Andrew Gross - 15 Seconds

“Jacksonville?” Carrie turned and fixed on me.

“That’s right. It was a joint investigation with your very own sheriff’s office there. Very public back then. There were other officers involved, but they were all cleared.”

Carrie’s gaze grew serious, and though she only shot me the briefest of looks, I knew what was on her mind. Because it was on my mind too.

“Jack, is there any mention there of just who those other officers were?”

I heard him leaf through his report. “A couple of reprimands maybe. Hofer seems to be the only one who was directly implicated. Dismissal. Loss of all benefits.”

I could read Carrie’s mind: If we looked it up, would Robert Martinez’s name be there?

That had to be how he and Hofer knew each other. From back on the force in Jacksonville. Did Martinez somehow owe him? For Hofer taking the fall?

Everything was beginning to fit together. It was kind of like peeling back a dark curtain and finding a secret, parallel part of your life you never knew existed, but one that was going on all the time, and eventually collided with yours.

Head-on.

It had to be Hofer. Everything fit! He knew where I was going and when. He’d taken the plates from Fellows’s garage and gotten in touch with Martinez, his old cohort from Jacksonville, who owed Hofer a favor. So Hofer got him to agree to pull me over. Scare the shit out of me!

And then he’d killed him! Killed his own friend. And then he went out and killed Mike. With a gun he’d probably purchased using my name.

All to make it look like it was me!

But why? Our paths had never crossed until he came in my office. I was a blank trying to put anything together from that time. He had looked at my photos on the credenza. Asked about my daughter…

“So, you got enough?” Carrie’s brother asked. “You find what you were looking for?”

“Yeah, Jack.” Carrie nodded somberly.

“In that case, I guess you don’t need to hear the kicker,” her brother said, with a slight note of teasing in his voice.

“The kicker?” Carrie said. “C’mon, Jack, no holding back now.”

“The guy’s daughter was just convicted on a vehicular homicide charge. Two months ago she ran over a mother and her newborn son. She pleaded guilty. Sentenced to twenty years…”

It suddenly hit me: Hofer had mentioned something about his daughter in my office. He was looking over the photos on the credenza. He’d noticed Hallie. He asked me-

“Apparently she was whacked out on OxyContin at the time of the accident,” Carrie’s brother said.

“Oh my God!” I suddenly understood why Hofer had asked me about my clinics. The pain centers… His daughter had been high on OxyContin at the time of her accident. Somehow he blamed me for what had happened to her. OxyContin had taken a piece of her life. Now he was taking mine.

“I know. . . !” I turned to Carrie. “I know why he’s doing this to me.”

“Who’s there with you?” her brother asked. He sounded alarmed. “Look, I know from Pop what you’re doing up there. You’re in totally over your head. Do you understand what you’re getting yourself into…?”

“I have to go, Jack. But it’s okay. I’m not-”

“Carrie, listen to me. I’m starting to get concerned that all this has gotten to you. After what happened to Rick and Raef… If you’ve got something to share, it’s time to turn it over. To me, or to the JSO. But you can’t be putting your neck out, least of all with someone like this.”

“Steadman didn’t do it, Jack.” Again, her gaze locked onto mine. “This other guy did. Hofer. I’m positive.”

I grabbed her phone and put my hand over the speaker. “I have these pain centers. Hofer asked about them. We prescribe Oxy, but only with a doctor’s scrip. But a lot of the others are merely shills, storefronts…” The color drained out of my face. “Somehow he’s blaming me for what’s happened to his daughter!”

“I’m sorry, Jack, but I gotta go,” Carrie said, taking back the phone. “Don’t do anything. I’ll call you later, and when I do, I’m gonna be able to prove it. I give you my word.”

“Carrie, listen to me, please. This guy-”

She disconnected the line, her face clouded with both resolve and worry.

“You have proof?” I asked.

She nodded, though a little tentatively. “I can get it.”

“Where?”

“A couple of hours from here.” She started up the car again. “We’re going to see a guy about a gun.”

“Wait.” I put my hand on her arm and stopped her. “Carrie, before you do, there’s something you have to know. This guy, Hofer…” I took a breath and felt all the anxiety of the last few days finally come to the surface, my whole body going weak and numb. “He has my daughter!”

Carrie’s face went pale. She looked at me, her blue eyes wide, starting to put it all together.

“That’s what I wasn’t able to tell you,” I said. “Why I can’t turn myself in. He told me if I did, or if I happened to get caught, or if the news somehow got out about Hallie being kidnapped-he’d kill her! Just like he killed Mike and Martinez. He called me on Hallie’s phone-she was away at school-and he put her on. She’s terrified, Carrie! You can imagine! She’s sure he’ll do what he says.”

“Oh God…” I saw her look change from resolve to sympathy and she put her hand over mine.

“That’s what I tried to say when I first called you. When I asked about your son. And why I couldn’t just give myself in. Any more than I can now. No matter how much evidence we have.”

“Why do you think he’s so determined to ruin your life?”

“I don’t know why! Maybe his daughter came to one of my clinics. You need to have a scrip for Oxy, or be evaluated with a set of X-rays by a doctor, but I don’t know, I can’t completely control where these things might end up. You know what’s going on out there.”

“We have to tell Jack,” Carrie said firmly. “You can’t keep this to yourself any longer.”

“No, no!” My heart almost jumped out of my chest in alarm. “ You can’t! You can’t!”

“We have to. This is what they do. They’re professionals at this. We’re just… You can’t get her back by yourself.”

“Can you promise me that word won’t get out the minute the JSO finds out I’ve turned myself in? My name is already on every newscast across the country! You’re saying they won’t go public when I land in the hands of the FBI? They still think I’ve killed one of their own! They’ll think I just made this whole story up, to shift the blame. I can’t live with what might happen!”

“I’m sure I can get Jack to keep it under wraps. These people aren’t savages. They’ll know what to do. What other possibility is there?”

“I know who it is now. He’ll contact me. It’s me he wants! Me he’s put in this rat’s trap. Not Hallie. He’s just using her to lure me.”

“He’ll kill her too,” Carrie said, steadfast. “You know he will. You’re playing with fire.”

I brought my hands up to my forehead. I didn’t know what was right. Or maybe I knew what was right, I just didn’t want to lose control. Now that I was finally so close.

“Once he tells me where he is, then I can call in help.”

“And what if he never calls. What if that phone never rings again. And that’s his revenge. How will you live with that ?”

I didn’t answer.

“We need to get the proof,” Carrie said, letting her words sink into me. “Once we can prove it’s Hofer who’s behind it, then you have to let me bring in Jack. Or whoever his team is. I won’t walk away from you.” She clasped her hand over mine. “I promise. I won’t! But this is the only way I can go on with you. This is a murder investigation. I can’t withhold evidence. Not if I know-