Page 6 of Dark Memories
Zach watched as Delaney won the man’s trust with her confidence and words and the comfort she offered. It was a side of her that he remembered but hadn’t been gifted with since she’d walked into his office this morning. He didn’t like her shutting him out.
“Mr. Jamison said you left the house with Kali at eight thirty this morning. Does she sit up front with you or in the back seat?”
“Up front. She thinks it feels like I’m just her driver if she sits in the back. She calls me Gramps.” His smile trembled. “She never had one of those and always wanted one.” He glanced at Zach. “Not your fault.”
Zach only nodded. Cinda’s father had never bothered to get to know his granddaughter. The only true grandparent his daughter knew was his mother, and she was a poor excuse for one.
“That’s really sweet,” Delaney said, earning another wobbly smile from Larson. “Do you take the same route each morning?”
“No, ma’am. That wouldn’t be smart. But there are only a few different ways to get to her school. This morning I took the shortest way because Kali was excited to get there. Someone was coming from the zoo to show them some animals first thing. We were five blocks from the school when a van cut in front of us.”
He glanced at Zach again. “I won’t lie to you. I was distracted. She was talking a mile a minute about what animals she was going to see, and she especially hoped they were bringing a sloth. She’s just so cute and fun when she gets like that, and I was paying more attention to her and not enough on my surroundings.”
A part of Zach wanted to yell at the man that a bodyguard’s sole job was to pay attention to his surroundings, but he also knew how charming and distracting his daughter could be. And Larson had been driving her to the private school since Kali had started first grade. Two years of driving a kid to school with no suspicious incidents would tend to dull one’s alertness. Didn’t make it any easier to swallow, though.
“Can you give me a description of the van, Mr. Bradley?” Delaney said.
“It was white with tinted windows.”
“What happened then?”
“The driver slammed on the brakes, and because he’d cut in front of me from the side street, I rear-ended him. I wasn’t going fast because I had just stopped for the stop sign. Less than ten miles an hour. The airbags didn’t even deploy. It was at that point that a really bad feeling came over me, and I put the car in reverse, intending to get Kali away. I hadn’t backed up more than a few feet when a white SUV boxed me in from the rear.”
Zach’s blood was boiling hot and heavy. Kali had to have been frightened out of her mind. He stuffed his fisted hands into his pockets to keep from putting them through the wall. Because of his net worth and the fear of her being kidnapped for ransom, he’d done everything he could think of to protect her, and someone had still gotten to her.
Larson swiped a hand over his face, then took a deep breath. “This is hard. I keep seeing her face and the way she looked at me, as if she knew I’d protect her.”
“I understand, and I’m sorry to make you relive it,” Delaney said. “It’s necessary, though.”
Larson nodded. “I know, and don’t be sorry. You’re just doing your job. I told Kali to get on the floor. The doors were locked, of course, and I grabbed my phone and called 9-1-1. At the same time as the dispatcher answered, a masked man wearing a knit cap appeared at my side window and pointed a gun. I went for my own weapon, and he fired, shattering the window.” He glanced down at his leg. “And my knee.”
Zach cursed himself for not thinking of buying a bulletproof car.
“Kali was on the floor, crying,” Larson continued. “I brought my gun up, and the man pressed his to my head. He said, ‘Drop it, or I’ll blow your brains out and then hers.’ I’m ashamed to say that I hesitated. Would he really shoot a little girl?” He looked at Zach. “I didn’t care about myself, but…” He closed his eyes and shook his head.
An image filled Zach’s head of his daughter on the floor crying while a masked man with a gun threatened her life. He couldn’t breathe. He walked out of the room.
Chapter Three
Agony etched Zach’s face, and Harry knew all too well how deeply he was hurting. When Abbie had been taken, the not knowing was the worst. No, the worst had been learning what had been done to her, and when her family had thought she was finally back home, safe in their arms, believing it was over, it hadn’t been.
Abbie tried for six months to return to life as she’d known it before her abduction, but they’d helplessly watched her spiral into depression and despair. Counseling wasn’t working, and their parents began to argue over the best thing to do for her. Abbie had solved the problem by taking her own life. Harry would forever believe that she’d failed her sister somehow.
Whatever she had to do, she vowed that Zach would never know that kind of pain and loss. She would find Kali and bring her safely home to her father. And if the worst happened and awful things were done to Kali, Harry would make sure she knew life was still worth living.
She half rose to go to him, then settled back on the chair. To find Kali, she needed information, and the only lead at the moment was the man in a hospital bed. She tore her gaze away from the door Zach had disappeared out of, turning her attention back to Larson Bradley. Her instincts said he wasn’t involved, but she’d keep an open mind on that until she could prove otherwise.
“I let him and Kali down,” Larson said.
Harry would have felt the same, so she didn’t try to convince him otherwise. “What happened after he threatened to shoot you?”
Eyes filled with guilt and sorrow met hers. “Another armed man wearing a black mask and knit cap appeared at the passenger side window. The man on my side reached in and hit the unlock button. The second man opened the door, grabbed Kali, and took her to the SUV. Man one kept his gun pressed to my head until the SUV tore around us and disappeared from sight. Then he reached in and snatched my gun from my lap before racing to the van and leaving. I should have found a way to—”
“Mr. Bradley, there was honestly nothing more you could have done.” Except to have been more observant of his surroundings, but it was too late to admonish him for that. “Were there any other cars around?”
“Not that I noticed, but from the time they stopped us, my attention was only on them and Kali. I did get license plates numbers for both the van and the SUV.”
“That’s good. What are they?” She wrote them down as he told her, but she wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they were stolen plates. “Even though both men wore masks, did you notice their eye color and height? Or anything else that might identify them?”
