"Cast the calming apple up and over satellites
To draw out the timid wild one, to convince you it's alright."
-Maynard J. Keenan, A Stranger
**picture: snow storm in Winthrop, MA
Gillian and Russell walked slowly across the parking lot of a bistro with a drive-through service. Winthrop police had taped it off and kept the curious neighbors away. The snowfall had stopped and the night wind from the sea made the air sharply cold to breathe. It was a rough change from the warm temperature they'd left at the gala, but damned if they cared. She dialed Aldana on speaker and held the phone between them.
"What do you have on the mother, Al?"
Aldana kept her voice low to reply, "She's got no physical traces of abuse, Reg. And she swears her husband never laid a finger on her or Jimmy. But I agree with Brockner: she has all the signs of psychological abuse, and she's deep into depression."
"How is she now?" asked Russell.
"A mess. Her father convinced her to take a pill and try to get some rest."
"No ransom call yet?"
"Nope. Nothing."
"Keep us up."
Russell pointed ahead, at the clear trace of tires in the thin layer of snow, heading to the exit. It showed a skid as the car speeded up.
Gillian made another call on speaker. "We're at the site, lads. Walk us through," she said.
Russell compared the place to a picture on his tablet. "Here's where they waited," he said.
"How long?" asked Gillian.
"Thirty minutes," Connor replied over the phone. "Two men. They start the car only a moment before Katy walks by."
"When they saw her come out of the bistro," said Russell.
"I found them on one of the cameras on Saratoga Street bridge," said Tanya. "They crossed to Boston two or three minutes after snatching Jimmy, but they don't show up on the next cameras on the Boston side. We're still searching feeds from the area, but there's no trace of them."
"The car was reported stolen in Newton three days ago," said Kurt. "We issued an APB on it, but no news yet."
"What about Fred and Hank?"
"They're on their way to the father's home address in Worcester."
Gillian disconnected, her eyes scanning the area—the few cars scattered over the parking lot, the people watching from behind the yellow tape, the police lights flashing around like red and blue beacons in the freezing night.
Russell studied the caption from the security feed on his tablet, then he looked up at Gillian. "So Jimmy and his mother Katy come here every Thursday for a late snack after dinner," he said. "How far from her house?"
"Half a mile, give or take. Every Thursday over the last three months, since she left Jimmy's father and moved back to Winthrop, with her parents."
Russell turned to the bistro, where more uniforms questioned potential witnesses. "They come out to Katy's car, which was parked..."
"There. Two slots past the subjects' car."
"Okay. And on their way, Jimmy stops to make a snowball."
"Katy goes on to unlock the car."
"Then she hears a car driving closer, the squeal and Jimmy's cry. She turns around and sees Jimmy being yanked into an unknown car."
"She said they didn't stop, only slowed down to catch Jimmy. Then they rocketed away."
"So two subjects, patient, organized, efficient. They have a two-hour head-start and we have no idea where they're headed."
Gillian nodded. "If the father didn't set this up, we may be dealing with human trafficking." She saw Russell's frown. "They can be handing Jimmy to some random pedophile as we speak."
Russell produced his phone with a grimace. "I'm calling the Crimes Against Children Unit," he said. "Maybe they can check if there's been some related auction in the deep web."
While he made the call, Gillian used her phone again. She needed to keep the information flowing. That way, her gut might find a hint or a pattern, a revealing detail. "Talk to me, T," she said.
Good thing the girl knew what Gillian needed to set her mind in motion. "Katy filed the divorce and requested full custody of Jimmy two months ago. Her husband—well, future ex-husband—was served with a court notice for a hearing ten days ago."
"Tell me about him."
"Albert Nelson, thirty-five," replied Kurt. "The man is clean as a whistle. Nine-to-five job, pays his taxes, no record and no suspicious associates. He's an ordinary middle-class family man. No outstanding income to make him look like a profitable victim, either."
"If they're really out for the money, the target may be Katy's parents," Gillian replied.
"Reg, I have Fred on the line," said Tanya. "Let me patch'im through."
"Hey, guys. Reg, we're in Worcester," he said.
"Did you see the father?"
"From a distance. The locals checked on him when we called them. They found'im at his apartment, and he claimed he didn't know what happened to his son. They bugged his home line and a detective stayed with him, in case he gets a ransom call."
"And where are you, lads?"
"Outside, keeping an eye on back exits and fire escapes."
"Good. Keep me up."
"What!?" cried Russell on the phone, two steps away.
Gillian spun around at the same time they heard a car driving closer, too fast for the slippery layer of frozen snow covering the streets. Russell looked up and they watched the car squeal around the corner and skid away, with a roar of the engine and a cloud of white smoke behind.
"That's Katy," grunted Russell.
"What?"
Russell nodded at her to hurry to their vehicles. "Brock just called. We need to go to Katy's house. Something happened and she escaped in her father's car."
"Shit!"
"Don't worry, the locals have a checkpoint on the bridge."
A couple of minutes later they pulled over in front of a wealthy house. The front door opened when Gillian came to a sharp stop at the driveway. Russell pulled the SUV up right behind her car.
Aldana sprinted out, still zipping up her winter jacket. "The locals let Katy through!" she said, jumped into the SUV's passenger seat and signaled Russell to go.
Brock came out next, his hand like a claw grabbing an old man's arm. It was Mr. Parker, Jimmy's grandfather and Katy's father. His wife tried to follow, face covered in tears, but Ron stopped her at the porch.
Brock paused when the SUV rocketed away. Then he took the man to Gillian's backseat and got in the car by her side, a dark glare fixed ahead. So she geared in and drove back to the police station, with a very pissed Brock and a very shocked grandfather.