Andrew Gross - 15 Seconds

“Amanda, your father told me that there were others who he did things to. Who he said he made pay. He described what he was going to do to my daughter…”

She sniffed and shook her head. “That crazy-ass sonovabitch… He’s got a host of hate in him.”

“Amanda, that’s not all.” I hushed my voice and leaned in closer. “I can already prove everything I just told you. And I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t that…” I drew in a breath. “That it’s not just about me. When he called the other day… it wasn’t just to gloat or ask how it feels that he’s ruined my life. He has my daughter, Amanda! He put her on the phone. He has her captive. I don’t know where. He wouldn’t say. He said he’d let me know when the time was right. But she must be terrified. You can imagine. And he said if I got caught, or if I gave up his name in any way-that he’d kill her. Just like he’s killed the others, Amanda. That cop. My friend Mike. Probably Wayne as well…”

She sat there staring blankly.

“Amanda, I need to know where he might have her. That’s why I’m here. I’m sorry I lied, but I had to get to see you somehow. And I didn’t know if you would hear me out or trust me. So you see I’m desperate, Amanda. I’m dying. You must have some idea where he would be. Look…”

I reached for my wallet and took out a photo. Of Hallie. In a UVA T-shirt, with her favorite jumper, Sadie. Her pretty face all lit up. I think it was the week she got accepted. Every time I looked at it, I could still see all the hope and excitement in her eyes…

“She rides. She’s expert at it. They want her to compete in college.”

Amanda stared at it. Something pleasing and pure in the way she looked at Hallie, almost as if Hallie were some idealized version of who she might’ve become. If things were different.

Then she pushed it back under the glass. “He’ll do it,” she said. “He’s just crazy enough to do what he says. I could hear it when he called. It was like he was tellin’ me good-bye…”

“If he has Hallie, it has to be somewhere remote,” I said. “He has to be able to keep her concealed and make sure no one is around to hear-’cause I know my little girl would fight. To the bone. It has to be someplace he’d be familiar with and feel secure. He only saw a photo of her in my office a few weeks back, so I don’t think he’s planned it out for months. So it has to be somewhere he would know. Can you think of any place? You’re my only hope.”

Amanda’s eyes remained steady, and when she blinked, there was some certainty in her gaze. “He has this place. It’s kind of a toolshed, where he would work. For hours sometimes. Back at our old home. In Acropolis.” She shook her head. “He was always keen on that place. It all kind of fell apart for my father when we lost it. It was his pride and joy. Bank owns it now; it’s at the end of a long road and no one ever bought it, as far as I know. There’s nothing around it but wetlands and woods, so there’s no one-I don’t think anyone even knows it’s there. And there’s this locked closet, attached, where he would keep supplies…”

My heart thumping, I pushed Rick’s card back through the glass along with a pen from the counter. “Can you write down the address?”

Amanda shrugged. She started to write-a slow, block cursive, almost like someone who hadn’t gone past the sixth grade.

3936 Cayne Road

Acropolis

When she was done, she looked back up at me, her eyes shining now, with what looked like innocence. “His heart is in that place. I can’t think of nowhere else he would go.”

“Thank you,” I said. My chest was expansive. I remained there a moment just staring at her, as she pushed a wisp of hair out of her eyes and gave me a hopeful smile.

And with it, I knew we were both thinking the same thought. What if it had all been different? What if she had grown up with someone else, someone like me? And with a sister like Hallie. Would anything have changed?

“I like horses,” Amanda said. “There was a time he used to say to me, ‘You scamper just like a racehorse, Peachy.’ Peachy, that was his name for me. ’Cause of my light hair.”

Then the pallor of disappointment crawled back into her eyes. “I hope you get him, Dr. Steadman. And when you do, you make sure you do what it is you have to do to get your girl free. You don’t hold back for me. That man… He wants to hold those to task who are accountable. You make sure you start with him. You make him accountable. You do that to him… for me!”

I nodded. Then I stood up. “I’m gonna come back and see you again, Amanda. Maybe if this all works out, we’ll both come. Hallie and me.”

“Maybe,” she said, shrugging, and she got up. “ Guard! In the meantime, you just go do what you have to do to get her back.”

Ibasically ran out of the prison, my body alive with the possibility that I knew where Hofer was.

I knew I should alert the police. Not the local police, in Acropolis. Not with my name out there as a fugitive and my daughter’s life on the line. But maybe Carrie’s brother. The FBI. Of course, there was always the chance Hofer wasn’t actually in Acropolis at all, and then I’d have nothing. And everything would be blown.

The bastard had made it clear with that photo of Hallie. Whatever he had planned for her was happening very soon. I realized then that there was no doubt in me-none at all-that I was going to go get her myself.

I turned on the car and plugged “Acropolis, Georgia” into the Buick’s GPS. I knew it was north and east from the prison, near the South Carolina border. The route came up. It read, two and a half hours. I could drive there first and figure out my options once I arrived. I already felt close to her. Hallie, I’m coming! You just hang on, baby.

I felt a power I had never felt in my life take hold of me and it wouldn’t let me go.

I got ready to go, but first I found my cell phone and made two calls. The police could come and get me now for all I cared. They could track me down, follow me-I would lead them right to my daughter.

The first call was to Liz. She picked up on the second ring. “Henry…”

“Liz, I said that I’d get back to you, and I just want you to know, I’m going to get our daughter.”

The second was to Carrie.

My blood was pumping as I punched in her cell number. I didn’t care who was monitoring. I didn’t care if the fucking FBI was sitting at the table playing mah-jongg with her.

“My God , Henry!” Carrie answered, clearly elated to hear my voice. “I was so worried. I didn’t know if you had-”

I cut her off. “Carrie!” I knew what she was feeling as she realized that I was alive, because reconnecting with her, I was feeling the same way. “Where are you?”

“Driving back home. The chief wants a meeting with me. I’m halfway through Georgia.”

“Turn around.”

“Turn around?” She hesitated. “Why?”

“Because I think I found him, Carrie! I know where Hofer is!”

Two detectives from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office had driven up earlier that morning, and Carrie had pretty much laid it all out for them: Hofer; the bogus gun purchase; his daughter’s accident; his relationship with Martinez from years before; and the tapes she had of his Mazda at each of the two crime scenes. As well as his call to Henry yesterday. How could she not tell them, whatever promise she had made to Henry?

And she also told them about Hallie.