Allison’s heart leaped into her throat. She looked first at Knox, and then at the phone on the table. Surely nobody would be calling at this time of night to see if Cody had come home. It was midnight, too late for a well-meaning person to call. Besides, the caller ID box displayed private caller instead of a phone number.
The phone rang a second time. “Answer it,” Wendall said as he pushed buttons that would record any conversation that took place.
She was suddenly more terrified than she’d been throughout the entire night. The phone rang a third time.
“Allison, answer the phone,” Knox said urgently.
Her hands trembled as she picked up the receiver and breathed a faint hello.
“I have your son.” The voice boomed throughout the kitchen. It was impossible to tell whether it was a male or a female. It was obviously digitally distorted.
Knox moved closer to Allison as her hand tightened on the receiver. “Please...please don’t hurt him,” she said. She fought back the tears that tried to choke her. “Who is this? What do you want?”
“There’s a lightning-struck crooked tree on the west side of town. Bring a million dollars there at midnight tomorrow night. I’ll exchange the boy for the cash. Twenty-four hours, and the money better be there. Come alone. If I see a cop, the boy dies.”
Knox grabbed the phone from Allison. “We’re not giving you a dime unless we get proof of life,” he said. “We don’t even know if you really have Cody.”
Allison stared at Knox in horror. She couldn’t believe they were asking for proof of life where their son was concerned. The nightmare just kept getting worse.
“He’s wearing a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt with a horse on the front.”
Allison gasped. Oh, God, that was exactly what Cody had been wearing when he’d left for school that morning.
“We still want proof of life. Do you hear me?” Knox continued. “No clock starts ticking until we know our boy is alive and well. And if you hurt him in any way, I’ll hunt you down and kill you.”
There was a long pause. “You’ll hear from me soon.” The phone went dead and Allison collapsed into her chair, her heart fluttering so fast she could scarcely catch her breath.
“Knox, that’s what Cody wore to school this morning, his black horse T-shirt,” she said half-breathlessly. “So, now we know. Somebody really kidnapped him.”
“Maybe,” Knox replied. “Or maybe that call was just from somebody who saw Cody today and is trying to cash in on his disappearance.”
Wendall got up from the table. “I’ll just step into the other room and give the sheriff a call to catch him up to speed. He’ll get somebody on tracing the source of the call.”
“Play it again,” Knox said to Jim as Wendall left the room. “I want to see if I hear any background noise.”
Knox listened to the phone call four more times and by then Allison wanted to slam her hands over her ears and never hear that horrendous voice again.
“It could be a hoax,” Wendall said when he came back into the room.
“That’s one of the reasons I asked for proof of life,” Knox replied. “It’s the only way to know if the call was real or not.”
Allison didn’t know what was worse, the call being a hoax or real. If it was fake, then they still didn’t know what had happened to Cody. If it was real, it meant that some evil person had her son. Who? Dear God, who would do this?
“I’ll get the money,” she said. “Somehow, someway, I’ll figure out how to pay to get him back.” A million dollars. She could sell her business. She could mortgage the house. She’d do whatever it took to get Cody back home.
“We aren’t paying,” Knox said firmly.
“We have to,” she protested. “It might be the only way we get him back safely.”
“We’re not going to give a kidnapper a single penny. We’re going to find the bastard and get Cody back,” Knox replied with deadly intent shining from his eyes.
“How?” She felt a rising hysteria. “How are we going to find him, Knox? We don’t know who he is. We have no idea where he’s taken Cody.” She released a sharp laugh she didn’t even recognize as her own. “We don’t even know if it’s a male or a female.” Once again, fear that Livia might be behind the kidnapping grabbed her by the throat.
“I’ll figure it out.” A knot of tension pulsed in Knox’s jawline.
Allison was about to argue with him but a knock fell on the door and once again her heart thudded with anxiety. “That’s probably Sheriff Jeffries,” Wendall said. He left the kitchen to answer the door and then returned with the sheriff trailing behind him.
“I want to hear the ransom call,” Bud said.
Allison listened yet another time to the horrendous phone call. When it was finished Bud looked at her. “Do you recognize the voice?”
“I don’t think you’d recognize it if it were your own mother,” Knox replied impatiently. “It’s obvious that it’s been distorted.”
“I know that,” Bud snapped with a scowl. “But maybe she recognized the cadence or the particular word choices the caller used.”
