NYPD Red 6 - James Patterson Page 0,45

come up with twenty-five million dollars by groveling to your mother.”

The words hit Jamie like a gut punch. He put both hands on the back of a chair to steady himself. “What did you say?”

“You heard me. Your mother didn’t show up at the wedding. She’s made no bones about the fact that she hates Erin, and she—”

“No! Not that. How did you come up with twenty-five million dollars? That’s exactly what the kidnapper is demanding, and the only people who know that number besides me are the kidnapper, my mother, and the cops. Where the hell did you get it from?”

Brockway looked at his wife. Anna folded her arms across her chest and scowled at him.

Jamie pulled the phone from his pocket. “Answer the fucking question or I will have a platoon of cops here in five minutes.”

“Erin called me,” Anna said.

Jamie sat down. “Erin … called you? When?”

“About an hour ago. I didn’t talk to whoever is holding her, but she said he was listening in. She told me how much money he wanted. I couldn’t believe it. And then she told me that you’d reached out to Veronica for help, and the bitch hadn’t even returned your calls. Is that true?”

Jamie looked down at the floor. He didn’t say a word, but Anna Brockway had her answer.

“Erin convinced the kidnapper that there was another way to get the money,” she said, “and that would be for me to negotiate a long-term contract with ZTV and ask for twenty-five million in advance. I said I would try, but I knew there was no way that would happen.

“As soon as I hung up, I talked to Brock. He came up with the idea of a series of specials. The centerpiece of each would be a new video from Erin. We’d intercut that with interviews from celebrities, commentary from police experts, a little bit of fan hysteria, and, of course, the anguished husband desperate to rescue his wife and their unborn child.”

“It would be appointment television,” Brock said. “Plus it’s right in Erin’s wheelhouse. It’s almost like a continuation of every reality show she’s ever done.”

“Right,” Jamie said. “Only instead of shopping for shoes on Rodeo Drive, she’d be chained to a radiator, sobbing her heart out.”

“Oh, Jamie, if you think that’s all she’s going to give us, you don’t know Erin Easton,” Anna said. “That girl can work an audience as if her life depended on it. And in this case, it does.”

“And you’d pay twenty-five million for a few videos like that?” Jamie said, looking at Brock.

“Are you crazy?” Brock said. “That’s the all-in price for the series. Twenty-five episodes. A million a pop.”

“Twenty-five videos? How are you going to handle the cops? That first video came in unannounced. The next time you’d be in collusion with the kidnapper. Aiding and abetting.”

“Oh, so now you’re a lawyer?” Brock said. “Listen to me, Jamie. Your mother’s not going to save Erin. The cops are not going to save Erin. You’re down to your last option. Yes or no?”

Ten minutes later Jamie Gibbs walked out of the building wondering if he’d made the right decision. He looked at his watch. He’d been gone less than an hour. Koprowski would still be parked outside his mother’s place.

He stepped to the curb to see if he could spot a cab.

“You need a ride?” a female voice said.

There was a car parked in front of the Brockways’ building. He looked in the window. Detective Kylie MacDonald was sitting behind the wheel. Her partner, Detective Jordan, came around the back of the car.

“Sir,” he said, opening the rear door. He smiled politely. But he didn’t look happy.

CHAPTER 41

IT WAS MY phone, wasn’t it?” Jamie said from the back seat. “That’s how you found me, right?”

Kylie made a left onto Eighth Avenue and headed uptown. Both of us stared straight ahead, neither of us saying a word.

Of course it was his phone. He knew we’d been monitoring it. He just didn’t know how well.

As soon as the call from Brockway came in to Jamie’s phone, TARU traced it. Had Brockway used his own cell phone, his number would have come up as one of Jamie’s regular callers. But Brockway wanted to go under the radar, so he’d used a burner.

Big mistake. That sent up a giant red flag. An incoming call from a throwaway phone practically screamed kidnapper. TARU immediately alerted me, and I called Koprowski, who told me Jamie was visiting his mother.

A minute