“Did anyone show any unusual interest in the child? Give him gifts?”
Emily said, “Everyone loved Timmy, Officer Powers. But I don’t remember anyone paying more attention to him than they would to any other cute baby.”
Powers tucked the notebook into his pocket. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Since we don’t have a suspect vehicle, we can’t post anything to the changeable message signs on the highway that allow us to communicate with motorists. But we’ll issue a ‘Be on the Lookout,’ and we can prepare a description of Timmy and the circumstances of his disappearance and fax it to the media. They’ll put the BOLO out on all area radio, TV, and cable systems, where it will be seen and heard by millions of listeners.”
I’d seen those messages before-other people’s children, never ours-sad details about their abduction crawling along the bottom of our television screen. A school picture, a candid photo of the child, slightly out of focus. I wondered how many of those stories had happy endings.
“And we’re bringing in a tracking dog from Baltimore County.”
“What kind of dog?” Paul wanted to know.
“We’ve requested a bloodhound. Bloodhounds will be able to pick up Timmy’s scent even if he was carried away in somebody’s arms.”
“What good will that do?” Emily was sobbing again. “If the kidnapper took Timmy away in a car, the trail will stop at the parking lot, right?”
“Bloodhound noses are many times more sensitive than German shepherds’,” Powers pointed out. “It was a bloodhound that tracked Laci Peterson’s scent down the center of a highway, if you remember, proving she left the house in a vehicle, not on foot, as her husband had claimed.”
Laci Peterson. Another victim who didn’t make it. This wasn’t encouraging.
Dante slouched in his chair, hands pressed tightly between his knees. “You know what really bothers me?” he told the officer. “I never asked Emily to sign for anything today. As far as I know, there was no delivery.”
Emily looked up, face blotched from crying. “Then who…?”
“You didn’t recognize the voice on the telephone?” I asked.
Emily bit her lower lip. “Just a woman’s voice. I assumed it was one of the staff.”
“Hey, everybody!” The head of a white stuffed tiger lunged into the room, followed immediately by the equally white head of my sister, Ruth. “What’s with all the police cars, anyway? I had to sneak in through the loading dock. Look what I brought for Puddle Ducks,” she chirped, not pausing long enough for anyone to answer her question. She galloped the super-sized toy along the chair rail. “This will solve the problem.”
CHAPTER 7
Greeted by a silence so heavy it was palpable, still cradling that ridiculous white tiger, Ruth froze. “What? What did I say?”
“Timmy’s missing,” Dante snapped.
Ruth looked from Dante to the tiger and burst into tears.
I wasn’t due at Hillsmere Elementary to meet Chloe until three-ten, but I decided I couldn’t bear another torrent of tears when I could barely control my own. “I need to pick up Chloe and Jake,” I announced, suddenly rising from my chair. I was desperate to get outside. Maybe breathing the fresh salt air would revive me. I consulted Officer Powers. “Is that okay?”
“Who are Chloe and Jake?” he wanted to know, as if they were suspects he needed to add to his interview list.
After I explained that Chloe and Jake were my grandchildren, he nodded permission. With a reassuring squeeze of my hand from Paul, and a barely audible thank-you from my son-in-law, I managed to escape the spa.
Getting out of the grounds wasn’t as simple. As I stepped onto the concrete apron that surrounded the parking lot, someone said, “It’s Hannah, isn’t it?”
I turned. Roger Haberman.
I had been charting a course straight for my trusty LeBaron, and I didn’t want to be delayed by Roger Haberman or anyone else.
“Is everything all right?” Roger asked, his face scrunched up with concern. “I beg your pardon, but you look terrible.”
No doubt my face was a mess, whatever makeup I’d managed to dab on that morning long since washed away by torrents of tears. “No, Roger, everything isn’t all right. Our ten-month-old grandson appears to have been snatched from the day care center. That’s why the police are here.”
Just sharing the bad news with Roger started me off on another crying jag. Roger waited until I had more or less gotten myself under control, then laid a gentle hand on my arm. “I’m so sorry. Are the police organizing a search? Where do I sign up?”
“Timmy hasn’t learned how to walk yet, so they don’t think he wandered off into the woods on his own.” I pulled a ragged tissue out of my handbag and dabbed at my eyes. “Honestly, Roger, if I thought that chopping down every tree in Bay Ridge would find him, I’d grab a chain saw and turn the whole neighborhood into a pile of kindling.”
A sudden thought occurred to me. “You’ve been out here for a while, haven’t you?”
Roger nodded. “I was just arriving for an interview when all hell broke loose.”
“Did you notice anything out of the ordinary?”
“I’m afraid not. Just your usual to-ing and fro-ing, like that water truck over there.”
It occurred to me that if Roger had been entering the gates just as the fire alarm went off, he might well have passed the kidnapper as he or she was making a getaway on Herndon, the narrow, two-lane road that led directly from Paradiso on Kimmel Lane down to Bay Ridge Road. “How about on the way here?” I asked, my hopes rising.
Roger thought for a moment. “There was a car behind me. That one,” he said, pointing to the girl in the Jetta, who I now realized must have been coming to the spa rather than going away from it. “And I’m sure I passed a few cars on the way here, but I don’t remember any car in particular.”
“Think, Roger,” I urged. “Close your eyes and try to picture those cars.”
Roger closed his eyes as instructed. “Two cars, I think, and an SUV definitely.”
“What kind of cars? Did you notice the make of the SUV?”
Roger grimaced. “Sorry. The cars were just cars, and all SUVs look the same to me. Big and ugly.”
“Oh.” I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach.
“The SUV was brown, though. I remember that. Or it could have been gold. Looked like one of those vehicles you take on safari.”
“Oh, Roger, bless you! The police are inside Paradiso right now, interviewing people. Please tell them exactly what you’ve just told me. Make sure to ask for Officer Powers.”
“I wish I could be more helpful.” He tapped his temple with a forefinger. “Old noggin ain’t what it used to be.”
Two cars and a brown SUV, I thought, mulling it over. Pitifully little to go on, and Paradiso wasn’t the only establishment at the end of Herndon Road. The vehicles could just as well have been heading back to Annapolis from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a brand new facility built on property adjoining Paradiso. Nevertheless, Roger’s information might help narrow the field if a list of suspects was eventually identified.
“I’d be happy to help search,” Roger said, returning to an earlier topic.
“Thanks, Roger, but the police are bringing search dogs in pretty soon. Officer Powers thinks the dogs will confirm that somebody picked Timmy up and walked away with him.”
“I see.” Roger scowled. “It’s a terrible thing to harm a child.” His face softened. “Eva and I were never blessed with children, so I can only imagine what you must be going through. And the child’s parents, too,” he added quickly.
“Thank you for your concern, Roger.”
“If there’s anything I can do, anything at all…” His voice trailed off.
At that moment all I wanted was to get away from Roger Haberman and be by myself for a little while. If I could concentrate on things that needed to be done, perhaps it would keep my mind from drifting off into the terrifying, dark corners of my imagination.