As quickly as he could, Jack went back to the registration area, where there were significantly fewer people. Family members had gone into the identification room while some of the other visitors had left. Jack found Lou and Warren sitting together on the couch. They both stood when they caught sight of Jack.
“Sorry about all this,” Lou said, as soon as Jack was in earshot. “Is Laurie holding up?”
Jack acknowledged Lou’s concern and said Laurie was extremely upset but hanging in there.
“I checked up on the situation while you were away,” Lou said. “JJ has been kidnapped. If it’s any consolation, the police are taking this very seriously, declaring it a major case with all that entails. Even the commissioner has been apprised. The whole force is participating, and they’ve already put out an Amber Alert. The entire city is going to know about this. I just talked with the current head detective running the case as the case agent. His name is Bennett, Mark Bennett. He’s out of the Major Case Squad using help from detectives from the Manhattan North Borough. He’s a good man, and you should be happy to have him on board. There are a number of other people involved as well, but Mark is the lead guy who will be pulling everything together.”
“What about the FBI?”
“The FBI has been alerted, too. Everyone is taking this very seriously.”
“So it’s definitely considered a kidnapping?”
“Absolutely,” Lou said. “A homicide and a kidnapping. Surprisingly, there was only one witness: a mother with her toddler. She was headed for the Hundredth Street playground when she glimpsed a gunman walk up to your nanny, shoot her, and with four accomplices calmly carry JJ and his stroller off to a waiting white van. The van’s already been located, thanks to the Amber Alert. It was found abandoned in Garden City and hauled off to a crime scene lab to be thoroughly processed.”
“Anything of interest obtained from the crime scene?”
“Crime scene unit is still working the crime scene. If there’s anything to be found, they’ll find it. I haven’t seen this kind of mobilization in years. There’s going to be enormous public interest.”
“Any demands yet from the abductors?”
“Not a word, which I must say is somewhat disturbing. Demands are healthy, if you know what I’m saying.”
“I can imagine,” Jack agreed.
“We need to get into negotiation with the bastards.”
“Why weren’t we notified earlier?” Jack asked. He wasn’t blaming, just questioning.
“Initially, the first responders had no identity on JJ, nor did they have it on the nanny, for that matter. She was not carrying any ID. They figured out who she was from her cell phone, and even that was more difficult than usual.”
“Let’s get back up to Laurie,” Jack said to Lou. “I don’t want her to be alone too long. If I know her, she’s probably going to blame herself for JJ’s disappearance.” He turned from Lou to say a fast good-bye to Warren, when Warren spoke up. “I know this is a difficult time, but I’d like to come with you. I want to assure Laurie that the family doesn’t hold her in any way responsible for Leticia’s death, despite what my aunt Marilyn said. She’s obviously distraught out of her mind.”
Although Jack was frantic and hardly thinking clearly, he tried to consider Warren’s request in view of what he thought Laurie’s best interests were. He almost immediately thought it would be good for her to hear what Warren wanted to say. Anything that could keep Laurie from falling into a self-critical despondency was going to help the situation. “Do you need to say anything to anybody before you leave here?”
“I don’t,” Warren said.
“Then come on up with us!”
As they ascended in the elevator, Warren told Jack what he knew while Lou called Mark Bennett back to say that the Stapletons were now aware of their child’s disappearance. Lou tried to keep his voice as quiet as possible.
“Where are they at the moment?” Detective Bennett asked.
“They are still here at OCME.”
“Ask them to get home ASAP,” Mark said. “We haven’t heard from the kidnappers, which worries me. I’m hoping they’ll initiate contact through the Stapletons’ home phone, and I want to get the phone wired up so we can listen in on it and also track the incoming calls. As you probably know, in child kidnap cases with no demands, seventy or so percent of them are dead in the first three hours.”
“Thanks for the information,” Lou said, making sure Jack was not listening in on his conversation and thinking that he would not pass on that particular statistic to Laurie and Jack.
“I just wanted you to know, since you said you’d be hanging around with them,” Mark added.
“I’ll get them home right away,” Lou promised. “And if you want to talk with me before then, you have my mobile number.”
“I have it, but I’m coming over to the Stapletons’ myself to make sure everything is done right.”
“Will you be willing to talk to the couple and explain everything that is being done on their behalf to retrieve their son?”
“Absolutely. Maybe I’ll call Henry Fulsome and have him drop by as well. Do you know Henry?”
“Can’t say that I do.”
“In my book he’s the best crisis negotiator the NYPD has. He has a hundred percent record of resolving hostage situations without the loss of a single life.”
“That sounds like something they’d love to hear. Of course, it means getting to the point of having a hostage situation to negotiate.”
“You’re right in that regard. We have our investigative work cut out for us. There’s no time to waste.”
Up in Laurie’s office the three men found her sitting at her desk, looking blank and pale, as the enormity of her situation had fully set in. She was holding the threatening letter, which she wordlessly passed on to Lou. Having reread it herself, she was even more embarrassed that she’d not taken it seriously. Lou read it quickly, shaking his head.
Warren stepped up to Laurie as she stood. They hugged for a moment, and then Warren apologized for his aunt’s behavior. Laurie managed to thank him and said she understood.
“I’m going to hang on to this letter,” Lou explained. “And now let’s head on to your house. I’ll explain what’s happening on the way.”
35
MARCH 26, 2010
FRIDAY, 7:20 p.m.
When Laurie, Jack, Warren, and Lou pulled up in front of Laurie and Jack’s town house they were surprised by the throng waiting for them. Cops were everywhere, standing on the stoop and the sidewalk, or waiting in their vehicles. Vans, police cars, and FBI vehicles filled the street.
Laurie braced herself for what was ahead. Since leaving OCME, her emotions had careened from one extreme to the other. One minute she’d felt victimized and despondent, and in the next she felt a kind of fierce anger. She was not going to allow kidnappers to take her child away.
As Laurie and the others climbed out of Lou’s car, Laurie forced herself to center on the fighting stance. Although feeling overwhelmed and powerless earlier, she was now eager to meet the case agent, whom Lou had described to her as he’d filled her in on the situation during the drive.
The initial introductions were carried out on the stoop. Mark Bennett had been first, a bear of a man who had come forward with his hand extended as Laurie came up the front steps. “I’m Detective Mark Bennett,” he said, shaking Laurie’s hand vigorously. “I’m a detective from the Major Case Squad, and I’m here to get your child back as soon as possible.” He then went on to introduce a number of other people, including crisis negotiator Henry Fulsome and a host of other people, other detectives, crime scene specialists, technicians, and even a special agent of the FBI. Laurie found herself impressed with the detective, who seemed to her a walking, talking crime deterrent who spoke of the perpetrators as cowards who needed to be rounded up and thrown into prison for the rest of their
