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Jim nodded. “I didn’t expect there would be. Vinnie’s too smart to use his own name. You’ll need to go by the plates.”
“Tried that, too,” he said. “No Illinois plates.”
Jim closed his eyes, fought off the slow-building panic, squelched it and wished to hell Kara were there. Her presence had a calming effect on him, like cool water on a fever. It bothered him, that feeling of needing her.
“Try the campgrounds then.” He tried to look more confident than he felt. “They might be holed up anywhere. We should check out any abandoned houses, any homes where the families are on vacation, anything like that.”
“I’ve got some men checking every empty house we know of, others canvassing the residents too,” Chief Wheatly said.
“Okay.” He walked over to the woman who knelt near the roadside with a matched set of long-eared, sad-eyed bloodhounds, both straining at the ends of their leashes. She was a full-bodied woman with twinkling eyes, currently dimmed by a worried frown. “Any luck?” he asked her.
“They tracked your boy from the house to the driveway. Right where those men were lifting tire tracks. He was taken from here in a car.”
“I assumed as much. I’m sorry we got you and the dogs out here for nothing.”
“Oh, not for nothing. They can track your son, in a car or otherwise. For a while, anyway.” She pointed in the direction her dogs seemed so eager to go. “They took him east.”
Jim lifted his brows. He’d never worked with dogs before, had no idea their senses were that keen.
“I just need some men to follow. I’ll walk as far as I can. But it might be slow going.”
“You can’t just let them go at their own pace and follow in a car?” he asked.
She shook her head firmly. “A bloodhound on the scent will walk in front of a bus or off a cliff and be dead before he realizes it. No, Mr. Corona. I stay with my dogs.”
He nodded, then waved to some of the officers. When they came over, he repeated what the dog’s handler had said, and within a few moments the woman was heading north along the road’s shoulder, one cop walking beside her and another following at a snail’s pace in a cruiser.
If Vinnie and Ang had taken Tyler more than a few miles... Hell.
Poor Tyler. What must he be going through right now? He wondered if Angela had tried to tell him who she was. God, how confusing would that be for him? And Vinnie—if that slimebag so much as put a hand on his kid....
“Corona! Phone’s ringing!” someone shouted.
Jim sprinted into the house as the telephone jangled and glanced at the officer who manned the wiretap equipment. The phone rang again. The man gave him a nod, and Jim picked up the telephone.
“This is Corona,” he said.
“Well, hello, Jimbo. How you doing? You hanging in there?”
Jim saw a haze of red but kept his voice calm. “Missing my kid, Vinnie. Let me talk to him.”
“Sure, sure, in a second. Listen, we explained to Tyler how you got called away on an emergency and asked us to bring him along. Only, my directions to the church must have been off. So you ease his mind about that now, so he’ll be a cooperative little hostage for us and not have to be punished. All right?”
“You put a hand on him, you son of a bitch, and I’ll—”
“I don’t have to tell you what I want, do I, Jimbo? The second I hear from my lawyer that the charges against me have been dropped, you and your kid will be reunited. I’ll give you eight hours to make it happen. I don’t care what it takes. You make it happen.”
“I’ll do it. You know I will, you’ve got me where you want me.” And for the life of him, Jim couldn’t figure out what good Vinnie thought that would do. He had to know he was being recorded right now.
“Glad you realize it. Now talk to your boy and make it quick. I don’t plan to keep this call going long enough for you to trace it. And Corona—the better he behaves for us, the easier this will go on him.”
“I understand.” He found himself looking to his side, automatically seeking Kara’s face, her eyes. Damn, he couldn’t believe how much he wished she were there right now. He’d vowed never to let another woman mean anything to him. Not a damn thing. So what was going on with his head?
Tyler’s voice came on the phone. “Dad?”
“It’s me, Ty. Everything’s fine.”
“Dad! I’m gonna miss the weddin’!”
