Searching for Secrets (5 page)

Though her back stayed straight, Christa watched Frances shrivel inside. "I can't lose her, too," she said, softly.

Christa let go of her hands and sat back on the couch. Then there really was a son who died. What was the name Amy had said? Timmy, she thought. Suddenly, her head was pounding.

"Are you all right, Christa?" Frances asked.

"I will be. Those jerks hit me on the head, so I wouldn't see them when they took Amy." She leaned her head against the back of the sofa, feeling dizzy.

Frances lifted Christa's legs onto the couch. "I'll get some ice. You're awfully pale."

Christa started to protest, and then concluded Frances probably needed something to do. She liked this woman. She had her brother's strength of character, but none of his hard edges.

She tried to focus on what had just happened. Was she overlooking anything that might provide a clue to the kidnapper's identity? She reached up and gingerly felt her tender scalp. It hurt the most on the left side. It could mean her assailant--Amy's kidnapper--was left-handed. And it was not as high as the crown of her head, meaning the person might not be terribly tall. She was grasping at straws and she knew it.

Frances returned with ice that she had put in a sealed plastic bag. Christa sat up and held it to the back of her head. Whether it was the cold or the brief rest she didn't know, but she began to feel more alert.

There was a clamor of heavy footsteps coming toward the ground floor apartments, and Frances and Christa froze.

"I'll tell her," they heard Kirk say.

The two women exchanged relieved half-smiles. Frances walked quickly to the door and opened it as Kirk did. "Christa already did," she said quietly.

Kirk enveloped his sister in a bear hug, and Christa found herself wishing she were in his arms. She pushed the thought away. You self-centered witch. The woman's daughter has been kidnapped, and all you can think about is that you'd like to be in her brother's arms.

"What do we know?" Frances asked, pulling back and motioning to Mark Hadley to come into the apartment.

KIRK LOOKED AT CHRISTA SITTING ON THE SOFA. Amy would not have been kidnapped if Christa Heckertt hadn't come into their lives. He couldn't shake the thought. It didn't make any sense that she was in on this. It was he who had found Frances and Amy this apartment, and she certainly hadn't influenced that choice. No, that was yet another stupid move he'd made on his own.

He guided Frances to the pair of high-backed chairs that faced the loveseat in which Christa was sitting. "We've got every cop in Iowa City alerted to the description of the car, and I gave my wallet photo of Amy to the police photo lab. Her picture will be on TV any minute, and there will be signs around town within the hour." He looked at Christa who was studying him closely.

"I brought them here," she said. "The drives."

"You drove here? In what?" She didn't look to be in any shape to be behind the wheel, and he couldn't believe she had gotten all four tires replaced that quickly.

A faint smile crossed her lips and vanished. "The hard drives from the computer. That's what they want. I bet they'll call and want to trade for them."

Kirk's gaze followed hers to the three small bundles on the loveseat. He had wondered who had dumped wadded-up maps there. "That's what they want? Not the entire computer?"

"The housing, the case they go in, means nothing." She sat up straighter. "I brought them here so we'd have them to trade, but I also..."

"How will they know where to call?" Hadley asked, looking at Christa.

"Amy will give them this number," Frances said.

"But before they do, I want to put each one into my computer and see what's on them. I thought they were empty the other day," Christa continued, "but there must be something there they want."

"I can help," Frances said. Kirk regarded Christa, nearly speechless. How could she spend her time on computer bunk when Amy was missing?

CHRISTA STOOD AND WALKED over to Frances as she picked up the phone. She wanted to hear this voice. Wanted to have it ingrained in her memory.

"We thought that might be it. My neighbor, the teacher, she took the hard drives off the computers and brought them here. We can get them to you in a matter of minutes."

Frances gripped the phone with both hands, and Christa put her arm around her shoulders. If it were my daughter, I would be screaming at them, she thought. She could hear muffled talking on the other end of the line. The caller hadn't expected that response. Maybe she should have left the computers at the school. If anything happened to Amy...

"That's good. That's the first smart thing any of you did." There was the gravely voice again. "In two hours, the teacher should bring the stuff to Crandic Park..."

"I'll bring it!" Frances nearly shouted, and Christa gave her shoulder a light squeeze.

"Only the teacher! We know what she looks like. Make sure the drives are well padded. She should come to the group of picnic tables near the entrance." The voice became more strident. "And she better be alone. If we see any cops, any at all, the deal's off."

Christa thought she detected an East Coast accent. The longer the man spoke the harder it was for him to hide it. Or was he acquiring it as he talked?

Hadley mouthed words to Frances and she nodded. "How do I know Amy's all right?" she asked.

"She was scared at first, but I gave her a soda and put her in the bathroom. Don't want her lookin' at us." With that, the man hung up.

Frances put her face in her cupped hands and Hadley grabbed her in a hug.

Kirk came back to the kitchen, and Christa thought he looked like the one who needed a hug now. "No trace." He turned to Hadley. "Come on. We have to see how we can get that park staked out so no one will notice."

"But..." Christa and Frances both said.

"I know what they said. They won't know we're anywhere close." He kissed Frances on the cheek, then turned to Christa. "If you can work with those drives in a way that they can't tell, fine. We're talking about Amy's life here. Don't do anything that would make them angry."

With that, Kirk left, and Christa felt as if he had rebuked her for trying to help. She turned to Frances.

"I'll work on these alone. You need to stay here in case they call back." Frances agreed, and Christa gathered the three hard drives and went to her apartment. Ignoring Brandy's pleas for food, she went to her small den and quickly took off the outside case of her computer. She was thankful that her home computer was the same brand, thought a bit newer. She mentally crossed her fingers, hoping that the hard drive in the school computers would fit hers.

