They Disappeared Page 6

  He flinched.

  A child’s earsplitting scream shattered the quiet.

  Cole?

  Something inside the house vibrated, someone moving around. Jeff started for the backyard but was stopped by a wooden fence and a gate that reached to his shoulders. He tried the handle; the gate was locked. He tried reaching over it for a latch but got nothing.

  Gripping the top of the fence, he hefted himself over it, landing on a garden hose that snaked to the back. Jeff followed it past a back door to patio steps, a small deck with lawn chairs and picnic table. It was a typical family backyard.

  He stopped at the sight of two children standing in the grass, some fifteen feet away: a boy about Cole’s age and a girl who looked to be four or five, both wearing swimsuits.

  The hose meandered to the girl. She used both hands to hold the dripping nozzle, which she pointed at the boy, who was drenched. For a moment, water plunking from the boy to the deck was the only sound.

  Then the boy, his blond water-slicked hair darkened, turned to Jeff at the same time as the girl.

  The boy was not Cole.

  The children’s eyes widened slightly as they stared at Jeff, speechless until the girl said, “Hello.”

  At a loss, Jeff scanned the small yard when he noticed the children’s attention shift a fraction to his left.

  “I have a gun,” a woman’s voice said from behind him.

  Jeff turned.

  The woman’s arms were extended; her hands were wrapped around the pistol aimed at him.

  “Get on your knees and put your hands behind your head!”

  Before Jeff could explain she shouted.

  “Do it now, asshole! Or I swear to God I’ll shoot you dead.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Neverpoint Park, the Bronx, New York City

  Jeff raised his hands and lowered himself to the lawn.

  The woman holding the gun ordered her children into the house.

  Jeff got on his knees, his mind racing.

  Are Sarah and Cole here? Where’s the SUV?

  The woman kept her gun on him and kept her distance.

  A shrub of frizzy red hair haloed her face. She had to be in her late twenties but the lines carved deep around her mouth suggested an embittered life. She had an overbite. She wore jeans and a T-shirt showing a pit bull guarding a motorcycle. Tattoos swirled along her arms.

  “Get out your wallet.”

  Slowly Jeff pulled it from his pocket and tossed it to her feet. Keeping her gun on him she retrieved it, examined his driver’s license and fire department photo identification.

  “Montana? Why the hell are you here, trespassing, threatening my kids?”

  His pulse galloping, Jeff thought it odd she hadn’t called the police. Or maybe she has and I’ll hear sirens? Her voice was throaty, she may have been drinking. She looks like someone who has been arrested before. If she’s involved in the abduction she wouldn’t want police coming to this place.

  “Answer me, asshole!”

  He tried to think.

  “My wife and son were abducted a few hours ago near Times Square in an SUV registered to this address.”

  “That’s a crock of shit!”

  “It’s the truth. Do you know Donald Dalfini? Where is the SUV? Are you his wife?” The woman didn’t answer. As she considered his questions, Jeff kept talking. “Let me show you something?”

  She took a moment, then nodded once. Jeff fished out Sarah’s digital camera and Cole’s key ring. He cued up the photos and held the camera to her with the ring.

  “Look at these, please. Pictures we took today. I’m telling the truth.”

  Hesitating, she inched forward, keeping the gun on Jeff. She took the items with her free hand, then backed away. As she looked them over Jeff told her everything—about Lee Ann, the trip, everything. He explained all the events that brought them here, to this moment.

  “Tell me where my wife and son are. I’m begging you.”

  Jeff saw that her eyes were blue, a bit glassy, as he searched them for her reaction. With each passing second her hardness started to fracture. As she blinked back tears her mouth began moving and she spoke, in a whisper, to herself. Jeff struggled to hear, certain she’d said, “I told Donnie it’s freakin’ wrong, stupid.”

  “Please,” Jeff said. “I’m begging you. Are they okay? Are my wife and son hurt? Please.”

  On the verge of tears, she dragged the back of her hand across her mouth.

