is. You’re a hot topic in every working chat room, Vance. I’m something of a celebrity just by being associated with you.
I had no idea. I’ve got to go now.
By the way, Ray, what’s going to happen to my grade in your class if you’re in the back of a squad car?
Ray snorted.
Your A is so solid it won’t matter if I go to the chair.
The last thing she typed was just one word:
Careful.
Then she broke the connection. Ray sat staring at the screen for a moment, then he blinked and roused himself to action. He had a lot of work to do.
… 54 Hours and Counting…
Agents Vasquez and Johansen drove up and parked in front of the Vance residence. She looked at the house and thought about what had happened to this perfectly normal-looking family over the last few days.
“You know, if Vance is innocent, life’s been giving him a pretty hard time lately.”
“Second thoughts?” asked Johansen. His hands still gripped the steering wheel. By unspoken tradition, she almost always let him drive. It was similar to the paying at restaurants thing, a sensible move that made them less conspicuous and simultaneously saved his masculinity.
She sighed. “No, we’ve got to give her both barrels. The sooner Vance gives up the better, whether he’s guilty or not.”
He nodded and popped the door latch. Together they climbed out and approached the house. Neither of them asked the question that hung in the air: if he was innocent, how did it help little Justin’s chances to have his dad sitting in jail until the authorities finally decided to believe him? Vasquez knew from experience that there was no real answer to questions like that. In this business, you couldn’t let it get personal, especially if you really didn’t know the facts. In those cases, you followed the book. That way, you could still live with yourself if things went sour later. There was always the book to blame then.
The door opened before she could knock on it.
“What do you know?” asked Sarah. She looked like she had slept on the couch, or maybe hadn’t slept at all. Her hair, normally worked on for a half-hour or more in the bathroom, looked like an inverted bird’s nest. Gripped in her hand was a cordless phone.
“There’s no news about Justin, Mrs. Vance,” said Vasquez.
“Why are you here then?” she demanded, flicking her eyes from one to the other of them. “Is it about my husband?”
“Yes, Mrs. Vance. May we come in?”
There was a long moment of hesitation. Vasquez knew right away that this wasn’t going to go smoothly. The woman looked at her as one might look at a stray Rottweiler in the park.
“All right. Come in and talk to me.” She walked away into the living room, leaving the door hanging open behind her.
They followed her and Vasquez sat on the couch. Johansen stayed back, looking as if he would rather stand. Vasquez gave him a quick stare. He got the hint and took his spot beside her on the couch.
Sarah flopped into an armchair and fiddled with the TV remote. She didn’t turn it on. In her other hand she still gripped the phone. Vasquez got the immediate impression that she had spent the night in exactly that pose.
“I know this must be a difficult time for you, Mrs. Vance-” Vasquez began.
“Save it,” Sarah interrupted. “What do you want?”
“We want to help your husband.”
Sarah snorted. “Then find Justin. And find the real author of that virus. Have you been following CNN? It’s all over the world now. It’s tearing up files across the globe. All the online stocks are plummeting. Everyone on Wall Street is pissing themselves.”
“Yes, the situation is very serious,” agreed Vasquez. While they had been talking their way past the local sheriff’s office, the National Security Exchange Commission had called them. They were getting involved now as well. They weren’t content to let the FBI and the NSA handle it alone. All of that worried and annoyed Vasquez, who knew that for every additional agency involved, as Johansen had put it earlier, ‘a fresh load of shit would be left on her doorstep every morning’.
“But you know,” said Sarah. “I could care less. All I really want is the family I had a few days ago.”
“I’m hoping we could help you in that arena,” said Vasquez.
“All right,” sighed Sarah. “I’m listening.”
“You’re husband is a fugitive at this point, Mrs. Vance. There is a federal warrant for his arrest-”
“Yes, you showed it to me last night,” Sarah interrupted.
“And we have received information that shall quickly lead to his arrest,” continued Vasquez.
Sarah sat up and frowned at them. “What information? From whom?”
“We almost got him last night, Mrs. Vance. And we have the make and license plate of the car he’s driving,” said Vasquez, watching her reaction closely. She was disappointed by her look of confusion.
“He didn’t have a car last night,” she said. “Did he rent one?” she asked, then stopped quickly.
Johansen stood up suddenly. “Could I use your restroom, ma’m?” he asked Sarah. “We’ve been in the car all day.”
Sarah waved him down the hall and turned her attention back to Vasquez.
“It doesn’t matter,” Vasquez told her. “But what does matter is that we are about to catch him. I’m assuming here that your husband is innocent, Mrs. Vance.”
“And he is.”
“That will be determined, Mrs. Vance. However, I must point out that if he openly runs from capture at that point, it will look very bad for his case.”
Sarah frowned, but said nothing. She went back to massaging the remote and clenching the phone. There, thought Agent Vasquez, the hook is planted. She decided to go for broke.
“Of course, if you could help us in any way-”
“No!” said Sarah, turning on them. “No way. You people can pay your informants and catch him if you can, but I’m not going to help you find him. Why don’t you people find my son instead of bothering us about a piece of software?”
At this point Johansen quietly returned and sat back down on the couch. The two agents blinked their eyes and squirmed a bit.
“The truth is, Mrs. Vance, the FBI won’t get involved in the disappearance of your son until the local Sheriff’s office declares the case to be a kidnapping. Right now, it’s still being investigated as a possible run-away.”
Sarah stared at them in disbelief. “He’s only six years old.”
“Yes, well, this is an unusual case. There’s been no ransom note, no witnesses, no contact of any kind other than the 9-1-1 call. However, I believe the FBI will be called in today. I think the local authorities have been overwhelmed by the virus and all the publicity about it.”
“So you’re telling me that they have simply forgotten about my son? Is that why that detective hasn’t been back to see me?”
Vasquez looked down, embarrassed. “The good news is that we have a new suspect in the virus case.”
“Who?”
“A Mr. John Nogatakei.”
“Nog? Why that fat bastard,” Sarah breathed. “Yes, yes, he might do something like this. I’m surprised I didn’t think of it myself.”
“So you see, Mrs. Vance, your husband’s flight may be totally unnecessary.”
“I’m still not going to turn him in,” she snapped back. “Does Nog have anything to do with my son?”
Vasquez thought of Nog’s apartment. To her, it appeared that Nog could easily be unbalanced. His background didn’t help him, either: An anti-social loner who associated with hookers and had a lot of money and time on his hands. Perhaps he really had taken the kid.
“What would get you to contact your husband?” she asked. She said it easily, hoping Sarah wouldn’t think
