Chapter
38
ROBIE PULLED THE CAR TO the curb and cut the engine. He turned sideways in his seat to look at her.
“Your child? You have a kid?”
“She’s grown now. I was only seventeen when I had her.”
“I didn’t know about that.”
“It’s not part of my ‘official’ file. But the doctor who examined me back at the Burner knew.”
“How?”
“I had to have a caesarean. She could tell by the scar.”
“But how would these Nazi wannabes know anything about this?”
Reel wiped her eyes. “Because their leader is the father of my child.”
Robie’s features betrayed his astonishment at this admission.
She looked at him and noted this. “He raped me, Robie. It was not consensual. I was only sixteen. I carried the child and gave birth to her three days after the FBI came down on the group. They went to prison. I went into WITSEC.”
“And the baby?”
“I had to give her up. They said I had to.”
“Who did?”
“The powers that be, Robie. I was seventeen. I was in Witness Protection. I was moved around six times in less than a year. I had to testify against these scum. And I did.” She snapped, “You can’t exactly raise a kid with all that going on, can you? I could take care of myself. What I couldn’t take care of was an infant.”
“So it was your choice, to give her up?”
“I told you, I didn’t have a choice.”
“But if you’d had one?”
“What does it matter? I gave her up.”
“You said the leader of the neo-Nazi group is the father. He raped you.”
She nodded. “Leon Dikes.”
“You said he had a good lawyer and didn’t go to prison for all that long.”
“Even though I knew he’d ordered the murders of at least six people.”
“But he never knew where you were?”
“Not until I walked into that damn prison in Alabama. They must have been waiting. Followed us. And now they have Julie.”
“Do you even know where your daughter is now?”
Reel didn’t answer.
Robie said, “Do you know—”
“I heard you! But do you really think I’m going to bring her into something like this? Why do you think Dikes wants her, Robie? To tell her how much he loves her? To shower her with money and a wonderful life?”
“I don’t know what he wants with her. I would imagine he wants to kill you.”
“Not nearly as much as I want to kill him.”
“He probably doesn’t know what you are, though.”
She glanced at him. “What do you mean?”
“He knew you were in WITSEC. He doesn’t know who you are now. Or he never would have done what he did.”
She nodded slowly. “But how does that help Julie?”
“I don’t know. And if they had followed us, why not just try to take you? Why go after Julie?”
“Because he may know where I am, but not where my daughter is. And he knows I’d never tell him.”
“So Julie is the bait. Put your daughter in danger or Julie dies.”
Reel put her face in her hands and started to weep, her body shuddering painfully.
Robie reached over and put his arm around her shoulders.
She finally calmed and wiped her eyes clear.
“There is no way out of this, Robie. The only thing I can do is offer myself for Julie. That’s it.”
“And if he won’t let Julie go?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
She closed her eyes and looked down.
He said, “They have to have a way for you to contact them somehow.”
Reel straightened. “That was in the code too. There’s a number to call.”
“There are no numbers on the paper,” said Robie.
“We didn’t use numbers in the code. Too obvious. We had letters represent numbers.”
“How would you know whether they were numbers or the actual letters, then?”
Reel pointed at the paper. “When a line begins with ‘TNF,’ that means ‘the numbers follow.’ That’s how we distinguished them.”
“The number’s probably a burner phone, untraceable.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“So they want you to call? When?”
Reel held up her phone. “Now.”
“So what are you going to say?”
“That I’ll trade myself for Julie.”
“And if they don’t agree to that? And they probably won’t.”
“What else can I do, Robie? The fact is, I don’t know where my daughter is now. It’s been over twenty years. I wouldn’t even know what she looks like,” she added miserably.
“But you’d recognize this Leon Dikes?”
“I’ll never forget him,” she said coldly. “If it’s possible, he’s even worse than my father.”
“Well, that is saying something.”
Reel ran her fingers along the edge of the dash. “So what do we do, Robie? We have to get Julie back. I’ll give my life for that to happen.”
“I know you would,” he replied quietly. “And so would I. But maybe it doesn’t have to come to that.”
She glanced at him. “Do you have a plan?”
“I have something. I’m not sure it qualifies as a plan just yet.”
“We have to get her back,” said Reel. “We have to. She’s an innocent.”
“She is an innocent. I’ve known that for a long time. And we will get her back. So let’s go to my apartment, you make the call, and we’ll see what these bastards say.”