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“I wanna come home. Can you come get me? Please.” The boy’s voice was tight, but steady. “Please.”
“Benny, where—”
Muffled noises and the other voice was back. “He’s right here with me, snug as a bug.”
The man uttered a soft laugh that made the words sound dirty.
“You hurt him, and I’ll—”
“You’ll what? You want the kid back? Shut up and listen.”
Daniel’s fingers ached. He tried to loosen his hold on the receiver. “Talk to me. Just don’t hurt him.”
“I’m in sales. Before Miss Shawna went off to jail she was holding some product for me. Now she’s forgotten that product ain’t hers. I got that product from my employer. He wants to be reimbursed. Now I’m in a fix. You make her tell you where my product is. You get it for me. We can do a little business. Know what I’m saying,ese?”
Anger coursed through Daniel. This was about drugs. A little boy sucked back into his mother’s world even after she’d been found guilty and incarcerated for her illegal activities. “You want to exchange drugs for Benny?”
“I never said it was no drugs.”
The image of Shawna Garza glaring at him across the courtroom assailed Daniel. “What makes you think Shawna Garza will cooperate with me? It was my tip that ended up putting her in jail.”
“That’s your problem, ain’t it? It’s true Shawna baby ain’t too happy with you. She knows you turned her into CPS. She knows you tipped off the narcotics guys. You better be real nice to her from now on.”
“So I get Shawna to tell me where the dr—the product is and you return Benny?”
“Not exactly. Today’s Saturday. You deliver the product to me Monday morning. I’ll call you with details. If you don’t want to fish the body of a dead kid out of the Rio Grande, you better get busy.”
“What—” The connection died before he could finish the question. What time? Where? He sank onto the couch and dropped the phone on the coffee table.
“You did good,hermano.” Samuel sat down next to him. “You kept him talking. We know quite a bit.”
“TíoDaniel, are you gonna get him back?” Marco broke away from his Aunt Piper’s hold and lunged across the room. “When is he coming home?”
Daniel wrapped his arms around the boy in a tight hug, letting him bury his head in his shirt. “We will. Soon.” He felt a shudder go through Marco’s body. He held the boy away from him in a firm grip. “Look at me. We’ll get him back. I promise.”
Marco took a swipe at his face with the sleeve of his T-shirt. “I know you will,tío, you andtíoSamuel are the best!”
“Marco, let’s go get your uncle some water.” Susana headed toward the door. Daniel knew she wanted to spare her son the gory details of the call that would now be dissected in infinitesimal detail by the officers in the room. “Come on, I need your help.”
Marco heaved a sigh and followed his mother.
Detective Cooper eased into a chair, removed his Stetson, and laid it on the coffee table that separated them. “I take it drugs are involved?”
Daniel nodded and ran through what the kidnapper had said.
His gaze steely, Cooper contemplated his steepled fingers for a second. “Can you get the narcotics people involved who were in on Shawna Garza’s prosecution?”
“I’ll handle that.” Samuel was a homicide sergeant with years of experience and connections. He would run this show even if Cooper believed he was in charge.
Daniel studied the hardwood floor under his feet. “The guy sounded like a pervert.”
“He was pulling your chain.” Deborah sat down in the rocking chair next to Cooper’s. “He wants you to be scared.”
“He’s got me right where he wants me.” Daniel leaned back and sucked in air through the steady pounding like a hammer striking his temples. “I don’t know if Shawna Garza will cooperate with us, even to get Benny back. Like the guy said, she doesn’t like me much.”
“With her child’s life at stake, surely she’ll want to do whatever she can.”
Deborah didn’t know Shawna. Daniel did. “I went to see her about a month ago.”
