Regardless, I’d suggest that Charlie do some digging to find out the financial situations of all the runners that we were yet to cross off our list, just in case a ransom call did come in.
Shane Brubeck. No relationship to the pianist-composer. Although apparently he was a player. Hmm, definitely one runner I would encourage Josh and Matt to keep Holly away from.
He was different from Brad Warner. He didn’t have that air of cockiness about him, or that underlying layer of insecurity. He was secure all right, and he kept the cockiness hidden beneath the little boy charm.
“I thought we were done answering questions,” he said, as he politely but reluctantly welcomed us into his room.
Same stale alcohol odor, not quite as bad. He had thought to open the window. And he had picked up his clothes and tossed them in a pile in the corner. I was seriously considering suggesting to colleges everywhere that they create a new course of study which involved closets and hangers.
We explained that we had been hired by the family to find their baby.
“Okay, sure, if I can be of any help. Ask away. They must be going crazy. I can see why they’d hire you. Not that the cops aren’t doing their job, but I hear the first few hours in a kidnapping are the critical ones.” He was the only one of the three who showed any sympathy for the family. Interesting. I found myself questioning if it was sincere or part of the charm factor.
MacGregor asked similar questions. “Why did you miss the event?”
“Hung over, I’m afraid. I don’t usually drink that much.” When he smiled, he at least had the consideration to appear guilt-ridden. The dimples helped. “But there was this girl—And she liked to drink. Man could she put ‘em away.”
“So, you got drunk,” MacGregor said. “Did you bring her back to your room with you?”
Shane knew what the real question was. He was startled and bewildered by it. “Does my screw—sleeping with a girl have something to do with the kidnapping?”
MacGregor’s smile oozed charm. “We like to get to know our suspects.”
“Suspects! I’m a suspect?”
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t do anything.” Panic had replaced the charm. He was pacing now. “Do you think I did?”
“We don’t know.” I used my calm, motherly voice which seemed to help settle him down. “We’re only asking questions.”
“Okay, but do I have to answer the question about—the girl?”
“You don’t have to answer any of our questions,” MacGregor said honestly. “But it would be helpful if you did.”
“Knowing if I slept with a girl would be helpful?”
“How a man treats a woman says a lot about the kind of person he is.” He stared at Shane with his professor glare. “It tells us how they’re apt to treat other people, what they’re capable of, whether or not they’re likely to have kidnapped a baby.”
The boy blinked twice and vigorously shook his head, then realized his mistake, obviously still feeling the impact of too much alcohol. “Okay, well, I walked her back to her dorm. She took me to her room. We did it there. She wanted to. It wasn’t like I forced her or anything. I would have slept there, but her roommate came home. She’d been at the party too so she was pretty out of it. I figured I’d better get back to my room so I walked back here and crashed.”
He massaged his head for a moment before continuing. “I thought I’d be okay for the fair and the demo. I feel real bad because I was supposed to run the fifteen hundred and the steeplechase. There were only a few of us running it. One of the guys was out of town. That meant they only had four guys, but the last thing I was up to was running, let alone leaping over obstacles and water jumps. But I heard the girl showed up for it.”
The girl he slept with? Did she have a name? The real question was, did he know it.
MacGregor wondered too apparently. “The girl’s name?”
“Mary.”
Give the boy some credit.
“I think she was better off than me ‘cause some of the guys told me they’d seen her at the event. She was reading a poem or something for the English department, but then she came by to see me run. I guess she can really hold her liquor.” He looked from one of us to the other. “Any other questions?”
“Where were you yesterday morning?”
“Friday? Sleeping in. I’d pulled an all-nighter. Had a big paper due. I took it across campus to my professor, turned it in, and came back here to sleep.”
“Did anyone see you?”
“Yeah, my professor and the department secretary.”
“Time?”
“Just after seven.”
Early. He could easily have made it to West Seattle afterwards to kidnap a baby. “What about your roommate? Did he see you later? Do you know if he came in when you were sleeping?’
“No, he left for Spokane Thursday night.”
“Well, thank you for answering our questions.” MacGregor reached out to shake his hand.
We walked back to his car in silence. We were both processing the three interviews. When we were sitting in the front seat of the Rover, we looked over at each other hopefully. Unfortunately there was nothing.
“Frankly I don’t see any of them doing it.” He was the first to speak. “I doubt any of them was avoiding the event because they’re guilty or drinking to drown themselves in alcohol out of guilt. The two were clearly hung over. And the other one, Drew—I don’t think he was faking, do you?”
“Hard to say. But then it’s hard to imagine their committing this crime. Especially without a motive.” I pressed Charlie’s name on my cell.
He didn’t answer which told me he was still talking to Coach West.
“We could have Jack and Rochelle check on their financial situations.” MacGregor suggested.
I nodded and he dialed.
“Already done,” Rochelle’s deep husky voice came through the speaker of MacGregor’s cell. We could hear her clicking away on her computer. “Started running checks on all the kids right away. Ah, here it is. Names again?”
