“No. I was waiting for them to call me when you phoned.”
“You think they were taken as a bargaining chip?”
“Yes. Otherwise they would have just killed them like they did the cop out front.”
“So what do you think they’ll ask for?”
“I’m sure they’ll tell me,” he said grimly.
“I’m going to get a BOLO out on them.”
“Okay,” said Decker absently.
“You don’t think it’ll do any good?”
“I think they’re too smart to be tripped up by that.”
“It was a big risk killing a cop and then kidnapping two people.”
“If they had unfinished business and needed the leverage that hostages give them they’d take that risk.”
“But they cleared out the drug stash, and they killed the only witnesses we had. We have no case against them.”
“That may not matter to them.”
“What else would matter to them?” retorted Kemper.
“Like I said, unfinished business.”
“Such as?”
“If I knew that I wouldn’t be sitting here waiting for them to call,” snapped Decker.
“Okay, okay, but we need to come up with a plan.”
“That’s hard to do, since we don’t know what they’re going to throw at us.”
“But once they make contact, you have to loop me in. Then we can go after them in a coordinated effort.”
“You need to let me play it out the best way I see fit.”
“What precisely does that mean?” said Kemper warily.
“That means I’m going to do all I can to make sure this doesn’t go sideways and two innocent people end up dead.”
Jamison shuddered next to him and looked down at the floor.
“Decker, I don’t know if I can do that,” said Kemper. “I have people to answer to.”
“So do I. Their names are Amber and Zoe. And if you don’t want to do it my way, I’ll just have to do this solo.”
“You are putting me in an impossible situation,” complained Kemper.
“This is an impossible situation.”
Kemper calmed and said, “I guess I don’t have much choice. But I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Decker clicked off and stared down at his phone.
Jamison said, “Do you?”
“Do I what?” he asked quietly.
“Know what you’re doing?”
“I’ll be able to answer that after they call me.”
“We can’t lose Amber and Zoe.”
“We won’t.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” she exclaimed.
“No, I can’t,” he conceded.
“Then what are you telling me?” she demanded.
“I promised Zoe that I wouldn’t let the bad guys get you. And now I’m promising you that I’m not going to let them hurt Zoe, or your sister.”
Jamison pulled out her gun and looked at it. “Oh, we’re going to get them back safe, Decker. And then we’re going to nail every one of these assholes right to the wall.”
Chapter 70
The call came at midnight.
Before Decker could answer it, Jamison had snatched the phone away.
“I want to hear Amber and Zoe’s voice, right now,” she said into the phone.
“Who is this?”
“Alex Jamison with the FBI, and the seriously pissed-off sister and aunt of the people you kidnapped. Put them on the phone. Now!”
“You’re making demands?” the person said.
“No, I’m making one demand. Put them on the phone.”
There were a few moments of silence.
“Alex?”
It was Amber. She sounded exactly as she should: terrified.
“Are you okay, Am? Have they hurt you?”
“No, they haven’t.”
“And Zoe?”
“She’s right here with me. She’s okay too, just scared.”
Jamison turned to Decker and mouthed, “They’re okay.”
Amber continued, “Only I don’t know what they—”
The other person came back on. “Okay, you’ve heard them. Now hear me. You want them back, you will do exactly as I say.”
Jamison handed the phone to Decker.
“I’m listening,” said Decker. “What do you want in exchange for them?”
“We want Fred Ross.”
“I don’t know if I can make that happen.”
“You better hope you can. Or else the next time you see the woman and the kid, they’ll be corpses.”
“Where and when?”
The man gave Decker the location and time. “You bring anybody with you, they’re dead.”
“And you’re just going to let us walk out with Amber and Zoe?”
“You bring us Ross, we have no reason to harm any of you. We just want the old man.”
“I didn’t think Ted was that fond of his father.”
“Just bring him! One minute late, they’re dead.”
Decker put down the phone.
“What do they want?” Jamison asked.
“They want an exchange.”
“An exchange? What does that mean?”
“Fred Ross for Amber and Zoe.”
“Why would they want Fred Ross?”
“Probably because he can testify against them.”
“But he’s in jail!”
“Then we need to get him out of jail.”
“How?”
Decker was already on his phone.
Kemper answered on the first ring.
“They want Fred Ross in exchange for Amber and Zoe.”
“Okay.”
“You’ll need to arrange for Ross to be released into our custody.”
“I can make that happen. Where and when do they want to meet?”
Decker told her and added, “The guy said if we bring anybody, Amber and Zoe are dead.”
“Decker, you’re not that naïve. You go there without any backup, you’re all dead.”
“Which is why you’re going to get there before us. You got a chopper available?”
“Yes.”
“Then I suggest you fill it up with agents and get in position. When the crap hits the fan, it’s going to get hairy for everyone.”
“This is what we do for a living, Decker. See you on the other side.”
Decker clicked off and looked at Jamison.
She said, “They said not to bring anyone.”
“I know what they said. But they’re not going to let me just walk away with Amber and Zoe.”
Jamison looked up at him angrily. “You?! Do you really think I’d let you march in there alone? Where you go, I go.”
Decker’s ringing phone interrupted this discussion.
He recognized the number and answered it.
Cindi Riley barked, “What the hell is going on?”
“With what?” he said. “And why are you calling so late?”
“Because you’re my last chance for John.”
Decker said, “What about him?”
“He finally let me pay his bail. But they still wouldn’t release him.”
“Why not?”
“Because they said Detective Lassiter had to sign off on it,” she said.
“That doesn’t make sense. But she’s in the hospital. She was shot.”
“No, she’s not in the hospital.”
Decker tensed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean they told me at the police station that she was in the hospital, so I called over there to talk to her. I was going to bring the paperwork there.”
“And what did they tell you?”
“That she checked herself out,” she said.
“Checked herself out?” said an incredulous Decker. “She was shot, how could she check herself out?”
“I don’t know. But that’s what they said.”
“Have you tried calling her cell?”
“About a dozen times. No answer. What does this mean, Decker?”
He didn’t answer her right away. “It means that we’ll meet you at the jail in about ten minutes.”