––––––––
Ryan sat on the bed he and Carrie had shared, staring off into space as he tried to wrap his mind around the whole thing. Carrie had left him, he had lost his child and no one was doing anything about it. He started to call his parents, but the last thing he wanted was to hear them say I-told-you-so.
He’d never live it down.
Detective Chandler had called him and asked him to stop by the police station to go over some new details he’d gotten on the case. He planned to go there and see what could be done about locating Carrie. She was in a fragile state of mind if she could just run off like she had.
Just as he got out of the shower, the phone rang.
“Ryan Ashby?” the voice asked as he furrowed his brow, looking at the caller ID to see who it was.
Unknown.
“Who wants to know?” he asked, fed up with all the weirdoes who had been calling them since all of this shit started. He sat on the edge of the tub as he wiped his hair dry with a small towel.
“You don’t know me, but I have some information about your daughter...”
“Who is this?” he demanded, sitting upright as he felt his anger grow at the nerve of this bitch.
“I can’t go into this over the phone....” She hesitated, and then spoke again, “Can we meet somewhere?”
When Ryan didn’t say anything, she gave him a general location of a small shopping center on Jericho Turnpike in Mineola somewhere.
“Meet me there at eleven tonight.” She said, “Trust me, you’re going to want to hear what I have to say.”
And she hung up, the dial-tone buzzing in his ear as he continued to sit there. He didn’t know how this woman had gotten the nerve up to call him, but he was mad as hell. He started to call Detective Chandler, but he and that other detective hadn’t seemed too quick on the uptake with this whole thing.
All he wanted was his wife and daughter back. Nothing more.
Later that night, Ryan lay in bed, tossing and turning as he saw that the time was nearing eleven. He wondered if the weird woman would actually be there, or if this would turn out to be another hoax. It had already happened once, and he and Carrie had gotten their hopes up. Of course when they met up with the person, they had asked for money, stating that they knew about the GoFundMe account. and that they had money.
That account, one of a few, hadn’t even been started by him, and whoever had started it hadn’t sent them a thin dime yet.
He doubted any of the accounts were really intended to actually raise money for them, not for them at least.
It was sickening how quickly people used a tragedy to generate income for themselves.
He didn’t want the money.
All he wanted was his wife and daughter back.
Nothing more.
***
Connie Brooks sat nervously in her car as she watched headlights approach and then wash over her vehicle before driving on through the empty parking lot and out onto the street behind it. That was the third car she’d seen take a shortcut through the parking lot in the last hour. One car had pulled up to the TD Bank to use the ATM, but other than that it had been relatively quiet.
She was pretty sure that Ryan Ashby would be a no-show, and she sighed heavily as she started the car’s engine. Just as she pulled out of the parking lot a grey Saturn VUE passed her and slowly rolled into the parking lot, coasting through.
She had barely gotten a look at him, but she recognized the handsome dark-haired man from when he’d been on television a few weeks ago when the news media had been camped outside his house.
It was Ryan Ashby.
Connie made a little U-Turn and went back into the parking lot, tooting her horn as she did and the grey Saturn jolted to a sudden stop. She watched as the tall, broad-shouldered man got out of car, his cell phone in his hand as he walked towards her. He was even more handsome in person, she thought.
He paused uncertainly as she realized that he was waiting for her to get out of the car, too.
“Who are you?” he asked her, as she slowly got out of her car, hoping that she wasn’t over her head with this one.
“I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you that I have information about your child.” She said, as Ryan adopted a dubious expression.
“I have no money, so if this is some scam...”
“It’s not.” She said, taking the same pictures she’d sent to Detective Chandler out of her purse and handing them to Ryan.
“So what am I supposed to do with these?” he asked, already looking sorry that he’d been duped into coming out to meet her.
“The woman in that picture is the one who took your baby, and I can tell you exactly what happened.”
“Oh really?” Ryan asked, skepticism lacing his voice. He knew this lady was bullshitting. “How do you know all of this?”
