And The Bride Vanishes

by Jacqueline Diamond

  Linda didn’t know whether to be glad or upset when she spotted the squad car. By this time, she hoped, Wick had gotten away. But from now on, he would have to go it alone.

  AT THE ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL parking lot, he found Mina parked in a secluded spot. As they waited, hoping against hope that Linda would appear, he sketched the events of the evening. Mina asked a few questions but said little.

  “You did a great job,” he said at last from where he crouched in back, below window level. “Without those firecrackers, I don’t think I’d have gotten away.”

  A street lamp cast deep shadows across her sunken cheeks. “To me, it was like a game. Even though I knew people had died, still, in the movies the good guys always win. But now we have lost Linda.”

  “Maybe not.” To reassure himself as much as Mrs. Barash, Wick said, “Even if she’s arrested, they won’t hurt her. And at least she can get medical care.”

  “They will try to make her tell what she knows,” Mina warned.

  “She won’t give us away.” He felt certain of that. “We’re not in Litvonia. They don’t torture people here.”

  She shrugged. “I hope not. I am very tired. Will you forgive me if we go home now?”

  It had been long enough since they left the estate for Linda to walk here, if she could. Besides, two cruisers had already rolled down the street, no doubt seeking Wick. It was only a matter of time before someone spotted them. “Let’s go.”

  He wasn’t sure they should return to their houses, but it seemed safer than wandering the streets. Besides, he would have staked his life that Linda would refuse to reveal their whereabouts.

  After Mina dropped him off, he lay awake for a long time, replaying the night’s events and missing his wife. Where was she? If only he knew what had happened after he left, but there was no news on the radio at this hour.

  Images drifted through his mind. Linda uncovering the door to the icehouse. Yuri turning with gun in hand to confront Harvey. Linda bursting through the front door.

  The worst of it was that she might misunderstand why he had run away tonight. Did she realize he’d expected Harvey to follow him? Wick’s heart constricted at the possibility that she might believe he had intentionally abandoned her.

  Certainly he’d given her reason to make that interpretation. Only a few nights before, he’d attempted to sneak out.

  But since then, the shock of losing Avery, his best friend, had brought home the fact that no one was invulnerable. He couldn’t leave Linda and assume that her connections here would protect her. No one was safe.

  So many people had died this week: Sarah, Granville, Avery, perhaps Yuri. Wick couldn’t help feeling it was his own fault for stealing those files in the first place. More than ever, it was his responsibility to get at the truth.

  But now that Linda was in custody, she would be surrounded by people who doubted him, disliked him and believed he had manipulated her. Over the past week, he had come to see how strong his wife really was. He could only hope she was strong enough to keep faith with him now.

  Still missing her, he dozed fitfully. It was 4:30 a.m. when the phone woke him.

  It rang once, stopped, rang once, stopped, then rang again. That was the code they’d set with Mina.

  For one hopeful moment, as he answered, he thought it might be Linda. Then he heard Mrs. Barash’s quavering voice.

  “Please help me,” she said. “The killer—he was here.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Inland Police Department was housed in a boxy stucco building in the civic center. Linda had picked Janet up there several times, and once brought her a birthday cake, so the place was familiar. She’d never expected to be marched through the back door wearing handcuffs, though.

  She knew she could have a lawyer, but she also knew that an attorney would discourage her from answering questions. With a killer closing in and the police mistargeting their suspicions at Wick, she needed to convince someone of the truth.

  It wasn’t Harvey who interrogated her but a homicide detective, a thin man with red-rimmed eyes and a habit of drinking cup after cup of coffee. She felt bad for yanking him out of bed.

  The trouble was, Linda didn’t dare tell him much. She couldn’t mention Mrs. Barash or reveal where Wick was staying. She could only keep repeating that Wick hadn’t killed anyone.

