"They told about the guy. Mr. Vogel," Coyote said. "How when they found him he was stone-cold dead."

Chapter Twenty- Two What Coyote was saying had to be too fantastic to be true. Yet, Katherine found herself believing him. Then, he yelled out, "The man from the black car. There he is."

Those words shattered Katherine's belief. The child had now obviously brought his fantasy to life in an attempt to convince the adults he wasn't making things up. She found that so sad and touching she would have taken Coyote into her arms again, the way she did back on the cathedral steps, to rea.s.sure him everything would be all right now.

Except that Coyote was already running away He'd shoved his sleeves into Vic's jacket as they were walking up the hill. That jacket flapped around the small boy's legs as he dashed off the low wall and straight across the four-lane road toward the other side.

Fortunately, there were no cars coming at the moment. Unfortunately, Katherine could now see that Coyote had concocted his fantasy to create a distraction and allow him to run away yet again.

She could tell Vic was just as discouraged by Coyote's deception as she was. She'd heard Vic sigh loudly when the boy first claimed to see the notorious and maybe imagined man. She'd glanced upward for an instant at Vic then. He'd been stating off toward the looming marble towers of the Plaza with a resigned expression on his face as he shook his head. Then, Coyote ran off and Katherine cried after him, "Coyote, wait," with her hand upraised. But he didn't wait. He didn't even turn around. A figure appeared from the parking lot.

"Vic," she cried out, but he had already joined the chase in pursuit of the large man in the black coat who was obviously after Coyote.

Two cars drove by in quick succession then, and Vic had to wait for them. Katherine gasped as he stumbled to a halt at the very last minute to keep from running in front of the second car. The driver hit his horn with a loud blast. Vic charged off again when the car had pa.s.sed, but the man in the black coat was far ahead by now.

Coyote was farther ahead still and had disappeared over the barricade that blocked the steps to the Plaza mall. The mall area was kept closed to the public at night, but only low, metal guardrails blocked access. Coyote scrambled over them easily and was out of sight.

Katherine's suede boots with their high, narrow heels, which had been so perfect for hostes sing Vic's open house, were nothing but an impediment now. She hurried as fast as she could manage after the parade already in Coyote's wake. She stumbled several times in her haste but managed not to fall. She thought about calling the police, but decided they might not arrive in time to give Vic the help he needed. She'd have to do her best to provide some of that herself.

She ran to the Plaza Mall and struggled over first the guardrails at the bottom of the steps and then a second set of rails at the top. By that time, Vic had caught up to the bigger man somehow, and the two of them were grappling along the marble walkway that bordered the mall. Skysc.r.a.pers towered overhead. Maple trees stripped bare of leaves by winter lined the walkway. To the left, the long reflecting pool had been pumped dry to prevent freezing and cracking in the frigid months. Vic and his opponent veered dangerously close to the edge of that pool, locked in a battle grip from which lunging arms and fists emerged to land blows whenever and wherever they could. Coyote was nowhere in sight.

"Vic, watch out for the edge," Katherine screamed as she ran toward the struggling men.

She was too late with her warning. They were already toppling over the rim and rolling into the snowy pool bed a few feet below the level of the mall. Vic landed at least two solid punches, the second to the jaw of the big man, who staggered backward with a grunt.

Katherine was about to pull off her coat and jump down onto the pool bed herself when Vic glanced her way.

"Stay back, Katherine," he yelled.

She was startled by the strangled sound of his voice. He was out of breath. She wasn't surprised that fighting a man so much superior in bulk would have Vic combatting exhaustion as well. What happened next did surprise her, and not happily. The big man took advantage of Vic's moment of inattention by wrapping huge arms around Vic's chest from behind and squeezing visibly hard. Katherine knew she mustn't listen to Vic's insistence that she stay out of this fight. She was unb.u.t.toning her coat and dragging at the sleeves when a boy's voice rang out behind her. "Let go of him!"

