The Abduction

28

The jet engines purred at thirty thousand feet as Allison released her seat belt and reclined in the leather chair. She had stopped flying on the Justice Department’s Sabre Liner Jet almost a year ago, ever since she’d announced her candidacy, out of fear that someone would accuse her of misappropriating federal property for her own political purposes. This morning, however, with Harley Abrams at her side, she made an exception.

Allison sipped her coffee from a paper cup, thinking about what she might say to Tanya Howe. She glanced at the clouds drifting outside her window, well beneath the aircraft. White and fluffy, with a perfect blue sky above. It looked like the ceiling in Emily’s nursery, the way Allison had hand-painted it before she was born. Her baby would always wake to a bright blue sky, another perfect and happy day. Or so she’d planned.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” asked Harley. He was in the seat next to her. A mess of papers covered the tray table in his lap.
Allison stirred from her thoughts. “Only if I can reserve the right not to answer.”
“Deal.” He shifted in his seat so he could look at her as he spoke. “Actually, my question is marginally relevant to the investigation. I was thinking about your case last night—Emily’s abduction. I conjured up this image of a career-minded, unmarried thirty-nine-year-old state attorney. I couldn’t help but wonder, why did she adopt a baby?”
She glanced out the window again, admiring the clouds. Then she looked back and said, “I wish I could tell you I was moved by some noble and selfless agenda, like nurturing a crack baby or rescuing a battered child from abuse. But the truth is, I adopted a baby because I wanted one.”
“But how did you come around to actually going through with the adoption?”
“I was engaged to Mitch when I decided to adopt. We talked about it, and I told him I would never have children of my own. Polycystic kidney disease runs in my family, which we didn’t know until my brother was diagnosed after he was married. His son got it and died from it. There’s no preventive treatment, and it’s usually fatal if it develops during childhood, so I wasn’t going to take the risk of passing it on to my own child. I also knew it could take a long time to adopt a newborn. So I got on a list before we even set a wedding date.”
“And you still adopted, even after you broke off the engagement.”
“By the time I ended it with Mitch, I was psychologically ready to have a baby. I was thirty-nine years old. I had already gone through the hassle and expense of preparing for adoption, and I was excited about becoming a mother. So I figured, Why not just go through with it? My mother raised me and my brother without a father. I could do it, too.”
“Makes sense,” he said, scratching his chin like Sigmund Freud himself. His eyes returned to the notes in his lap.
“My turn,” she said, drawing him back.
“Your turn for what?”
“You think this is a court-ordered deposition or something? You’re the only guy who gets to ask questions?”
He smirked. “What do you want to know?”
“Something I’ve just been curious about. It’s interesting the way you see me as someone too wrapped up in a career to have children. What about you? A guy who makes a career out of chasing child abductors, with no family of his own. Is this the kind of work that makes you never want to have kids? Or did it just kind of work out that way?”
“Some of the profilers back at Quantico get that way. They see too much. But that wasn’t what stopped me.” His eyes drifted off to the middle distance. “I was married once. Long time ago. We tried to have children. It just didn’t happen.”
“Sorry.”
“Thanks. That’s about all you can say. It always rubbed me the wrong way when friends tried to comfort us by rattling off statistics. After my wife’s first miscarriage, they would say things like, ‘Did you know that sixty percent of women experience a miscarriage in their lifetime?’ Great. I figured these must be the same people who walk up to grieving widows at funerals and say, ‘Sorry about your husband, Mrs. Jones, but did you know that a hundred percent of the people on this planet eventually drop dead?’ Like that’s supposed to make you feel better.”
Allison nodded. He had a point. “So you never thought about adoption?”
“We did, but the marriage didn’t work out. I was twenty, she was nineteen when we got married. Her heart wandered while I was up to my waist in Vietnamese rice paddies, and I guess I never really got over that. I’ve been divorced—jeez, forever. More than twenty years now.”
“You never found anyone else?”
“My, this is getting personal.”
She blushed. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer that.”
“No, I guess I don’t mind.” He paused, smiling thinly. “I always thought someday I would meet someone. In fact, I was positively sure of it. When my dad got cancer a few years ago, I got depressed thinking that when I eventually did have kids, their grandfather would be gone and they’d never get to know him. So I interviewed him on videotape, for his future grandchildren. I asked him all about the family, his whole life story. Eighty years of memories.”
“That’s a great idea.”
“It was, even though my old man was kind of cranky about the whole filming process. The most interesting part was at the end. We were a little punchy and were getting philosophical, talking about who was the greatest leader of all time, things like that. Off the wall, I asked him one final question: What do you think is the greatest threat to civilized society today? He paused for the longest time. Just dead silence as the videotape kept running. Finally he looks straight into the camera and says, ‘Videotape.’”
Allison laughed lightly, then smiled with her eyes. “I think I would have liked your father.”
Harley returned the smile, then turned a little serious. “I’m actually a lot like him.”
Silence filled the space between them. They locked eyes a little longer than they might have, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Far from it.