She shook her head. “I don’t recognize anything about the caller.” She was vaguely surprised by Bud. She’d always thought he might be a stupid man as well as lazy. He’d just changed her mind about the stupid part.
“There’s no way to know if the caller really has your son. Once you get some sort of proof of life, then we’ll figure out how we intend to handle this,” Bud said.
“What about a tip line?” Allison asked. Tragically she’d seen enough of these cases on television shows and in the news to know that usually a dedicated phone line was used for people to call in if they knew or had seen anything that might yield a clue.
Bud frowned. “These kinds of cases always bring out the crazies.”
“It only takes one caller to be right about something they saw or heard,” Knox said.
Bud released an audible sigh. “I’ll head back to the station now and get that set up. I’m planning on a news conference here in the morning. We’ll flash the number across the air and see what comes in.” Bud shifted his gaze to his two deputies. “I’ll send a couple of men over here so you can go home.”
“If it’s all the same to you, we’d like to see this thing through,” Wendall said. “We’ll be fine. We’ll spell each other through the night.”
Bud shrugged. “Works for me.” He looked back at Knox. “I’ll get an AMBER alert out. Call me if anything happens. I want to be kept up to date.”
“What about Chad?” Knox a sked.
“Nobody has seen hide nor hair of him.” Bud frowned. “I’ve got somebody sitting on his house. I still suspect he’s passed out in some alley or in a bush and will eventually be home. His car was in the driveway, and he doesn’t own any other vehicles, so he hasn’t gone too far.”
“Have there been any reports of any stolen vehicles?” Knox asked.
“No, nothing like that. All I can tell you right now is that everything that can be done is being done. I’ll check in with you in the morning.” And with that the sheriff left.
Allison stood. “Maybe I should make another pot of coffee.” Making coffee, that’s how she’d gotten through the long afternoon. She didn’t know what else to do, and she was desperate to do something, anything to take her mind off the phone call.
“I think we all could use some rest,” Knox replied.
Rest? How could she rest when Cody wasn’t home? Although her eyes were gritty with a need to sleep, her brain raced so fast she couldn’t imagine it quieting.
“But what if we get another phone call? I should be here to answer,” she protested.
Knox got up and moved to place his hands on her shoulders. “Ally, I don’t think we’re going to hear anything more tonight. And if the phone rings, I’ll answer it. Why don’t you go upstairs and get some sleep? You’ll need all of your strength for tomorrow. Cody is going to need you to be levelheaded and rested when he finally comes home.”
She searched his features, noting the light lines that creased down the sides of his face, the overbrightness of his eyes. “What are you going to do? You look like you could use some rest, too.”
“If it’s okay with you, when I’m ready, I’ll just stretch out on the bottom bunk in Cody’s room.”
She nodded. “I’ll go up and lie down, but I’m sure I won’t sleep. I’m not sure I’ll ever sleep again until Cody is home. Just please let me know if anything happens.”
He squeezed her shoulders and then dropped his hands to his sides. “Go on, go rest and I’ll see you later.”
With a weary nod to the other men, she left the kitchen. She climbed the stairs slowly, her feet feeling as if they weighed a thousand pounds. When she reached the top, she went directly into her bedroom.
She thought of going into Cody’s room, but she didn’t think she could handle it right now without completely losing it. Smelling his scent, feeling his presence when he wasn’t there, was just too great a heartache for her to bear right now.
She turned on the lamp on the nightstand and then stretched out on her bed facing the framed picture of her son. Cody...where are you? Who has you?
The questions not only worried in her head, but also painfully squeezed her heart. When Knox had left her years ago, she’d thought her heartache couldn’t be worse than it was. But this...this created a whole new kind of pain in her chest, one that felt as if she might not draw her next breath.
Everything that could be done was being done, she reminded herself. That’s what the sheriff had told them. If the phone call was really from a kidnapper, then eventually they’d get some sort of proof of life. Bud had said they’d figure things out from there...but what was there to figure out?
She just wanted her son back.
Tears burned at her eyes and she squeezed them tightly closed. She wished Knox was up there right now, holding her tight against his broad chest as the rest of this torturous night passed. She shoved the thought away, knowing that was probably the very last thing she needed.
* * *
Cody awoke from a nightmare. In his dream somebody had been hiding behind a tree and had jumped out at him and pressed a stinky rag over his mouth and nose.
He opened his eyes, expecting to see the glow-in-the-dark stars that always comforted him if he woke up in the middle of the night.
