Mercy Mild—Chapter Seven
Something woke Victoria. It took her a minute to realize it was the sound of a shower. That confused her because the bathroom was down the hall from her room, but then she looked around and saw she was in her parents' room and remembered she'd gone to find them when she got too worried about Jack. She stretched and yawned, and her hand brushed something. She saw Woobie on the side of the bed where Daddy usually slept.
She heard the water stop and wondered if it was Mummy or Daddy in the shower. It was just getting light, so it could be either one. She should probably go find clean clothes, but if it was Mummy, she didn't want her to be worried when she came out of the bathroom and found Victoria gone.
It had been a weird night, she thought. She'd tried to stay awake, but she kept going to sleep, only to wake up and hear Mummy and Daddy talking softly to one another. She couldn't remember a lot of what they said to each other, but she remembered a few things, including telling Daddy that Grandpa V. H. thought that mean Ilsa might be the woman she saw who talked to the man who had followed them.
Another thing she remembered was the dreams, bad ones about what might be happening to Jack or about being stolen herself.
Mummy was fully dressed when she came out of the bathroom and walked back into the bedroom. She saw Victoria was awake and asked, "Are you ready to get up, or do you want to sleep a little longer?"
Since Mummy looked like she should sleep longer but obviously wasn't going to, Victoria said, "Get up." She figured she should keep an eye on her just in case.
Her mum helped her pick out clean clothes to wear and then unbraided, brushed, and rebraided her hair. As they walked past Jack's room, Victoria said, "Woobie would like to try and sleep a little more." She put the stuffed dog back on her brother's bed, and wished Jack had been there instead of wherever he was.
As they went down the stairs, Mummy asked what she would like for breakfast. Victoria wasn't especially hungry yet. She preferred to wait a while before she ate. So did Mummy. She told her mum she didn't know.
In the kitchen, Daddy, Uncle Chuck, and Aunt Walker looked mad. Grandpa V. H. looked amused, and there was another redheaded lady who looked mad, too. She was going on about how Mummy had to talk to some people about Jack, but Victoria didn't think that woman got to decide what her mum did. Listening to her, Victoria was pretty sure she was another of those mean redheads Daddy knew. There was something about the way that woman stood, stiff and straight, her arms folded over her stomach and a look on her face that said she thought she was the boss. When Victoria looked up at Mummy to see if she knew who that woman was, Mummy looked puzzled. Victoria decided that meant she didn't know the redheaded woman.
Victoria made a beeline for Daddy, who set his coffee cup on the counter beside him and scooped her up. She beamed. If one of them got carried, it was usually Jack, mainly because of that not being able to stay on his own feet thing. "Morning, kiddo."
That shut the mean lady up, at least.
There were several things about being a kid that Victoria knew how to use to make grownups uncomfortable and still stay out of trouble. She had found that wrong-footing a grownup often let her more quickly figure out what was going on, so she looked up at her father and said, "Morning, Daddy. Who's the skinny lady?"
Aunt Walker looked like she wanted to laugh, but Mummy did what Mummy did best. Her mum was good at putting people at ease and disarming them—though not the kind of disarming that meant taking guns away from them which was the kind of disarming Daddy was good at. Victoria figured Mummy was so good at making people calm down because Grandma Ariel was so good at making people mad that someone had to be able to settle them down.
As Victoria watched, Mummy smiled at the skinny lady and said, "Forgive my daughter. Unfortunately, her manners desert her at the best of times." Mummy walked over to the lady and said, "I'm Mariah Casey. The rude thing clinging to her father is Victoria."
"Alex Forrest," the lady answered. She gave Mummy a look kind of like the zoo people did the last time Victoria got caught breaking into the elephant pen.
Mummy nodded. "I assume General Beckman sent you?"
When that Alex Forrest said, "I was just explaining to Colonel Casey that you, at least, should be present to talk to the press," Victoria figured she worked with Daddy or at least in the government like Daddy did since those were the only people who called him Colonel Casey. Victoria wondered why Mummy needed to talk to the press, though.
"No," Mummy said in the voice Victoria knew meant don't even consider it.