"Yes!" she said. Brandy jumped on the desk and Christa swatted her down. Substituting one of the three hard drives from the school computers for her own wasn't quite as easy as piecing together a preschool puzzle, but it was close.

She turned on the power switch and waited impatiently as the computer went through its warm-up routine. A quick check of the hard drive showed only the folders for the operating system and the educational software she had added such a short time ago. Christa wasn't sure what she was looking for, so she jotted notes that the total number of folders was 72. Maybe something would make sense later. She rapidly deleted all the programs she had added. Some of them had a child's name attached to a file.

It was 12:15. There was less than an hour-and-a-half until she was to meet the kidnappers. She started to erase files in the main Windows folder, then remembered that most of them were on the system when she received it. She glanced at that list of 72 folders again. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. "Not that you would know," she said aloud. She decided to print the list of files in the Windows folder.

It was easier to take out this hard drive and load the second one from school. As she deftly inserted the tiny screws, she wondered what could be so important to these thieves that they would kidnap a little girl in broad daylight. If they hurt Amy, I’ll never forgive myself. She should have realized that the broken window in the school hallway could mean someone had broken into the building yet again. Kurt should have thought of that. But it didn't look as if the pane would be big enough for a person, she reminded herself. I'll think about that later.

The second hard drive was in place so she again turned the computer on and viewed its folders and files. There were two more files in one of the programs she had loaded, but she quickly figured out that they were Spanish vocabulary words her students had added. Nothing else looked unusual. She repeated the process of listing files and then erasing only the ones she had loaded.

Her fingers flew as she took out the second drive and inserted the third. It was 12:40 p.m. She was printing the folder list when she glanced at the number of folders. There were 73 on this hard drive. Christa hadn't done anything in the Windows folder on this one. She compared the three lists. Where was the extra folder? There is was. ACCTINFO. It had one file, MNYACCT.EXE. She didn't know enough to try to understand it now, she just had to copy the file.

She inserted a disk in the CD ROM drive and instructed the computer to copy the file to the disk. That way, she could give them back their hard drive and check the file later. "Zero files copied," it told her. "What!" Christa tried it again. She sat back in her seat, unwilling to accept defeat but knowing that she had lost the battle with the clock.

"Christa. We have to hurry." Kirk's voice came from the other side of the hall door.

"Five minutes," she yelled back, her eyes never leaving the screen.

After another 10 seconds, Christa realized she had to stop. Getting Amy back was far more important than figuring out what the kidnappers wanted. She quickly unscrewed the third hard drive and was rewrapping it in the map of South America when the idea hit her. Her hard drive looked just like these.

Frantically she reinserted it in the computer. She didn't want to leave her files on it; it had the names of all of her students. Since it was a relatively new computer, she hadn't loaded too much on it. She quickly deleted all the files and was unscrewing it in when Kirk pounded on the door.

"Now, Christa!" His rage permeated her apartment.

She pulled her own hard drive out of the computer and wrapped it in the colorful map. There was no time to put the kidnapper's drive back into her computer case, so she gently inserted it in the top drawer of her desk and closed it. She didn't need Brandy investigating the new object on the desk.

She almost flew down her small hallway and flung open the door, directly meeting Kirk Reynolds' eyes. His voice was choked. "What could have been so important...?" He couldn't finish his own sentence.

"I wanted to see if I could figure out what they wanted so badly."

"The only thing that matters is Amy," he said as he took the steps to the landing two at a time.

Christa hurried after him. She agreed. She simply wanted to be certain they had an inkling of what was so valuable. If the kidnappers didn't appear with their petite captive, the extra file might provide some clues. Or, it might not.

Kirk unlocked the passenger door to Frances' car and didn't wait to shut it as Christa slid into the seat. She leaned over and unlocked his door before he had a chance to insert the key in the lock. "Thanks," he said, gruffly.

"What's the plan?" she asked as he sped down the long driveway toward Highway 6.

"When we get about three blocks from the park, I'll get out. You drive on in and park near the covered area with the picnic tables." He glanced in the rear view mirror.

"You worried about being followed?" she asked.

"Only a little. I figure they didn't plan to take Amy, so they aren't real organized."

Christa could envision the entrance to Crandic Park and the small grouping of picnic tables. They were at the edge of the small parking lot, and she thought there was a public phone near the tables. Behind the tables was the river, and across from the small park were pricey houses nestled among many trees. That would be a good hiding place, but getting there from the park would entail running across a fairly open area and across Rocky Shore Drive. It seemed the site the kidnappers picked was awfully visible. But, maybe that was part of their plan. They could certainly see any police who were nearby.

"Why did they pick that location, do you suppose?" she asked.

Kirk took his eyes from the road long enough to give her a look that Christa thought said she was an idiot. "I wouldn't know."

His curt response quieted her voice, but her mind raced. There was no way the kidnappers would walk into such an open place with Amy. Perhaps they intended just to grab her bag with the hard drives and make a dash for a get-away car. Or maybe they would have a boat on the river. But, that didn't make sense either.

She started to voice her fears to Kirk, but changed her mind. He blamed her, she could tell. She hadn't asked to be a target of burglars, and couldn't imagine why they wanted her computers so badly. Nor had she been the one to suggest that he and Amy go to the school this morning. But, this wasn't about blame. Or guilt. It was about Amy.

Kirk slowed the car and pulled over to the curb. Wordlessly he got out and Christa slid over to the driver's seat. He held open the car door as he spoke. "I have people in the park, playing Frisbee. There will be several other joggers on the road nearby, and they'll be cops, too. I'll be on the side street across from the park, in a van. It has sound equipment that should pick up your voices. Whatever you do, don't go with them."