'Someone made contact with her while she was out at dinner, obviously.'
'But why an unmarked jet?'
'They apparently don't want anyone to know about this. Certainly not the public.'
'The Service must be freaking out because they've had no chance to advance-team this.'
'Exactly. They're cobbling stuff together as best they can, but when you don't know where you're going?'
'You didn't tell him what we found out.'
'He has his hands full, and this may pan out to be nothing. But if we find anything that connects to the president, we'll let him know ASAP.'
'Cut the lights and the engine!' Michelle hissed.
The SUV went dark and quiet. 'What's up?'
'Someone just came out of the house.' She pointed up ahead. 'Let's do the rest on foot.'
They slipped out of the truck and crept toward the dark house.
Michelle held up a hand. She'd obviously seen something that he hadn't. Her night vision was beyond human, he'd found.
'Where?' Sean whispered in Michelle's ear.
'There, on the front porch.'
He stared in that direction and saw some small shape apparently sitting on the steps. Michelle hissed in his ear. 'I think that might be Gabriel, the little boy the MPs interviewed. He was nearly nine then, the report said. That would put him at ten or eleven now.'
As they waited to see if anyone else joined Gabriel, the darkness around them started to lift with increased speed. From somewhere a rooster crowed.
'Haven't heard that in a while,' confessed Sean.
'We need to do something,' she said. 'We're losing our cover and he might spot the SUV.'
'You, left, I'll go right.'
They split up. A minute later their creep up to the house ended with them on either side of the shape that the coming light indeed showed to be a little boy.
A little boy who was crying. He was crying so hard, in fact, that he never even noticed Michelle step up beside him. When she touched his shoulder, though, he nearly jumped off the porch. Sean was on the other side of him, and managed to snag his arm before he had a chance to run for it.
'Who are you?' sputtered Gabriel, looking at them both with wild, tearstained eyes.
'Are you Gabriel?' asked Michelle, putting a hand on the boy's other arm.
'How do you know my name?' he said fearfully.
'We're not going to hurt you,' Sean said. 'We're just here looking for someone. A little girl named Willa?'
'Are you the police?'
'Why would you think we're the police?' asked Michelle, her grip tightening slightly on Gabriel's thin arm.
Gabriel snuffled and then hunched over, studying his bare feet. 'I don't know.'
'Do you know where Willa is?'
'I don't know anybody named Willa.'
'That wasn't what we asked you,' said Sean. 'We asked you if you knew where she was.'
'No, I don't, okay? I don't.'
'But you know about her?' said Michelle.
Gabriel looked up at her, his lids droopy, his features miserable. 'I didn't do anything wrong. Neither did my ma.'
'No one said you did. Where is your mother?' asked Michelle.
'Sleeping.'
'Anybody else in the house?'
'I think Mr. Sam's gone.'
'Sam Quarry?' said Sean.
'You know him?'
'I've heard about him. Why do you think he's gone?'
'Truck's not here,' the boy answered simply.
'Why were you crying when we came up?'
'Just… just because, that's all.'
'There must be a reason,' Michelle said gently.
'You always have a reason why you cry?' Gabriel said defiantly.
'Yes.'
'Well, I don't. Just cry sometimes.'
'So Sam's gone, your mother's sleeping. Anybody else inside?'
Gabriel started to say something but then stopped.
Sean said, 'It's really important that we know who's here.'
'So are you the police or what?'
Michelle snaked out her PI creds and showed them to him. 'We're working with the FBI and the Secret Service on Willa Dutton's kidnapping. You got a Koasati Indian around here who goes by the name Eugene?'
'No, but there is one. His name's Fred.'
'Is he in the house?'
'No, he lives in an old trailer on the property, just over that way,' he said, pointing to the west.
'So who else is inside?'
'Tippi was, but she's not there now.'
'Who's Tippi?'
'Mr. Sam's daughter. He brought her home from the nursing home not too long ago.'
'What's wrong with her?'
'She got sick a long time ago. Hooked her up to machines to breathe and all. Was in the nursing home for years. Mr. Sam and me would go and read to her. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice. You read it?'
Michelle said, 'Why'd he bring her home?'
'Don't know. He just did.'
'But now she's not here?'
'She's not in her bedroom. I checked.'
'Was that why you were crying? Because you thought something had happened to her?'
Gabriel looked up at Michelle. 'Ma'am, Mr. Sam is a good man. He took me and my ma in when we didn't have nowhere else to go. He helps people, lots of people. He wouldn't do nothing to Miss Tippi. He's done everything for her.'
'But you were still crying. There must be a reason why.'
'Why should I tell you?'
'Because we want to help,' she said.
'That's what you say, but I don't know if that's what you really mean.'
'You're a smart young man,' said Sean.
'Mr. Sam said don't trust nobody till they give you a good reason why you should.'
'What you doing here?' snapped a voice.
They turned to see Ruth Ann standing there in her old bathrobe. They didn't focus on the robe, though. Their attention was occupied by the single-barrel shotgun she was pointing at them.
CHAPTER 76
THEY HAD SETTLED on a Boeing 757 that the secretary of state used to fly before she'd been upgraded to a wide-body 767-300. The plane had been kept at Andrews Air Force Base along with the rest of the presidential fleet. All government markings had been previously removed and it was now primarily used to shuttle agents, aides, and the press, as well as necessary equipment.