MacGregor gave her the names of the three boys. Brad Warner came from a wealthy family. Drew Reed had plenty of money to get him through college. His parents had created a college fund. He had also inherited a house and what money they had in retirement and savings accounts. Life insurance policies were in his name as well. In other words, the boy was in good financial shape.
On the other hand, our charmer, Shane Brubeck, was scraping by. He had six brothers and sisters. Only one of his older brothers had attended college. He was basically living on college loans.
“We’ll take that issue more into consideration if we get a ransom demand,” Rochelle said. “But right now, money doesn’t appear to be the motive. Unless, of course, we’re looking at a baby-selling ring.”
I winced at that thought. “Or if there is someone behind this who paid the runner to take the baby for them personally.” Somehow it felt better than someone’s kidnapping a baby to sell.
“Maybe we do need to look at the money aspect more seriously. Blaine is so fixated on the family being involved. He’s already questioned everyone personally who works with Carter Elliot, and he’s asking friends and neighbors to tell him everything they know about Shelby Elliot and their relationship.”
MacGregor dismissed Blaine’s strategy. “Are there any other runners who are short of money?”
“Give me a minute. Track and field team only?”
“Aye. For now.”
After a minute of her scanning her computer, she said, “Five others are receiving student loans.”
“Who?”
She read the names. Only the last one was familiar. “Rob Carlyle.”
“The team captain?”
“Looks like it. He does have a scholarship but apparently he needs loans to supplement it.”
Both MacGregor and Rochelle checked the names against the list of kids with alibis. All but Shane Brubeck had one.
&
nbsp; “Rob has one but it’s questionable.”
“Why?”
“He and his roommate claimed to be out running together. It’s never a good thing when they alibi each other.”
“His roommate is on the team too?”
“No, he’s a soccer player. They run together though.”
“Is that the alibi Jack mentioned earlier as being weak?”
“Yeah, it is.”
We thanked her for her help, and she filled us in on what the police had found—more false leads. Blaine was grumpier than ever.
“What about the kid that Josh said was off the team because of academic probation?”
“Nothing yet. Jack’s working on it.”
“Please let us know if he finds out anything.”
“Will do, Jenny.”
“Maybe it’s time to look at the soccer team as well,” I told MacGregor.
“Aye, we know they’d have to be endurance runners which they are. And a lot of the players fit the size of the runner.”
“But?”
“But I have a strong hunch it’s someone on the running team. I’m just missing something.”
“Maybe you need to take a break from it.”
He leaned across the console to kiss me. “Should I try your technique? Ride a ferry, solve a mystery?”
“Are you mocking my methods?”
“Och, never, lassie. I would have to be daft to do such a thing. Particularly because of your excellent success rate.” He pulled back and looked at me. “What is it, McNair?”
“I’m worried. Yes, I’ve solved murder mysteries utilizing my somewhat unusual methods, and I’ve revealed unfaithful spouses, fraud, deceit, and betrayal, but this is different, MacGregor. A baby’s life is at stake.”
“Have you forgotten that you rescued Josh from that dismal island, and saved his life by solving that case in time?”
That was true, I had rescued him from Three Dog Island as my friend Sasha called it. But Josh hadn’t been kidnapped. We had him hidden in my Anamcara Island cottage, safe and sound from the people who were after him.
“We’re only on day two here, McNair.”
“I know that, but when it’s a kidnapping, a day feels like a week. Or more.”
“Let’s see what Charlie’s learned. Then we can go from there.” He started the car and backed out of the parking space just as my cell rang.
“Charlie?”
“Aye, Jenny. Have you learned anything?”
I filled him in quickly, anxious to hear what he had discovered.
“I wish you’d been with me, lassie. I’ve never seen anyone so nervous.”
“Do you think he’s behind it?”
“Hard to say. But I think it would be wise if you met his wife.”
“And how am I going to do that?”
“Church tomorrow?”
“Church?”
“Aye, Manny’s been tailing her and she rarely leaves the house except to go to the market or to her church where she volunteers. She’s attends faithfully every Sunday. Apparently she’s on the greeting committee. I’ve arranged it so she’s assigned to new people tomorrow.”
“You’ve already set this up?” Of course he had.
His silence meant the affirmative.
“Should MacGregor go with me?”
“No, I think it’s best if you go alone. She’ll be more willing to open up to another woman about wanting a baby and all that.”
“Okay, then. I’ll go alone. Now, I’d like to go home and spend the rest of the day with Holly.” I glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “Not that there’s much left of the day.”
“Good idea. Matt called, said she’s home alone. As soon as I leave here, I’ll go over to Malcolm’s instead of home so you can have some time alone with her.”
“Thanks, Charlie.” Perfect. I would actually have a moment alone with my daughter. Finally. So why was my stomach suddenly feeling the way it had when I’d entered Brad Warner’s toxic dorm room?
She was dressed in tight jeans and a red V-neck sweater that seemed incongruous with the little girl whose hair was swept up in matching pig tails on either side of her head.
She was my baby. Was I losing her? Clearly I had kidnapped babies on the brain. A dismal thought pattern but under the circumstances, necessary.
