Page 46 of Fear of Flames
“I’m alive. That says a lot.” She paused, staring out at the passing scenery before turning back. “Sheriff Perkins sent a deputy to kidnap me.”
Fletch nodded.
“What if he doesn’t give up?”
He turned and met her gaze. “He won’t find you where we’re going.”
“Which is…?”
“For now, just think of it as my home base.”
“Your house?”
“I have an apartment.”
“How many women have you saved and taken away to your place?” Michelle meant for the question to be funny, but by Fletch’s expression, he didn’t hear her humor.
“I’ve never taken a woman to my place.”
“Never?” She remembered what he’d said a few moments ago. “Is that because you don’t trust anyone?”
“There are a few people who I trust. The list is comfortably short. I’m good with keeping it that way.”
At the next gas stop, Fletch changed from streaming country music to the Crime Daily Podcast. He began today’s earlier broadcast from the beginning.
Michelle wasn’t the lead story. Instead, it was about a child who disappeared last Sunday from an NFL game in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The little boy was eight years old, Caucasian, four feet, two inches tall, weighing about fifty-five pounds.
After the game was over, Timothy Wells told his mother he needed to use the restroom. According to Mrs. Wells, she would normally take him with her, but the line to the ladies’ room was extra-long. He went inside the men’s bathroom, and his mother waited outside. There were a lot of people coming and going, yet she never saw her son exit.
After seeing men come and go, Mrs. Wells sent another man in the bathroom to find her son. He returned with the news she didn’t want to hear—Timothy wasn’t in the restroom. Mrs. Wells immediately contacted the stadium’s security. All exit doors were closed, and the remainder of the fans were required to pass through security checkpoints before leaving. Timothy wasn’t found.
The nab happened too fast.
Security cameras later identified a person of interest, a man wearing a Patriots hoodie, carrying a sleeping child in his arms. The man kept his head down, not allowing a clear view from the cameras. While the child’s face was also well hidden from the cameras, Mrs. Wells confirmed that the shoes the child wore matched her son’s.
The man with the sleeping child left the stadium before the security was notified of the missing boy. The Foxborough Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police have reached out to the FBI for help in finding Timothy.
He’s the fourth child to be reported missing in New England in the last six weeks.
As Kenzi and Ali spoke about the leads, Fletch’s grip of the steering wheel tightened. His fingers blanched beneath the grip.
When the podcast went to commercial break, Fletch mumbled, “Professional.”
“Professional what?”
“Kidnapper, probably child trafficker.”
In the illumination of the dashboard, Michelle saw the strain in his clenched jaw. “What do you think has happened to the boy?”
Fletch hit the steering wheel with the butt of his hand. “If he’s lucky, he’s in some other country adopted by someone who could pay for the child they wanted.”
“If he’s not lucky?” Michelle asked, her stomach twisting.
“If he’s not lucky, he wishes he was dead.”
“Welcome back,” Kenzi’s voice came through the speakers as she and Ali continued the most recent broadcast of Crime Daily Podcast. “Remember the author we spoke about yesterday, D. Valentine.”
“Michelle Holdcraft,” Ali corrected.