  “Shut up! Your shit’s got nothing to do with us!”

  “It’s your SUV. It’s registered to this address.”

  “It was stolen three weeks ago when I went to the Neverpoint Mall. I’ve been scared the fuckers who took it would come here.”

  “Then we’re on the same side. We both need to know what happened.”

  “Sheri, you need my help?”

  A woman’s voice came from just inside the sliding doors to the deck. A large woman in her fifties with long white hair stood in the dim light. She was wearing an oversize Mets T-shirt and tapped the tip of a baseball bat into the palm of her left hand.

  “Did you call Donnie?” Sheri asked the older woman.

  “I left him a message. Did you find out who this asshole is? Want me to help you with him?”

  “No, I’ve got this.”

  But Sheri’s voice quavered; her hands were shaking, signaling that she was losing her internal struggle to regard Jeff as a threat. He needed to search the house, then he’d alert Cordelli and Ortiz.

  “Sheri, I told you the truth,” he said. “If what you told me is true, let me look through your house for my family, then I’ll go.”

  “I told you we got nothing to do with that.”

  “I need to look. Put yourself in my shoes.”

  As she weighed Jeff’s argument, he pressed his case further.

  “Sheri, listen to me—I need to find my family. Let me look and I’ll go. No matter what you do, your SUV is linked to my family’s disappearance and police will be coming here. I can let them know you helped, or I can let them know you hid something. I think you have a good heart. I don’t believe you want to kill me because I’m telling you the truth. I need to find my wife and son.”

  After studying his face she swallowed, then lowered her gun.

  “All right. Belva! Bring the kids out back. This won’t take long.”

  “Are you nuts, girl?”

  “It’s my damn house. Do as I say!”

  It was a small bungalow; the reek of cigarettes and stale beer hung in the air. The kitchen table was cluttered with plates, butter knives, an open bag of cookies, a loaf of white bread and jars of jelly and peanut butter. When Jeff entered the living room it became evident why Sheri might not call the police. The coffee table was lined with empty liquor bottles, beer cans and small clear plastic bags containing something organic.

  There were newspapers open to want ads with jobs circled.

  “Since Donnie got laid off at the plant, it’s been hard,” Sheri was almost apologizing to Jeff. “The mortgage, car and credit card payments are piling up. We’re looking for jobs but it’s hard, and then with the SUV stolen, that took the cake.”

  Holding her gun at her side, Sheri kept her distance as she escorted Jeff in his room-by-room search on the main floor bedrooms. He recognized the intrusive aspect of a stranger in her bedroom and those of her children but it was eclipsed by the outrage forced upon him. He looked in closets, under beds, in the basement and he tapped on walls until he was satisfied that Sarah and Cole were not here. When they’d returned to the living room Jeff’s cell phone rang.

  The display showed a blocked number.

  His heart rate soared when he answered.

  “Je
ff, this is Detective Cordelli. We’ve located the SUV.”

  “What about Sarah and Cole?”

  Sirens and the rush of the road indicated Cordelli was in a car.

  “No confirmation. We’re en route to the scene now.”

  “What’s the location? I’m coming.”

  “You sit tight at your hotel—we’ll keep you posted.”

  “Tell me the location, Cordelli!”

  “Jeff, look, we’re not there yet. I don’t know exactly what we have.”

  “It’s my wife and son, tell me! I’m a firefighter. I’ve been to ‘scenes,’ Cordelli, bad ones. Other people will be gawking at the site. I have a right to be there, you know I do.”

  “Jeff, I’ll call you back.”

  “No, I need to know.”

  At that moment Sheri and Jeff heard a distant siren that was approaching her area. Jeff figured that the police might also be acting on the Dalfinis’ address. If that was the case, he didn’t want to wait for them.

  “Tell me the location now!” Jeff glanced out the window down the street. His cab was still waiting. “I swear I’ll get it, one way or another.”

  Cordelli let a beat pass before relenting.

