"We're going to get you out of here, buddy, but you have to be brave for a few more seconds while I make sure everything is safe. Nod if you understand."

He nodded.

She looked carefully all around the chair. It was so small that she didn't notice it at first. But there it was. A dim red glow shining off the carpet in the direct center under the chair. She got down on her hands and knees and peered under. Strapped to the bottom of the chair was a bomb, and hanging from it was a cell phone. She had seen this type of bomb before in a cla.s.s she'd recently attended. The phone acted as a trigger. There were many variations, and some were wired to go off if tampered with.

"It's okay, Gabe," she said as she s.n.a.t.c.hed her Leatherman from the case on her belt. "I'm just checking everything before I cut you loose. You're doing a great job, just sit still a little longer." She wiped the sweat out of her eyes, and peered up at the device. The phone was dangling from two wires that ran into the main casing. If this was a homemade job, it was a simple matter of clipping the wires to prevent the current from getting to the trigger. If it was a professional job, there would be an internal trigger that sent a weaker signal through the loop. If that was the case, breaking the signal would detonate the bomb instantly.

Normally she would have called in a bomb squad, but with events unfolding on the bridge in Sunbury, the threat to Gabe's life was imminent. She needed to trust her instincts. The bomb had no official markings on it, and judging from the use of duct tape on the C4, it was most likely homemade. She opened the clippers on the Leatherman, reached up, and clipped the wires with one quick snip.

The phone fell to the carpet and immediately started ringing. This was never mentioned in the training. What did it mean? She picked up the phone and looked at the caller ID: Unknown caller.

She put the phone to her ear. "h.e.l.lo?"

Through static she heard a car door slam and a distant female voice. "It's done. He's gone. You killed him."

Angela's body spiked with adrenaline. Had she clipped the wires at the precise moment of detonation?

She spoke louder into the phone. "h.e.l.lo? This is Special Agent Angela Grant with the FBI. To whom am I speaking?"

Chapter 52.

Holly watched as Agent Perez scratched his final notes onto the official record with his fat brown hand. The debrief felt like it was taking forever, and there was still no sign of Gabe. How long did it take to get from Dedham to Sunbury? Certainly not an hour. She was tired of being in the police bull pen, and tired of being the focus of morbid curiosity. The police knew she was innocent, yet they still whispered and cased her with dispa.s.sionate glances. How much more intrusive would the stares of the uninformed be? Her face would be forever synonymous with a killer of children. Even though the world now knew it was all a lie, would people be able to forget her standing on the edge of that bridge baring the soul of a psychotic butcher as though it were her own?

Perez looked up through his bushy black brows. "Do you have anything else you'd like to add before we seal this thing up?"

"No. But I have questions."

He rested his forearms on the table. "What kind of questions?"

"Where is my son?"

"I told you, he had to be checked out by medical and debriefed, but he's on his way."

She scratched her wrist. "What's going to happen to Amber?"

"Dr. Carter has agreed to testify..."

"You found Gary?"

"Yes, and with his testimony and the evidence found at Amber's grandmother's house, we have enough to put her in prison for the rest of her life without parole."

"How did you find Gary?"

She could hear the gears turning inside his head. What was he allowed to tell her? What did the standard operating procedure dictate?

Some things never changed.

"We got a call from his sister's neighbor," he said. "He was hiding out at his sister's camp and the neighbor noticed light coming from the bas.e.m.e.nt window."

"So, was he involved, you know, in taking Gabe?"

"No. She tried to recruit him, but he refused."

"The way they acted around each other, I thought they were really close, you know, in love."

"They might have been at one time, but usually when your girlfriend plants condemning evidence in the filing cabinet at your place of work, the relationship is pretty much over."

Holly was dumbstruck by the transparency of his statement. These official people never shared anything they didn't absolutely have to. Why then was Agent Perez sharing this so willingly? Did he know she was the one who had planted the evidence? Was he baiting her for a reaction?

"Evidence?" she said, attempting to sound only mildly curious.

"DNA evidence from the victims."

