Running on Envy

by Felicity Nisbet

  Carter sighed but took my meaning to heart and said, “That won’t be necessary.” He turned slightly so he was looking directly at Ben. “Very well, search all you want. I guarantee you will find nothing.”

  “Carter, why don’t you bring Jillian and Shelby over to Charlie’s while this is going on. They don’t need to witness it.”

  “Thank you, Jenny.”

  I quickly introduced them to Josh who hurried ahead to make a fresh pot of tea for them. I would have expected a protest for his assigned job and a request to be involved in something more interesting than caretaking, but for the fact that he seemed unable to take his eyes off Jillian.

  Just as the police were convinced that the family was responsible for the crime, the McNair investigative team was equally convinced that this was an extremely personal crime and that the perpetrator knew the Elliots well enough to have been in their backyard in the recent past.

  “We’ll need a list of everyone who has been in your home and in your backyard during the past year,” Charlie told Carter.

  “Everyone? The past year?”

  “Everyone. Preferably further back than that,” Charlie confirmed. “Jillian?”

  “Yes?”

  “Did you hear anything? Anything at all while your mum was at the park?”

  The young girl, herself on the verge of tears, shook her head. “I just finished telling the police I didn’t. I’m sorry. I was playing music. Kind of loud. You know, taking advantage of the baby being out of the house.”

  I didn’t remember hearing music when I’d escorted Shelby home. I studied the girl’s distraught face. She must have felt my intense gaze because she turned to face me.

  “I had just turned it off and gone to the kitchen to get a snack when I heard something on the front porch.”

  “When I was helping your mom up the stairs?”

  “I’m sorry. I wish I hadn’t turned the music up. I wish I had seen something.” She looked over at her mother who was clinging to her husband. “I’m so sorry, Mom.”

  Shelby closed her eyes tightly as if that would stop the tears. “It’s not your fault, Jillian.”

  The girl’s aura darkened. She wanted more. She needed more. I reached out and hugged her. “It really isn’t your fault, honey.”

  “But if I’d just heard something— She’s so little . . . so helpless . . . “ The girl allowed herself to go limp in my embrace. When Carter realized what was happening, he reached out to hug her as well, but she shied away from the gesture, apparently more comfortable in my arms.

  Charlie pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it to Carter.

  ”Please get me that list as soon as possible. As well as the names of anyone you think might be the slightest bit envious of you.”

  Carter pocketed the card and went back to comforting his wife. Once Jillian seemed calmer, I settled her down on the couch beside her mother. Josh set a cup of hot tea in front of each of them.

  Charlie, MacGregor, and I walked outside to talk. “This doesn’t look good,” MacGregor said.

  “Not once Ben Blaine gets something into that wee brain of his,” Charlie concurred. “Hopefully he won’t neglect looking at other avenues until he’s exhausted this one and miss opportunities.”

  “He did say he was going to set up the phones in case a ransom call comes in.”

  “Aye, he did that, but he could be assuming the family is putting someone up to that.”

  “You mean he would ignore other possibilities and leads?”

  “He would not do that. Let’s just say that if he has it in his head that they’re responsible, he might not give other leads the credibility and attention that they deserve, not until it’s—“

  “Too late,” I finished for him. “Which means, we’d best get to work.”

  Charlie returned to the Elliots’ house while MacGregor and I headed directly to Edward Sharkey’s. His daughter Maureen was the only one home. Eddie and his new bride were away on their honeymoon.

  “Malcolm! Jenny!” Her grin sparkled with the Irish charm she had inherited from her father. Her red hair was loose and wavy. Being in the process of divorcing her husband did not seem to be taking a toll. She reached out to hug us simultaneously, but her biggest hug was reserved for Rocky. Maybe now that her ex-husband and his allergies were out of her life, she could have a dog.

  When she finally came up for air after burying her face in Rocky’s abundant fur, she asked, “What’s going on? The police were just here, questioning me about seeing someone running through our yard. But they wouldn’t tell me what it was about.”

  “A kidnapping.”

  “Again?”

  “This time it was a baby. Two doors down.” MacGregor nodded toward the Elliots’.

  “Jillian’s baby sister?”

  “You know the family?”

  “A little. Dad’s had them over a couple times, and I’ve run into Jillian in the park a few times since I moved home—” She grimaced, embarrassed that she was once again living with her dad at age twenty-four. I only hoped my children were comfortable doing that if the need ever arose.

  “Since you moved home—?” MacGregor prompted.

  “I just couldn’t stand being at the house, you know? It reminded me of . . . of him.”

  “We understand,” I assured her. “It’s good you have a place to live where you’re comfortable.”

  “Yeah, Dad’s made it easy for me to be here. He keeps reassuring me that it’s fine, the house is so big and everything. But it’s only temporary. Until I sell the house and find a place of my own. Anyway, back to the Elliots—I run into Jillian in the park sometimes. We sit and chat.”

  “She seems mature for her age.” MacGregor had noticed too.

  Maureen laughed. “Yeah, it works well since I’m immature for mine. I guess that makes it okay for a twenty-four-year old to hang with a sixteen-year old.”

