Greg Iles - 24 Hours

“An hour. Maybe more, maybe less.”

“It won’t work,” said Hickey.

“Sixty miles,” Will mused.

“It won’t work,” Hickey said again. “What you’re thinking won’t work.”

“Shut up!” Karen snapped.

“What’s the matter?” asked Will.

“Hickey says tracing the phone won’t work.”

“To hell with him. Look, I know the guy who runs CellStar. I did a gallbladder on his wife, and I played in a golf tournament with him.”

“Call him! He’ll know what the police can do.”

“We need to know what cellular company Hickey’s people are using. CellStar is the biggest, and he might have picked it for anonymity. Tell him to give you his cell phone.”

Karen gestured at Hickey’s pocket with the pistol. “Give me your cell phone.”

“What for?”

“To keep me from shooting you! I’m losing my patience here.”

Hickey took a small Nokia from his pocket and tossed it across the bed.

“I’ve got it,” she told Will.

“Turn it on and dial-Wait. Is it already on?”

Karen used the barrel of the. 38 to flip the phone over. The lights of the LED display were dead. “No, it’s off.”

“Damn. Okay. Dial star-eight-one-one and see who answers.”

“I’m doing it right now.”

“Mama?” Abby said in her other ear.

“Hang on, baby, I’m talking to Daddy.”

Karen used her trigger finger to switch on the phone and punch the keys. Hickey watched her with a puzzled look in his eyes.

“Welcome to the CellStar customer service line,” said a computerized voice.

Karen hit END. “It’s CellStar.”

“Yes!” Will exulted. “We finally caught a break. Stay on the line. I’ll use Cheryl’s cell phone to call my guy.”

“Don’t worry. I’m too scared to hang up.”

She heard Will tell Hickey’s wife to call directory assistance for the home number of a Harley Ferris in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Then he said, “Karen, ask Hickey why he thinks we can’t trace the phone.”

“Why can’t we trace Huey’s phone?” she repeated.

Hickey’s eyes glowed with a strange sort of amusement. “You’re about to kill your kid,” he said, “and you don’t even know it. You’d better let me talk some sense into that husband of yours.”

“He wants to talk to you,” she told Will.

“Fine. Just be careful passing the phone.”

Karen tossed the phone onto the bed. Hickey picked it up.

“Doc? You there?”

Karen said to Abby: “I’m going to put you on hold for a few seconds, honey. I’m not hanging up, I’m just going to listen to Daddy for a minute. Okay?”

Abby’s voice rose to a frantic whisper. “Don’t hang up, Mama!”

“I’ll be right back.” She hit the button that switched that phone to the private line.

“You’re screwing up, Doc,” Hickey said to Will. “All you had to do was follow the rules, and you’d have got your kid back in the morning. But now you’re trying to pull a fucking John Wayne. And your old lady thinks she’s Wonder Woman.”

“Sometimes I think she is, too. The simple truth is that I don’t trust you to keep your word.”

“Let me explain something to you, Doc. In some ways tracing a cellular call is easy. ’Cause a cell phone ain’t nothing but a radio. Right?”

“Right.”

“And you can triangulate a radio just like in the old World War Two spy movies. That’s what you’re thinking. You look at the relative signal strengths between towers and figure a location down to yards. The problem, Doc-for you, I mean-is that not many towers are equipped to measure that stuff yet. All this is under legislation right now. People want cell companies to be able to do that kind of tracing, so people making nine-one-one calls can be found before they bleed to death. Great idea, right? The problem is the equipment. And Mississippi’s five years behind the rest of the country. As usual, right? That’s why I feel okay using cell phones in this operation. So, if you think the cops are gonna find your kid before Huey does, you’re out of your mind. And if you’re wondering why I’m telling you this, it’s simple. I still want this thing to work. I still want my money. But if you bring in the cops or the FBI, you’re taking control out of my hands. It’s like bringing divorce lawyers into a marriage. It’s the irrevocable step. There won’t be anything I can do. I’ve got to cut my losses and run. That means when Huey finds the kid, he kills her.”

“But we know who you are,” Will pointed out. “If you kill Abby, you’re opening yourself to murder charges.”

“You’re not thinking, Doc. Kidnapping alone is a death penalty offense. So I’ve got nothing to lose by killing her. And by killing her, I kill any chance that she can identify Huey.”

“My wife saw him, too.”

“Did she? Gee, I don’t recall that.” Hickey smiled at Karen. “You starting to get the picture?”

There was a hissing silence as Will considered his options. Karen was about to switch back to Abby when he said, “Screw you, Joe. Put my wife back on.”

“I’m here,” said Karen. “Abby’s on hold. Let me get her back.” She switched her phone back to the main line. “I’m back, baby. Are you okay?”

“No! I was scared. Don’t get off anymore.”

“I won’t.” She motioned for Hickey to toss his phone back to her. When it landed beside her, it was smeared with dark blood. She wiped it on the comforter, then held it to her mouth. “Go ahead, Will.”

“I already called my guy on the hotel phone. I’m getting an answering machine.”

“No. Oh God.”

“It is after midnight. And they may not have a phone in their bedroom. I’ll keep calling back till they wake up.” He fell silent for a moment. “Look, you saw the guy who was holding Abby, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think he would kill her if Joe told him to?”

Images of a giant standing in the dark flashed through Karen’s mind. The startled eyes as she shoved the ice chest into his hands and begged him not to hurt her baby. Hurt your baby? Huey had echoed, as though the idea had never entered his head. But what had he really meant? Had the idea of hurting Abby been so alien that he’d been shocked by the suggestion? Or was Huey just too simpleminded to do anything but repeat what was said to him?

Karen covered the mouthpiece of the phone that connected her to Abby. “I can’t answer that. He’s huge, and he’s simpleminded. Hickey says he gets angry when children run from him, something about the way he was treated growing up. And Abby just ran from him.”

“Jesus. Do you think Abby could hide from him until dawn? Or maybe walk to a road?”

“It’s the middle of nowhere, Will.”

“But you left some insulin with her, right?”

“Yes. Hang on.” She uncovered the mouthpiece of the other phone. “Abby? Do you have your ice chest with you? The one I left with Mr. Huey?”

“No. I picked it up when I first ran. But when I went back inside for the phone, I forgot it.”

“That’s all right. You’re doing great. I’m talking to Daddy.”

“Are ya’ll coming to get me?”

“Yes. We’re figuring it out right now. Where’s Mr. Huey?”

“I’m still getting the answering machine,” Will said.

“I don’t know,” said Abby. “He stopped yelling.”

A shiver ran through Karen. “Don’t make a sound, baby.” She covered the phone again. “She doesn’t have the insulin. She doesn’t know how to inject herself even if she had it.”

“I think she could do it if she had to. I just don’t know if she’d know she was in trouble in time.”

“She’s only five years old, Will. Do we have any alternatives?”