“Except give me a better chance to do it myself.” His voice harshened. “I can find her, Venable. No one can keep her from me. Just give me a name and a direction.”
Venable shook his head.
Joe drew a deep breath and unclenched his hands. “I’ll give you a little more time, Venable. I’m only doing that because of past history, and I’m hoping that you wouldn’t let Eve be in danger. After that, you will tell me. I don’t care how you have to hurt before you give me every single detail.”
“I might point out that the present administration doesn’t approve of torture of prisoners,” Venable said sourly.
“No, they’d rather kill them. I’m not against that either. Screw the present administration. You talk to me, or you’re going down.” He picked up his phone. “And I’ve just sent that report on Blick to a friend at FBI headquarters and told him to give me anything else he has on Terence Blick. If I find out anything that will lead me to another name, your time will run out. I’m also calling the police in Chicago and asking them to trace—”
Venable’s phone rang, and he picked up. “Venable.” His hand tightened on the phone. “No, keep him there. We’re on our way.” He hung up and turned to Joe. “They’ve found Ben Hudson.”
“Alive?”
He nodded. “He’s at an urgent-care facility in Floyd County. The staff found him behind some bushes on the grounds this afternoon. By his condition, they think he may have been there for hours. He’s been in and out of consciousness since they brought him into the clinic. They’re getting him ready to transport to the local hospital.”
“But he’s alive.” Joe was halfway down the porch steps. “That’s more than I hoped. We’ll take my car.”
“You mean I’m going to be permitted in the same vehicle?” Venable murmured. “I thought you’d have me trailing behind.”
“It’s not because I want your company. You can be a very slippery customer,” Joe said curtly. “I don’t want you more than an arm’s length away from me until I get the info I want from you.”
* * *
THEY’D ALREADY TRANSFERRED Ben to the hospital in Rome by the time they were on the road thirty minutes, and they drove directly there.
Ben was just going in for X-rays when Joe got permission to see him.
“Do you mind if I go in with you?” Venable asked quietly. “It’s either that, or I’ll have to question him later. I know he’s a special-needs kid, and you have a relationship with him.”
Joe nodded. “Hell, yes, I have a relationship with him. When we were searching for Bonnie, he saved my life. He’s had it rough from the time he was a kid. His father was a criminal and it’s a wonder he survived the treatment he received until his father was killed. But he did survive and lives and works at a charity camp in south Georgia. He’s pretty well self-sufficient and I won’t have anyone looking down on him.”
“Okay. Okay. No one is going to give the kid a hard time.”
“I’ll keep the local police off him, but I don’t want your agents harassing him either.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“No, make it happen.” He strode ahead of Venable into Ben’s room.
The boy looked as pasty pale as the white bandage that encircled his head. He shook his head when he saw Joe. “You’re going to be mad at me. I didn’t do what I was supposed to do,” he whispered. “She’s gone, isn’t she? I’m sorry, Joe.”
“I know you did what you could.”
“But she’s gone. He took her.”
“You say Eve’s gone. She’s still alive?”
Ben nodded. “I think so. The little girl says she is.”
“Bonnie?”
“This morning, when I was crawling through the grass trying to get to the clinic, I kept falling asleep, and Bonnie was there. I told her I tried to do what she wanted. She said there was still time.”
Joe hoped to hell he was right. Trust him. Trust Ben’s connection with Bonnie. It was all he had right now. “Listen, Ben. How do you know Eve’s gone? Did you see who took her? Can you tell me what happened?”
“Eve called me and told me to come back to the house. I started back right away.” He reached up and rubbed his temple. “A man jumped out of the bushes and hit me with something. I think it was a wrench. I fell down, and he hit me again. And then again, I think.”
“Did you know him? Could you recognize him again?”
Ben nodded. “I never saw him before. But I’d recognize him if I saw him again.” He frowned, puzzled. “He had grayish black hair and his face … He looked like…” He stopped. “He looked like Mr. Drury, one of the volunteers who helps out at the camp where I work. Well, not really. His nose was different, and so was his hair. But the way he … smiled. Mr. Drury smiled like him. Nice man, always smiling.” His frown deepened. “The man who hit me looked like that, a nice old man.”
“He was smiling?”
“No, he wasn’t smiling. He looked … sad.”
“But he hit you at least a couple times, then dumped you near that urgent-care facility but not near enough to be sure they’d find you. I don’t think those were the actions of a ‘nice old man,’” Joe said. “I think whoever hit you meant to stop you or use you as a decoy to trap Eve.”
“Then I helped him.” His eyes glistened with moisture. “I meant to help Eve, but I didn’t do it.”
“You tried, Ben.” He gave his shoulder a brief squeeze and stepped away from the bed. “And you may still be able to do it. Suppose I get a police artist out here and have him help you remember what the man who hit you looked like?”
“I saw something like that on a TV show.” He shook his head, troubled. “I don’t know if I’m smart enough to do that.”
“Sure you are. The artist just has to ask the right questions. Is there anything else you can tell me about the man who took Eve? Did you see his truck, maybe a license plate?”
He frowned. “Sort of. For just a second. It was an old red truck. No license plate. But I’ve been thinking. He didn’t seem bad. If he’s like Mr. Drury, maybe it’s all a mistake. Maybe Eve won’t be in trouble.”
“I hope you’re right. But sometimes people aren’t what they seem,” Joe said gently. “You have to not take people at face value and pay attention to their actions. He hit you and gave you a nasty concussion, Ben.”
“And Bonnie was worried.” His teeth sank into his lower lip. “So maybe he could hurt Eve. I have to make sure that doesn’t happen, Joe.”
“We will. But right now, you have to rest so that you can concentrate and remember what we need to know for the police artist.”
Ben nodded. “But then I have to go with you to find her. You’ll take me, won’t you, Joe?”
“If it’s best for Eve. I’m not going to make promises I can’t keep.”
“Bonnie wanted me to take care of Eve.”
“You’ll help. Just think about the man who attacked you. Remember everything you can.” He turned toward the door. “You’ve already helped, Ben.”
“No, I lost her,” he said desperately. “I shouldn’t have done that. I have to find her.”
There wasn’t anything else Joe could say to comfort him. He was as desperate as Ben and was feeling the same panic. He had hoped for more information from him than he had gotten. A model of the truck, a license number, a clue, dammit.
“He wasn’t very helpful,” Venable said as he followed him down the corridor. “But it’s good that he managed to survive the attack.”
“He did the best he could to give us what we wanted. It wasn’t that he has a few problems. He has a concussion and suffered from—”
“You don’t have to be defensive to me,” Venable said. “I’m just commenting. As a witness, he did as well as 70 percent of the people I’ve questioned over the years.”
“And he may be able to help more when I get an artist to give him something to prod his memory.” He paused. “But is it necessary? Did you recognize the description? And if you did, are you going to tell me?”
Venable didn’t answer directly. “It was a very vague description. It could be almost any pleasant-faced middle-age man. Of course, you could get a photo of that Mr. Drury he’s supposed to resemble. However, that wouldn’t be very scientific, would it?”