Running on Envy

  “What else?” I studied Charlie carefully. There was more news to tell.

  “Aye, there is indeed. Judy Green was almost struck by a car.”

  “Oh my God! Is she okay?”

  “Turns out she’s fine. It happened shortly after I left George this morning. We were going over the surveillance tapes at his office parking lot. Judy was going to a friend’s for brunch. Crossing the street, a car came out of nowhere, almost nailed her. Lucky for her, one of her stiletto heels had caught in the gutter as she stepped off the curb, caused her to step back just as the car came blasting toward her.”

  A pair of those crazy heels I had observed at the Greens’ party had possibly saved a life. “Shit,” I mumbled under my breath. Not a word I used often, but the one that seemed most appropriate at the moment. “Any witnesses see the car?”

  “None. It was on a quiet street. I’m afraid she was too shocked and hysterical to notice anything other than that it was a silver car. Big.”

  “What about your guys who are tailing the miscellaneous members of the Green family and Judy?”

  “Unfortunately I only have one man on her so he’s not round the clock. He took a break at the worst possible moment.”

  “And the suspects?

  “Mike and Val were at home. Cat and Casey were being interrogated at the police station.”

  That left Marsha. I waited for Charlie to finish.

  “Marsha was the only one who was out and about. She was at her health club working out. And her car is white.”

  “So either it isn’t a Green,” MacGregor said. “Or they hired someone to do their dirty work.”

  “Which they could have been doing all along.” Charlie sighed in exasperation. He ran his fingers though his flock of grey hair so hard, I thought I spotted strands flying in all directions. He was in a mood, Charlie was. It came with not being able to solve a crime as quickly as he liked.

  “It’s going to be okay, Charlie,” I said. “We’ll figure it out—who took Ally and who’s after the Greens.”

  “Will we, lass? Will we? Right now we’ve got bugger all!”

  I stepped back. MacGregor didn’t. “Who pissed in your porridge, Charlie?”

  My father chuckled, then shook his head. “Sorry. What we really need are bodyguards. I wish to hell George would stop dithering about and hire some. I’m afraid I don’t understand this male pride when it comes to bodyguards.”

  Nor did I. Unless it was not pride but money. He had lost a good amount, after all.

  “It’s strange don’t you think? George’s car is keyed, but Judy is practically run over,” MacGregor said.

  “Confirms our suspicion that they’re really after her, but don’t want them to know that. I’ve got two of my blokes staying close now though, alternating so she’s covered at all times. But I think George is getting closer to hiring a couple of bodyguards until we figure this mess out. All the same, I’m assigning a man to him. He’ll just have to keep his distance so George doesn’t notice him.”

  “And if he does?”

  “Not sure I give a damn anymore.”

  “Are you okay, McNair?” MacGregor’s arm wrapped around me but it didn’t quell the shivers.

  I shook my head and leaned into him again.

  “What is it, Jenny?” Charlie’s look was as concerned as I’d ever seen it. The light-headedness had returned, and apparently I was as white as a sheet. He pushed a chair toward me and MacGregor helped me sit down.

  “Does it have to do with Judy? Do you know who’s trying to kill her?”

  Again I shook my head.

  “What then?

  I took a couple deep breaths before answering them. “I’m really not sure, except that when you first said there’s a new development, my stomach felt as if it were riding a roller coaster. And when you said, ‘they’ve found—‘ my mind went directly to Ally.”

  “You thought they’d found her,” Charlie said. “And she wasn’t alive.”

  I nodded and attempted to suppress the sensation. “It’s probably just fear.”

  “Aye, most likely,” MacGregor said.

  I took another deep breath and tried to exhale but it seemed to catch in my chest. MacGregor rubbed my back, helping to soothe away the distress. It was the first time that I’d felt that something might have happened to Ally. Or was going to.

  “You said you’ve got someone watching Judy Green around the clock, right?” I asked, my mind suddenly switching from the innocent baby to the flashy woman.

