"In vitro?" Curt said.
"No."
"Adopted a kid from Zaire?"
"Uh-uh. I think they kidnapped a child, and until that house burned down they'd been holding the girl just like whoever took Daniel Linwood and Michelle Oliveira had done. Amanda, you saw all the toys in the room you were held in. This wasn't some medieval torture chamber, this was a home. A place for a family to live."
Amanda reluctantly nodded. "Actually reminded me a little of my room when I went to live with Lawrence and
Harriet Stein," she said. She turned to Curt. "I was adopted. My parents died when I was young, then I went from orphanage to orphanage until the Steins took me home. I remember my room feeling not really like an actual room a young girl would live in, but the kind of room parents thought a girl would want to live in. Too many floral patterns, too many dolls. Just overkill to the extreme."
"That's why the Reeds racked up a hefty bill at Toyz 4
Fun," I said. "They were pampering this kid like she was their own."
Curt said, "So why kidnap a kid if you're not holding her for a ransom? What, you just pamper her for a few years and then let her go? I mean, you're comparing this
Girl X to Danny Linwood and Michelle Oliveira. Both those kids wound up returning home unharmed. If what you're saying is true, the Reeds planned to eventually let this kid go. Why go through all that trouble?"
"So she'd feel like a part of their family," I said. "When
I interviewed Danny Linwood, he made a brief reference to his 'brothers.' I didn't think much of it at first, but combined with this, I think all three of these kids were taken with the intent of ingratiating them into their 'new' families."
"But why?" Amanda said. "If the kidnappers knew they were going to let them go, why bother?"
"I'm not sure," I said. "But what scares me is that the
Reeds somehow knew Raymond Benjamin. He owned the house they used. So how did a supposedly regular family, a loving father and mother with a young son, wind up in bed with a career criminal, and end up stealing someone else's child?"
None of us had the answer.
"So what else can I do?" Curt said.
"We need to confirm that the Reeds did in fact kidnap another child. And if we do that, and we can find out who that child is, hopefully we can find the Reeds and they can answer all these questions."
"It'll be tough," Curt said. "I can submit a request for a breakdown of all children reported missing within the past two weeks, but unless we can narrow down where the child was from we're basically looking in every town in every city in the country."
I thought for a moment. Then I said to Curt, "Cross- check your records with Yardley Medical Center, the pediatrics unit. I have a feeling whatever child was taken was born in Hobbs County, and was a patient of Dr. Petrovsky's, just like Daniel Linwood and Michelle Oliveira."
"How can you be sure?" Amanda said.
"Thiamine levels," I said. "I spoke to Jack's doctor at
Bellevue and asked what might cause a child to go through what Daniel and Michelle did. According to him, it's likely they both suffered from a severe case of anterograde amnesia, exacerbated by depleted thiamine levels. He said that it was technically a form of short-term brain damage, but when thiamine and vitamin B1 levels dropped in patients whose thiamine levels were low to begin with, it could cause exactly what afflicted Daniel and Michelle. I think whoever has been kidnapped was born with low thiamine levels, and Dr. Petrovsky supervised it all."
Amanda said, "That would have to mean the kids were preselected based on their medical histories. Which means
Petrovsky knew which kids to look out for."
"I think there's a strong chance he did just that. So this new Girl X was chosen for the same reasons Dan and
Michelle were years ago-they were susceptible to having their thiamine levels tampered with to a far greater degree than a normal child. With the right-or wrong-nutrition and care, you could almost literally give a child short-term brain damage and harm their memory receptors."
"Which would explain why Daniel and Michelle didn't remember a thing about their time missing," Amanda said.
"And it means the Reeds are expecting the same thing from this kid. Girl X."
"Find her," I said to Curt. "I'm tired of this bullshit, like one lost kid doesn't matter. What, because Hobbs County and Meriden got a few extra bucks, a few of the houses got a nice coat of paint, this is all swept under the carpet?
These kids are giving their lives for some awful cause I don't understand."
"I hear you, man. Give me some time," Curt said. "I'll need to get medical records from Petrovsky's office, which won't be easy, especially since the dude's disappeared."
"He's dead," I said. "There's just no body to bury."
"Either way, the guy won't be answering his phone.
Give me a day. I'll get an answer."
"Thanks, Curt, every second counts. Benjamin wasn't expecting us to follow Petrovsky, and who knows if the
Reeds are even still alive. There's a chance that, like
Petrovsky, they 'disappeared' the Reeds so nobody could ask questions. We need to see if we can find the Reeds before Benjamin takes desperate measures. And this is a guy who seems to be redefining the term."
32
Raymond Benjamin dialed the number of the motel. He'd made the reservation for the Reeds just before he'd told them what was going to happen to their home. He'd broken it to them matter-of-factly. He'd told them they might have to leave at a moment's notice, but didn't really believe himself it would ever come to that. Elaine seemed pretty unnerved but agreed to cooperate. Like always. Bob stayed silent, nodded at his wife's approval. But now it was Ray who was unnerved.
Pinter, Jason – Henry Parker 03
The Stolen (2008)
When the receptionist picked up, he said, "Yes, can you connect me to the room of Robert and Elaine Reed?"
"Hold a moment, sir." Ray heard typing in the background. "Sir, we don't have any record of anyone by that name checking in."
"But you do have a reservation, right?"
"Yes, sir, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Reed, weekly rates, supposed to have checked in yesterday, but according to this they haven't."
"Fuck me," Ray said.
"Excuse me, sir?"
"Nothing. You're sure about that?"
"Yes, sir. Would you like me to have a message waiting for them when they do check in?"
Ray slammed the phone down on the cradle so hard the plastic receiver broke in half. It took him far too long to jimmy open the door to the pay phone booth, and finally he cracked the glass when he kicked it inward with his foot. Vince was leaning up against the car, an errant toothpick sticking out of his mouth. Either it was lodged between two teeth or the man had simply forgotten it was there. Ray had a sudden desire to smack the thing out of his mouth. But he restrained himself.
This wasn't going as he'd hoped. Things had taken a drastic turn once Parker and the girl had arrived at the house on Huntley, and that necessitated burning the place down. Of course, doing that meant relocating the Reed family, which was an ordeal in and of itself.
He'd begun to worry about Bob and Elaine from nearly the moment they took the girl home. There was something in their eyes that was different from the other families, a sense of sorrow that worried him from the start. He'd told them from the first time he met them that they'd have to be strong. Keep everything in perspective. Look at this as short-term pain for a long-term solution. They were doing it for the right reasons, and years from now they'd be happy they did it.
Now he wasn't so sure.
Bob and Elaine had a motive. There was a reason they were chosen. The same way there was a reason Ray was good at his job, he expected the Reeds to live up to their end of the deal. Looking back on that one week that shaped