When Anne didn’t answer, Gram kept talking. Jennie sat, mesmerized by her grandmother’s skill in bringing Anne to the point of a confession. “We know Chuck was abusing you. Did he hurt Hannah too? Is that why you arranged for Cathy to take her and run? That is what happened, isn’t it, Anne? While you and Chuck were gone, Cathy was supposed to take Hannah. That’s why you had Cathy babysitting Hannah and not Jennie.”
Anne nodded, tears streaming down her face. “It’s true. Chuck said he’d never let me have custody of Hannah. He threatened to tell the police that I was abusing her. And he’d win. He can be very persuasive.” Anne sucked in a shuddering breath and blew her nose.
“So you had to take her away from him?” Mom said in an empathetic tone.
“I didn’t know what else to do. It seemed so easy at first. I confided in Cathy and she agreed to help me. We had it planned down to the last detail. She was supposed to abandon the car so everyone would think she and Hannah had been abducted. Mother was going to meet them at Mt. Hood Meadows to throw everyone off, and then take them to the beach. Mom and Dad have this property on the other side of the highway from the Bed and Breakfast. We were going to stay there for a few days, then go to Canada.”
“So your parents knew all along?” Jennie asked.
“Only my mother. Dad would never go along with something like that. Mother knew what it was like to live with an abuser. Dad treated her like dirt. Oh, he never beat her up—he saved that for Cathy and me.”
Gram shook her head. “Did you realize that by abducting Hannah and going into Canada, you would be committing a federal offense? You may have wanted to protect Hannah, but did you stop to consider what would happen to her with her mother in prison?”
“I knew we would be breaking the law, but—” Anne took another deep breath and pressed her hands to her forehead. “All I could think about was getting her away from Chuck. As long as he was only hitting me, I could live with it, but he’d started abusing Hannah. I couldn’t let him do that.”
In a voice much more controlled than Jennie felt, she asked Anne about Nick.
“Nick was never part of the plan. I don’t know what happened to him. I don’t know what happened to any of them.” Anne dissolved in another barrage of tears.
“You don’t know where they are?” Gram set her cup down with a clunk, sloshing coffee over the side. She didn’t bother to mop it up.
“I … I know it sounds crazy. But you have to believe me. I haven’t heard from my sister. She was supposed to call me when I got home. Like I said before, we’d arrange to have Mother pick her and Hannah up at Mt. Hood Meadows. Cathy was to abandon the car there. We thought it would throw everyone off our trail. Mother went to pick them up, but they never got there.”
“And you have no idea what happened or what went wrong?”
“No. I … m-maybe it was Chuck, or that boy.”
“You should have told the police,” Gram said.
“I couldn’t. I was about to commit a crime. Besides, I kept hoping I’d hear from Cathy.” Anne began sobbing again.
Gram went to the phone. “You have to tell them, Anne. I’m going to call, let them know we’re coming. I’ll drive you down to the station. You’ll want a lawyer.”
Anne nodded. “You’re right. I’ll tell them all I know. I just hope I’m not too late.”
Around noon, when Ryan’s doctor discharged him from the hospital, Jennie borrowed her mother’s car to pick him up. Her Mustang had been totaled, and until the insurance company could work out a settlement she’d be carless.
Ryan’s mom had intended to take him home, but Ryan managed to talk her into letting him stay at Jennie’s until they found Nick.
Ryan still wore a bandage on his head, but it didn’t cover the huge purple-green bruise that extended from the side of his head to his nose. On the way home she told him about Anne’s confession.
“Whew,” he whistled. “That’s some story. You think her husband did it?”
“It’s possible. No one seems to know where he is. What I can’t figure out, though, is why he’d run us off the road.”
“Maybe Doug did that. Rocky seemed pretty sure.”
“Not according to Lisa, B.J., Allison, and Jerry.” Jennie told him about Lisa’s phone call.
“This keeps getting better and better.” Ryan put a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. “Maybe we should talk to Doug—hear his side of the story.”
Instead of heading home, Jennie called Lisa and arranged to pick her up on the way to visit Doug. In only a few minutes they were driving toward Trinity Center.
“I can’t believe you have him hidden in the church.” Jennie glanced in the rearview mirror at her redheaded cousin.
Lisa shrugged. “Well, it’s not in the church, exactly. He’s in the basement of the school—in the furnace room.”
During the rest of the ten-minute trip, Jennie filled Lisa in on the latest details of the case. When they arrived at the church, Jerry opened a side door that led into a hallway separating the church from the high school. Jennie knew the layout of the building well. Her family had been going to church and school there ever since she could remember.
Several minutes later they descended the stairs past the “No admittance” sign and entered the furnace room. B.J., Doug, and Allison had already formed a semicircle on an old carpet remnant. Jennie sat opposite Doug, with Ryan to her left and Lisa to her right. She introduced Doug, B.J., Allison, and Jerry to Ryan. “Thanks for not turning me in,” Doug said. “I know it was stupid to run, but the cops will never believe the truth. I hardly believe it myself.” Doug had a different look about him. The arrogance and hostility she’d seen in him earlier had been replaced with, what—humility? Sincerity?
“Tell me about Bernie.”