  “Got a pen and paper?”

  Cordelli recited the location. Jeff copied it on the newsprint border of a newspaper on Sheri’s coffee table.

  “What was that all about?” Sheri said.

  “The NYPD have found something.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know exactly but I have to go.” Jeff collected his wallet and things from Sheri. “If it comes up, I’ll tell the police that you tried to help me.”

  Sheri said nothing.

  Concern deepened the worry lines on her face and she tried to absorb all that had taken place as Jeff hurried out of her home and trotted down the street to his cab.

  CHAPTER 14

  Brooklyn, New York City

  The 2010 GMC Terrain burned within sight of the Brooklyn Bridge, in the loading area of an abandoned warehouse at the fringe of a derelict industrial section of Brooklyn Heights.

  Officers in a marked NYPD car patrolling the zone were first to spot it. They’d called it in with the plate number. By the time crews from Engine 205, Ladder 118, arrived the SUV was engulfed, the blaze blasting outward and skyward, turning the vehicle into a mass of ferocity.

  The inferno crackled and hissed, discharging sparks and flakes of melted debris. Firefighters stretched a line, keeping a safe distance using the reach of the hose stream. Explosions can propel white-hot fragments with bullet force. Like all first responders, they knew every call could be their last. Their firehouse had lost eight members in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

  Cordelli and Ortiz pulled up amid the sirens and lights of more arriving emergency vehicles. They were directed to Fire Lieutenant Van Reston. A crowd was collecting at the yellow tape that cordoned the area. Cordelli had to shout over the rattle-roar of the pumper.

  “What do you have?”

  “Arson, and given the intensity, I’m guessing they used an incendiary device.”

  Cordelli took down Reston’s information in his notebook.

  “Anyone inside?”

  “Don’t know yet. We’ll know soon as we can have a look.”

  “Thanks.” Cordelli and Ortiz scanned the area for surveillance cameras. It didn’t look promising. They went to Officer Marktiz, the uniform who’d called it in.

  “Any witnesses?”

  “Naw.” Marktiz shook his head as he retrieved more tape from the trunk of his car. “Nobody stepped up, nobody around. Nothing. We’ll help with a canvass.”

  Cordelli and Ortiz knew coming into this that it didn’t look good.

  The vehicle used in the abduction of Sarah and Cole Griffin came up stolen, now it had been torched—all premeditated.

  “They must’ve had a switch car ready,” Ortiz said. “I don’t like this, it’s all too methodical. Now we could have homicides. I do not freakin’ like this.”

  “Yup.”

  Thick smoke clouds churned from the wreck as crews doused the flames. Cordelli and Ortiz turned as a gust sent a choking column their way. When they turned back, Cordelli faced an old problem walking at him: Detective Larry Brewer.

  “What the hell is he doing here?”

  Cordelli had worked with Brewer a few years back. The guy’s ego was bigger than Yankee Stadium and fit with his near-inhuman aura. Brewer’s utter baldness accentuated his bulging black eyes and his pointed ears, earning him the nickname “Diablo.”

  “What’re you doing at my scene, Cordelli?” Brewer’s jaw worked a wad of gum.

  “We’re on a case.”

  “You’re contaminating my scene. We’ve got an ongoing undercover operation with the task force.”

  “We’re working an abduction—mother and son—and that’s our vehicle.”

  “I saw your alert. My case takes precedence over yours, we’re taking over. It’s ours now. My captain will advise your supervisor to advise you to skip back to Midtown South and get me your notes.”

  “We’re not going anywhere, Larry,” Cordelli said. “We’re going to wait here for Lieutenant Reston to give us the green light on our scene.”

  Brewer grimaced, twisting his neck until his Adam’s apple popped. “You’re in our way, Vic.” Brewer stepped into Cordelli’s space just as Brewer’s cell phone rang. He answered it, pointed his chin to the other side of a patrol car and he and his partner stepped away.

