Two Little Girls in Blue Read Free Page B

he’s so smart. But he’s not as smart as I am.

4

    M argaret Frawley folded her hands around the steaming cup of tea. She was so cold. Steve had pulled an afghan from the couch in the living room and wrapped it around her, but it did nothing to stop the trembling that shook her entire body.
    The twins were missing. Kathy and Kelly were missing. Someone had taken them and left a ransom note. It didn’t make sense. Like a litany, the words beat a cadence in her head: The twins are missing. Kathy and Kelly are missing.
    The police had not allowed them to go into the girls’ bedroom. “Our job is to get them back,” Captain Martinson told them. “We can’t risk losing any fingerprints or DNA samples by contaminating the area.”
    The restricted area also included the hall upstairs where someone had attacked the babysitter. Trish was going to be all right. She was in the hospital and had told the police everything she remembered. She said she’d been on her cell phone talking to her boyfriend when she thought she heard one of the twins crying. She’d gone up the stairs and knew instantly something was wrong because she couldn’t see the light in the twins’ room, and that was when she realized someonewas behind her. She remembered nothing after that.
    Had there been someone else, Margaret wondered, someone in the room with the girls? Kelly’s the lighter sleeper, but Kathy might have been restless. She may be getting a cold.
    If one of the girls started to cry, did someone make her stop?
    Margaret dropped the cup she was holding and winced as hot tea splattered over the blouse and skirt she had bought at a discount house for tonight’s black-tie company dinner at the Waldorf.
    Even though the price was one-third of what it would have been on Fifth Avenue, it had been too pricey for their budget.
    Steve urged me to buy it, she thought dully. It was an important company dinner. Anyhow, I wanted to get dressed up tonight. We haven’t gone to a black-tie affair in at least a year.
    Steve was trying to dry her clothes with a towel. “Marg, are you okay? Did the tea burn you?”
    I have to go upstairs, Margaret thought. Maybe the twins are hiding in the closet. I remember they did that once. I pretended to keep looking for them. I could hear them giggling when I called their names.
    â€œKathy . . . Kelly . . . Kathy . . . Kelly . . . where are you? . . .”
    Steve came home just then. I called down to him. “Steve . . . Steve . . . our twins are missing.”
    More giggles from the closet.
    Steve could tell I was joking. He came up to theirroom. I pointed to the closet. He walked over to it and yelled, “Maybe Kathy and Kelly ran away. Maybe they don’t like us anymore. Well, there’s no use looking for them. Let’s turn out the lights and go out for dinner.”
    An instant later the closet door flew open. “We like you, we like you,” they’d wailed in unison.
    Margaret remembered how scared they’d looked. They must have been terrified when somebody grabbed them, she thought. Somebody is hiding them now.
    This isn’t happening. It’s a nightmare and I’m going to wake up. I want my babies. Why does my arm hurt? Why is Steve putting something cold on it?
    Margaret closed her eyes. She was vaguely aware that Captain Martinson was talking to someone.
    â€œMrs. Frawley.”
    She looked up. Another man had come into the room.
    â€œMrs. Frawley, I’m FBI Agent Walter Carlson. I have three kids of my own and I know how you must be feeling. I’m here to help you get your children back, but we need your help. Can you answer some questions?”
    Walter Carlson’s eyes were kind. He didn’t look to be more than his mid-forties, so his children were probably not much older than teenagers. “Why would someone take my babies?”