Dividing Zero Page 2

  Beth blanched and searched for words. ‘How long have they been married, ma’am?’

  ‘At least fourteen years I would reckon. I know they were married when Lizzie was born. Amy, their mom, showed me their family photographs once.’

  ‘You know them well, ma’am?’

  ‘I have met Amy and Josh, a few times. Since the kids are very close, besties,’ Gramma’s lips twitched, ‘I speak often with Amy. We invited them for dinner on a couple of occasions and meet them at school events.’

  Meghan was playing with a sheet of paper, unconsciously folding and shaping it into a plane. She let it fly toward the girls and smiled when they shouted in delight.

  ‘She didn’t see the beatings, did she?’

  ‘She heard them. She saw her mom afterwards. Children know these things. They can sense fear, anger, and violence in their folks. I have no reason to doubt her.’

  She swung around at a shout and relaxed when Lizzie waved a hand. Just playing.

  Gramma turned back to the twins. ‘Where’s Carter?’

  Beth smiled for the first time since Gramma had walked into their office, kids in tow. ‘He left, ma’am. He figured Maddie would open up in his absence.’

  Gramma nodded, her gray eyes resting on the twins. She knew their office, a security consulting firm, was cover for a deep black national agency. It undertook missions which never came to light. Zeb Carter was its lead agent, the twins and a bunch of other folks worked with him.

  The twins were in their late twenties, Meghan, the older of the two by a few seconds. Zeb was elder to them by several years. Gramma knew the age difference didn’t matter a whit. The twins, Zeb, and some of the other agents that Gramma had met, were like family.

  Gramma was deeply indebted to Carter – she never called him Zeb and had dropped the Mr. reluctantly – and the twins for finding her daughter’s killer and bringing closure.

  Knowing that the debt could never be repaid and that the twins or Zeb never saw it as such, Gramma made the twins her family. She treated them as her daughters and the twins reciprocated.

  Carter had the air of a loner, but Gramma knew what lay beneath him, what he had been through, and he became part of her brood whether he wanted it or not.

  ‘You will find out what exactly is going on.’

  It was a statement, an order.

  Beth’s eyes widened. ‘Ma’am, this isn’t what we do. This is something the police should investigate. I don’t even know if there’s enough for them to look into.’

  Gramma brushed aside the idea of involving the NYPD with an imperious hand. She had enough dealings with them when they were investigating her daughter’s killer. She didn’t rate them.

  ‘Do it.’

  Her voice hardened and the steel in her showed. ‘If he’s a wife beater - and I believe Maddie - I want him stopped.’

  She rose, silencing anymore objections and with a flick of her hands drew her wards together.

  She shepherded the girls to the elevators and held the door open for Beth and Meghan to join them.

  The silence in the elevator was broken by Maddie who looked shyly at Meghan and asked, ‘Can we come again?’

  Gramma’s stern visage softened, became warm and she answered before Meghan could. ‘Of course, honey. Whenever you want. They are our friends.’

  Beth hailed a cab when they were outside and when it arrived, helped Gramma in. Meghan went to the other door and got Lizzie and Peaches seated.

  Beth was helping Maddie inside when she felt the blur approaching behind her right shoulder.

  Maddie got a foot inside.

  Beth turned her head slightly when the blur shouted.

  Maddie got another foot in and was ducking her head under the roof, when Beth’s eyes focused on the blur.

  It resolved into a man, wearing a hoodie. Running towards her. Red faced.

  He shouted something unintelligible.

  Beth opened her mouth to say something, to stop him, but before she could do so, he rammed into her.

  Her breath left her in a gasp, as she lost her grip on Maddie and fell.

  Her head bounced on the sidewalk to the accompaniment of a thin scream from somewhere.

  An angry roar sounded. A hard boot landed next to her, lifted, and swung.

  Beth had a last thought as darkness descended on her.

  Maddie has been kidnapped.

  Chapter 3

  Beth was lying on her bed in her apartment when she came to and the first thing she saw was Meghan’s strained face hovering over her.

