Page 26 of Silent Echo

“Why don’t you read a book?”

He makes a face.

“Fine. You’ve already had too much screen time today, but I’ll make an exception.” I pull out my iPad and load one of his games. The Wi-Fi is turned off, so it can’t be tracked. I hand it to him with earbuds, and he’s blessedly content for now. No one tells you how hard parenting is, but most parents aren’t under this type of stress. Once we’re settled in Los Angeles, things will be great again.

My phone buzzes, and I look down. Nora. “Hey,” I answer.

“Penelope! What have you gotten yourself into! The FBI is looking for you. They say you kidnapped that boy.”

I look around the crowded station. “It’s complicated. I can’t really talk here. But it’s not what you think. I rescued him.”

“Honey, please come back. We can figure this out together. His mother is beside herself. She thought he was dead all this time. How could you do this?”

It occurs to me that they could be tapping this line now. What if Nora is cooperating with them? I end the call. I need to get rid of the phone.Think, think.We’re sitting close to the counter, and I strain to hear where the woman at the window is going. She’s going to New Jersey, and her bus leaves at the same time as ours. I watch as she struggles with her bags and wrangles two smallchildren. Luck is with me as the group sitting beside us gets up and leaves. She takes their place. When her back is to me, I slip the phone into the front pocket of her purse. I’m getting really good at this. I should write my own book about disappearing one day. Five minutes later, they leave. Problem solved. That should divert them until we’re on the bus headed to California.

I tap my foot, waiting for the minutes to pass, my eyes trained on the entrance as each new person walks in. Just another hour before we can board our bus. I’ll make Nora understand. She’ll be on my side when I explain what an absentee mother Charlotte was to Sebastion. How she sent him to school sick, how she was so cold when he wanted her attention. Also, my suspicions that she has a problem with alcohol. Nora won’t be able to deny that he’s much better off with me. She’ll bring the boys out to see us after the trail has gone cold and the FBI has given up. I’ll have to pick up another phone along the way. But for now, I’m relieved nothing in our possession can be tracked. We’re almost home free.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Agent Preston and Charlotte arrived at the bus station and parked.

“Stay behind me,” Preston admonished as they approached the door. She’d gotten word that the cell phone was pinged here over an hour ago. They could only hope that Penelope’s bus hadn’t left yet. Charlotte watched as Preston looked at something on her phone, then turned to her.

“The phone is on the move, headed north. Agents are triangulating the signal and will intercept the bus.”

“We just wait then?” Charlotte asked, still scanning the room, hoping to see her son.

“I’m going to check the bathroom, just in case,” Preston said. She came out and went to the counter, spoke to the agents for several minutes, then walked back to Charlotte.

“The bus to New Jersey left an hour ago. We’ve issued an Amber Alert, and the bus driver is being notified via AlertMedia, their communication system, about what’s going on. We don’t want to do anything that could make Penelope do something drastic, so agents will be waiting when the bus stops in Atlanta. That’s where they’ll have to transfer to the next bus.”

“Can they stop right now and get him?”

Agent Preston shakes her head. “Penelope will have the bus’s itinerary. She knows we’re looking for her. If the bus makes an unscheduled stop, who knows what she might do. We have no idea if she has a weapon. If she believes that you are a danger to your son, she could hurt him to keep you from taking him.I know this is torture, but the best plan is to have undercover agents waiting in Atlanta, which will be in another five or so hours.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

“Charlotte, listen to me. We’re so close. You’ve done the opposite of what I’ve asked at every turn. The last thing we need is for you to be there and for Penelope to see you. You’ve got to trust me on this.”

“Can we drive to Atlanta and park a few miles away? That way when they get him, they can call you and we can get there quickly. He’ll be scared. He’s already going to be so traumatized.”

She nodded. “We can do that. Have you called your husband yet?”

“No.”

Agent Preston gave her a strange look. “Why not?”

“He doesn’t know I’m here. He told me I was chasing ghosts, so I pretended to be on a business trip. I’ll call him when we have Sebastion back.”

Agent Preston cast a sidelong look at her while driving. “Charlotte. Is there a reason you don’t want your husband to know that we’ve found him? Do you think he had something to do with this?”

She exhaled a pent-up breath. “Of course not! But he was dead set against my looking into this. I was tired of arguing with him.”

“Why is that? That doesn’t make sense to me.”

Charlotte sighed. “He kept talking about having to pay back the insurance money if the insurance company thought there was a chance Sebastion was still alive.” She hesitated, thinking of something else. “When I looked up the phone records, Penelope’s call to his phone lasted eleven seconds. He brushed me off when I asked him about that.”

The agent was quiet. “You should have told me. We could have discreetly looked into him, and we will now.”

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