No Second Chance

After notifying Marc that his phones are tapped for any ransom demands, Regan asks what Tara and Monica were last wearing. Marc remembers that Tara wore “a pink one-piece with black penguins,” while Monica wore “jeans...and a red blouse” (9).

Carson Portman, Monica’s uncle, visits Marc later with details of Monica’s modest funeral, held by her very wealthy father, Edgar Portman. She was buried on the Portman estate. She and Marc married primarily because Monica was pregnant. Marc’s mother, Honey, visits constantly. She mentions his previous stay in this hospital; he was seven and had salmonella poisoning. Marc remembers his father spending 10 nights with him, despite working and being injured himself. His father began suffering strokes a year later, and his health has declined severely since.

Regan returns, stating that Marc’s drug-addicted sister Stacy’s fingerprints were found in his house. Marc last saw Stacy at Tara’s birth. He told Stacy (who was high and wanted to hold the newborn) that she needed to be sober to be around Tara. Stacy never came to Marc’s house, purchased 2 months after Tara’s birth. Marc worries that his sister and her addict partners might dispose of Tara if police and media attention keeps escalating.

Eventually, Marc’s best friend and lawyer, Lenny Marcus, helps Marc pack to go home. He tells Marc not to speak to the police without him because Marc is likely a suspect. Edgar Portman calls, summoning Marc to his estate. As Marc bids Lenny goodbye, he narrates his medical background and partnership with Zia Leroux, his old medical school classmate. They co-founded an organization that internationally helps children with deformities. Marc also explains that Lenny holds Edgar responsible for firing Lenny’s father and causing his death.

Edgar’s driver chauffer’s Mark to the Portman estate. Marc first visits Monica’s grave. Monica was depressed, Marc was resentful, and she told him two nights before her death that he didn’t love her (21-22). Marc said that he did, but internally had doubts. He swears on Monica’s grave to locate Tara.

Edgar and Carson Portman are in the estate’s library. Edgar reveals that Monica was secretly seeing a psychiatrist, then deflects Marc’s questions with the bagged contents of an NYC-postmarked ransom package, delivered that day. It contains a scrap of Tara’s last known outfit, several baby hairs, and a ransom note demanding no police involvement and $2 million in Edgar’s cash, delivered by Marc. The kidnappers will call an included cell phone with further instructions. They “have a man on the inside” and if anything goes wrong, “there will be no second chance” (25). Edgar hands Marc the money and phone, noting that the bills’ serial numbers are recorded. Edgar does not want to notify the FBI. He tells Marc to go home and await the kidnappers’ call.

Marc wonders whether to tell the police about the ransom note while being driven through his neighborhood by Edgar’s driver. He thinks about the family who used to own his house. The Levinskys resided there for 36 years but moved away shortly after Marc graduated from college, when rumors spread that Mr. Levinsky was molesting his daughter, Dina. Marc once witnessed him chasing his wife with a shovel. Marc and Monica purchased the house after the bank foreclosed on it.

When Marc arrives home, he is carrying the kidnappers’ cell phone in his pocket and Edgar’s gym bag with the ransom money. He is met by his mother, along with Detective Regan and FBI Special Agent Lloyd Tickner, who request to speak with him. After briefly examining the patched remains of the sole bullet hole in the wall from the shooting and kidnapping, Marc speaks with Regan and Tickner in his living room, ignoring Lenny’s advice to not speak to the police without legal representation. Regan questions Marc regarding his relationship with Monica, and Marc admits that she was pregnant when they married. Regan then questions him about his partnership with Dr. Zia Leroux and the fact that Marc was supposed to be traveling to Cambodia with her at that moment but cancelled the trip eight or nine months ago, ostensibly to spend time with Monica and Tara.

At this point, Regan reveals that Monica was found naked (and untouched, apart from being shot). The red blouse Marc described in Chapter 2 has vanished. Regan has Marc open the lockbox where Marc’s father’s .38 caliber revolver is stored, but the gun is missing. It fits the caliber that shot both Marc and Monica, but Regan has another surprising bit of information: Marc and Monica were shot by different guns of the same caliber. Marc begins to worry about Regan’s line of questioning, so he has his mother call Lenny. Special Agent Tickner finally speaks and asks about the bag with the ransom money. While thinking of a plausible explanation that would not reveal the ransom, the kidnappers’ cell phone in Marc’s pocket starts ringing.

Marc heads outside to take the phone call. The voice on the other end of the phone is artificially disguised and directs Marc to bring the ransom money to the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, NJ in two hours. The voice then states: “If you’re not alone, we disappear. If you’re being followed, we disappear. If I smell a cop, we disappear. There will be no second chances” (37) before hanging up.

As the phone call ends, Lenny hurriedly pulls up. Marc tells him the cops think Marc is involved and then notifies Lenny about the ransom note. Lenny recommends telling the police about the note, both because the police and FBI have expertise, and “If you go off with two million dollars and it vanishes—even if you get Tara back—their suspicions will be, to put it mildly, aroused” (38). After weighing the decision, Marc decides to ignore his father-in-law Edgar and listen to Lenny.

