Chapter Fourteen
Archie appeared in the doorway to Sam’s office. “We got a hit on Ethan’s debit card. Ruiz and her team are on the way as we speak. Patrol is backing them up.”
Finally, Sam thought as she sat up straighter. They might have a break. “Where?”
“At a convenience store on Connecticut Avenue Northwest.”
“Forest Hills,” Sam said absently as she refreshed her memory of the neighborhood near Rock Creek Park. “I’m not telling my sister or the other parents until we know more.”
Malone appeared behind Archie. “You heard about the debit card?”
“Yeah.” Sam wanted to go there so badly that it was all she could do to remain seated and let her colleagues take the lead.
“I’ll let you know if I hear anything else,” Archie said.
“Thanks for keeping me in the loop.”
He nodded and took off for his office on the second floor.
Malone came into Sam’s office. “Can I get you guys something to eat?”
Nick looked to Sam.
She shook her head. “I don’t think I could get it past the massive lump in my throat. But you go ahead,” she said to Nick. “You must be starving.”
“I could eat something. A sandwich maybe?”
“I’ll order for all of us and get something for you, too, Sam. Maybe it’ll look good to you when it’s right in front of you.”
“Thanks, Cap.”
“We all wish there was more we could do.”
“It helps to know that the best of the best are looking for him.”
“I’ll be back,” Malone said as he departed.
Detective Neveah Charles came to the door. “Patrol is reporting they found two young boys running down Connecticut Avenue, wearing no shirts or shoes, with zip ties hanging from their wrists.”
Sam shot to her feet. “Oh my God. Is it them?”
“I’m waiting for an update,” Neveah said. “Stand by.” She turned and left.
Nick came to Sam, put his arms around her and held on tight.
Her heart was racing, her mouth dry and her hands shaking. “Please,” she whispered. “Let it be him.”
“Lieutenant,” Neveah said when she returned.
Sam released Nick and looked to her detective.
Neveah smiled and nodded. “They’ve got him. He’s safe. He and Tomas both are.”
Sam broke down as her knees seemed to fail her all at once.
Nick guided her into a chair and held her as she sobbed. “Thank God.” He reached for her phone on the desk and handed it to her. “Call your sister.”
“I’ll call the Cambras,” Neveah said.
“What about Luna?” Sam asked.
“No report on her. Just the two boys.”
Sam nodded, took a deep breath and called her sister.
“Hello,” Tracy said tersely.
“They found him safe, Trace. We’ve got him—and Tomas.”
“Oh my God! Thank you so much! Where is he? I want to see him right now.”
“I’ll call you back as soon as I know where they’re taking them.”
Neveah looked up from her phone. “They’re going to the ER at GW.”
Sam conveyed that info to Tracy.
“Are they hurt?”
“They found them running down Connecticut Avenue, so it sounds like they’re mostly okay. I’ll meet you at GW?”
“Okay. Yes. We’re on the way.”
“See you there.”
Tracy screamed for her husband and daughter. They came bursting into the kitchen, where she’d been sitting by the phone, trying to will it to ring with news. “They found him and Tomas. Sam said they’re safe, but they’re taking them to the ER at GW. She’s going to meet us there.”
Mike bent at the waist and started sobbing. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Brooke put one hand on his back as she wiped away tears with the other.
Tracy stood and hugged Brooke and then headed for the kitchen door. “Let’s get going.”
“Trace,” Mike said. “Wait.”
She glanced at him over her shoulder. “I’m going to see my son. Are you coming?”
“I just want to say…”
Tracy walked away. Nothing would keep her from Ethan now that she knew he was alive and where he was.
Besides, there wasn’t a single thing Mike could say that would change how she felt about him allowing this nightmare to happen in the first place.
In all their years together, she’d never been angrier with him than she was right now, but there’d be time to deal with that situation later.
Right now, she wanted her son. Everything else was second to that.
She went outside to where several MPD officers were standing watch. “I need a ride to the ER at GW. My son has been found and is being taken there.”
“Yes, ma’am,” one of the young officers said. “I’ll take you.”
He had the back door to a Patrol car open and waiting for her in a matter of seconds.
She looked to see if Mike was coming, but he was still in the house. “Let’s go,” she said to the officer. Mike could come with Brooke and Nate.
Tracy appreciated that the officer used the lights and siren to convey her quickly through the District. Having a sister—and a late father—with connections came in handy at a time like this.