Allison slowly turned her head, returning to the clouds.


The plane landed at Nashville International late Friday evening. As previously arranged, Allison rode in an FBI Bucar to Nashville’s upscale Brentwood area. Harley Abrams and two other agents traveled with her in the same unmarked vehicle, but there was no motorcade or police escort that would alert the media to the attorney general’s arrival.
Tanya Howe drove alone to Brentwood in her own car. Harley had personally called to tell her about the demand Allison had received from the kidnappers. She agreed to a meeting, but they both agreed it should be secret, away from the house. No one could say how the kidnappers would react if they knew Tanya was meeting with the attorney general. No one knew what kind of speculation the media might generate about a face-to-face meeting between Allison and Tanya Howe. The media was camped outside Tanya’s home for the long haul, so there was no sure way to bring Allison inside without the world knowing about it. Tanya’s principal concern, however, wasn’t the rest of the world. It was her parents. She feared how they—particularly her father—might react to her meeting with the other candidate. She told her mother she was going to see a friend, just to get out of the house.
Allison’s Bucar crushed a layer of twigs and fallen leaves as it rolled up the long uphill driveway to Sofia Johnson’s home. Nestled behind a stand of trees that had dropped their leaves was a small, two-story Tudor-style house with a stone fireplace and a wood shingle roof. A waft of gray smoke curled from the chimney. The smell of burning oak filled the chilly night air. A porch light glowed in the darkness, and the garage door was open. The driver pulled the Bucar inside and cut off the engine.
The door closed automatically. After quick introductions, Sofia whisked them into the house, through a door that connected the garage to the kitchen.
Five minutes later, a white Chrysler pulled up the driveway. Tanya hadn’t succeeded in losing every media tail, but it didn’t matter. Sofia Johnson truly was a friend of hers, and no one but Tanya knew that the attorney general was waiting inside.
She parked in the driveway. Sofia greeted her at the front door. Harley introduced the two other agents, then Sofia led her upstairs to a small sitting room. The agents waited downstairs.
“I really appreciate this,” Tanya said to her friend as they headed up the narrow staircase.
“No problem,” said Sofia. “It’s not like I’m harboring the enemy. I wasn’t going to vote for your father anyway.”
Tanya cracked a faint smile, appreciating a little levity. They embraced on the upstairs landing, then Tanya headed down the hall, alone.
Allison drummed her fingers nervously on the armchair, waiting. Finally the door opened. She rose to greet the younger woman.
“I’m Allison,” she said, extending her hand.
“No kidding,” said Tanya.
Allison recoiled. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to insult your intelligence by stating the obvious. Just wanted to get us on a first-name basis, as opposed to Ms. Leahy or something really obnoxious, like Madam Attorney General. May I call you Tanya?”
“Sure.” She took a seat in the rocking chair by the bookshelf. Allison returned to the plaid upholstered armchair facing the window. The drapes were drawn, shutting out any enterprising photographers who might be curious about Tanya’s sudden visit to a friend.
Allison studied her pained expression. The eyes were hollow. The worry lines on her face seemed carved in wax. Allison suddenly felt guilty about her earlier reaction to the tape recording of Tanya’s conversation with the kidnappers. True, Tanya had a better shot at getting her daughter back than Allison did. But to think of Tanya as the lucky one was a senseless comparison, like saying the dying were luckier than the dead because the dead had shown them the way.
Allison began, “I don’t want you to think of me as the attorney general. Don’t look at me as a presidential candidate. I’m not here for either of those reasons.”
“I know. Mr. Abrams explained everything. I’m just thankful there’s still hope. When the kidnapper hung up on me this afternoon, I thought they were through negotiating. I never dreamed they’d call you. I guess they believed my father when he said he’d never pay.”
“He was pretty convincing.”
“That’s because he meant it. You know the reputation my father had at the Pentagon, the hard; liner on terrorism. No negotiations. Period.”
“Reputation is one thing. You’d think he might budge when his own granddaughter was at stake.”
“You’d think,” she said vaguely.
Allison sensed Tanya was about to say more. She waited, but Tanya fell silent. Allison said, “If you want us to pay the kidnappers, my husband and I will come up with the money. A million dollars.”
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch, really. The only thing I would ask is that you allow two FBI agents back into your home, for your own protection. And that you allow the FBI to monitor your phones. I know the kidnappers told you no FBI. But kidnappers always say that. Unless they’re total idiots, they’ll execute their plan on the assumption that you did call the FBI. I’m not asking you to do anything I wouldn’t do myself, if I were in your shoes.”
“That’s all I have to do? I don’t have to endorse you for president or anything?”
Allison smiled faintly. “No. We won’t publicize it. No one ever has to know that we supplied the money. Not even your parents.”
“Especially not my parents.”
“That’s fine. It’s your call. I’m not doing this for publicity or political advantage.”
Tanya narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Then why are you doing it?”
“To save Kristen. And…”
“And what?”
