Page 46 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
“All these damn cops,” Reno said as he stood at the window. “Hanging at that gate laughing and talking but doing no kind of investigations. Just hanging around collecting a paycheck. They just gum up the works, that’s all they do. Just get in the way.”
“I know that’s right,” agreed Roz. “Why haven’t they told us anything? We’ve been waiting here for three days straight and nobody knows anything? It’s crazy.”
But Tommy and Grace, and TJ and GG, couldn’t even speak. It was ten a.m. on the third day, and not one of them had slept for more than half-an-hour all three days. All four sat on one sofa together, with Tommy in between Grace and TJ and both hugged up against him, while GG sat on his lap dozing in and out. Any time one of her nannies tried to put her to bed, she’d wake up crying and asking for Destiny. Tommy told them to let her stay.
And once again Grace tried to phone Destiny.
“She doesn’t have possession of her phone, Grace,” Hammer said to her. He had just ended his latest phone call. Everybody looked at him. “They undoubtedly took her phone early on, hooked it up to their remote system, and whenever a call came in, they instructed her on what to say and what not to say. We tried location pinging on her phone and other methods to at least get some geographical data on her whereabouts, but we got nothing. They know what they’re doing.”
“But why don’t they make a demand?” asked a still-distressed Grace. “We’ll pay them anything.”
They all knew Grace was assuming Destiny and the baby were still alive. Which, to all them, looked extremely doubtful. But whenever somebody even attempted to bring it up, Grace shot it down. “No way,” she said. “I would know if my child left this earth. I would know it. I’d feel something deep inside somewhere. But I’m not feeling that. I tell you I’m not. My child and grandchild are not dead. They’re not!”
Tommy pulled Grace tighter against him. His heart was breaking for her and their children. What was happening, and why was it happening was still an unexplained mystery to him. TJ was saved by disabling that implant, and he was grateful toHammer for that. But in saving his son, they might have lost their daughter and grandchild. It was a devastating situation no matter how they sliced it. And although he couldn’t figure out what it could be, Tommy couldn’t shake the feeling that it all had something to do with him.
The only good news in any of it was that the few students that were hiding in that cafeteria and videoed the massacre on their phones, showed clearly that Jaden told the truth: TJ didn’t shoot anybody. Those phone videos showed that it wasn’t until after the three gunmen had shot up the place did they grab TJ, gave him a gun, and then ordered him to follow them. He followed them because he was told, when they implanted that device, that his family would be killed, and he would too, if he didn’t do exactly what he was told. And he did. But he never once shot anybody.
“What about those three gunmen?” asked Trina. “Have they been found?”
“No,” said Hammer. “They did their dirt and left the school. The plan was to leave TJ holding the bag.”
“But why?” asked Tommy.
Hammer shook his head. “Hell if I know.”
Then Tommy’s phone rang. Everybody jumped.
He removed his hand from around TJ, pulled it out, and looked at the Caller ID. “It’s an unknown number,” he said, and everybody paid attention. You could hear a feather drop in that room.
Tommy placed the call on Speaker and answered quickly. “Hello?”
“Tommy Gabrini?”
It was a disguised male voice. “Yes, this is he.”
“You won. Happy now?”
“Who is this?” Tommy asked, but then the call ended. “Hello?” He was panicking. “Who is this? Don’t hang up dammit!”
“You won?” Grace asked. “He calls this winning when we don’t even know where our own child--”
Grace was interrupted by the sound of their front door flying open and Robby Yale running up the foyer into the living room. He was yelling something wildly, but nobody could understand him. Everybody was on their feet by the time he made it to the living room.
“What is it, Robby? What are you saying?” Sal asked him.
“They’re at the gate!” he cried. “They’re at the gate! They’re at the gate!”
“Who’s at the gate?” Amelia was asking, but Tommy, with GG in his arms, and Grace and TJ, and everybody in that room was running for the front door. Amelia was running too, although she was still asking her question.
But Robby was leading the pack outside. He didn’t have time to answer. And when everybody got outside and looked and saw that the gate had opened and there was Destiny with her baby boy in her arms running their way, they cried out just like Robby had done and raced to get to her first.
Even with GG in his arms, Tommy won the race.
He sat GG down and pulled his daughter and grandson into his arms and could not stop crying.
When Destiny saw Grace, she fell into her mother’s arms crying too. “I thought I’d never see you again, Mommy,” she kept saying. “I thought I’d never see any of you again!”
Everybody were touching her and hugging her and TJ and GG couldn’t stop crying either. There wasn’t a dry eye out there. Even the cops were affected.
