The first was from the Fresno Police Department. Hours earlier I’d requested that an officer stop by the residence of Margaret Dexter, Hannah Shire’s aunt. An officer had done so, but had been refused entrance. A neighbor told the officer she’d seen two women matching the description of Hannah Shire and Carol Ballard drive into Ms. Dexter’s garage in a Ford Escort. On that basis the Fresno department pursued a warrant to search the premises. In the house they found no sign of Hannah Shire and her mother but did discover her car. She must have been there and left again in Mrs. Dexter’s car. I was in the process of requesting they put out a BOLO for the vehicle when the second call came in. This was the call about the kidnapping.
MORSE: From San Mateo police.
WADE: Yes. An eyewitness had seen a kidnapping in the Sequoia Hospital parking lot in Redwood City. According to the witness, two men had pulled three women from a car and shoved them into a gray van. A third man was driving. The car had been left still running. It was the vehicle belonging to Mrs. Dexter. Inside, San Mateo police found numerous items, including a purse belonging to Hannah Shire, as well as a laptop bag containing a computer and wallet belonging to Emily Shire. In that bag was also a flash drive, and a piece of paper with a long string of numbers and letters written on it, plus the “Phase” text. All of this was the same information we’d extracted from the video.
MORSE: Some guns were also in the car, I understand?
WADE: Hannah Shire’s purse contained a Chief’s Special handgun. A second, much larger weapon was found wrapped in a plastic bag and stuffed in a tote bag, which had been placed in the trunk.
MORSE: Any leads on the gray van?
WADE: The eyewitness had been able to record the van’s license plate. We ran the plate, hoping this would take us straight to the kidnappers. Armed with all the information we’d learned in the last few hours, we now feared these women were in great danger. Time was of the essence. We had to find them immediately.
MORSE: But you couldn’t.
WADE: No.
MORSE: You need to speak louder for the recorder, sir.
WADE: No. The van had been stolen. Our lead went nowhere.
Monday, February 25, 2013
God, just let me save my mother and daughter.
I sat on the ratty couch with Mom and Emily, my brain awhirl. How
could
I save them? I didn’t dare tell these men where the encryption key was hidden. How could I send these killers to yet another family, another mother and daughter.
To a
child
?
The very thought made my stomach turn. I’d already killed a man. I could
not
be responsible for the death of a mother and little girl.
“You have to let us go now.” Mom blinked, as if surprised she’d spoken.
Stone shot her a sarcastic smile. “Tell us what we need to know first. Then you can go.”
Emily stiffened, as if ready to hit him again.
Mom eyed him. “What?”
“What did Morton Leringer tell you?”
Confusion limned Mom’s face. Was she faking it? “I can’t remember.”
“I think you do.”
My mind cleared—and I saw what I had to do.
“Mom.” I patted her leg. “We need to tell him. It doesn’t matter now.”
She turned to me, indignant. “But Morton
told
us not to tell.”
“Yes. But it doesn’t matter any more.”
“Why?”
“Stone will hurt Emily. Do you want him to do that?”
Mom’s eyes widened.
“No.”
Emily shot me a look over her Grand’s head. Her hurt cheek was flaring red.
Stay quiet, please.
My mother faced our captor, anger straightening her spine. “
Don’t
you hurt my granddaughter.”
Dark amusement pulled at Stone’s mouth. With slow precision he turned and walked to the table where his gun lay. Picked it up.
My lungs clogged.
Mom drew a sharp breath.
Stone returned and placed the trigger against my daughter’s temple.
Words gushed from me. “No-don’t-he-said-Raleigh!”
Stone’s eyebrows raised. “Ah. We seem to be getting somewhere.”
Emily sat very still.
“Yes, Raleigh.” Mom’s voice cracked. “North Carolina. We were going there. To see his daughter.”
Stone frowned. “Leringer has a daughter in Raleigh?”
“Take that gun away from her head.” My throat ran dry. “You
don’t
need it.”
The man tipped the gun toward the ceiling. Stepped back. Then pointed the weapon at my mother. “You. Tell me.”
“Th-that’s all we know.” Mom fingered her blouse. “He wanted us to see his daughter in Raleigh. He hadn’t seen her in years.”
Stone focused on me. “Why didn’t you just call her?”
