Cure

29

March 26, 2010

Friday, 12:47 p.m.

Brennan had figured out at least one reason why Louie had sent six people instead of two, which he had assumed would have been adequate. The moment he and his four-man crew had entered Central Park, the nanny and the child had seemingly disappeared. What Brennan had not noticed in his excitement when he’d first seen the pair come out of the house was that the nanny was wearing running shoes.

Assuming that the nanny and her charge were just out of sight down the serpentine footpath, Brennan had insisted that everyone run, hoping to catch up to the pair. But Brennan and the others were seriously out of shape, and the footpath was surprisingly hilly. After only a little more than a hundred yards, Brennan and the others had stopped running. With his chest heaving and his hands resting on his knees, he managed to say, “This is not going to work. She must be a goddamn marathoner.”

“All right, here’s what we are going to do,” Brennan continued, once he’d caught his breath. “We’re going to split up to search for the nanny and the kid and stay connected by our cell phones.”

“Most runners in the park run around the reservoir,” Duane Mackenzie offered. “Why don’t me and Tommaso head over there. It’s east of here and a little south, if I remember correctly.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Brennan said. They quickly exchanged cell phone numbers. “You guys stay with me,” Brennan said to the two Japanese men. “We don’t want you getting lost in here. We’ll head directly south.”

The group started off together, with Duane and Tommaso looking for a pathway to branch off to the west.

As he walked, Brennan wasn’t happy. He had never appreciated the park’s size and its hilly topography, and had not imagined that they would lose the nanny and the kid so damn fast. He wondered what the hell he was going to say to Louie, especially with this being his first time in charge of an operation. As the group progressed, he began to believe they’d probably have to return to where the nanny and the kid had entered the park and just wait for them to return. The worry with that plan was whether they would be alone.

Then serendipity shined down on them. Off to the right they came across a playground with tire swings, a couple of tree houses, monkey bars, a brick pyramid, and a large sand area where the child had been deposited. The nanny was using the monkey bars to stretch her hamstrings.

“Bull’s eye!” Brennan said to himself. Taking out his cell phone, he called Carlo.

“We’ve found the nanny and the kid,” he said softly. “They are at the West One hundredth Street Playground. How about you drive down here, but I want you on the northbound side of the street. Just pull over to the curb and wait! Got that?”

“Of course I got that,” Carlo responded without enthusiasm. He disconnected abruptly.

Brennan flipped his own phone closed. As wired as he was, Carlo’s acting out wasn’t completely over his head. Brennan intently looked at the others with a devilish grin. “This is almost too good to be true. The playground is empty except for our target. How good is that?”

“How do we know for sure it’s the kid we want?” Duane asked innocently, reawakening Brennan’s major worry.

“We saw them come out of the house, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, but what if there are apartments in the building? Or what if this lady was visiting whoever takes care of the doctor’s kid? I mean, we could be making a lot of effort here and end up with the wrong kid. Shouldn’t we make sure somehow?”

Brennan took a deep breath and looked back at the woman.

“Why not just ask her?” Duane suggested.

“Ask her what?”

“If the kid is whatever his parents’ name is.”

“She’s not going to give me that information,” Brennan said snidely.

“I bet you she will with this,” Duane said as he pulled out a distressed leather wallet and flipped it open. Attached to one side was a shiny gold police badge. It said Montclair, New Jersey.

Taking the proffered badge, Brennan examined it. “Where did you get this?”

“On eBay. Ten bucks.”

“Is it real?”

Duane shrugged. “They said it was real, but who knows. The point is that it looks real and it works. All you do is flash it like they do on TV. I’ve had fun with it. Everybody thinks I’m an undercover cop.”

“Why not?” Brennan said at once. From his perspective, it was the one major concern that had been nagging him since the nanny and child had emerged from 494 106th Street.

“There’s our ride,” Tommaso said, pointing over to Central Park West. Carlo was just pulling up to the curb.

Holding the questionable police badge in his left hand, Brennan speed-dialed Carlo while watching the vehicle come to a halt. The call was answered immediately. “Are we clear?” he asked before Carlo had a chance to speak.

“No cops,” Carlo said.

“We’re on our way.” Brennan hung up. He licked his dry lips, repositioned his holster so it was more comfortable, and switched the police badge to his right hand. Squaring his shoulders, he began walking toward the playground.

“You’d better be quick,” someone said from behind. “Here comes a woman with a toddler.”

Brennan quickly twisted to look. It had been Duane who’d sounded the alarm. Looking in the direction Duane was pointing off to the south, Brennan could see a woman had just rounded the bend in the footpath about a hundred yards away, pushing an empty stroller. The toddler was staggering along out in front by about ten feet.

Glancing back at the nanny, who was now no more than twenty or so feet ahead, Brennan made the snap decision to go ahead with the snatch. JJ was now off to Brennan’s left, lying prone in the sand and making a kind of sand angel but in reality just kicking up a bunch of dust.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Brennan said, flashing open the police badge and walking directly up to Leticia, who was still stretching. “Is this child from the Montgomery-Stapleton household?”

“Yes, he is,” Leticia said, but as soon as the words left her mouth, her face clouded in sudden fear. Intuitively, she knew she should not have answered the stranger, especially when the badge disappeared and a gun came out in its place. Brennan had realized in the last seconds he’d forgotten his mask.