That lady apparently didn't know what that tone meant, though, because she rather firmly said, "I understand why the Colonel needs his identity hidden, but there's no reason you . . . ." As the woman talked, Victoria felt Daddy tense a bit, and when she stopped, Victoria looked at the other grownups, noticed most of them looked at the skinny lady like she was crazy—and maybe she was, because Victoria had begun to figure out that a lot of the grownups who were spies seemed to at least be weird. Mummy, though, looked like she might be considering how to hurt the skinny spy even though she kind of smiled at her.
Victoria wondered what she should do if Mummy did try and hurt the lady. Fortunately, Mummy just said, "Dad."
Her grandpa looked a little amused when he introduced himself and then told the skinny woman that Mummy used to be a spy. Victoria frowned, remembered Daddy telling her several times to never tell anyone, regardless of who they were or said they were, who the spies were, but there was Grandpa V. H. telling the skinny lady. If she worked with Daddy, though, Victoria figured she might already know. The part that surprised Victoria even more was when he said that sometimes Mummy worked for the skinny lady's agency because Mummy was supposed to be retired from spying.
The skinny lady apparently didn't realize that Grandpa V. H. was telling her to leave Mummy out of it because she protested, but then Daddy cut in and told her in the voice that said not to argue, "No buts. My wife remains out of sight. Her mother will speak for the family."
Victoria studied her daddy's face and wondered why he was going to let Grandma Ariel say stuff for them. Usually, her grandma and Daddy fought over everything, so there was no telling what her grandma might tell other people. Victoria figured it would make Daddy look bad, so she thought maybe the skinny lady might be right. She wasn't going to say anything, though, because Daddy probably knew what he was doing, and Victoria might be just reaching a conclusion based on insufficient evidence—something Daddy sometimes explained to her when she got something wrong.
"If you'll come with me," Grandma Ariel told the lady and waved at the door that lead to the hall that would take them to the other rooms in the house, "I'll walk you through what you need to know."
Why Victoria thought about the Cyberman conversions from Dr. Who, she wasn't sure, but she had a feeling her grandma was going to try and make the skinny lady act differently or be someone different (spies often pretended to be someone else, after all, and she'd already figured out that lady was going to pretend to be someone her grandma knew). If anyone could do it, her grandma could because she was really good at getting people to do what she wanted, even if they didn't want to do it at all. Then she frowned, realized that Daddy, Mummy, and Grandpa V. H. refused to change to make her grandma happy, so it was possible the redheaded lady wouldn't either.
She nestled closer to Daddy, who might have forgotten he still held her since he didn't put her down, and listened as the grownups talked, mostly about stuff like how Uncle Devon was doing, and what Aunt Walker and Uncle Chuck would need to do while Daddy worked with the FBI.
Victoria perked up a little at the news that her sister and her husband were still coming that day. Her big sister Alex never treated her like a dumb little kid, and Uncle Morgan was kind of fun, even if he did manage to irritate Daddy a lot. Of course, a lot of people irritated Daddy a lot, including Uncle Chuck sometimes.
It wasn't long before everyone but family left, and then Victoria asked Daddy something she was really beginning to wonder: "Do you only know mean redheads?"
Daddy gave her a surprised look that turned kind of thoughtful, but Mummy made a sound like she was trying to smother a laugh. "Never thought about it before," Daddy finally said as he set her on her feet.
Mummy fixed breakfast, and Aunt Emma came in to help. The food was just about finished when Grandma Ariel and the skinny lady came back in the kitchen. Mummy asked the skinny lady if she'd like to join them, but the lady shook her head, said she had work to do, and left.
Grandma Ariel got some coffee and sat. She looked at Daddy and said, "She'll get it right."
"Or you'll kill her?" Daddy grunted. Victoria saw a glint in his eye that meant he didn't really think Grandma Ariel would kill the skinny lady.
"I thought I might have you do it for me," she said with a grin and a lift of a brow. In that moment, Victoria thought she looked a lot like Mummy did when she teased Daddy.
"No favors for family," Daddy grumbled, but he looked amused.
