Chapter 49
CHAPTER
BEFORE THE TWO OFFICERS DROVE Nash home they had conferred with Ramos. And the grim expressions the cops gave him told Nash that Ramos had conveyed his suspicions about Nash to the pair.
He went into the house to find Judith in the kitchen making a cup of tea.
“Where have you been?” she asked.
“I went for a drive.”
“I didn’t hear the garage door open.”
“I… Look, are you feeling… better?”
She confronted him with a harsh look. “No, Walter, I’m not feeling better, okay? Our daughter is gone. My God, what is wrong with you?”
“With me!”
She stormed from the room without answering him.
He called Shock and told him about the latest development.
“Okay, Walter, they are obviously settin’ you up for all this.”
“I know, but how did I not notice the damage to my car?”
“I don’t know. But you didn’t, and that played into their hands.
They took a risk, though, since you called Ramos before Billy was killed.
If he’d answered you back right away he could have talked to Billy before they had a chance to silence him.
But he didn’t, and then Steers made sure he never could tell the police anythin’.
They might have assumed that given what the fake cops told him the kid wouldn’t have mentioned it to the real cops.
But Steers’s people might have had you or him or both of you under surveillance and seen or heard your exchange with Billy where he told you about the fake cops. ”
“So I might have been the reason he was killed?” said an anguished Nash.
“This is the fault of nobody other than the people who actually did it, Walter.”
“But Ramos must know I wouldn’t have been driving the damn SUV around if I had known it had evidence all over it.”
Shock barked, “Look, get one goddamn thing straight right now in your head. This ain’t TV, Walter.
The real cops always look for the easy and obvious.
They don’t have an episode’s worth of time or resources to go over every nook and cranny or think outside the box.
They care ’bout makin’ an arrest and then makin’ it stick.
The question of actual guilt or innocence does not weigh as heavily as you may think.
And you drivin’ it ’round? They think all criminals are stupid and make mistakes just like that.
Or the bad guys think they’re smarter than the cops, and still do stupid shit that gets ’em caught.
I think this Ramos dude saw how you live and what you got and that’s the path he’s takin’.
He’d love nothin’ more than deep-sixin’ your ass in prison for life regardless whether you actually did anythin’ wrong. ”
A shaken Nash exclaimed, “I might be screwed.”
“You might be. But let me see what I can do. Now, Walter?”
“Yeah?”
“Guaranteed this sucker is gonna get worse before it gets better. And there’s a chance it ain’t never gonna get better.”
Shock clicked off, leaving Nash paralyzed.
Later, he made himself an egg and toast for dinner and then retreated to his home office with a cup of coffee. He placed his phone in front of him and waited for either Shock or Agent Morris to get back to him.
By midnight neither one had.
He went upstairs. As he was brushing his teeth and then washing his face he glanced at the hairbrush he used every morning. He picked it up and pulled out the hairs stuck among the bristles of the brush. He threw them away in the trash can.
It’s a miracle I’m not all gray.
He walked into his closet and looked around, something gnawing at him intensely, although he wasn’t sure what it was exactly.
A sense of impending doom, perhaps?
On sudden impulse he grabbed a small carry-on bag and put some clothes, shoes, and toiletries inside, along with cash that he took from the wall safe behind a panel in his closet.
Inside the safe were his father’s .45 and Army Ka-bar knife.
He loaded both into his bag along with extra ammo mags.
Zipping it closed, he set it on top of one of his shelves and walked out.
The motto of the Boy Scouts: Be prepared.
Judith was now in the bedroom’s sitting area. She had the locket that she wore in her hands. It was open and she was looking down at the picture there. She sat up when Nash called out to her.
“Did you eat?” he asked.
“I had something,” she replied abruptly. “Where is your Range Rover? It’s not in the garage.”
“I… I took it in for service.”
She said incredulously, “Your daughter has been kidnapped and you took your Range Rover in for service?”
“Judith, I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
“It might be the reason Maggie’s gone.”
She sat up and said stiffly, “What are you talking about?”
Nash was about to tell her everything when her phone buzzed. For a moment he thought it might be Rhett calling.
Judith looked down. “It’s Linda Marshall, Debbie’s mom. Deb’s one of Maggie’s closest friends. Do you think she knows something and told her mother? It must be important if she’s calling at this hour.”
She answered. “Hello, Linda, what’s wrong?” She listened for a few moments. “What? I don’t under… Online? Maggie? My God. What are…? Okay, yes, okay.”
She clicked off, jumped up, and grabbed her laptop from the nightstand. She sat back down on the sofa and started clicking keys.
Nash sat next to her. “What is it? What did she say?”
Judith didn’t answer right away as she focused on what she was doing. “She said Maggie posted something online.”
“Maggie! When?”
“Just now, apparently. Deb was online and saw it and told her mom.”
“Did she say what it was?”
Judith gave her husband a strange look. “Some of it, yes.”
“What? What did she say?” barked Nash.
Judith didn’t answer. She turned back to the screen as an image came on.
It was Maggie looking distraught with tears running down her face.
“Oh my God,” said Nash. “The kidnappers are having her communicate online.”
“Shut up so we can hear her,” snapped Judith.
Maggie was looking directly into the camera. She was wearing the same rose-colored velour warmup suit that Nash had previously seen her in.
She said in a halting tone, “My name is Maggie Nash. I… I faked being kidnapped.”