There were no stars...only darkness. And even though it was dark, he knew he wasn’t in his top bunk. It felt like he was on a cot like he’d slept on one time when his mom had taken him camping for a weekend.
His stomach rolled and goose bumps crawled over his skin as he realized it hadn’t been a nightmare, after all. This was terrible and it was real.
He wanted to cry out for his mother, but he knew with certainty she wasn’t anywhere around. There was no way she would let him sleep on a cot that smelled so yucky or in a place that was so cold. She made sure he had plenty of blankets on his bed and they always smelled like wind and sunshine.
And he was so hungry. The last time he’d eaten had been in the school cafeteria and they’d served some yucky, soggy fish sticks and runny mac and cheese. His mom would never let him go to bed hungry.
As he remained with his eyes open, he realized it wasn’t completely dark as he’d first thought. A shaft of moonlight drifted through a small window high above his head, allowing him to make out a set of wooden stairs across the room that led up.
A basement. He was in some sort of basement. Who had put him there? He didn’t even remember seeing the person who had put that cloth over his face. He’d sneaked up behind him. Whoever had done this was a very bad person.
His stomach ached with his hunger and he was so very cold, but more than anything he was terribly afraid. He’d never been this afraid before in his entire life. He’d watched a zombie movie one time when he’d spent the night at Josh’s house, but even that hadn’t scared him as much as he was now.
Was the person who had taken him upstairs? Maybe if he just climbed up the stairs he could get out of here. Maybe the bad person was asleep and Cody could sneak past him and get out of this place. Maybe if he got outside he could find his way back home or at least find somebody to help him.
He moved his legs and then froze. Something was around one of his ankles. He sat up and leaned over to see what it was. It was something hard and attached to it was a length of chain. He had no idea how long the chain was, but he wasn’t going to get out of bed in the dark and find out.
He tried to get out of the ring, but it was too tight for him to slip his foot through and get free. He then tugged on the chain, but the other end of it was in the wall and he couldn’t get it to release.
Tears leaped to his eyes. He was in trouble. He was in really big trouble. His heart pounded frantically and he squeezed his eyes tightly shut.
He didn’t want to cry. Only babies cried and he wasn’t a baby anymore. He didn’t know how long he’d been in this basement, but it was obviously nighttime outside.
He knew his mom and Knox would be looking for him. His mom had lots of friends. There were probably hundreds of people searching for him right that very minute. And the sheriff and all his men would be hunting for him, too.
These thoughts helped him be a little bit less afraid, but not much. Maybe his father would come and find him. His dad chased bad people and put them in jail. Maybe his dad would realize Cody needed him now more than ever and he’d rescue him.
He held on to that thought as he drifted back to sleep.
* * *
Knox stood in the shower and allowed the beat of hot water to massage his tense muscles. It was just after dawn and he’d managed to sleep in fits and starts for about two hours.
He was grateful that when he’d peeked into Allison’s room a few minutes before she’d been soundly sleeping. She’d need the rest to face the day ahead.
He’d stood for several long moments in the doorway, just watching her, and wondered how they had screwed everything up so badly between them. And how they had come to this place where apparently somebody had taken their son.
His mother. It had to be her. If the phone call had been real, then this was all about money. Livia Colton was on the run from the law and the first thing she would need would be plenty of cash. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d kidnapped Cody for monetary gain. It was who she was, and he’d never hated anyone in his life as much as he hated her.
And how would Allison feel about him if it did turn out to be his mother? He shoved the troubling question out of his head.
He turned off the shower and grabbed a towel. He intended to call Thorne later and ask him to bring some clothes to him. Knox had no idea how long he’d be there and he didn’t intend to leave unless Allison told him to go or until Cody came home.
He dressed in the same jeans and polo shirt he’d worn the day before and then left the bathroom. He paused in Allison’s doorway, grateful that the sound of the shower hadn’t awakened her.
She looked beautiful in the faint dawn light that lit the room. Her features were relaxed and her hair was a silky cloud around her head.
He had no idea how long this ordeal might last. She’d been so strong the day before, but there was no way to guess when she might reach a breaking point. Hopefully the sleep she’d gotten would keep her strong.
He was about to leave her doorway when she emitted a small gasp and her eyes flew open. “Cody,” she said in a pleading whisper that broke Knox’s heart. She then sat up and her gaze landed on him.
He walked over to her bed and sat at the foot. She sat up and pushed strands of hair out of her eyes. “I slept,” she said, her voice filled with heavy guilt. “My son is missing and I went to sleep.”
