Page 88 of At Midnight Comes the Cry
A bellow came from the truck bay below. “Russ? Knox?” MacAuley had arrived.
The chief jerked his head toward her. “Get Lyle, he’ll have cutters.” He squeezed Flynn’s shoulders. “Not long now, kid.”
Hadley clanged down the stairs, waving toward MacAuley and a sheriff’s deputy, who were bracketing the exterior door, sidearms out. “We’re fine! Two guards subdued, no other hostiles.” She skidded to a stop as the two holstered their weapons. “Dep, we found Flynn in the office. We need your cutters.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” He turned to the deputy. “Will you circuit the outside? Make sure there aren’t any surprises?” The other man nodded.
Hadley dashed back up the stairs. MacAuley paused a moment to take in Austin and Dillon—who had finally stopped swearing—before Hadley dragged him into the office.
He shook his head as he squatted at Flynn’s side. “Kevin, you do get into it.” He clipped his wrists and ankles free, then he and the chief helped their former officer stand. “Go easy, kid, you gotta let the blood come back.”
Hadley had been so focused on Flynn she’d almost tuned out the other side of the room, so Reverend Clare’s raised voice was a shock.“Lyle, can you see if your key works here? Her husband handcuffed Tiny’s leg to the chair.”
The chief put a steadying hand on Flynn’s back. “What happened?”
Flynn shook his head. “We decamped to one of the guys’ houses. Tony Di Marco. I tried to sneak out to alert law enforcement and I got caught.” He gestured shakily to his eye. “The captain didn’t want to kill me, I guess? I don’t know what they were going to do after tonight.”
“Tonight? Do you know what the plan is?”
“It’s in Albany. And they’ve been working on explosives. Trying to get the size down and the lethal force up. They did a test way away from the camp with one stuffed with nails and accelerant.”
The chief rubbed his mouth. “Albany. Five days before Christmas. I can’t even begin to imagine how many targets that might be.” He looked to Hadley. “Ideas?”
“Shoppers. The mall will be full. Uh, holiday shows, likeThe Nutcrackerand stuff like that.”
MacAuley rejoined them. “The capital building, the federal offices, the state departments…” He frowned. “Although it’s Sunday. They’ll be empty, and one thing that’s consistent about these kind of attacks is that they target as many people as they can.”
“I’m sorry.” Flynn sounded miserable. “All this fu-freaking time and I still couldn’t get to the bottom of it.”
“You did what you could, kid, and that’s a lot more than most.”
Reverend Clare squeezed between her husband and MacAuley to face Flynn. “May I give you a hug?” He nodded, and she squeezed him tight. “I’m so, so glad you’re here and safe.” She released him and turned to the chief. “He didn’t just take the baby away from Tiny. He left with her.”
The chief nodded.
“Tiny says he wouldn’t tell her where he was going.” Reverend Clare dropped her voice. “It’s not unknown for men in these situations—”
Van Alstyne held up both hands. “We know. We all know.” He pinched the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses. “Kevin, impressions?”
Flynn squinted in concentration. “There was nobody else herewhen we arrived with Austin and Dillon. March was gloating, but didn’t specifically threaten the baby.” He opened his eyes. “He told her if she even thought about using the desk phone, she’d never see the kid again.”
Clare shook her head. “He thought Tiny was so cowed, he left her hands free.”
“Sounds like he was planning on coming back here,” MacAuley observed.
“I agree.” The chief looked to Flynn. “Anything else?”
“I’m pretty sure he left on his own. He may be joining the rest of them in Albany.”
Hadley finally spoke up. “Or he may be so intent on hurting his wife that he’s gone off-range with the plan. Why else take the baby?”
“A parent with a child can get into a lot of places without raising an eyebrow.” Reverend Clare looked at her husband, and then MacAuley. “Maybe Rose is a distraction.”
“The first thing we need to do is call in an Amber Alert,” the dep said. “If the state troopers can catch March before he gets into any mischief, that’ll spike whatever the militia’s doing.” He crossed the office and took a seat next to Tiny. “Ma’am, can you give me a description of your husband and baby, and what they were wearing?” He pulled his notebook from inside his parka.
“The mall sounds like the best bet.” The chief spoke in a low voice. “No one would notice a dad with a kid in a stroller.”
Clare, who had been scrolling through her phone, held it out toward him. “What about this?”
