The K Handshape (38 page)

“Yeah.”

“Did you notice any cars parked on the street?”

“Not really. I wasn’t looking for anything, was I?”

“Have you ever done that before? Shut Joy in her room and gone for cigarettes?”

She got tense again. “A couple of times. Just in emergencies.”

I wasn’t sure a nicotine fix qualified as an emergency but then I wasn’t a smoker.

“What did you do when you got back to the house?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“But you’d run out because you were desperate for a smoke. Did you go outside?”

“No.”

“So you didn’t have a cigarette after all?”

Our eyes locked at this point. Nora’s pupils were dilated. “The urge had passed.”

“What did you do then?”

“Like I said, nothing. I came in and went to the bathroom.” She tried for a little defiance. “Do you want to know if I did a piss or a shit?”

“Only if you think it’s necessary to the enquiry.”

Leo spoke, still in a monotone. “It would seem that we are looking at a very narrow window of time when she could have been taken. If Miss Cochrane is to be believed, she returned at about twelve minutes past two. Joy must have been taken almost as soon as she left the house.”

“They’d have to be fucking quick about it,” said Nora.

Abductors often were appallingly quick.

“Her clothes have gone,” said Loretta. “And her favourite toy, Harold the dinosaur.”

“It’s Horace, not Harold,” said Nora.

“We’ll need a description of the clothes,” said Ed.

Sigmund was so quiet I’d almost forgotten about him. He was looking at his father in action with a sort of horrified fascination.

Ed shifted in his chair and frowned at Nora, who glared back. “So Joy was most likely taken when you were on your way to the store and it suggests somebody who was familiar with the house and possibly saw you leave.”

She snorted. “Chancy, wasn’t it? I didn’t even know I was out of smokes myself til I came downstairs.”

Many criminals are opportunists on the lookout for a victim and some horrible destiny comes into play. Wrong place, wrong time. In spite of Nora’s remark, this case didn’t fit that mode at all. First, there was the question of entry, which had to be with a key and a knowledge of the child’s bedroom; secondly, as she said, she could quite easily have not left the house. Was the abductor lying in wait, ready to strike whenever they could? There must have been a vehicle involved. Joy’s abduction was not done on impulse. It had been planned.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

Katherine had called for an emergency meeting and the team, including Ed, was gathered in the boardroom. Once again, Janice, bless her, had thought of bodily needs and sent out for pizzas. She’d also ordered salads for those who were health conscious, which right now meant only David.

Katherine gave us a moment to get the pizza from the box.

“Chris, can you let us in on your thinking?”

I’d made notes and I consulted them. Not that I really needed to; everything was burned in my mind.

“I think we can rule out a stranger. The abductor had to know the layout of the house and the current situation. I’d say somebody was watching the house and saw Loretta leave and then Nora shortly afterward. Joy is deaf but she has a good pair of lungs, and even though Deidre’s house is detached, the houses are close together. I think if she had been yelling top volume, somebody would have heard her and nobody did. There were people at home on either side.”

“The window of opportunity seems incredibly small,” said Ray.

“It is. One of the constables did a quick time check of a walk from the house to the convenience store and back. Twelve minutes. Nora was probably minimizing the time she was absent but it wouldn’t have been much more than that if she did what she said she did.”

“She wasn’t coming clean about everything, I’m sure of it,” said Leo.

“Do you think there’s a likelihood that she is implicated?” Katherine asked.

“I’d say not. And if she is, she’d have to have an accomplice. What was your take, Ed?”

“I agree with you. She’s not the most endearing of people, but yes, I believed her. She seemed too upset to be faking.”

“Leo?”

“I would find it hard to believe that she would do this. It simply rebounds on her anyway.”

I went on. “The proprietor of the convenience store confirms that she came in when she said she did. They have an ongoing joke about her stopping smoking. He offered to sell her one cigarette to get her through the ‘craving moment,’ as he called it.”

Ray snorted. He was still struggling to stay off cigarettes.

“Did he confirm the time?” Katherine asked.

“He’s sure it was just after two and that she was in and out very quickly.”

