Mary Jane Clark
It Only Takes a Moment
For Elizabeth and David
And for all the families who struggle with Fragile X Syndrome,
the most common cause of inherited mental impairment.
Hang in there. A treatment should be coming soon.
Contents
Prologue
Several days from now…
Monday July 21
Chapter 1
“Look!” Janie called out. “She’s wearing it, Mrs. Garcia. Mommy’s…
Chapter 2
Eliza hung up the phone, unclipped the microphone from her…
Chapter 3
“Here’s what you’re gonna do,” said Popeye after he had…
Chapter 4
The reporter from People asked all the usual questions.
Chapter 5
The late-model Volvo station wagon pulled in through the stone-pillared…
Chapter 6
When the interview was finished, Eliza posed for some pictures…
Chapter 7
Mrs. Garcia crossed the camp parking lot and walked around…
Chapter 8
P.J. Clarke’s at Lincoln Center was crowded at lunchtime, but…
Chapter 9
The black van was hidden from view, parked behind an…
Chapter 10
A blue Lincoln Town Car turned into the driveway on…
Chapter 11
Beneath the tear-streaked vestiges of face paint, the redness of…
Chapter 12
One dead end after another.
Chapter 13
“I’m Eliza Blake,” she said, trying to keep her voice…
Chapter 14
It was time to catch up. The scrapbook was nowhere…
Chapter 15
An Amber Alert was issued on surrounding highways while color…
Chapter 16
The carnival workers had turned night into day. Giant spotlights…
Chapter 17
“Can you help us with something?” asked Agent Laggie.
Chapter 18
“Mommy,” Janie called between sobs. “I want my mommy.”
Tuesday July 22
Chapter 19
As dawn broke, the reporters, producers, and camera crews camped…
Chapter 20
On the bottom floor of the KEY News Broadcast Center,…
Chapter 21
Mrs. Garcia listened to the occasional hiccup coming from Janie…
Chapter 22
The network morning programs are all starting in less than…
Chapter 23
“Hughie.” Isabelle shook her brother’s arm. “Hughie, get up. You…
Chapter 24
In a reversal of the usual two-way interview, Harry Granger,…
Chapter 25
Rhonda Billings put down her coffee cup and switched off…
Chapter 26
The sound of the upstairs tenants moving around above her…
Chapter 27
“What the hell were you thinking, Annabelle?” It was Executive…
Chapter 28
Stephanie Quick paused to compose herself before she entered the…
Chapter 29
Eliza was running on adrenaline as she paced the kitchen…
Chapter 30
“Can’t you get that kid to stop hiccupping?”
Chapter 31
Lisa Nichols sang along to her new Bon Jovi CD…
Chapter 32
To escape the bustle and tension inside the house, Eliza…
Chapter 33
The men were busy, spraying windshields and scrubbing hubcaps. They…
Chapter 34
A mile a minute. With each minute, Janie could be…
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
It was embarrassing, but Uncle Lloyd said she had to…
Chapter 37
They would be taking a chance but it was worth…
Chapter 38
Special Agents Gebhardt and Laggie stood in the kitchen doorway…
Chapter 39
Popeye the sailor pulled the ropes so tight around Mrs.
Chapter 40
Members of the press were staked out in front of…
Chapter 41
She glanced at the digital clock on the dashboard, knowing…
Chapter 42
An announcement went out to all law enforcement personnel with…
Chapter 43
He had been putting off going down to the gas…
Chapter 44
A cluster of microphones was set up on the driveway.
Chapter 45
The minute she got home from the bakery, Rhonda checked…
Chapter 46
Ratings shot through the roof as more than double the…
Chapter 47
Agent Gebhardt slammed her fist on the kitchen table.
Chapter 48
As the interminably long day drew to a close, Annabelle,…
Chapter 49
The curtains were drawn and the room was dark except…
Chapter 50
Mike was dozing on the couch in the living room…
Chapter 51
The concrete floor was cold and hard, but Mrs. Garcia…
Wednesday July 23
Chapter 52
ELIZA BLAKE SUSPECT IN DAUGHTER’S DISAPPEARANCE!
Chapter 53
Rhonda woke up early. As she came out of the…
Chapter 54
Katharine stood in the kitchen doorway. “Linus Nazareth is on…
Chapter 55
You’re listening to 1010 WINS. You give us twenty-two minutes…
Chapter 56
Janie was curled up in the fetal position, cold, afraid,…
Chapter 57
She heard noise coming from above her. The sound moved…
Chapter 58
Daisy lay with her head resting on her paws, guarding…
Chapter 59
The police had him on their radar screen, but they…
Chapter 60
When Eliza Blake called again to tell Maria Rochas there…
Chapter 61
Mack came back into the house after walking around talking…
Chapter 62
The knock at the door was loud and persistent. Turning…
Chapter 63
Alec parked his mother’s car back in the driveway, remembering…
Chapter 64
Taking off her blindfold hadn’t made a bit of difference.
