Edgewise by Graham Masterton

that life with Daddy is a whole lot funner than staying at home with Mommy, tidying her bedroom and washing dishes and doing her geography homework.”
    â€œI don’t think my children are like that,” said Lily, defensively.
    â€œWhat? They don’t like roller-coaster rides? They don’t like ice cream? They don’t prefer swimming to schoolwork? Unusual kids, if you don’t mind my saying so, Mrs. Blake.”
    â€œI really don’t need your help, Mr. Shooks. Bennie—thank you for bringing Mr. Shooks around. I appreciate what you’re trying to do. But I think it’s best if we leave this investigation to the proper authorities.”
    Shooks smiled at her. Although he was so dark and thin and saturnine, there was something strangely kind about his smile, as if he really understood what she was suffering. “Okay,” he said, “the decision is entirely yours. Bennie’s quite right, though. Sometimes, if you look at a problem from a different angle, it can unravel itself right in front of your eyes. As if by magic.”
    â€œWould either of you gentlemen like a drink?” asked Ned. “I still have about two gallons of my famous Christmas punch left over. Bennie? How about you, Mr. Shooks? Care for a drink?”
    â€œThanks, but no,” said Shooks, still smiling at Lily.
    â€œI’d better take a raincheck, too,” said Bennie. “It’s solid ice out there, and I think I’m going to need my wits about me.”
    â€œI’m sorry you’ve had a wasted journey,” said Lily.
    Bennie put his arm around her and gave her a hug. “Not at all. You know that I’d do anything for you, Lil. I just thought it might be worth giving John a crack at finding Tasha and Sammy for you. Like I said, he really helped out my brother Myron with his two daughters. Every time his ex-wife Velma tried to take them away, John found her in a couple of hours flat. In the end I guess she got tired of trying. He never heard from her again.”
    Shooks picked up his hat and turned to go. As he reached the door, however, Agnes said, “Do you
really
think you could find Lily’s children, Mr. Shooks?”
    Shooks smiled at the floor. “Believe me, ma’am, I wouldn’t have come here otherwise. Not on Christmas Day.”
    Agnes looked at Lily. “Lily—maybe you should let him try. As Bennie says, what do you have to lose?”
    Lily said, “I don’t want to mess up anything the FBI might be doing, that’s all. You see these stories on TV when ordinary cops arrest undercover cops by mistake, thinking they’re criminals, and blow the cover on a drug bust or something.”
    â€œI understand your concern, Mrs. Blake,” said Shooks, “but we’re not dealing with a sting operation here, and I don’t have any more power of arrest than anybody else in this kitchen. All I intend to do is find your children and bring them back to you, unharmed, and as quickly as possible.”
    â€œBut how can you do that, if the FBI can’t do it?”
    â€œBecause I’m not the FBI, Mrs. Blake, and I can call on resources which the FBI are unable or unwilling to employ.”
    â€œLike what, for instance?” asked Ned. “You mean, like”—and he silently mouthed the next two words—“
the Mafia
?”
    â€œNo, nothing like that. There are forces in this world that are a great deal more powerful than the Mafia. More trustworthy, too.”
    Lily could feel her heart beating, quick and hard—adrenaline, released by the possibility that Shooks could actually do what he claimed he could do.
    â€œHow long do you think it would take you to find my children? I mean, supposing I
did
ask you to look for them?”
    Shooks turned his head slightly and fixed her with his glittery eyes. “Hard to tell exactly. Depends how far away they’ve been taken. But no more than three