Chapter 40
Manny didn’t stand and watch Celia drive off with Tiago. There wasn’t time for that. He had to find a way to get to the train station. If it were daytime, he could get help from any of the convenience store customers who came to chat every day. Hopefully, there’d be someone there to help at this late hour.
As he ran toward the store, though, he caught sight of Eva’s Laundromat, which was open twenty-four hours. It looked like there were a few Cape Verdeans inside, and he hoped he could count on them to help him out. He raced through the double glass doors and, though he knew it wasn’t acceptable by American standards, he shouted in Creole. “Help! My son’s been kidnapped.” He didn’t correct himself after using the word son. Benjamin was his son. He didn’t have to justify it. Not only did he love Benjamin’s mother, he had stayed up through the night with Benjamin asleep against his chest. He had counted the tiny hairs on the side of Benjamin’s ear and memorized the folds around his wrist. He had already bought Benjamin’s first English picture book and picked out the park where he would teach him to play soccer. Manny would do anything to keep that baby safe.
He swallowed hard as brown-skinned faces turned toward him—an old man standing by the dryers, a girl getting something out of the vending machine, and some moms sitting with their kids at a table near the back.
“I need to get to the closest train station,” he said. “Can anyone help me? I don’t have a car.”
One of the moms said something to the woman beside her, who nodded. The mom, who wore tights and a sweatshirt, then got up and walked toward Manny. “I can. My name’s Octavia. My car’s out in the parking lot.”
“Thank you, Octavia.” Manny gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, as he would any woman from the islands.
She had a good hustle in her walk, and they made it out to the parking lot almost as quickly as Manny could by himself. “How old’s your son?” he asked.
“Just a couple months. My wife’s ex-husband’s the kidnapper. He’s been hanging around Brockton for a few months, but he usually lives down in North Carolina. That’s why I want to check the train station.”
Octavia nodded as she opened the door to her small, pink sedan. “If he’s going to North Carolina, you probably don’t want to go to the commuter train station. You want to go check out the Amtrak station.” She pulled out her phone. “I’ll find the address.”
He should have predicted that André would do something like this. Then he could have prepared Flora better to protect Benjamin. Had they even locked the door when they left Theo’s house? He couldn’t remember.
He hadn’t held Benjamin today either or tried to get him to smile. Now he would give anything to hold him again, feeling those little legs kick against his belly.
He wasn’t sure André even knew how to care for a baby. Would he know how to feed him or change a diaper? Could he keep him warm? Did he even want to?
Manny’s jaw ached from the anger he couldn’t let out. André’s motives surely weren’t fatherly. No, he only wanted money, or worse, to punish Celia.
The baby was just a pawn.
“It looks like we can get there within an hour,” Octavia said, putting her phone in the cup-holder. A string of black and white beads hung from the rear-view mirror and rap music blasted from the stereo.
“May God bless you for your kindness,” Manny said, trying to raise his voice over the music as they pulled out of the parking lot.
When Flora ran away, he’d learned how to find someone who was missing. It couldn’t be that different for a kidnapping.
He needed pictures—big, clear ones of the baby’s face and also a few head-to-toe shots. That was easy enough. He already had lots of pictures of Benjamin on his phone. The problem was that André could easily hide someone as small as the baby.
He needed pictures of André, pictures he didn’t have.
Octavia turned a little too quickly out of the parking lot, causing Manny to cling to his armrest. “Sorry about that. I’ve only had my license for six months, so I’m still learning some of the finer points.”
Manny swallowed. He could do this for Benjamin.
His phone service in the car was slow, but he managed to find a few pictures from when André played soccer in Cape Verde. He saved them, cropping and enlarging the way he’d learned to do for his online sales.
While he worked, he received a couple of texts from Flora and Tiago, letting him know that Celia had made it back to Theo’s house and that the police had blocked off the area as a crime scene. He hoped that meant they’d soon be sending other officers to check the train station and bus depot.
When Octavia stopped at a light, she craned her neck to look at his phone. “I thought you said you were finding pictures of the kidnapper. You’ve got the wrong guy there. That’s André Vaz. I used to watch him play soccer when I was a girl.”
Of course, all the women favored André. Manny lowered his pitch, trying to inject authority into his voice. “André is the kidnapper.”
“Huh.” She bent down to get a better look at the phone. “You’re kidding me. He’s too buzz-off hot to be a kidnapper.” The light changed, and she handed him her phone before she began driving again. “Go ahead and send those pictures to my contacts too. I know half the people in town. They’ll get the word out, especially once they find out we’re talking about André Vaz.” She shook her head, clucking her tongue. “It’s a shame—a good-looking man like that turning to a life of crime.”
He sent the picture from his phone to her phone, waiting as it seemed to take ten times longer than it ever had at his apartment. Even the phone was on André’s side.