  “Hey, I’m in my forties and I have no objection to ‘hanging’ with a certain twenty-four-year old of whom I’m particularly fond.” MacGregor winked at her. “And I hardly consider myself immature.” He slipped an arm across her shoulder. I smiled as I watched the girl lean against him. He had been a great comfort to her when she had needed it the most. Maureen had felt safe and at ease with MacGregor from the moment they met as had both my children and Josh. I only hoped Holly remembered that after I told her the new status of our relationship.

  “Point taken.” Maureen gazed up at MacGregor. “And I do have an excuse. Jillian and I have a lot in common.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “Divorced parents.”

  So Carter was definitely the stepfather. “Do you know Jillian’s father?” I asked.

  “I met him once,” she said.

  “Does he live locally?”

  “Yeah, only a few blocks away. Really nice guy. Jillian’s crazy about him. So, have the police found anything? Are you guys on the job? What happened?”

  MacGregor fielded that one. My mind was still processing the information about Jillian’s father. “Not a lot. Yes. And the baby was snatched from her stroller while Shelby was walking through the park.”

  “My God. She must be frantic. She seems a bit fragile at the best of times, if you know what I mean.”

  “We did notice.”

  “Ah yes, you would, super detectives that you are.”

  “I take it you didn’t notice anyone running through your backyard.” MacGregor walked past her directly through the entryway to the kitchen which overlooked the backyard and boat dock.

  “I may not have even been here when it happened. I made a coffee run this morning. Apparently I got home just before they put up the blockade.”

  “I’d like to take a look at those footprints.” MacGregor opened the door and went out on the deck and down the back steps which led to the yard and dock. With the police still milling about, he had a better chance of inspecting them from here than the park. Maureen and I followed,
observing him as he found the prints and tracked them from one side fence to the other. Clearly the kidnapper had made his way from one neighbors’ yard to the next along the edge of the water near the dock.

  “Anything?” I asked, noticing his contemplative expression.

  “He was definitely headed for the Elliots’. He didn’t even try to get out through the side gates. He just ran along on the water’s edge as if he knew he couldn’t get out through the garden gates.”

  “Or his plan was to escape through the yard with which he was familiar.”

  “Exactly. And he’s definitely a runner. Look at these footprints. They’re easier to see here because he must have stepped in the water at some point.”

  Maureen and I both looked where he was pointing. I wasn’t an expert on athletic shoes, but I trusted that, after playing rugby and soccer for years and running a couple of marathons, MacGregor was. “Running shoes?” I asked.

  “Definitely. Serious running shoes.”

  “What does all this mean?” Maureen led the way back into the house.

  I glanced at MacGregor before answering. His nod confirmed that we could trust Maureen to be discreet. “It’s probably best not to say anything about this to anyone until we’ve done more investigating, but it looks as if the kidnapper was an athlete from a local college. Most likely on the track team.”

  “When you came home, did you notice a car parked in front of the Elliots’?” MacGregor asked.

  “The same question the cops asked me. No, unfortunately. I mean, there may have been. There are a lot of cars parked on the street so I wouldn’t have noticed if there was one unless it was unusual.”

  “Did you see any cars driving off?”

  “No. I mean, I passed some cars as I was driving along Pleasant Beach Drive but I didn’t see anything unusual. No one speeding or anything like that.”

  “You don’t remember seeing a kid in a brown sweatshirt?”

  “’Fraid not. How do you know he was wearing one?”

  “We were in my kitchen when it happened. We saw him take the baby. I chased him until he disappeared along the path. He must have hit your neighbors’ backyard first, then yours, then your other neighbors’. Came out to the street via the Elliots’ backyard.”

  “Shit. This is freaky. He actually ran through the Elliots’ yard? Was anyone home?”

  “Jillian, but unfortunately she was listening to music and didn’t hear anything.”

  “Yeah, she does like to blare it when she can. But isn’t that weird? That he would risk going through their yard? Like if someone had been there or been looking out, they could have seen him with Ally?”

  “Definitely weird.” I had to agree with her. “Unless he’d been watching and knew the only one home was Jillian and he heard her music blaring. Or if he knew that was the only way he could get through to the street.”

  “You mean if he knew he couldn’t get to the street because we have our gates locked?”

  “Exactly.”

  “There’s another possibility.” MacGregor had pulled himself away from the kitchen door to join us.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Maybe he had not intended to escape that way. Maybe he had planned to run directly through the park to the street.”

  “But he saw us coming and changed his plans and headed away from us.”

  MacGregor gripped me by the shoulders. “Do you remember, McNair? When you looked up and spotted him, was he going in any particular direction at that point?”

  I closed my eyes for a moment to think. “No. When I looked up, he had just pushed Shelby to the ground and was going for the baby.”

  “Precisely. And by the time he got her from the buggy, we were outside, running toward him.”

  “And since we were closer to the street than he was, he took off and ran through the park to the path that led to the four homes. And since the only one he knew well was the Elliots’—”

  “He didn’t even try to get through any others.” MacGegor was getting good at finishing my sentences for me.

  “Wow, I get to see how you guys work and solve crimes.” Maureen had been watching us like a tennis match. “Cool.”

