “Benjamin’s nine years old and he knows these woods. He’s been out there overnight.”

  “The ground is perfect to track. If he’s in there, our dogs will find him.”

  The three dogs tangled their leads as they strained to go. They practically tasted the shirt as they absorbed the scent. “Let’s go, boys.”

  The dogs began to prowl back and forth, working the road in an excited wandering. The lead dog bayed and peeled off into the woods. Within seconds, the other two dogs joined the track, tugging their handlers to keep up. The dogs crashed through the thick brush.

  “Benjamin was running,” Luke said softly.

  “Let’s follow them.”

  Luke stopped her. “No, just listen to the dogs. They’ll tell you what they find by their baying.”

  “If he only ran a short way and was caught, brought back . . . would the dogs circle back?”

  “Yes.” Luke knew the odds that a boy could outrun a man coming after him were at best fifty-fifty. And given the options, seeing the dogs come back might not be so bad. He worried more about the boy being shot, or being somewhere out there with a broken leg.

  “If Benjamin ran away, why didn’t he make it to a neighbor’s house to call for help by now?”

  Benjamin had been out there at least sixteen hours and he knew the woods. He couldn’t have easily gotten lost when there were eventually roads in each direction. Under most circumstances, he would have made it to help by now.

  “Don’t borrow trouble, Caroline. We’ll know what happened soon enough.”

  The sounds began to fade as the dogs moved deeper into the woods. Luke turned up his radio, listening to the trackers.

  “The boy crashed through brush, running hard, not turning to move onto what foot trails he does cross. I’ve got fragments of cloth and several spots where it appears he fell. If there’s someone running after him . . . We’re crossing muddy ground and I’m only seeing small shoeprints.”

  “He’s still heading due east?”

  “Yes.”

  The sheriff came over carrying a map and showed the path the trackers were reporting. “Benjamin looks like he deliberately headed into the deepest stretch of the woods. Does he play there often? Would he know where he’s going?”

  Caroline bit her lip. “Snake-hunting trips, overnight camping . . . Benjamin knows this stretch of woods pretty well, but if he got off the trails he normally used—he’ll get disoriented. And I doubt he has a destination in mind. He’s probably just running.”

  “Assume he’s very scared. Will he hole up and hide?”

  “Maybe. But first he’ll keep going until he can’t run anymore.”

  The sheriff looked at the map and then at Luke. “If he managed to run a mile or two into the woods, wore out, and then sat down to rest and hike out . . . the far side of these woods opens onto the pastureland Wilson uses for his cattle. If Benjamin is staying on this course, he could still be in there trying to walk his way out. We can get a team of searchers working in from the road bordering the pastureland.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  The sheriff nodded and started assigning searchers.

  “You want to move over that way or stay here?” Luke asked Caroline, willing to leave it up to her.

  She studied the map and where the dogs were at now. “Let’s move to the halfway point between here and the pasture road.”

  * * *

  Caroline leaned against the fender of the deputy’s car, feeling like time was crawling. Beside her Luke didn’t show anxiety, his arms crossed over his chest, the volume on the radio turned up so they could both listen. Benjamin was out there somewhere. He had to be so scared. “They’ll find him?” she asked again.

  “The dogs are good. They’ll find him.” Luke tossed the twig he was stripping of leaves. “This is every kid’s nightmare, being chased in the woods at night with a bad man after him. He was running, so he’s probably not badly hurt, and he’s scared but alive. I’ll take that outcome.”

  “Sharon would have told him to run and not stop.”

  “I am very glad Benjamin listens to his mom.” Luke turned, hearing a vehicle. “The ambulance is just insurance; you know that.”

  “I know.” Caroline stared, debating how her shoes would handle a hike through the woods.

  “No, we’re not going in there. When they find something, we’ll just cost ourselves time having to double back to get to where they are.”

  She looked over and Luke smiled at her. “Your face is an open book.” He held out his notebook. “Work some more on the list of names of those Sharon and Mark had over to their open house last month.”

  She found the page she had begun work on earlier and leaned against the car, using the hood as a makeshift desk. “About all I remember from the open house is getting caught by kids in a water gun fight.”

  “So list the kids’ names, and we’ll assume their parents were there.”

  She wrote them down. “How rich is Mark, really?” She looked over, hoping Luke wouldn’t be offended by the question.

  “Rich enough. The business is well-known in Atlanta and his two partners are a little more flashy with their income than Mark is. Someone looking for a target would know he was doing quite well.”

  “No offense meant, but is it new money? You’re not rich.”

  “Mark put his inheritance from our grandfather into his business; mine sits in treasury bills. I’ve found the only thing that happens with really good cars is they get stolen and stripped for parts, and I’ve got all the house I want.”