DNA evidence? It wasn't a bomb? Amber was trying to frame Gary...? Holly tried to reconcile this new information. "But-why would she plant evidence to frame Gary, and then make me pretend to be her? That doesn't make sense. Why frame both of us?"

The gears were going off in his head again.

"Please," she said, I need to know."

"My guess is, it was all a head game she was playing with you. You said she told you she wanted her story told, right?"

"Yes."

"And if you told her story, your son would live, right?"

"Yes."

"That's how she got inside your head. This was all a game to her. She never planned to let Gabe live-he had seen her face. He wasn't afraid of his kidnapper because he knew her and trusted her, that's why he was playing so peacefully in the video; and since he knew who she was, there was no way she was going to let him live."

Holly frowned.

"My guess is, she wasn't content in killing children from a distance. Apparently she wanted to get close and feel the pain she was inflicting on her prey. She wanted to destroy you and your son. Then once the dust settled, Gary Carter would take the fall."

Was it true? Was it all a lie to convince her to jump? Her belly twisted at the thought of how easily she had been manipulated. Holly's shoulders slumped. "I bought into all her lies. How could I have been so stupid?!"

"Don't beat yourself up, Holly," he said with a surprising measure of kindness. "It could have happened to any of us. We all have doubts and fears."

She gave him a self-deprecating look.

"Hey," he said, putting his hands up in defense. "I'm afraid of mice. You give me one mouse and I'm like no problem. But you put me in a tank full of them and my consciousness is going to exit my body." His eyes flared for effect.

"Everyone's afraid of mice, but thanks for trying."

"All I'm saying is, you know, don't be hard on yourself. Anyone would have cracked under that kind of pressure, and I gotta tell you, you got some fire, girl! The way you ordered me to unlock those doors, and the way you were so willing to give your life for your boy-that's something to be proud of. You just remember that when you look in the mirror, not what that psycho chick tried to put in your brain."

She had misjudged Agent Perez. He wasn't just another cog in the machine doing his job like a mindless automaton. He saw where she was hurting, and instead of casting judgment for all the mistakes she had made, he saw her as a hero. She didn't have to look in the mirror and see a weak person, easily overcome by the troubles of life. Now she could see something more, something stronger. His words had given her a precious gift.

She reached out and held his hand in both of hers, startling him slightly. Tears breached the edge of her lids and slid down her cheeks.

"Thank you," was all she said.

But the message was received. She could tell by the way he pursed his lips and turned his head to the side that he was fighting back his own urge to tear up. He slid his hand out from under hers, and said, "What are you trying to do, ruin my reputation?" His eyes darted to both sides.

She offered him a smile as she leaned back in her chair and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

He folded up the paperwork and got to his feet. "I'll go see if your son is here yet."

She thanked him with a silent gesture.

He walked away through the desks and part.i.tions, leaving her to re-process the last two days with a new perspective. Who would have imagined she, Holly Paris, would have had the courage to break into a doctor's office and plant a bomb, or stand on the edge of a ten-story drop and allow the whole world to see her as something filthy and pathetic? Truly, there was no end to the lengths she would go to in order to save her son.

A new confidence began to bubble up inside her soul, and suddenly she felt sure that she would never return to the life she had allowed herself to sink into. She owed it to her son to give him a better life, and now she felt she had the strength to do it.

She stood and looked over the part.i.tion to see Dan sitting in the lobby. He had struck up a conversation with an elderly man, and of course they were laughing. She left the makeshift cubicle and walked down the aisle of the bull pen and into the lobby.

When he saw her, he politely stopped his conversation and stood. His eyes were attentive and innocent. "Is everything okay with us?" he asked, stepping closer.

How odd for him to ask that. Couldn't he see how she was looking at him? Couldn't he tell how much she had fallen completely in love with him? She stepped in close- and suddenly it was only the two of them; the background became a buzz of noise.

She tilted her head up and found his sweet caring eyes. "I have a problem, Dan," she said defiantly.

His eyes widened. "Only one?"

She punched him on the arm. "I'm serious, Dan." Her eyes grew soft again. "I don't think I can live without you. Can you handle that?"

A big beautiful grin spread across his handsome face. "I don't know; you're kind of a hand full."

