Page 33 of Stand By You
Jillian’s phone rang and she answered, not bothering to leave the room. “Hello?”
“It’s Simons. Okay, I talked to the Amber Alert people and got the notification issue straightened out.” There was a brief pause, and she heard him inhale. “For some reason they had down that I wanted the alert blasted several times a day with the majority within the first half-hour like you said it happened. I don’t recall relaying that message to anyone. However, I told them that I wanted it to go far and wide within the state. The person I spoke with said they had a new employee that tended to interpret instructions in their own special way and that may be what happened, but he couldn’t say for sure who took my initial call. He has corrected the alert about Travis and there will be a release to the media outlets that there was a malfunction with the alert system that caused so many notifications to go out today, but that it has been corrected.”
“I’m glad I called you about it,” Jillian said. “Otherwise, it might have continued like that for days.”
“It very well could have,” Simons agreed. “But one good thing did come out of this morning’s multiple blasts. We know who the young men are, where they work and live. We are hunting them down even as we speak.”
“That’s wonderful,” Jillian said, almost dropping the plates she held. She sat them on the counter and turned to look at Nick, waving her hand in his direction, beckoning him to come over. When he looked up, she smiled and walked towards him. He met her in the middle of the kitchen.
“Do keep me informed with what you find,” she told Simons. “This is the best news I’ve heard in days.”
“Will do,” Simons said. “I’ve got to go. Stay safe.”
The call ended and she put her phone in her jeans short back pocket.
“What has you grinning like a Cheshire cat?” Nick asked.
“That was Simons. He knows who kidnapped Travis, where they work, and live. They’re hunting them now.”
Nick grabbed her around the waist and twirled her.
“Put me down!” she exclaimed, swatting at his shoulder. “If you make us topple over into a heap, I’m going to hurt you.”
“A pretty heap for sure,” he said, doing as she asked.
Mrs. Hudson side-stepped them, grabbing the plates. “Knock it off, you two. Lunch is ready. I’m thrilled they’re about to find Travis.”
“Except you said they were hunting them down,” Nick said. “That means they aren’t at home?”
Jillian shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Damn.” Nick pressed his lips together. “Then they could have been the red dot flashing at the top of the screen as easily as the bottom at any moment. I don’t know how in real time what I had been looking at was today.”
“Should we get in your Land Rover and go look for them?” Jillian asked.
“Not without eating your lunch first,” Mrs. Hudson interjected just like a mother.
They both laughed and took their plates from her before going to sit at the island.
“I think we should leave the chasing of these two to the professionals, just like Mr. McGinty suggested,” Nick said. “You still have dark circles under your eyes, and I don’t like the look of that.”
“But–”
He put up his hand and stopped her from saying more. “It’s only been two days since you were mowed over by a car, and you were damn lucky to come away with just a fractured radius and a cracked tibia.”
Frowning, she picked up a triangle of the quesadilla, dipped it in the sour cream, and said, “Do you have to keep reminding me? I’m fully aware of what happened.”
“As long as you act like you are one hundred percent, yeah, I will,” he said.
“I don’t act that way,” she protested.
“I beg to differ,” he said, walking to the cabinet and getting down three glasses. He filled them with ice from the dispenser, carried them to the island while Mrs. Hudson took a pitcher of iced tea from the refrigerator, and filled the glasses.
“I agree with Nick,” Mrs. Hudson said. “You do try to act like nothing happened. It started with that first mugging and you wouldn’t tell Mr. McGinty. You didn’t want to bother him because of his upcoming wedding. When I think that if you had just spoken up, maybe Travis might be here today.”
Jillian’s mouth dropped open. “It was their time. Not a time I should have been drawing attention to myself,” she protested.
“But in hindsight…” Mrs. Hudson trailed off.
