Piece of My Heart (Under Suspicion #7) - Mary Higgins Clark Page 0,29

with Timmy after Greg was killed. Remember how upset I was when they ran that photo of the three of us from the Yankees game?”

She, Timmy, and Leo had attended as guests in the mayor’s box. Laurie tried to be vigilant about protecting Timmy from the public eye, but apparently the stadium’s event photographer had snapped a shot of them and uploaded it to a database of images available to the press. Rather than use the official NYPD headshot that Leo had provided for the profile, the magazine editors had somehow tracked down the old family photo online.

Alex was following the chain of her logic. “That picture from the game was a couple of years old.”

Back when Timmy looked just like Johnny, Laurie thought.

“We should tell Marcy and Andrew about this before we do anything further,” Laurie said.

“They’re probably still in my room,” Alex said. “They must have broken the news to the twins by now. Let’s go find them.”

Chapter 19

Johnny could tell from the slower speed of the car and the many turns the man made, one after the next, that they had left the highway. The slivers of sunlight that had found their way into the car trunk had been replaced by the back glow of taillights. It was nighttime now.

Another turn, followed by bump, bump, bump, bump beneath him, like they were driving on rocks or gravel or something. Then the car came to a stop.

One one-thousand, two one-thousand…

He began to count to himself, just as he had every single time the car had stopped before. A hundred and seventeen was the furthest he’d gotten so far. That was the one time the man actually got out of the car and talked to him and gave him a ginger ale.

Ever since then, the stops had all been false alarms. Probably stop signs or red lights, Johnny guessed. Were they finally stopping, and was the man going to come for him again?

Eight one-thousand, nine one-thousand…

He heard a low humming sound somewhere outside the car. Not like a bird or other animal, he thought. Like a machine of some kind.

The sound stopped at the count of fifteen, and the car began to move again. He felt a small bump, and then the surface beneath the tires seemed to go back to a smooth road. No more rocks and gravel.

Another stop.

One one-thousand, two one—

The man cut the engine. This was the first time that had happened since the ginger ale. He held his breath, terrified of what might happen next.

The mechanical humming sound started again. This time it was louder.

As soon as the noise ended, he heard the man’s voice. “Not one little peep, you hear me?”

Johnny opened his mouth to tell the man he wasn’t going to say a word, but then stopped himself. That would be saying something, and he didn’t want to make the man angry.

He heard the quiet pop of the trunk. The man looked directly at him through the crack.

“Ssssssshhhhh, little boy. Not a word.”

The voice was a whisper, but it was the scariest sound Johnny had ever heard. He needed to get out of the car before he wet his pants. He didn’t want to think about what the man would do to him if that happened.

As the top of the trunk slowly rose, Johnny saw that they were inside a two-car garage. There was enough room for the car they had traveled in, but the rest of the garage was filled with all kinds of things sticking out everywhere. A bike on top of an old sofa next to a lawn mower. Boxes stacked all over the place. A huge mess.

“You can sit up now,” the man said. “It’s okay.”

Johnny followed the instructions but moved slowly, not wanting to upset the man. He couldn’t take his eyes away from the gun in the man’s waistband.

“You’re probably ready to get out of that little compartment, aren’t you?”

Is he trying to trick me? Johnny wondered. He didn’t want to sound like a complainer. The man looked at him expectantly. Johnny nodded slowly, hoping he had guessed the right answer.

“We’re going to go inside this house now,” the man stated. “But you have to follow my rules.”

Johnny nodded again.

“First one we already talked about before. No yelling or making a fuss or trying to run off.”

Johnny nodded, even though he didn’t want to go to a strange house. He had never, ever been inside someone else’s house unless his parents took him there. He tried to