After breakfast, Mummy sent Daddy upstairs to get ready while she, Aunt Emma, and Grandma Ariel cleaned the kitchen. Grandpa V. H. left, too, but Victoria stayed, told Aunt Emma where stuff went as Mummy dried the dishes Grandma Ariel washed. "Thanks, Mum," Mummy said as they finished, but Victoria had a feeling she didn't mean for washing the dishes.
"Your father's right, Mariah," her grandmother said as she let the water out of the sinks, "though God knows how you're going to keep any of this quiet. By now, the media have been talking to your neighbors, possibly to some of my friends, and while they might not know your husband's name or what he does, I'm pretty sure they know yours and Victoria's, Jack's, too. You two do understand that the whole world may soon know who your husband is and what he really does?"
Mummy sighed. "We'll face that if it happens."
"Casey will, essentially, lose his job," Grandma Ariel continued as she wiped the stove, "because spies whose faces are recognizable aren't of much use."
"John doesn't do a lot of field work these days," Mummy said, and Victoria thought she sounded a little guilty. "I doubt the NSA will cut him loose if he's outed."
"That little pit bull he works for won't be there forever, Mariah."
"And then they'll need a replacement for her," Mummy said. "The NSA is always led by a military officer, usually from the Air Force or the Navy." Mummy smiled then. "Maybe it's time the Marines got their turn."
Grandma Ariel and Emma, who had been silent through that discussion, simply stared at Mummy. Victoria thought that might be the first time she had taken her own mum by surprise.
"Is that on the table?"
Mummy shrugged.
"Casey would absolutely loathe that job, Mariah." Victoria could hear a kind of horror in her voice. "My God, can you see that man in an intelligence committee meeting trying to get what he wants or needs for his agency? Or briefing them on things he thinks they don't need to know? I can't even begin to imagine him dealing with an agency full of young nerds like your Chuck Bartowski."
"Mum, the point is that John has other options, that even if his cover's blown, his career isn't completely over. Look at Dad. He never wanted that job, but he's done quite well at it, despite his distaste for quite a bit of what he's required to do."
"Your father has charm, Mariah."
Victoria sent a hard stare her grandmother's way, but she didn't think either woman even remembered she was there—and she wasn't about to remind them because then she would have to be sneaky to hear the rest.
Mummy smiled, though, and assured her mother, "John has charm. Believe me, John has charm."
"I don't think we're talking about the same thing here," her grandmother said, and though there was amusement in her voice, Victoria didn't know what she found funny. "Why don't you go make sure he has that charm in place while we find some way to amuse ourselves?"
Mummy was gone quite a while, and in that time, Victoria and Grandma Ariel talked about what she wanted for Christmas. Victoria's first instinct was to blurt, "Jack to come home."
Her grandmother had pulled her close and said, "He will. Your father will make damn sure of it."
That confused Victoria, especially since Grandma Ariel almost never said nice things about Daddy.
"Now," her grandma said, "What else might you like?"
Emma made some outrageous suggestions, and Victoria added to them. Honestly, there wasn't a lot Victoria wanted, and a few of the things she wanted, she wasn't about to ask for. She had her eye on a gun that she could maybe talk Daddy into, but if she asked for it and Mummy found out, it would not be a very merry Christmas. It wasn't going to be anyway without Jack, she thought.
Emma asked, "Any news?"
Victoria shook her head. Then she admitted, "I don't really know. No one tells me anything."
Emma grinned at that and said, "Welcome to the family."
Grandma Ariel told her what little they knew, though Aunt Emma apparently already knew most of it.
They talked about how to spend the day. Emma offered to play video games with her, and they were about to go upstairs when Grandpa V. H. came in. He told Victoria he needed her help first, so she followed him back to Daddy's office. There, he showed her two pictures on his laptop.
"That's the man and the woman from yesterday," she told him. Then she narrowed her eyes. "That's that Ilsa."
"You're absolutely certain?"
She gave her grandfather a hard stare. She wouldn't have said so if she hadn't been.
He sighed and was about to say something, but Daddy came in, Mummy behind him. Daddy stopped short when he saw them there. "This office was secure."
Grandpa V. H. grinned and then picked up a lock pick from the desk where he sat. "That's why I picked it."