  “I do now. They’re staying out of sight but at least it’s something. Why?”

  I shook my head again. “I think they’re going to try again. Very soon.”

  Charlie nodded. He took my intuition seriously. “I’ll call George and tell him he’d sure as hell better hire a bodyguard for his wife, even if he doesn’t want one for himself. And I’ll keep my men on her even if he agrees.”

  “Good.” I took a sip of the brandy MacGregor had poured me. It was becoming a habit. The warming effects were hard to beat. “And,” I said before he could press George Green’s number into his cell, “we’ve got to find Ally. We’ve got to find her now.”

  He nodded. “I know, lassie.”

  “And Charlie?”

  “Aye?”

  “Maybe it’s time we take a harder look at Carter Elliot.”

  Chapter 11

  I rolled over and reached for MacGregor. I could feel his wide awake energy as if several megabytes of data had already been processed before he even opened his eyes. Before I could say anything, he shushed me and sat up. He was deep in thought. When he yanked on a pair of jeans, pulled on the rugby jersey that had been resting on the chair all night, and hurried into the kitchen, I knew exactly where he was going.

  It looked as if the ferry boat ride had done us both some good after all. While MacGregor woke up with the runner on his mind, I woke up with Marsha Green on mine.

  I didn’t bother looking at the clock when I pressed Charlie’s number on my cell. He’d be up early. He’d be getting Matt and Holly up and fed before they accompanied Josh to the track.

  “I think I need to talk to Marsha Green again,” I told Charlie. “Can you check in with your man and let me know where she is?”

  “You believe she’s behind it then?”

  “No, the opposite, Charlie. I don’t think she is, which is why I need to talk to her.” Actually, I wasn’t sure why I needed to talk to her. I trusted that I’d figure it out by the time I saw her.

  I slipped into a pair of tan corduroy slacks, a brown turtleneck, and my favorite fisherman’s knit sweater that Charlie had brought back for me on his last trip home to Scotland. I tapped on Josh’s door to make sure he was awake before scrambling some eggs and popping in some toast. Intrigued with the puppies, Rocky accompanied me back to the kitchen, intrigued with the puppies. They had been given a clean bill of health from the vet, so he could sniff them to his heart’s content. Surprisingly, despite his looking like a horse from their perspective, they were as smitten with Rocky as he was with them. Father figure, no doubt.

  While breakfast was cooking at one end of the kitchen, I cleaned up the mess the puppies had made at the other end. Wisely, we had stopped at a pet store and picked up more than just puppy food. The quilted pads had come in very handy. The dears had stuck to doing their business on the pads. Of course, it would have been hard not to, considering that, other than their wooden sleeping box that MacGregor had thrown together, we’d covered their entire space with the pads.

  “Where’s Mac?” I deciphered Josh’s words through his yawn.

  I nodded toward the park.

  Josh scooped up the most vociferous puppy. “Turns out it’s a good thing you went for that ferry ride, hunh?”

  “In more ways than one.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I had a revelation—not sure what it is yet, but I know who I need to talk to. And Mac”—I looked up again as he was heading back toward the ho
use—”has figured out something.”

  “What?”

  “How the runner got so far out ahead of him, I suspect.”

  MacGregor slipped through the kitchen door without any of the furry bundles escaping. The smile on his face was unmistakable. Success.

  I stopped buttering toast and waited. Josh stopped nuzzling the puppy and waited.

  “Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” I said. “How did the runner do it?”

  MacGregor stood there shaking his head in disbelief. “I don’t know how it took me so long to figure it out. He’s a hurdler. That’s how he gained so much distance on me. He didn’t stay on the path. Actually, considering his stamina, agility, and endurance, my guess is he’s not just a hurdler but he runs the steeplechase. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be that much of a challenge for him to leap over those hedges and stone wall.”

  I felt the toxic air release from my body. When a lightness overcame me, I realized that the hope I had been feeling until yesterday had just been restored. Ally would be found or returned very soon.

