MARY CLARK - Piece of My Heart

“Hey, Laurie. I’ve called a few times, and it kept going straight to voicemail. It’s ringing now, at least. Hopefully that means your plane has landed. A Detective Eddie Miller called me from East Hampton. He works with Detective Langland and told me where to meet the FBI. I assume you and Leo have the same info. I don’t want to jinx it, but it feels like this is actually going to work. Say a little prayer, okay?”

Laurie hit a button to return Marcy’s call, but after four rings, they heard her outgoing message.

“Eddie Miller?” Laurie asked as she hung up.

“Never heard of him. Let me call Langland.”

Detective Langland didn’t bother with a greeting when she answered. “Leo, I’m pulling every string I can find. The problem is there’s no FBI field office in Delaware. It’s covered by the Baltimore office. Two agents who’d normally run any kidnapping investigation were going to head out to Daniel Turner’s house, but they decided to pull in the local satellite office instead. It’s in Dover, about forty miles away, so I think we’re almost there.”

The news would explain Marcy’s excitement.

“And you had a colleague named Miller reach out to Marcy?” Leo asked. “We’re trying to figure out where to meet her.”

“Miller? Who’s that?”

Laurie knew from her father’s grimace that he shared her sudden panic. “A Detective Eddie Miller apparently called Marcy, said he worked with you, and told her where to meet the FBI.”

“No, that wasn’t us,” Langland said. “There’s no Eddie Miller in our department.”

Laurie called Andrew as quickly as she could.

“Hey, Laurie. You and Leo landed, I assume?”

“We’re almost to Lewes. We were planning to meet Marcy, but she’s not picking up.” She kept her voice calm, not wanting to alarm Andrew until they were certain. “Someone called her and gave her an address to meet the FBI.”

“Yeah, she called from there.”

“So you know for sure she arrived? She’s with the FBI?” Laurie’s fears began to subside.

“She was still a few minutes away when she called. I tried her a couple of minutes ago for an update, but she didn’t answer. I assume she’s talking to the FBI agents.”

Next to her, Leo was shaking his head, obviously worried.

“But you have the address?” Laurie asked.

“I couldn’t write it down while I was driving, but she shares her location with me, so I can find her that way.”

“That’s great. Can you check now?”

“I’m only about five miles from the turnoff. I’ll call you back—”

“Andrew, this is Leo. Can you pull over to the side of the road safely?”

“Right now?” Andrew asked, his voice suddenly filled with fear.

“Yes,” Leo said calmly.

“Okay, hold on.… Yeah, okay, I’m pulled over now. What’s wrong?”

“Whoever gave Marcy that address wasn’t law enforcement,” Leo said. “We think it was Daniel Turner. We need to find her right now.”

Chapter 68

Marcy winced from the sting of a thorn branch slicing the side of her ankle as she traversed the unlevel wooded terrain. She reached toward the pain on instinct and lost her balance, catching herself before her face hit a nearby tree.

She leaned against the tree for support as she checked the cut on her leg. She was bleeding, but she was more worried about her head. She had no way of inspecting the wound, but when she reached back and touched the tender spot at the base of her skull, the blood on her palm looked fresh. She took the time to pull off her cotton sweater and use it to apply pressure. The tank top layered beneath it would do little to protect her from thorns and tree branches, but she needed to stop the bleeding.

Her capri pants and ballet flats were yet another disadvantage against Daniel Turner, who was armed with a gun and presumably knew his way around these woods. She had run so blindly and frantically that she had lost any sense of direction. She felt an urgency to keep moving to get away from him, but was terrified that she might end up running toward him instead of furthering the distance between them.

She sucked in her breath as a loud, deep shriek broke the silence. It was short and staccato. She replayed it in her head and decided it was only a bird. As she took another step, she heard the chirp again—but this one was slightly higher pitched. Then she heard both sounds at once. Not birds, and not a chirp. More of a bray. Sheep. No… goats. The miniature goats she had seen by the side of the road. The woman by the fence.

She closed her eyes, trying to internalize the direction of the sounds, and then began to move toward them. Focused now, she allowed herself to continue moving, but forced herself to slow her pace. Fast steps were louder. And every time she lost her footing, she was certain that the resulting noise would give her location away.

This time, she wouldn’t let herself get turned around.

She felt herself getting closer to the ongoing braying, when she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps in the leaves to her right. Searching for the largest nearby tree, she ducked behind it and turned sideways, trying to make herself as small as possible. It was never going to work. If Daniel Turner stepped within six feet of this tree, he would see her for sure.

The crinkling of the leaves continued. Spotting a softball-sized rock on the ground, she slowly crouched and reached for it with her right hand.

The footsteps moved closer.

She’d only have one shot at surprising him. She would need all of her strength and a lot of luck. Knowing it would probably be her final decision before she was killed, she sprang into a standing position and pulled the rock back over her shoulder. If she could, she would aim for his head.

But when she looked at the spot where she’d expected to find her target, she saw no one. Only when her gaze moved lower did she see the person who belonged to the footsteps.

“Johnny!” She dropped the rock and placed both hands over her mouth—from the shock of seeing her son, and to keep herself from crying out loud with happiness.

His eyes widened as his mouth went agape. “Mama?” He rubbed his eyes as if he were waking up from a dream.

She fell to her knees and pulled him into a tight hug. “Shhh, sweetie. I’m here. Mama’s got you. But we have to be very, very quiet. And we need to find our way out of these woods.”

“The man’s house is that way,” he whispered, pointing behind him. “And when he walked into the trees, I think he went that way,” pointing about eighty degrees in the other direction. “I didn’t want to go either of those places, and I ended up here.”

She felt herself smiling. He was such a smart boy.

Marcy was right that Daniel Turner must have known the property well. They heard his voice before they heard his footsteps. And even through the dense growth of woods, they had no trouble seeing the gun aimed in their direction.

“Danny! I told you to stay in the car.” The man’s face was beet-red and the cords in his neck bulged from rage. “You were fooling me, weren’t you? You were never going to stay with me. You were going to leave, just like them .”

“Please,” Marcy pleaded. “He’s a seven-year-old boy. He heard gunshots. He got scared. He was out here looking for you . Weren’t you?” She looked down into Johnny’s eyes and could see his fear, but could also see that he understood what she was saying.

Johnny nodded slowly. “I wanted to make sure you were okay,” he said quietly. “You told me you were taking the gun for protection. I thought something happened to you.”

The man pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand, but kept the weapon aimed at them.