Chapter 3
Anna had just fallen asleep while sitting on the couch. A paperback lay splayed face down on her stomach where it had slipped from her fingers when she nodded off. It was actually a very good novel, but not good enough to help her stay up past 8:30 pm after a very long week at the office. In another life, she would have been out at a club or at a show on a Friday night. That's when she had been living in the City, which was still New York City to Anna despite having moved to Bangor, Maine, almost a year before to take over the job of county sheriff. Attempts by the kind locals to get her involved in what they considered fun, had thus far been fruitless. Anna had not yet developed a social life in Bangor.
The cell phone began ringing, vibrations making it travel in little spastic circles on the night table. Jerked awake, Anna caught it just before it managed to wiggle its way over the edge. Seeing the caller ID panel flash "J. Smith" Anna had a feeling of dread that she tried to smother.
"Turner here. Hey, Smith, no rest from visions?" she said. "It's Friday night."
"Sheriff, this is Sarah Bannerman," the woman's voice sounded strained, like she was fighting to be clear and calm. "My son J.J. just called me from the Thrift Drug Store around the corner. There's been some kind of robbery, J.J. said that someone shot Johnny and… and took him away."
In the second that it took Anna to process that statement, the call-waiting signal on her cell phone began buzzing almost at the same time as the landline started to ring.
"Sarah? Where is J.J. calling you from?" she asked as she hunted for her shoes.
"He's hiding in the storeroom," Sarah answered. "He sounds so scared. He said that Johnny's arm was bleeding all over and Johnny told him to hide until he heard your voice. Why would store robbers take Johnny?"
"I don't know, but tell J.J. that I'll be there in two minutes. Can you hold for a second?" she said, while lunging for the landline. "I got two other calls. They are probably related."
She didn't wait for the answer before taking the other incoming calls and dispatching them as quickly as possible. As she grabbed her jacket and car keys, she switched back to Sarah's line.
"Sarah, I got patrol cars on the way and I am going there now," said Anna, while in the back of her mind thinking of possible kidnapping scenarios. "And Sarah, I'll take care of J.J. but, please don't come to the store. I am going to send a couple of officers to your house. Don't let anyone in until you see them."
"But, I need to be there for J.J.," said Sarah. "I told him I would come…"
Anna interrupted her, "Sarah, please listen to me. I don't know what is going on, but if someone has grabbed Johnny, I need to make sure that the rest of his family is safe. And if anyone calls, you need to be there at home to answer the phone. Do you understand?"
Sarah didn't answer right away. Anna was expecting an argument. Instead, she heard, "Yes, I understand. I'll stay here by the phone with J.J. until he's safe with you. Please hurry."
Anna arrived at the scene at the same time as the three patrol cars she had requested as back-up. The lights in the store were off, as if it was closed after hours. A few cars were still in the parking lot, Anna recognized Johnny's black jeep.
Weapons ready, she and the deputies took all the by-the-book precautions to cautiously enter the store, loudly declaring their presence to a disquieting silence. But, it was clear from the start that the perpetrators had left the scene. All the cash registers drawers were open and empty except for the smallest coin denominations. The customers, clerk and store manager had been expertly bound and terrified, but seemed physically unharmed. While some of the officers began freeing them, Anna led two others around the perimeter to the back of the store.
"Holly shit," said sergeant Ropke when he saw the blood spilled on the floor of isle seven. "What the hell happened here? Where's the body?"
"We'll find out soon enough," said Anna who tried to mentally quantify how much blood there was. She had a sinking feeling that it had spilled out of Smith.
She was not used to feeling emotional about something that she had learned to see in a detached fashion as just evidence through her years in the NYPD. Was it because of the friendship she had made with Johnny? Or had her NYC thick-skin immunity worn off during these months in Maine, where these sights were less common?
Despite these disquieting thoughts, Anna barely slowed her stride as she headed straight for the back door. "Make sure that nobody touches anything until the crime van gets here."
After entering the inventory room, she had to announce herself and yell J.J.'s name a few times before he answered. He stepped out from behind some large boxes in one of the farthest, darkest corners of the room.
Anna turned her flashlight toward him and steeled her expression not to show alarm at his appearance. His Red Sox sweatshirt was covered with the same dark stains that splattered his tan chinos. His hands and face were smeared with dry blood; at least he didn't look hurt, just terrified.
"Are you okay, J.J.?" she asked. J.J. nodded a yes. "I'm sorry I couldn't let your mom come here to get you. I have to ask you a few questions and then we'll take you home."
J.J. just shrugged. Anna led him back to the store, where someone had managed to turn on the back up lights. She tried to block J.J.'s view of the bloodied isle floor, but he stepped around her.
"I'm fine," he said and then he pointed at the blood. "They hurt Johnny and then they took him. I don't know why."
"We are going to find him J.J.," Anna said. "But first you have to tell me exactly what happened."
She steered J.J. to the manager's office in the front of the store. One of the deputies wrapped a blanket over J.J.'s shoulder and gave him a bottle of water.
J.J. told her how he was in the freezer section looking for ice cream when he heard two gun shots and what sounded like a cry of pain that he could swear came from his dad. Even though, he quickly clarified, he had never heard Johnny sound like that before. Then he heard someone in the front of the store yelling for everybody to freeze and lie face down on the floor.
