by B. J Daniels
JJ pulled the last of her clean underwear from her duffel and her cleanest pair of jeans and T-shirt. The rest of her wardrobe was in the back of her car, now at some wrecking yard. Her vehicle was totaled, she had no clothes and if she didn’t call work, she would be fired and have no job.
Things could be worse, she reminded herself. She could be dead right now. She pulled out her phone and called the agency, asking for a few days off because her car had been wrecked. She never took any time off, needing the money. Her boss asked if she was all right, told her to take as much time as she needed and she disconnected.
At the front window, she looked out, but didn’t see the judge and Thorn. She was about to step out, when her phone rang. She saw that it was the same number that had called last time.
“Geneva?” she asked as she answered.
“You’re not at work.”
Did the woman really think she would be at work after everything she’d been through?
“Of course I’m not at work. Geneva, I have to see you. Where are you?”
“I only have a minute. You need to leave town. Do you hear me?” There was fear in her voice. “You aren’t safe.”
“Someone tampered with the brake fluid in my car. I was almost killed.”
“What?” She heard what sounded like true horror in the woman’s voice before Geneva began to cry. “I never wanted any of this to happen. You have to believe me.”
“I’m not the only one in danger. Tell me where you are. I’ll find a way to get there. I can help you.”
“No one can help me now. Save yourself. Leave town.” The young woman was sobbing hysterically. And then she was gone.
JJ stood holding the phone for a moment. Geneva was scared, and not just for herself. She’d called to warn JJ, but did she know that she was also in trouble? JJ believed that the woman hadn’t known about the brakes being tampered with. How much else didn’t Geneva know about?
Clearly, there was someone else involved in the kidnapping. Someone who was now calling the shots. Did Geneva realize that? Or did she think whoever she’d been partnered with was now trying to make things better?
Or did Geneva want the ten million dollars so badly that she couldn’t stop now? She wondered if the judge had heard from the kidnappers and what would happen once the kidnappers picked up the money.
JJ concentrated on the phone call, trying to remember what she’d heard in the background. An echo. She frowned. Some large building? Where could the woman be hiding? She thought of other places Geneva had gone with friends, places that JJ had made arrangements for them all to meet. She froze. She’d heard a noise in the background right before Geneva had broken the connection. It hadn’t registered at the time. The sound of a horn, the kind that was blown at the start of a sailboat race.
The cabin door opened. As Thorn stepped in, she rushed to him. “Geneva just called. I think I know where she is.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
ON THE DRIVE back to the Davenport estate, WT told himself that he couldn’t do anything else but advise Franklin to go through with the ransom drop. It was that or call in the authorities. Franklin’s number one priority was making sure that no harm came to Geneva—even if she was behind her own kidnapping.
What bothered him was what her long-range plan had been. This hadn’t been impulsive. It had been planned. But for how long? Given the number of people involved, including the stealing of an airplane, he suspected whoever was the mastermind had been plotting this for some time. He had little doubt that Jenny Jo Foster was part of the plan. It was why Geneva had left her phone in her bedroom, knowing it had a tracking device on it.
But he supposed Geneva might not be the only one who knew all of this. The boyfriend might know, along with many others. From what Thorn had told him, Franklin’s granddaughter talked freely about her personal life to not just her friends, but to a complete stranger at a travel agency while on the phone. So others could have known about JJ staying at Geneva’s house when she was gone. Also known about Ridge Brandemiller’s private plane at an airfield outside of town, if he and Geneva had some kind of relationship—if not personal, at least financial.
Anyone around the woman could have put the pieces together as a way to get money out of Franklin. Maybe Geneva thought it was her brainchild, but WT suspected she’d been encouraged to play along. It wouldn’t hurt her grandfather since the man was rich. Maybe he would realize how much he loved her and would give her back her credit cards and allowance, and she would give him back his ten million.
Or maybe she hadn’t been duped. Maybe she was up to her pretty little spoiled neck and calling all the shots. That’s what WT didn’t know. He knew Thorn was suspicious that Geneva was playing JJ. But then again, he was emotionally involved with the woman. Thorn couldn’t trust his instincts when it came to her.
WT thought of the young woman. She was pretty and definitely bright. She’d figured out a lot of this on her own. She was definitely capable and had proved to be a survivor. A woman like that could give Thorn a real run for his money. She could turn out to be a true heartbreaker.
He smiled to himself. JJ was definitely a woman who could bring Thorn back from where he’d been since his wife died. His smile faded from his lips. Bring him back but then possibly break his heart. WT wasn’t sure the man could survive another heartbreak. Or maybe Thorn was stronger than he thought. He certainly hoped so.
He thought of Helen. All these years apart. He wondered what she’d been up to in all that time. What did he really know about the woman she’d become? Maybe it was time he found out. While he was at it, he’d see what he could dig up on Curtis Hunt.
* * *
THORN AND JJ exchanged information as they climbed into Miguel’s car.
