They Disappeared

20

Manhattan, New York City

They’re alive.

For now.

His heart racing, Jeff scanned the room.

A toy airplane?

His family had been abducted for a toy?

This is insane.

He couldn’t make sense of the absurdity. Time pummeled him. Each second was a fist striking him with desperation, demanding action.

Concentrate.

Cole had dumped the bag’s contents on his bed. A vague memory of him playing with a toy surfaced, then Jeff recalled Cole telling Hans Beck about the airplane.

Maybe it fell out, got misplaced.

Immediately Jeff sifted through Cole’s clothes but found nothing. He ran his hands swiftly over the bedspread. Nothing. He dropped to his knees and looked under the bed, no sign of a plane.

What if I can’t find it?

He pressed his face to the room’s carpet and inspected the area around the bed, the dresser, the desk, then saw the curtains.

The curtains! Cole was playing near the window behind the curtains!

As Jeff searched the area on the floor, the interior windowsill, his cell rang. He kept searching. As he moved to the area behind the chairs and table near the window he heard a slight rattle coming from the curtains.

The cell phone rang a second time.

I’m losing time!

Jeff ran his hands along the hem of the curtains, pockets formed at the bottom of the folds. Suddenly, miraculously, he felt something hard in one of them and inserted his fingers, feeling a plastic casing.

Got it!

He retrieved the toy plane Cole had been playing with, then answered his cell phone.

“Jeff, this is Cordelli.”

“Did you guys get that call? They’re alive! I’m going to get them back!”

“We got it but I need you to listen to me!”

“Did you get a name on the phone? Was it Hans Beck?”

“No. They’re using an untraceable cell phone, a throwaway. Listen. Don’t move. We’re scrambling to set up.”

“Christ, didn’t you hear them? No police, they’ll kill Sarah and Cole!”

“Jeff, we can’t take any risks. We don’t know who we’re dealing with or what they might do.”

“Yes, we do! They’ve already killed two people!”

“Don’t go anywhere, don’t give anyone anything. Wait for us to come to you!”

“No, I’m going now and I’m going alone!”

“Jeff, wait! Listen to me, there are things we can do that no one will see. We can put plainclothes people on the trains. We can stop the trains if we have to.”

“No! They said no police. Cordelli, they already killed two people. I’m not going to risk my family’s life!”

“Jeff, you’re not thinking this through. We’ve got people rolling to positions now. Wait in the hotel lobby. Don’t move!”

“There’s no time, Cordelli!”

As Jeff headed for the door, the hotel phone rang. Jeff got it.

“Mr. Griffin, Russ Powell from the Times. I think we got cut off. What just happened there? Did you get a call from your wife?”

“I can’t talk right now.”

Jeff hung up, slid the phone in his shirt pocket and rushed to the elevator. As he jabbed the down button, his heavy breathing filled the hall. The elevator car was empty. On the way down, he looked at the plane.

It was a 747 jumbo jetliner, made of hard plastic a couple of inches long. He activated the lights and jet engine sound. He rolled the wheels in the palm of his hand. It had no markings, other than a Made in China sticker on the bottom of the battery compartment.

This was his key to getting Sarah and Cole back.

The elevator stopped on the fourth floor.

Jeff shoved the toy into his jeans pocket.

The doors opened to four people, each with a large suitcase-a man and a woman, both older than Jeff, a teenage boy and teenage girl. The girl was squatting, fussing with her bag’s contents.

“Come on, Ashley, hurry up!” the woman said.

The dad reached in to hold the elevator doors.

“It’s stuck! The zipper’s stuck,” the girl complained as time slipped by.

Without a word, Jeff stepped around them and headed down the hall to the stairs, rushing to the lobby within a minute.

Outside he surveyed the street for any sign of the kidnappers, Cordelli, the NYPD or the press.

Nothing.

Using his map he checked his bearings.

As horns and traffic noise rose from the city around him, Jeff set out for Grand Central.