practiced drone of an experienced dispatcher.
Knowing what was coming, Jonathan watched Gail as the young voice choked and identified himself as Ryan Nasbe. Just as he’d expected, her eyes reddened at the sound of stress in the boy’s voice.
“Th-this is Ryan Nasbe. Me and my mom were kidnapped.”
“ Who is this?” the dispatcher asked. Clearly, kidnappings didn’t happen on a regular basis in Maddox County.
“Ryan Nasbe. N-A-S-B-E. I live on Fort Bragg. Well, I used to, but now I live in Mt. Vernon, Virginia, with my Aunt Maggie.”
“You’re calling from Virginia?”
“No. I don’t think so, anyway. I think I’m in West Virginia. That’s the direction we drove after we were kidnapped.”
“Who kidnapped you?”
The kid’s patience evaporated. “How should I know? They’re terrorists.”
A pause. “Young man, if this is a prank, let me assure you that-”
“It’s not a prank!” Ryan yelled. “They kidnapped us in our car after they shot a bunch of people on a bridge. Then they drove us into the middle of nowhere. They’re keeping us in a house in the middle of some kind of camp. They’re lunatics, calling themselves brother this and sister that. They promised to kill us next week.”
“How many of you are there?”
“Two. Me and my mom.”
“Where’s your father?”
“He’s in Afghanistan, I think. He’s Special Forces in the Army.”
A sigh. “Your father is in Special Forces.” The dispatcher spoke disdainfully, clearly doubting his truthfulness.
“If you don’t believe me, you can call down to Fort Bragg and ask. Actually, they probably won’t answer you, but still, it’s true. What difference does any of this make? I need a cop and I need him now.”
“Where are you now?”
“I have no idea. Don’t you know? Don’t you have like caller ID or something?”
The operator fell silent, and the background filled with the sound of muffled voices and some shuffling papers.
The silence lasted long enough for Ryan Nasbe to say, “Are you still there?”
“You said your name is Ryan Nasbe, is that correct?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Okay, Ryan, I have your address. You’re at a pay phone, is that right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I need you to stay exactly where you are. We’ll have someone there in a few minutes.”
“I can’t just wait here. Somebody might drive by and see me.”
“Then step off to the side of the road. Hide in the trees. Our car will turn on the emergency lights, so you’ll know it’s safe to come out. Can you do that for me?”
Ryan’s voice broke. “Yes, ma’am. Ma’am?”
“Yes?”
“I’m really scared.”
“I know you are, Ryan. This will be over soon.”
“Please hurry.”
“We’ll get there as fast as we can.”
“Okay,” Ryan said. “I’m going to hang up now.”
“Okay, sweetie. This will all be over very soon.”
The line went dead.
Gail’s features folded into a deep scowl. “That’s odd,” she said.
She had Jonathan’s attention.
“Why did she let him hang up like that? She should have kept him on the line, keeping him calm and just keeping track of him in general.”
“He said he was scared,” Jonathan said. “He’s going off to hide in the woods.”
“And that’s kind of odd, too. It would be one thing if the boy had suggested that on his own, and then he hung up on the dispatcher, but this was her idea.”
Jonathan didn’t get what she was driving at. “She wanted him to stay safe, out of sight.”
Gail shrugged. “Well, it’s just different than the way any dispatcher I’ve ever known would handle it.”
“I’ve got something weirder than that,” Venice announced. She’d been typing on her ubiquitous keyboard. “ICIS has nothing on it.”
Gail sat forward in her seat.
Jonathan said, “Isn’t it a little early? The phone call isn’t yet two hours old.”
“ICIS triggers when a call is dispatched,” Gail explained.
Venice closed the loop. “Which means that if there’s no tracking, the call was never put into the system.”
“Maybe instead of dispatching it,” Jonathan said, “the call taker just looked over her shoulder and told some deputy to go pick him up.”
“It’s not about dispatching, Dig,” Gail explained. “It’s about opening the file. Two hours into a missing persons case, there’d be something. There’d have to be.”
“Even for a case that happens in the middle of Nowhere, West Virginia?”
Venice started to say yes-he could tell by her body language-but she stopped herself and held up a finger instead. She tapped her computer keys. “There it is,” she said. “Maddox County Sheriff’s Office. Let’s give them a call, shall we?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ryan didn’t just hide in the trees, he hid way back in the trees, far enough off the road that he was completely invisible. With all the leaves missing, that meant twenty or thirty yards off the parking lot.
Now that he wasn’t moving, the nighttime noises seemed louder to him, but because his ordeal was about to end, they seemed less frightening. Fear, he realized, had the same effect on you as heavy exercise. It was exhausting. Hope-which he guessed was the right word for the opposite of fear-brought lightness. It felt good to rescue someone you loved.
He was surprised how quickly the police car got there. The guy must have either been around the corner or driven a million miles an hour. Ryan saw him first as approaching headlights. It could have been anyone, and that twisty feeling returned to his gut. But when the blue light bar painted the night, he nearly cheered out loud.
He started to run out of his hiding place, but just as he was rising, he thought better of it. This was a time to be very, very careful.
Let’s see what the cop does.
After the light bar came on, and the vehicle stopped, Ryan saw the interior light come on, and then a guy in regular clothes stepped out of the driver’s door and stood. It was hard to tell at this distance, but he looked big as he stepped around the front of the vehicle, shielding his eyes from his own lights. When the lights were behind him-when he was looking in Ryan’s general direction-he stopped and planted his fists on his hips, like the Jolly Green Giant in a suit.
“Ryan Nasbe?” he whisper-yelled. “Are you here?”
That was it. The man knew his name and he drove a police car. That was all Ryan needed. He rose to his full height and held up his hand, as if being called on in class. “Right here,” he said. He spoke in his normal voice, but in the silence of the night, it sounded more like a shout.
The cop’s gaze came closer, but he still didn’t see. “You can come out now, son.”
Noise didn’t matter anymore. Ryan allowed his feet to drag through the dried leaves, and he didn’t cringe a bit when his foot broke a stick. It was difficult to fight the desire to run, but he worried that it would look, you know,