Chapter 65
Susan Feeney arrived at the front door with a casserole…
Chapter 66
In an area buried beneath ground level at the KEY…
Chapter 67
After polishing all the glass cases and wiping all the…
Chapter 68
She didn’t hear the bell the first two times it…
Chapter 69
“We’ve got something. We’ve got a lead.”
Chapter 70
It was awfully quiet in there.
Chapter 71
Mack made a call to Range Bullock, alerting him to…
Chapter 72
Once Mack arrived to support Eliza and act as a…
Chapter 73
Eliza and Mack, along with Katharine and Paul Blake, sat…
Chapter 74
A modest but tidy brick ranch house stood on a…
Chapter 75
“Laggie.” The FBI agent answered the call, his voice curt,…
Chapter 76
Damn it. He h
ad waited too long to clean the…
Chapter 77
Just before midnight, the ransom demand came by fax to…
Thursday July 24
Chapter 78
“Wake up, Eliza, wake up.” Mack shook her arm.
Chapter 79
At 9:15 A.M., Kathy Joyal called to say that the…
Chapter 80
It was her turn to open up and bring in…
Chapter 81
Passing through the reporters still camped out in front of…
Chapter 82
The cluttered apartment above a delicatessen on Ninth Avenue was…
Chapter 83
The taxi stopped at the corner of Seventy-second Street. Annabelle…
Chapter 84
We have the name and address of the person who…
Chapter 85
Feeling her way in the darkness, Mrs. Garcia inched toward…
Chapter 86
The smell of corned beef and vinegar permeated the hot…
Chapter 87
The people who passed by on Ninth Avenue scarcely glanced…
Chapter 88
Phil Doyle needed a mental health day or, at least,…
Chapter 89
“I shouldn’t be surprised that some misguided individual would actually…
Chapter 90
In the early afternoon, the figure in the Olive Oyl…
Chapter 91
Throughout the morning, people wandered into the community room at…
Chapter 92
She was a prisoner in her own house. She couldn’t…
Chapter 93
The Internet, and volunteers all around the country, made it…
Chapter 94
Linus Nazareth was thrilled when Eliza called and told him…
Chapter 95
Janie lay blindfolded on the mattress, staring into the darkness.
Chapter 96
When six-year-old Melissa Bushell got home from Camp Musquapsink, she…
Chapter 97
Crouched behind a giant hemlock, Phil waited and regrouped. Air…
Chapter 98
She was in her room getting dressed to go into…
Chapter 99
“This will probably be a wild-goose chase,” the police officer…
Chapter 100
Margo couldn’t remember the last time she had been this…
Chapter 101
He wasn’t sure which way to go, but Phil Doyle…
Chapter 102
The studio was cleared except for only the most necessary…
Chapter 103
The stack of multicolored flyers sat on the kitchen table.
Chapter 104
Word that Eliza was in the house had spread through…
Chapter 105
At the end of the day, one of the paintball…
Chapter 106
Beneath the window, the kidnapper crouched over the body. He…
Chapter 107
With her head bowed, Mrs. Garcia sat on the cold…
Chapter 108
Rhonda watched as her husband went to the living room…
Chapter 109
Investigators know that perpetrators often come back to the scene…
Chapter 110
The grounds of the historic Ho-Ho-Kus estate that had been…
Friday July 25
Chapter 111
At precisely 3:15 A.M., the KEY News car pulled up…
Chapter 112
Overflowing baskets and tall vases of flowers lined the dimly…
Chapter 113
Will Jorgenson ate his cereal as he watched the exclusive…
Chapter 114
The FBI agents laid the evidence envelope on the desk.
Chapter 115
The computers of the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System came…
Chapter 116
Calling into the KEY to America office, Annabelle let Linus’s…
Chapter 117
Eliza went directly to Agent Gebhardt after Annabelle called with…
Chapter 118
A line of unmarked cars and police vehicles waited at…
Chapter 119
Mack had the morning papers spread out on the kitchen…
Chapter 120
“Where is she, Hughie?”
Chapter 121
Eliza got off the phone with Stephanie Quick and went…
Chapter 122
Janie Blake and Carmen Garcia were not at Carl Yates’s…
Chapter 123
Eliza could tell by the expression on Agent Gebhardt’s face…
Chapter 124
In the county park, Rhonda sat in her car, looking…
Chapter 125
News vans, satellite trucks, and camera crews continued to line…
Chapter 126
“This was never supposed to play out this way!” she…
Chapter 127
Eliza and Mack traveled along the quaint downtown street, passing…
Chapter 128
He parked the Jeep in front of the cinder-block building…
Chapter 129
Eliza held on to the child so tightly and for…
Chapter 130
Records showed that Carl Yates owned a piece of property…
Chapter 131
The Ho-Ho-Kus police held back the throng of newspeople who…
Chapter 132
Eliza refused to let Janie be questioned right away.