“When Geneva called, I heard a horn go off in the background—the kind they use to start a sailboat race. I checked on my phone. There is one at the north end of the lake today at Somers.”
“Then that’s where we’re headed,” Thorn said as he started the car and turned onto the highway.
“I can’t believe Franklin Davenport’s going to pay the ransom tonight,” JJ said. “Even if he suspects his granddaughter is behind it?”
Thorn shrugged. “Franklin is probably afraid not to in case Geneva has really been kidnapped and you were only a diversion.”
“A diversion,” she repeated, feeling her face heat with anger. “I could have been killed, not once, but twice.”
“And you aren’t out of the woods yet,” Thorn said. “After what happened last night.”
She shuddered as she remembered.
* * *
AS THEY NEARED SOMERS, she looked out at the lake, awestruck by the beauty of the colorful sails on the sleek boats against the backdrop of blue water and snowcapped mountains. She loved living here, she thought as her view was blocked by a good quarter mile of old abandoned buildings surrounded by a tall chain-link fence.
She noticed a weathered sign as they passed the gate into what appeared to be an old sawmill. She’d forgotten that Somers had been a company town back in its heyday, and the log mill had been the largest business around the area.
“What doesn’t Ridge Brandemiller and his brother own?” she said as the words on the weathered sign registered. “They even own that old log mill back there.”
Thorn was looking ahead to where Somers had shed its industrial past and reinvented itself. “She could be in any of those condos along the water or one of the huge lake houses,” Thorn said.
JJ looked out at the sailboats with their beautiful sails against the blue green of the water.
“I doubt she’s on one of the sailboats,” he said, following her gaze. “But I suppose she could be.” He slowed as they reached the congested area. “JJ, this is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
She looked around, trying to imagine where Geneva might b
e hiding out. Her grandfather had cut off most of her money. She’d rented the house on the lake for a week, but after Johnny Baker’s death, she wouldn’t have been able to stay there and probably wouldn’t have been able to get her money back.
Being low on funds possibly, where would she have gone to hide? JJ thought of the echo she’d heard on the phone. Something large. Something open. Something...empty.
Her gaze shifted from the possibilities beside the lake, her eye catching sight of the large yellow mansion on the mountainside overlooking the water. It had been built in the early 1900s by the owner of the mill, back when Somers had been a company town.
Recently, the mansion had been in the news for some time as locals tried to save it from being torn down.
“Up there,” she told Thorn.
He’d pulled over out of the traffic and now followed her gaze to the side of the mountain. “What is that?”
“An old empty mansion.”
“Doesn’t someone live there?”
“Not the last I heard. It was for sale but needs a lot of work. There’s been a group trying to save it.”
“And you think Geneva would hide up there?”
“I don’t know,” she said, feeling discouraged. “It’s just a thought. She knows this area. She might know that it’s empty, and I suspect she’s running low on funds.”
He turned around, and they worked their way up the road to the mansion. As he drove onto the property, he said, “Looks like someone has been up here.” He indicated the fresh tracks after last night’s thunderstorm. “But I don’t see another vehicle.”
Pulling in behind the house, the two got out. JJ felt herself drawn to the view of the lake and the valley and the sailboat race below them.
“Is there any chance Geneva would have a key?” he asked.
“More than likely she would have had to break in,” JJ said as Thorn tried the back door. “She would know the place was empty.” The knob turned in his hand.
He glanced over at her, looking worried as he pointed to where someone had used what appeared to have been a screwdriver to get inside. She saw that he was wearing his gun under his jean jacket, and felt a lump form in her throat. They had no idea what they might find in this house.
While there was no vehicle parked outside, that didn’t mean that Geneva wasn’t alone inside. Or she might never have been here at all. Anyone could have moved in, even someone deranged or drugged up and dangerous.
Thorn went in first. The house had a musty mildew smell that came with age and abandonment. They moved through the house, JJ following Thorn’s lead and trying to make as little sound as possible. They found nothing on the first floor, with its big bay window that looked out over the lake. They crossed the hardwood floor, the wood cut in a unique design. She couldn’t help wondering what the house had looked like when it had originally been built almost a hundred and twenty years ago. As they headed up to the third floor, she saw more damage where the plaster had fallen off the wood lath underneath.
At a sound above them, they both froze. Thorn drew his weapon and motioned for her to stay where she was. He climbed the rest of the way to the third floor. She waited for a moment and followed.
“I thought I told you to stay,” he said when she came out in a large room with even more damage to the walls and floor. In the corner birds flew in and out through the broken window, fluttering noisily around the room.
There was no one here. She wondered what had made her think Geneva would have stayed here even for a moment in these conditions. The woman would never be that desperate.
As she started to turn and go back down the stairs, she stopped, seeing something on the floor she recognized. She stepped to the flowered headband and picked it up. It still had some strands of long blond hair caught in the back of it. She held it up, filled with warring emotions. She’d been right about Geneva being here, which meant the young woman must be desperate.