Mummy was behind Daddy and made a face at Grandpa's joke. It really wasn't funny, so maybe that's why Daddy looked mad. "Get away from my desk," he grunted, and Grandpa V. H. got out of his chair and steered Victoria around the desk. Daddy sat down and did some things to the computer before telling Mummy, "That should take care of it. Don't commit any espionage, or I'll have to arrest you when I get back."
Frowning, Victoria watched as her mum sat in Daddy's chair when he got out of it. Daddy walked to the gun safe, opened it, and then took one of Mummy's guns. That confused Victoria because she knew he didn't like Glocks as well as he did his SIG Sauer or his Smith & Wesson Desert Eagle. He checked to make sure it was loaded, and then he holstered it before he stuck an extra clip in a pocket. He bent, kissed Mummy, and told he'd see her later, to call if she found anything he needed to know immediately, and then he kissed Victoria, too. "Stay out of trouble, kiddo."
"You, too, Daddy."
Grandpa V. H. followed Daddy out, so Victoria turned to watch her mum. Mummy was busy typing away at Daddy's computer. She walked over, but not around the desk where she could see what Mummy was doing. Her mum shot her a look and said, "I have some work to do, Victoria. Do you need something?"
"You don't work," she pointed out.
Mummy gave her a tired smile. "I do today. Your grandfather had my codes activated so I can try and find some things to help get Jack back. It'll be a lot faster than asking ICOM at ISI and then having them forwarded."
"Can I help?"
"Yes," her grandfather said firmly as he came back in. Victoria turned to look at him because Mummy had obviously been going to say no. He looked at Mummy. "Victoria identified Ilsa Trinchina and Antoine du Montfort as the people she saw tailing you yesterday."
He had Victoria go back through it all one more time, asked questions to see if there was anything else she could add, and then he finally let her go. She spent the rest of the morning playing games with Emma and wondering what Mummy and Grandpa V. H. found out.
After lunch, Mummy went to the living room and switched on the TV. Grandma Ariel hadn't been at lunch because she was going with that skinny lady spy somewhere. As they watched one of the news channels, some Chicago policeman began to talk. He made a statement that said stuff Victoria already knew—that Aunt Ellie, Clara, and Jack had been kidnapped, though he gave the wrong name for Jack. Well, he called him John, which was Jack's real name though no one used it, but the man didn't call him Casey. She saw Uncle Devon there. He looked really tired and really upset still. So did Grandma Ariel, who was there, too.
Because she'd seen Grandma Ariel on TV before, that didn't seem weird, but seeing Uncle Devon there kind of was.
As the policeman talked, Victoria realized something and turned to Mummy, asked, "How come he isn't telling all of it?"
"Because they don't want the people who took Jack to know everything we do."
She supposed that made sense, and when they introduced the skinny lady, they called her by a different name than the one she had used in their house that morning. Victoria figured that was because she was a spy and was pretending to be someone who wasn't a spy, though that didn't really explain calling Jack "John Taylor." The skinny lady said that the families were understandably upset, that they begged whoever took them to return them. Then Uncle Devon begged them to bring his wife and daughter back before Grandma Ariel did the same for Jack. The reporters soon started shouting questions, and the skinny lady tried to answer them, but it seemed like she wasn't exactly answering them.
The reporters must have thought the same thing, because they started getting grumpy. Finally, Uncle Devon said, "I just want my wife and daughter back."
That led to a flurry of questions aimed at him, but he didn't answer most of them, let the lady answer them instead.
And then someone asked Grandma Ariel about Jack and why he was with Aunt Ellie and Clara. Her grandmother replied, "My daughter and her children are friends with the Woodcomb family. They knew one another in California, and re-established their friendship here."
That confused Victoria, because they had stayed friends all along.
"Didn't your daughter once work for ISI?"
"Oh, God," Mummy muttered and covered her eyes with her hand.
"They aren't asking about Casey," Grandpa V. H. pointed out.
"My daughter did work for ISI, but that was years ago and has nothing to do with this event." She then had to explain that wasn't the ISI in Pakistan but the one in Canada, and that meant she had to explain that Mummy was half Canadian.
"Nice lie, Mum," Mummy grumbled.