Mom had done what I needed her to do. It was clear to Stone she was telling the truth. As she knew it. “Please, put that gun down.”
He moved it to point at me. “Talk.”
“I would have called her. But then you sent someone to kill us, and we had to run.”
“I see. How inconvenient. Why didn’t you head east toward North Carolina?”
“In my car? Everyone was looking for it. I needed my aunt’s car.”
“Why did Leringer want you to see his daughter?”
“I don’t know. He couldn’t say much except that it was important, and not to tell anyone. He didn’t say anything about the video, even though I found out later he’d slipped it in my pocket. He didn’t say anything about an encrypted message—” My mouth snapped shut. Too late, I realized my mistake.
Stone narrowed his eyes. For the longest moment we locked gazes. My heart turned over.
“So. He didn’t tell you anything about our plan.”
“No.”
“Then how do you know about it?”
I glanced at Mom. She stared at Stone, her expression empty and eyes glazed. She’d checked out, the trauma too much for her.
“I watched the video. Saw the power generator falling apart. At some point, I figured it out.”
The gun remained pointed at me. Emily still held her grandmother’s hand.
“Smart woman you are.” Stone’s mouth twisted. “How do you know it’s going to happen tonight?”
My mind spun. I couldn’t turn his attention on Emily. But this was a trick question, right? Stone couldn’t be sure I knew the timing.
Of course he could. I’d told Homeland Security. They’d called Sergeant Wade.
I licked my lips.
“I’m waiting, Mrs. Shire.”
“
I
told her.” Emily bit off the words.
No.
Tex laughed low in his throat.
“Oh.” Sarcasm coated Stone’s response. “It’s the daughter, is it.” The gun barrel moved toward her chest. My breath stopped. “How did you do that?”
Emily kept her chin high. “I make videos for a living. I knew how to slow it down. I saw the words at the beginning.”
“And the encrypted message at the end, I’ll bet.” Stone sneered at me. “Since apparently Leringer didn’t mention that.”
“Yes.” Emily’s jaw was tight.
Stone’s voice hardened. “Where’s the key?”
“It must be in Raleigh,” I said. “He phoned it to his daughter.”
Stone lasered me with his eyes. Then did a slow turn toward his two men. “Tex.” His voice sounded casual.
“I’m here.” Tex took a step forward, eager to please.
“Didn’t I tell you if you didn’t bring the girl to me in twelve hours, you’d be dead?”
Before Tex could reply, Stone swung the gun around and shot him in the chest. Mom jerked. Emily and I screamed.
The hole in Tex’s shirt bloomed blood. He fell with a sickening thud.
The third man turned horrified eyes on Stone.
“Don’t worry.” Stone shrugged. “You did your job.”
He turned back to us. I couldn’t move. How could anyone kill another person so easily? Someone who was supposed to be his friend?
“Now. You.” He pointed the gun at me. “Get up.”
“Mom,” Emily wailed.
“Get up
now.
”
Somehow I pushed off the couch. Would my legs hold me?
“Don’t hurt her.” My mother’s voice, plaintive and weak.
“I don’t like people who lie to me.” Stone’s expression blackened.
“I haven’t—”
“Shut up.” He half-turned toward his remaining man. “Mack. Take her to the other side of the room.”
Mack grabbed my arm and pulled me across the floor.
“Please,” Emily said. “Don’t. We’ll tell you everything.”
“Yes, you will. When I’m done with you.”
I reached the far wall. Mack spun me around to face the couch. Stone stood in the middle of the room, halfway between me and the two loves of my life. They clung to each other.
God help us!
I could not send this killing machine to Ashley Eddington and her little girl.
Stone turned his back on me, the gun aimed at the couch.
“No! Stop!” This could not be real. My knees started to fold. Mack yanked me up.
“You choose.” Stone’s chilling voice filtered over his shoulder.
“What?” My vision was blackening. I couldn’t get air.
“One of ’em dies for your lies.”
“
No!”
“You don’t choose one, they both go.”
“Please . . .”
“You got ten seconds.” Stone’s arm moved, and I knew he’d grasped his weapon with both hands. “So, Mrs. Shire. Tell me. Which one gets to live?”
