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Authors: David Morrell
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floor. It took all my willpower to step inside and look around.
“My son saves his loose change in a jar on his desk,” I said.
It wasn’t there.
I had an even harder time going into the chaos of the master bedroom. Stepping over some of Kate’s dresses on the floor, I stared toward the back of the walk—in closet. “Four suitcases are gone.”
As the implication hit me, my knees weakened so much that I had to lean against the doorjamb.
I’d assumed that Petey had ransacked the bureaus and closets because he was in a rush to find things to steal. Now, daring to hope, I took a closer look and realized that Kate’s and Jason’s clothes weren’t just scattered—some of them were missing.
“If they’re dead, he wouldn’t have packed clothes for them,” I told the detectives. “They’re alive. They’ve got to be alive.”
In a daze, I followed Webber’s instructions and kept looking. Some of
my
clothes were gone, too. My emergency stash of five hundred dollars was no longer at the back of my underwear drawer. Kate’s jewel box was missing, along with a gold Rolex that I wore on special occasions. None of it mattered; only Kate and Jason did.
Throughout, the technicians kept photographing the chaos in the bedrooms and checking for fingerprints. To get out of their way, the detectives took me downstairs. Again I had the sense that the house no longer belonged to me.
“Why the Volvo?” I managed to ask. My voice seemed to come from far away. “You said we’d talk about why he took it. The Expedition would have allowed him to steal more things.”
“Yes.” Pendleton spoke reluctantly. “But the Volvo has something that the four—wheel—drive vehicle doesn’t.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“A trunk.”
“A …” Understanding forced me to sit.
“Maybe it isn’t a good idea to go into the details.”
“Tell me.” My bandaged hands ached as I clutched the sides of the leather chair. “I need to know.”
Webber glanced away, as if he couldn’t bear to see my eyes. “The way it looks, he came back here with your son and then subdued your wife. We have to assume they were bound and gagged.”
A rope seemed to cut into my wrists.
“He wouldn’t have risked driving with them scrunched down in the backseat. Sooner or later, someone would have noticed,” Pendleton said.
“So he put them in the …”
“With the garage door closed, nobody would have seen him do it.”
“Jesus.” Imagining the stench of gasoline and car exhaust, I felt nauseated. “How could they breathe?” I suddenly remembered Petey’s haunted look when he’d described how the man and woman had forced
him
into a trunk.
A shrill beep startled me. Webber reached beneath his blazer and unhooked his cell phone from his belt. As he turned his back and walked toward the piano that Kate enjoyed playing, I barely heard his muted voice.
He put away the phone.
“Something?” I straightened, nervously hoping.
“The Volvo’s been found. At a rest stop off Interstate Twenty—five.”
“Kate and Jason? Are they—”
“Not with the car. He left the state. Wyoming troopers found the Volvo north of Casper.”
“
Wyoming?
”
“For all he knew, he had plenty of time, and the Volvo wouldn’t have been missed for several days,” Webber said. “But suppose your wife was expected somewhere Saturday night, or suppose friends were going to arrive, and no matter what he did to persuade her, she wouldn’t tell him about it?”
My skin turned cold at the thought of the pain Kate would have suffered.
“His best choice was to get your wife and son away before anyone suspected something was wrong,” Webber said. “The nearest ATM for your bank has a record of a six—twenty—one P.M. withdrawal of five hundred dollars, the most that the machine is allowed to take from an account on any one day. The videotape shows a man making the withdrawal, but his head’s bowed so his face is hidden.”
Sweat
“My son saves his loose change in a jar on his desk,” I said.
It wasn’t there.
I had an even harder time going into the chaos of the master bedroom. Stepping over some of Kate’s dresses on the floor, I stared toward the back of the walk—in closet. “Four suitcases are gone.”
As the implication hit me, my knees weakened so much that I had to lean against the doorjamb.
I’d assumed that Petey had ransacked the bureaus and closets because he was in a rush to find things to steal. Now, daring to hope, I took a closer look and realized that Kate’s and Jason’s clothes weren’t just scattered—some of them were missing.
“If they’re dead, he wouldn’t have packed clothes for them,” I told the detectives. “They’re alive. They’ve got to be alive.”
In a daze, I followed Webber’s instructions and kept looking. Some of
my
clothes were gone, too. My emergency stash of five hundred dollars was no longer at the back of my underwear drawer. Kate’s jewel box was missing, along with a gold Rolex that I wore on special occasions. None of it mattered; only Kate and Jason did.
Throughout, the technicians kept photographing the chaos in the bedrooms and checking for fingerprints. To get out of their way, the detectives took me downstairs. Again I had the sense that the house no longer belonged to me.
“Why the Volvo?” I managed to ask. My voice seemed to come from far away. “You said we’d talk about why he took it. The Expedition would have allowed him to steal more things.”
“Yes.” Pendleton spoke reluctantly. “But the Volvo has something that the four—wheel—drive vehicle doesn’t.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“A trunk.”
“A …” Understanding forced me to sit.
“Maybe it isn’t a good idea to go into the details.”
“Tell me.” My bandaged hands ached as I clutched the sides of the leather chair. “I need to know.”
Webber glanced away, as if he couldn’t bear to see my eyes. “The way it looks, he came back here with your son and then subdued your wife. We have to assume they were bound and gagged.”
A rope seemed to cut into my wrists.
“He wouldn’t have risked driving with them scrunched down in the backseat. Sooner or later, someone would have noticed,” Pendleton said.
“So he put them in the …”
“With the garage door closed, nobody would have seen him do it.”
“Jesus.” Imagining the stench of gasoline and car exhaust, I felt nauseated. “How could they breathe?” I suddenly remembered Petey’s haunted look when he’d described how the man and woman had forced
him
into a trunk.
A shrill beep startled me. Webber reached beneath his blazer and unhooked his cell phone from his belt. As he turned his back and walked toward the piano that Kate enjoyed playing, I barely heard his muted voice.
He put away the phone.
“Something?” I straightened, nervously hoping.
“The Volvo’s been found. At a rest stop off Interstate Twenty—five.”
“Kate and Jason? Are they—”
“Not with the car. He left the state. Wyoming troopers found the Volvo north of Casper.”
“
Wyoming?
”
“For all he knew, he had plenty of time, and the Volvo wouldn’t have been missed for several days,” Webber said. “But suppose your wife was expected somewhere Saturday night, or suppose friends were going to arrive, and no matter what he did to persuade her, she wouldn’t tell him about it?”
My skin turned cold at the thought of the pain Kate would have suffered.
“His best choice was to get your wife and son away before anyone suspected something was wrong,” Webber said. “The nearest ATM for your bank has a record of a six—twenty—one P.M. withdrawal of five hundred dollars, the most that the machine is allowed to take from an account on any one day. The videotape shows a man making the withdrawal, but his head’s bowed so his face is hidden.”
Sweat
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