Chapter 133
Mrs. Garcia was admitted to Bon Secours Community Hospital in…
Chapter 134
The Maryknoll fathers, brothers, and sisters have worked as missionaries…
Chapter 135
Eliza came downstairs to wait for Dr. Burke. She went…
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books by Mary Jane Clark
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE
Several days from now…
Overflowing baskets and tall vases of flowers lined the dimly lit room and people with grim faces stood watching as she approached the small casket. The little coffin was covered with a spray of roses and lilies of the valley arranged in the shape of an angel.
With every bit of strength she had, Eliza forced herself to go forward. She knelt before the casket, her fists clenched, her eyes shut tight. She felt excruciating pressure. Everyone was looking at her, waiting for her reaction, relieved that they were watching her life and not theirs. Nothing would go forward without her doing what she had to do.
You have to look. You have to look. You have to see what’s inside.
Eliza bent her head down and opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was a cascading shower of white tulle spilling from the casket walls. Her hand shook violently as she reached out to pull back the bridal veil.
MONDAY JULY 21
CHAPTER 1
“Look!” Janie called out. “She’s wearing it, Mrs. Garcia. Mommy’s wearing the bracelet.”
Carmen Garcia glanced up from gathering the child’s shiny brown hair in a ponytail. The middle-aged woman leaned forward to get a better look at the image on the television screen. Eliza Blake, clad in a cornflower-colored blouse that complemented her blue eyes, was smiling from the set of KEY to America as she and a cookbook author demonstrated how to organize a summer barbecue. As the camera cut to a close-up of her hand rubbing a mixture of spices on the meat, the red, yellow, and blue plastic beads that encircled her wrist came into clear view.
“Sí.” Mrs. Garcia smiled. “Your mamá likes the bracelet you made at camp very much.”
“How do you say ‘bracelet’ in Spanish?” Janie asked.
“Pulsera,” Mrs. Garcia answered. “Now, hurry. Eat your breakfast. The bus will be here soon.”
Janie, wearing navy blue shorts and a white Camp Musquapsink T-shi
rt, took a seat at the kitchen table while Daisy, the yellow Labrador retriever, positioned herself at the child’s feet. Janie dutifully ate the cereal and chunks of cantaloupe that Mrs. Garcia had put out for her while the housekeeper consulted the calendar hanging on the refrigerator door.
“It’s Native American Day,” Mrs. Garcia announced. “You have archery and horseback riding.”
“I know,” said Janie, making a face. “I hate archery. It’s too hard.”
“The more you practice, the easier it will get. Do your best, mi hija. Just do the best you can. That makes your mamá happy.”
“Bows and arrows are dumb,” declared Janie. “But we’re going to have our faces painted. That will be fun.” The little girl’s eyes widened with pride. “And you know what else? Musquapsink is a Native American name.”
“It is?”
“So is Ho-Ho-Kus,” Janie reported, proud that she could teach Mrs. Garcia something. “There are lots of Native American names around here. Pascack and Hackensack and Kinderkamack. My counselor told us.”
Mrs. Garcia watched proprietarily as Janie tackled her bowl of cereal. She was such a healthy-looking child. A light suntan and a sprinkling of freckles covered her cheeks and straight little nose. Her blue eyes sparkled, just like her mother’s did. Her permanent teeth seemed to be coming in white and, so far, straight. Her legs and arms, which protruded from the day camp uniform, were well-toned and sturdy.
Feeling Mrs. Garcia’s eyes on her, Janie looked up. “What are you staring at?” she asked.
“You, mi hija. I’m staring at you, tesoro.”
“What does that mean?” asked Janie, not familiar with the Spanish word.
“It means ‘treasure,’” Mrs. Garcia explained. “You are your mamá’s tesoro. She loves you more than anything.”
The black van cruised slowly on the gently winding road that rimmed the pond. Passing stately colonials and sprawling ranch-style homes separated by acres of rolling lawns and lush landscaping, the driver pulled over to a carefully chosen spot between two houses, confident that the van would not be visible from inside either dwelling. He turned off the engine.
“How ya doin’?” the driver called out his open window, lifting his paper coffee cup in salute to the workman who drove past in a red truck.
In the weeks he’d been staking out this neighborhood, the driver knew the last thing that would ever look out of place here was a service vehicle. Every morning, landscapers, painters, electricians, and carpenters traveled through the quiet streets on their way to their jobs of maintaining the homes of the wealthy. The homeowners worked on Wall Street or were officers of major corporations or had successful companies of their own. They didn’t have the inclination to mow their grass or the desire to spend their weekends making home improvements. They hired people to do those things. His van wouldn’t be noted as out of the ordinary at all. In fact, in all the days he had been canvassing the neighborhood, not once had any of the patrolling police cars stopped him.