Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

He frowned. ‘There was a van. It stopped and I thought I was okay. But . . .’ He lifted the hospital johnny to look at his thigh. ‘Sonofabitch tased me. Again. And shot me up. Again. That’s all I remember until I woke up here.’
    ‘What about the other guy?’ Joseph asked.
    Ford’s expression changed, becoming grave. ‘That was him, the one who tased me last night. The old guy said it was the other one’s idea, that they were asking for a ransom. Five million dollars.’
    ‘No one ever called in a ransom demand, Ford,’ Joseph said.
    ‘There was something else going on. Strange stuff. There was a shed. When I first woke up, I was in this shed that had been a garage. Detached. Which was weird because when I finally got to the cabin, I think it was smaller than the garage. I woke up the first time and the guy who tased me was there, whispering in my ear, then shooting me up. What was it? It wasn’t heroin or meth, was it? Please say it wasn’t.’
    ‘Ketamine, which is used as a sedative,’ Joseph said. ‘Addictive but not at the levels you’ve received. Also fentanyl, which is a narcotic. Again, not addictive at the levels you received. Don’t worry. What else do you remember?’
    ‘When I woke up the next morning there was this smell. Something dead. I got the blindfold off and it was . . . cats. One was decomposing and the others were just bones.’ He paused, remembering. ‘Another weird thing, the decomposing cat had been dug up. It was wearing an old collar, but a brand new tag. The tag had a cat’s name.’
    Daphne had begun to tremble. ‘Fluffy?’ she whispered.
    Ford’s frown was immediate and sharp. ‘Yes. How did you know that, Mom?’
    Abruptly Daphne reached for the photo in Ford’s hand. ‘Let me look.’
    Joseph held his breath because she was holding hers. She gripped the paper and spread it across her thigh to keep it from shaking. Then jerked her chin down to look.
    ‘Oh God,’ she whispered. She’d started to hyperventilate. ‘Can’t be can’t be can’t be.’ The words ran together, like a prayer. ‘What did he say, Ford? Exactly?’
    Ford cleared his throat. ‘I’m back. Did you—’
    What color was left in her face drained away. ‘Miss me?’ she finished.
    ‘Yes,’ Ford said, alarmed. ‘Mom? What’s happening here?’
    Joseph gently turned her so that she looked at him. ‘The old man, the man in this picture. It was him, wasn’t it? The one that took you and your cousin.’
    She nodded, tears welling in her eyes. ‘Why is he doing this?’
    ‘I don’t know, but we will find out. I promise you. But you know what I need from you. The whole story. Because somewhere in there is a connection to a guy named Doug who wants your life to be a living hell.’
    ‘There are still two girls out there,’ she whispered.
    ‘Maybe three,’ Joseph said. He pointed to the picture of the old man. ‘Ford found evidence that this man’s taken another seventeen-year-old girl.’
    ‘Another?’ It wasn’t even a whisper. More an exhale. She fixed her gaze on Joseph’s and the temperature around him seemed to plummet. There was knowledge in her eyes, terrible knowledge. And terrible guilt. ‘I’ll tell you everything. But you should update the BOLO.’
    ‘With what?’ Joseph asked, almost afraid of the answer.
    ‘Now you can add his name. He’s Wilson Beckett.’
    Joseph couldn’t control his reaction. Utter shock. And then anger as the implication set in. ‘You knew his name?’
    She flinched slightly but didn’t break eye contact. ‘Yes. I’ve always known.’

Chapter Twenty
    Wheeling, West Virginia, Wednesday, December 4, 9.30 P.M.
    ‘ T hank you.’ Daphne took the cup of coffee Hector offered, her hands shaking with a combination of cold and shock.
    Ford had insisted that he be allowed to listen. He’d earned the truth, he’d said.
    Daphne didn’t think he could handle the truth. I’m not handling the truth .
    Joseph agreed with Ford and now arranged a few additional chairs in her son’s hospital room. A minute later Daphne was facing what felt like a tribunal. Joseph, Hector, Agent Novak and Detective McManus. Pittsburgh Agent Kerr had returned from setting up the search for the missing girl, Heather Lipton, and squeezed in Ford’s room with them. And then it was time.
    Joseph hadn’t looked at her after that first stunned, furious reaction. The others wore expressions of horrified disgust. All but Ford. He looked heartbroken.