Evil Deeds (Bob Danforth 1) Read Online Free Page A

and tiptoed back to the bedroom. The buzz of heavy breathing came to him when he opened the door. Susan Gray sat in a chair next to the bed. She held Liz’s hand.
    “Thanks for coming,” Bob whispered. Then he stepped to the opposite side of the bed and bent over, putting his mouth next to Liz’s ear. “I’m going out to try to find Michael, Liz. You’ve got to get better. I need you.”
    Liz’s breathing skipped a beat, then subsided into a regular pattern again. Bob kissed her cheek and straightened up.
    “Don’t worry about her,” Susan Gray said. “I’ll stay with her. You go find your son.”
    Zavitsanos led Bob down the front steps to the blue and white police cruiser parked in front of the house. They entered the vehicle and Zavitsanos drove away, north toward the entrance to the National Highway.
    “There are two routes from Athens to the northern border– the old road going through villages and towns, and the highway, bypassing them all,” Zavitsanos explained. “If the people who kidnapped your son took the old road, they’ll ultimately probably go through Thiva. We’re stopping all traffic just this side of Thiva. Wagons are not permitted on the National Highway, so we assume the Gypsies are on the old road, unless they transferred your son to a car.”
    “Why are you focusing to the north?” Bob asked.
    “Because my instincts tell me the Gypsies who took your son will follow their normal, traditional route north into the Balkans.”
    “What if the kidnappers passed Thiva before the roadblocks were set?”
    “We also alerted the guards all along our northern border,” Zavitsanos said.
    “But kidnappers could hide out in any one of a thousand villages, until the government gets tired of operating roadblocks.”
    Zavitsanos nodded. “Yes, that is possible.”
    The drive to Thiva took an hour. They approached the roadblock just shy of midnight. The flashing lights of a dozen police vehicles illuminated the night sky.
    Zavitsanos flipped a dashboard switch to turn on his own roof flashers and drove on the shoulder of the road to bypass the line of more than two hundred cars and trucks waiting to get through.
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Zavitsanos said a silent prayer that they would find the little boy. But the more time that passed, the more discouraged he became. He knew the odds were already in favor of the kidnappers.
    “We’ve been here more than three hours, Captain Danforth,” Zavitsanos said, tapping his watch. “Maybe I should take you home. You look like you need some rest.”
    “No, no. I’m fine,” Bob responded. “Just a little while longer. Okay?”
    Zavitsanos shrugged and walked over to a policeman pouring thick café turkiko from a thermos into a tin cup.
    “How’s the father doing?” the officer asked.
    “He’s tough – a lot tougher than I would be under similar circumstances. But being here must give him some hope.” Zavitsanos turned to walk back to Danforth.
    “You know we’re wasting our time here, Inspector,” the officer said to Zavitsanos’ back.
    Zavitsanos spun around. “ Ko pane ! The last thing we need around here is that attitude.”
    The officer’s face reddened. “Yes, sir.”
    The Inspector walked away. Bad attitude or not, he thought, the policeman was probably right.
     

CHAPTER NINE
    Janos Milatko stirred. Something off in the distance wasn’t right. Pounding. Loud. Insistent. He came awake. Three rapid knocks, followed by a pause and then two knocks spaced around a three-second pause told him all he needed to know – it was someone from his clan. Janos picked up his watch off the nightstand. Three a.m. He glanced at his wife. Still asleep.
    Janos slipped out of bed and padded barefoot across the wood floor of his tiny Athens apartment. He opened the door a crack and saw his uncle, Stefan Radko, the last person he expected or wanted to see. Stefan started to push his way in but Janos put a finger to his lips and pointed out into the