“Allison, don’t beat yourself up. Your body needs sleep, no matter what’s going on. I even dozed off for a couple of hours.” He couldn’t help but notice she smelled of warm woman and fresh apples.
“So nothing else has happened?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing.” He stared at her for several long moments. “I was just wondering earlier how we got things so screwed up between us.”
She turned her head toward the window, the morning light caressing her pretty features. “Oh, Knox, we tried so many times, but we just could never get it right.” She turned to look at him once again. “The only thing we got right was making a beautiful baby who has grown into a wonderful, loving boy.” Her voice cracked on the last word. “I just want him home.”
He reached out and took one of her hands. “We’ll get him home.” He paused for a moment, and then continued. “I think it’s my mother.” The confession was difficult for him, even to a woman who knew what kind of person Knox’s mother was. Shame coursed through him, a shame his mother had made him feel many times before in his life.
Allison’s eyes widened. “Oh, Knox, you really can’t believe that. I know Livia has done a lot of horrible things, but surely you can’t believe that she would kidnap her own grandson for ransom. I...I don’t want to believe that.” Still, she had to admit, more than once the possibility had jumped into her head.
“I think she saw that blog on Everything’s Blogger in Texas and realized I have a son, and she saw it as a perfect opportunity to get money. It takes a lot of cash to stay on the run from the law.” His gut churned despite the hollowness inside him.
She stared at him, her lower lip trembling with emotion. “Do you think she’d hurt him?”
As always, thoughts of his mother welled up a black despair. “I think she’s capable of anything,” he finally replied.
She slowly shook her head and pulled her hand from his. “I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe your mother somehow got back here to Shadow Creek and took Cody. I still think it’s Chad...or maybe one of the Billings brothers.”
He would allow her this moment of denial, mostly because he was afraid that if it really was his mother he had no idea what lengths Allison would go to when Cody was returned. He knew she’d do whatever possible to keep Livia out of her son’s life, but would she take Cody away from him, too? It didn’t matter what she believed. What would kill him more than anything was if he had unintentionally brought danger to Allison and Cody. If he hadn’t come back here, then the blog probably wouldn’t have been written and Livia wouldn’t know about Cody’s existence. If the kidnapper turned out to be his mother and something horrible happened, he didn’t know how Allison would ever forgive him, and he didn’t know how he’d ever forgive himself.
“I’m going to head downstairs and whip up some breakfast,” he said as he got up from the bed. If he lingered there any longer with the scent of her swirling in his brain, he’d want to reach for her. He’d want to escape his own black thoughts in her slender, warm arms.
They hadn’t been able to get it right in the past and he didn’t think there was any way they’d get it right in the future, especially if Livia was behind the kidnapping.
“I’m going to take a quick shower and then I’ll be down,” she replied.
He left her room and headed down the stairs. The scent of freshly brewed coffee filled the air as he headed to the kitchen.
Jim and Wendall were at the table with coffee cups in front of them. “Good morning,” Wendall said. “I hope you don’t mind that we helped ourselves.”
“I don’t mind a bit.” Knox walked over to the counter and poured himself a cup of the fresh brew. “Did you two get any sleep last night?”
“We both got a couple of hours,” Jim replied. “The sofa is very comfortable.”
“Either one of you thought about running for sheriff in the fall?” Knox asked.
“Not me,” Wendall replied with a short laugh.
“Or me, either,” Jim added. “I like what I do right now. I don’t need the headache.”
“Speaking of headaches, the kidnapping made the news. Everything’s Blogger has it up on their site,” Wendall said.
“I wish I knew how in the hell they get their information.” Knox pulled an egg carton out of the refrigerator. He fought against the impotent frustration and anger that had filled him since he’d awakened in Cody’s lower bunk bed.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Sheriff Jeffries contacted them,” Jim said. “The site mentioned a press event here at eight this morning.”
Knox looked at the clock. It was just after six. Would a press release help or hurt things? He couldn’t know. “What do you think about some scrambled eggs and toast?”
“Sounds good to us,” Wendall replied.
As Knox got busy whipping eggs with milk, he wondered when they’d hear something from the caller. If that person really did have Cody, then how would they get proof of life? Would a picture appear in Allison’s text messages? On his? Had the call been from the real kidnapper? Maybe it really had been nothing but a hoax, but then what had happened to Cody? So many questions with no answers. If he focused on them, he’d be insane.
