24 Hours

“She’s my daughter!” Will shouted, blood pounding in his temples. “I’m sorry. You’ve already done more than I had any right to expect. But I’ve just learned what type of vehicle the guy in Hazlehurst is driving. And the sun is up now. If the FBI could get a chopper up over that area, they might be able to find it pretty quick.”

“You’re damn right they could!” Ferris cried. “And if they can’t, the state police can. They can put out a statewide APB for the vehicle, too. If that guy tries to move with your little girl, they’ll be on him like you know what.”

“No state police. Highway patrolmen aren’t anywhere close to trained for something like this. A hostage standoff with a five-year-old? It’s got to be the FBI. A chopper out of Jackson could be on station fifteen minutes after takeoff.” Will was excited, too, but he knew the realities. ER work in small towns had taught him that while helicopters were much faster than ground vehicles, the time required to prep them for flight often meant that conventional ambulance runs were faster, even over distances of eighty or ninety miles. But Ferris’s enthusiasm knew no bounds.

“I’ll handle everything,” he said. “I’m so goddamn relieved. You just leave it to me.”

“The FBI is going to ask you a hundred questions about me. You can’t answer them. That’s my condition. You can’t even give them my name. If you do, they’ll have someone out at my house in ten minutes, and that could get my daughter killed.”

“Damn it-”

“The kidnapper is at my house right now, Harley. He can kill Abby with one phone call. The FBI’s job is to find that vehicle and that cabin. That’s it. In ninety minutes you can tell them all you know, but for now, nothing. Just the vehicle.”

“Jennings-”

“Don’t give them my phone numbers, either. If they called at the wrong time, that could get Abby killed, too. If I think of something that can help them, I’ll call you and you relay it. Understood?”

“I don’t like it. But I understand.”

“Use your head, Harley. Before every step you take, remind yourself that there’s a five-year-old girl out there, scared out of her mind.”

“I’ve got two of my own. College age now, but I remember what it’s like.”

“Good. And tell the FBI to put a paramedic in that chopper. With insulin. My daughter’s a juvenile diabetic.”

“Jesus. Insulin, I’ve got it. Well… I’d better make that call. Godspeed, boy.”

“Harley?”

“What?”

“You don’t want to know what kind of vehicle they should be looking for?”

“Shit, I forgot. What is it?”

“A green Chevy pickup with lots of primer on it. The old kind, with rounded cab.”

“Got it. I’ll talk to you soon.”

Will heard the click as Ferris disconnected.

Cheryl was still standing in the door, but at least she had wrapped the towel around her torso. Will saw the bruises on her neck and arm, where he had injected her during the night.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I woke up with the flu,” she said. “My bones ache, and all my muscles are twitching.”

“That’ll pass.”

She cinched the towel tighter around her breasts. “Um… there’s something I didn’t tell you.”

A shiver of premonition went through him. “What?”

“This is the last job. Joey’s last kidnapping.”

“He said that?”

“Uh-huh. He’s been talking about it all year. He’s had his money in the stock market a long time, and he bought some land down in Costa Rica. He’s never been there, but he says it’s a ranch. A Spanish ranch. Like zillions of acres with gauchos and stuff. For a while I thought it was, you know, bullshit. But I think maybe it’s real.”

She had held back more than he thought. But this new information only confirmed what Will had thought all along. This kidnapping was different from all the others. Hickey meant to kill Abby-and possibly Karen and himself-then vanish for good.

“You calling in the cops?” Cheryl asked.

“Not exactly.”

“Are we still going to pick up the money?”

“Absolutely. And it’s all yours.”

She looked skeptical. “Once we get it… are you going to let me go?”

He ran his hands through his hair. “I need you to bluff Joe a bit longer. Over the phone, you know. Like we have been. Just long enough to get Abby.”

“I’m dead,” she said in a toneless voice.

“No, you’re not. Hang with me, Cheryl.”

She covered her eyes with a shaking hand. Fear and exhaustion had brought her to the point of despair. Will could almost read her mind. In some corner of her brain she was thinking she should pick up the phone and warn Hickey. That if she told him what Will was up to, he might forgive her and call the whole thing off before everything came apart.

“Cheryl, you’ve got to think straight right now. I’m going to do everything I can to help you. If you somehow wind up in police custody, I’ll testify on your behalf. I swear it. But you can’t save Joe. It’s gone past that. I know you still feel loyalty to him. But if you try to warn him, I’ll have no choice but to tell him everything you’ve told me. He’ll know I could only have gotten it from you.”