The line went silent for a moment; then Tod’s voice came on. “Daddy?”
“Tod, are you okay? Did he-”
“I’m okay.”
“Did he touch you? Did he hurt you?”
“No. But I wanna go home.”
Well, Radar couldn’t think of a time when he’d been angrier than this.
Before he could ask his son any more questions, there was a shuffling sound as the man took the phone back from Tod.
All Radar could think of was the rest of his family-his wife, Gayle, his daughter, Angie. “What about my wife and daughter?”
“I don’t have them.”
He wanted to lash out at this man, curse him, threaten him, but from investigating the previous crimes, he knew how brutal and ruthless the guy was and he couldn’t bear to think of what might happen to Tod if he ticked him off. He managed to hold back for his son’s sake.
The man went on. “I don’t like the idea of hurting a child and I have no intention of doing so. You can either trust me or not, but if you choose not to do as I ask, I swear I will slice him apart one finger, one toe, one limb, at a time.” Radar realized he was saying this with Tod right there by his side and he felt a fresh gust of anger. “You know I’m serious,” the man said. “Do not test me.”
Rage. Yes. It was there, but there was also a shroud of fear.
Radar reminded himself that none of the other demands had been anything that put anyone in real danger- not digging up the corpse, not even abducting Lionel. The goal hadn’t been to hurt anyone, just to draw attention to another criminal’s previous crimes.
“What is it? What do you want me to do?”
Then the man told Radar his demands.
85
Radar’s heart seemed to freeze in midbeat inside his chest.
“And if this is not done on time,” the man told him, “I will kill Tod. I hope you’re taking me as seriously as you need to.”
“I hear you.”
“I’m going to give you four phone numbers. Write them down.”
Radar got out a pen. “Whose numbers are they?”
“Cable news networks. Once you’re in the bank, I want you to call them and tell them where you are and that they need to be there, filming by four twenty-five. I want them recording it live when it happens. I’ll call you again when you’re at the bank.”
The man hung up.
Calvin cancelled his lecture for this afternoon so he could help us, a gesture that, as much as I appreciated it, definitely took me by surprise. I’d left him alone a few minutes ago so he could focus on his algorithms and now, as I headed to my desk, I saw Radar lowering his phone’s receiver. He was breathing heavily, staring at a shoebox on his lap. He looked shaken.
“Hey, you alright?”
He looked my way. “Sure.”
But he didn’t look sure. “Something up?”
He shook his head, then covered the box carefully with the lid. Stood. “Just Gayle. I need to step out for a bit. If I get any calls, take a message and have the dispatcher pass it along to me.”
“So everything’s okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s just, something came up with one of the kids. Tod.”
“Get sick at school?”
Radar looked distracted.
“I mean school’s not out yet. Did he get sick? I just didn’t know if-”
“Yeah, no. He’s at home. He’s safe.”
He picked up his keys. “I’ll be on the radio, okay? Call me if anything comes up.”
“Okay.”
He started for the hall.
“Hey, Radar.”
He turned and looked at me.
“Why did you put it that way?”
“What way?”
“You said, ‘He’s safe.’ Why didn’t you just say, ‘He’s okay’?”
“He is,” he assured me. “He’s okay. I’ll talk to you in a minute.”
And then, with the box tucked under his arm, he left for the stairs.
86
Ralph came tromping up to my desk. “Where’s Radar?”
“He stepped out a minute ago.” I could already feel a rising tide of sharp concern. “What’s up?”
“He stepped out?”
“Yeah. What’s going on?”
“He wanted me to trace a call he just got, but we couldn’t get a line on it. Where did he go?”
I stood. “He said his wife called, that something was going on with his son.”
Ralph looked confused. “Why would he ask me to trace a call if it was his wife on the other end of the line?”
I was already on my way to the elevator bay. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
Radar had flown down the stairs, made it to the parking garage, and left the building as quickly as he could.
He could tell that Pat knew something was up, that much was obvious. Even though he’d wanted to wait until he heard from Ralph about the trace, he’d thought that if he hung around the station, there would’ve been all sorts of questions and it would have eaten up time-and that would have gotten in the way of what needed to happen right now: protecting Tod by following his abductor’s instructions.
Still, once Radar was on the road, he radioed dispatch to relay the message to Ralph to get a car out if he’d been able to trace the call.
Then he turned off his radio and headed toward Wales.
I didn’t catch Radar.
I tried radioing him.
He didn’t answer.