“I’d like to see Dad while I’m here.”
“Of course you would.” What did I expect? I suppose a three-minute conversation without her bringing up her father would have been nice.
Her look was one of surprise. I hoped mine wasn’t. “You don’t mind?”
Of course I did. “Of course not.”
She studied me for a long moment. Thank goodness she couldn’t read me as well as I could read her. Yet.
“Do you want to borrow my car?”
“I asked Matt if he’d take me. Maybe later in the week. Maybe Friday. Dad’s taking the day off work.”
“Okay.”
“Okay then.” She walked out of the room, directly to the bedroom that had once been mine, beginning with my fourteenth birthday when I had moved in with my father, escaping my overbearing, unhappy mother.
I blinked hard against any revealing tears. She did not need to bear witness to her mother’s pain. Jillian was doing enough of that for all children of mothers on the block. I wanted something different for Holly. I wanted her to find strength in my strength, an independent spirit in mine, even if it meant exhibiting that independence by cutting the strings that ran between her and her mother.
When I heard Tchaikovsky flowing out from under her door, I realized the conversation was over and I had been dismissed. Three minutes. I’d had three minutes with my daughter. Maybe I shouldn’t have complained—even in my mind—that it had included the subject of her father.
I slipped my arms into my fisherman’s knit sweater to ward off the damp chill in the air, and I made my way across the street toward MacGregor’s. I stopped for a moment adjacent to the park, the park that had swallowed up a wee baby.
How did that happen? In less than a second lives had been changed. A child was lost, a mother and father and sister were left grieving.
Maybe I was losing Holly, but it was a slow process that had begun years ago when she had turned sixteen or maybe fourteen. It was different. She was alive and well. I was losing her to her independent nature, to herself, at the appropriate time in a young woman’s life.
I hadn’t lost her to a stranger long before her time to become independent. I glanced down the street toward the Elliot home. Five more days until Thanksgiving. Had they done their grocery shopping? Decorated with autumn leaves and colors? I knew the answer. Right now they weren’t feeling very much gratitude. We had to find their precious baby and bring her home to her family. And we had to do it now.
Chapter 9
I was dressed for church. MacGregor was smiling as he lay across the bed watching me brush my hair.
“Do you mind?” I turned and glared at him.
“Hmm? Mind what?” He feigned innocence . . . and ignorance.
“You’re distracting me. Can’t you think of something to do?”
“Och, aye, I can think of many things I’d like to do, darlin’.” His lustful expression told me exactly what those many things were.
“Something that doesn’t involve me.”
He groaned and sat up in defeat. “I’ve plenty to do. Charlie has a list waiting for me.”
“So, go see Charlie.”
He smiled and crooked his finger and patted his leg. Before I could assess the wisdom of falling for his simple seductive gesture, I had walked over to him, accepted his invitation to sit on his lap, and was kissing him. It was Sunday, what normally was our day together. Alone.
When he released me, I sighed and he kissed me lightly on the forehead, once again reading my thoughts. “We’ll have plenty of Sundays together, lass. A lifetime.”
“I know, it’s just—” I pushed myself off of his lap, once agai
n feeling guilty for putting my desires first.
“It’s not as if we expected to have today together anyway, with Holly being home.”
“True.” But obviously that wasn’t working out either. “Okay, I’m leaving now. Before you distract me any more.”
“Good idea.” He squeezed me in his arms and kissed me lightly on the mouth and sent me on my way.
Just as I pulled into the church parking lot, my cell phone rang. I smiled. Without looking down, I found the answer button, pushed it, along with the speaker button, and said, “You’re missing me already?”
The laugh was not MacGregor’s. “Hey, Jenny. You really are in love.”
So in love that my ability to detect and identify phone callers was off. “Scott?” I pulled into a parking space and grabbed my cell and pressed it to my ear.
“Are you driving?”
“Not anymore. What’s up?”
He chuckled. “I’m missing you too, but don’t tell your fiancé.”
“You don’t have to worry. He’s not the jealous type.”
“All men are the jealous type when they’re in love.”
I didn’t dispute that. But I could say the same for women. I resisted launching into a discourse about MacGregor’s virtues and how he had patiently waited for me through my twenty-year marriage.
“What are you doing Friday night?”
Besides hoping to spend time with my daughter? Oh, right, that was not going to happen. She would be with her father. “No plans at this point.”
“I’m having a housewarming party—just moved into a new place. I thought you and Charlie and Malcolm might like to come.”
“We’d love to,” I accepted for the three of us. “Unless we’re in the throes of solving a crime or two.”
“Well, Judy and George Green are invited if you need an excuse.”
I laughed. “We do take time off.” At least we would once we found Ally Eliott which I assumed we would well before Friday. And if not, perhaps Scott could shed some more light on the unusual Elliot-Rallings relationships. “We’ll be there. Would it be okay if we brought along Josh, the teenage boy who’s living with us?” Matt and Holly would be busy with Joe, and I didn’t want Josh to feel left out.
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