"Are you sure that you heard the shots first before they started yelling up front?" asked Anna.
"Yes, I'm sure," said J.J.. He used the back of his hand to wipe away moisture from his eyes. Anna handed him a tissue from the box on the manager's desk. "I snuck back to where he was. His left shoulder and arm were all covered in blood. It looked like it hurt a lot."
"Sometimes wounds like that look a lot worse than they really are," said the deputy. A young man who had joined the force after Wade's death. J.J. didn't know him.
"That's what Johnny said and then he..." J.J. hesitated. He looked at the deputy and then at the sheriff, trying to decide something.
Anna noticed J.J.'s sudden discomfort and asked the deputy to check about the gunshots with the other witnesses. She closed the door behind him.
"Did your dad have a vision?" she prompted. "I know about them. Please tell me, I need to know everything that could help us find him."
J.J. nodded. "I know he did when I touched him. He, … he didn't tell me what he saw. He seemed really worried and told me that I had to leave him and hide right away. I didn't want to. I thought we could both get away, but he made me promise. He really meant it."
He stopped to blow his nose and wrap the blanket a little tighter around himself. Anna patted his back lightly, "It's going to be okay J.J., do you want to talk to your mom now on the phone?"
J.J. shook his head and continued. "When I was hiding in the storeroom, a woman was shouting. First she said that she was the police. I didn't believe her for a second. And then she yelled that they were going to hurt him, if I didn't come out. But I promised Johnny and I had to keep it."
"You did the right thing J.J., if Johnny asked you to do that it's because it was really important. I know that he would have explained it to you if there was time," Anna was suddenly struck by the resemblance between J.J. and his dad. Same hair, same nose and mouth but not the olive green eyes, those were definitely Sarah's. She had been glared at by Sarah enough times to recognize that unmistakable look.
Thinking about how tired she must be for having stray thoughts like that, she asked. "Did Johnny say anything else?"
J.J.'s pale face suddenly became more animated, "He told me to tell you that he had a vision of doctor. Doctor Robert, Robert something Wofford in New Hampshire. He spelled it out, W O F F O R D. He said that they were going to kidnap him when it was dark and it had started to snow. He said that you should keep an eye on him." J.J. looked at Anna while she jotted down some notes. "Maybe it's not so bad if they get a doctor to fix him up?"
"Yeah, maybe they just hurt him by accident." Anna said trying to sound hopeful.
She asked one of the deputies who used to work with J.J.'s dad to take him home.
As soon as J.J. left, Detective Terry Holton who had been interviewing the store manager and cashiers came over to report on what he had found so far.
"This is no ordinary hold-up, sheriff. Two things are missing, a few hundred dollars from the front cash registers and Mr. Smith." Holton said, scanning his notes. "I wouldn't want to jump the gun, but my money is on Johnny being their main target. The perps didn't even ask the manager to open up the store safe. They just seemed very intent on tying up and gagging everybody as quickly as possible. And get this, Mr. Smith was shot by accident. I think you'll want to hear what Bob Raymond has to say about this."
After questioning Mr. Raymond, Anna could only agree with Holton's theory that the purpose of the holdup was to kidnap Johnny Smith. Actually, considering what J.J. had told her, the kidnappers had really wanted to take both Johnny and his son. The question that nagged Anna was why. Anna and Terry had narrowed down the possible motives to ransom, information, or revenge.
After some discussion, they both agreed that the first didn't seem very plausible. Johnny would certainly be considered rather wealthy because of the blind trust fund set up by his mother before her death, but he wasn't that rich and since they hadn't gotten married yet, Sarah probably didn't have direct control over the money. Also, if money had been the motive, it would have made more sense to kidnap J.J. or Sarah, leaving Johnny, the designee of the blind trust, to pay the ransom.
"But actually, that would be a bad plan too at least if the kidnappers believe any of the stories about Johnny's crime-solving psychic abilities," said Terry thinking aloud. "Unless they could threaten Johnny in such a way that he would be too afraid of getting his son or Sarah killed if he tried to find them on his own."
"I hate to say this but, in a way things would be much simpler if it was a kidnapping for money. If someone calls with ransom demands, we could negotiate and maybe even track them down. The more time passes without a phone call the less I think that's it." Anna looked up from her scribbled notes. "The revenge thing… I don't know. Johnny has helped a lot of people and I guess he has made some enemies too. But if they had wanted to kill him they should have just finished the job at the store and left him there. It could have been set up as a botched robbery. Also, unless there is something really sick and sinister going on, there would have been no reason to also take the kid. I really think they want Johnny for something else."
Anna stopped talking as a troubling thought became crystal clear.
Terry continued thinking out loud. "A plausible reason to take both of them would be to threaten J.J. to make Johnny use his abilities for their purpose."
"You might be right. But whatever the motive, the only clue to finding him right now, it this Dr. Robert Wofford in New Hampshire." said Anna. "This is going well beyond our jurisdiction. I have to call in the F.B.I. and find some way to explain it so that they will take the lead seriously. In the meantime I want you to view every second of the store security videotape."