Page 94 of Cross Down
Chapter
105
I stuff thefolded sheets of evidence in my jacket pocket and slowly walk out of Alex’s home. It’s so empty and quiet.
It’s not right. This home should be filled with laughter, arguments, voices from the TV, smells coming from the kitchen, Nana Mama’s firm voice cutting through everything.
It’s not right.
Time to make it right.
I go out of the house and lock the door behind me, then cross the small yard to the sidewalk. It’s either late at night or early in the morning. Even with the streetlights and headlights of passing cars, I still feel like I’m in utter darkness.
I walk to my stolen car. What now?
I’ll go to the only person I trust at the moment, Ned Mahoney of the FBI. I’ll tell him what I’ve found, and things will start moving.
If it isn’t too late.
God, Billie, please don’t let us be too late.
A dark blue Mercedes-Benz comes to a sudden halt next to me. I turn.
The passenger door pops open.
The driver is leaning over the fine leather seats pointing a pistol at me.
“Get in, John,” Elizabeth Deacon says. “We don’t have much time.”
Chapter
106
The man leadingthe squad is moving slowly and confidently in the woods behind the target house. The four of them have come to the edge of the woods where the finely manicured lawn begins, and he looks at the rear of the house, taking it all in. Usually ops like this require lots of planning and prep, but Maynard told him earlier that there was no time.
“Just snatch the girl and let me know when she’s secured,” Maynard said. “Then we’ll tell John Sampson we have the little brat and if he wants to see her again, he’ll go sit on a park bench in Lafayette Square for twenty-four hours and do absolutely nothing. No phone calls, no messages, no visits. Then he’ll get her back.”
“Alive?”
Maynard said, “Don’t go putting words in my mouth. Get the job done.”
Seems like a pretty straightforward task. The house is two stories high and has a small deck with sliding doors. At the rear there are three windows on the ground floor and four on the second.
Strange. No lights are on, even though there were a few lights on just a couple of minutes ago when they drove by.
Have the targets left?
The other three operators are lined up by the trees, preparing.
He starts to lower his night-vision goggles when it all goes wrong all at once.
Willow doesn’t like being in the tub, doesn’t like being alone, doesn’t like Aunt Bree snapping at her, and she misses her dad. She gets out of the tub, unlocks the door, and goes into the bedroom. The only nice part about this whole thing is that she has this room to herself and doesn’t have to share it with her cousin Ali, who stays up late playing with his iPhone and giggling and farting like a boy.
She hears Aunt Bree and Nana Mama talking seriously downstairs, and they sound scared.
If they’re scared, then so is she.
A shadow comes across the window.