SPECIAL HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE INVESTIGATION INTO FREENOW TERRORIST ACTIVITY OF FEBRUARY 25, 2013
SEPTEMBER 16, 2013
TRANSCRIPT
Representative ELKIN MORSE (Chairman, Homeland Security Committee): Again I must note the sudden change in your actions, Sergeant Wade—now that you were at a point where you knew the blackout could not be stopped. Suddenly you were doing everything you could to save the woman you’d hunted before. When the van’s license plate failed to provide the lead you needed, what did you do?
WADE: I called Cheryl Stein, Leringer’s daughter. I asked her again if she knew why her father would have kept repeating the word “Raleigh” before he died.
MORSE: “Again.” So you’d had this conversation with her before?
WADE: Yes, on Sunday night. But she’d just lost her father and had been on site when a second body—that of Nathan Eddington—was found. Perhaps she hadn’t been thinking all that clearly. And, of course, now we had a better sense of how important it was to discover what “Raleigh” meant.
MORSE: And what did Cheryl Stein tell you?
WADE: She had no idea what her father had been referring to.
MORSE: So it was at this point you called Ashley Eddington with the same question?
WADE: Yes.
MORSE: And you had not had this conversation with her previously?
WADE: I was not able to question Ashley Eddington to the extent I would have liked. Ashley had to deal with the loss of her husband while caring for a young daughter. She’d been overwrought and unable to continue answering questions. We’d had to stop.
MORSE: So. Once again it just so happened that more time was lost.
WADE: Chairman Morse, you
were not with me
on the days of February 24 and 25. You can insinuate all you want, but you weren’t there as I worked around the clock, without sleep. You weren’t there as I made minute-by-minute decisions while one body after another piled up. You weren’t there when I discovered three women had been kidnapped. You have
no idea
what it’s like to bear the pressure I face every day on the job—and that day in particular.
MORSE: Now that you’ve made your speech, Sergeant, tell this committee the answer you received when you asked Ashley Eddington about “Raleigh.”
WADE: At first she made no connection. After all, the word had come from the mouth of Morton Leringer, not her husband. Then she paused and said, “It couldn’t be my daughter’s stuffed dog. R-A-W-L-Y?”
Monday, February 25, 2013
Was time moving? The world had screeched to a halt, even as my heart rattled out of my chest. Blood pounded in my head, a faint grating sound somewhere in the distance.
“Nine seconds.” Stone’s voice. Matter-of-fact, as if he discussed the weather.
I tried to speak. No words came.
“Which one, Hannah? Seven. Six.”
A mewling sound came from my mother’s throat.
“Four. Three.”
Behind me a door opened and slammed. The sudden noise bounced across the room.
Stone whirled around. Mack’s hold on me loosened. Footsteps sounded in the kitchen. “Tex?”
Stone jerked his chin toward Mack. “Stop her.”
Mack let me go. In peripheral vision I saw a woman appear at the door. Clad in jeans and a blue shirt. She gasped at the sight of the body on the floor, then screamed.
Mack reached her. Caught her arms. She fought him. “Tex! What have you done?
Tex!
”
“Shut up, Bo!” Stone stomped toward her.
Emily launched herself off the couch. In that split, forever second I saw her run. Lower her head. With a primal cry she rammed Stone in the back.
“Ungh!”
He stumbled forward.
She skidded to a halt and kicked his hand holding the gun. It flew from his fingers and flipped across the floor.
Adrenaline surged through me. I jumped for the gun, snatched it up. Spun to face Stone.
He twisted toward Emily, hands stretched for her throat. He didn’t need a gun to kill her.
Bo pummeled Mack with her fists. He saw me with the weapon and let her go. Reached into his pocket.
She jerked up her pant leg and brought up a gun. Her cheeks were red, raw. “You’re dead, Mack!”
A gun appeared in Mack’s hand.
Stone grabbed my daughter’s throat.
I aimed and pulled the trigger. The kickback punched my arms, a thunderous sound in my ears.
A bullet tore into Stone’s shoulder. He grunted and fell back. Emily veered toward the couch and threw her body over her grandmother.
I pulled the trigger again. And again. My finger wouldn’t stop. It pulled and pulled, my body jerking, the sounds echoing, and my insides screaming and screaming—
I’m killing another man!—
and someone else yelling, and the world falling away—until nothing but clicks sounded.