Page 5 of Wired Courage

Day Eight

Jake walked a slow grid on the grounds outside the mansion. The house’s main windows faced a vista of jutting green mountains, turquoise bay, and the smooth, wide curve of a river below. The grounds ended at a steep, jungled bluff plummeting into the Hanalei Valley, and stands of white-barked Java plum trees edged the property.

Alika’s newest development showplace included a guesthouse and was bordered by gracious plantings, clusters of bamboo, and islands of bird of paradise surrounding at least an acre of sweeping lawns. Hanalei Valley ahead of him was a captivating view, but Jake had no interest in any of it.

How had he even begun to suspect Sophie? How could he have even hinted of his darkest worry, let alone pretty much accused her of it?It would be a miracle if she ever forgave him.Hamilton sweeping in and throwing his weight around was humiliating, but Jake was grateful for the change of perspective. Their boss clearly suspected Pim Wat, a thought that had flickered through his mind—but he’d been caught up in reacting to the messages he was getting from the cops.

Jake should have considered Pim Wat more seriously. He knew about the woman’s clumsy recruitment attempts, and her very silence in the last months prior to becoming a grandmother was suspect. He’d just been so relieved at her disappearance, and Sophie’s resultant reduction in stress, that he had put the woman out of his mind.

Jake scanned the smooth lawn, back and forth, back and forth—as his mind flashed to the many long hours of labor he’d been through with Sophie, sharing every tough and amazing moment with her and the midwife. Alika had joined them once the baby was born to meet his daughter, and it had been a beautiful shared moment among the three of them. A situation that could have been weird had somehow become their new normal.

Sophie had to know Jake loved her more than his own life, that he’d do anything for her and tiny Momi.

She’d forgive him.

Eventually.

He hoped.

Jake followed the officers checking around the windows.

His pulse jumped as he spotted a small, rounded shoe print in the soft soil near one of the windows leading into the office. He glanced inside and met Hamilton’s narrowed dark brown eyes behind those hipster glasses. The man was seated in front of Alika’s desk, cool as a cucumber, working his tablet. He gave Jake a brief nod, his face expressionless, when Jake pointed to the ground.

Jake yelled for the officer nearest him to come check the impression and look for fingerprints around the edge of the window.

Soon they were taking a cast of the footprint. It was just a partial, almost small enough to be a child’s shoe—and not likely to belong to whatever yard service kept the grounds in such immaculate shape.

Jake straightened up from watching the officer pour molding compound into the footprint, to see Alika returning at a run with the officer he’d left with for a longer check around the property’s edge. The two men jogged across the lawn from the scrim of trees that bordered the property.

“We found chopper tracks! There’s still fuel residue on the grass, and it looks like several people might have been camping out over there,” Alika called.

The officer with Alika ostentatiously ignored both of them and addressed the cop that was dusting for prints around the windowsill. “I radioed Detective Jenkins. Looks like someone was surveilling the house and took off in a chopper from beyond the trees.”

Jake pulled Alika out of earshot of the cops now clustered around the window. “You know choppers.” Alika owned a Bell Jet Ranger. “What kind of bird do you think it was?”

“Obviously I can’t tell the exact model, but the skid indentations were long enough to be a good-sized multi-passenger chopper. And someone was definitely staking us out from the trees.”

“I found a partial footprint outside the window, though I doubt we’ll be so lucky as to find any fingerprints on the sill. This looks to me like a professional snatch-and-grab. What I can’t figure out is why the dogs didn’t set off an alarm.”

They both turned to eye Ginger the Lab and Tank the pit bull. Both dogs’ noses were plastered to the glass slider that led off the dining room as they anxiously watched the activity outside.

“Sophie was napping and we were all in the great room when someone took the baby,” Alika said, his eyes closed as he reconstructed the series of events. “The dogs were in the room with us. Tutu had just made us all breakfast, including the dogs. Remember that? We were all on the phone and doing social media posts of the baby.” He hunched over suddenly, as if his stomach hurt. “Ah, dammit. Poor Sophie. I feel sick that we thought she might have had anything to do with it.”

Jake and Alika had formed an uneasy friendship in the months since finding out that Sophie was pregnant. Confident that Sophie and Alika’s romantic interest was over, Jake had come to see that the man had good instincts.

He had to tell Alika what Hamilton had proposed. “Our boss thinks this was Sophie’s mother—Hamilton was trying to send me a message before Jenkins threw him into the office.” Jake pushed a hand through his hair, considering how much to tell Alika. “Pim Wat has been trying to get Sophie to come to Thailand for a while now. Wants her to work for her spy organization. Sophie has refused. Maybe Pim Wat snatched the baby to get leverage on Sophie.”

“That evil bitch! What kind of woman does that to her own child?” Alika’s chest expanded. His eyes flashed. Even missing an arm, he was an intimidating sight when he was pissed. “Why wasn’t I told any of this?”

“It’s classified stuff, man. Need to know. Until now, you didn’t need to know.”

Alika bunched his fist. “Turns out I did need to know. Anything that has to do with my family is my business.”

“Noted.” Jake didn’t want to engage in the pissing match they’d been dancing around since they first got the news of whose baby Sophie was carrying—the situation was awkward enough. “I’m just glad Hamilton was able to point the cops in another direction.”

“We’re both going to be in the doghouse for a long time for even imagining Sophie had something to do with our daughter disappearing,” Alika said, voicing Jake’s worry.

“I better see if the cops will let me talk to her. I’ll let Sophie know that we’ve got evidence that Momi was taken by a third party. That might help.” Jake didn’t feel too hopeful.

---