  “At the same time as carrying the baby?” Josh asked in amazement.

  “Och, aye, they’re not that high and Ally is a wee bairn. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Didn’t one of the lads we questioned mention that he’s a steeplechaser?”

  “I think so. Shane Brubeck?” I said.

  “Aye, that’s the one.”

  “Was it the ferry ride that helped you figure it out?” Josh knew all about me and my mind-clearing ferry rides.

  “I suppose it was, circuitously, that is.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I think it was more from stepping back and forth over this puppy barricade.” MacGregor stepped over the subject of his enlightenment and headed for the counter where he kept the list of names. He then turned to his computer where he pulled up a list he’d recently received from the athletic director, revealing all the students and their specific activities. “Okay, laddie, we’ve narrowed it down considerably now,” he told Josh.

  I turned off the eggs and went to look over MacGregor’s shoulder. “If we narrow it by those without a satisfactory alibi, and steeplechasers only, there are three.” He reached for a pen and circled the names in bright blue ink: Rob Carlyle, captain of the team who had a partial scholarship; Drew Reed, shy kid with stomach flu and hot girlfriend and plenty of money; and Shane Brubeck, charming lady’s man with six siblings and no money.

  “Shouldn’t we consider hurdlers too?” I asked. “They’re good at jumping over hurdles, after all.”

  “Aye, but they’re shorter distances. It’s doubtful they’d have the stamina. This guy had endurance.”

  I was beginning to grasp the concept of various distance runners. “But I thought Drew said he was a long distance runner.”

  “He is. He runs the five thousand meter race, as does Rob, but Harvey’s list shows that they both also run the steeplechase.”

  “Rob?” Josh looked at us in horror. “But he’s a really nice guy.”

  MacGregor put his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “He may not be the one, but keep your mind open as well as your eyes, laddie. We don’t want to miss anything. We’re really close now. We’ve got to get that wee bairn home to her family.”

  He was right about that. And once we had our runner, we had a good chance of finding out who was behind this, who had put a young college athlete up to kidnapping a baby.

  After Josh left with a promise to convey MacGregor’s revelation to Matt and Holly, I called Charlie.

  “What is it, lassie? Josh said you had something you wanted to tell me. Malcolm figured something out?”

  “He did. Why don’t you come with us to the Elliots’. We’ll tell you on the way.”

  “See you in a minute.”

  After I had hung up and grabbed my navy pea coat, we started down the stairs. The press must have taken the day off or perhaps we were ahead of their schedule. Happily no reporters were there to hound us. We stopped adjacent to the park to wait for Charlie when we spotted him closing his door behind him. We told him what we had discovered and he filled me in on Marsha Green’s schedule. Apparently she frequented the coffee shop around the corner from her office at the same time every day. I grabbed MacGregor’s hand and looked at the time on his wristwatch. I had two hours.

  “Eventful morning,” Charlie said. “Anything else?”

  “Actually, there is. I think that Greg Rallings, and not Carter Elliot, is Ally’s father.” I quickly explained my reasoning.

  Charlie’s eyebrows rose slowly. He did not doubt my observation or deduction skills or my intuition for even a moment. “Which means that the opposite of what I had originally thought could be true.” His forehead wrinkled as he slipped into deep thought.

  “What did you originally think to be true?” MacGregor asked.

  Charlie blew out his breath. “I thought perhaps that Carter had had an affair and the mistress was angry when he broke it off and took revenge by kidnapping Ally. But I dismissed that concept swiftly once he put my mind at ease by demonstrating his devotion to Shelby.”

  “And now you’re thinking Shelby was the one to have the affair—with her ex-husband,” I said.

  “Aye, and if Carter is aware that the bairn is not his, he might—”

  “Our thoughts as well,” MacGregor said. “Which means, we will all be observing him quite differently today.”

  “Aye,” Charlie concurred. “That we will.”

