Read God Save the Child for Free Online Page B

instructions.
    I gave the paper back to Healy and raised my eyebrows.
    “Yeah,” Healy said. “I know.”
    “Know what? What do you mean by that?” Marge Bartlett said.
    “It’s an odd note and an odd set of instructions,” I said.
    “Can you get the fifty?”
    Bartlett nodded. “Murray Raymond, down the bank, will gimme the dough. I can put the business up as collateral. I already talked to him, and he’s getting me the money from Boston.”
    “What’s funny about the instructions?” Marge Bartlett said. “Why do I have to be there?”
    Healy answered her. “I don’t know why you have to be there except what they said, maybe to keep some kid from finding the bag and taking it home. The instructions are complicated in the wrong ways. For instance, they obviously want the bag to be where they can grab it on the move, but why there? And why no instructions about the kinds of money and the denominations of the bills? Why give us two days lead time like that to set up a stake?”
    “But they needed to give Rog time to get the money,” Trask said.
    “Yeah, but they didn’t need to tell us where they were going to pick it up,” I said.
    “Right,” Healy said. “A call five minutes beforehand would have done that, and left us nothing to do but sit around and wonder.”
    “And why the mail?” I said.
    “What’s wrong with the mail?” Roger Bartlett said.
    “That’s one reason they had to give you lead time,” Healy said. “They can’t be sure when you’ll get the letter, so they have to give themselves away several days ahead.”
    “What do you mean a stake?” Marge Bartlett asked.
    “That’s the stakeout,” Trask answered. “We conceal ourselves in the adjacent area so’s to be in a position to apprehend the kidnappers when they come for the ransom.”
    “Apprehend,” Healy said, and whistled admiringly.
    I said, “Adjacent isn’t bad either, Lieutenant.”
    “What’s wrong with you guys?” Trask said.
    “You talk terrific,” I said, “but I’m not sure you want to apprehend the culprits in the adjacent area. Maybe you might want to place them under close surveillance until they lead you to the victim. You know?”
    “I don’t want anything like that,” Margery Bartlett said.
    And she shook her head. “I want nothing like that at all.
    They might get mad if they saw you. And they said—about his head—I couldn’t stand that.”
    “I don’t want that either,” Roger Bartlett said. “I mean, it’s only money, you know. I want to do what they say, and when it’s over then you can catch them. I mean, it’s only money, you know?”
    Trask put his hand on Margery Bartlett’s again. “We’ll do just as you ask, Marge, just as you ask.”
    Healy shook his head. “A mistake,” he said. “Your odds are better on getting the kid back if you let us in on it.”
    Margery Bartlett looked at me. “What does he mean?”
    I took a deep breath. “He means that your best chance to get Kevin back okay is to have us find him. He means they might take the ransom and kill him anyway, or they might not. There’s no way to tell. The statistics are slightly in favor of the cops. More kidnap victims survive the kidnapping when rescued by the police than when turned loose by the kidnappers. Not many more; I’d say it’s about fifty-five percent to forty-five percent.”
    Healy said, “Maybe a little closer. But what else have you got?”
    Roger Bartlett said, “I don’t want him hurt.”
    Margery Bartlett put her face down in her hands and began to wall.
    Her husband put one arm around her shoulder. She shrugged it away and cried louder “Marge,” he said.
    “Jesus, Marge, we gotta do something. Spenser, what should we do?” Tears formed in his eyes and began to slide down his face.
    I said, “We’ll stake it out.”
    “But…”
    “We’ll stake it out,” I said again. “We’ll be cool about it. We got two days to set it up.”
    Trask said, “Now just hold on,