NYPD Red 6 - James Patterson Page 0,57

hysterically.

A man’s voice came on the phone. “Hello. Hello.”

“Who’s this?” Jamie demanded.

“Hello. My name is Hector Gonzalez. My wife and I see this woman on the road, and she’s waving hands, and she say, ‘Help, help,’ so we stop, and we help.”

“Is she hurt? Is she okay?”

“She’s crying very much, but I think she’s crying happy now that we find her. We are waiting for police.”

Kylie grabbed Jamie’s arm. “Where are you?” she yelled into the phone.

The man turned away from the phone and yelled something in Spanish. A woman, probably his wife, responded, “¿Quién es?”

That I understood. But in case I hadn’t, he asked again, in English, “Who is this, please?”

“Detective Kylie MacDonald. I’m with the New York City Police Department. Where are you now?”

“Es la policía,” he informed his wife. “Apple farm,” he said to Kylie.

“What apple farm? Where? Texas?”

“No, no. New York.” His accent was so thick it came out “Noo Jork.”

And then we heard the sirens in the background.

“I no speak such good English,” Gonzalez said. “You a police. You talk to other police.”

The sirens got closer and then died away. We could hear voices as cops came on the scene.

And then my phone rang. Benny Diaz from TARU.

“Zach, the phone belongs to Hector Gonzalez, Galena Park, Texas. The call is coming from Ball Road in Warwick, New York.”

I thanked him, then called Captain Cates and told her what was happening. With cops on the scene, anyone with a scanner would know that Erin Easton was alive and safe. The word would go out on Twitter within seconds. I had to make sure my boss called her boss with the news, rather than the other way around.

For the next five minutes all Kylie and I could do was listen to the background commotion of first responders coming onto a crime scene and trying to put the pieces together in a hurry. We knew the drill. Victim first.

We waited until Jamie’s phone came alive again. “Hello, this is Officer Georgene Fredericks, Warwick PD. Who is this?”

“This is Detective Kylie MacDonald, NYPD. My partner and I—”

Jamie wrenched the phone away. “This is Jamie Gibbs. Do you see my wife, Erin Easton? Is she okay?”

“Yes, sir. I recognized her. She’s in shock right now, but she’s okay. We have her in custody. We’ll be taking her to the hospital. Please put the detective back on the phone.”

Jamie handed his cell back to Kylie. “Officer Fredericks, Ms. Easton was abducted by a white male named Bobby Dodd. I can text you a photo with his pedigree. In the few seconds that we had Ms. Easton on the phone, she said she cut his throat before she escaped. I have no idea where she was being held or how badly she hurt him.”

The Warwick cop’s answer was quick and confident. “We’ll find him.”

“Officer, be advised that we’re also looking at Dodd for the murder of Ms. Easton’s mother-in-law. He’s ex-military, combattrained, and incredibly dangerous. Please be careful.”

“Don’t you worry, Detective,” Fredericks said. “We’re on it.” Her voice was eager. Too eager. I could picture a bunch of country cops champing at the bit to get on with the biggest adventure of their careers.

Kylie caught it too. “My partner and I will be in Warwick in thirty minutes,” she said.

“Thirty? Where are you now?”

“Brooklyn.”

“You’re a good two hours away, Detective. More like two and a half with rush-hour traffic.”

“Don’t you worry, Officer. We won’t be sitting in traffic.”

CHAPTER 51

YOU HAVE A helicopter?” Jamie said as soon as Kylie hung up.

Kylie nodded, knowing what was coming.

“I’m going with you,” he announced.

By all rights we should have said yes. The man was a victim; his wife had been abducted, his mother murdered, and his life turned into a living nightmare. But the last thing we needed when we were trying to interview Erin Easton was her loose cannon of a husband getting in our way.

“That’s not a good idea, Jamie,” Kylie said.

“Why not?”

“Because first and foremost, Erin needs medical attention. If you get there before the doctors are finished, you’ll either distract them from the job at hand or you’ll wind up pacing the hospital waiting room for two hours. You just told us your mother wouldn’t want you to abandon her at a time like this. Don’t leave her alone. When you’re done here, Detective Koprowski will drive you to Warwick.”

Jamie nodded. Once again Kylie’s cop logic made sense to him. It also worked for us. We’d have Erin for a few hours