The Girl Who Disappeared Twice (Forensic Instincts 1)

“DeMassi’s in jail, and his son’s in Sicily,” Peg stated aloud. “So if they’re responsible for the delivery of the note, they got one of their soldiers to do it.”

Don nodded, pursing his lips. “The traces of dirt suggest that it could be someone from Bennato Construction. Mr. Akerman, are you sure you didn’t recognize any of the names or photos I showed you of their workers? Or, particularly, of Tony Bennato himself?”

Sidney linked his fingers behind his neck and lowered his head in frustration. “For the tenth time, I never heard of or saw any of them before. But why would I? My connection to these bastards ended three decades ago. And, even then, I barely saw anyone, and I didn’t interact with any of them. Only Henry did.”

“Henry’s dead. You’re here. Keep thinking.” Patrick was at the end of his rope.

Casey’s chin came up, and she made eye contact with Patrick, silently requesting that he give her a few minutes of leeway.

At his nod, she turned to Peg. “May I?” she asked respectfully.

“Please do.” A sweep of the case leader’s arm.

“Thanks.” Casey straightened her spine and leaned forward, intentionally conveying a power stance to Sidney. “Let’s tackle this from another angle, Mr. Akerman. We’ve explored all your direct contacts and your knowledge of what went on with your friend Henry Kenyon. Maybe we should flip this around, and start at the personal end. Rather than dissect the mob, let’s discuss you and Felicity, and maybe we can get a handle on who had access to her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your ex-wife told us that Felicity was the apple of your eye, that she was very much daddy’s little girl.”

Pain twisted Sidney’s features. “That’s true. I loved both my girls, but Felicity and I had a special rapport. We both loved all kinds of sports. And we were both crazy about arcade games. Our local pizzeria was one of the first places to get Pong. We went there together every weekend and played. And Felicity was crazy about old-fashioned Skee-Ball. She beat me every time.”

“So you went to the same pizzeria each time?”

“Uh-huh. But we knew the owners. They were decent, family-loving people, not mobsters.”

“I checked them out,” Patrick inserted. “They came up clean.” A self-deprecating pause. “Then again, I missed Kenyon’s mob connections. So we can check them out again. They’re in the case file.”

Casey nodded. “What about sports?” She continued questioning Sidney, covering all the bases. “I know Felicity was an athlete. Were you involved with that, or was it just spectator sports you shared?”

A hint of a smile, filled with nostalgia. “Both. We watched hours of sports on TV. But we shared the hands-on stuff, too. I’m sure Vera told you what an amazing soccer player Felicity was. She had daily team practices, but we practiced together on top of that. We kicked the ball around at her school, on the front lawn, every place we could set up a goal cage. And she went to soccer camp in the summer, even at her age. It was day camp, of course. She came home every afternoon. But I took off from work whenever I could, just to watch her compete. She was great. She would have gone far if…” His voice trailed off.

Casey glanced down at her case file. “Special Agent Lynch spoke to all the families on Felicity’s school and camp soccer teams.”

“Yes, he was very thorough. He covered the kids, the parents, the counselors and the coaches. And I’ll tell you what I told him, then and now. Everyone loved Felicity. She was kind, bubbly and happy. I can’t think of a single soul who’d want to hurt her. And I certainly can’t imagine any of the people you just mentioned having mob affiliations.”

“Your friend, Henry, was a regular guy, too,” Casey pointed out. “He just got himself into a hole and chose the wrong way out. Not everyone with ties to the mob are sinister, evil people. Some are just plain desperate, and they have no concept of the potential consequences of their actions.”

Hutch, who’d been silent up until now, spoke up. “Speaking of Kenyon, here’s a reach. Your daughter might have been a kid, Akerman, but she was obviously a talented kid. And I know how competitive those sports camps can be. What other camps did they play against? Was there any friendly betting that went on about the games?”

Sidney blinked. “Betting? On six-year-olds?”

“I’ve seen worse.”

Peg’s eyes narrowed, and she gazed intently at Hutch. “Go on.”

“Following Casey’s line of reasoning, Felicity broke her arm the summer she was kidnapped. She’d just been given the go-ahead to play by her doctor. The cast was removed. Th

en she was abducted. Was her playing a threat to anyone’s pocketbook?”

“Wow.” Casey exhaled sharply. “That’s one I never thought of.” She inclined her head at Patrick. “I know you spoke to the staffs of all the camps Felicity’s team competed with. Do you think it’s possible that any of the parents or staff members could have been placing bets on the games? Did you get the feeling that anyone was hurting for cash or into gambling excessively—anyone who might have gone the same route as Henry Kenyon?”

Patrick wasn’t pacing now. He was planted in place, thinking. “We’re really reaching now. If this was the World Cup, I’d jump on your line of thinking. But a kids’ soccer game? How much cash could be exchanging hands? Enough for a mob payment? My gut says no.” A pause. “Still…you make a good point about the timing. Felicity was kidnapped the night before she rejoined the camp team. Is it possible that that wasn’t a coincidence? Sure. It’s the why I find shaky.”

“I won’t disagree,” Hutch said. “But let’s see it through, from every vantage point.” He turned back to Sidney. “How did Felicity break her arm—exactly? How long was she out of commission? And who was involved in her recuperation?”

Sidney unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. He was wrung out and beaten. “It was an internal game, just a practice for an upcoming competition with a neighboring camp. She was knocked down by a couple of other kids. It was an accident. She didn’t even land that hard. She just landed wrong. She broke her forearm in two places. It took most of the summer to heal.”

“And she’d just had the cast removed the day she was abducted.”