Eye of the Abductor (9 page)

“I guess you can
make it up to me by taking me to dinner.”

His brows rose.
“Sure, when?”

“I’m off Sunday
night.”

“Sunday night is
fine. Around seven?”

“Seven's good.
Thanks again for the picture. You have no idea what this means to me.”

"You're
welcome." Brance gave her a curious stare. “So why the change in heart
about going out with me?”

She shrugged.
“Because you know my situation, and you’ll not ask me to go beyond the limits
I’ve set for myself.”

“Limits?”

"Like
sleeping around. In court, I want my character to be cleaner than Mother Teresa’s.”

“May I ask why
you don’t have custody?”

“I’m not ready
to share that. Maybe later.”

Brance nodded.
“I understand.” He walked to the door. “I’d better go. See you Sunday at
seven.”

“I’m looking
forward to it.” She had both hands on the door, pushing it closed as he backed
out. She hoped this date would keep him out of her business.

Be honest
with yourself. You just want an excuse to go out with him.

That’s
nonsense.

He was a threat,
no more. By going out with him, she’d be able to deter his efforts to pry into
her life. That’s all.

In the meantime,
she would prepare to leave Bartlett with her son. She wasn’t willing to wait
until he was in college to say, "Hey kid, I’m your mother." She
wanted her son now.

Allison needed a
window of opportunity to abduct him. But how? Bill Wilson had always kept a
loaded .45 by his bed. Was she brave enough to break into the Wilsons' home and
snatch her sleeping child? Besides, the trauma might be too much for Nathan.

She estimated
she had less than a month to carry it out. She’d have to come up with a solid
plan and find a time when Nathan was poorly supervised.

Then she recalled
the Wilsons attended the huge Baptist church on the corner. More than likely,
they left him in the nursery. By the time she took Nathan out of the church and
they discovered him missing, she’d be across the Mississippi River into
Arkansas.

Chapter Five

Allison sat in the office of the
Baptist church and filled out the application to be a nursery worker. She gave
her minister and choir director at the Methodist church as references along
with her supervisor at Malden Brother’s.

The lady glanced over it. “We’re
very short handed. Would you be able to start tomorrow night?”

“Yes. Will I be expected to pay
for my own background check?”

“No, don’t worry about that. We’ll
call your references and if everything is all right, we’ll skip the background
check. We’ve got to hire someone now.” She paused. “Would you consider Sunday
nights as well?”

“Actually, I’m going to school. I
need Sunday evenings to study. I’m available on Sunday mornings and Wednesday
evenings.”

“Well, then. I think we’ll manage
on Sunday evenings without you. We start our nursery workers at ten an hour.”

“That’ll be fine. If possible I’d
prefer to work with the four and five year olds instead of the babies.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.”

The difficult part would be
keeping Dorothy or Bill from spotting her. She didn’t recall them ever
attending on Wednesdays. After seeing the layout of the nursery, she’d have a
better idea whether or not she could pull this off.

The thought of leaving without
telling Jill goodbye disturbed her. Once Allison walked away with her son,
there’d be no turning back.

On the ride to her apartment, her
mind twirled thoughts around like a pinwheel in a breeze. She’d hold off on
paying December’s bills. That’d give her close to a thousand extra to take with
her. Though she regarded it as stealing, she had no choice. She needed every
penny she could scrape together. The biggest problem would be packing her few
belongings into her car without Brance noticing.

***

Wednesday night after work,
Allison entered the nursery. Jo Anne the director greeted her and introduced
her to Mona, the other preschool worker. The children played in an enormous
room with one doorway where parents dropped off and picked up their children
from a main hall.

A door toward the back of the room
led into a wide passageway that connected the preschool room with the infant
and toddler nurseries. The area also housed a kitchenette. Across from the
kitchen area, a large closet with a sliding door contained art supplies and
held their coats. Next to the closet was a bathroom.

After giving her a brief tour,
they returned to the main room where eleven hyped-up four and five year olds
darted around tables and played in different areas. One section had a toy
kitchen set, another an indoor playground, and a third had beanbag chairs with
a television playing religious cartoons.

“The kids are pretty good,” Jo
Anne remarked.

Allison's gaze drifted from child
to child. She eyed a little blonde boy sitting in the corner. When she realized
it was Nathan, her heart jumped. She bit back an emotional outburst. Since when
had her in-laws attended Wednesday night services?

Once the initial shock had passed,
her chest swelled with the joy of seeing him. She wanted to dash across the
room and gather him up in her arms, but instead, she compelled herself to give
the other children her attention.

Allison knelt beside a little
girl. “What are you playing?”

“Tea party. Want to play?”

“Sure.”

The girl pretended to pour a cup
of tea. “Here, be careful. It’s hot.”

“I will.” Allison blew as though
cooling it and pretended to drink. “That was so good. Thank you. And what’s
your name?”

“Katie.”

“Nice meeting you, Katie. Thanks
for the tea.”

Allison moved from child to child,
initiating conversations. Two boys knocked over the blocks that another boy and
girl had skillfully stacked, resulting in a squabble. With a little scolding
and a few hugs, she had all four working together.

“You’re a natural,” Jo Anne said.

Allison offered the director a
quick smile before moving over to Nathan. She knelt down. For just a moment,
she stared at him, wishing she could hold him next to her. “What’s your name?”

“Nathan.”

“Hi, Nathan. I’m Miss Allison.”
She paused. “What are you playing?”

“Cops.” He held up a Matchbox
police car then pointed to another car on the rug. “Those are the bad
guys."

