“Now Diane. I thought you might want to listen in about our conversation of her giving up her daughter.”
Diane’s voice came on, and then Quarry’s recorded words where he explained the results of the DNA tests.
He clicked the device off and picked up the phone. “Satisfied?”
“Why are you doing this?” Jane said dully.
“Justice.”
“Justice? Who was harmed by Willa being adopted? We were doing her a favor. The woman didn’t want her. I knew someone who did.”
“I don’t really give a damn about Diane Wohl or making your brother and his wife happy by getting them a little girl to call their own. I needed her and Willa so I could get your attention.”
“Why?” she said in a raised voice.
“Mrs. Cox?” It was the female agent from outside. “Are you okay?”
“Just talking to someone,” she said quickly. “On the phone,” she hastily added.
She turned back to the phone in time to hear Quarry say, “The name Tippi ring any bells, or did you just throw that one right out of your old memory?”
“Tippi?”
“Tippi Quarry. Atlanta,” he added in a louder voice, his gaze directly on his daughter’s photo.
One second, two seconds, three seconds. “Oh my God!”
“Oh my God is right, lady.”
“Listen, please—”
“No, you listen. I know everything. I got dates, names, places, the whole ball of wax. Now I’m going to give you an airport to fly to. After you arrive there I’ve got very precise map coordinate points that’ll take you where you’ve got to go. You just give it to your federal flyboys; they’ll know what to make of it. It’s mostly numbers so get some paper and write it down. Now. No room for mistakes.”
Jane fumbled in her purse for pen and paper.
“All right,” she said in a trembling voice.
He gave her the airport location and the additional coordinates.
“You want me to come to this place?”
“Hell no! I want you both to come.”
“Both? When?”
Quarry looked at his watch. “Nine hours from now. Exactly. Not a minute before or a minute after if you want that little girl still breathing.”
Jane glanced at her watch. “That’s impossible. He’s in town tonight, but he’s flying to New York tomorrow morning to give a speech to the United Nations.”
“I don’t care if he’s got an appointment with God. If you ain’t there exactly nine hours from now, then the next time you see Willa, she won’t be able to see you back. And those DNA tests I had run will be all over the media along with everything else. I got proof of it all. Spent years of my life doing nothing else. You threw us in the shit, lady, and went on with your life. Well, it’s payback time now. It’s Tippi’s time. It’s my damn time!”
“Please, please if you can just give us—”
“Here are your instructions for when you get there. And you better follow them to the letter,’cause if you don’t, or you sic the FBI on this thing, I’ll know. I’ll know right away. And then Willa dies. And all the truth comes out. And no second term for old Danny boy. Guaranteed!”
Tears were streaming down Jane’s face.
And tears were flowing down Quarry’s cheeks too, as he gazed at the two most important women in his life; both gone from him now forever. Because of the woman he was talking to right now. Because of her. And