A Flight of Fantasy (Sarah Woods Mystery 12) by Jennifer L. Jennings Page B

stared at Carter dumbfounded. “Did you get all that?”
    He nodded solemnly as he turned the car around to head back to Fitch. “She doesn’t think her ex-husband did this?”
    “She has no idea. She told me he left them years ago and he hasn’t been in touch.”
    As Carter sped through town toward Rita’s house I couldn’t ignore the weird coincidence. As soon as Reece takes Allison to the police station to file a report against Dr. Wheeler, Rita’s daughter is abducted in broad daylight. Obviously, Dr. Wheeler didn’t do it, because he was still inside his office. Plus, we hadn’t given him Reece’s full name. The only other person we knew who was involved with this mess was Wayne Miller. And he did know Reece’s full name. Because we told him.
    And that’s when it hit me.
    “Carter, I don’t ever remember telling Wayne that Reece has a daughter. Did we?”
    Carter glanced at me with a worried look. “No, of course we didn’t.”
    “I have a bad feeling about this. Can you pull over for a second? I think we need to call Wayne right away and find out if he’s really at work.”
    He veered off into a gas station, parked and dialed Wayne’s personal cell phone number. We waited breathlessly for him to answer the call. Just when I thought the call would go to voicemail, there was a click and a male voice said, “Good afternoon Carter.”
    “Hey, Wayne,” Carter replied casually. “I’m sorry to bother you at work, but I needed to ask you a question.”
    “Well, you’re in luck,” Wayne said. “Because I decided to take the day off.”
    Carter gave me a worried look. “Is that right? So, what have you been up to?”
    Wayne chuckled, and it sent a chill up my spine. “I’m spending some time with a new friend I made today.”
    My heart plummeted as I looked at Carter. The bastard had Amy and who knows what he had in mind. I had to speak up. “What have you done, Wayne?”
    Wayne didn’t respond right away. I could hear a small child’s voice in the background. “I have to say, you guys are a little slow on the uptake but I’m impressed just the same. Reece must have called you crying about her daughter and I was the first one you thought of. I’m touched, really.”
    The seriousness of the situation began to sink in. “What are you doing?” I shouted. “Are you crazy? What do you intend to do with Amy?”
    “She’s safe for now. But her life depends on what you and Carter do next.”
    “Why?” I pleaded. “Why are you doing this?”
    “Because Reece has ruined everything I’ve worked for. She’s going to destroy me and now I’m going to destroy everything she cares about.”
    “It’s too late,” I said. “They’ve already filed the report. Dr. Wheeler is going to be arrested. We gave you the chance to get ahead of this but you refused.”
    “I did nothing wrong. If I’m going to be accused of hurting girls, I might as well have a little fun before my time is up.”
    “There’s an Amber alert out right now,” I said. “A neighbor saw you take the girl. They will find you.”
    “No they won’t.”
    My fists clenched and I wanted to scream. Thankfully, Carter took the phone from me and spoke in a measured tone. “Wayne, why don’t you just tell us what you want.”
    “I want payback.”
    “There’s no point in hurting an innocent child,” Carter said. “If you want to punish someone, punish me.”
    “You don’t get it, do you?” Wayne’s voice vibrated with indignation. “The female population is a bunch of entitled princesses. Guys have to do all the work. We take them out to dinner, we buy them presents and then they dump us like rotten meat. Rita tricked me into believing she actually liked me. She’s nothing but a liar and a whore.”
    “This is not the right move,” Carter said firmly. “If you hurt Amy, you’ll never get away with it. You’ll go to jail for the rest of your life if not worse.”
    “I don’t care. My life is over anyway. Once my