Martin was the one convicted of child endangerment. It had to be him.”
“Child endangerment wouldn’t account for the kind of abuse this kid endured, based on those scars,” Noah said. “Child endangerment is when you neglect your kid or put them in a dangerous situation. This kid was abused.”
“Well,” Josie said. “I’m not sure what happened, but he blames Amy for whatever happened to him.”
“Well, what the hell is his name?” Chitwood asked.
Oaks’s phone chirped. He answered it with a brusque hello, listened for a few minutes and said, “Thank you.” He turned to Josie and said, “That was one of my agents in Buffalo. They got in touch with the district attorney’s office there. They were able to view Martin Lendhardt’s file. He had a son—not a daughter. His name was Gideon. Gideon Lendhardt.”
“How old?” Josie asked.
“He’s twenty-six. I should have a driver’s license photo in a few minutes. We’ll see if it matches our suspect. He was found escaping Martin Lendhardt’s home at age nine, malnourished and scarred. Hadn’t been to school. Martin was arrested. Gideon was terrified of him and would never talk about him or anything that happened in the house. Martin’s defense was that Gideon’s mother was the one who beat and starved him. But she couldn’t be located.”
“How convenient for him,” Josie said.
Oaks continued, “They couldn’t prove it wasn’t her. The best they could do was charge him with child endangerment. One year in prison. Gideon was put into foster care—bounced around to a bunch of different homes—which is where he stayed until he aged out at eighteen.”
Gretchen said, “Natalie Oliver was a foster kid, too.”
“So now we know where they met,” Noah said.
“And we know that Amy-or-Tessa abandoned him. But we still don’t know where Lucy is. I’m going to talk to him.”
Sixty-Eight
Josie faced off against Gideon Lendhardt. From across the interrogation table, he stared at her, his eyes flashing angrily. There was no guarantee that he’d talk to her, but he hadn’t asked for a lawyer yet either, so Josie had to take her chances.
“Gideon,” she said. “Whose idea was it to find Tessa and make her pay? Yours or Natalie’s?”
He didn’t speak.
Josie went on. “I’m guessing it was your lifelong dream to make her pay, but that Natalie was the one who came up with an actual plan. You two met in foster care, right? I understand you were nine when they took you away from your father for good. So you bounce around from home to home. One day you meet Natalie and the two of you become good friends. Maybe even lovers later in life?”
She could tell by the flare in his eyes that she had hit on something. “You understood each other, didn’t you? Both foster kids? Both kicked out of a system that couldn’t care less about you as soon as you turned eighteen. Then somehow you find Tessa. You realize she’s living in Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter. You want to get back at her, but you don’t know how. Natalie sees an opportunity not just to get back at her but to make a little money as well. Natalie took care of the logistics, didn’t she? The planning. What was in it for her? Just to make you happy? Or she wanted the money? I know she had a taste of money before you two carried this out. She hit the lottery. She knew she could get money out of Tessa’s new husband, didn’t she? All you two had to do was get to know little Lucy for a few months before the kidnapping, right? Earn her trust, become her friends. Promise her something irresistible—maybe taking her to a butterfly sanctuary or something. Well, Natalie probably came up with that. You just wanted to grab her, didn’t you?”
“It would have been a lot less trouble,” he said.
“Yes, I imagine it would have. Your plan was pretty elaborate. Especially the carousel. No cameras in the park, that was smart. Who gave Lucy the signal? Was it you or Natalie? It was you, wasn’t it? Natalie was at the Ross home leaving the teddy bear with your secret message, wasn’t she?”
“That was a streak of genius if you ask me,” he said, smiling. “I just wish I could have been there to see Tessa’s face when she heard it.”
Josie felt ill seeing the glee on his face, but she forged ahead. “Where did you take Lucy?”
“You think I’m going to tell you? You’re not so smart,