Help Me Please (Suze Figueroa) - Hardcover

D'Amato, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312865635 ISBN 13: 9780312865634

Publisher: Forge Books, 1999

Synopsis

An hour and a half after three-year-old Danielle Gaston is kidnapped from the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, a new web sit pops up on the Wold Wide Web--featuring Danielle Gaston. She's isolated in a room with no food and only water to drink. This live-action web page is available to all net users around the world and is soon rebroadcast on CNN and other networks. Since Danielle is the only child of a popular country & western singer and a senator, her case is a high profile one--and likely to end in heartbreak. Who better to take the fall for a bad outcome than Polly Kelly?

About this title

About the Author

Barbara D’Amato is the author of Authorized Personnel Only, which recently won the first Mary Higgins Clark Award, and Good Cop, Bad Cop, which won the Carl Sandburg Award for Excellence in Fiction. She has received high praise for her many novels and a non-fiction book. She lives in Chicago with her husband.

Reviews

YA-Country-and-western star Maggie McKittredge and her U.S. Senator husband, Neal Gaston, are making their annual pilgrimage to Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral when their three-year-old daughter, Danielle, is kidnapped. The crime takes an unusual twist when, within two hours of the kidnapping, a new Web site called helpmeplease appears on the World Wide Web. Its sole purpose is to project live, 24-hour-a-day coverage of Danni Gaston in her prison. Thus begins the cat-and-mouse investigation between Chicago's finest, represented by Polly Kelly, Deputy Chief of Detectives, and the cyber criminals who take pride in foiling every attempt to be tracked, identified, or located. D'Amato enriches the story with tension between FBI agents who commandeer the investigation and promise (but do not deliver) all kinds of high-tech solutions and Kelly's staff, who believe in old-fashioned gut instincts and footwork. This fast-moving novel is sprinkled with interesting insights into police work and computer buffs will enjoy the constantly changing cyber strategies kidnappers and law-enforcement officers use to outsmart and confound one another.
Becky Ferrall, Stonewall Jackson High School, Manassas, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Young children as victims of violence are becoming a clich? of psychological thrillers, but for those who haven't tired of the plot device, there's plenty to like in D'Amato's (Good Cop, Bad Cop) latest. The author of the popular Cat Marsala series introduces a new character here, Chicago police detective Polly Kelly, who spends five frantic days trying to track down the kidnappers of three-year-old Danielle Gaston, snatched from under her parents' eyes in the city's Holy Name Cathedral. The child is the daughter of country and western singer Maggie McKittredge and Missouri Senator Neal Gaston. The high-profile nature of the crime puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on Kelly, who's already dealing with her own depressed and possibly suicidal mother, who has recently moved into Kelly's home. To make matters worse, the kidnappers are members of Bandwidth, a high-tech terrorist group who have set up a real-time Web site showing Danni starving to death in a barren room. The disturbing footage is broadcast all day by TV stations throughout the world, generating a public outcry to comply with Bandwidth's ultimatum: the release from prison of its leader and master strategist, Johnnie Raft. Kelly won't budge on that demand, even though she's just about breaking from the emotional toll of seeing little Danni grow weaker by the hour. All of D'Amato's storytelling skills are hereAa lighting-fast plot, engaging characters, deftly dropped clues and an earthy Chicago atmosphereAthough the incessant image of the televised, starving toddler seems an excessive and abject means to propel the story. But newcomer Kelly is an engaging protagonist, a tough, politically savvy cop with a well-developed, potentially explosive, personal side. (Oct.) FYI:D'Amato is president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

