Forty-one
The town car bumped across the rough ground of the abandoned lot. The driver parked, killed the engine, got out and walked away, across the street. He then made two more calls. The first was to Meditech headquarters. The second, a full ten minutes later, was to the FBI.
When he finished the last call he switched off his cell phone. He crossed back to an abandoned building next to the vacant lot. At the back of the building was a previously boarded-up door. He stepped inside and made his way through the garbage which littered the hallway to a set of stairs and began the climb to his observation post. From there he could see the lot with the town car parked in the middle of it.
Fifteen minutes later two hulking GMC Yukons screeched to a halt at the edge of the vacant lot. They sat there, engines ticking over, as if unsure about what to do next.
Brand sat in the front passenger seat of the lead vehicle, the fingertips of his right hand tracing the mini craters on his face. Hizzard sat in the driver’s seat. Brand had chosen him specially when they had got the call barely ten minutes ago.
Richard Hulme sat in the rear. As they came to a halt, he sprang forward, his hands clasping the back of Brand’s seat. ‘What are we waiting for?’
‘It’s not that simple. We verify he’s there first. Then we make the transfer. When that’s validated,
‘Why not just grab him?’
‘I already told you why. These people aren’t fooling around here.’
‘Let me go look,’ Richard said.
‘He might get upset if he sees you. Once it’s done you can get him out, I promise you.’
‘What if he’s not even in that car? What if this is some kind of sick joke?’
Brand twisted round to face him. ‘Hizzard, you go.’
Hizzard opened the door, exited the car and jogged over to the town car. When he got within ten feet he slowed and knelt down, taking a long, hard look underneath. Then he crossed to the rear passenger door nearest to him. He touched the handle, took a deep breath and opened the door. There was a little boy inside. He was sitting almost casually, his legs swinging over the edge, a hat pulled down over his face.
‘Hello?’ he said, his voice hoarse, the question tentative.
‘Josh?’
‘Yes.’ The voice was a whisper.
‘I’ve come to take you to your dad. But I need you to be patient for just a little while longer. Can you do that for me?’
‘I think so.’
‘Good. You’re being really brave. Now, I’m going to reach in and take off this hat so you can see.’
‘OK.’
Hizzard reached in and peeled off the hat. Josh stared back at him, recognizable, just, from the pictures he’d seen. They’d cut his hair, and dyed it, but it was definitely him.
‘Now, I have to go for a few minutes. But I’ll be back real soon. You have to do one thing for me, OK? You have to stay here until I come back for you. Whatever you do, do not leave this car.’
He closed the door, leaving Josh on his own. He jogged the whole way back and climbed back into the lead Yukon.
Richard grabbed at him as he sat back down. ‘Is it him? Is he OK? Have they hurt him?’ His voice was cracking, the questions stacking on top of each other.
‘It’s him. He’s fine, Dr Hulme.’
Brand hit speed dial on his phone. There was a second’s pause before his call was answered by their assigned lead at the insurance company.
‘This is Brand. We have a positive ID.’
‘I’ll action the transfer now, Mr Brand,’ the woman on the other end of the line replied.
Brand ended the call.
‘What now?’ Richard asked.
‘The insurance company makes the transfer. Once they verify it’s been made, they contact me and we can go get him.’
‘And what if they don’t hold up their end of the deal?’
‘They will,’ said Brand. ‘If they don’t I’ll scour the earth for every last one of them. They know that.’ He flashed a reassuring smile at Richard. ‘It’s all over. We’re gonna get your boy back real soon.’
From his vantage point three floors above, the driver watched as a beat-up ’96 Ford pick-up drew parallel to the lot and parked. The driver switched his cell back on and made another call. He said three words: ‘We got it.’ Then he hung up.
Down below, he watched as all four doors of each Yukon flew open and men rushed towards the town car. The first man to reach it threw open the rear door with such force that he bent it back on its hinges. Then his head and upper torso disappeared inside. He re-emerged with a small bundled figure and raced back towards the Yukons. A man in a sports jacket and chinos he guessed was Richard Hulme grabbed the little boy from the man’s grasp. The other men pulled him, still carrying the boy, back to their vehicles.
Across the street, Cody Parker pulled up just in time to secure a ringside seat for the transfer.
‘Son of a bitch.’
He threw the transmission of the truck into drive just as the first FBI vehicle car swept down on him, its nose cutting across the front of his pick-up. He looked in the rear-view mirror, ready to back up, as another car ploughed into him from the rear.
Up above, the driver waited until the doors of both Yukons were closed and then he made his final call.
Inside the town car, the cell phone stashed under the seat barely got the chance to chirp into life. The car exploded, sending a cone of fire into the sky. The windows shattered, glass fragments spinning out in every direction. The blast wave pushed the main body panels off the car, and they spun up and out, one of them slamming into the nearest of the Yukons. A second later a secondary explosion shot another burst of flame from the rear of the town car as the gas tank ignited.
In the back seat of the lead Yukon, Richard watched the windowless shell of the town car burn as Josh buried his head in his father’s chest. Sobbing with relief, he leaned down and kissed the top of his son’s head, his fingers running quickly through his hair. Across the street, he could see a well-built man with a greasy ponytail being dragged out of a pick-up truck by four men wearing blue windcheaters emblazoned with the letters JTTF. The man mouthed a stream of obscenities as his arms were wrenched behind his back and he was lifted up to his feet.
‘Let’s get the hell out of here,’ Brand said.
Hizzard needed no prompting to press down on the gas and accelerate away from the town car’s smoking carcass.
In the back seat, Richard held on tight to his son. ‘It’s OK, Josh, you’re safe now. You’re safe with me.’
Forty-two
‘In a new twist to the Josh Hulme abduction case, self-styled animal liberator Cody Parker, also known to police as Lone Wolf, will be arraigned Monday on federal kidnapping charges for the alleged abduction of seven- year-old Josh Hulme.’
Carrie stopped, flicked back some hair which had worked its way loose and fallen over her left eye. ‘Sorry, Bob, let me try that again,’ she said to her cameraman, straightening up and setting her face to concerned.
‘In a dramatic twist to the Josh Hulme abduction case, thirty-seven-year-old animal rights activist Cody Parker, also known to the authorities as Lone Wolf, is due to be arraigned Monday on federal kidnapping charges. Parker is also being investigated over the exhumation of the body of seventy-two-year-old Eleanor Van Straten. He