She was jonesing for her phone and hoped Sam had called Angela and their mom to update them, but for now, that was also the least of her concerns. They’d find out soon enough if no one had told them yet.
On that quick ride across the District from Capitol Hill to Foggy Bottom, Tracy decided that no matter what’d happened to Ethan, she would love and support him through it, even if he’d committed a crime. Anything could be fixed as long as he was alive.
She wiped at tears that continued to come even when she would’ve thought there couldn’t be any more.
Life had thrown her a lot of curveballs, starting with her parents’ contentious divorce, her unplanned pregnancy with Brooke at twenty-one, single parenthood, her father’s shooting and subsequent quadriplegia, the night Brooke was attacked and nearly killed, her father’s death and the subsequent revelations about his shooting, Sam and Nick becoming the FLOTUS and POTUS, and then Spencer’s sudden death…
All of it had tried and tested her, but nothing could compare to not knowing where her son was for almost twenty-four of the longest, most agonizing hours she’d ever experienced.
She loved her three children with her whole heart and soul, but she’d had a special bond with Ethan from the start.
Mothers and sons… As much as she adored her girls, it was different with him, softer, less dramatic.
He was her easy kid, and it’d been that way between them from the start.
Whereas Brooke and Abby challenged and tested her, Ethan tended to go along to get along.
Until recently, he’d never given her a reason to be annoyed with him, other than not putting his clothes away or leaving his dirty dishes in the sink.
The battles over him wanting to run loose with his friends had been an upsetting development and had put the first serious rift in her relationship with Mike.
She’d been incredulous when he’d said, in front of Ethan, “Maybe we could try it and see how it goes.”
The minute he’d said those words, it was game over for her point of view. Ethan had won the battle and would be allowed to roam free in the city at eleven years old.
Her emotions were a simmering cauldron of relief, gratitude, anger and fear for what would come next. How would this incident change Ethan’s life and hers along with it?
“Ma’am,” the young officer said. “We’re here.”
Tracy looked up in surprise to see the signs for the Emergency Department. Suddenly, she was frozen with fear so powerful, it took her breath away. What was waiting for her inside?
The officer came around the cruiser to open the back door for her.
Tracy took the hand he offered her. “Thank you.”
“I hope your son is okay.”
“Thank you. I do, too.” Tracy went into the crowded waiting room and approached the desk. “I’m Tracy Hogan. My son, Ethan, was brought in.”
“Right this way, ma’am.”
The nurse signaled for Tracy to follow her into the treatment area. She was led to a room in the far back corner on the right side. Police officers stood outside the curtain.
“Mrs. Hogan is here to see her son,” the nurse told one of the officers.
“Could I please see some ID?” the officer asked.
“I have nothing on me. I had to leave everything at my house when we were relocated.” She summoned every scintilla of calm she could to say, “Please let me see my son.”
He held the curtain aside, saving her the need to start screaming.
Tracy rushed into the room where Ethan was asleep in the bed, a blanket pulled up to his chest. He looked exhausted and his hair was standing on end, but it was him, and she’d never been so happy to see anyone.
As she leaned over him, her fingers straightening his messy hair, she pressed a kiss to his forehead.
“Mommy’s here,” she whispered. “I’m right here. ”
His eyes flickered open, and when he saw her there, he let out a cry as he reached for her.
Tracy sobbed as she held him tight. “Ethan…”
“I’m so sorry, Mom. I’m so, so sorry.”
She could barely speak over the tsunami of emotion. “As long as you’re okay, that’s all I care about. Are you hurt?”
“They said I was dehydrated, so they’re giving me an IV, and my ribs are bruised.”
Tracy hadn’t noticed the bag hanging over him until he mentioned it. All she’d seen was his precious face, paler than it should be, but still there. Still there.
“Do you have other injuries?”
He brought his arms out from under the covers to show her that his wrists were wrapped in gauze. “They held us with zip ties that cut into my skin. That and the ribs kinda hurt, but otherwise, I’m okay.”
“Who held you?”
“Brecken and his father, but his dad was really mad when he found out I’m the president’s nephew. He was screaming at Brecken for being so stupid as to get a kid who’s related to the president. He was so mad that I was afraid…”
“Of what, honey?”
“That’d he kill us, so Tomas and me… We used my knife to cut ourselves free, but it took forever because it was dark, we were both tied up, and we couldn’t reach. While they were sleeping, we ran away.”
“Was Luna there, too?”
“I didn’t see her. Is she missing?”
“She is.”