“This is hers,” she said to Thorn. “I’ve seen her wearing it in photographs at her house.”
As he took the headband from her, also noticing the blond hair caught in it, JJ knew he too must be wondering how Geneva had come to drop it here and why so much of her hair had been caught in it when the band had been removed.
* * *
THORN CALLED THE judge from outside the mansion and told him what they’d found. “I thought you might want the headband since it has quite a bit of blond hair stuck in the Velcro clasp, some of it appearing to have been pulled out of her head.”
“We’ll work on getting the DNA right away. No idea where she might have gone?”
“None. Hopefully she will call again.” He wondered if the judge was thinking what he was. The phone call. The horn announcing the sailboat race to begin. Geneva’s floral headband with the blond hair stuck to it. “It feels like she is leaving us bread crumbs. Because she needs help? Or because she’s trying to lead us into an ambush?”
WT said nothing for a moment. “I could argue that she made the call when she was alone for few moments. JJ heard the horn blow starting the regatta and whoever was with Geneva could have caught her making the call, grabbed for her, getting some hair and the headband when he forced her out of the mansion afraid the call would be traced.”
Thorn chuckled. “It’s another theory since Geneva didn’t tell her where she was. JJ just figured it out.”
“It’s possible that Geneva was involved in the initial plan to pretend to kidnap herself using JJ, but when it went awry, I suspect she panicked and wanted to stop. But whoever she is working with is determined to see it through.”
“And Geneva is involved enough that she has a phone she could use to call her grandfather or the cops and only chooses to call JJ?”
“She probably feels guilty about the woman she involved in this,” WT said. “Or maybe JJ is one connection she trusts.”
“Her travel agent?”
“An innocent bystander,” the judge said.
Thorn wasn’t sure what he believed, but he admired the judge for giving Geneva the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise, what kind of woman did that make her? “Do you want to meet to pick up the headband?” They decided on a café in Kalispell between Whitefish and Big Fork. “We haven’t had breakfast and it’s past lunchtime.”
* * *
FRANKLIN HAD NEVER felt more anxious in his life after the judge’s call. The headband Willie described was one of his granddaughter’s favorites because she thought the blue in it matched her eyes perfectly. He didn’t need a DNA report to confirm it. He knew, but what was she doing in that old mansion? And now they knew that she wasn’t alone. Or at least suspected.
But he wouldn’t rule out Geneva ripping the headband from her head and leaving it behind like some kind of bread crumb trail. Not because she wanted to be found. It could all be a game to her. He didn’t want to believe that. Surely she knew that people had died because of her alleged kidnapping. Was she that reckless? That heartless?
He groaned as he paced the floor. He’d made so many mistakes with her mother that he’d told himself he was going to do things differently with her daughter. Instead, he felt he’d only made new and different mistakes. He knew he should have listened to Willie years ago when the judge had warned him he might be overcompensating.
Losing his wife had been heartbreaking, but losing his daughter had devastated him. Michelle had been such a bright, talented woman who had so much going for her, and yet she’d fallen in with the wrong crowd and gone downhill from there. He’d blamed himself for not doing everything in his power to pull her back from the disaster she had been headed for.
But she’d been a grown woman by then. There was nothing he could do but take Geneva and try to save her. He’d failed her mother, who had been killed by her boyfriend before he turned the gun on himself. Now he’d failed his granddaughter.
All he could th
ink about were the changes he would make if he got Geneva back.
“You realize that if she is involved in this, Franklin, she’s going to do some time behind bars,” Willie had warned him.
His first thought was to hire the best lawyer money could buy. He couldn’t bear the thought of his granddaughter in jail, let alone prison. But even as he thought it, he realized he had to stop saving her because he couldn’t save her from herself any more than he could her mother. Not to mention, there wasn’t enough money in the world to fix this. As Willie had pointed out, too many people had lost their lives—and it wasn’t over yet.
He turned as Helen came into the room. He was struck by how attractive she was. He’d seen his friend’s reaction when Helen had walked in the door. Surprise, shock and something else he hadn’t seen in the man’s eyes before. Desire? Was it possible Willie still had feelings for her after all these years?
“Willie called. Geneva’s headband was found in an abandoned mansion near Somers,” Franklin told her.
“What was she doing in an abandoned mansion?”
“Who knows? I suspect she’s run out of money, so whoever is helping her must be hard up for cash, as well. Or maybe it seemed like a good place to hide out. At this point, I have no idea what she’ll do next.” He dropped onto the couch and put his head in his hands.
Helen came and sat beside him. “I’m so sorry, Franklin. I wish there was more I could do.”
“Thank you,” he said, removing his hands from his face to look at her. He wanted to think about anything but the danger Geneva was in. “I saw the way Willie looked at you when you came in the door the other night. If it matters, I think he still cares.”