A well-aimed chunk of ice hurtled through the air past Katherine. She turned to find Coyote a few feet behind her, armed with several chunks of ice and s...o...b..a.l.l.s. She heard a grunt of pain and looked back at the two in the reflecting pool. Coyote's ice missile had hit its mark. The big man stumbled backwards a step, holding the side of his face. A second chunk struck him on the top of his head, and he winced again. Katherine remembered Vic mentioning his work with Coyote on his pitching skills. Those efforts were definitely paying off now. Vic didn't waste the opening Coyote's attack created. He was after the bigger man in a shot, pounding and pummelling him till he went down on one knee in the pool bed. Still, the man was a powerfully built opponent. Vic would need help. Unfortunately, another glance back at Coyote revealed that he now had on only his own thin jacket.

"Where is Vic's jacket?" Katherine cried out.

Coyote looked at her for a moment as if he didn't understand what she was asking.

"Where did you leave Vic's jacket?" she repeated.

"I have to find it."

"Back there."

Coyote gestured toward the stand of barren trees at the edge of the walkway. Katherine hurried in that direction with her half-unb.u.t.toned coat flying behind her. Overhead, lights illuminated the mall, but the tree-lined area was still very much in shadow. She strained to see into the darkness. She thought she might have spotted a clump that could be the jacket. She prayed she was right and that Vic's gun would still be in the pocket. She feared that Coyote's s...o...b..ll barrage and Vic's pummelling would hold this mountain of a man at bay only temporarily. She was headed toward what she hoped would be a more decisively effective weapon when a woman's voice rang out, echoing in the emptiness of the long mall and against the marble buildings.

"Let him up right now, or I kill the kid."

Katherine spun around and looked immediately at Coyote, expecting him to be in the clutches of whoever had shouted those cold, impa.s.sioned words. Coyote was poised with his arm raised to throw another s...o...b..ll, but there was no one with him. Katherine followed his transfixed gaze down the marble walkway in the direction of the opposite end of the Plaza. The mall lights reflected in the pale blond hair of the tall woman walking toward them.

"Lacey Harbison," Katherine breathed, recognizing the woman who'd visited her office two days before.

Even more shocking than this woman's unexpected arrival was the presence of the child she was gripping by one arm and pushing along in front of her. Sprite's small face was white against the night. Her eyes were huge and terrified. Katherine leapt forward, ready to drag the child away from the woman. Then she saw the gun pointed at Sprite's head and backed off.

"Let him up out of there like I told you," the Harbison woman shouted.

Back in the pool bed the two men had stopped struggling to stare at the blonde with the child. Vic had apparently managed to overpower the bigger man after all. He was lying flat in the pool bed with Vic on top, clutching the other man's throat. Katherine watched with a sinking heart as Vic released his grip and rose slowly to his feet.

The big man labored to his knees. She could hear him gasping for breath.

She could also hear Sprite sobbing softly and longed to run to her.

"You all right, Cuda?" Lacey Harbison asked. The big man nodded in reply. Maybe he was so winded he couldn't speak yet. Nonetheless, when he finally rose to his feet, looming even larger and broader than Katherine had previously registered, he'd regained enough strength to lunge at Vic, who stepped quickly out of reach.

"We've got no time for that now. Get up out of there," Lacey Harbison said, gesturing with the gun still frighteningly close to Sprite's bare head.

"Where's the other kid?"

Katherine's glance darted to the spot where Coyote had been standing only a moment ago. He was gone. She scanned the walkway and back among the trees, but he was nowhere in sight. Once again, he'd managed to slip away. This time Katherine was grateful for the street-learned craftiness that allowed him to disappear so skillfully.

"He's gone," the big man Harbison had called Cuda growled as he hauled himself out of the pool bed. I'll find him. "

"No time for that now," Harbison barked in a tone that left no doubt who was truly in charge.

"We've still got this one." She yanked hard enough at Sprite's arm to make her cry out.

"I think we'll be able to make a deal for the other brat. Either that or this sweet little girl ends up good and dead."

The cultured tone and charming smile Lacey Harbison had put on in Katherine's office had vanished now. Even in this imperfect light she could detect a glint of viciousness in Harbison's eyes. She looked as if she would be entirely capable of following through on the threat she'd just made. Katherine clenched her fists at her sides and willed herself to stay very still. Vic remained standing in the reflecting pool. He wasn't moving either. She guessed he had also recognized the potential for heartlessness in Lacey Harbi- son.

