but she’d prefer to sit for this conversation.
Matt ushered her past the desk into the back room, which housed several desks and chairs. The far wall sported a large map of the park and a whiteboard full of text, but Emma didn’t bother to read any of it. He led her to a counter that ran under the board and gestured to the coffee maker. “Need a cup?”
“Yes, please.” Emma normally didn’t drink coffee, but she’d learned over the last few days that it helped to have something to hold on to while she told her story over and over again.
Matt poured two cups, adding cream and sugar at her nod. Then he guided her to a desk and chair and sat, gesturing for her to do the same. He pushed the mug across the desk and looked at her expectantly.
Emma wrapped her hands around the cup, appreciating the warmth leaching through the porcelain. A familiar heavy weight settled over her as she gathered her thoughts. Talking about the night she had discovered Christina was missing never got any easier. She’d lost count of the number of times she’d repeated the story to the police and the FBI. Unfortunately, the repetition didn’t dull her emotions or help her process what had happened. Her heart still pounded the way it had when she’d realized the crib was empty; her stomach still cramped as she relived the horror, as fresh as the first time.
Matt nudged a box of tissues toward her, as if sensing she might need them. She sent him a grateful smile and took a deep breath. “Three nights ago, I woke up at one thirty in the morning because I felt like something was wrong.” She told him about searching the apartment but finding no signs of anything amiss, and how she’d nearly gone back to bed. “But I had to check on Christina. I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep until I made sure she was okay.”
He nodded, his blue eyes full of understanding. Emma appreciated the fact that he was simply listening and not bombarding her the way the police and FBI had done. She’d barely been able to get a sentence out before an officer had fired another question at her, which had made it difficult to get through the telling. But Matt remained quiet, apparently content to hear what she had to say before talking himself.
His silence was oddly encouraging, and she felt her shoulders relax. “That’s when I discovered my baby was gone.” Her throat tightened on the last word, and she felt the familiar prickle of tears. She blinked hard, dismissing them before they had a chance to fall.
“I called the police immediately,” she continued. “They thought that since there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment, whoever took her must have a key. My brother, Joseph, is the only one with a spare, but I didn’t think he would ever take Christina.” Disappointment and anger swirled in her chest as she recalled her naive assertion that her brother would never kidnap her child. How wrong she’d been!
“Then I called Joseph, and he actually answered. At first, I was relieved. I figured if he had taken Christina, he wouldn’t have answered the phone.”
Matt lifted one eyebrow. “He didn’t try to hide the fact that he’d kidnapped your daughter?”
Emma shook her head. “I think he was preparing to call me himself, to let me know she was safe.”
“Why did he take her?”
“Money,” she said simply. “Joseph has a gambling problem. It’s something that developed over the last several years. I’d helped him once before with a small debt, but told him never again. He agreed, and for a while I thought he had stopped gambling. But he’d just been hiding it. Now he owes some bad people a lot of money, and he’d come to me about a week ago asking for help. I told him I didn’t have anything, but he didn’t believe me.”
Matt tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing a bit. “Why would he think you’re lying?”
The question hit close to home. Emma shifted in her chair, not really wanting to get into the details of Chris’s death and the subsequent lawsuit. “I was involved in a lawsuit about two years ago that resulted in a settlement. Joseph thinks I have a lot of money. He doesn’t understand I haven’t seen a dime. He accused me of holding out on him, of deliberately abandoning him.”
“So he took your baby to try to force your hand,” Matt said. The words dripped with disgust, as if he couldn’t believe anyone would stoop so low.
Emma nodded. “Exactly. But I still don’t have the money. And I don’t know what he’s going to do once he realizes that.” Fear bubbled up in her chest as she wondered again how her brother would respond when he discovered there was no ransom coming his way. Joseph wasn’t normally a violent person, but Emma felt like she no longer knew her own brother. Three days ago, she would have sworn he’d never kidnap a baby. Now she had no idea what he was capable of doing. He was plainly desperate, and she could only hope that desperation didn’t override his basic humanity where her daughter was concerned.
“Did he give you a deadline?” Matt’s voice was calm, as if he dealt with this sort of thing every day. For a second, Emma allowed herself to believe he could fix things. That he could find her baby before anything bad happened. And perhaps he could. Weren’t park rangers good at tracking?
“Three days,” she said, a lump forming in her throat. She glanced down, swirling the mug a bit to stir the coffee within. “He wants half a million dollars three days from now to pay off his debts.”
“And you don’t have it.”
“No.” She jerked her head up, glaring at Matt. “My God, do you think I’d be here if I did? Do you think I care about money? I’d give him ten times that amount if it meant getting Christina back safely! I’d do anything to hold her again.” Her arms ached with the memory of her baby, warm and soft against her body. Would she ever feel that sweet weight again?
Matt held up his hands. “I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I’m sorry.”
Her temper cooled quickly, leaving despair in its wake. “I don’t have the money. The only way I can get that kind of money is by robbing a bank. And even then, I doubt they keep half a million in cash on hand these days.”
“Probably not,” Matt said. His voice was soothing now, as if he were trying to calm a wounded animal.
“This is my only option,” she said. Her shoulders dropped, her energy starting to flag as the hopelessness of the situation took hold once again. The past few days she’d vacillated between a burning sense of urgency and a feeling of total defeat. It was growing more and more difficult to beat back the darkness trying to claim her spirit, but she had to keep trying. The police and FBI were doing all they could to find Christina, but at the end of the day, this was just another job to them. Christina was her life. She’d never stop looking for her daughter, never rest until she found her.
“If this doesn’t work...” She trailed off, unwilling to give voice to her fears. What if she was wrong, and Joseph hadn’t taken her baby to the park? Was she wasting her time and efforts, time that would be better spent looking elsewhere?
But what other choice did she have? Emma couldn’t rest while her baby was gone. She had to trust that Detective Randall and his team were doing their best in El Paso. They thought it unlikely Joseph had fled to Big Bend, which meant they weren’t going to spend time looking here. Even though they figured it was a long shot, Emma refused to leave any stone unturned in the hunt for Christina. If that meant spending the rest of her life wandering the desert, then so be it.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Matt said. He reached across the table and
