She said to him, "This is the happiest I've been since our last summer together in Columbus."

"Me, too."

"Do you mean that?"

"I do. I really do."

"Do we live happily ever after?"

"Yes, we do."

She stayed silent a moment, then said, "But we have to get through tonight and tomorrow, don't we?"

He didn't reply immediately, then looked at her and told her, "No matter what happens tonight or tomorrow, even if we're separated for a short time, remember that I love you, and know that we'll be together again. I promise."

She sat up and kissed him. "You remember that, too."

"I will."

She put her head on his chest. "I feel like a kid again, like it hasn't been twenty-five years, but twenty-five hours, and everything that happened between that morning you left in Columbus and now, didn't happen."

"That's a nice thought."

"Good. Let's pretend. There's no world outside that door, it's just us again, like it used to be."

"How in the name of God did I let you go?"

"Shhh. You didn't. I'm here. I've always been here..." She patted his heart. "Here, where it counts. I never left your heart, you never left my heart."

Keith nodded and started to reply, but couldn't find his voice, then, for the first time in over two decades, a tear formed in his eye and ran down his cheek.

Cliff Baxter sat in the front seat of the two-car convoy. Sergeant Blake drove. In the car behind them were Officer Ward and Officer Krug.

Sitting on the dashboard in front of Cliff Baxter was the location finder. It wasn't a state-of-the-art device — the city council hadn't liked the price of the big model that had to be mounted in a van with a big rotating thing on the roof and all kinds of screens and gadgets. This was a simple line-of-sight, VHP radio receiver that just beeped within a mile or so of the planted transmitter and got louder as you got closer. Still, it worked for what he bought it for — keeping track of his wife. The unit came with two small transmitters, and he'd used the second one a few times as sort of a fun thing to keep track of other people, but mostly the spare sat in his desk until he got the idea of putting it in Landry's car on Friday.

Of course, he'd cruised past the Landry farm early in his search for the Lincoln, and since each transmitter had a different channel, he knew long before he pulled into Landry's driveway that the Lincoln was there and the Blazer was not. At that point, he knew exactly what had happened.

They drove into Toledo Airport. This was the logical place to start, he thought, and they cruised the parking lots, but they didn't need the location finder because the place was nearly empty. They drove to the rental lot and cruised up and down the rows of parked cars.

Blake said to him, "I don't see his car."

"Nope. Okay, we go out on the highway and turn right, toward Toledo."

"Right."

The two Spencerville police cars headed east on the airport highway.

Cliff Baxter picked up his mobile phone and called headquarters. Officer Schenley was acting desk sergeant, and Baxter said to him, "Hear anything?"

"No, sir. I would've called..."

"Yeah. You would've called. I'm making a goddamned communications check."

"Yes, sir."

"And like I told you, if anybody calls from the state police, or anyplace, you don't mention where I am."

"Yes, sir."

"Just call me, and I'll get back to them. Don't bullshit with them."

"Yes, sir."

"Stay awake." He hung up and said to Blake, "Hey, pull into that Sheraton."

Blake pulled into the Sheraton parking lot and commented, "We're not getting a sounding here, Chief."

"Shit, I don't trust this thing. I trust my eyes and my ears. Pull up to the lobby and let me off, then cruise the lot."

"Yes, sir."

Baxter got out and went into the lobby. He approached the desk clerk, an attractive young woman, and said, "How're you tonight, darlin'?"

She smiled. "Pretty good. Yourself?"

"Could be better. Lookin' for a bad guy, ran off with a woman. You know about that?"

"Sure do. Seen it on TV."

"That's good. I hope you seen it come across your fax, too."

"I did." She rummaged around and found a piece of paper behind the counter. "Got the descriptions here, names, make and model of the car..."

"And you ain't seen them."

"No, I told the state trooper that about an hour ago. I'll keep an eye out."

"You do that, sweetheart."

She looked at his uniform and asked, "Spencerville? Isn't that?.."

"Sure is. That's where the kidnapping took place. Hey, if you ever get down there, you look me up."

"You're... you're the Chief Baxter whose wife..."

"That's right."

"Hey, I'm real sorry. I hope she's all right — I know she's going to be okay..."

"She'll be fine as soon as I find her. She'll be real fine. See ya."

Baxter went outside and met the cars. He got in, and Blake said, "Negative here."

"Negative there. Let's roll."

They continued on down the highway, passing several motels. Blake asked, "Want me to stop?"

"No, we're gonna cruise right into Toledo and see if that damned noisemaker goes off. If it don't, we'll double back and start checking motels. Jesus Christ, I never seen so many motels."

"You think they're here?"

"Don't know. But if I was him, and I just missed a flight, I might hole up in the area, especially if I was listenin' to the radio and found out there was a bulletin out on me. And if he don't know that, then he'll find out when he gets pulled over. He ain't gettin' too far either way."

"Right." Blake thought a moment, then said, "I don't understand how he thought he could get on a plane with her, without somebody noticing that she was being held against her will."

"Why don't you just fucking drive?"

"Yes, sir."

"He had a gun on her. That's how. And probably got her drugged up."

"Yeah, that's it."

That wasn't it, and just about every cop in the state knew that by now, Baxter thought. The truth was, he didn't see a real good future for himself or his career after this. But for the time being, he had the power, he had the law on his side, and he had the balls to do what he had to do as a man. By morning, it would start to come apart, so he had to find them before then. And because he was finished as a cop, he could do whatever he wanted to do to them when he found them.

They continued on another few miles and saw the high-rise buildings of downtown Toledo in the distance.

The receiver on the dashboard beeped, a faint sound, followed by silence.

Blake and Baxter glanced at each other but said nothing. False readings, especially in built-up areas, were common. A minute later, the receiver beeped again, then again, then got louder and more continuous, until the beeps ran into one another and made a continuous electronic squeal. "Pull over."

Blake pulled onto the shoulder, and the police car behind them did the same.

Blake and Baxter sat listening to the electronic noise. Baxter looked around outside, then said, "Go ahead. Slow, on the shoulder."

Blake drove slowly on the inside shoulder. The intervals between the beeps decreased, then the sound itself grew fainter.

Baxter said, "Make a U-turn and go back."

"Right."

They swung onto the highway, then turned at a break in the median. The beeping got louder and steadier.

Baxter looked up ahead and saw it. "Well, I'll be... hey, Blake, where do you hide a needle?"

"In a haystack."

"No, in a box of needles. Pull in there."

It took them a few minutes to locate the dark green Blazer, and even then they couldn't be sure it was the right one because it had no license plates. Baxter reached under the right rear fender and pulled off the magnetic transmitter. He looked at the rectangular device, about the size of a pack of cigarettes with a short antenna projecting from it, and smiled. "Well, well, well..."He shut it off, and the beeping from the car's receiver stopped. "How about that?"