"Necessary lie," Grandpa V. H. said.
Victoria wondered which part had been a lie, figured it must be the first part, that ISI wasn't involved.
The rest was pretty boring, consisted mostly of the skinny lady and Grandma Ariel either telling lies or telling only part of the truth, especially when they asked if Mummy was married and to whom. When it was over, Mummy sighed.
"They won't leave it alone," Victoria's grandfather warned.
"I know," Mummy answered, "but with any luck, they won't get any closer."
Mummy didn't go back to work in Daddy's office that afternoon. Instead, she tried to go about her normal activities, but Victoria noticed that now and then she'd stop, look a little lost, and then breathe in and out for a minute or so before continuing with whatever task she'd chosen. When Grandma Ariel came back, she went upstairs to take a nap, said she was exhausted. Grandpa V. H. just disappeared, and Aunt Emma stayed with Victoria.
When Aunt Walker and Uncle Chuck brought Alex and Uncle Morgan to their house, Victoria was glad. Mummy perked up a little, smiled at Alex, returned her hug, though she evaded Uncle Morgan. Victoria thought it was a pretty neat trick how it wasn't completely obvious that was what she did. In some ways, Mummy was kind of like Daddy, and it always surprised Victoria when she noticed that. She wondered if married people became more like the people they married or if they just married people who were like them.
They had to explain what happened to them, and Victoria noticed they weren't telling Alex and Uncle Morgan everything. She didn't know why family couldn't know everything, but she figured Mummy didn't want Alex to worry too much. After they finished asking questions, Mummy and Alex talked about the baby she was going to have while Uncle Morgan and Uncle Chuck talked about games and people they knew in California.
Victoria sat beside Mummy and thought about what Daddy might be doing. She hoped he would find Jack and bring him home, and then they could just have a normal Christmas. She wondered if she could persuade Mummy to make gingerbread men. Daddy liked them, too, though last year Mummy had found some cookie cutters that were missing body parts and another set that were ninjas. Daddy had given them a funny look, but he ate them anyway. She thought Mummy had made those because he made fun of the fact that she usually made gingerbread women, too, and Daddy teased her that the cookies were called gingerbread men for a reason.
Before she could think much more about it, there was a lot of noisy activity at the front of the house, so Victoria went to see what was going on.
-X-
Casey was nearly dressed when his wife let herself into their bedroom. Riah quietly closed the door behind her and crossed to where he stood next to the dresser. He lifted his black and gray striped tie to loop it around his neck and tie it, but she took it from him.
"What?" he groused.
"You're going to talk to a couple of seven-year-olds," she chided. "I don't think the bastard G-Man look is the way to go."
"I'm not there to charm them," he reminded her.
She laughed, so he asked her what was so funny.
"Mum told me to come check that your charm is in place."
The way she said that and the little smile she gave him made him think they might be talking about very different things. He was about to take his tie back, but she went to the closet to find another one. "You should have worn the grey or the brown suit," she said, her voice muffled by the walls of the closet. "The black one makes you intimidating, which is fine for grownups."
"Who works for Spy Vogue now?" he complained, remembering a taunt she'd once made when he questioned what she wore for an op before they were married.
Her grin nearly had him taking defensive measures. "Shouldn't that be SPYQ?"
"Funny," he deadpanned.
She handed him a blue tie with thin black stripes. "This one's better."
He put it around his neck and began weaving a Windsor knot while she watched. As he kept his eyes on her, he noticed she appeared to be gathering her courage for something. When he finished with the tie, he dropped his hands to her hips and pulled her closer. "Riah."
A blush stole over her cheeks. "I need you to get me into your computer," she told him. "Dad's going to activate my ICOM codes so I can search through some Canadian databases for intel on Quinnell. I'd rather not have the FBI watching over my shoulder if I use mine."
He thought a few minutes. It would be a big help if she could turn up anything, and one thing he knew about his wife was that if there was anything to be found, she would find it. It would also be far easier if she could find it herself rather than have to go through whoever would censor what was found. "I'll have to talk to Beckman."
She frowned up at him, looked a little pissed.
