MARY CLARK - Piece of My Heart

Julie had told her stepson that she had recently learned that her husband had left behind one additional annuity that had not yet been dispersed. It was a modest amount, but Toby was the sole beneficiary. She needed him to sign the paperwork for the funds to be released and suggested that he meet her in the city this morning. While a police officer in an unmarked car watched the Carver siblings as they made their way down to the city, a different officer had installed a tiny recorder beneath the only table at Mocha Mike’s. The receiver was inside a decoy flower-delivery van parked at the curb around the corner, and was streamed from there to a feed being monitored in real time by Detective Jennifer Langland, who was stationed outside Toby Carver’s house in Brewster.

This needed to work.

“So,” Leo said, “my daughter tells me you believe in karma.”

Chapter 43

Johnny Buckley sat alone in his bedroom, his stomach still full from breakfast. The man wasn’t as good of a cook as either of Johnny’s parents, but he sure did like making breakfast. This morning was scrambled eggs, sausage links, and buttermilk pancakes with real maple syrup. His mom always said that if you’re going to eat pancakes, you have to get the real stuff.

After he helped the man load the dishwasher, the man had told him to go to his room and not come out until he was asked to do so. “You understand? Do not leave that room. No matter what. And remember what I told you about trust being a two-way street. You’ve been earning privileges. If you defy me, you will lose them. And I can still go find those people you call your parents and sisters. Don’t ever forget that, Danny.”

Now, alone in his room, Johnny repeated his silent mantra again to himself. My name is Johnny, Jonathan Alexander Buckley. My parents are Andrew and Marcy Buckley.

Johnny’s entire body stiffened at the sound of an unfamiliar noise. It was the first sound he’d heard for probably a whole hour. At one point, he’d thought he heard a car engine start in the garage. What was this new noise? Footsteps upstairs? Or maybe it was a knock from the front porch.

Johnny stared at the knob of his bedroom door. Would it even turn?

He placed his hands over his ears, not wanting to hear the sound again. Do not leave this room. No matter what. No matter what.

Chapter 44

Sixty miles north of Greenwich Village, East Hampton police detective Jennifer Langland listened to the audio feed streaming into her wireless headphones as she watched the chief of the Brewster Police Department, Isaac Dawson, bang his fist against the front door of Toby Carver’s house one more time. She was here with local police support, but they were letting her call the shots.

“Johnny! Johnny Buckley! Are you in there? We’re here to help you, son.” Dawson looked back to Langland and shook his head.

She had hoped that if they approached the Brewster house while the Carvers were both gone, Johnny might find a way to make his presence known. So far, Judge Marshall wasn’t willing to sign a search warrant authorizing them to force entry onto the property to search for the missing boy. A scream, a cry, even the sound of footsteps would be enough. But this house appeared vacant. Johnny could be locked away where he couldn’t be heard, or he might simply be too terrified to respond.

Dawson pointed to one of his own ears, wondering if perhaps the conversation Langland was monitoring might give them the probable cause they needed.

She shook her head. So far, Summer Carver continued to speak in circles, continually appealing to Laurie and Leo’s fears for Johnny Buckley as a way to generate sympathy for the “wrongly incarcerated” Darren Gunther. She had not, however, admitted to taking the boy, or that he would be released if only Leo admitted that he had lied at Gunther’s trial.

“I don’t want to tell you how to do your job,” Dawson said, “but the sounds of nature out here can make it hard to tell sometimes what you’re actually listening to. Maybe you think you hear a little boy crying, and in retrospect, it turns out to be a bird.”

He was suggesting that she fabricate what is known as “exigent circumstances” to justify entering the house without a warrant. For a moment, she was tempted, but Langland wasn’t that kind of cop. Besides, a move like that could destroy any chance they had of punishing the Carvers and Gunther. And if they didn’t find Johnny inside, it could derail the entire investigation.

There had to be another way.

She texted Laurie Moran. It was time for Plan B.

Chapter 45

Laurie rose from her chair at the back corner of the tiny coffee shop. “I’m going to put in an order. Black coffee, Dad?”

He flashed her an okay sign.

“Anything else for you, Summer?”

She declined with a shake of her head. Laurie asked the barista for two large coffees, and then made her way to the ladies’ room while he prepared them. Inside, she removed the cell phone that had buzzed inside her pocket while she was still at the table.

It was a new text message from Detective Langland. “No sign of Johnny from outside the house. The judge is on board with Plan B. No other choice at this point. We need that warrant.”

When Laurie returned to the table with two coffee cups, she caught Leo’s eye and shook her head. There was no good news from upstate. They had to push Summer further.

“Laurie, I have something to tell you—to tell you and Summer—that’s going to be very difficult to hear,” Leo said somberly. “I want both of you to understand: I have never lied to obtain a conviction. But sometimes police have to simplify the evidence. In court, it needs to seem black-and-white, cut-and-dry. Not gray and messy.”

Laurie did her best to act shocked, even though they had rehearsed the entire story last night and this morning. The text message from Langland was confirmation that the judge had approved the plan. He would listen in on their conversation in real time and issue a search warrant as soon as he found probable cause.

There was still a risk that Gunther could use Leo’s words here to attack his conviction, but at least they had created a record with a court to prove that Leo simply intended to deceive Summer Carver, and his reasons for doing so. Laurie had even gone so far as to notify Lou Finney’s daughter in the event Gunther managed to leak the news of Leo’s admission before it could be explained.

“When I went back to the station house that night to question Gunther alone, he never admitted to intentionally stabbing Lou Finney. He said what he maintains to this day—that another man intervened with a knife.”

Summer’s eyes were the size of saucers. She looked at once both horrified and ecstatic. “And you said something totally different. How is that not a lie?”

“I’m willing to explain, Summer, but if I’m being totally honest with you, I need you to be completely honest with me.”

Her bottom lip quivered, afraid to answer, but she was clearly desperate to hear the rest of Leo’s story.

They were so close. Leo nudged again. “You know where Johnny is, don’t you?”

She nodded. The microphone beneath the table could not transmit the nod of a head.

“You’re nodding,” he said, not missing a beat. “But I need you to tell me that little boy’s going to be okay.”

“He’s fine. He’s been taken good care of.”

“I need your word you’ll drop him off somewhere safe—the nearest police station or fire station or hospital—once I give you what you need to help Darren with his case. Okay?”

“I will. I promise.”

“All right then,” Leo confirmed. “The way I saw it—and still see it, Summer—is that Darren Gunther was in fact responsible for Lou Finney’s death. He’s the one who started the fight. If not for the fight, there wouldn’t have been a brawl out on the street.”