Allison sighed. “It’s important to me that we find Kristen. Don’t discount my feelings about that. But I’ll be perfectly honest with you. There may be more to this kidnapping than you or your father understand.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re looking for a possible connection between Kristen’s kidnapping and the abduction of my daughter eight years ago.”
“So you’re paying the million dollars in the hope that it will lead to evidence that might lead you to Emily?”
“In a way, I guess that’s true. But it’s not conditioned on that. We’re paying the money, period. If it brings Kristen back, that alone will be worth it.”
“Look, I appreciate your generosity. But I don’t want anyone who gets involved in this to have any personal agenda. My only objective is getting Kristen back safe.”
“I agree with you. It’s not a question of putting one person’s daughter ahead of the other’s. You have to look at it as an opportunity for us to help each other. If the kidnappings are connected, it only makes sense to be thinking about both of them. A pretty good argument can be made that Kristen was kidnapped for the same reason Emily was abducted eight years ago—to hurt me. Mr. Abrams doesn’t think my baby was abducted by someone who wanted a child of their own or who wanted to sell her for profit. There are much easier ways of getting an infant than breaking into someone’s house—like stealing a newborn from a hospital, for instance. And if you look at Kristen’s kidnapping, it’s tempting to say that somebody is trying to make your father win the election. But it’s just as easy to say that somebody is trying to make me lose. The fact that the kidnappers have now demanded ransom from me would only seem to bolster the possibility of a connection.”
Tanya had that look on her face again—as if she was struggling to say something. But she remained silent.
Allison picked up on it this time. “You look troubled, Tanya. Is there something about this connection theory that doesn’t sit well with you?”
She looked away, breathing a heavy sigh. “It’s just your whole theory about the motivation for Kristen’s kidnapping—that it’s designed to hurt you, as opposed to helping my father.”
“You don’t see it that way?” asked Allison.
She closed her eyes, as if suddenly in sharp pain. “I don’t know.”
Allison leaned forward, softening her voice. “Tanya, what is it?”
Her moist eyes glistened. “I’ll leave it to you to figure out motives. But you should know all the facts.”
“Is there something more you’d like to tell me?”
She nodded. “It’s about Kristen’s father.”
Allison sunk in her chair, listening. “Go on, please.”
“You see, Kristen was born while I was in college. I wasn’t married. But I was definitely in love. Mark was his name. Mark Buckley.”
“He was Kristen’s father?”
She bit her lip, nodding. “When I got pregnant, Mark said he’d marry me. I thought about it, and I talked to my parents. My mother was supportive. But my father went ballistic. Even though he says he’s against abortion while he’s out campaigning, he practically threw me in the car to take me to the clinic.”
“I take it he didn’t like Mark.”
“He didn’t even know Mark. Never met him.”
“Then what was the problem?”
“Mark was white.”
The room suddenly seemed colder. Allison didn’t move. “That was a problem for General Howe?” she asked incredulously.
“I know,” she scoffed. “Seems hard to believe, doesn’t it? General Howe, Mister opportunity himself. Can’t handle the fact that his granddaughter is half white. Never sent her a Christmas present. Never a birthday card. To him, she didn’t exist. I no longer existed.”
Allison sighed, collecting herself. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you for telling me. I suppose it could change our thinking.”
“It sure colored mine. When I see my father shoot up in the polls, coming from behind to blaze into the White House, it’s hard not to think there’s a plan behind it. When I saw him on television, I could have strangled him. Such brazen exploitation. It’s a dangerous combination—a military man in the political arena. I hate to say it, but if you take the old military mindset to its ugliest extreme, Kristen is just one more expendable casualty in the march to victory. And the fact that her father was white makes her all the more expendable, at least in the general’s eyes.”
Allison’s throat went dry. Part of her couldn’t believe what she was hearing, the other part didn’t want to believe. Until now, she’d been on a road that was leading somewhere, possibly to Emily. A political scheme to elect Lincoln Howe was another route entirely.
“Tell me something,” said Allison. “Have you been in touch with Mark at all? Since the kidnapping, I mean?”
Tanya lowered her head. “Mark’s dead.”
“I’m sorry. When did he die?”
“Before Kristen was born. Before we could get married. Car accident.”
Allison froze, thinking.
Tanya stiffened. “The last couple of days, I’ve asked myself over and over again whether I’m being unfair to my father. Part of me just doesn’t want to think that he could actually allow something to happen to Kristen to get himself elected president. But whenever I have those doubts, I ask myself the same thing I’ve been asking myself for the past twelve years.”
“What’s that?” asked Allison.
“Whether Mark’s accident was really an accident.”
Allison looked her straight in the eye, trying to stay focused. “I don’t think we’ll find the answer to that before Monday.”
“Monday?” she asked, somewhat surprised. “You mean you’ll still pay the ransom?”
“Yes, I’ll still pay,” she said as she touched Tanya’s hand. And I’ll still hope, she thought, though Emily’s hand seemed farther away than ever.