Childfinders Inc - Hero For Hire Part 11

"Time, eh? Maybe you should think about auctioning off one of those paintings you've got hanging in the hallway. The Renoir'll get you that, easy."

Even with the metallic interference, she recognized the voice of pure evil. Was her son still safe? Had he been harmed by this madman? "Where do you want me to bring the money?"

The kidnapper was clearly enjoying himself. "Now, now, Ronnie, you're getting ahead of yourself. First, get the money and then we'll talk." The laughter faded, replaced by something that made her blood run cold. "Just don't take your sweet time getting it. Understand?" She could feel fear sinking its nails into her again.

The kidnapper was going to hang up on her. "Why can't you tell me where to bring it now?" she demanded.

"Because it's my show. And don't you ever raise your voice to me again, Ronnie.

Or you're going to need tweezers and a magnifying gla.s.s to put your son together again."

Panic spiked right through her. "Please don't hurt him. I'm sorry. Please, he's only a little boy."

"That's better." The laugh sliced into her like a scythe. And then the line went dead.

"h.e.l.lo? h.e.l.lo? Answer me, d.a.m.n it!" Veronica's head began to spin. She fought to keep from 'being engulfed by the sensation. "Answer me!" she screamed into the receiver.

Very quietly Chad took the receiver from her icy hands and replaced it in the cradle.

"We got him," he said.

For a moment, too numb to think, it was difficult for Veronica to understand what he was saying to her. Like someone encased in an impenetrable fog, she raised her eyes to his. Chad was holding up the tiny monitor for her to see. There were numbers across it. For the first time, she realized that there were words written beneath the first row.

She blinked, trying to a.s.similate the information. It looked like an address. "Is that where Casey is?"

He sincerely doubted it. But there was always a chance. "That's where the kidnapper is calling from." Chad jotted the address down on his wrinkled pad as he began walking out of the room. "I'm going to go check this out."

For a second she stared after him, then came to. "Wait, I'm coming with you," she told him, hurrying in his wake.

Chad stopped at the door. He hadn't counted on this. The others had run into cases where the client had insisted on coming along, but he'd never had to deal with that problem. Until now.

He didn't want to be responsible for anyone else except himself. "Veronica, I won't lie to you. This could get very dangerous."

"Get dangerous? It already is dangerous. And this is my son who's in the middle

of it. My son's in danger. What kind of a mother would I be just hanging back and waiting for him in my living room?"

"A smart mother." Her purse in her hand and clutching the cell phone to her, she gave no indication that she was about to stay put. Chad recognized defeat. "You're not going to be smart, are you?"

Reaching around him, she opened the door. "I already was. I hired you." She hurried out, then looked over her shoulder. "Now let's go. We're wasting time."

He had no choice but to take her with him, especially since she was leading the way to the car. "Yes, ma'am."

She had guts, Chad thought grudgingly. As annoying as her insistence to come along was, he had to admire her courage and determination. In her place, his own mother had fallen apart and continued to do so, according to Megan, until eventually, none of the pieces fit together anymore.

It looked like Casey Reinholt was a lucky kid. Now all they had to do was get to him in time to let him know that.

Waiting for her to shut her door, Chad started the car. The number he'd just gotten was located in Newport Beach. They were fifteen minutes away under perfect conditions. With one hand on the wheel, Chad pressed two numbers on his cell keypad as he backed out of her driveway.

A male voice answered after five rings. Chad had almost given up. "Ben?"

There was noise in the background. Chad couldn't quite make out what it was as the voice on the other end uttered a preoccupied, "Yeah?"

"This is Chad." Pressing the accelerator, he just managed to make it through the light before it changed to red. Chad kept an eye on his rearview mirror, watching for familiar dancing red and blue lights. "Are you on something right now?"

The laugh in response was deep and throaty. "Not yet, but I'm working on it." And then the humor left his voice. "Why, what's up? What do you need?"

What he needed was a chopper that could get him to the location in a matter of seconds, but he settled for closer proximity. As he recalled, Ben's new bachelor apartment wasn't located far from where the phone call had originated. "Are you anywhere near MacArthur and Pacific Coast Highway right now?"

There was the slightest pause. "I'm having dinner at a restaurant about a mile or so away. Why?"

Dinner meant that Ben wasn't alone. Ever since his divorce, Ben had gone at the single life with a vengeance. As a rule, Chad didn't like asking favors, but this wasn't for himself. It was for the agency. And a small boy.

"I need you to check out a location, and you can get there faster than we can."

Reciting the address he had taken from the phone tap, Chad went on to give Ben the particulars of the case in succinct sound bites. He could feel the tension escalating in the car with every word he uttered, but that couldn't be helped.

Niceties were the first things discarded in kidnapping cases. The only thing that mattered was finding the missing child.

Chad heard movement in the background, accompanied by m.u.f.fled voices. And then Ben came on again to say, "I'm on it."

Veronica waited until he'd closed his cell phone. "Who's Ben?"

Chad slipped the phone back into his pocket, guiding the wheel with one hand. He barely squeaked through another light.

"Another member of the firm." To get her mind off what they were doing, he gave her a thumbnail history. "When Cade began the firm, he was on his own. My sister joined him within a couple of months."

The only thing Veronica knew about the agency, other than its phenomenal background, was that Cade Townsend had started it after his own son had been kidnapped. "Your sister works for ChildFinders?"

Changing lanes quickly, he threaded the car onto MacArthur. Lights from developments on the hills that bordered the road on each side began to go on as twilight pressed in.

"Megan's an ex-FBI agent." He didn't add that she had become one partially because of what he and the family had gone through. "My brother, Rusty, joined right out of college. Just before I did." For him, like Megan, it had represented a

career change, a chance to do less paperwork and more good.

She'd been under the impression, when she had walked into the office, that it was a small firm. "So it's a family thing?"

He'd never actually thought of it that way. "I suppose," he answered.

The two years his father had robbed him of had taken away more than just time. It had taken away the security that filial feelings ordinarily generated. Even after Chad had been reunited with Megan, Rusty and his mother, it was never the same again. Not for him. The laughter was gone out of his life.

Oh, he loved his mother, as well as his brother and sister, as much as he was capable of loving anyone. But the betrayal he'd suffered at his fathers hands had made him wary. It had taken away his ability to be in a relationship where all the guards were down.

No matter how hard he tried, the barriers were always there. Even if, by some miracle, they were lowered however slightly, they would spring back up at the slightest provocation. He couldn't get himself to trust, to relate, ruining any chance he had at a relationship, ending it before it ever got started. He caught himself looking at Veronica.

He was doomed to a life of distrust and wariness. A legacy he could never forgive his father for.

Changing the subject, he made an observation. "I was right."

Veronica turned her head and looked at him. "Right about what?"