by Mary Birk
He’d just started the engine when Jack Shelton rapped on the driver side window. He rolled down the window.
Shelton shook his head with obvious frustration. “I need you to stay. Grainger insists you be involved.”
Reid frowned. “Why?”
“He says he wants all the help he can get to bring his daughter home.”
“You think he has a different agenda?” Reid switched off the engine.
“I don’t know. I can’t imagine wanting to have the husband of a woman I was fu..” Shelton stopped, started again. “I mean a woman I was involved with, around.”
Reid couldn’t have agreed more. It made no sense to him, either. “It’s up to you. I don’t need to be here. I’m sure you have things under control, but if he’s insisting, and you’re okay with it, I can stay for a while.”
“If you stick around, you need to remember it’s my show.”
Reid nodded. “Goes without saying.”
“And anything I don’t think is appropriate for you to mix in, you stay out of.” Shelton’s tone was grudging, but Reid could tell it was for effect.
“Again, goes without saying. As you say, it’s your show.”
“So get out of the car and come inside. We have a little girl to bring home.”
Chapter 22
MARTHA WARREN MOVED her coffee cup around in circles on the artistically rustic kitchen table. Her eyes were red from crying, and she was still sniffling. A thick-set woman in her fifties with wiry brown hair, she was dressed in a pink jogging suit, but Reid doubted she was a jogger.
Reid sat beside her, and on the other side of the table, Jack Shelton sat taking notes even though a recorder was taking down every word. Shelton had asked Grainger to sit this one out, and the man had nodded, excusing himself to go to his study and call Anne. Reid tried not to let his thoughts go there. He was still trying to deal with what Frank Bolton told him about the argument he’d overheard between Grainger and Anne the night of the Valentine’s Day Gala. Had Anne told Shelton or the police chief about it yet? