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"But you were convinced her life was at stake"

"Let’s put it this eren’t in a position to argue the point I wasn’t going to take the chance and neither was Patrick He was convinced Shelly and Greg were behind the scheme, but that didn’t mean Rain was safe We had no idea how far they’d take it Patrick withdrew the ed to stall delivery while he made a quick trip to the plant to photocopy the bills It was a ti job and he had to do it while the office staff was gone for the night While he was about it, he marked the back of each with a fluorescent marker he used when he exported inventory The bills looked fine, but the kidnappers ht have been suspicious"

"Were the ht, sure Every kid seeht, they’d have worried about putting that many marked bills in circulation, which can’t be as simple as it seems"

"Couldn’t they have passed the bills in small lots? Maybe not locally, but soeles would have been the natural choice"

"Yes, but what fun would fifteen thousand dollars be if it was spread out like that? Patrick notified the local banks about the marked bills when Mary Claire was kidnapped None of the money ever surfaced as far as we know"

"Avis referred to Rain as the ‘practice child’ "

"Of course She was their rehearsal for Mary Claire If you know anything about her disappearance, you’ll recognize thewhat do they call itthe MO We didn’t believe they’d harm Rain, but ere frantic they’d refuse to return her She was ours We’d formally adopted her, but if they absconded with her, we’d have no way of getting her back They had no pered "We did as ere told We received another call, telling us where to drop the ransom"

"Which here?"

"Near the back entrance to the Ravine One of they and tossed it out on the side of the road Then he came home The other kidnappersure the entire amount was there They told us to wait an hour and then we’d find her in the park off Little Pony Road She was asleep on a picnic table, covered with a blanket, so they weren’t entirely heartless I don’t knoould have happened if they’d realized Patrick "

"She’d been drugged?"

"Clearly She wasn’t coy She was fine once the sedative wore off, whatever it was She’d been properly looked after Fed well, at any rate, and she was clean We had her exaod for that"

"What did she tell you about ent on?"

"Nothing coherent, bits and pieces She was four--not what you’d call a reliable witness The only thing she was upset about was that she didn’t get to keep the kitten Aside froical problems in the aftermath We were thankful she ca, this was further support of his conviction that Greg and Shelly had a hand in it"

"If the two of them took her, wouldn’t Rain have said so?"

Deborah shook her head "One of the kidnappers wore fake glasses with a big plastic nose attached and the other dressed like Santa Claus We’d taken her to see Santa on two previous occasions so she was used to seeing hiirl and she was"

"Here’s what I don’t get If they’d already picked up the fifteen thousand, why kidnap a second child?"

"I can tell you Patrick’s theory When Mary Claire was taken the ransom demand enty-five thousand dollars Add twenty-five to the fifteen we paid for Rain’s return and you’re looking at forty thousand dollars, which is what Greg and Shelly wanted in the first place That’s hardly proof, but I can’t believe the total was a coincidence"

"It does seem like an odd aot the first tiht about what she’d told me "How soon after Rain’s abduction was Mary Claire kidnapped?"

"A week or so By then we had the house on the ated communities down south The minute we heard about Mary Claire, ent to the police and told the detectives everything we knew The FBI had been called into it by then We gave the and Shelly’s names and descriptions, plus a description of the school bus along with the license plate number None of this ever made the papers They did put out an APB, but there was never any sign of them"