The Girl They Took by Leslie Wolfe

Author:Leslie Wolfe [Wolfe, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Italics Publishing
Published: 2021-06-10T22:00:00+00:00

22

Mitchell

Darrel Joyce waited for the phone to ring for a few long minutes, the tension in his chest increasing, his breaths fast and shallow. But the black burner phone remained quiet. He’d found the phone in his own kitchen, the morning after Paige went missing when he received one call. There was no telling if the men who had Paige had witnessed his exchange with the so-called IT guy.

He didn’t recognize the young man who had changed the toner in his printer and had managed to pass on Winnett’s message, although he knew most of the FBI agents in the regional office. The man wasn’t from the Broward County Judicial Complex IT staff; as the most senior employee, he knew all of them. A federal agent or not, Winnett had sent that man. That meant she was already aware the kidnappers were after him and was playing her cards accordingly.

Strange how life worked, humbling him into needing the very person whose methods he’d despised and often criticized from way up on his high horse. But when his own daughter had been taken, his perspective suddenly changed, and the woman he’d chastised numerous times for her methods had become his only hope to see Paige again. He’d looked upon her passionate approach to her investigations with contempt, fearing she’d damage his career if left unchecked, bursting through doors without probable cause. But Winnett had that passion for all the victims in the cases she worked, not just the ones she knew personally. That made him, Florida District Attorney Darrel Joyce, a man with double standards.

That was an understatement.

In instances where threats or violence targeted prosecutors or judges, the law was clear. His obligation was to report the threat so that an independent prosecutor could investigate the kidnapping and take over his caseload. The risk, unacceptable for Joyce, was the life of his daughter. Once her life lost the bargaining chip value it held, she’d become nothing but a liability, someone who’d seen their faces and heard their voices, someone who could pick them out in a police lineup. They’d dispose of her and just disappear so that he, and everyone else in the DA’s office, would learn the lesson.

Had he been asked a week ago what he’d demand of his employees to do in such a situation, his answer would’ve come quickly. “Abide by the law. No one in my office is above it.”

He’d done the exact opposite of that.

If he got caught complying with his daughter’s kidnappers’ requests instead of reporting them, if somehow the news of her abduction leaked to the media, he risked everything he’d worked for his entire life, who he was, his entire future. They’d revoke his license to practice law; he’d be disbarred, and that was only the beginning. He’d be charged with official misconduct and risk serving time behind bars, although there were mitigating circumstances to consider. It all depended on the judge who’d take the bench. Had he made that particular judge an

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