Gone by Mallory Kane Page B

hand on his arm. He gave a quick shake of his head and touched his lips with his forefinger. “There was a label in his shirt. I want to see that before I talk to you any more.”
    “Wait!” Howard yelled. “Wait! How do I send it? You want that from me, you gotta give me your cell or your email.”
    Joe gave him his cell number. “Now you listen to me. If I don’t see the pictures in one hour, don’t even bother calling.” And with that, he hung up. His hand shook as he cradled the phone. He closed his eyes. When he took a deep breath, it caught in his throat and he had to cough.
    “Joe, what are you doing? What if they don’t call back?” Tears were rolling down Marcie’s cheeks. She squeezed the sleeve of his T-shirt in her fist. “Oh, my God! He was so close and now he may be gone again.”
    “Listen to me, Marcie,” Joe said, turning and catching her by the arms. “We’ve got to keep the upper hand. That’s the first thing they teach you at the center. If you show weakness, then they might hurt the child.”
    “But you just— What if they didn’t save the shirt?”
    “Then they’ll tell us that. Trust me, hon. I know what I’m doing.” He thought about his connection with the Delanceys. About how Rhoda and Howard had seen the newspaper article and were now angling for some of the Delancey money. He knew Howard would send the pictures.
    What he didn’t know was whether he and Marcie would recognize Joshua, who was now twenty months older than they’d last seen.
    * * *
    L OOKING SHELL - SHOCKED AND bewildered, Marcie went upstairs to dress and Joe called his office and talked to his senior caseworker, Valerie. “I won’t be in today or Friday. I’ll be doing some work from home,” he told her.
    “Good,” she said, before he even finished the sentence. “There are reporters hanging around outside the office like vultures. I’ll be thrilled to tell them that you aren’t coming in.”
    “Reporters?” he said. “Are you kidding me?”
    “I wish. They’re stopping everybody, wanting to know what we know about you and the Delanceys. Luckily, our staff and interns have enough sense not to answer. We’re behind you all the way.”
    “Tell everybody I appreciate it,” he said.
    “Joe? Are you all right? You sound terrible.”
    “I’m fine, Val. Just trying to get everything sorted out. Don’t answer any questions, and let everybody know that when all this settles down, we’ll have a big celebration. We’ll all go out to dinner, on me.”
    “I’ll tell them.”
    “Thanks. I’m going to sign on from home and run some leads I’ve been working on for a couple of cold cases,” he said. “What’s the password for today?”
    Valerie gave him the day’s password and they hung up. He headed into the small room off the dining room that they’d set up as his home office.
    Marcie came downstairs about the time the computer was booting up. “What are you doing?” she asked.
    “I’m going to see what I can find out about Howard without having to go into the office,” he said. “What about you?”
    She shrugged. “Clean up the kitchen. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll try to read.” She wrung her hands helplessly. “I don’t know if I can stand this. How long do you think it’s going to take for him to call back?”
    “I don’t know, hon. I’m thinking he’ll call as soon as he can get the pictures. He’s going to have a problem with Rhoda. She’s not going to want to give the boy back. It’s obvious that the reason she took him in the first place was to have a child of her own. When he comes to her wanting to take a picture and she finds out his harebrained scheme, she’s liable to take—” He stopped, realizing where his thoughts were taking him, but he’d already said too much. Marcie’s sharp eyes met his and he knew that she knew exactly where his thoughts were heading.
    “She’s going to take Joshua and run. Oh, my God, Joe, we’ve got to stop her.”
    He did