“What!” exclaimed Nash.
“Shut up!” shouted Judith.
Maggie continued, “I had to get away from him. He… was horrible to me.”
Nash said, “Who is she talking about? I thought you said she wasn’t seeing anyone.”
Judith gave him a cold stare, a look that made a deeply puzzled Nash fall silent. What he heard next froze every liter of blood in his body.
Maggie said, “My father, Walter Nash, has been abusing me for years. He would come into my bedroom late at night when my mother was asleep. He would—” she sobbed for a moment before continuing “—he would do things to me, terrible things. And then he told me he’d kill me and my mother if I ever told the truth. ”
Nash just stared at the screen, open-mouthed. He could not feel his body, it was like all he had left was his overwrought mind along with a heart that had just been rent in half.
“He pretends to be this hardworking, nose-to-the-grindstone businessman, but he’s a monster.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to get away.
But I’m so worried that he might find me.
And that he’ll hurt my mom. I only told one person, my friend Billy Adams. He’s the night security guard at the entrance to my neighborhood.
I hope he’s okay. I have to go now. Please don’t try and find me. And make sure my mom is okay.”
Her image faded from the screen.
Judith, who was breathing hard with tears covering her cheeks, slowly closed the laptop. She turned to Nash.
“Is that what you were going to tell me?” she demanded in a quiet voice.
Nash shook his head, still trying to process what had just happened. “What?”
“Were you going to confess before Linda called me?”
“Confess to what? I never touched Maggie.”
“You’re actually calling her a liar? After all she’s been through?”
In his withering anxiety, Nash stood and backed away. “Look, I don’t know what the hell is going on. But I never did anything to Maggie. I swear.”
Judith started to shake. “I… don’t want to believe any of this, Walter. And… Maggie never mentioned… anything… to me.”
“And she would, Judith. She would have told you. You two never kept secrets from each other.”
Judith looked up at him and her expression was not a sympathetic one. “You sound like you’re trying to convince me.”
“I’m trying to tell you the truth.”
Judith pointed at the laptop. “Then why in God’s name would our daughter tell everyone that you… you abused her?”
“I… I don’t know, Judith,” said Nash in a trembling voice. He could barely speak. He could barely think. The image of his daughter saying these terrible things dominated everything in his life at the moment. “I just don’t know.”
Judith shook her head. “I…” She swallowed, hard and with difficulty. It was clear she, too, could barely speak or think clearly.
“My God, Judith. Do you really think I’m capable of that? I love Maggie. I would never do anything to hurt her.”
“You’re asking me to believe you over her, Walter.”
“I’m asking you to just look at this logically.”
“Fuck logic,” she suddenly screamed. In a lower, far more menacing tone she said, “Fuck logic. This isn’t about logic, Walter. This is about our daughter saying you have molested her for years.”
“But you said she would have told you.”
She looked at him sharply, something appearing in her features that was cagey, guarded, possibly triumphant, like a decision had been made. As he looked at her Nash felt tendrils of icy dread wash over him.
“No, Walter, you were the one who said that. Not me.”
“Judith, please. Think this through clearly.”
“You’re trying to manipulate me. That’s what you do so well. I’m not another business negotiation, Walter. I’m your wife. And Maggie’s mother.”
“And I love you and it hurts me that you think I could do something like that.”
She now looked at him with revulsion. “There you go, trying to swing the blame onto me. My Eagle Scout? My perfectly predictable gentleman of a husband. You’ve played me for a fool.
You tried to make me believe you with this logic crap.
You tried to manipulate me into believing you.
And now our daughter has run away, because of you. You!”
She picked up the laptop and chucked it at Nash, striking him on the shoulder.
“Judith! I’m telling you the truth.”
“No, Walter. I believe my daughter, not you.” She lunged at him. “You monster! I will fucking kill you.” She struck him across the face.
He grabbed her arms. “Judith, please stop. This is insane. I didn’t do anything to her.”
A breathless Judith pushed him away and pulled out her phone.
“Who are you calling?” he cried out.
“Who do you think, you piece of shit? The police.”
“Judith, don’t. I did nothing. They… they must have forced Maggie to say all that.”
“Who? Why would anyone do that?”
“Because I’m—”
“You’re what?”
“I… I can’t tell you.”
In disgust Judith turned back to the phone. “Hello, police? I need you to come out to my home. There is a child molester in the house and it’s my husband.”
“Judith!”
“Don’t touch me. Hurry, please hurry,” she screamed into the phone. She gave them the address.
Nash turned and ran to his closet, grabbed his bag, and raced down the stairs. On the way he called Shock. He answered by the time Nash was out the front door and running down the street, his pulse increasing with every stride.
Before he could say anything Shock said, “I saw Maggie, online.”
“It’s all a lie.”
“This is their way of takin’ you out without pullin’ the trigger and causin’ themselves more trouble. Where are you?”
Nash told him. “Judith has called the police. They’ll be on their way.”
“Just get out of your neighborhood. Can you do that without the guard seein’ you?”
Nash looked up ahead. There was a way around the gate. “Yes.”
“Throw your phone away right after you click off this call. They can track you.”
“But I can turn it off.”
“Don’t matter. They can track you even if the phone’s off. I’ll meet you in fifteen minutes.” He gave him a pickup location.
Nash clicked off, tossed the phone into a storm drain, and ran for his life.