"If I get you in, Riah, I don't have enough time to set up firewalls to keep you out of our databases. She'll have to okay this, too, possibly have someone build those before we allow you on."
Mollified, she nodded, but he had a feeling she was seething underneath. Then she gave him a sly little smile. "So what you're saying is that your computer isn't as secure as Beckman would probably want it to be?"
He gave her a narrow-eyed look. "It is; it's just that if I log you on, you have the ability to access some things under my credentials you shouldn't." He bent and kissed her. "Just do me a favor."
Her brows shot up.
"Don't get into trouble."
She lifted onto her toes, put her hands on his cheeks, and pulled him down into a kiss. "I can't promise to stay out of trouble," she said, then kissed him again, longer this time. If he hadn't been under a nearing deadline, he'd have considered exploring that a little further, and then he felt guilty as he remembered the reason for that looming deadline.
Casey told her, "I need to borrow one of your Glocks."
Her brows shot up. "Why?" He could hear skepticism in that single word. "Something wrong with your SIG?"
He made a face. "FBI agents carry Glocks," he ground out.
Riah laughed. "Okay." She kissed him again, and then added, "Don't get killed using a weapon you aren't used to."
"They're seven year olds," he reminded her.
"Then don't kill them."
Riah's warning could have been prophetic, because Tori Bates made that tempting. He and Dietrich had arrived at her apartment building after driving down the narrow street between it and the grocery where the kidnapping had taken place. It was more alley than street, and they drove past the backs of several tightly clustered buildings as they made their way to the apartment block where Tori lived with her parents.
Like a lot of apartment buildings in that neighborhood, there was parking underneath, a single level open to the street divided only by support pillars and strips of concrete curbing to mark the individual spots. Casey spied two surveillance cameras, but they aimed at the building's parking, not the street. It would be worth checking to see what was on them. He pointed them out to Dietrich as the man drove in.
As they climbed from the Suburban, a Middle Eastern man rushed toward them telling them loudly they couldn't park there, that the spots were for residents only. Casey wondered if all parking facilities in Lincoln Park were staffed with Middle Eastern men. They both held out badges, but he let Dietrich do the talking since Casey had been less than polite the day before.
Upstairs, he let Dietrich knock on the third-floor door to the Bates's apartment. An attractive bottle blonde in her thirties opened the door, frowned at them in the narrow opening over the still-attached door chain.
Sometimes Casey really wanted to tell people how useless those chains were for security. Once the door was open, all it took was a solid kick to pull the damn things out of the door facing—unless a building super had sunk longer bolts into the studs beneath, but very few ever did. He kept that to himself, though, knew better than to scare the civilian, and held up the FBI badge and credentials when Dietrich introduced them.
"We'd like to speak to your daughter, Tori," Dietrich explained.
The mother went from puzzled to terrified, and Casey wondered if she thought they were there to arrest the kid. He considered what possible crime a seven year old might commit.
"Why?" she breathed, obviously close to panic.
"Your daughter may have witnessed part of yesterday's kidnapping at the market across the street," Dietrich explained. "We'd like to ask her about the men and the vehicle she saw."
The woman's hand went to her throat. Casey could see she wanted to tell them they were mistaken and to go away. Before she could do so, he said, "A friend of hers says your daughter told her last night she saw both the four men who took them and the car. We'd just like her to describe them to us."
When she brought her daughter into the living room, the girl took one look at Casey and said, "You're Victoria's dad, aren't you?"
Given his daughter looked like her mother, he was at a loss for how she knew that. Dietrich barely smothered a laugh. Casey didn't find it in the least funny, especially since the whole point of pretending to be FBI was to make sure no one figured out who he really was.
"I've seen you pick her up at school," the girl added. "Is she the one who told you I saw the men?"
Casey was about to say yes, but Tori simply sailed on.
"Do you have a gun?"
The temptation to pull it was growing stronger by the moment, but Tori apparently didn't need to see it or even to hear an answer since she fired her next question almost immediately: "How long have you worked for the FBI?"
He opened his mouth to redirect her, but the girl shotgunned another question: "Your wife's really pretty, but isn't she a lot younger than you?"