  Jillian answered the door. She was still in her pajamas—poodles this time. My mind flashed to the puppies in our kitchen. Our kitchen. I was becoming more comfortable referring to MacGregor’s home as mine, I realized. Our kitchen that was filled with puppies. Perhaps when this was all over, we would give her one, with her mother and stepfather’s permission, of course.

  “Did you find her?” Jillian asked when she saw the three of us standing on her front porch.

  “Not yet, but we’re getting very close,” I assured her. “We wanted to give your family an update.”

  “I’ll get them.” She motioned for us to come into the living room which we did.

  Greg arrived a moment ahead of Shelby and Carter. He was definitely staying there as I’d suspected he would.

  “You’ve learned something. What is it?” Shelby asked. She had a disheveled look about her although her soft golden hair was somewhat brushed. Perhaps she had run a brush through it without looking in the mirror. Could she not face herself? Was she still blaming herself for the disappearance of her baby? Carter too looked exhausted in his jeans and sweater that was bunched up because he had failed to pull it all the way down in back. Greg wore a similar outfit, and was equally unshaven. Neither looked as if they’d bothered to comb their hair.

  I kept my eyes peeled on Carter when MacGregor answered Shelby. “I finally realized how the runner gained so much distance on me.”

  “How?” Carter asked anxiously.

  “The lad is a hurdler, or more likely a steeplechaser. I believe he leaped over the hedges and the stone wall in the park.”

  Jillian was the first to grasp the implications of this knowledge. “Does that mean you know which runner it is?”

  “Not quite,” Charlie answered. “But we’re close. We’ve narrowed it down to three of the runners.”

  I continued to watch Carter. Not a flinch or a single look of concern. Only hopeful anticipation, identical to Shelby and Greg’s.

  “Will you be talking to them this morning?” Shelby asked.

  “Jenny’s children, Matt and Holly, went with Josh to the track this morning. They’ll be finding out as much as they can. And two of us will go over there shortly as well to question the three boys again.”

  “There are only three steeplechase runners—or whatever it’s called—on the team?” Jillian asked. She seemed sharper than the adults did this morning. No wonder. She’d probably been the only one to get any sleep in three nights.

  “There
are more,” MacGregor explained. “We’d already narrowed it down quite a bit by their sizes and by their speed and endurance. But now with this new theory and the fact that these three did not have a solid alibi for Friday morning we’re able to further cull the list.”

  “We might have been able to narrow it down some more, to only two, had there been a ransom demand,” Charlie said. “Although we are keeping in mind that someone most likely paid the young lad to do this. So money could still be the runner’s motive.”

  “We just wanted to stop by and give you that news.” I glanced from adult to adult, ending with Carter.

  “We appreciate it very much,” he said. “And thank you, Malcolm. For adding fifty thousand dollars to the reward money.”

  MacGregor accepted the hand that was extended to him. “I only want to see the wee bairn returned to her home.”

  “Do you know these runners?” Jillian asked. “I mean, have you met them already?” She shivered as if just the thought of our meeting the villain gave her chills. “Do you have suspect which one would have done this?”

  “We have met them all,” I said. “We met Rob at the college fair. His only alibi was his roommate who supposedly was running with him on Friday morning, but because they were each other’s alibis, we’re not counting on them.”

  “And the other two?” Shelby asked.

  “Neither of them showed up at the fair, so Malcolm and I went to their dorm rooms. One was sick with the flu, Drew, but he’s in good financial shape so he’s under the least suspicion, I suppose, but the other boy, Shane, definitely needs money.”

  I looked at MacGregor and then Charlie before continuing. “They’re all suspects at this point. If we were certain money was behind it, our attention would probably shift to Rob and Shane, the two who are more in need of money, but we’re going to focus on all three of them.”

  “So you might find Ally”—Jillian swallowed hard as her eyes filled with tears—”as soon as today?”

  “It’s not impossible. We’ll certainly do our best.”