Piece of My Heart (Under Suspicion #7) - Mary Higgins Clark Page 0,11

to make out two big round eyes and a pair of moon-shaped ears. It was a stuffed animal. Why is this here? he thought. Why am I here? He set it aside, telling himself he didn’t need a baby’s toy right now.

The second item he found was made of a thin fabric. As he traced his fingers along the edges, trying to make out the shape, grains of sand fell onto his face. It was a hat—not like the baseball caps he liked to collect, but the kind with a rim that goes all the way around, like his Nana used to wear when she went on her and Pop Pop’s boat. In the darkness, there was no way for him to know that it was the same light blue cotton hat that a stranger had worn while he had watched their family earlier in the day.

This wasn’t a dream, but there was a monster, and he was taking Johnny away.

I want to go home.

He clutched the teddy bear to his chest as he started to cry.

Chapter 8

With ever-increasing terror, for the past two hours, Marcy had been in constant action mode—walking the beach, questioning other hotel guests, calling every business within walking distance. Now she was back in their suite, forcing herself to remain still and to focus on the information they had managed to gather so far.

She jumped at the sound of a knock on the door. Andrew opened it. It was Alex, and he was followed in by a woman about her age with long blond hair pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. “The police are here,” Alex announced.

“I’m Detective Langland,” the woman said. The business card she handed to Marcy gave her full name as Jennifer Langland. She was a detective with the East Hampton Police Department.

Marcy resisted the urge to say something about the police failure to respond until Laurie’s father had called in a favor, but the detective appeared to sense her resentment. “I can’t imagine how worried you must be right now. I’m so sorry that the dispatcher didn’t prioritize the call earlier. It’s no excuse, but we have a critical mass of units called out to a mess of an accident on Main Street.”

The detective’s tone was compassionate. She looked Marcy squarely in the eye when she apologized for the delay. Please be good at this, Marcy found herself pleading silently. Please be the woman who can bring back my son.

For the next ten minutes, Marcy listened. She willed herself to slow her thoughts as Detective Langland outlined the department’s current efforts to locate Johnny.

“I already met with the hotel’s general manager. He’s pulling all the available surveillance tape for us. Unfortunately, they don’t have much in the way of cameras on the beach itself, and only one camera in the beach shack, and it’s focused on the register.”

Marcy felt all hope fading away as the detective continued.

“But they’ll have footage from the hotel lobby, plus the entrances and exits. Unfortunately, the only cameras in the parking lot are close to the property, but we’re going to start with those. If your son left by car, hopefully we’ll get a plate number and move from there.”

“Left by car?” Andrew was clenching and unclenching his fists at his side. “We’ve been careful to warn Johnny. He never willingly would have gotten into—” Andrew cut himself off, considering the implication of what he was saying.

Langland nodded. “I know,” she said softly.

Marcy was grateful that the detective wasn’t minimizing the situation by lecturing her about the curiosity of seven-year-old boys who want to explore the beach on their own, but her heart dropped at the thought of her son in some stranger’s car. She also knew that a kidnapper had probably considered the possibility of cameras at a resort. She thought about all of the paths between the sand dunes farther down the beach, paths that led to public roads where someone could park anonymously and away from the reach of surveillance.

“What about an Amber Alert?” Andrew asked. Marcy had heard the blast of her cell phone a few times over the years when police used an area alert system to notify the public about a local child’s abduction.

“My supervisor is weighing the request. To restrict the notifications to the most urgent cases, the broadcast system won’t allow us to trigger an alert unless we are confident there has been an abduction. I know it’s frustrating, but the fact that