She gripped him by the front of the shirt with both fists, pulled him down, and their lips met. It wasn't a long kiss, but a kiss that said thank you for being here for me, and a kiss that promised more to come if he was willing to stand by her through whatever storms life threw at them.

They parted gently and he rubbed her arms with his strong hands. "Is this you thanking me again for the pizza?"

She smirked. "It was good pizza."

"Hey, if you liked that pizza, I've got some really good bread..."

Suddenly a little scratchy voice filled the hollow lobby. "Mommy!"

Holly looked past Dan to see Gabe running in bare feet and pajamas across the hard shiny floor of the police station lobby. Her heart swelled. Never in her life had she seen anything more beautiful. She crouched down and he flew into her arms. His soft blond hair brushed against her cheek and his tiny hands pressed against her back. She was whole again; her son was safe.

"They let me play with the siren in the police car!" he said, pulling back more quickly than she had hoped. How odd, after all he had been through, that those would be the first words he said to his mother.

"Didn't you miss me?" she said.

He looked up confused, as if to say, "Well duh."

She gripped his arms. "Well I missed you!" She pulled him in and hugged him tight again.

He rubbed her back with his soft little hands and whispered, "Sorry, Mommy."

"What do you have to be sorry about?" she whispered back.

"Sorry I went with Auntie Amber."

She pulled back. "I'm just so happy you're home! Don't you ever leave me again, okay?"

He gave a stoic nod.

She looked up at Agent Grant, standing quietly in the background. "Thank you for rescuing my son. I don't have the words to tell you how grateful I..." Her voice cracked.

Angela adjusted her posture. "It's not necessary, Holly. Seeing you back together is all the thanks I need."

Chapter 53.

Jake tried to get comfortable on the jailhouse cot. It wasn't the physical discomfort of the abrasive synthetic cushion that kept him shifting position, it was the tempest going on in his heart and mind. Jenna's words plagued him, playing over and over in his head: "I can't wait another day. I can't let it grow inside me and become something..."

Had she gone through with it? Was Aiyana gone? Or had he planted enough doubt in her heart to make her question her belief that Aiyana was just a blob of undeveloped tissue? He remembered the disgust on her face, the outrage at what his words implied. She could never knowingly kill a baby. But had he convinced her?

That opened another wound in his heart. Could he ever love her again if she did kill their child? Could he forgive her for her blindness? He wished he had never seen Aiyana. He wished he had never been given the ability to hear her thoughts, and see her precious little face. It was a face that would haunt him forever. If he had never experienced her very real and tangible presence, he could have forgiven Jenna, and, to his shame, might have even felt relief and grat.i.tude. But not now. How could he?

A face appeared in the window of his jail cell door. The lock clicked and the door swung open to reveal a man in a dress shirt and suit pants. He might have been a detective; there was a badge on his belt. "You have a visitor, Mr. Paris."

Jake rolled to a sitting position and cleared his throat. "Who?"

"Your girlfriend, but we've detained her for a moment to get the rest of her statement. I figured I'd give you a chance to gather yourself."

"Thank you," said Jake, taking an inventory of his disheveled appearance.

The detective grabbed the handle on the door. "She'll be down in a few minutes, just hold tight."

He watched the door seal shut, and that's where his eyes stayed. Watching the door. Waiting to see if Aiyana would appear. He hoped with all his heart that Jenna had changed her mind.

After what seemed like an eternity, he heard foot steps approaching; his eyes stayed locked on the sliver of a window. But the shadow of a guard soon pa.s.sed, and his heart sank. If Aiyana had come with her mother, she would have connected with him by now. The weight of the thought crushed down on his heart, threatening to turn it to powder.

What if she were dead? How could he bear knowing that she had existed, but had never taken a single breath of life? It seemed more tragic to him than if she had lived and died by some other means. At least then her existence would have been real to others besides himself, and not just a...

Suddenly her sweet innocent face appeared through the door, followed by the rest of her. She looked like she wanted to burst-but she didn't say a word. She didn't have to; her love for him was written in the tightness of her brow and those quietly observant eyes of hers.