MARY CLARK - Piece of My Heart

“I need to think. Come on. We’re going for a car ride.”

Chapter 69

According to the GPS, Leo and Laurie had nearly reached the location Andrew obtained when he searched for Marcy’s phone. “Dad, look,” Laurie cried out. “There’s the minivan!”

Laurie’s optimism was short-lived. As he stopped the car, she could see that something was wrong with the minivan. It looked off-kilter.

“Stay here,” Leo said, getting his gun from the console. “And keep an eye out for the FBI. They’re supposed to be on their way.”

He approached the van in a low hunch, pulled open the driver’s-side door, and then closed it, shaking his head. He was walking away when he stopped and crouched, examining something near his feet. Climbing back into the car, he reported the news. “One tire’s shot out, and her cell phone was in the driver’s seat. And Laurie, there’s drops of blood on the ground by her car door.”

“I don’t think we can wait for the FBI, Dad.”

“Pull up Daniel Turner’s address.”

Leo stopped on the road in front of Turner’s house. “It’s too big a risk to drive right onto his property. He’s probably got cameras or motion sensors if he’s as paranoid as his ex-wife said.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“You wait here, and I’ll find the house through the woods.”

“Dad, no. You can’t walk up there on your own.”

They heard the sound of tires on the dirt road behind them. Laurie turned and spotted overhead lights on top of the approaching vehicle. “Look, the FBI, just in time,” she said.

He checked out the rearview mirror. “That’s local police,” he said, rolling down the window.

The car’s only occupant was probably in his mid-forties. He had dark hair and a well-groomed beard. Laurie knew that the stars sewn on his uniform’s sleeves indicated that he was high in the department’s leadership, but it was his nameplate that resolved any uncertainties. C. Turner. The passenger-side window of his vehicle was already down.

“We got a report of some gunfire out here. Can I ask what the two of you are doing by the side of the road? This area’s designated ‘no hunting’ in case you’re wondering.”

Leo looked at Laurie. One glance was enough to reach an agreement. They had no choice. Charlie Turner was the only help they had right now. He was Daniel’s brother, but he was also the police chief.

“I’m Leo Farley, still on the job at NYPD. If it’s all right with you, Chief, I’m going to reach for my wallet to show you my ID.” Chief Turner nodded, and Leo presented his badge to the chief’s satisfaction. As Leo laid out the events that had brought them to this dirt road, the chief’s face fell further, each piece of evidence an emotional punch to the stomach.

He suddenly put his car into gear.

“Chief,” Leo said, “I’m not a crackpot. This is serious.”

“I know,” the chief said. “That’s why you’re going to wait at the police station while I call for backup.”

“With all due respect, Chief, we don’t have time to wait. My daughter and I will go to the house by ourselves if we have to. And if you try to stop us, the lives of a little boy and his mother could be on your hands.”

“Are you carrying?” the chief asked.

Leo raised the side of his shirt to display the gun holstered at his waist.

The chief clenched his jaw and held Leo’s gaze. “Fine. Follow me. There’s a side road a ways up. We’ll stash the cars and cut through the woods to the house. Daniel’s got the main drive alarmed like Fort Knox.”

After they parked, they let Chief Turner lead the way on foot, followed by Leo, and then Laurie. As they were about to enter the woods, the chief turned. His face was somber. “I was thinking about your evidence. Some of it must have come from my former sister-in-law, Roseanne.”

They did not respond.

“Back then, I couldn’t see the full extent of my brother’s problems. After she left—for good—I realized I didn’t do Daniel any favors taking his side like that. He would have been better off getting some help. Anyway, I won’t ask where she is, but if you happen to talk to her, please let her know I’m sorry.”

“Let’s see if we can get your brother the help he needs now,” Laurie said.

They followed him into the woods.

Marcy Buckley tried to keep her attention focused on the rocky and narrow dirt road leading to Daniel Turner’s house, but she could not stop seeing the gun pointed at her in her periphery from the passenger seat, or Johnny’s terrified expression in the rearview mirror.

She flinched as Turner reached his left hand across her and hit a garage door opener clipped to the flip-down sun visor.

As they waited in silence for the garage door to roll open, none of them saw the three people emerge from the woods just in time to spot them drive inside.

Chapter 70

Laurie could see a switch flip in Charlie Turner at the sight of Johnny and Marcy Buckley inside the white Chrysler sedan. Until that moment, she sensed that Charlie believed there would be some rational explanation for whatever misunderstanding had made his younger brother the leading suspect in the disappearance of a missing child. But once he saw the kidnapping in progress with his own two eyes, he had immediately shifted modes. He was no longer acting like a helpful family member. He was a police chief on an urgent call out, and he was speaking to Leo as a fellow law enforcement officer.

“We’ve got exigent circumstances to enter,” Charlie whispered, even as the garage door was still moving. He used the radio handset mounted on his shoulder to call for backup. “I’ve got a house key. You and I can cut around back. But my brother’s paranoid. He could have installed cameras around the entire perimeter of the house for all I know. If he sees us coming, we’d be putting that boy and his mother in serious jeopardy.”

Laurie thought about those drops of blood that Leo had seen near Marcy’s car. They were already in jeopardy. “You said you got a report of shots fired in the area. What if you knock on your brother’s door, just to see if he heard anything and make sure he’s okay? You could keep him occupied while the two of us enter the house from the back and find Johnny and Marcy.”

He looked up at the sky, thinking through her plan. “Yeah, that might work. Once the FBI and backup arrive, I can probably convince him to come out for the arrest. And if he tries to drive away, he’d have to wait for that garage door to open. I could shoot out a tire and then run for cover.” He pulled a set of keys from his pocket, slid one from the ring, and handed it to her. “There’s a deck around back and a set of French doors that’ll lead you to the kitchen. I’ll try to get him outside to talk to me, but no guarantees.”

Under cover of the woods, Laurie and Leo positioned themselves out of view of the front porch, then watched as Charlie walked toward the house. They heard a knock, followed by silence, followed by another set of knocks. “You home, Dan?” he yelled. “Got a call of some hunters shooting out here. Figured I’d stop by and say hi.”

A moment later, they heard his voice again, at a lower volume. Laurie couldn’t make out the words, but took it as a sign that Daniel Turner had opened his front door. Leo led the way to a wooden deck at the back of the house, his gun held at the ready.

Curtains were drawn inside the French doors that Charlie had described, so they could not see the home’s interior. As Leo stepped on a mat in front of the doors, the mat suddenly gave way, and Laurie’s father lurched sideways, one foot sinking beneath the decking. He grunted in pain and then bit his lower lip, fighting back a scream. She looked down to see the bottom of his calf locked in the steel jaws of a bear trap.