  After a while, she began to suspect that she was only making things worse. She was forced to admit that Wick had been at Sarah’s apartment, and he had been at the Lyme estate. She hadn’t seen anyone else there who might be the killer, and the detective didn’t seem to give much credence to the fact that she had heard the gunshot while Wick was still in the car with her.

  Finally, Harvey came in. He must have gone to get medical help, because his arm was bandaged. She wondered why he was on duty at all, since he was injured and, besides, weren’t officer-involved shootings automatically subject to an investigation?

  But the Inland police had a small department. Right now, she supposed, they needed all their personnel.

  “What happened between you and Yuri Capek?” she asked.

  He gave her a startled look. “I’m not at liberty to discuss it.”

  “Is he all right?”

  “It’s too soon to tell.” Without a flicker of emotion, he informed her they were going to book her for homicide, although it would be up to the district attorney to decide whether to file formal charges. Because she was considered a flight risk, police were asking that bail be denied.

  “We don’t have a woman’s facility here, but our jail is empty, so you can stay for now,” Harvey concluded. “Do you need a doctor?”

  “No.” What she needed was sleep, and some assurance that Wick was all right. Besides, at this hour, her obstetrician wouldn’t be available for anything short of an emergency, and Linda didn’t want some stranger examining her.

  An officer took her to the booking room, fingerprinted her and filled out the paperwork. As they were heading for the jail wing, she saw Janet come out of the coffee room. Her eyes were rimmed with red.

  “Are you okay?” Janet studied her friend with concern. It’s so strange to see you here.”

  “I’m okay. How’s Yuri?” Linda asked.

  “My parents are with him but he doesn’t seem to recognize them.” Nervously, Janet twisted a strand of hair. “I’m going to the hospital as soon as I get off. I’ve called your parents, Linda.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Are you all right?” Janet asked.

  “I think so. Are you?”

  “Hanging in there.” Heading away, the blond woman brushed by Harvey without acknowledging his presence. She obviously was in no mood to forgive him for shooting her great-uncle.

  It was ironic, Linda thought, that if it hadn’t been for Janet, she might never have gone to work for the Lyme Company in the first place. And, she supposed, if she hadn’t mentioned to Janet how many immigrants used the firm, Yuri Capek might not have hired Granville Lyme’s services.

  Life was full of odd quirks.

  MINA MUST HAVE been huddling just inside her kitchen door, because she opened it before Wick could knock.

  He had never seen the interior of her house before, and there was probably nothing unusual about it under normal circumstances. But tonight it looked as if a wild animal had been thrashing around.

  Pots and pans strewed the kitchen floor, along with cans tossed from the pantry and a sack of flour that had burst, powdering everything. Through the doorway, he could see furniture knocked over in the dining room.

  Mrs. Barash wore a pale, pinched look and she was shaking. “He came back.” Her voice barely exceeded a whisper.

  Wick touched her elbow lightly, wanting to support her but afraid one of her delicate bones might crumble if he gripped too hard. “What happened?”

  She had been in bed but awake, she said, when she heard a scratching noise. Glancing into the living room, she had seen a hand reach through a freshly cut circle in
the door’s glass panel, and unlock the bolt.

  “I knew it was him.” She leaned against the counter. “Maybe I should have called 911. But after living in a police state so long, my first thought was to hide.”

  She had ducked into the spare bedroom and hidden behind an ironing board in the closet, which had a deceptively deep recess. Wick could feel her terror as the intruder ripped through the house, drawing closer and closer.

  “But he didn’t find me.” Mina drew a shuddering breath. “He must think I am hiding more papers. Or maybe he saw me near the Capek place last night.”

  “It’s time you went to the police.” The more he thought about it, the less chance Wick saw of solving these crimes themselves.

  “The police?” Mina stared as if he were crazy. “You said that Mr. Capek suspects this police captain. You think I should put myself directly in his hands?”

  That’s where Linda is right now. Wick clenched his fists in frustration. “We can’t keep running in circles.”