  A voice broke through the radio static. “Sheriff, I’ve spotted a baseball cap. It’s caught on a limb going down a ravine. I’m sending it out with the deputy.”

  Caroline surged back onto the road to
pace. “He’s hurt, Luke! He took a tumble in the dark of night.”

  “They found a baseball cap, not Benjamin wearing it. Don’t jump to conclusions.”

  “Let’s go.”

  “Not yet.”

  Twenty minutes passed before the deputy appeared from the woods farther down the road. Caroline broke into a trot to meet him. Luke easily kept up with her, and he paused her before she could reach for the cap. “Just look; it needs to be checked for any possible evidence.”

  “Those are Benjamin’s initials on the brim.”

  “We found it here.” The deputy marked a location on Luke’s terrain map. “The ravine is pretty steep, but if he slid down it intentionally, Benjamin could have been using it as a safe place to escape. There’s a dry creek down there, and walking it is a lot easier than pushing through the underbrush up here.”

  Luke traced the riverbed. “He’s got to be somewhere inside this mile square—between this road, the pastureland, the river, and where we found his cap.”

  “Why isn’t he answering the trackers’ calls?” Caroline asked Luke as additional people arrived and clipped on yellow vests to join the search.

  “Let’s find him and answer that question.” Luke handed her one of the yellow vests. “Just promise you’ll stay with me.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Over here! We’ve got him over here.”

  “Benjamin!” Caroline missed her footing and crashed down the embankment, sliding on her left side. Luke winced at the impact to her elbow and back as he followed her down. Caroline shoved a half-slipped-off tennis shoe back on and kept running, heading down the riverbed toward the whistle being blown to mark the recovery location.

  Luke came alongside her, shoving aside the branches in their way. They turned a bend in the path.

  Caroline took the impact of a nine-year-old boy moving at full speed head-on and about lost her footing again. “Benjamin.” She laughed as he melded into her. Luke wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her. Caroline leaned down, her head near Benjamin’s. “Hey, buddy. I’m so glad to see you.”

  “They took Mom.”

  Luke knelt beside the boy. “Who did, Benjamin?” he asked gently, for the boy’s words were tripping over each other. Benjamin turned toward him. The look in Benjamin’s eyes was not something Luke wanted to ever see within his family. Desperate panic in the eyes of a nine-year-old jarred any sense of justice in the world.

  “Two men. They wore ski caps. Mom told me to run, and I did.”

  Luke rested his hand on Benjamin’s shoulder and soothed the tense muscles while he inspected the boy. A swollen cheek and black eye showed clearly, as did tear traces, but Luke saw no bloodstains on his jeans or shirt, only thorn scrapes and insect bites on Benjamin’s arms. If he’d been grabbed during his struggle to flee there didn’t appear to be bruises marking the event. Luke would take small favors where he could get them. “The dogs showed us the path you took. You did an excellent job running at night.”

  “Is Mom okay?”

  Caroline wrapped her arms tighter around Benjamin. “We don’t know, honey; we’re still looking for her.”

  The boy’s lower lip started to quiver. Luke used his shirtsleeve to wipe away his tears.

  “They hit our car hard—there wasn’t anything she could do.” Benjamin choked on the words.

  “I know. We found the impact site.” Luke waited until Benjamin took a deep breath and then another, trying not to cry. Sixteen hours of running—no matter what he said Luke doubted it would be worse than what Benjamin had already wondered. “Your dad had a car accident last night too, and they took him to the hospital; otherwise he’d be right here leading the search.”

  “He’s hurt bad?” Benjamin whispered.

  “Mark’s like you, tough. He’ll be okay. I’ll take you to the hospital so you can see for yourself. And I’ll find your mom, Ben.”

  They looked at each other, and the boy nodded. They were both Falcons; they both loved her. They would find her.

  “I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t.”

  Luke understood the shame under those simple words. “Benjamin, you’re here to tell us what happened. That’s the best help you could do for your mom. My word on that.”

  “I want to help find her.”

  “Then you can. I’ll ask you lots of questions, and you can tell me what you remember. But we’ll do that back at your aunt’s house over a big breakfast.”

  “I want to see Dad.”

  “He’s in Atlanta, Ben, and it’s a long drive. Let’s eat and clean up first, then we’ll see him.”

  Benjamin gave a sigh and nodded. He leaned his head back to look up at Caroline. “French toast? I dreamed about French toast and I am so hungry.”

  “I can do that. And as long as you don’t tell your mom . . .” Caroline tugged out a plethora of candy bars stuffed in her pockets for him to choose from. “Why didn’t you answer our calls?”