Her mother hissed her name in horror. A growl left him before he could stop it. Tori opened her mouth to, presumably, ask another personal question, but Dietrich opened the file he held and quickly cut in to say, "If you could look at these photographs and tell us if you recognize any of these men, we'd appreciate it."
The girl quit asking questions to look at the pictures Dietrich spread on the coffee table. She quickly pointed to Quinnell's photograph, and a few seconds later she put a finger on one of Bailey Ford. V. H. had given him Quinnell's and those of several other CSIS operatives the Canadians suspected who had connections to Quinnell, and Beckman had provided Ford's and a couple of others. Dietrich had padded it out with some criminals. Tori touched another photograph and said, "Him, too, but I don't recognize any of the others."
When asked, she told them what she saw: Quinnell came out of the store carrying Jack, though she called him "the other kid," and got in the back of the SUV. Bailey followed, got in the driver's seat, and the other man she identified climbed in the back holding Clara after the other man put Ellie in the back as well before he got in the front passenger seat. She described the man in detail, and then Dietrich told her mother he'd like Tori to describe him to a sketch artist. Tori took them to the window to show them where she had been, and Casey noticed she had had a very clear view of the grocery's front doors. She pointed to where the SUV had been parked, and then she described it. Dietrich asked if Ellie or the two children fought, but Tori said no, not really.
Casey narrowed his eyes on her. "Not really?"
"Clara tried to kick one of them."
While Dietrich made arrangements with her mother for her to escort Tori to the field office, Tori looked up at Casey and asked, "Have you ever shot anyone?"
He looked down at her, considered telling her the precise number since he thought that might shut her up, but he chose not to. Other parents didn't seem to appreciate his blunt honesty about some things. Instead, he asked her, "Have you?"
She giggled. "Don't be silly."
Since that was an accusation no one had ever made about him before, Casey stared. Then he asked quietly, "Is there anything else you remember about yesterday?"
Her little face turned thoughtful a moment. "There was a woman in a fur coat," she said. "You don't see that very often because you aren't supposed to wear fur anymore because it's cruel or something."
Casey studied her, remembered that Victoria's woman had worn fur. "Can you tell me anything else about her?"
Little Tori shrugged. "Some guy with a limp came out of the grocery, and they got in a car parked over there." She pointed up the street a little toward the intersection with Deming. "They drove after the guys who took Clara and her mom and that other kid."
"Do you remember what they were driving?"
"It was blue," she said. "I don't know what kind of car it was except it was blue—not big, not small."
Mid-size sedan, he thought. "Dark blue? Light blue?"
She thought about it a moment. "Kind of in between."
When they left, Casey mulled over the additional information. If it really was Ilsa, then he considered how to contact her. Maybe she knew where Quinnell and his men had gone to ground and where his son was. He'd have to find her first, and that was something his wife might be able to help with—though he would really prefer to not have to ask her. Perhaps it was a good job for V. H. or even Walker.
The other girl wasn't much help, but her mother described the accident. Neither of them had noticed the people in the SUV, but for the hell of it, Casey asked about the blue car. Neither remembered seeing one.
When they were back in the SUV, Dietrich asked, "What was that about a blue car?"
"Tori Bates said she saw what sounds like the man and woman Victoria described getting into one and following the SUV."
"We'll take a look at the traffic cameras again, see if we can spot it." He sighed. "I've got agents getting the footage from the cameras where the Bateses live. We got the warrant a little while ago."
Casey's phone rang. The screen said it was an unidentified number, so he nearly didn't answer it. When he did, it was Ellie.
"John?" Her voice wavered.
"Yes," he said and softly told Dietrich who it was. The other man called it in.
"We're okay," she said. There was a slight pause, and then she added, "They want you to come alone."
"Where?"
"There's a little park where Halsted, Lincoln and Fullerton all come together," she said, "across from the McDonald's and the Pita Pit. Clara will be there in ten minutes. She'll have what you need."
He shot a look at his watch, calculated given their position and the traffic. "Ellie, I can't get there that fast."
"You have to John," and then the connection was broken.
"Not enough for a trace," Dietrich said. Casey scanned the street. "What did she say?"
"Pull over," he ordered when he spied an open spot just ahead, and the other man pulled into it.
