It Only Takes a Moment Read online

  Mary Jane Clark

  It Only Takes a Moment

  For Elizabeth and David

  And for all the families who struggle with Fragile X Syndrome,

  the most common cause of inherited mental impairment.

  Hang in there. A treatment should be coming soon.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Several days from now…

  Monday July 21

  Chapter 1

  “Look!” Janie called out. “She’s wearing it, Mrs. Garcia. Mommy’s…

  Chapter 2

  Eliza hung up the phone, unclipped the microphone from her…

  Chapter 3

  “Here’s what you’re gonna do,” said Popeye after he had…

  Chapter 4

  The reporter from People asked all the usual questions.

  Chapter 5

  The late-model Volvo station wagon pulled in through the stone-pillared…

  Chapter 6

  When the interview was finished, Eliza posed for some pictures…

  Chapter 7

  Mrs. Garcia crossed the camp parking lot and walked around…

  Chapter 8

  P.J. Clarke’s at Lincoln Center was crowded at lunchtime, but…

  Chapter 9

  The black van was hidden from view, parked behind an…

  Chapter 10

  A blue Lincoln Town Car turned into the driveway on…

  Chapter 11

  Beneath the tear-streaked vestiges of face paint, the redness of…

  Chapter 12

  One dead end after another.

  Chapter 13

  “I’m Eliza Blake,” she said, trying to keep her voice…

  Chapter 14

  It was time to catch up. The scrapbook was nowhere…

  Chapter 15

  An Amber Alert was issued on surrounding highways while color…

  Chapter 16

  The carnival workers had turned night into day. Giant spotlights…

  Chapter 17

  “Can you help us with something?” asked Agent Laggie.

  Chapter 18

  “Mommy,” Janie called between sobs. “I want my mommy.”

  Tuesday July 22

  Chapter 19

  As dawn broke, the reporters, producers, and camera crews camped…

  Chapter 20

  On the bottom floor of the KEY News Broadcast Center,…

  Chapter 21

  Mrs. Garcia listened to the occasional hiccup coming from Janie…

  Chapter 22

  The network morning programs are all starting in less than…

  Chapter 23

  “Hughie.” Isabelle shook her brother’s arm. “Hughie, get up. You…

  Chapter 24

  In a reversal of the usual two-way interview, Harry Granger,…

  Chapter 25

  Rhonda Billings put down her coffee cup and switched off…

  Chapter 26

  The sound of the upstairs tenants moving around above her…

  Chapter 27

  “What the hell were you thinking, Annabelle?” It was Executive…

  Chapter 28

  Stephanie Quick paused to compose herself before she entered the…

  Chapter 29

  Eliza was running on adrenaline as she paced the kitchen…

  Chapter 30

  “Can’t you get that kid to stop hiccupping?”

  Chapter 31

  Lisa Nichols sang along to her new Bon Jovi CD…

  Chapter 32

  To escape the bustle and tension inside the house, Eliza…

  Chapter 33

  The men were busy, spraying windshields and scrubbing hubcaps. They…

  Chapter 34

  A mile a minute. With each minute, Janie could be…

  Chapter 35

  When the FBI agents got to the Broadcast Center, Joe…

  Chapter 36

  It was embarrassing, but Uncle Lloyd said she had to…

  Chapter 37

  They would be taking a chance but it was worth…

  Chapter 38

  Special Agents Gebhardt and Laggie stood in the kitchen doorway…

  Chapter 39

  Popeye the sailor pulled the ropes so tight around Mrs.

  Chapter 40

  Members of the press were staked out in front of…

  Chapter 41

  She glanced at the digital clock on the dashboard, knowing…

  Chapter 42

  An announcement went out to all law enforcement personnel with…

  Chapter 43

  He had been putting off going down to the gas…

  Chapter 44

  A cluster of microphones was set up on the driveway.

