The Kidnappers by Willo Davis Roberts

Author:Willo Davis Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Aladdin

Chapter Eight

They call it an alley, but it’s really a one-way street behind our apartment building. On the other side of it is another big apartment complex. Parking isn’t allowed except temporarily for loading and unloading, but there are usually vehicles there, using the service entrances. There are also Dumpsters, and the garbage trucks pass through to empty them. The cars belonging to residents are parked in an underground garage around the corner.

This afternoon Ernie was preparing to drive off on another errand before he picked up my father. I could tell he didn’t want to do any more stuff for Mom, because if he was late picking up the boss, Father wouldn’t like it much. Still, Ernie didn’t dare insist on doing the errand later, not after Mom had indicated it was urgent.

There was a silver-colored Mercury Montego on our side of the alley, with no one in it. And another car on the other side where nobody was supposed to stop; the alley was to be kept clear so traffic could move on through. I probably wouldn’t have paid any attention to the car if it hadn’t been stopped in the wrong place.

My heart seemed to stop in my chest when I really saw it. A black Chrysler New Yorker, and I knew instantly that it was the car Willie had been dragged into.

I made some kind of gurgling sound, and Pink glanced at me, then sharpened his focus when he saw my expression.

“Joe? What’s up?”

“That’s it,” I said, sounding hoarse. “That’s the car, Pink.”

He saw it then. “You sure?”

“Yeah.” Breathing was an effort; I felt as if I were having to pull in air through a kind of plugged-up filter that wouldn’t let me get enough.

“You guys change your minds?” Ernie said, sliding into the front of our car. “I could use some help.”

My lips were numb. “That’s the kidnap car. Right over there.”

“Huh?” Ernie twisted around to look. “Come on, Joey, this is a hectic day. Give it a rest, okay?”

“It’s true,” Pink said, sounding squeaky the way he did when he was under stress. “It’s not a story he made up this time. The cops were here and talked to him, and it’s true. Willie Groves really is missing—”

I jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow. “Everything he said was supposed to be confidential, remember?”

Pink died in midsentence. “Oh, yeah. I forgot.”

Ernie was sitting with the car door ajar, the window rolled down. “No kidding? The cops were here?”

No sense denying it now, I thought. Pink had let it slip. “Yeah, but we’re not supposed to talk about any of it.”

“No kidding. I apologize, kid. I thought it was more of your usual baloney. What makes you think the car over there’s the one the kidnappers used? There must be a couple thousand Chrysler New Yorkers in the city just like it. You said you didn’t get a license number.”

“That emblem on the door’s not standard, though. Did you see anybody around that car?”

“Wasn’t paying any attention,” Ernie said.

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