Danielle Steel: Vanished

“You have to do this, Marielle … for Teddy's sake …” He held her hand, and slowly her head turned, and she stared at the child they brought in, and everything stopped for an endless moment. She got up and she stood staring at him, as though unable to believe what she was seeing. His hair had been cut, and he had short dark brown hair, but it was faintly blond at the roots, and if you looked carefully, you could see that they had dyed it.

And as she stared at him, he looked up at her, unable to believe that she had finally come to save him. She let out a heartrending scream and in two long strides she was clinging to him and holding him tightly against her. And slowly, like a forgotten sound, the child began to cry. He began to whimper at first, and suddenly there were great wounding cries, as he clung to the mother he thought he had lost forever. The captain began to cry, and there were tears streaming down John Taylor's cheeks as he watched them.

She looked at no one for an endless time. All she saw, all she knew, all she felt, was the child in her arms, the child she thought she had lost forever.

“My darling … oh my love …” She held him as though she would never let him go, and finally the captain assisted them off the ship, and the three Germans were taken away in handcuffs and leg irons by the FBI men. He apologized profusely again, and John informed him that the ship would have to be held in port, pending further investigation. Two-dozen men were left to guard the ship, and John helped Marielle and Teddy into the car. He had to get her back to court and tell the judge what had happened. But he had also called for additional men. He knew he was going to need an army of guards for them at the courthouse.

He looked long and hard at the child sitting on his mother's lap. The boy hadn't smiled, but he clung to her as though he was afraid to lose her. And John touched the small fingers holding hers ever so gently.

“Hello, little man …we've been looking for you for a long time.” Teddy stared at him, not sure whether or not to trust him.

“They said you were dead,” he whispered softly as he looked up at his mother …”and then they put me in a box …with holes in it …and they fed me crackers.”

“Nice folks, these krauts,” John said tautly, “I've always loved them.” They were going to do a lot of talking. They had insisted from the moment they'd been detained that they had been hired by the boy's father to take him to Germany, to “safety,” but they would not disclose the boy's father's name. They said only that the boy's parents were German. But one of them had been carrying a card with Malcolm's name on it and a phone number John recognized as Brigitte Sanders's apartment. But John had said none of this to Marielle. It was going to be interesting what else the Germans had to say once they all started talking.

“I don't know what to say,” Marielle whispered softly to John as she clung to Teddy on her lap and they drove swiftly toward the courthouse. “I never thought we'd find him …and I was so afraid …I thought you had taken me there to …” She couldn't even begin to say the words, and suddenly she realized her headache was gone. All she could think of was Teddy, held tightly in her arms, in the speeding car, beside the man who had found him.

“I know what you thought,” he said quietly. “I wouldn't have done that to you … if that was the case, I'd have taken Malcolm. But I wanted you to see them first. They said they'd been hired by the child's parents.”

“Malcolm's going to be so glad,” she smiled. She was glad for him. He didn't deserve to lose his son. But John Taylor said nothing.

Twenty FBI men were waiting for them outside the courthouse when they arrived, and John had them surround Marielle and the child almost like a living cage, and the boy looked very frightened. All Marielle did was cling tightly to him in her arms, and promise him that everything was going to be all right. They were going to see Daddy in a minute.

And as John Taylor walked into the courtroom, surrounded by his men, everyone paused, as though they sensed that something important was about to happen. The judge stared up at them. And Tom Armour stopped in midsentence. The odd group made its way down the room, and it was only when they reached the judge that the men slowly peeled away at Taylor's direction and what they saw suddenly in their midst, completely hidden there, was Marielle holding a small dirty little boy with dark hair, and the judge rose to his feet with a look of amazement.

“Is this? …” He looked at Marielle, smiling through her tears as she looked up at him, and then at Taylor, and then in confusion across the courtroom as suddenly a woman screamed as she understood, and the spectators and the press tried to stampede, but the police held them back. They had been warned as Marielle and Teddy entered the courtroom. “My God … it's the boy!” someone shouted. “He's alive. It's Teddy!” The judge sat down again and began frantically rapping his gavel, and ordering the police to clear the courtroom. But it was Malcolm's reaction which fascinated John. When he first saw the boy, he didn't do what Marielle had done. He stood, and then he sat down, and then he looked around him as though for someone else, and only then did he suddenly leap forward. But it was almost an afterthought by then. His first reaction had not been to run to hold his baby. And there was none of the rush of emotion Taylor had seen in Marielle, that terrible terror that he was dead, and the gut-searing scream when she realized it was her baby. It was Charles who stood crying as he looked at him, and he smiled at Marielle over the boy's head as they both cried. He remembered another time, another day, and he was glad that this time had been different.

“Thank God he's alive,” he whispered to Tom Armour, who nodded, fighting back his own emotions, as he smiled at his client through tears. He also knew what it was to lose a child, and he too was grateful that that hadn't happened. Charles wasn't even thinking of himself just then, he was just glad for Marielle that they had found Teddy.

Malcolm looked extremely sobered as he came forward to Marielle and John and Teddy. “Thank God you found the boy,” he intoned, almost piously, but his eyes were dry, and Taylor could see that he was angry. He tried to take the boy from Marielle, but the boy wouldn't let go of his mother.

“They said Mommy was dead,” he said, still looking terrified.

“They must have been terrible people,” Malcolm said with an odd expression. And at that moment, John Taylor asked Malcolm to join him in the judge's chambers.

The court had been cleared by then, and only the two attorneys, the defendant, Marielle, the child, the jury, and the countless FBI men remained in the courtroom. The judge had gone with Malcolm and John Taylor to his chambers. Marielle had no idea what was going on between them, but she sat talking quietly to Charles and Tom, and there was a feeling of peace and well-being in the room that she had never sensed in her entire lifetime. Two of the FBI men had gone out to get Teddy an ice-cream cone, and he was eating it happily while holding tightly to his mother. And she sat there holding him, feeling as though he had never left her. The last months shrank into the mists of the nightmare from whence they had come, never to return again. Teddy was home, safe and sound. After four months, and by the grace of God, and John Taylor, and maybe even Louie the Lover, Teddy was back with his mother.

It was a long time before Malcolm and the judge and John emerged, and when they did, Malcolm's mouth was set in a thin line. John had had two interesting calls from his office. There was still a great deal they didn't know, but what they did know was that the kidnappers, or at least the three people holding him on the ship, had been hired by Malcolm. There was no doubt of it now. They were even carrying papers to prove it and they had a false passport for the child that had allegedly been provided by Malcolm. It said the boy's name was Theodore Sanders.