“No!”

“You have to—”

“No!”

“You have to call the police, Mom.”

“They’ll arrest me.” A long pause. “You need to come get me.”

“Mom, I’m three thousand miles away. If you’re hurt, you need to go to a hospital. Call 911.” There was no response. “Mom, are you still there?” She didn’t answer, but Gabe could hear her breathing. “Mom, I love you. Please call for help!”

“Hold on … Oh God, I think that’s Juleen!”

“Mom?” But she had hung up. With shaking hands, he dialed her number, but it went straight to voice mail. “Why do you do this to me!”

He called again. And again. And again and again and again.

He texted her: CALL ME!

Decker had stepped outside, saw his foster son pacing. “Everything okay?”

“No,” Gabe told him. “My mother just called me. From what I could gather, someone kidnapped my brother and maybe my sister. My mom’s hurt.”

“Where is she?”

“Los Angeles. The Valley, I think.”

“Her old stomping ground. My old stomping ground. What’s her number? I’ll see if I can’t get someone to send a uniform to look for her.”

“She doesn’t want the police involved, Peter. Besides, she called on a blocked number. My calls go straight to voice mail.” Gabe paused. “She took her kids out of India. I suspect she had a court order not to leave the country with them. You know she’s divorcing her husband. There’s probably a custody dispute.”

“She’s a fugitive?”

“Possibly.”

“Maybe her husband kidnapped them back.”

“Possibly …” Gabe continued pacing. “Honestly, at this moment I’m less worried about the kids than I am about her. She sounded horrible.”

“Gabe, let me call up my old station. I still know lots of people. Maybe they can ping a location off her phone.”

“She said no police.”

“If she’s really hurt, do you think you should listen to her?”

“No, you’re right. But I don’t think that will get you anywhere, Peter. I think she turned off her phone.”

“Then I’m out of ideas,” Decker said. “You’re three thousand miles away and probably can’t get there until tomorrow … which may be too late.”

Gabe’s eyes turned moist. “I love her dearly. But my mom’s a disaster! We know her current husband owes money to bad people, so it could be something to do with that. She sure can pick them. I do think that Devek is even worse than my father.”

Decker raised his eyebrows. He held a finger up in the air. “Gabe, call your dad.”

“What?”