  Very cool, I thought, as long as we solved the crime in time to rescue Ally and get her home before it was too late.

  Chapter 3

  “What were you looking at in Sharkey’s backyard?” I asked MacGregor. We were back in his kitchen, the very spot where we had been when this all started that morning. Was that just this morning? No wonder I was confused. Enough had happened to easily fill several days.

  “Tomato?” he asked.

  I nodded as I sliced the turkey and placed it on the whole wheat bread.

  He snatched a plump tomato from the fridge, washed and sliced it and added it to our sandwiches. Having missed breakfast, we were both starving and as much as we wanted to get back to the Elliots, we needed nourishment beyond the tea and cookies we’d had at Charlie’s. And we needed coffee. Thrifty lass that I prided myself on being, I grabbed the decanter and poured the cold coffee that we had missed this morning into two cups to reheat in the microwave.

  When MacGregor saw what I was doing, he shook his head, opened the microwave, retrieved the cups, poured out the stale coffee, and made a fresh pot. “A while back Charlie had installed a surveillance camera at the back of Sharkey’s property,” he finally answered my question. “I was looking to see if it was still there.”

  “Was it?”

  “Unfortunately no. I didn’t think it was or Charlie would have mentioned it sooner and we might have more information on our runner.”

  We savored our coffee and gulped down our sandwiches in silence, anxious to return to Charlie’s. We met up with him as he was crossing the street.

  “Did the police find anything?”

  “Not so far. They’re still at it. I got tired of shielding myself from the senior detective’s glares and thought it best to leave. Jack and Rochelle will fill me in once they’re done.”

  “I’m surprised Ben told you anything about the case,” I said. “Not that we wouldn’t have figured out where the runner had gone ourselves.”

  “He wants to solve the case too, darlin’. There’s a wee bairn involved. Ben wants her back as much as we do. He just believes in solving cases a wee bit differently from the way we do.”

  “Logic?”

  “Aye and statistics.”

  “Which is why he’s stuck on the concept of the parents being involved?” MacGregor asked.

  “Exactly.”

  “Well, we’ve discovered some things of our own,” MacGregor said. “We can fill you in at the house, and you can choose whether or not to share it with Blaine.”

  “We’ll share anything that might be helpful,” Charlie said. “We all have the same goal. It might actually be good that we look at things differently. It’s less likely we’ll miss the same things.”

  I slipped my unoccupied arm through my father’s, wondering how I had been so lucky as to have the two most wonderful men in the world on either side of me.

  Anxiety was still evident in their eyes when Shelby and Carter looked up at us as we opened Charlie’s front door. “Wh-what’s happening?” Shelby asked.

  Charlie quickly assured her that there was no bad news. Actually there was no news.

  When Josh and Jillian emerged from the kitchen with a fresh pot of tea, I flashed him a smile of appreciation. But judging from the way he was looking at Jillian, keeping her company was not a hardship.

  “Do you want some?” he asked the three of us.

  Charlie accepted while MacGregor and I declined. Jillian refilled the tea cups on the table and Josh went back into the kitchen for another cup.

  Carter glanced down at his watch and I realized he was probably counting the minutes since his daughter had disappeared. I suddenly felt guilty for taking time to gobble down that sandwich. Every minute mattered.

  “We prepared that list for you.�
�� Carter handed Charlie a sheet of Josh’s binder paper.

  Charlie scanned the list of names. “People who have been in your yard or home?”

  Carter nodded. “I categorized them. I can get you all their phone numbers once we go back home.”

  “That would be helpful.” Charlie handed me the sheet of paper and gave me that hopeful look that said he believed that simply by seeing the names, I would be able to identify the kidnapper. Dream on, Charlie.

  I scanned the list of his friends, her friends, their friends, Jillian’s friends, neighbors, hired help, and business associates. There were at least forty names on the list. What I did pick up was that this list was not going to give us any answers. I did not believe that the kidnapper’s name was on it.

  When I shook my head, Charlie asked, “Is there another list? Of people who might be angry at you or envious of you?”

  Carter and Shelby looked at each other. He was the one to answer. “We couldn’t think of anyone,” he answered.

  “Not a single person?” Charlie urged. “Someone who is jealous of your relationship perhaps?”

  They both shook their heads with certainty.

  “What about you, Jillian?” I glanced across the room at the girl whose expression had remained solemn throughout our conversation.

  “Can I think of anyone who is upset with my mom and Carter? I don’t really know their friends that well.”

  “I meant, is there anyone who is upset with or jealous of you.”

  “Oh, no! At least I hope not!”

  “Jillian is very popular at school,” Shelby said.

  Reason enough for jealousy. “Which unfortunately may not be a good thing.”

  “I’m not that popular, Mom.” She looked at her mother with a bewildered expression on her face as if wondering what reality her mother lived in. “I mean, I have a group of friends and get along with kids okay, but I’m not one of the real popular kids, so no, there aren’t a whole lot of girls who are all jealous of me and sit around scheming to hurt me.” She swallowed hard and I knew she was thinking of Ally. “Besides, if someone wanted to hurt me, I doubt they’d steal my baby sister. They’d probably spread some rumor about me or something.”