David raised a finger to indicate he had a question. “I don’t disagree that the abductor might have been watching the house but that too is risky. If he, can we use ‘he’ for now, it’s easier, or do I have to be PC?”

Katherine nodded brusquely and David continued. “Let’s say he drives up to the house but has some other method of entry on his mind, say a home invasion, as it were. He sees the two women leave. He thinks this is his lucky day and immediately goes into the house, up to the kid’s room, gets her out of bed. She may or may not know him. He could have subdued her if she protested, and he carries her into the car. What? Seven minutes maximum.”

“He had to get her dressed,” I said. “That would add some time. Her clothes are missing and a raincoat and boots, which were in the hall closet.”

“If he had a car, he wouldn’t need to dress her, he could collect the clothes and carry her out as she was. Most hall closets hold outdoor things so that doesn’t prove a hell of a lot.” David had a rather irritating “point scored” tone to his voice but he was right.

“Neither Loretta nor Nora noticed a car parked outside the house,” said Ed.

“If you’re not looking, you often don’t see.”

Again David was right about that. The unreliability of witness testimony was notorious.

“Christine and I were talking about the big question on the way over,” said Ed. “Motive. What the hell’s the motive? There’s been no ransom demand.”

“It’s early days,” said David. “We know that kidnappers sometimes wait before making contact with the victim’s family.”

He was playing devil’s advocate but it was necessary to have somebody do that. Nobody wanted to get into tunnel vision. That had led to too many a tragic wild goose chase.

“I tried to get in touch immediately with the close friends, Jessica Manolo and Hannah Silverstein, but didn’t get any answer.”

“We sent a constable to the house but there was nobody home,” said Ed.

“Is that suspicious, do you think?” Katherine asked.

“I don’t know. Either or both of them fit our profile of person in the loop, but they don’t have a car and as far as I know no reason to take Joy.”

“Is it within the realm of possibility that the whole thing is a variation of David’s thesis?” Jamie asked. “Not a home invasion as such, but say one or both of these girls came over to visit, found that nobody was home and Joy had been left alone. They enter the house, get her, and take her back to their place just to make a point that she isn’t being looked after properly.”

Katherine took off her glasses and polished the lens. “If that is the case, they are unusually insensitive and callous young women with no regard for the anguish they’ve caused. It’s been four hours since Joy was last seen.”

In my brief meetings with Jessica and Hannah, neither one had struck me as like that but who knows? The nicest people can do uncharacteristic things if they feel strongly about something.

Suddenly Ed grabbed at his pocket. “Excuse me,” he said. We all had our cellphones turned to silent ring and he’d just got a call. I was just about to go back to the question of the letters when he gave a yelp of pleasure.

“That was the station. I think we’ve got a positive ID on Joy. One of the neighbours on Mary Street, six or seven houses down from Deidre, says she looked out of the window and saw, get this, a
woman walking with a child along the street. She was vague about the time, but thinks it was just after she’d listened to the news on the radio at two o’clock. She’s not vague about what she saw. A little girl about three years of age in a bright yellow raincoat and matching boots.”

“Yes!” That was from me, I couldn’t help it. The missing raincoat and boots were yellow.

“She noticed, she said, because the child splashed through some puddles and obviously wanted to do it again but the woman, who she assumed was the child’s mother, hurried her along. Bingo!”

Leo was looking at the table. I thought he was afraid to risk meeting anybody’s eyes. The rest of us were beaming at each other even though we were well aware this was only the beginning. It didn’t necessarily mean that Joy wouldn’t come to harm.

“Did the woman give any ID on the so-called mother?” he asked.

“She describes her as quite short, stocky, and she was wearing a dark-coloured raincoat with a hood which she had up.”

“Hannah Silverstein,” I burst out. “When I first saw her she was wearing a dark plaid raincoat with a hood. Joy would certainly go with her happily.”

Katherine sat back in her chair. “She’s our first priority then. But before we break up…” she paused. “Chris, in your opinion, what level of threat do you think we’re dealing with?”

