A map immediately appeared on his screen, showing the location of the phones in their shared friends group.
One spot on the map was the location of Laurie’s apartment, indicating that Timmy was here. Leo felt a pain in his chest when he saw a second circle on the far right side of his screen. He used his fingers to zoom into the map. According to this location tracking program, Laurie was in Queens.
He tried to keep his voice calm when he clicked back over to his call with Alex. “I checked her location with my phone. Can you think of any reason Laurie would be in Queens?”
“Queens? No. She said she had some work to do—that something was bothering her about a witness and she couldn’t let it go. She was going to try to swing by the apartment to see Timmy before dinner if she had time, but she didn’t say anything about leaving Manhattan.”
A beeping tone interrupted their call. Leo checked his screen. He didn’t recognize the number, but answered anyway. He did not want to take a chance of missing a call from Laurie.
He recognized her voice immediately. He had barely breathed a sigh of relief when his panic resurfaced. “Hi, Jane, this is Laurie Moran.”
“Laurie? Where are you? What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry to bother you again when you thought you were finally free for the night. I’m here with Tiffany and she wants to go over the statement she made.”
It was obvious to Leo that his daughter was speaking under someone else’s direction. He also knew that his daughter was deliberate and creative. She would find a way to give him the information he needed.
“Try to use your boss’s name if you’re in imminent danger.”
“I’m sorry to be in such a rush, but Brett is pushing us on this deadline. And don’t even get me started about Charlotte. You wouldn’t believe the things she has to say about the show. Can you bring the recording you made back to the house so we can go through it line by line with Tiffany? She wants to make sure she didn’t mischaracterize anything about her date with Tom.”
“Got it,” Leo said as his blood froze.
“You remember where Tiffany lives, right?” She recited the street address slowly and clearly. It lined up with the spot on the map where her cell phone was currently located.
“We’ll be right there,” Leo said.
“See you soon.”
Leo clicked back over to Alex’s call. “She is in trouble. She is talking like someone is forcing her. I know where she is. I’ve got to go.”
“Where is she? I’ll take my own car.”
Leo knew he would only be wasting time to argue. He gave the address to Alex and made him promise not to approach the house without him.
? ? ?
Leo’s next call was to Laurie’s friend Charlotte Pierce, whose number he found in Laurie’s contacts on her iPad. He knew that Laurie must have used her name for a reason.
The phone was answered by someone saying “Hi, Laurie.” She must have recognized Laurie’s home number on her phone.
“Charlotte, it’s her father, Leo.” He told her quickly about the strange phone call from Laurie. “What do you know?”
“I do have that recording of her witness’s statement. A woman named Tiffany Simon. She told a tall tale about the stolen bracelet. Laurie is sure that she lied about being with Tom Wakeling.”
Now Laurie was calling from Tiffany’s house, asking “Jane” to return to the house with the recording. There was only one explanation: Tom Wakeling was at the house, and he wanted that recording destroyed.
He would be on the lookout for police. If Leo called 911, he knew what would happen. It would turn into a hostage situation. The SWAT team would look for a clean shot through the windows, but Laurie and this woman Tiffany would be in terrible danger.
He had another plan. “Charlotte, I’m sorry to involve you in this, but you’re the only person who can get him to open that door without a confrontation.”
“I’ll do anything for Laurie.”
“I’ll have a patrol car pick you up. Where are you?”
“P.J. Clarke’s by Lincoln Center.”
“The driver of the patrol car will take you near the house. I’ll meet you there.”
77
Leo glanced down the hall toward Timmy’s room and was glad to see his door was closed. He wanted to make sure he could not hear the phone conversations his grandfather was having.
He called one of his friends, a captain on the force, and quickly arranged for a patrol car to pick him up in front of Laurie’s building.
He went immediately to Timmy’s bedroom and found him playing video games when he was supposed to be doing his homework.
“I swear I was only going to play for a few minutes,” Timmy said sheepishly.
Leo tried to keep his voice calm. “I got a call from the anti-terror team and need to go in for a meeting. Can I trust you to stay right here while I’m gone?”
“I’ll be okay, Grandpa.”
“I won’t be long.” Leo knew Timmy would be fine. They were in a doorman building, and he had to get to Laurie.
He was about to close the door when Timmy stopped him. “Everything’s okay, though, right?” Beneath his bangs his eyes were so innocent, even though they had seen so much already.
“All good. Do that homework, okay?” He hated lying to his grandson, but he had no other choice.
He had a plan. Pray God, it works, he thought as he raced outside to the curb. A patrol car, its siren blaring, was rushing down the street on its way to him.
He called the commissioner’s office and was put through immediately. In three terse sentences he told what was happening. A patrol car was dispatched immediately to pick up Charlotte. Numerous units without sirens or lights would begin to make their way to a corner near Tiffany’s address. From there they would form a perimeter in the neighborhood.
Leo warned, “If Wakeling guesses that we are on to him, it might cost my daughter her life.”
78
Just as Laurie had suspected, Tom staged the scene at the house to resemble a robbery gone bad. Tiffany cried on the sofa while Tom knocked over lamps, tore pictures from the wall, and stuffed small mementos in a canvas shopping bag he’d found in the kitchen.
“Stop looking at me,” he barked at Tiffany. “You make me nervous. And when I’m nervous, bad things happen.”
Laurie knew that he was panicking and could end up shooting both of them before anyone arrived. She knew that she had to try to calm him and slow the situation down. She was sure her father had understood she was in trouble and was figuring out a way to rescue her and Tiffany. But she had to somehow make sure there was enough time for the plan to work.
Instead of confronting Tom, Laurie looked away. It had been a stroke of luck that he had not listened in on her conversation with her father. She prayed the gamble would save their lives.