"We'll be in touch with you tomorrow," she said, glaring at Vic.

"You be sure to be home when we contact you."

The big man named Cuda had joined her by now. He grabbed Sprite away from his accomplice. Katherine saw Vic flinch at that, but he stood his ground. He obviously knew as well as Katherine did that they'd better not make any kind of move while Harbison and Cuda sauntered away with little Sprite, still terrified and at gunpoint.

Katherine barely noticed when Coyote materialized beside her out of the shadows cast by the trees. Vic's jacket was draped over Coyote's arm, but there was no use going for the gun in the pocket now. All the three of them could do was watch helplessly as the three others disappeared from view beyond the ma.s.sive Christmas tree at the State Street end of the mall. The multicolored lights twinkling from the branches of the tall hemlock mocked the sudden hollowness in Katherine's heart and the holiday joy she could no longer feel.

Chapter Twenty- Three Sandra Thomas and her crew had cleaned up so well Vic could hardly tell there'd been a party here yesterday. He could find no trace of anything like a good time inside himself either. He walked from one room of his house to another as if he were shuffling in and out of a nightmare where everybody looked perfectly normal but nothing, in fact, was. Worst of all was the sadness in Katherine's eyes and how bravely she tried to hide it, especially when Coyote was around. She didn't fool Vic for a second. She'd already had one child torn away from her in her life. Vic had grown so close to her in these past few intense days that he could feel the depth of her sorrow.

Tooley Pennebaker had been with them since shortly after he, Katherine and Coyote got back from Empire State Plaza. He had sent a cab to pick her up and bring her here to join in the long wait with the rest of them, as he knew she would want to do. As it turned out, she'd already known that something had happened to Sprite, though she had no idea the child had been abducted. According to her friend, Sprite had been fretting about looking for Coyote, and when Sprite had vanished from in front of their home where she was staying, the friend's mother thought the little girl had left to search for her brother.

Tooley stayed the night in one of his guest rooms. Katherine and Vic agreed that Tooley shouldn't be alone during this ordeal. No one had slept much. They wandered up and down stairs and drank cups of coffee, which was the last thing any of them needed. They all looked pretty worn out this morning, as Megan Moran had been quick to point out with her usual bluntness when she arrived an hour ago, head bandage and all.

And, of course, there were the cops. They'd been here all night too, asking questions, taking down statements, setting up electronic connections to Vic's phone line. He had to hand it to all of them for trying as hard as they did to stay out of the way and be as inconspicuous as possible. Still, n.o.body, particularly not Vic, could forget for a minute that his house was under constant surveillance, his telephone was tapped and there was a makeshift police command post set up in his dining room. For someone who'd tried to avoid cops most of his life, Vic certainly had brought a carload of them down on himself today. Strangely enough, he was glad to have them here.

Anything that would help get Sprite back was okay with him. He only wished he could do more to help.

"It's driving me crazy, sitting here not knowing what to do," Tooley said, echoing Vic's thoughts and shaking her head slowly.

Megan sat down next to Tooley and put her arm around the woman's shoulder.

"It's up to the police now," Megan said.

"We have to let them do their jobs. They'll get Sprite back. I know they will."

"I don't know what I'm going to do then, either," Too-ley said, sounding very close to tears.

"I thought I could take care of these kids and do my job plus overtime hours, too, but I know now that I can't. I promised their poor mama I wouldn't let them go into foster care, but I talked to her doctors just last week and it looks like she's going to be in the sanitarium for a long time. Even when she gets out, she won't be strong enough to take care of those children. Lord knows I want to keep my promise to her. I just don't know how."

Almost before he realized he was going to say anything, Vic stepped forward and put his hand on Tooley's shoulder.

"You don't have to worry about any of that," Vic said. "I'm going to help you."

Tooley and Megan both looked up at him expectantly. All of a sudden, Vic knew exactly what he wanted to say. He'd never been so sure of anything in his life before, except maybe how much he had come to care about Katherine.

"I'd like Coyote and Sprite to come here and live with me," he said.

Tooley shook her head again.

