filled with anger.
“Right. And you just forgot to mention that you had a bug in my purse
and were just waiting to jump me.”
“Okay, let’s talk about the future. We want the disk and you’re going
to bring it to us. Now!”
“What I’m going to do is hang up. Now!”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t.”
“Listen, if you’re trying to keep me on the phone so you can lock on my
location, it’s not going–” Sidney’s voice broke off and her entire body
turned to putty as she listened to the small voice on the other end of
the line.
“Mommy? Mommy?”
Her tongue as big as a fist, Sidney could not answer. Her foot went off
the accelerator; her dead arms no longer had the strength to steer the
van. The vehicle slowed down and drifted into a pile of snow on the
shoulder.
“Mommy? Daddy? Come over?” The voice sounded frightened, pitiful.
Suddenly sick to her stomach, her entire body swaying uncontrollably,
Sidney managed to speak. “AA-Amy. Baby.”
“Mommy?”
“Baby, it’s Mommy. I’m here.” An avalanche of tears poured down
Sidney’s face.
Sidney heard the phone being taken away.
“Ten minutes. Here are the directions.”
“Let me talk to her again. Please!”
“Now you have nine minutes and fifty-five seconds.”
A sudden thought occurred to Sidney. What if it was a tape?
“How do I know you really have her? That could be just a recording.”
“Fine. If you want to take that chance, don’t come.” The voice sounded
very confident. There was no earthly way Sidney would ever take that
chance. The person on the other line knew that too.
“If you hurt her–”
“We’re not interested in the kid. She can’t identify us. After it’s
over, we’ll drop her at a safe place.” He paused. “You won’t be joining
her, though, Ms. Archer. Your safe places have just run out.”
“Let her go. Please just let her go. She’s only a baby.” Sidney was
trembling so much she could barely keep the phone pressed against her
mouth.
“You better write down these directions. You don’t want to get lost. If
you don’t show, there won’t be enough left of your kid to identify.”
“I’ll be there,” she said in a hushed voice and the line went dead.
She pulled back on the road. A sudden thought leaped across her mind.
Her mother! Where was her mother? Her blood seemed to be pooling in
her veins as she gripped the steering wheel. Another ringing sound
invaded the interior of the van. With a shaking hand, Sidney picked up
the phone, but there was no one there. In fact, the ringing sound was
different. She pulled off the road again and desperately searched
everywhere. Her eyes finally stopped on the seat right next to her. She
looked at her purse, slowly put her hand inside and pulled the object
out. Written across the small screen on her pager was a phone number
she didn’t recognize. She turned off the pager’s ringer. It was
probably a wrong number. She couldn’t imagine that someone from her law
firm or a client was attempting to call her; she was fresh out of legal
advice. She was about to erase the message, but her finger stopped.
Could it be Jason? If it was Jason, then it would qualify as the worst
timing in the history of the world. Her finger remained poised over the
erase button. Finally she put the pager in her lap, picked up the
cellular phone and dialed the number on the pager’s screen.
The voice that came on the other end of the line was enough to take her
breath away. Apparently, miracles did happen.
The main house of the resort was dark, its seclusion made all the more
stark by a wall of bulky evergreens in front. When the van pulled down
the long driveway, two armed guards emerged from the entryway to meet
it. The snowstorm had lightened considerably in the last few minutes.
Behind the house the dark, foreboding waters of the Atlantic assaulted
the land.
One of the guards jerked back as the van continued to roll toward them
without any sign of slowing down. “Shit,” he yelled as both men hurled