  Chapter 45

  The minute she got home from the bakery, Rhonda checked…

  Chapter 46

  Ratings shot through the roof as more than double the…

  Chapter 47

  Agent Gebhardt slammed her fist on the kitchen table.

  Chapter 48

  As the interminably long day drew to a close, Annabelle,…

  Chapter 49

  The curtains were drawn and the room was dark except…

  Chapter 50

  Mike was dozing on the couch in the living room…

  Chapter 51

  The concrete floor was cold and hard, but Mrs. Garcia…

  Wednesday July 23

  Chapter 52

  ELIZA BLAKE SUSPECT IN DAUGHTER’S DISAPPEARANCE!

  Chapter 53

  Rhonda woke up early. As she came out of the…

  Chapter 54

  Katharine stood in the kitchen doorway. “Linus Nazareth is on…

  Chapter 55

  You’re listening to 1010 WINS. You give us twenty-two minutes…

  Chapter 56

  Janie was curled up in the fetal position, cold, afraid,…

  Chapter 57

  She heard noise coming from above her. The sound moved…

  Chapter 58

  Daisy lay with her head resting on her paws, guarding…

  Chapter 59

  The police had him on their radar screen, but they…

  Chapter 60

  When Eliza Blake called again to tell Maria Rochas there…

  Chapter 61

  Mack came back into the house after walking around talking…

  Chapter 62

  The knock at the door was loud and persistent. Turning…

  Chapter 63

  Alec parked his mother’s car back in the driveway, remembering…

  Chapter 64

  Taking off her blindfold hadn’t made a bit of difference.

  Chapter 65

  Susan Feeney arrived at the front door with a casserole…

  Chapter 66

  In an area buried beneath ground level at the KEY…

  Chapter 67

  After polishing all the glass cases and wiping all the…

  Chapter 68

  She didn’t hear the bell the first two times it…

  Chapter 69

  “We’ve got something. We’ve got a lead.”

  Chapter 70

  It was awfully quiet in there.

  Chapter 71

  Mack made a call to Range Bullock, alerting him to…

  Chapter 72

  Once Mack arrived to support Eliza and act as a…

  Chapter 73

  Eliza and Mack, along with Katharine and Paul Blake, sat…

  Chapter 74

  A modest but tidy brick ranch house stood on a…

  Chapter 75

  “Laggie.” The FBI agent answered the call, his voice curt,…

  Chapter 76

  Damn it. He h
ad waited too long to clean the…

  Chapter 77

  Just before midnight, the ransom demand came by fax to…

  Thursday July 24

  Chapter 78

  “Wake up, Eliza, wake up.” Mack shook her arm.

  Chapter 79

  At 9:15 A.M., Kathy Joyal called to say that the…

  Chapter 80

  It was her turn to open up and bring in…

  Chapter 81

  Passing through the reporters still camped out in front of…

  Chapter 82

  The cluttered apartment above a delicatessen on Ninth Avenue was…

  Chapter 83

  The taxi stopped at the corner of Seventy-second Street. Annabelle…

  Chapter 84

  We have the name and address of the person who…

  Chapter 85

  Feeling her way in the darkness, Mrs. Garcia inched toward…

  Chapter 86

  The smell of corned beef and vinegar permeated the hot…

  Chapter 87

  The people who passed by on Ninth Avenue scarcely glanced…

  Chapter 88

  Phil Doyle needed a mental health day or, at least,…

  Chapter 89

  “I shouldn’t be surprised that some misguided individual would actually…

  Chapter 90

  In the early afternoon, the figure in the Olive Oyl…

  Chapter 91

  Throughout the morning, people wandered into the community room at…

  Chapter 92

  She was a prisoner in her own house. She couldn’t…

  Chapter 93

  The Internet, and volunteers all around the country, made it…

  Chapter 94

  Linus Nazareth was thrilled when Eliza called and told him…

  Chapter 95

  Janie lay blindfolded on the mattress, staring into the darkness.