"How're you going to manage that on your own? You'll have most of the same problems I did."

Before Vic could respond, the phone rang. The room went suddenly still except for the echo of that first ring, while they all waited for the next. He had his instructions from the police. He was to let the phone ring three times, then pick it up. He was at the phone with his hand poised over the receiver before the second ring could sound, and Katherine was at his side.

"h.e.l.lo, this is Victor Maltese," he said when it was finally okay to answer.

"Vic, it's your mother."

Her voice on the other end of the line was almost the last one he would have expected to hear.

"I can't really talk right now, Ma," he said.

"There's a lot going on here."

"I know exactly what is going on, son," she said.

Vic wasn't surprised to hear that. His father had friends who kept him informed, from both sides of the law. As soon as the Maltese name appeared on the police blotter last night, somebody from downtown would have called Gabriel to tell him exactly what was what.

"I'll be there soon myself," his mother went on.

"I wanted to call you first to let you know your father is already on his way."

Vic began to count to ten. He felt Katherine's hand on his arm, as if she'd seen the way his jaw had tightened. He stopped counting. Her touch soothed him more than a row of numbers ever could.

"Look, Ma. This isn't the time..." he began, more calmly than he would have thought possible right now.

"This is precisely the time," she said.

"You must take my word for that. It is time for us all to be together as a family."

There was a sternness in her voice that Vic had heard very seldom in his life. He understood how futile it would be to disagree. He'd save that for his father.

"All right, Ma. I'll expect him. Thanks for calling." Vic hung up the phone and stood stock-still as a heavy weight of dread settled over him. This was on its way to becoming the worst Christmas Eve Day on record. At the same time, it could very possibly be the best day of his life. He felt the warmth and closeness of Katherine next to him.

He had no right to the joy her nearness gave him, but he couldn't help what he felt in his heart. Suddenly, he realized that no one could ever help that.

KATHERINE'S PULSE had quickened when Vic offered to have Coyote and Sprite live with him. She had known how much she cared about the Bellaway children for some time nowa"the same way she knew now how much she'd come to care about Vic.

She would have staked her life on the certainty of all of that. Now, she knew how he felt about Coyote and Sprite, too. She wished she could be equally sure what he felt about her. She exasperated him sometimes, she realized, till he looked like he was ready to start tearing out his gorgeous, black hair. Maybe they could get past that now, and the children would bring them closer together still.

Katherine was praying so hard for this to be true and to get Sprite back unharmed, that she jumped when the phone rang.

They'd all been waiting for a call from the man called Cuda or from Lacey Harbison. The policemen seemed surprised that call hadn't yet come. When the phone finally rang, Katherine had seen the officer with the headset in the dining room signal thumbs down and shake his head after listening for a moment. The call wasn't about Sprite, after all. Still, Vic sounded upset as soon as he started listening to the voice on the other end of the line. Then Katherine had realized he was talking to his mother and understood his agitation.

He had ended the conversation, but still stood with his hand on the receiver. She could tell by the way his dark brows knitted together in a scowl that he was unhappy about something. She could feel tension in the muscles of the arm he had around her.

"What was the call about?" she asked quietly.

"Almost the last thing in the world I want to hear right now." * Her breath caught in her throat. Could this be bad news about Sprite after all?

"My father is on his way here," he added.

Her relief was profound, but she understood that Vic wouldn't share that feeling.

"He probably wants to be here to support you through this bad time,"

she said, choosing her words carefully. "How did he know what was going on?"

There'd been no reports in the papers or on the broadcast news.

Mariette Dugan had been here earlier, but the police had sent her away. She was probably hanging around somewhere close by. Still, she'd been given nothing definite to report as yet.

Vic shrugged.

"My father knows what's happening to me almost before I do. I didn't move far enough away to stop that. Maybe I should have done what you did, put half the country between myself and my past."

He glanced at her quickly.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"You should say exactly that because it's true. I don't mind hearing it now, either, because all of that is changing for me."

"In what way?" he asked.

She could feel him gazing down at her.

"I'm starting to put the past behind me and think about living for the present and the future," she said.

She looked up into the warmth of his dark eyes, and he touched her cheek with his fingers.