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Fiona tore open the envelope.
Marshall musta sneaked up during the night and stuffed the ransom note under our door. During all that time I’d stared at the ceiling, wide awake, why couldn’t I have heard him and caught him on our porch? And why for oncet in her life couldn’t Mollie have barked? I usually liked her being so quiet, but not that time.
Fiona let out a howl when she read what he wanted: $20,000. “... enough money to get away and start over,” he wrote. Like we were friends, and he was just asking for a small loan to tide him over. “Where would we ever get that kind of money, Rabbit?”
“We could mortgage the farm—again.” I’d sunk all my inheritance, small as it was, into the farm, but I’d sell everything I owned to get those boys back.
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Stoltz took over from Airhorn oncet it was an official kidnapping. He arrived little more than an hour after the sheriff’s call. I don’t know how he made that trip so fast, but I was grateful he cared enough to risk his own neck on those windy roads. I asked after Curtis; he was due back from Charlotte that afternoon.
I introduced Stoltz to Fiona, and she left to go make tea. We talked some but it wasn’t ‘til she came back and served us that we got down to the real business at hand.
The plan was to meet up with Marshall, who’d given us the deadline of nine o’clock that evening. He also included instructions on how to find him and the boys. Sounded like Marshall planned to leave Vern behind when he “started over.”
A coupla FBI folks showed us a small suitcase with $20,000 in it and explained how the handover would go. I thought it must be play money, but they assured me it was the real thing. They didn’t plan on Marshall getting his hands on it before some ninja FBI men and women hiding in the woods grabbed him.
It all felt too unreal for both me and Fiona, like a bad TV movie. But we paid attention and were grateful for the support. Of course this time there was no question that I’d come along—I had to be the frontman who delivered the money. Fiona said she didn’t know if her legs would carry her. Stoltz kindly suggested she come along, but remain in the truck; he seemed to understand she could never stay at home alone, either.
For the rest of the day, neither one of us had anything to occupy our minds. I couldn’t work in my shop. For sure I would’ve cut off a finger. Shiloh was out there working hard to help us keep our deadlines. And I knew he was visualizing a good outcome for us.
I scrambled us some eggs and made toast from a whole wheat loaf a neighbor’d brought over. That was all we could keep down, that plus more tea.
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When Curtis arrived, he said all the right things and explained he’d be heading up the FBI team that would be going out to the site well before nine o’clock. He promised they knew how to do this so Marshall wouldn’t see them.
Fiona and I prayed. I didn’t know what to say other than how much I loved both the boys, and I asked Jesus to help them have the opportunity to live full lives. I offered mine in exchange, but I knew he didn’t work thataway.
Like a coupla robots, we walked out to the truck about eight-thirty, carrying that suitcase that meant life to our boys. I drove, though to this day, I don’t remember a thing about getting there. Fiona was good about reading the directions while holding a flashlight. When we pulled up just before nine o’clock, no one was in sight. I was glad about the FBI not sticking out.
After a warm day for that late in the fall, the evening had turned cold. I wanted to have the truck going so we could have some heat, but I was afraid we wouldn’t hear the boys.
Fiona’s teeth were chattering when she spoke. “This wait is killing me, Rabbit. I know we can’t hurry things up, but I’m fixing to start screaming like a banshee.”
I knew she meant it, but what could I say to soothe her? I wanted to start hollering too.
After that, we didn’t say anything for the longest time. I jumped in my seat when she spoke again. “Those boys mean the world to me. And to you, I know.” She squeezed my hand, and something passed between us like I hadn’t felt before. “I swear if they come home to us, I will never again waste a precious moment wishing for more. Two fine boys are more love than most people get to have, and I’ll be grateful for what I have.”
I hugged her hard and fought back my own fears. I tried to picture our life together, happy on the farm with two young’uns running round making noise and mess and everything wonderful about being that young.
I looked at my watch; it was only ten after nine. It felt like we’d been waiting an hour.
“Do you think he’s playing a trick on us, Rabbit?” Fiona said, sounding like the life was draining outta her. I felt about the same, but I was trying to hold it inside for her sake. I wrapped my arms round her while she let out another wave of misery.
When my watch read twenty-five after nine, I said, “Shug, I can’t sit here and wait. I don’t want to screw anything up, but I’ve got to get outta this truck.” We were in this together, and I couldn’t just go running off without her agreeing.
“Go out there and find that bastard,” she said, still crying her eyes out. “I’ll stay in the truck with the suitcase.”
The truck door made an awful cry in the silent night. Then I shouted, “Marshall! Marshall White! We’re here for the boys.”
Just an old hoot owl answered my plea. I walked round in circles, straining my eyes to see in the dark. Nothing. That bastard had played a trick on us. Was there no end to his evil?
I feared the worst for our boys and started crying. Then out of nowhere came the unmistakable sound of a harmonica blasting a string of off-key notes. A song of desperation.
In a flash, FBI agents rushed forward and called out to one anothern in an area off to the left. I ran toward them, and in the dark I almost tripped over a root. The near-fall hurtled me forward in a low crouch, my arms out to regain my balance, so when Conor and Vern came running outta the woods, they thought I was opening my arms to them, down at their level, in order to grab them and love them and take them to safety. And I was.
Fiona was right behind me, and next thing I knew we were all in a huddle, hugging and crying and carrying on. We heard the FBI shouting, and for oncet, I was happy not to be in the middle of things. Though I wasn’t happy to learn Marshall had slipped away again.