Regan and Tickner are clearly not expecting this development and try to hide their panic. Tickner calls an FBI kidnapping negotiation specialist, then tells Marc that he will have people watching the mall from multiple angles. He then tries to have Marc either postpone the drop-off or have someone in the car with him, but Marc rejects these proposals as too risky. Tickner and Regan ask him to consider that the perpetrators initially shot the parents of the child they are now ransoming, so they may never have been expecting a ransom. No demand for ransom was even issued until 12 days after the kidnapping. This may simply be an easy way to earn $2 million in ransom and also finish killing Marc, now that he is out of the hospital. Marc listens, but he feels he must put his daughter’s safety ahead of his own. He ends the chapter by telling Tickner: “Keep your people at a distance” (42).

Marc makes it to the mall in time to drop off the ransom and waits for the kidnappers to call. When the call comes, the same disguised voice directs Marc to drive to a nearby secluded strip mall so that they can verify if police are following. Marc is directed to drive to the rear of one of the buildings, where he sees a man holding a phone to his ear. The distinctly average-looking man is partially disguised in a baseball cap and dark glasses, but Marc notices that he has a broken-looking nose, and he walks like he has had a few drinks. The man’s van has “a sign for ‘B&T Electricians’ of Ridgewood, New Jersey” with a New Jersey license plate that Marc memorizes (45). There is a driver in the van, but Marc does not see who it is.

The voice on the phone tells Marc that the man will pick up the money, drive away to safety, and then call Marc with Tara’s location. The handoff proceeds smoothly, with the man taking the money from the window of Marc’s car, then entering the rear of the van so that the van’s driver can take off. Marc remains, waiting for the call with Tara’s location. After 15 minutes, an undercover FBI car pulls into the parking lot with Agent Tickner as a visible passenger. Ten minutes after that, or a total of 25 minutes after the money was handed off, Marc finally receives the kidnappers’ phone call. The same synthetic voice simply says, “I warned you about contacting the cops,” and then hangs up after saying, “No second chance” (46).

Marc feels guilt and fear over Tara’s fate for several days afterwards, while hoping for a call. He feels even guiltier after dreaming about Rachel, his college ex-girlfriend. In the dream, he is together with Rachel and Tara is somehow their child. Upon waking up, he “was left with an aftertaste and a longing that pulled with unexpected force” (48).

Tickner and Regan inform Marc that the sign on the kidnappers’ van was stolen, and the van’s license plate was a welded-together composite of two old plates. Regan thinks this may be a positive development, stating, “It means we’re dealing with professionals [...] Pros usually aren’t bloodthirsty” (49). Regan thinks Tara is still alive and the kidnappers will ransom her again. As days pass with no developments, Marc senses that the police suspect him again.

Lenny seems to feel guilty for advising Marc to trust the police. Edgar also silently blames Marc for trusting the police. Regan and Tickner “fluctuated between guilt because everything had gone so wrong and guilt of another kind, like maybe I, the grieving husband and father, had been behind this from the get-go” (49).

Nine nights after the failed ransom delivery, Marc sees a woman standing in his walkway, but she runs when he calls after her. He notifies Regan, who ignores it. Mark tries to sleep, remembering details of the morning he was shot. He was supposed to play racquetball with Lenny that Wednesday morning—they had been playing weekly for a year. He checked on Tara, then returned to the bedroom, where Monica was dressing after her shower. He went downstairs and ate a raspberry granola bar over the kitchen sink. That’s the last thing he remembers.

At 4 AM, Regan calls to inform Marc that he and Tickner are coming over. Marc expects to hear that Tara is dead. Instead, Tickner shows him a bank security video on his laptop. One of Edgar’s recorded ransom bills was used at a bank. The footage clearly shows Marc’s sister Stacy exchanging the bill. Mark feels both betrayed and relieved: “if it was Stacy, I could not believe that she would harm Tara” (53). Upon hearing that the footage is from the Catskill Mountains, Marc realizes that she is in the town of Montague, NY.

Marc, Regan, and Tickner arrive at Marc’s dead grandfather’s remote, abandoned hunting cabin in Montague, NY, shortly before 5 AM. They have summoned local police to the scene. Marc reflects that he always hated coming to the cabin during his childhood summers, but that Stacy always enjoyed it. Stacy is found dead on the floor of the cabin in the fetal position, with her eyes open and looking “so very lost” (56). Marc reminisces about the reasons as to why she was always so unhappy, ranging from being unattractive and unpopular to an undiagnosed mental illness and depression. He concludes: “Either way, be the origins of my sister’s unhappiness physiological, psychological, or the deluxe combo plan, Stacy’s destructive journey was over” (56). A needle for injecting drugs is next to Stacy’s corpse, leading Marc to wonder if she killed herself intentionally or accidentally.

The cabin itself is a mess, having been invaded by local wildlife before Stacy arrived. The lights are out, so Marc can only see by the light of police flashlights. He finds a brand-new playpen in the cabin’s only bedroom, but Tara is not inside. A police officer finds Tara’s pink one-piece outfit in the closet. No other sign of Tara is visible. Marc feels crushed as he realizes that his daughter was definitely in the cabin but is now truly missing or possibly dead. Stacy was his best lead, but she is now lying dead in the next room.