“That was an accident. He ran right in front of me. I wanted to take him to the vet, but I was scared. Bernie was still alive and everything. Okay, it was stupid. I brought the dog home and then went to Hammond’s. I really needed that job. I was going to tell you—until you came over and practically accused me of snatching Nick. Believe me, Jennie, I had nothing to do with Nick’s disappearance.”
“Why couldn’t you have admitted you did it? Why did you run?”
“I saw the news, Jennie. When they reported the stuff about some woman seeing a guy at the park where they found Nick’s shirt, I panicked. I knew it would only be a matter of time before they arrested me. I didn’t know what to do until I talked to B.J.” He gave B.J. a grateful look. Glancing back at Jennie he added, “I was pretty upset with you, McGrady—especially for calling the cops the night I locked myself out of the house. But I’d never hurt you.”
B.J. slipped an arm through his. “I picked him up and brought him home and asked Allison and Jerry to help. Jerry had a key to the church.”
“So, do you guys believe me?”
“I do,” Ryan said.
Jennie gave Ryan an incredulous look. How could Ryan give in so easily? Doug seemed sincere enough, but Jennie wasn’t convinced. Still, something in Doug’s demeanor and his soft brown eyes made her waver. “I’d like to.” He has a record, McGrady, she reminded herself. He’s a con artist. Yes, another voice debated, but people change and he has definitely changed. “You seem different,” she said.
Doug flashed her a shy grin. “Yeah, well, these guys have been trying to convert me. I’ve been reading books from the church library. At night I’ve been going up to the sanctuary—talking to God and that kind of stuff. Guess it’s rubbing off.”
Unfortunately, his change of heart had occurred after the attempt on her life. Besides, being a believer didn’t clear him. “That’s great, Doug,” she said, deciding to affirm his decision on the chance he really had changed.
Jennie untangled her legs from the lotus position in which she’d been sitting and stood. “We’d better go, Johnson. I’m anxious to find out what the police thought about Anne’s confession.”
“Anne confessed?” B.J. and Allison asked together. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I told Lisa on the way over. She can fill you in.”
“Hey, McGrady.” B.J. scrambled to her feet. “You won’t narc on Doug, will you?”
“I can’t promise anything like that, B.J.” Jennie shifted her gaze to Doug. “You should turn yourself in. If you really have changed, it seems to me you’d want to do the right thing. Talk to Rocky. You can trust him to make sure you get a fair shake.” Jennie turned and walked out; Ryan followed.
By the time Jennie and Ryan got back to the house, Mom had started dinner. Ryan collapsed on the couch. Jennie felt terrible. The guy had just come out of the hospital after suffering a concussion and she’d dragged him all over town. “Can I get you anything? Pain pills, an ice pack?”
“Yeah—both. Thanks.”
After supplying Ryan with painkillers and a cold pack, Jennie joined her mother in the kitchen. “How did everything go with Anne?” She leaned over the counter and grabbed a carrot stick from the vegetable tray Mom was fixing.
“That poor woman. She’s at home now—resting.” Mom sliced the end off a stalk of celery. “She’s been through so much. After interrogating her for two hours, the police have issued a warrant for Chuck.” Mom set the knife down. “Would you finish this for me while I check the chicken?”
“Sure.” Jennie took her mother’s place at the counter and began slicing celery. “Do they think Chuck intercepted Anne’s plan like she said?”
“Apparently, only they’ve added a twist. Remember Judson, Cathy’s boyfriend?” Mom pulled a glass baking dish full of marinating chicken out of the fridge and began turning the pieces over.
Jennie nodded. “Is he still a suspect?”
“I don’t think so. Apparently, he said something to the police about Cathy and … well, to make a long story short, they think Cathy and Chuck have been involved. Cathy may have told Chuck about Anne’s plans.”
“Chuck and Cathy? Mom, that’s terrible.” Jennie slashed through a wide stalk of celery. “I don’t get it. This creep beats his wife. He’s an unfaithful louse and Cathy finds him appealing? No way.”
“I’m having a hard time understanding the logic myself. But Cathy does have a history of being attracted to abusive men. And you have to admit, until a few days ago, we saw Chuck as a very nice person.”
“I guess it makes sense in a revolting sort of way. Anne confides her plan to Cathy. Cathy tells Chuck. She goes ahead with her plans to abduct Hannah, only instead of meeting Anne, she meets Chuck.”
Then what, McGrady? Did they see you as a threat? Did they steal a truck and run you and Ryan off the road? The theory had possibilities. Still, it did little to resolve the most important question of all. What had they done with Nick? Jennie realized that no matter how terrifying the answer, she had to know.
Unfortunately, Mom was not the person to ask. “Where’s Gram?”
“Resting. She talked to the forensics people today. They’re certain that no one was in the car when it exploded. That’s why the police think Chuck and Cathy may be in on it together. Now all they have to do is find them.”
“Anne said something about going to Canada. Do you think they might have gone up there?”
“It’s anyone’s guess, Jennie. To be honest, I really don’t care where they went. I just want my son back.” Tears gathered in Mom’s eyes and she brushed them away with the back of her hands.
Jennie set the knife aside and wrapped an arm around her mother’s shoulders. “They’ll find him, Mom. I know they will.” You don’t know anything of the kind, McGrady. Jennie tuned out the negative voice.