  Meghan relaxed when their eyes met and made a big deal of looking heaven-ward.

  ‘You have been out for nearly an hour.’ She helped Beth sit upright and handed her a glass of water.

  ‘How did I get here?’

  ‘Zeb. He brought you here,’ Meghan jerked her head at the other occupant in the room.

  Beth emptied the glass and looked beyond Meghan’s shoulder. Zeb was leaning against a wall, still, emotionless. His brown hair was neatly cut short, his white shirt was tucked into khaki chinos, and a leather belt around his lean waist completed his attire.

  Beth knew that still posture was deceptive. He could flow from repose to action in the blink of an eye.

  ‘It was just a fall, Zeb. No need to go kill anyone.’

  Zeb didn’t move. His brown eyes didn’t change expression. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘Like I have been hit by a truck. My head hurts, my shoulder is aching, but the rest of me seems to be fine.’

  She made a face when her sister held two fingers in front of her. ‘I said I am fine, but for a couple of aches.’

  She took the pills Meghan offered, gulped them, downed another glass of water and rose from the bed. She waved away Meghan’s hands of support.

  ‘Jeez, sis, I was unconscious for a few moments. Nothing is wrong with me.’

  Realization of the events flooded her suddenly and her eyes widened and her voice quickened.

  ‘Where is Gramma? The kids? What about Maddie? Who was that dude?’

  Meghan countered in answer. ‘Did you get a look at that man? Would you recognize him?’

  Beth shook her head and then grimaced as the motion worsened her headache.

  ‘No. He was moving too fast and I wasn’t paying attention since Maddie was saying something to me. Besides, he had a hoodie. It shadowed his face.’

  Meghan avoided her eyes. ‘Zeb returned when you were knocked out. Gramma insisted he and I bring you up and tend to you.’

  Beth’s face turned white, as she read the worst in Meghan’s evasion. ‘Sis, where’s Maddie?’

  ‘The man grabbed her. She’s missing.’

  ‘What about Gramma and Lizzie?’

  Meghan shook her head in frustration. ‘Couldn’t speak to Gramma earlier; her phone was turned off. She sent a message a few minutes back. She's asked us to meet her at her home.’

  Beth was moving the moment Meghan finished. She grabbed her jacket, her handbag and by the time she was ready, Meghan and Zeb were with her.

  Any thoughts and concerns they had about her head could wait.

  Finding Maddie couldn’t.

  They were in Gramma’s townhouse on East 112th Street two hours later, after a couple of cops stopped them in the lobby and took the twins’ statements.

  Peaches opened the door and burst out, ‘Maddie’s dad took her and ran.’

  Her face was tear streaked and her body was trembling when she hugged Beth.

  Beth quieted her as best as she could and looked imploringly at Lizzie.

  The elder girl, pale faced herself, read her glance and led Peaches out, leaving Gramma with the twins and Zeb.

  Gramma sat on a couch with a sigh and gestured at her guests to seat themselves. She held her head in her hands for a moment and then straightened and her stern face came on.

  She recounted the events that had occurred when Meghan and Zeb had carried Beth inside their office.

  A f
ew passersby had yelled out at the man and one had given chase, but the man, with Maddie in one arm, had disappeared in the vastness of the city.

  The police had turned up and had started making inquiries. A cruiser took Gramma and the kids to the Kittrell home and on hearing the news, Amy Kittrell had sagged.

  She called her husband. He didn’t reply. She called his office. He wasn’t there. No one knew where he was.

  The police had briefed the media and had handed out Maddie’s pictures. They were interviewing possible witnesses at the grab site.

  A silence fell when Gramma finished her narration. Peaches peeked through the door and despite Gramma’s iron face, asked, ‘Will Maddie be okay, Gramma?’

  The iron visage cracked. Gramma’s arms opened and Peaches dove into their warm sanctuary.

  ‘Of course she will be, honey. Beth and Meghan will find her.’

  ‘You will find her?’

  Zeb queried, looking at Beth, then at Meghan.