I tried to distance myself from the image of the smiling, round-cheeked face of the child who’d waved Horace’s paw at me.

“Given what we know of the relationship between the suspect and the child’s mother, I’d say we are dealing with low threat.”

“Unless, of course, Silverstein was connected with my daughter’s murder,” said Leo. “We don’t even know yet who wrote those hate letters or where they fit in.”

He was voicing our worst fears, that there was some psycho on the loose who thought they were acting on behalf of a vengeful God. I flashed back to the letter I’d received and how disturbing the sense of a deranged mind had been. But Hannah Silverstein? I didn’t think so.

“I’m going over to the girl’s apartment right now,” said Ed. “Chris, I’d like you to come with me. You know them.”

I was only too happy to go. It would keep Leo from shooting
off on his own, which I suspected he would do. I saw his expression when Ed spoke. I seemed to be the only person he trusted to investigate the case. So be it.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

The apartment building was a fifties-style walk-up in yellow brick with a flat front and symmetrical square windows. The two girls lived on the third floor. The blinds were down but there was a crack of light showing through, so somebody was at home. Ed pressed the bell, and through the old-fashioned stained glass vent above the door, I saw a light flashing on and off. Things went dark and he pressed again. More flashes.

“We’re not leaving until we get some answers,” said Ed. His face was grim and I knew how much all of us were affected by what was going on.

We heard footsteps and the door opened. Jessica Manolo looked at us in surprise.

“Yes?”

I faced her squarely so she could read my lips. “Is Hannah at home?”

Either the hall was too dark or she didn’t want to answer.

“Pardon me?”

“May we come in, Jessica?”

“Pardon?”

“We’d like to come in,” I made some gesture to illustrate what I meant and she nodded, stepped back, and waved us in. I felt almost like a dog going into a strange place. All senses were on the alert, including my smell trying to pick up any evidence of Joy. All I got was a rather delicious aroma of baking chicken.

“I was making dinner,” said Jessica. “A moment please.”

She headed down the hall, leaving us to follow. The living room was to the left and the kitchen opened off it. The place was rather untidy, not unduly so for two young women, but a cursory glance around showed no sign that a child had been here. No chairs moved or cushions on the floor for childproofing. Jessica took a pot off the stove and returned to the living room. On the way, she retrieved two hearing aids from a dish on the table and began to twist them into her ears.

She smiled at us. “That’s better.”

“Jessica, we would particularly like to speak to Hannah.”

It must have been obvious that we were here on a serious matter and she started to look alarmed.

“She’s not here. She has gone to visit her parents in Toronto for the weekend.”

“When did she leave?”

“I was at the library so I’m not sure but she usually takes the afternoon train. But please tell me what is wrong?”

I looked at her closely but I didn’t think she was dissembling. “Little Joy has disappeared. Somebody abducted her from her room about two o’clock this afternoon.”

“What do you mean abducted?”

“Unfortunately Nora had left the house unattended believing that Joy was asleep. She says she was gone for only a short period of time and did not immediately check on her. Ms. Larsen was also out. Neither person checked on Joy until about three-thirty, when Ms. Larsen found the door was open and Joy was gone.”

“Oh that stupid girl,” Jessica snapped. “We kept telling Deidre that she wasn’t the right person to have as a nanny but she insisted that Joy loved her. She said Nora had a heart of gold and not to be fooled by her tough manners. That’s bullshit. What did she say she left the house for? Drugs, I bet. Stupid wicked girl. She is a drug addict to boot.” Jessica’s hands fluttered as if they had to talk. “But I don’t understand … what does this have to do with Hannah?”

Ed answered this one. “We have a witness who saw a young woman fitting Hannah’s description walking with a child who was mostly likely Joy.”

“It can’t have been her. She has gone to visit her parents. She said nothing about taking Joy with her.”

“What time was it when you last saw Hannah?” I asked.

“About noon. I went over to the library. But it’s all some silly misunderstanding. Hannah must have decided to take Joy with her at the last minute…”

“Without informing anybody?”

“Perhaps she left a note and nobody saw it yet.”