Lou clicked the message icon, and a photo appeared. His breathing stopped. The picture was of Cap and George. Both men were blindfolded, with their hands bound and suspended above their heads by chains. They were imprisoned inside what appeared to be the boxcar of a train. He could make out the train’s open side door, as well as some spray-painted writing on the interior wall. A message accompanied the photograph.

Come to the Chester Enterprises grain silo in Monroe, West Virginia by eight o’clock sharp, or the next picture I send will have your friends’ throats slit open. Tip off the police or anyone else and I’ll kill both of them as slowly and painfully as possible, and then, your wife, Renee and your daughter, 13-y.o. Emily. We need to talk.

“Damn.”

“What’s going on?” Renee asked from the living room. “What was that?”

“Cap,” he said. “It was Cap.” He averted his eyes, but not too much. Like their daughter, Renee was a smart bomb for the truth.

“Anything important?”

“Not really,” Lou said, unable to keep himself from shaking. “He just wants to get together is all. Listen, can you all take Steve’s car and let me have yours? The Mercedes is virtually undrivable.”

“No problem. Just put your shot-up one in the driveway. The neighbors don’t take kindly to folks who let such things happen to a Mercedes. Here are the keys to my BMW. You bring it back with the windshields all busted out, and you’re going to have to open up a lemonade stand to pay for it.”

“You have maps in your car?”

“A terrific GPS and a whole road atlas, why?”

“Just some thoughts I want to check on,” he said, his eyes averted again.

From what Lou remembered, Monroe was about twenty minutes south of Wardensville and a good two hours’ drive from Renee’s house in Arlington. He checked the time. He could make it at the designated hour, but only if he left soon.

At that moment, the house phone rang.

“That was Steve,” Renee said after a moment’s conversation. “He’s about ten minutes away.”

“I’m going to head off because Cap doesn’t have much time,” Lou said, before realizing that he had spoken the grisly, terrifying truth. “Keep your doors locked and the phone handy until Steve’s here. Call me when he arrives, and then as soon as you’re settled in.”

“You be careful,” Renee insisted.

“I love you, Daddy,” Emily said, throwing her arms around him.

“I love you, too, Kiddo. This will all be over soon.”

I’m coming, Cap, he was thinking. You stay strong. I’m coming.

Chapter 50

CHAPTER 50