  Chapter 96

  When six-year-old Melissa Bushell got home from Camp Musquapsink, she…

  Chapter 97

  Crouched behind a giant hemlock, Phil waited and regrouped. Air…

  Chapter 98

  She was in her room getting dressed to go into…

  Chapter 99

  “This will probably be a wild-goose chase,” the police officer…

  Chapter 100

  Margo couldn’t remember the last time she had been this…

  Chapter 101

  He wasn’t sure which way to go, but Phil Doyle…

  Chapter 102

  The studio was cleared except for only the most necessary…

  Chapter 103

  The stack of multicolored flyers sat on the kitchen table.

  Chapter 104

  Word that Eliza was in the house had spread through…

  Chapter 105

  At the end of the day, one of the paintball…

  Chapter 106

  Beneath the window, the kidnapper crouched over the body. He…

  Chapter 107

  With her head bowed, Mrs. Garcia sat on the cold…

  Chapter 108

  Rhonda watched as her husband went to the living room…

  Chapter 109

  Investigators know that perpetrators often come back to the scene…

  Chapter 110

  The grounds of the historic Ho-Ho-Kus estate that had been…

  Friday July 25

  Chapter 111

  At precisely 3:15 A.M., the KEY News car pulled up…

  Chapter 112

  Overflowing baskets and tall vases of flowers lined the dimly…

  Chapter 113

  Will Jorgenson ate his cereal as he watched the exclusive…

  Chapter 114

  The FBI agents laid the evidence envelope on the desk.

  Chapter 115

  The computers of the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System came…

  Chapter 116

  Calling into the KEY to America office, Annabelle let Linus’s…

  Chapter 117

  Eliza went directly to Agent Gebhardt after Annabelle called with…

  Chapter 118

  A line of unmarked cars and police vehicles waited at…

  Chapter 119

  Mack had the morning papers spread out on the kitchen…

  Chapter 120

  “Where is she, Hughie?”

  Chapter 121

  Eliza got off the phone with Stephanie Quick and went…

  Chapter 122

  Janie Blake and Carmen Garcia were not at Carl Yates’s…

  Chapter 123

  Eliza could tell by the expression on Agent Gebhardt’s face…

  Chapter 124

  In the county park, Rhonda sat in her car, looking…

  Chapter 125

  News vans, satellite trucks, and camera crews continued to line…

  Chapter 126

  “This was never supposed to play out this way!” she…

  Chapter 127

  Eliza and Mack traveled along the quaint downtown street, passing…

  Chapter 128

  He parked the Jeep in front of the cinder-block building…

  Chapter 129

  Eliza held on to the child so tightly and for…

  Chapter 130

  Records showed that Carl Yates owned a piece of property…

  Chapter 131

  The Ho-Ho-Kus police held back the throng of newspeople who…

  Chapter 132

  Eliza refused to let Janie be questioned right away.

  Chapter 133

  Mrs. Garcia was admitted to Bon Secours Community Hospital in…

  Chapter 134

  The Maryknoll fathers, brothers, and sisters have worked as missionaries…

  Chapter 135

  Eliza came downstairs to wait for Dr. Burke. She went…

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Other Books by Mary Jane Clark

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  PROLOGUE

  Several days from now…

  Overflowing baskets and tall vases of flowers lined the dimly lit room and people with grim faces stood watching as she approached the small casket. The little coffin was covered with a spray of roses and lilies of the valley arranged in the shape of an angel.

  With every bit of strength she had, Eliza forced herself to go forward. She knelt before the casket, her fists clenched, her eyes shut tight. She felt excruciating pressure. Everyone was looking at her, waiting for her reaction, relieved that they were watching her life and not theirs. Nothing would go forward without her doing what she had to do.

  You have to look. You have to look. You have to see what’s inside.

  Eliza bent her head down and opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was a cascading shower of white tulle spilling from the casket walls. Her hand shook violently as she reached out to pull back the bridal veil.