“Because I was paid a hefty sum to allow this person access to the maternity ward. I am the assistant director of security at the hospital your baby was stolen from.”
Connie felt her blood run cold as Ryan’s facial expression grew dangerous and he moved closer to her.
Just as he got right up on her, another set of headlights appeared and an enormous black SUV raced towards them. It looked like an Escalade.
Without even thinking, Ryan grabbed Connie around the torso and shoved her out of the way just as the larger truck slammed into the woman’s car.
“Move!” Ryan hollered, both of them falling to the ground as the black SUV spun out and headed for them again. This time it hit Connie’s car hard enough to knock it over onto its side.
“Run!” Connie screamed as she saw a tall figure get out of the SUV, the unmistakable black metal in his hand aimed at them even in the semi-darkness of the parking lot.
A shot rang out, and then another shattering Connie’s windshield as they dove behind the fallen car.
“Stay down!” Ryan shouted over the gunfire as he and Connie jumped into the grey Saturn, which was thankfully still running.
“Stay down!” Ryan repeated as Connie screamed in fright, gunning the engine as he tore out of the parking lot at top speed. He flew towards Clarrisa Road and then hung a quick right onto Herricks Road as he headed north.
He checked the rearview mirror, but he couldn’t see anything coming after them, at least not yet. His eyes raked over the woman sitting in his passenger seat as he scoffed.
“Jesus Christ, lady. Who the fuck are you?”
***
Sandy was roused from his sleep at roughly five the following morning as his cell phone rang. He rolled over and fumbled for it on his nightstand and answered it before it went to voicemail.
“Chandler.” He greeted, stifling a yawn as he kept his eyes closed.
“Dee, there’s been an update to the Ashby case. I’m downstairs.” Millie said, all business.
“Be right there.” He said, and then hung up. His phone immediately rang again as he laid his head back down on the pillow.
“I mean it, Dee.” Millie said, with amusement in her voice. “Let’s get moving.”
The line clicked in his ear as he chuckled. That Millie always kept him on his toes. Old fart like him was lucky to have her for a partner.
He threw some clothes on, grabbed his phone and headed down from his second-floor apartment to meet Millie.
She floored it the second he got into the car, her demeanor freakishly bright for such an early hour. He often wondered when she slept.
“Last night in Mineola, something went down over near Jericho Turnpike. Someone called it in and one of the cars involved was a grey Saturn.” She said, picking up the speed as they headed to the scene.
“You’re kidding, right?” Sandy asked, wondering why this thing kept getting more and more complicated.
“Nope. A black SUV was there too, betcha I know who that belongs to, and the caller said there was some sort of shootout in the parking lot.” She said, barely taking a breath. “I think we’re really close to catching these guys, Dee.”
“It would seem so.” Sandy said, as they rolled down Jericho Turnpike towards the small shopping center, in which the parking lot was roped off for Herricks and Clarrisa Roads in addition to the turnpike.
Cops were swarming the parking lot documenting evidence.
Sandy looked at the skid marks a set of tires had made near Clarissa Road, the partial ‘u’ shape indicating the vehicle had spun out. He watched an officer place yellow, numbered markers near the shell casings littering the ground.
A red Ford Escape lay on its side, the body riddled with bullets and the windshield shattered completely. Traffic was constantly slowing down on the turnpike as early-morning commuters rubber-necked, or gave them pissed looks because they had planned to go to the Panera Bread located almost right next to the fallen car.
He looked to where Millie was talking with an officer they both knew, the man on his radio as she listened in.
“The Ford is registered to someone named Constance Brooks.” Millie said as she walked back over to where he stood, “Handbag was still inside the car. I think you should also know that Constance Brooks works in the security department at the hospital.”
“Let’s check out Ashby first and then head to the hospital, although I doubt he went home after all this.” Sandy said, with a heavy sigh.
“You read my mind.” Millie agreed, they got back into their car and headed towards Ryan and Carrie’s house.