  “I have an idea.” Despite her pallor, determination shone in Mina’s eyes. This woman never gave up, he thought admiringly. “But we must leave here. Would you fetch my purse? I think it is in the living room, unless he took it.”

  “Of course.”

  Finding a purse hadn’t sounded like a difficult task, but the room was such a jumble that Wick had to pick through the debris. He finally lifted a sofa cushion that had been tossed in one corner, and discovered it there.

  He escorted Mina to his car, where he handed her the keys. “Are you strong enough to take the wheel? I ran enough risk just driving here.”

  “I can manage.”

  As he lay down in the back, he wondered if it were possible to develop a permanent indentation in his spine from the hump in the middle of the floor. If so, he must have one by now.

  Mrs. Barash backed out jerkily, then parked at the curb. Her breathing sounded fast and shallow, and Wick wondered if it came from temporary stress or if her heart was acting up. “What’s wrong?”

  “I am still a little shaky,” she said. “We must take my car. I am uncomfortable driving a strange one.”

  As soon as they had made the transfer, Mina drove off more steadily than before. “This is better,” she said.

  “What was this plan you mentioned?” Wick was ready to try almost anything.

  “I have realized that someone else is in danger,” said Mrs. Barash. “We must reach her! She may be the key to everything.”

  IT AMAZED WICK how easily Mina persuaded Janet to get in the car, although there was a tense moment when she discovered him in the back. Only the reassurances of her elderly neighbor persuaded her to hear him out.

  They parked in the garage beneath the mall, hoping they could count on some privacy until the stores opened. Janet listened attentively as Wick described his first encounter with Sarah, the theft of the files and being run off the bridge.

  She glared as he admitted kidnapping Linda, easing off only when he pointed out that he hadn’t known about her pregnancy. His description of his last meeting with Sarah was met with cold silence.

  Janet seemed to retreat behind a curtain of hair, watching him as if unsure whether to be afraid or angry. As Linda’s best friend, she had always been polite to Wick, but he’d never felt any warmth from her. He wished he knew what she was making of all this.

  Mina’s wry description of spotting the missing bride outside the senior citizens’ center, and of wearing the panda costumes to the masquerade, helped lighten the mood. But it sobered quickly as Wick told of meeting Avery, and of discovering the double murder at the Lyme estate.

  He was describing how they decided to leave the cabin, when Janet interrupted. “All this is very interesting, but I want to know why you’re telling it to me and why Mina said I’m in danger.”

  “How much do you know about what happened between your great-uncle and Harvey last night?” Wick asked from the back seat. He was sitting up, unable to bear being cramped down for so long.

  “Yuri called Harve and said he’d heard a prowler,” Janet recited. “He rang the bell but no one answered, and the door was unlocked so Harve went in. I guess Uncle Yuri mistook him for a prowler and fired, and Harve fired back.”

  “No,” Wick said.

  “What do you mean, no? I read the police report!”

  “I was there,” he said. “Didn’t Harvey mention that?”

  “Well, sure.” Janet frowned. “He saw you, but you ran away and let him catch Linda instead.”

  Was that what Linda thought, as well? “I expected him to follow me,” Wick said. “But that isn’t the point. Janet, I witnessed the whole scene. Yuri wasn’t the least bit confused. He set Harvey up deliberately.”

  Janet glanced at Mina as if for confirmation. The older woman nodded.

  “Why?”

  “He believes Harvey is the killer. He thinks Harvey is looking for some kind of dossier and that sooner or later he would come after Yuri himself.”

  The blond woman picked at one of her fingernails, her expression unreadable. She didn’t look surprised, but then, she wasn’t like Linda, whose face betrayed every emotion. “This is ridiculous. Harvey and I are practically engaged.”

  “Have you met his family?” Wick asked.

  She looked startled. “No. His parents are dead, and his brother lives in Alaska.”

  “Did you know he was in army intelligence?” When she nodded, he said, “Where was he stationed?”

  “Germany, I think.”

  “That’s not so far from Litvonia,” Mina remarked.