  MONDAY JULY 21

  CHAPTER 1

  “Look!” Janie called out. “She’s wearing it, Mrs. Garcia. Mommy’s wearing the bracelet.”

  Carmen Garcia glanced up from gathering the child’s shiny brown hair in a ponytail. The middle-aged woman leaned forward to get a better look at the image on the television screen. Eliza Blake, clad in a cornflower-colored blouse that complemented her blue eyes, was smiling from the set of KEY to America as she and a cookbook author demonstrated how to organize a summer barbecue. As the camera cut to a close-up of her hand rubbing a mixture of spices on the meat, the red, yellow, and blue plastic beads that encircled her wrist came into clear view.

  “Sí.” Mrs. Garcia smiled. “Your mamá likes the bracelet you made at camp very much.”

  “How do you say ‘bracelet’ in Spanish?” Janie asked.

  “Pulsera,” Mrs. Garcia answered. “Now, hurry. Eat your breakfast. The bus will be here soon.”

  Janie, wearing navy blue shorts and a white Camp Musquapsink T-shi
rt, took a seat at the kitchen table while Daisy, the yellow Labrador retriever, positioned herself at the child’s feet. Janie dutifully ate the cereal and chunks of cantaloupe that Mrs. Garcia had put out for her while the housekeeper consulted the calendar hanging on the refrigerator door.

  “It’s Native American Day,” Mrs. Garcia announced. “You have archery and horseback riding.”

  “I know,” said Janie, making a face. “I hate archery. It’s too hard.”

  “The more you practice, the easier it will get. Do your best, mi hija. Just do the best you can. That makes your mamá happy.”

  “Bows and arrows are dumb,” declared Janie. “But we’re going to have our faces painted. That will be fun.” The little girl’s eyes widened with pride. “And you know what else? Musquapsink is a Native American name.”

  “It is?”

  “So is Ho-Ho-Kus,” Janie reported, proud that she could teach Mrs. Garcia something. “There are lots of Native American names around here. Pascack and Hackensack and Kinderkamack. My counselor told us.”

  Mrs. Garcia watched proprietarily as Janie tackled her bowl of cereal. She was such a healthy-looking child. A light suntan and a sprinkling of freckles covered her cheeks and straight little nose. Her blue eyes sparkled, just like her mother’s did. Her permanent teeth seemed to be coming in white and, so far, straight. Her legs and arms, which protruded from the day camp uniform, were well-toned and sturdy.

  Feeling Mrs. Garcia’s eyes on her, Janie looked up. “What are you staring at?” she asked.

  “You, mi hija. I’m staring at you, tesoro.”

  “What does that mean?” asked Janie, not familiar with the Spanish word.

  “It means ‘treasure,’” Mrs. Garcia explained. “You are your mamá’s tesoro. She loves you more than anything.”

  The black van cruised slowly on the gently winding road that rimmed the pond. Passing stately colonials and sprawling ranch-style homes separated by acres of rolling lawns and lush landscaping, the driver pulled over to a carefully chosen spot between two houses, confident that the van would not be visible from inside either dwelling. He turned off the engine.

  “How ya doin’?” the driver called out his open window, lifting his paper coffee cup in salute to the workman who drove past in a red truck.

  In the weeks he’d been staking out this neighborhood, the driver knew the last thing that would ever look out of place here was a service vehicle. Every morning, landscapers, painters, electricians, and carpenters traveled through the quiet streets on their way to their jobs of maintaining the homes of the wealthy. The homeowners worked on Wall Street or were officers of major corporations or had successful companies of their own. They didn’t have the inclination to mow their grass or the desire to spend their weekends making home improvements. They hired people to do those things. His van wouldn’t be noted as out of the ordinary at all. In fact, in all the days he had been canvassing the neighborhood, not once had any of the patrolling police cars stopped him.