Page 17 of Dark Memories
“Oliver, you can’t come in here,” Miss Doe said. She picked up the dog and left but hadn’t shut the door tightly. A few minutes later Oliver pushed the door open, came in, and jumped on the bed again.
Kali slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the door, closing it. Then she hid under the covers with Oliver.
“Please, Daddy, come find me,” she whispered against Oliver’s fur.
* * *
Zach was subdued the next morning, and Harry wished there was something she could say to reassure him that they’d find Kali today. But that was a promise she couldn’t make. It was early, and they were going back to John Meyer’s, hoping to catch him at home.
“Why haven’t they contacted me?” he said.
“If I had to guess, it would be because they want you to sweat it out a little, thinking you’ll be more open to meeting their demands.” She shifted in the seat to face him. “When they do call, insist on talking to Kali. Tell them you’re not giving them a penny until you know she’s a—safe.” She’d almost saidalive, but she didn’t want to put that kind of thought in his head.
“Okay, but what if they refuse to let me talk to her? What do I say then?”
“You need to think of this as a business negotiation. That’s all it is to them, so taking Kali and your emotions out of the equation, how would you handle it?”
“In negotiations I play hardball, but is that the right thing to do here? I…” He expelled a breath. “I can’t make a wrong step, Delaney. The possible cost of screwing up is too great. If-if anything happens to my daughter because I didn’t say or do the right thing, I won’t be able to live with myself.”
“This isn’t on you.” She gave in to the need to touch him and put her hand on his arm. “It’s all on them, but you’re going to have to go with your instincts when they contact you. I think if they refuse to let you talk to her, that you should refuse to agree to anything they demand. They’ll want money, and if it’s a simple matter of putting her on the phone to get what they want, they’ll do it. Maybe not at first, but if you insist, they’ll give in.” She hoped she was right, that this was a kidnapping for ransom and not something more sinister.
“I’ll give them everything I own as long as they give me my daughter back.”
“For God’s sake, don’t tell them that, even if it is true.” A muscle flexed in his arm, reminding her that she had her hand on him. She eased away, hoping he hadn’t noticed that she was touching him. “Listen, we really need to turn this over to the FBI. They’re more experienced in this kind of thing.”
“No. I’m taking their warning seriously. No police or FBI if I want to see my daughter again. It was a risk to even involve you. I don’t know who or how someone might be watching me, so no. If we did bring them in, they’d send a team of men and women in suits, wearing earpieces, and driving black SUVs. Can’t get more obvious than that. Besides, I don’t see how they could be doing more than we are.”
“Okay for now. But if the time comes when I feel we need outside help, we’re having this conversation again.”
“Fair enough.”
Was he making a mistake not bringing in the FBI? He was putting a heavy burden on Delaney. Zach knew that. But he was taking the warning to heart, and every instinct he had said that it would be a mistake to involve more police or the FBI.
Years of struggling to hold his family together after his father had left, to put food on the table for his three always hungry brothers, dealing with his mother’s misery and Robbie’s shenanigans, and then learning how to start a business and make it grow had honed his instincts to a sharp edge. He’d learned—sometimes the hard way—to listen to them.
Not only was Delaney qualified to handle a case like this, she had the kind of motivation that few others had. It really boiled down to two things. He trusted her and believed in her. If anyone was going to bring Kali home to him, it was her.
“What’s our reason for showing up on his doorstep?” he asked.
“Let’s park across the street and observe for a while.”
“Great. A stakeout. I always wanted to do one of those.” They’d made travel mugs of coffee before leaving his house, and he picked up his.
“They’re about as boring as you can get.”
“Okay, tell me about your life since I last saw you while we sit here and stare at an apartment building.” Anything to get his mind off Kali and what might be happening to her, even if it was only for a few minutes.
“I get up in the mornings, go to work, come home, eat a bowl of cereal or the like, go to bed, rinse, repeat.” She glanced at him and shrugged. “Not real exciting.”
If she was trying to diminish his interest in her, it wasn’t working. “What about on your days off? What do you do?”
“Not much. Catch up on sleep, watch cartoons while I have my coffee, read, and on Saturday afternoons I teach a self-defense class to women and girls who are interested.”
A memory he’d forgotten tugged at him of watching cartoons with her on Saturday mornings. He’d be wearing sweatpants, or if it was summer, just boxers, and she’d have on that red-with-little-white-bunnies cover-up that barely covered her very fine ass. His goal every Saturday morning had been to see how fast he could get her out of it. At first she would get irritated that he was disturbing her cartoon watching, then she would pretend to be annoyed, and then she’d be just as determined to get him naked as he was her. Those were some damn good memories, and he didn’t know how he could have forgotten their wrestling matches that always ended with her under him or over him on the sofa while cartoon character voices squeaked in the background.
“What are you smiling at?”
“You. Me. Naked. Cartoons.”
