Andrew Gross - 15 Seconds

“Look, when this is over…” I didn’t know quite how to say it. “I’d like it very much if… if we could…”

“Still pushing for a client?” Carrie’s blue eyes twinkled playfully.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I…”

She stopped me. I saw my own feeling reflected in her expression. “I know what you meant, Doctor…”

“Henry .”

“Henry.” She shrugged and smiled, this time, from the heart, and I felt my whole being-the one that had been alone and in the dark, separated from any connection for the longest time-light up like a warm lamp had just gone on. She said, “I hope you get your daughter back, Henry. I’d like to meet her when you do.”

“I’d like that too.”

“I’m going to call now…”

“Okay…” I exhaled a breath and nodded.

Carrie shrugged. “This is either going to be one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done-or one of the dumbest. Here goes.”

She smiled, punching in her brother’s number. We both waited with a bit of anxiousness for him to answer. I know I surely did. Carrie looked at me, this time not turning away.

Then I heard someone pick up and Carrie went, “Jack.”

She cleared her throat. “Jack, I have something to tell you… Yes, I’m okay. I’m in Mount Holly, North Carolina-it’s about twenty miles out of Charlotte. And I have Dr. Henry Steadman with me. I want you to know-he didn’t have anything to do with the crimes he’s been accused of and we now have the evidence to prove it. He’s ready to turn himself in. But before you do anything, you have to listen…”

I drew an anxious breath and looked past her, toward the main street of the small town where we had left Carrie’s Prius, as I went over in my mind what I was going to say.

My thoughts suddenly took the oddest turn, and I found myself recalling images from my marriage with Liz. How I had failed to keep it together. Regardless of whose fault it was. How I had just drifted ever since. Never quite put to the test. But now… I looked at Carrie. She curled her hair around her ear as she went on with her brother. Now I was somehow being given a second chance. How life does that. How it provides many chances. Chances to redeem yourself. How-

Suddenly a phone rang in my pocket. Not my cell. One of my prepaids!

Hofer!

I pulled it out while Carrie was on the line with her brother. I saw Hallie’s number.

“Hallie?” I gasped.

“Hey, Doc,” I heard Hofer reply.

My blood instantly heated, just hearing his voice. “Where’s my daughter?” I barked at him-though in some deep place in my heart, I already knew.

“Oh, sorry, Doc,” Hofer said, sighing, “she’s no longer here.”

Bud Poole got on the phone after the woman from Jacksonville left.

He just wasn’t sure if he should call his lawyer first-or the police!

He chose the police.

It had been a strange conversation right from the start. Showing him those photos-Steadman and that other guy. Hofer. And how she wasn’t even a detective, just some employee at the sheriff’s office down there. No badge, only an employee ID.

Even if he had gotten a little carried away with all the attention about Henry Steadman… he knew it had shaken him up, thrown him off his game.

And then that other guy, the one who was milling around the aisles. He and the woman had come in together. He remembered how their eyes clearly ran to each other’s after he looked at that photo. There was something between them. He saw it. And then the guy looked up and Bud got a good look at his face.

Henry Steadman.

When they left, Bud went to the door and watched them climb into the same car… A white Prius.

This was the biggest news Mount Holly had seen since snow.

The lawyer, he could come later.

He punched in the number, and when the duty officer answered, “Mount Holly Police,” Bud asked for Lieutenant Pete Toms. Shit, he could’ve asked for practically anyone there-he’d sold them all a weapon or two over the years.

“This is Lieutenant Toms.”

“Pete…” Bud said. “Bud Poole. Over at Bud’s Guns… You’re not going to believe who I just saw! That guy from Jacksonville. Steadman. Who’s wanted on those murders?”

“Bud, you seem to be seeing him everywhere,” Pete replied with some levity.

“I know. I know. But this is different! He just drove away in a white Prius. With Florida plates. He’s with a woman. This is for real, Pete,” he said, almost huffing on the words. “They just left my store!”

Ifroze, as if a syringe of ice had been injected directly into my veins. “What do you mean she’s no longer here?” I shouted into the phone in alarm.

“What’d you think this was-some kind of game?” Hofer said. “I told you, didn’t I? You go to the police, you knew what was going to happen. Still have your old cell phone? Take a look. Picture coming through now…”

No. No… I almost retched right there. How could he have known? Was it Fellows? But he could have only told him Carrie and I were up there at two different times. I grabbed my cell from my pocket. “I didn’t go to the police. I swear! What did you do to her, goddammit? What did you do?”

My phone vibrated in my hand. I saw the message come through from Hallie. Tears of helplessness started to burn in my eyes-and of fear. Fear at what I was about to see.

My own daughter…

I pressed the open option. The photo flickered for a moment, uploading; then it came in.

It was Hallie. Oh God…

But to my joy her eyes were open and she didn’t appear to be harmed.

Her mouth was taped and her eyes were focused in anger and humiliation, and there was a sign hung around her neck. In her handwriting.

JUST KIDDING, DAD .

My pulse started to calm, like a tide receding, but then the relief turned immediately into rage. “You sonovabitch Hofer.”

Another pause. This time I realized I’d made a mistake. Saying his name. Telling him that I knew. But I didn’t care.

“Oh, relax. I was just trying to get a rise out of you, Doc. You can be sure, the call will be for real soon enough. Maybe even tomorrow. So you know who I am, huh? Well, all congratulations to you.”

I turned back toward Carrie and she noticed the pallor on my face. I mouthed a single word to her. “Hofer!”

Her eyes went wide. I heard her tell her brother she needed a minute, that she’d call him right back.

“Yeah, I know who you are, Hofer. And what you’ve done. I know it was you who killed Martinez. And Mike Dinofrio. I know you bought that gun pretending to be me. That’s where I am now. Up in Mount Holly. I also know you knew Martinez from back when you were on the force, and that you knew Fellows from work-and that you got the license plate from him. I even know why you did it-your daughter. Because you somehow blame me for what happened to her. And I hope it was worth it, Hofer, because however long it takes, I’m gonna find you myself and wring the life out of you!”

He snickered. “You’ve been a busy little bee, haven’t you, Doc. A busy, busy little bee. But hell, there’s only one thing missing. You’re up in North Carolina, and all the fun’s going on down here. And you don’t know where we are.”

“What do you want from me, Hofer? Give me my daughter back. Please… What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to know what a man is truly capable of, when you take everything he has away from him. What it used to mean to be human.”

“I didn’t do any of that to you, Hofer.”