  He had left Gramma’s home and had returned with their SUV which he was now driving.

  Meghan was in her usual seat; in the front, by his side. Beth was in the rear and had just finished briefing him on the discussion with Gramma.

  ‘We were going to, in any case. Gramma’s request has now given us official standing.’

  Zeb nodded and looked out at the city ahead of him as if he could find Maddie just by looking.

  He didn’t know his fingers had tightened on the wheel till Meghan touched his shoulder softly.

  ‘We will find her.’

  He nodded again. ‘It could be some other man, not the dad. He’s missing too, but that could be coincidence.’

  ‘Yeah, we know. We have done this before a few times, in case you are forgetting.’ Beth retorted.

  Attacked and kicked by a stranger, knocked out for an hour, a missing child; none of those were reasons to hold back from ribbing Zeb.

  Zeb drove silently, his eyes moving between mirrors and the stream of traffic ahead. Every so often, they dwelled on young children on the sidewalk, on girls of Maddie’s size.

  They were in-between Agency missions and during downtime, they were free to take on any other projects. Clare never interfered in their work; she trusted Zeb and his team implicitly.

  Heck, she would ask us to find Maddie even if we were on an Agency mission.

  Clare had formed The Agency to accommodate the President’s need to have a small, self-contained deep black unit that had none of the bureaucracy of other such agencies.

  The Agency took on missions that were a threat to national security; terrorists, recovering stolen weapons of mass destruction, international criminal gangs, among many others.

  On joining the Agency, Zeb had recruited Broker, the oldest of them all. Broker had been a Ranger and an intelligence analyst at the NSA. On quitting the Army he had set up his intelligence business that serviced the commercial sector. He was the finest analyst Zeb had come across, though the twins were catching on fast.

  Broker and the twins ran the Agency’s intel network, at the heart of which was Werner, a supercomputer that sat in their office on Columbus Avenue. The twins also managed the Agency’s logistics.

  Bwana, Roger, Chloe and Bear, who were a couple, comprised the rest of the Agency’s personnel. The first two and Bear were ex-Special Forces like Zeb, while Chloe was from the 82nd Airborne.

  Zeb reported to Clare, the Director of the Agency, who in turn reported only to the President. She lived in Washington D.C. and had a nebulous title that no one in the rarefied political circles questioned.

  The eight of them were a compact team that worked like a well-oiled machine and had never failed on a mission.

  He circled Central Park a few times, entered East 112th Street and drove down toward Thomas Jefferson Park.

  He found a vacant parking spot and eased into it, following the twins’ gaze. There were no more cruisers outside the Kittrell townhouse. It looked empty and forlorn.

  Meghan sprang out and Beth followed her.

  ‘Wait for us,’ Meghan tossed behind her shoulder.

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’ Zeb stretched his legs out, pushed back, and closed his eyes. There weren’t many Special Forces operatives who worked as chauffeurs in their down time. He was one of them.

  ‘I don’t know what else I can tell you,’ Amy Kittrell said. ‘The cops just left and I told them everything that I know. Which isn’t much.’

  She tried to smile and failed.

  They were in the living room, Beth and Meghan on one soft couch, the distraught mother on another, across from them. The room was decorated in warm colors and family pictures adorned the wall and the mantelpiece.

  In one, a man was holding Maddie high above his head while Amy was snuggling into him.

  The man had average looks. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Clean shaven. Nothing that would stand out in a crowd. Nothing that would stay in memory.

  Amy Kittrell noticed Meghan’s gaze. ‘That was last year, when we were on vacation in Florida.’

  Her hands twisted nervously and her eyes darted to the twins. ‘I can’t believe Josh would kidnap her.

  ‘I am sure there’s some mistake. It must be some other man. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to take Maddie, though.’

  ‘The cops said they would investigate and find her soon. And Josh too.’ Her voice broke for a moment. She bent her head down, took a deep breath and consciously stilled her fingers.

  Her eyes were steady when she raised them. ‘There is no reason to doubt the police, is there?’