  “One of them was back in the woods this morning, trying to find me. He called my name. So I hid. And then I guess I went to sleep.” Benjamin tugged the wrapper off a PayDay and stuffed the paper in his pocket.

  Luke stood. Someone coming back to look for the boy . . . He looked at Caroline and didn’t like the fear he saw reflected in her face. Luke looked at Benjamin. “When did you hear the guy that came back?”

  “Right after dawn. I saw him a couple times. He wasn’t wearing a ski mask, but he had his jacket collar up, and his hat was tugged down. I wanted to get closer to see what he looked like, but I didn’t want him to hear me.”

  “A wise decision. Was he a big man, a small man?”

  “Kind of like our neighbor Jim, tall but skinny, and I think this guy knew the woods. He would stand quiet and listen, and he didn’t slip much even when he moved up and down ravines. He had this tall walking stick.”

  Comfortable with the woods, so probably not a guy out of Atlanta. “Do you think he was one of the same two men from the day before?”

  “He wasn’t the one who chased me last night, and this guy followed my trail like he knew exactly where I had run. He even crossed the creek where I did. He was here a long time. I think he left when the helicopters came this way. I’m sorry I didn’t come out sooner.”

  “You did just fine,” Caroline assured him. “The sheriff’s going to look around and see if they can locate where this guy went. What do you say we go home?”

  “Are we like miles from home?”

  “A little ways. You want a lift out of here?” Luke offered.

  “I’m too big.”

  Luke smiled. “Maybe next year you’ll be too big. Come on.” He turned and knelt and Benjamin climbed on his back. Luke easily lifted him. “You did good, Ben, real good.” Luke skirted around the dogs now pacing around them, Caroline close behind with her hand touching Benjamin’s arm.

  “These dogs are really here just to track me?”

  They loped around them, occasionally jumping to sniff the boy’s tennis shoes.

  “Yep.”

  “I wish I’d let them find my sleeping place. I came down the hill to meet them and they slobbered all over me and sat on my feet.”

  “Tell you what, after this is over I’ll take you to see where the dogs train, and maybe you can be their handler for a day.”

  “I want to be the hider again, and this time they can sit on my stomach like I’m some dog rug.”

  Luke laughed at the image. “Do I gather you would like a dog someday?”

  “I saw these really cute puppies at the mall. Dad said we can get one once school is out and I have time to train it.”

  He ducked so Benjamin could avoid a tree limb. “I had this really great dog when I was your age. I lived up north, and he loved the snow. You should get something really big that likes to take your mom’s shoes, and shed on the carpet, and come sleep on your bed and crush the mattress.”

  “Mom would spend days chasing it out of her white carpet room. I could name it
something cool like Samson.”

  “Mention dog training classes; you can use that as leverage.” Luke paused to let Caroline go through a narrow section of the trail first. She was crying, but he figured it would do her good as long as she didn’t miss her footing and go down for a third time. He smiled at her, and she smiled back as she passed.

  Two found, one to go, and then he was definitely going to take Caroline out for a very calm quiet dinner somewhere and try to ease those tears. “When we get back to the house, Ben, do you think you can remember what your mom was wearing yesterday?”

  * * *

  Luke set down his fork and picked up his pen. Caroline slid another piece of French toast on Benjamin’s plate and another two on his. Luke smiled his thanks. He turned another page in his notebook. “What time did you leave the house, Ben?”

  “Questions can wait two minutes. Eat while it’s hot,” Caroline suggested.

  Luke reached out a hand, caught her wrist, and tugged her down into her own chair. He slid one of the pieces of French toast onto her plate and handed her a fork. “You, too.”

  Benjamin giggled.

  “She’s like this short-order cook who has no stop button. She keeps forgetting to eat.” He picked up an orange and his knife to peel and segment it. “We’re eating.” Luke passed orange slices to Benjamin, as fast as the boy could wolf them down. “Last one.”

  Benjamin ate it, then reached for the maple syrup.

  “Tell me some more about how they hit your mom’s car,” Luke asked.

  Benjamin drew a tic-tac-toe board on his French toast with the syrup. “I was sorting out my Braves baseball cards and wasn’t paying much attention until Mom suddenly swerved. I looked up to see this van passing us. It suddenly pulled into Mom’s path, so she had to swerve again into the ditch. Our car stalled and she couldn’t get it started again.

  “A guy got out of the van’s passenger door and tried to open Mom’s door. You should have seen her. Mom shoved her door open and hit him under the chin and then slammed it closed on his fingers. Then when she saw the man coming around the car to my door, she got the car to roll forward so he had to scramble out of the way. She told me to run, and I didn’t want to leave, but she insisted. I thought if one of them came after me to the woods, she might be able to take the other guy.”