  “He’s a piece of work,” Ortiz said.

  “He’s a slab of misery.”

  With the sound of pressured water against metal, Cordelli turned sadly back to the smoldering ruin.

  “I’ll bet we have somebody in there, Juanita.”

  “I’m praying we don’t. Look.”

  Beyond the tape, Jeff Griffin had stepped from a taxi to anxiously survey the scene. Cordelli cursed himself for giving up the address, but Griffin was right—he would’ve found out.

  Cordelli had requested two cars be dispatched to the house of the registered owner on Steeldown Road in the Bronx, and he’d hoped the units got to it before Brewer got a chance to claim it.

  Now, a firefighter at the wreckage was shouting and signaling for Lieutenant Reston to look into the SUV’s interior. Whatever was inside could not be viewed from a distance. Cordelli saw Reston lean in, saw his face crease before he directed his men to their next steps.

  “Damn,” Cordelli said.

  It was clear to him what they’d found.

  * * *

  It was clear to Jeff Griffin, too.

  He was experienced with these scenes.

  From where he stood, he read Reston’s face and it hit him.

  Oh, Jesus.

  The dread Jeff had locked in the darkest reaches of his heart lashed against the chains that held it there. He saw the fire crews unfold the large yellow tarps—the universal flag of tragedy, the confirmation of death. He watched them take care positioning the covering. Protecting the scene while respecting the dignity of the dead.

  He was familiar with the funereal procedure.

  He’d performed it himself.

  He knew what happened to fire victims—how their skin cracked, how their bones broke, how the skulls could shatter and how the bodies could be burned beyond recognition.

  Sarah and Cole.

  He began shaking, pierced by one thought.

  I have to see them. I have to see for myself.

  Everything went white.

  Time froze.

  He could not immediately remember physically getting as close as he did to the SUV’s charred remains before hands seized him and dragged him back while he screamed fo
r Sarah and Cole. All he saw was the brilliant yellow sheet. All he could imagine was the horror under it. He didn’t know how much time had passed or how he came to be in the rear seat of a police car with his hands covering his nose and mouth, blood roaring in his ears. For a moment or two he’d cried and when he dried his face, the clink of the handcuffs around his wrists alerted him to a man standing just outside the car.

  “Mr. Griffin? I’m Detective Brewer. Can you hear me now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, I’m going to start again. You have the right to remain silent….”

  CHAPTER 15

  Manhattan, New York City

  Jeff Griffin was placed in a stark interview room at One Police Plaza.

  He’d waived his right to an attorney.

  Left alone to contend with the agony of no one confirming that Sarah and Cole were dead, all he could do was pray.

  Please, tell me it’s not them in the SUV, I’m begging you.

  Adrenaline rippled through him.

  He flattened his hands on the wooden table in front of him while memories strobed, snapshots of standing near Times Square with Sarah and feeling her arm around him. Tight. We have to hang on and work this out. Snapshots of the joy in Cole’s face as he marveled at the skyscrapers.

  They can’t be dead.

  By degrees Jeff regained the strength to keep from losing control. He had to hang on. He had to keep hoping, he told himself as events after the fire came into focus. Upon his arrest, Cordelli had rushed to the car, confronting the bald detective, demanding answers.

  “Hey, Brewer! Where the hell are you taking him?”

  Brewer had flashed his palm to Cordelli while he ended a cell phone call with “—okay, so we’re good at Steeldown Road in the Bronx.” Then he’d turned to Cordelli. “Step back, Vic. He’s mine now. We’ve got two homicides, this is our operation.”

  “He’s got nothing to do with this the way you think, Brewer.”

  “You don’t know squat. Just get your notes to me or it’s your ass!”

  Brewer had gotten into the passenger seat of the unmarked Ford and closed the door. His partner, Klaver, was behind the wheel. The motor roared and its siren yelped as the Crown Vic left for the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan and NYPD headquarters downtown. They took Jeff up the elevator to a cell-like room where he waited.