Chapter 18

Dave's anticipation increased as he made his way out of Wyatt's drive. Already on his cell phone, he requested random patrols surrounding Wyatt's house, the woods and the park.

He called a detective familiar with the area and put a door-to-door canvass out for the house with two blue doors a couple blocks from the park. Since they didn't know in which direction, it would take some time since they would have to cover a large area but he was sure they would find it.

Finding Isabella's abductors, along with any ensuing dangers, remained foremost on his mind. He had a hunch about who might be involved, and if his suspicions were correct, his team had been tracking them for quite some time. They also had an undercover operative within the organization.

Dave also called in a few other favors before he reached the park. Scanning the area with a trained eye, he noticed only a few kids playing on the equipment and parents sitting at a picnic table. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

Driving around the park in his unmarked car, he waved to the parents and they waved back. A bungled-up heap of a van turned into the park as he prepared to pull out onto the street. He watched in his rearview mirror as the van parked in an isolated area. After a minute or so, two adults, a man and a woman, peered out the van's slightly open doors before getting out.

Dave, not born yesterday and suspicious by nature, thought it a little odd-a run-down van at the park, no kids, with a New York license plate. He wrote down the license plate number and asked one of the area patrolmen to check it out closer.

* * * *

Joe watched as Amanda entered her assigned area of the woods. He had turned to begin combing his area when he heard another vehicle on the gravel of the park's parking lot. He looked in the general direction of the sound and saw a cop car coming to a stop behind the van. He waited and watched to see if it was simply a routine check or if the cop had been tipped off somehow. The cop walked around the van, looking into all the windows.

When he saw the cop look toward the woods in his direction, he instantly got flat on the ground. Boss had given him specific instructions last night to shoot or be shot, whatever it took, to get the girl to him by midnight Tuesday night, and time was soon running out.

Cautiously lifting his head Joe watched the cop look around the park, and then walk back to his car. Joe thought the cop would probably call in the tag number, find out the van was stolen, and impound it, and he wouldn't have any wheels to get to Norfolk or anywhere. And that just wouldn't work for him.

The cop sat in his car while Joe waited and watched. Wondering what was taking so long, Joe decided to stay in the woods. Maybe the cop would leave and he could finish the search. A minute or so later, Joe watched as the cop got out of the car while talking on his radio. He would have to act fast. Soon there would be fifteen cop cars all over the place, maybe with search dogs. He wanted no part of that.

He drew his gun out of the waistband of his drooping pants, wincing as some skin came along with the gun. Son of a bitch that hurt! From now on he would have to keep his gun in the back of his pants, where his skin wasn't quite so sensitive.

He held up his gun with both hands, took aim at the cop's head, and pulled the trigger. Bull's-eye!

He ran, low to the ground, looking around for any witnesses, toward the cop, at the ready to shoot again. But he had been accurate on the first shot with a neat bullet hole in the left temple. Joe leaned over the cop. A small amount of blood seeped out and dripped onto the ground. Joe picked up his arms and dragged him the short distance into the woods.

Then he had an idea. Very proud of himself, he imagined a cop would be able to open the door at the big house nearby and maybe even get his foot in the door. Maybe even get to search the house for the girl or get the truth outta the guy there. So why couldn't he be the cop and conduct a search for the girl? And since he and the dead cop were about the same size, the plan should work.

He quickly undressed himself and the cop and re-dressed himself in the cop uniform. Without a care in the world, he walked out of the woods expecting to see Amanda at any minute. Out of the left corner of his eye, he thought he caught a slight movement, but when he looked closer, he didn't see anything or anyone. He calmly walked to the cruiser, got in, and drove away.

****

Amanda soon became tired of zigzagging back and forth through the bushes and brambles-too much area to cover. She tried to walk softly, quiet, but every sound she made seemed to echo over and over again. She sat down to catch her breath.

She listened for sounds of anyone else moving around, thinking how great it would be if she were the one to find the girl. But Amanda only heard the slight rustle of the wind in the tree branches and a bird twittering nearby. She wanted Isabella to walk right up to her and beg for help. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. They had to find this girl so she could get back to her life.

Tired and worn out, she got up and began her search again. She made a circle in what she perceived to be the middle of the section assigned to her. She had just started making her way back to the van when she heard what sounded to her like a gunshot. She didn't have a gun-but Joe did.

She raced to the edge of the woods, stopped, and looked around, frantically trying to find the source of the loud sound. A quiet early afternoon like today brought little traffic to the street, and no one was at the park now. No one around. Not at the picnic table or on the jungle gym.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a movement by the van and noticed a police cruiser parked behind it-Joe leaning over a cop lying nearby on the ground.

Oh my God! Joe shot a police officer! He said no one would get hurt.

In the other jobs she'd worked with him no one got hurt. But no one had ever escaped either, making Joe as desperate as he'd become.

Amanda shrank back to the edge of the woods and sank to the ground behind a tree. Peeking out around the tree, she watched as Joe dragged the cop into the nearby woods. A few minutes later, she looked over to where Joe had gone into the woods. Now she saw a cop walking out. Joe hadn't shot him after all. The cop walked over to the police car, got in, backed out, and onto the street.

What happened to Joe?

* * * *

Joe thought he would make a respectful neighborly patrol visit to fancy big house just in case the girl was hiding there. He figured there would be extra patrols in the area anyway. But he knew he needed the neat appearance of a cop, which meant shaving and fixing his hair, so he drove back to the house for a quick makeover.