Born to Darkness Read Free Page B

the entire department. All of Boston’s first responders had been decimated. Just last week, while on the bus, she’d seen a building that was on fire. It was just burning unchecked as the tenants of the neighboring triple-decker used garden hoses to keep their own homes from igniting.
    Now, she closed her mouth, gathered her frustration-tattered civility, and managed to ask, “So if it’s a waste of resources either way, what exactly happens when I come back here in seventy-two hours to report that she’s missing?”
    He hated his job—that much was clear as he sighed heavily. “Your sister’s name gets put on a list. Her photo, description, and last-seen whereabouts go up on the Internet, along with your contact number and the dollar amount of the reward you’re willing to pay for her safe return. Citizen detectives take it from there. You’ll either get her back or you won’t.” The sergeant reached beneath the desk for a sheet of paper that he put on the counter and pushed toward her with the tips of his fingers. “Here’s the form you’ll be asked to fill out, although if you do it online and upload your own photo, the fee’s only twenty-five dollars. If we need to rekey your info, it’s an extra fifty.”
    “Fee?” she repeated, stunned by the idea that Nika’s life could be in the hands of
citizen detectives
.
    “And if you want to skip the waiting period and get her name on the list tonight,” the sergeant informed her, “fee for
that’s
five hundred dollars. Cash or debit. Five-fifty if you use a credit card.”
    “What’s the fee to actually talk to a detective?” Anna asked, and she was really just being sarcastic. She didn’t expect to get an answer. But she did.
    “Five thousand’ll open a case file,” the man said, and her heart sank.
    She didn’t have anywhere close to that much in cash, and her credit limit had just been lowered again, this time to a meager thousand.
    The sergeant shook his head dismissively. “But that only gets you two hours of boots on the ground, which is virtually useless in a situation like this, and there are
no
guarantees.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “If it was
my
kid, and I had that much money to spend? There are a number of private sector agencies that can help you for a much lower price.” He tapped the form. “But I would fill this out, and get her stats on the Net, ASAP. The first three days can be critical, in cases of child abduction.”
    “And yet there’s a seventy-two-hour waiting period …?” This was unreal. “Look, Nika’s a really good kid. She’s got her own cell phone, I was hoping someone could, I don’t know, use some kind of technology to track her …?”
    “Again, that’s a service you’ll spend less on by utilizing a private security firm,” she was told.
    “Can you recommend—”
    He cut her off. “I can’t. It’s not allowed. And I’m going to have to ask you to step aside—”
    “Wait!” This was crazy. “Please. I’ve heard about these … I don’t know, kidnapping squads? I thought they were an urban legend, but … Nika’s a scholarship student at Cambridge Academy. Maybe someone grabbed her, thinking we have money, but … I don’t even have a full-time job!”
    The sergeant sighed. “Best thing to do, miss, is fill out the form and let the citizen detectives—”
    “But what if the
citizen detectives
are the people who took her in the first place?”
    “If they’re one and the same, then it stands to reason that you’ll get her back, won’t you?”
    “Not if I don’t have the money to pay,” Anna said, as tears of both fear and frustration stung her eyes. “Isn’t kidnapping a felony,or has that changed, too? Let me know, because if it’s an accepted business practice now, I may have to take it up myself.”
    He pointed down the hall. “Fee Processing is first door on the right. There are public comm-stations there so you can access the Internet form, save