MARY CLARK - Piece of My Heart

Grace was nodding along. “He may not have known that one of the detectives had passed.”

“He probably also had no idea just how hard it would be to malign someone with Leo Farley’s reputation,” she said. “Dad thinks Gunther would have been released by now, except the DA’s Office knows it will have a major problem with the NYPD if they essentially concede that the former first deputy commissioner framed an innocent man.”

“Not to mention the defendants who would come out of the woodwork claiming they were set up, too,” Jerry added.

“But if my father were to admit it? Gunther would walk out of prison tonight, a free man.”

Jerry shook his head. “I’m starting to understand why your father’s so convinced Gunther may have been trying to kidnap Timmy. Your father would do anything for that boy.”

“Okay.” Grace held up both of her hands dramatically. “But how does a man in prison manage to pull this off from a jail cell?”

“He would need to have outside help,” Laurie said. “Gunther’s only family is his mother, and according to my father, she’s in assisted living in Staten Island. But Gunther has attracted some pretty die-hard supporters. There is a Facebook page called Darren Gunther Is Innocent . It promotes his book, but also pushes his claims of innocence. We should make a list of the most active posters on the page and see if any of them sets off alarms.

“Will do,” Jerry said. “I know our focus is on finding Johnny, but I went ahead and put in a request for the trial transcripts. And I started a list of the people we’ll eventually be wanting to interview. So far I’ve got Jay Pratt, of course. And we’ll need to contact the victim’s family.”

“His wife passed away a few years ago,” Laurie said. “They had three children, but only one who still lives in New York—their daughter Samantha. She owns a hair salon in midtown. I already left a message.” Laurie knew from her father that Finney’s daughter was distraught over the possibility of Gunther’s release. Laurie wanted to be certain that she heard about Under Suspicion ’s involvement directly from her.

Jerry added Samantha’s name to his running list and placed a checkmark next to it. “We’ll also want to track down the woman Gunther was hitting on that night, Jane Holloway. And Clarissa DeSanto, a bartender who was working that night.”

Laurie nodded along, finding it hard to focus on the aspects of the case that did not relate to her immediate concern for Johnny. “My father mentioned that Clarissa didn’t testify at Gunther’s trial. It struck him as odd at the time. She was a critical witness to prove Gunther’s aggressive demeanor that night, and she had been very close to Finn. They got the conviction even without her testimony, but it would be nice if we could get her side of the story on screen.”

Laurie turned at the sound of knuckles rapping against her open office door. Ryan Nichols flashed the perfect smile that had helped to land him on People ’s most recent list of “sexiest men alive,” an accomplishment he touted even more brazenly than the Harvard degree hung just inside his office door. His sandy-blond hair appeared slightly damp.

“I thought I heard voices in here,” he said. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the Hamptons?”

The Hamptons. Alex’s birthday party. The wedding and honeymoon. It all felt like a dream now. “You didn’t hear?” Laurie asked.

Ryan’s smile suddenly fell with the tone of Laurie’s voice. “You broke up?”

Jerry groaned at the rudeness of the comment.

“No, thank you very much. It’s Alex’s nephew, Johnny. He’s—missing. We think he’s been kidnapped. I assumed you knew.” Laurie also assumed that Brett would have spoken to Ryan about it already. From Ryan’s first day at Fisher Blake Studios, he had enjoyed a closer relationship with the boss than she ever would. Even without the many perks of nepotism, she would have thought Ryan followed the news closely enough to hear about a missing child on Long Island, whether or not the story penetrated the city’s new cycle.

Ryan’s shock appeared genuine. “I’m so sorry, Laurie. What can we do to help? You don’t need to be in the office. We can take care of everything here.”

It took her a few minutes to spell out Leo’s theory that Darren Gunther might have mistakenly abducted Johnny in an attempt to grab Timmy instead, and her plans to use the show as a way to confront Gunther directly. “His lawyer’s Tracy Mahoney. He agreed to be interviewed against her advice.”

“ That’s his lawyer?” Ryan’s green eyes widened with concern.

“Alex warned me she can be a challenge. A true believer, he called her.”

“Oh, she’s far more sinister than that. If you’re trying to figure out how Gunther could get help from the outside world, Tracy Mahoney is the answer.”

Chapter 28

Johnny sat on the hardwood floor, his legs folded criss-cross-applesauce. Scattered on the floor in front of him were two hundred and fifty pieces of a jigsaw puzzle the man had brought this morning after Johnny had eaten a breakfast of fried eggs and white toast. Johnny liked eggs to be scrambled, and his mom always used wheat bread at home, but he made himself eat all of it anyway. He didn’t want the man to be mad, which was also the reason why he was trying so hard to put the puzzle together. It wasn’t the largest one he’d ever seen. He had worked on a giant one with a thousand pieces before, but that was with his whole family, where his dad was nicknamed the Puzzle Master. That’s how good he was.

When the man gave him the puzzle, he said, “This should keep you from getting too bored. Plus puzzles are good for the mind, Danny.” He had tapped his temple with his index finger for emphasis. It felt to Johnny like some kind of test—one he didn’t want to fail.

Following his dad’s strategy, Johnny had located all four corner pieces and had separated out all the edges. Now he was studying the image on the puzzle box, trying to figure out which pieces belonged on which edge.

The picture was of two children, a boy and a girl, sitting in the grass with a big brown dog on a red, white, and blue plaid quilt, looking up at a sky filled with fireworks.

He suddenly pictured himself walking on the grass at Meridian Hill Park on the Fourth of July when he was only five years old. He remembered the way his mom had grabbed him and pulled him into a hug that was so tight, it almost scared him. Where were you?! He remembered how worried she sounded. He had only left to find the park bathroom, but she made him promise never to go off alone again. Then, the next day, they had a longer talk about staying safe and not talking to strangers.

I didn’t wander off, Mommy. Not this time. Not really. I was with Kara’s friend, Ashley, and the lifeguard named Jack. We went to the beach shack for ice cream cones. They were talking about music I’ve never heard of, so I went looking for seashells. I was going to pick the best ones and have them waiting for you in the hotel room when you got back from golf. I went behind the beach shack, but only for a second, and I could still hear Ashley laughing, so that’s not really wandering off. And I saw the ice cream truck man get out of the truck and go inside the store, saying he needed more Fudgesicles before heading back out on his route. And then I heard a car. It pulled in behind the ice cream truck. I turned around to go back to Ashley and Jack, then a man’s voice behind me said I missed a pretty shell by the truck. I remembered what you told me, Mommy. I didn’t talk to the stranger. I tried to run when he walked toward me, but he was too fast. He grabbed me, and I woke up in the trunk of his car.