MARY CLARK - Piece of My Heart

He re-entered the interrogation room with a new objective in mind. They still had the toll records showing that Toby’s car had been used to travel to Long Island and back on the day of the kidnapping. Leo decided that if Summer had an explanation for the travel, she might actually be telling the truth. If she didn’t, they might still be on the right track.

“Summer, we can prove you were at the hotel when Johnny disappeared.” The evidence didn’t actually place her at the hotel, but he wasn’t required to explain that to her.

To his surprise, she readily admitted that he was correct. “I went there to find Laurie.”

“Why would you try to see my daughter on her vacation?”

“I’m a huge fan of her television show. I thought I could appeal to her sense of justice to help Darren. What better way to expose the truth than to win over the daughter of the investigating detective?”

“How did you know where to find her?”

“Alex Buckley’s sister-in-law posted a picture on Facebook, saying the whole family was going to Long Island to celebrate his birthday. The post included a photograph of the hotel. I figured I could have lunch on the deck and find a way to introduce myself to Laurie. But right when I was walking into the hotel, there she was, walking out with Alex and another couple, getting into a black Mercedes with Alex behind the wheel. I rushed back to Toby’s car and followed them. Once they got out at the golf course, I figured there was no way for me to talk to her there, so I headed back to the hotel to wait. But when they did return, it was clear something bad had happened. Everyone was running around the beach frantically, and then the police came, so I left.”

“Johnny had been kidnapped. That’s why they were frantic.”

“Well, I didn’t know that at the time. I just got scared and drove home. You have to believe me: as much as I love Darren and want to help him, I would never —never ever ever—take or hurt or even scare an innocent little child. Didn’t you see how nervous I was when you pushed me to say I’d let him go? Just pretending like I had done that, I felt like I was going to get sick.”

Leo searched Summer’s wide eyes. She looked disgusted with herself.

“Johnny’s only seven years old,” he said. “He’s a sweet boy. He loves to swim and play soccer and baseball. He has twin four-year-old sisters who look up to him, and a mother and father who love him. They really thought we were going to bring their son home today—because you let us believe that.”

She hung her head in shame. “I’m so, so sorry.”

In that moment, he could see that she was telling the truth, which meant he had been wrong. He had been so consumed by Darren Gunther’s false accusations that he had opened himself up to this kind of manipulation. Summer wasn’t the only person in this room to feel ashamed.

“You owe it to them, Summer, to come clean with anything you know that might possibly help us find Johnny.”

“I told you, I don’t know anything. I made the whole thing up.”

“But you didn’t make up being at the resort when Johnny disappeared.”

“I don’t know where he went. I think I’d notice if someone snatched a child away right in front of me!”

“A child doesn’t have to be carried away to be abducted. The assailant pretends to have been sent by the parents to locate him. Or they claim to be a police officer or other authority figure. You may have seen something that didn’t register at the time, but that could break this thing wide open. Put yourself back in your brother’s car, sitting in that parking lot. What do you see?”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, but shook her head a few seconds later. “It’s all a blur. A few cars came and went, but the only one I cared about was Alex’s black Mercedes, so I didn’t pay any attention.”

“Any little detail at all? Nothing is too small. Think, Summer.”

She shrugged. “I guess there was the ice cream truck,” she said.

“What about it?”

“Nothing. Just that I noticed it. You know how you turn off of 27 and drive down into the parking lot for the resort?”

He nodded, remembering the layout.

“Okay, so most of the cars would either park in the lot or keep going down to the turnabout at the hotel entrance—where the valets check you in. But if you don’t turn toward the valet stand, you can keep driving on a separate little road behind the hotel. I saw an ice cream truck go down there.”

Leo knew that Detective Langland had interviewed everyone who worked at the ice cream shack, including the ice cream truck driver, who had come back to the shop to refill supplies before hitting the road again.

Summer squinted as if recalling something new.

“What is it, Summer?”

“The ice cream truck. It came in, but then another car went in that same direction, too. But then it returned a couple minutes later. I figured it was a hotel guest who had gone down that service road by accident and then turned around. But then instead of turning down toward the hotel or going to the parking lot, it went back out on 27 again.”

Johnny was last seen looking for shells near the ice cream shack. Summer Carver may have seen the car driven by his abductor.

“What kind of car was it?”

She shook her head. “I have no idea. It was white, maybe? Light-colored. Not an SUV or a van or anything.”

“A sedan?”

“Yes. Four doors, I think? I’m not sure, though. Oh, but I do remember one thing! The license plate—it was from Washington. Not the state. Washington, D.C. I noticed because it said something about not paying taxes.

End Taxation Without Representation. It was the motto on license plates from the nation’s capital, a reference to the fact that D.C. residents paid federal taxes but had no voting representation in Congress.

Leo left the interrogation room and found Laurie waiting on a bench outside the police station.

“Summer was telling the truth. Gunther had nothing to do with Johnny’s disappearance.” He hung his head in despair, looking down at the sidewalk. “I wasted our entire week focused on Darren Gunther.”

She immediately hugged him and then listened attentively as he brought her up to speed. “It’s not your fault, Dad. Gunther and Summer intentionally misled us.”

“This whole time, I was wrong, Laurie. But you were right. This was never a case of mistaken identity. Whoever took Johnny wanted him specifically. They came to New York from Washington, D.C. We need to call Marcy and Andrew.”

Chapter 48

Marcy Buckley pulled a casserole dish filled with baked macaroni and cheese from the oven. The heat that rose to her face helped hide the tears she had been fighting to control since she received the devastating phone call from Detective Langland: After all that work for a search warrant, the police didn’t find Johnny.

Chloe and Emily were blissfully enjoying their dinners when the phone on the kitchen counter rang again. Marcy recognized Laurie’s number. She carried the handset into the den, out of earshot of the twins.

Marcy knew there was urgent news when Laurie asked her to bring Andrew into the room on speakerphone. Once Andrew was nestled next to Marcy on the sofa, Laurie began her report. “Summer Carver admitted she was at our hotel the day Johnny vanished. She saw a light-colored sedan drive away from the ice cream shack. The plate was from Washington, D.C.”

It only took Marcy a few seconds to process the information. “From the very beginning, you said most crimes aren’t random.”

“It’s no guarantee that the car Summer saw was the kidnapper’s,” Laurie said, “but the road to the ice cream shack is separate from the main hotel. Plus, you don’t see many cars with D.C. plates on Long Island. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”