"Get out." Dietrich was about to argue, so Casey pulled Riah's Glock. "They said alone, so you're getting out."
"Remember the part where you take orders from me?"
Dietrich was furious, but Casey didn't care. "I'll tell you where I'm going, but I don't have time to argue. Get the fuck out. One of your people can pick you up and then get you there." For a second, he though Dietrich would argue further. "I'll do what it takes to get Jack back," he warned, "so get out before I run out of time."
Slamming the SUV into park, Dietrich unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door. Casey reholstered the Glock, jogged around and told Dietrich where he was going. He didn't feel guilty. He'd be following instructions, but he wasn't an idiot, so having Dietrich and his team follow wasn't technically breaking the rules. He got in the driver's seat and put the lights on before pulling back into traffic and drove as fast as he dared without unduly endangering anyone else.
When he reached the location Ellie had given him, he illegally parked in the turn lane beside the triangular park and left the lights on. Clara stood not far from a sculpture that looked like a ring of dancing children. He strode quickly to her, eyeing the surrounding area, but he didn't see anyone who looked like they were paying any particular attention to either him or the child he approached.
Clara looked scared to death, but, given what she'd been through, Casey couldn't say he blamed her. He stopped a few feet from her and considered what to say. He was certain they were being watched or, at the very least, listened to.
Casey crouched in front of her so they were on about eye level. "Are you alright, Clara?"
She nodded.
"Your mom and Jack?"
Once more she nodded.
"I spoke to your mom," he said, kept his eyes on hers. "She said you had something for me."
Clara nodded again.
He decided, watching the terror remain firmly fixed on her face, that he wasn't leaving her there, wasn't letting them take her back. "It's warmer in the car. Why don't we go over there and you can give me whatever it is there?"
She began shaking her head vigorously as her terror visibly increased.
"What's wrong?" Casey asked, kept his voice level and quiet.
"They said not to move more than ten feet from that statue." He followed her pointing finger to the closest child sculpture about four feet away. He looked back at her.
"Why?"
She slowly unzipped her parka several inches. Casey stared at the vest she wore beneath it. It would be a real pleasure to kill these bastards. "Clara, I need to ask you some questions, okay?"
After she nodded, he asked, "Are they watching?"
Another nod.
"Are they listening?"
She nodded, lifted her hand to a spot just below her zipper pull. Casey slowly reached a hand out and lifted it, observed the small bug. It didn't have a very big range, so they must be close. "What do you have for me?"
"They said to tell you they want Uncle Chuck and Aunt Mariah," she told him. "They'll trade us for them."
Casey slowly pulled her parka zipper so he could better see what was beneath it, careful to leave the bug where the people watching could hear their conversation. It was a fairly simple bomb rigged to a bulletproof vest. Since the vest was meant for an adult, it was loose on Clara, which would simplify things. He worried because the bomb would be so easy to disable, which made him think they were trying to get him to do so only to find the trigger was something else—or he'd detonate it. "Anything else?"
The bomb was probably on a frequency that would trigger it if Clara moved those extra six feet, he thought, which meant there was something attached to the child sculpture to make that happen. Casey wasn't going to worry about that, though, since he intended to get her safely out of there.
"They will call you tonight, tell you where to bring them," she said. "They said just you and Uncle Chuck and Aunt Mariah are supposed to come."
He held her gaze and ran his fingers beneath her parka and under the straps over her shoulders, was relieved to find there was nothing there but the straps. He was about to take a huge risk, and he hoped like hell he wasn't wrong. He took the bug, dropped it close to his foot and crushed it under the heel of his shoe. He quickly disconnected the bomb with one hand, pulled a knife and slit the straps with the other. He yanked the vest down and lifted Clara clear of it before he realized he couldn't leave a bomb in the park for anyone to find. He grabbed it and ran to the car, held Clara so whoever was watching wouldn't get a shot at her, and shoved her in the back seat. Casey told her to get in the floor and stay down. He dropped the vest and explosives over the seat into the cargo area and hoped they couldn't remotely trigger it as he slammed the door then yanked open the front one, got in the driver's seat and drove.
