“Thank God. Mr. Ferris, this is Dr. Will Jennings. This is an emergency. I want to you listen very carefully.”
“Oh my God. Oh no. Is it one of my kids?”
“No, sir. It’s not your family. It’s mine.”
“What?”
“Do you remember me, Mr. Ferris? I was the anesthesiologist on your wife’s gallbladder surgery. She requested me.”
“I know you,” Ferris said. “We played in that scramble at Annandale a few months back. But it’s three-thirty in the morning, Doctor. What the hell’s going on?”
“My daughter’s in trouble. Desperate trouble. You can help her. But before I tell you anything, you’ve got to promise not to call the police.”
“The police? I don’t understand.”
Will decided to go for broke. “Mr. Ferris, my daughter was kidnapped yesterday evening. I can’t go to the police because the kidnappers will kill her if I do. Do you understand?”
There was a delay as Ferris processed this information. “I heard you,” he said finally. “I’m not sure I understand you.”
“I’m in a casino hotel in Biloxi right now. The Beau Rivage. My wife’s at home in Annandale. One of the kidnappers is with her. My daughter is being held at a third location. Somewhere in the woods around Hazlehurst, Mississippi. Every thirty minutes, the leader of the kidnappers calls the location where my daughter’s being held. I know they’re using a CellStar telephone. You’re the president of CellStar. Can you trace that call for me?”
“Not without a court order, I can’t.”
“My daughter will be dead long before anyone gets a court order.”
“Jesus. Is this some sort of prank? Is this really Will Jennings?”
“I wish it were a joke. But it’s not. On the soul of my daughter, it’s not.”
“Are both parties using cell phones?”
“The man on the receiving end is using one. There’s no landline where he is. He’s ten or fifteen miles west of Hazlehurst, down some logging road. That’s all I know at this point.”
“There’s not much activity around there this time of night,” Ferris said. “We’ve only got one tower down that way, an older one. Our coverage is pretty thin around there, to be honest. I’d have to get a vehicle down there to trace it, and I don’t know where our vans are right now.”
“Where could they be?”
“Anywhere in the state.”
“How many do you have?”
“Two.”
“Harley, if we don’t find that phone, my five-year-old daughter will be dead by morning. Even if I pay the ransom.”
“How much are they asking for?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“That doesn’t seem like much.”
“That’s part of their plan. It’s not really the money they want. They want to hurt me. Can you help?”
“Doctor, it sounds to me like we should call the FBI.”
“No! They’ve thought of that. Planned for it.”
“But for a job like this-”
“This isn’t a job, Harley! This is my kid. Remember how you felt when you thought I was calling because one of your kids was in a wreck? Think back two minutes.”
More silence. “Goddamn it. Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”
“I need your word that you won’t call the FBI. Your word of honor.”
“I’ll keep quiet until morning. But if I get a trace on that phone, we’re calling in the FBI. Agreed?”
“You find that phone, I’ll be begging for a SWAT team.”
“Where are you now?”
“You have a pen?”
“Just a second. Okay, go ahead.”
“I’m at the Beau Rivage Casino, suite 28021. Call as soon as you know anything, but not on the hour or half hour. That’s when the kidnappers make their check-in calls. The next one’s coming in less than two minutes.”
“I can’t do anything about that one, except maybe confirm that they’re using the tower near Hazlehurst. I’ll call as soon as I know something. Hang tough, Doctor. We’ll figure something out.”
“Thank you. Hey-why did you suddenly answer your phone?”
“My prostate,” Ferris replied. “We don’t keep a phone in the bedroom. I got up to take a leak and decided I was hungry. I heard the machine in the kitchen.”
“Thank God you did. I’ll talk to you soon.”
Will hung up, his heart pounding. “Joe’s going to call any second.” He turned to Cheryl. “What are you going to tell him?”
“Wait and see, you son of a bitch. You’d better untie me.”
Letting Cheryl answer Hickey’s next call could be the biggest mistake he ever made. But he had no choice. He had crossed the Rubicon. There was no retreat now. He could hold the needle against Cheryl’s neck as she answered, but instinct told him to show some faith. He reached out and unbuckled the belt that bound her chest.
“I don’t think you want my little girl to die. You’re not that far gone. You were a little girl once, too. Not so long ago, either.”
She refused to look at him.
As he untied the terry-cloth belt that held her legs, the phone began to ring. The sound constricted Will’s chest. “My daughter’s life is in your hands. Help her, and anything I have is yours. All the money you’ll ever need.”
“You’d better answer that phone, Doctor.”
He took a deep breath, then picked up the phone, handed it to Cheryl, and leaned down to listen.
“Yeah?” she said.
“Everything okay?” Hickey asked.
She looked at Will, her eyes inches away. As he tried to read them, an old memory flashed into his mind, the eyes of a secretary to a bank loan officer. She had kept him waiting for an hour even though she knew his loan application would be denied, reveling in the only power she would ever have over someone like him. Cheryl had a thousand times that power now. Would she exercise it to pay him back for the terror he’d forced her to endure?
“Yeah,” she said finally. “Everything’s cool.”
He felt light-headed. He was squeezing her arm with gratitude when Hickey said, “What’s the matter? You don’t sound right.”
The son of a bitch was clairvoyant.
Cheryl looked at Will. “I’m getting tired,” she said.
“It’s not too much longer now. Take one of the pills I gave you. I need you sharp.”
“I know. I’ll talk to you in a half hour.”
Will heard the click as Hickey hung up. With shaking hands he took the phone from Cheryl and set it in its cradle. “Thank you,” he said. “You just started earning your first million.”
She scowled and rolled off the bed. “Fuck you very much. Now what?”
“Now we wait for the phone trace. And pray.”
FOURTEEN
Huey Cotton sat on the floor in the front room of the cabin, whittling steadily. Behind him, Abby slept soundly