D'Amato's latest report from the Chicago Police Department (Good Cop, Bad Cop, 1998, etc.) focuses on a fiendishly clever crime: the kidnaping of a child. In the moment her parents are distracted, three-year-old Danielle Gaston is spirited from Holy Name Cathedral by a bogus priest. The case brings Polly Kelly, Deputy Chief of Detectives for Chicago North, to instant attention, because Danni's mother is country-music star Maggie McKittredge, and her father is Senator Neal Gaston. And after some anxious pangs toward the beginning, Polly's increasingly convinced the child is still in Chicagoprobably in the heart of the crowded Gold Coast. But can the thousand cops beating the bushes for Danni find her before she starves to death? Not only Polly but all the world can count the hours till Danni will die, because D'Amato, displaying the same fascination with computers that fueled Killer.App (1996), has updated her old-fashioned plot with a chilling new twist: The kidnappers place a digital camera in the bare, locked room where they're keeping Danni and put her live, real-time image on the Net at . So Polly can watch; Polly's clinically depressed mother, who's moved in with her just in time to have Polly camp out in her office, can watch; and anybody with a TV can watch CNN around the clock as the unwitting Danni's movements grow ever weaker. D`Amato shows a no-nonsense authority in laying out the myriad details of a police dragnet, and she endows her villainsthe crew of imprisoned cybertyrant Johnnie Raft, who thinks it's about time smart people were running the worldwith enough savvy to stay one step ahead of it. But her determination to keep her last card hidden leads her to a surprise that will have a lot of readers pursing their lips in disbelief. For most of the ride, though, the case purrs along with just enough edge to the thrills to make this a tougher complement to the author's Cat Marsala mysteries. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

D'Amato uses the Windy City as an effective backdrop for her latest thriller. Chicago homicide detective Polly Kelly is faced with a cop's worst nightmare: the kidnapping of a child. Three-year-old Danni Gaston, daughter of a senator and a country singer, is snatched by a man disguised as a priest while the family visits Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral. Within hours, Danni's image appears on the Internet. Her captors have imprisoned her in a bare room with a hidden video camera that tracks her every move. It's soon clear the kidnappers have a special agenda: they want the release from prison of Johnnie Raft, leader of Bandwidth, a hate group that terrorizes via the Internet. As the world watches Danni slowly starving to death in her prison, Kelly races to outwit Bandwidth. Contrasting the plodding, "shoe-leather" approach to the dazzle of computerized crime-solving, this slick cyber-mystery is suspenseful and fast paced. Conscientious, savvy Polly effectively shows what it's like to be a successful woman in a traditionally male world. Emily Melton

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Help Me Please

day zero

Saturday

one

Golden air filled Holy Name Cathedral. Golden sunlight, weighty with dust motes, sank heavily through the windows and settled over the amber oak pews and woodwork. Maggie McKittredge felt bathed in gold and blessed.

Danielle's hair was gold, too, shining in the light, red gold, fine, curly baby hair.

Danni was three, a pale porcelain cherub, wearing her favorite long blue-and-white-checked gingham dress, the one she thought made her look like a queen. But Daddy called her Princess, which was okay, too.

The worshippers at the Saturday morning mass sighed and rustled. Maggie, who was used to counting the house in theaters, estimated about fifty people, which seemed a thin scattering in the huge cathedral. As she and Neal and Danni entered, several of them had recognized her. A youngish, pretty woman, wearing a pale lilac dress and pale lilac shoes, said, "I'm such a fan. For years, you've been my favorite singer."

This made Maggie feel a little old.

Several others smiled at her or pointed her out to a companion. An elderly man, walking with difficulty, passed them without any recognition and sat in the pew in front of them.

A woman of about sixty, wearing a worn brown coat, studied them as they sat down. She stopped for a moment, hesitated, wondering whether to speak, and then whispered to Maggie, "Your singing got me through a very bad time in my life."

That was wonderful. Maggie smiled and touched her sleeve and thanked her. The woman turned away shyly and sat across the aisle.

My singing got me through a very bad time in my life, too, she thought. She remembered how it had been, those years of believing she would never have a baby. Years when it seemed to her she saw babies everywhere. Endless tests, some of them what the doctors liked to call "uncomfortable." Tests on Neal, too, that she knew embarrassed him. He'd been very patient, but he'd come home red-faced and silent from the doctor's office.

She ruffled Danni's hair. Danni sat at the end of the pew. Maggie was next and then Neal. Maggie expected Danni to fidget, and it would be easier having the child on the end if she needed to take her out for a walk.

Maggie had come here many times, beginning the day she'd arrived in Chicago for the first tests at Northwestern's fertility clinic, and then while she was pregnant, and then when she was released from the hospital four days after Danni's birth. She had come to Holy Name once every year after that, always four days after Danni's birthday, just like that first time of greatest thanks. It was a pilgrimage.

Little Danni had no real memory of the cathedral, of course. Danni had been here when she was four days, and a year and four days old, and two years and four days, and now three years and four days.

Danni craned her head back, rapt, loving the soaring pillars and golden light, stained-glass windows, and far away, the remote ceiling, its colors made soft by the dusty air.