  “Oh, come on! Harvey’s not some secret agent, or whatever you think he is. Besides, my great-uncle doesn’t have any so-called dossier.”

  “How can you be sure?” Mina asked.

  “Because he would have told me!” Janet snapped. “You make it sound like he’s some kind of criminal. He was a customs inspector, for Pete’s sake!”

  “A customs inspector with a lot of money,” Wick noted. He hated to shatter Janet’s illusions about her great-uncle, but they couldn’t afford to beat around the bush. “Ever wonder how he got so rich? Or why he’s so afraid that someone’s coming after him?”

  “He’s old and sick,” Janet replied. “As Harvey said, he’s confused. If this is all you have to say, take me back to the police department.”

  “If Harvey is the killer,” Mina said, “he may believe you know something about the dossier, even if you don’t. Once he realizes you’ve heard the truth about last night from Wick, you could be in great danger.”

  “I can’t believe—” Janet broke off as a security guard walked toward them.

  Wick’s body went cold. All she had to do was scream and the man would radio for help. He’d be trapped here, in this underground maze.

  “We’ll take you back,” he said. “Please don’t turn me in. I’m telling you the truth.”

  Janet rolled down her window. “Yes?” she said to the guard.

  It was too late for him to hide. Wick averted his face, hoping the guard wouldn’t notice him.

  “I’m sorry, but no one’s allowed to park here until the shops open,” the man said.

  “We were just leaving.” Mina’s voice had a cheery note. “I am sorry, Officer! We were just making up our minds what to do today.”

  “No problem.” The guard waved them on.

  Mina steered out of the garage. “We must find somewhere else to talk.”

  “You promised to take me back,” Janet said.

  Wick lay down on the floor again. “We will. Mina?”

  “Of course, in a little while.”

  “Now!” Janet made a sudden movement as they came up a ramp into the sunshine. Wick wasn’t sure whether she’d tried to grab the car keys or to open her door, but he felt the car jerk and then halt with a sickening crunch.

  They had hit something.

  WICK PRESSED CLOSE to the floor, listening to Mina talk with the couple whose car they’d hit. He gathered
there was only minor damage, primarily to Mina’s own bumper.

  The other people had Texas accents, and apparently were just passing through Inland. Maybe they wouldn’t recognize him, but Wick had no intention of putting in an appearance.

  The wild card was Janet. She sounded subdued outside, but she might take this opportunity to escape, maybe even to call for help.

  The car sagged abruptly as if someone had leaned on it. Outside, a man’s voice said, “Are y’all okay, ma’am?”

  “I have a heart condition.” It was Mina. Wick wondered if she was really ill or faking it to get them out of there. “I’ll be fine in a minute.”

  “You look awfully pale.” That was Janet. “You ought to be in the hospital, Mrs. Barash.”

  “Perhaps you’re right.”

  The car doors opened and the women got back in. This time, Janet took the wheel. “I’m sorry I panicked.”

  “This whole situation is distressing,” Mina said. “Please, we will drop Wick off somewhere and then I go to the doctor.”

  Her heart must really be troubling her. He couldn’t ask her to go on, or Janet, either. “Take me by Mrs. Barash’s house and I’ll pick up my car.”

  “Too dangerous,” Mina said. “If someone has noticed Janet is missing, they will be watching her street. You stayed in a trailer in a canyon, no? We can take you there.”

  Back to the canyon, where he’d begun. It felt like a retreat into nowhere.

  There was nothing further Wick could do to solve this case alone. He was going to have to turn himself in The alternative was to run, and he couldn’t do that to Linda.

  “Forget it,” he said. “I’m going to the police. I’ll take my chances with Harvey.”

  “Foolishness.” Mina started to argue, then leaned back wearily.

  “I’m hurrying as fast as—oh, darn!” Janet put on the brakes. “Does every light have to be red?”

  “Why don’t you turn on the radio?” Mina said. “Let’s find out if people are looking for you.”