The eggs were in the skillet when Allison appeared. She’d obviously showered and changed her clothes, and her hair was in a neat bun at the nape of her neck. She wore a pair of jeans and a tailored white blouse with a navy blue blazer. She looked strong and in control.
She returned the deputies’ greetings and then poured herself a cup of coffee. “Can I help?” she asked Knox.
“No, I’ve got this. Just sit and relax.” He popped slices of bread into the toaster. It felt so wrong to be doing something as mundane as fixing breakfast when his son was missing.
He needed to be strong for Allison, and he wanted to stay strong for Cody, but he had to continue to swallow against thick emotion that rose up in the back of his throat.
He’d dreamed of making breakfast for Cody. He’d imagined his son sitting at a table and filling the kitchen with his wonderful laughter while Knox whipped up French toast or bacon and eggs.
The fact that he’d had none of those kinds of moments with his own father only made him hunger to have them with his own son. He needed to make certain that everything he had longed for as a fatherless boy he gave to Cody. They were fantasies he still wanted desperately to become a reality.
They ate in relative silence. Allison picked at her food, not really eating but instead moving the eggs from one place to another on the plate.
Knox didn’t have any appetite, but he ate like a soldier needing fuel for whatever lay ahead. He tried desperately to keep himself from feeling anything.
After all, he was the unemotional Fort Knox. He wasn’t accustomed to emotion. He wasn’t used to feeling fear and rage and love and regret, but all those roiled around inside him.
Seeing Allison in bed had definitely screwed with his head. Despite the trauma of a missing son, he’d wanted her. He wanted her even now.
The ring of the phone shattered the silence.
Allison’s eyes widened but she didn’t hesitate like she had before. She grabbed the receiver and said a firm hello.
“I have the boy.” It was definitely a female voice, although it didn’t sound like Knox’s mother.
“What do you want?” Allison asked as her gaze locked with his.
“I want you to sacrifice a black cat by the light of a full moon.”
Allison frowned. “Excuse me?”
“And then you should dance naked in a circle around a tombstone in the cemetery.”
Knox took the receiver from Allison. “I’ve got the police heading to your house right now,” he said angrily. “Don’t call this number again.” He slammed down the receiver.
“It came from a local number. I’ll call dispatch and let them do a reverse lookup and get somebody over there,” Wendall said.
“Who would do something like that?” Allison asked as Wendall stepped out of the kitchen. “What kind of a person would make a phone call like that to parents with a missing child?”
“Probably a lonely old woman who will be perfectly happy if the police show up at her house, because she’ll then have somebody to talk to,” Jim said.
“In that case I don’t know whether to be outraged at her or sad for her,” Allison replied.
“Since the news is out about Cody’s disappearance, you can probably expect to get some crank phone calls,” Jim replied.
Knox looked at Allison as she sank back down in the kitchen chair. The strength that she had displayed since she’d come downstairs appeared to have seeped away.
Her shoulders drooped and she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she cast Knox a weary glance. “I don’t know if I can do this,” she said softly.
“Of course you can,” he replied firmly. “You were strong enough to raise him all alone for the last nine years. You’re strong enough to do whatever needs to be done for him now.”
And just that quickly he was angry with her. “I need to go make some phone calls,” he said, not wanting to air the raging emotions that filled him. He strode out of the kitchen and out the front door.
The morning air was cold, but he scarcely noticed with the heat of anger coursing through him. She’d had nine years with Cody and he’d only had less than two weeks with him.
Cody didn’t even know that Knox was his father. He should have insisted Allison tell him on the very first day that Knox had realized Cody was his son. Dammit, Allison should have let him tell Cody before now. What if he never was able to hear Cody call him Dad? What if he never got to cook breakfast for his boy?
He sank down on the porch swing, his legs suddenly feeling too weak to hold him upright. He told himself it was the brightness of the rising sun that caused tears to well up in his eyes. But the sun had never made so many tears and his chest had never been so knotted, so tight.
He’d spent the last ten years not caring about anyone but himself. His heart, his emotions, had been easy to manage because he hadn’t had many. But now he was overwhelmed.
He pressed his eyes tightly closed in an effort to staunch the tears. But as the thought of never seeing his son again exploded in his mind, he lost it.
Tears oozed from his eyes and he angrily brushed them away, only to have more trek down his cheeks. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew his anger should be directed at the kidnapper and not at Allison, but right now he was irrational and just damned angry at the world.