The priest chanted. His clear voice rose, and the cavernous church pulled it into the upper air, both thinning the voice and elevating it, purifying it. Maggie wondered what it would be like to sing here. Would you sound like an angel?

"Mommy, I hot," Danni whispered.

"You can't be, honey. It's cool here."

"Yeth I am."

"Well, take off your sweater."

"Otay."

Maggie relaxed. There was something sleepy and sensuous in the amber light, heavily saturated with incense. She was content. She was deeply aware of how blessed she was, as if there was nothing left in the world to wish for, and she floated on the thought.

Neal put his hand over hers and whispered, "Let's take Danni for an ice cream cone after," he said.

"Neal! She's wearing her best dress."

"They have cleaners in Chicago, just like they have at home."

A minute later, Danni said, "I hot." She squirmed. When Maggie and Neal went to their knees to pray, Danni slipped off the pew, knelt down for a few seconds like they did, then got up and slowly turned around and around in place. Her long skirt flared out a little and brushed the pew seat as she twirled.

When Neal and Maggie slid back into their seats, Danni continued to spin, stepping out into the aisle to get more room.

What should I do now? Maggie wondered. Would it be less disruptive to leave Danni in the aisle or call her back to her seat? But she's having so much fun. So much delight.

As the priest chanted, Danni began to sing. With no idea of what the priest was saying, she sang softly, "It a smaw world affa all, it a smaw world affa all--"

Maggie turned to Neal. "What should I do?"

"Nothing," he said. "Let her--"

The older woman leaned across the aisle toward them andsaid softly, "She's perfect. She's what it's all about. Let her dance." Maggie smiled.

And Danni had indeed started to dance. Singing, she rocked from foot to foot, then spun, almost a perfect pirouette. But the old man in the pew ahead of them turned around and hissed, "Shhhh!"

A black-cassocked priest came down the aisle. They had greeted him at the front doors when he'd welcomed them to the church. He leaned over Maggie. He had warm hazel eyes and sandy hair and a wooden cross hung at his neck. "Would she like to walk a couple of minutes? In the back of the nave?"

"Oh, I don't think so, Father. Thank you." She never let Danni out of her sight except with her nanny, Brenda.

Suddenly, there was a gurgling sound from the pew ahead. The old man coughed, made a bubbling sound, and then slid slowly sideways, disappearing from sight. The woman across the aisle stood up and said, "Look, look! What's wrong?"

Neal jumped up and bent over the back of the pew, his hand on the old man's shoulder, trying to keep him from falling from the seat to the floor, but the angle was wrong and Neal couldn't keep his grip. The man sank to the floor.

Several people stood and watched. Half a dozen came to help. A second priest from the front of the church ran quickly up the aisle. He said, "I'm Father Raymond. What's happened?"

Three or four of the parishioners hurried up. One woman said, "I'm a nurse."

The first priest lifted Danni out of the way, saying to Father Raymond, "This man just collapsed."

"Did he say what was wrong?"

"No."

The old man made a gurgling sound.

Neal said, "Somebody call nine-one-one. Quick."

By now a dozen men and women were gathered around asking to help. Maggie stepped out of the pew so that Neal could get past and reached her hand out for Danni.

Danni was not in the aisle where she had been just seconds before. "Danni?"

The aisle was clogged by a large knot of people. "Is my little girl behind you? Danni? Danni!" Maggie pushed through the crowd, but there was no little figure in a blue-and-white dress,. She turned back toward Neal, looking for the sandy-haired priest. But only Father Raymond knelt next to the old man.

"Where is that other priest?" Maggie asked the person closest to her. "Where did he go?" Her voice rose.

"I think he went for help," a woman said.

"Did he have a little girl with him?"

"Yes, I think he did."

Maggie said to Father Raymond, who was slowly lifting the elderly man, "Where did that priest take my little girl?"

The old man said, "I feel terrible!" Holding both hands to his head, he climbed laboriously back onto the seat of the pew.

Father Raymond turned to Maggie. He said, "What do you mean?"

"That priest. Who took my little girl. The one you assigned to greet people coming in."

"We don't have anybody assigned to greet people."

Copyright © 1999 by Barbara D'Amato

Edition details

• Publisher: Forge Books
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312865635
• ISBN 13: 9780312865634
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336