Look Again - Lisa Scottoline [9]
Ellen reached for her coffee, then set it down without taking a sip. It was so damn eerie, like seeing Will’s double. Was it possible that he had a twin somewhere? A brother she hadn’t been told about? Those things happened, at least according to Oprah.
She clicked the link for the next page. There were more photos of Timothy as a baby; nine in all, a chronological progression from birth to his first birthday. She scanned the photos of Timothy as an infant, swaddled in a white receiving blanket, then flopped on his tummy, next propping himself up on soft arms, and finally ensconced in a bucket car seat. She had never seen Will as an infant, so she had no idea how he’d looked, but at about ten months old, Timothy began to look exactly like Will. She read the text below the photos:
We, Carol and Bill Braverman, will be eternally grateful to anyone who can help us find our son, Timothy Alan Braverman. Timothy was kidnapped by a Caucasian male, about thirty years old, approximately five-foot-ten and 170 pounds. The man stopped the Mercedes driven by Carol, pretending to be a motorist in distress. He pulled a gun on Carol, carjacked the Mercedes, and shot and killed Timothy’s nanny, Cora Elizondo, when she began screaming. He drove away, with Timothy still in the car seat. The suspect called with a ransom demand, which we paid in full, but Timothy was never returned. For a composite drawing of the suspect, see below.
Ellen shuddered. The wrong place at the wrong time; a car driven away with a baby inside. It was every parent’s nightmare. Guns, screaming, murder, and in the end, a kidnapped child. She looked at the composite drawing, sketched with simple pencil lines and only slight shading. The suspect had a thin face with narrow eyes, a long nose, and high cheekbones, like your average scary guy. She continued reading:
Carol Braverman says: “In the year God shared Timothy with us, we came to know him as a loving, happy, joyful little boy who adores Thomas the Tank Engine, his cocker spaniel Pete, and lime Jell-O. As his mother, I will never stop looking for him and won’t rest until he is back home.”
Ellen would have felt exactly the same way, if it had happened to her. She never would have given up on finding Will. She returned to the webpage:
The kidnapper is currently wanted by federal and state authorities. The Braverman family has posted a reward of $1,000,000, payable to anyone who has information that leads to finding Timothy. Please do not call with false leads or pranks, or you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
Ellen’s heart went out to the Bravermans, maybe because of the similarity between the boys. A million bucks was a huge amount for a reward, so the family must have been wealthy, but all the money in the world hadn’t kept them safe from harm. She clicked back to the first page of the website and looked again at the baby photo of Timothy. On impulse, she scrolled over the picture and hit the Print button.
“Hey, girlfriend,” said a voice at her shoulder, and Ellen reflexively clicked the mouse, so her screensaver of Will popped back onto the monitor. Standing next to the desk was Sarah Liu, who shot her a quick smile. “How you doing?”
“Fine.”
“What’s up?”
“Nothing, why?”
“You don’t look good. Courtney was right. You sick or something?”
“Nah.” Ellen felt unaccountably nervous. The photo of Timothy edged in noisy increments from the printer on her desk. “I just feel bad about Courtney.”
“She’ll be fine. She knew it was coming.”
“No, she didn’t.” Ellen frowned.
“She said as much in the bathroom.”
“But she didn’t mean it. And still, it’s a shock when it happens.”
Sarah