  Why are you here, asking me these questions?

  ‘We feel responsible, ma’am,’ Meghan responded to Amy Kittrell’s unasked question.

  ‘It won’t hurt if we do some digging too. We have some experience in these matters. We work in a security consulting firm.’

  Meghan gave her the spiel which was on their firm’s website and the words seem to calm Amy Kittrell down.

  Beth took up the questioning. ‘Maddie said you came to New York five years back?’

  ‘Maddie must have told you our life stories. She can’t stop once she starts.’ The mother’s face softened for a moment.

  ‘Yeah, we are originally from Baybush, Alabama. Josh was working in a law firm there. That firm gave him an opening in the New York office.’

  She saw the twins trying to place the city. ‘It’s not a large city. With a population of about five thousand; it barely exists on the map. It’s in Jefferson County, fifty miles south of Birmingham.’

  ‘It’s a city of transients. There are a couple of defense contractors out there and a lot of floating population.’

  ‘I was a realtor. I could do that job in any city. Maddie was very young then and would adapt to the move. It was an opportunity we couldn’t pass.’

  ‘Baybush was where you grew up, ma’am?’

  She smiled for the first time. ‘Yeah. Born, educated, lived there most of our lives. We went to the University of Alabama and returned.’

  ‘We were high school sweethearts. That entire schmaltzy story, that’s us.’

  ‘New York was our first move. From a city that barely exists on a map, to the largest city in the world.’

  The smile faded, the hands started twisting again as if to say, and look what happened.

  They asked her more questions; about their marriage, her job, Josh Kittrell’s job, Maddie’s school, and her friends.

  ‘Peaches and Lizzie are her closest friends. She has a few more, but none who are as close.’

  ‘And what about the two of you, ma’am? Any friends?’

  Amy Kittrell shrugged helplessly. ‘Not really. When we came to this city we knew no one. That hasn’t changed much.’

  ‘Sure we have work friends and we know a few parents from Maddie’s school. Josh has a busy job and travels a lot. I’m busy too. We hardly get any time to socialize.’

  Beth rose and looked at the photographs on the wall. ‘You look very much in love.’ />
  ‘We are. We have a great marriage. I can’t think why he would –. No, he didn’t. It must be someone else.’

  Amy Kittrell broke down and started weeping.

  ‘Anything?’ Zeb asked when they returned.

  ‘Nothing.’ Beth tossed her handbag inside the vehicle and fastened her seat belt.

  ‘Perfect marriage. Great jobs. He’s a lawyer in a big firm, an outfit called Mayo and Kane. I’ve seen their ads. They’re well known.’

  ‘She’s a realtor with a big outfit. You see their billboards all over the city.’

  ‘She’s no ordinary realtor, either. She sells luxury homes to the super rich. Makes big bucks. Lovely daughter. No reason for Dad to suddenly run away with Maddie.’

  ‘We didn’t tell her about Maddie’s story. It wasn’t the right time.’

  Meghan broke the silence in the vehicle.

  ‘She doesn’t believe he kidnapped her, in any case.’

  ‘That’s the wife talking,’ Beth replied. ‘No one got a good look at that man. He could be anyone. He could be the dad, too.’

  Meghan gestured at Zeb to pull out and drive.

  ‘I bet he’s the NYPD’s prime suspect, and there’s always a reason. She might not know it.’

  ‘Or she isn’t telling.’

  Chapter 4

  Zeb turned on his flasher, waited for a break in the metallic river, and headed out.

  ‘Where to, ladies?’

  ‘Downtown,’ Meghan replied, her serious look changing to one of mirth for a moment.

  ‘To see two of your favorite people in the world.’

  ‘Pizaka and Chang.’

  Pizaka and Chang were First Grade detectives who headed a Major Case Squad in the NYPD.

  Zeb and his team had come across the two cops when bringing down serial killers and terrorists in the city. Given the clandestine nature of their agency, Zeb and his crew’s involvement was known to only the Commissioner and Pizaka and Chang.