The Stolen - Jason Pinter [93]
The caller ID read "Amanda cell." I answered it without
hesitating.
"Hey, wondering what happened to you."
"Seriously? It's been, like, fifteen minutes. What the
hell do you expect?"
"Sorry, just a little antsy here. I feel like things are
starting to become clearer."
"Well, your feelings might be real. Turns out that
Patrick Reed, son of Robert and Elaine Reed, was born on
May 29 four and a half years ago at Yardley Medical
Center in Hobbs County."
"You're shitting me."
"Nope. And I'll give you three guesses at to who signed
the delivery certificate."
"I'll take Dmitri Petrovsky for one thousand, Alex."
"Ding ding ding. I'm actually out of cash, so I hope
you'll take your winning either in an IOU or a Sweet'n
Low packet I just dug out of my jeans pocket."
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Jason Pinter
"Amanda, you know what this means, right? The Reeds
knew Petrovsky. Their son was born at the same hospital
as Daniel Linwood and Michelle Oliveira. That's their
link to Raymond Benjamin. Somehow he found out about
these kids through Petrovsky."
"Wait," Amanda said. "Patrick Reed wasn't kidnapped,
he's the Reeds' biological son. What gives?"
"Patrick isn't the issue, I just needed a connection so
we could figure out how the Reeds came in contact with
Benjamin. Petrovsky is the middleman. Benjamin the
facilitator. The Reeds--I'm not quite sure what they are."
"So we have three pieces to the puzzle, but the three
pieces are blank right now."
"Yeah, pretty much. We need to find the Reeds. Petrovsky is dead and Benjamin will kill us before he talks." I
heard a beeping sound on my phone. I looked at the
display. It read "Curt cell."
"Amanda, Curt's on the other line. I need to take this."
"Call me right back."
"Will do." I hung up. My palms were sweating. This
was all coming together. The bigger picture was still invisible, but it would come. Benjamin. Petrovsky. The
Reeds. What the hell were they all involved in?
"Hello?" I said, answering the call.
"Hey, man, I got a ton of info for you." It was Curt. He
was talking fast. "We might have found your girl. Two
weeks ago, Caroline Twomey, age nine, was taken from
her parents' home in Tarrytown. She was reported missing
the next day, but the Tarrytown PD haven't turned up any
leads. I did a background check on Caroline's parents, a
Mr. and Mrs. Harold and Phyllis Twomey. Harold works
construction but hasn't made more than thirty-five grand
a year in his whole life. Phyllis is a part-time school- The Stolen
263
teacher. And by part-time, I mean she hasn't worked in
nearly five years."
"Really? Why is that?"
"Five years ago, Phyllis Twomey was arrested for
shoplifting. The store decided to press charges, and
Phyllis was fined five hundred bucks and sentenced to
fifty hours of community service. She hasn't worked a
day since."
"What store did she rob?"
"A Healthwise pharmacy just three miles from their
house. They caught her on the security camera, cops met
her at her house fifteen minutes after it was called in."
"Curt," I said. "What did she steal?"
"Says here she tried to steal two dozen vials of insulin."
There it was. I knew the link. I knew why Benjamin had
come to Petrovsky. I knew why Daniel Linwood, Michelle
Oliveira and Caroline Twomey had been chosen.
"Curt," I said. "Daniel Linwood is a diabetic. So is
Caroline Twomey. When I spoke to Michelle Oliveira's
violin teacher, Delilah Lancaster, she mentioned noticing
needle marks on the girl's skin. She thought it might have
been drugs, but it was because Michelle is a diabetic.
They're all diabetic."
"So Dmitri Petrovsky was feeding Raymond Benjamin
information about diabetic children that were born in his
pediatric ward. For what purpose?"
"Diabetics are more susceptible to lower thiamine
levels," I said. "If they don't get proper nutrition, it can
result in both short-term and long-term brain damage. One
of the side effects of short-term brain damage is Korsakoff
syndrome, which prevents the brain from processing
certain compounds, and prevents the brain