but he was also the police chief.
“I’m Leo Farley, still on the job at NYPD. If it’s all right with you, Chief, I’m going to reach for my wallet to show you my ID.” Chief Turner nodded, and Leo presented his badge to the chief’s satisfaction. As Leo laid out the events that had brought them to this dirt road, the chief’s face fell further, each piece of evidence an emotional punch to the stomach.
He suddenly put his car into gear.
“Chief,” Leo said, “I’m not a crackpot. This is serious.”
“I know,” the chief said. “That’s why you’re going to wait at the police station while I call for backup.”
“With all due respect, Chief, we don’t have time to wait. My daughter and I will go to the house by ourselves if we have to. And if you try to stop us, the lives of a little boy and his mother could be on your hands.”
“Are you carrying?” the chief asked.
Leo raised the side of his shirt to display the gun holstered at his waist.
The chief clenched his jaw and held Leo’s gaze. “Fine. Follow me. There’s a side road a ways up. We’ll stash the cars and cut through the woods to the house. Daniel’s got the main drive alarmed like Fort Knox.”
After they parked, they let Chief Turner lead the way on foot, followed by Leo, and then Laurie. As they were about to enter the woods, the chief turned. His face was somber. “I was thinking about your evidence. Some of it must have come from my former sister-in-law, Roseanne.”
They did not respond.
“Back then, I couldn’t see the full extent of my brother’s problems. After she left—for good—I realized I didn’t do Daniel any favors taking his side like that. He would have been better off getting some help. Anyway, I won’t ask where she is, but if you happen to talk to her, please let her know I’m sorry.”
“Let’s see if we can get your brother the help he needs now,” Laurie said.
They followed him into the woods.
* * *
Marcy Buckley tried to keep her attention focused on the rocky and narrow dirt road leading to Daniel Turner’s house, but she could not stop seeing the gun pointed at her in her periphery from the passenger seat, or Johnny’s terrified expression in the rearview mirror.
She flinched as Turner reached his left hand across her and hit a garage door opener clipped to the flip-down sun visor.
As they waited in silence for the garage door to roll open, none of them saw the three people emerge from the woods just in time to spot them drive inside.
Chapter 70
Laurie could see a switch flip in Charlie Turner at the sight of Johnny and Marcy Buckley inside the white Chrysler sedan. Until that moment, she sensed that Charlie believed there would be some rational explanation for whatever misunderstanding had made his younger brother the leading suspect in the disappearance of a missing child. But once he saw the kidnapping in progress with his own two eyes, he had immediately shifted modes. He was no longer acting like a helpful family member. He was a police chief on an urgent call out, and he was speaking to Leo as a fellow law enforcement officer.
“We’ve got exigent circumstances to enter,” Charlie whispered, even as the garage door was still moving. He used the radio handset mounted on his shoulder to call for backup. “I’ve got a house key. You and I can cut around back. But my brother’s paranoid. He could have installed cameras around the entire perimeter of the house for all I know. If he sees us coming, we’d be putting that boy and his mother in serious jeopardy.”
Laurie thought about those drops of blood that Leo had seen near Marcy’s car. They were already in jeopardy. “You said you got a report of shots fired in the area. What if you knock on your brother’s door, just to see if he heard anything and make sure he’s okay? You could keep him occupied while the two of us enter the house from the back and find Johnny and Marcy.”
He looked up at the sky, thinking through her plan. “Yeah, that might work. Once the FBI and backup arrive, I can probably convince him to come out for the arrest. And if he tries to drive away, he’d have to wait for that garage door to open. I could shoot out a tire and then run for cover.” He pulled