She didn't want him being a cop.
Ever. And he wouldn't if she had anything to do with it.

“You like playing cops, huh?”

“My daddy was a cop. Memaw said
so.”

“What about your mother?”

“Don’t got one.”

“Why not?”

“She left me.”

Those lying bastards.

When Jo Anne crossed over to the
infant nursery, and Mona escorted a girl to the potty, Allison took the opportunity
to lower her nose to the crown of her son’s head and breathe in his scent. He
smelled like green apples. An inner glow warmed her all over, leaving her
tingling with love. She rubbed his back lightly and fought back the tears.

Once the nursery director and Mona
returned, she left Nathan and moved to another child. She visited all the
children before joining Mona, who stood guard over the room like a gargoyle on
top of a castle.

“They’re all so cute,” Allison
said.

“Until they don’t get their way,”
Mona said. “Trust me, after you see a few temper tantrums you might change your
mind.”

“They seem to play well together.
Some are in their own little world like the kid in the corner.”

“Nathan. He joins the others
occasionally. Poor little tot. I shouldn’t discuss this, but it’s not like you
know his family. His daddy went to prison. A cop turned corrupt. From what I
understand, he was murdered there.”

“What about Nathan’s mother?”

“Sent to jail too. Apparently, she
was involved in her husband’s drug business.”

“So who does Nathan live with?”

“His grandparents. His grandmother
is lethal. Never cross that lady. She goes for the throat.”

Allison remembered.

Later after the church service had
ended, she recognized Bill Wilson standing at the nursery door. Her adrenaline
pushed her pulse straight into the red zone for a moment, but she forced the
panic down.

“Nathan, let’s go, sport. Memaw’s
waiting in the car.”

Nathan looked up and smiled before
hurrying across the room.

Allison turned facing another
child with her back to the door. Bill didn’t even notice her. This might be
easier to pull off than she’d first thought. Thank goodness it hadn’t been
Dorothy, because she never missed anything.

Allison had to be careful, but if
things went as planned, she’d have her son soon.

***

Thursday, she couldn't concentrate
at work. All she'd been able to think about was Nathan. She considered skipping
class that night. But until she pulled away from the church with Nathan, she
had to keep the same routine. Anything out of the ordinary would draw
attention.

The difficult part would be
changing her name. She had two choices. Either take a dead person’s name or get
a foreign birth certificate. She decided to find a woman about her age who’d
died and get her birth certificate. Then obtaining the social security number wouldn't
be a problem.

That afternoon, she visited a
nearby cemetery. She strolled down a path through the flat headstones secured
in the ground. Finally, she stumbled across a woman who’d been born her same
year—Laura Marsh. If Memphis politicians had dead people voting in their
elections, she could pull this off.

Getting the documents turned out
to be easy. None of the county clerks questioned her.

Sunday morning, she deliberately
entered the nursery fifteen minutes late, hoping the Wilsons had already
dropped Nathan off.

“I’m so sorry," she told Jo
Anne. "I got stopped by a train. I didn’t think it would ever end.”

“That’s all right. It happens to
me sometimes.”

“Thanks. I’ll try to leave earlier
next Sunday.”

A moment of relief swept through
her when she recognized Nathan in one corner already playing cops and robbers.
She spoke to several of the children not wanting to appear overly interested in
Nathan. Finally, she made her way over to him. “Hi, Nathan. Remember me?”

He shook his head and continued
playing with the cars, making little engine sounds.

“I’m Miss Allison, remember me
now?”

He nodded but didn’t look up as he
moved the cars around with his hands. “They just robbed a bank, and my daddy’s
gonna arrest them.”

Perhaps this made him feel closer
to the dad he never knew. Poor little fellow had no idea his dad had been the
bad guy.

The first week after the abduction
would be the roughest until Nathan settled down from being separated from the
only family he’d ever known. She hated putting him through the trauma.

But one thing she knew about
children, they were resilient and quickly forgot and just as quickly learned to
love someone new. Six months under her care, Nathan would forget the Wilsons
and be dependent on her. Maybe even love her.

She forced herself away from him
and joined Mona in the kitchenette.

“Snack time.” Mona entered the
main room, carrying a tray of cookies. Allison followed with a tub of small
milk cartons. All the children but one hurried to the tables and sat down. Mona
frowned. “Nathan, you gonna join us, sweetheart?”

He finally glanced up from the toy
cars, stood, and walked to the table. When he couldn’t open the carton of milk,
Allison helped him.

She had a difficult time keeping
her expression unreadable, not revealing the deep degree of love she had for
Nathan. Her son gobbled up a cookie and swigged his milk down. Amazing how
viewing something so simple brought her so much joy.

“Hey, kiddo. You’ve got a mustache
now.” Allison knelt beside him and blotted the napkin over his mouth. In
response, Nathan wrapped his arms around her neck.

Allison thought her heart would burst.
She choked back the tears. She closed her eyes and savored the moment as his
warmth surrounded her.

While he chomped down on his last
cookie, she picked up the Matchbox cars and put them away, hoping he’d join the
other children. No sooner than Nathan finished, he searched until he found the
cars and continued playing cops and robbers.

After another twenty minutes,
Allison walked up beside Mona. “Can you handle things while I visit the restroom?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks.” Allison entered the wide
hallway that joined the two nurseries and paused, turning for a moment to take
one more glimpse of Nathan.

It’s so hard to walk away from
you my precious little boy. Mommy loves you, sweetheart.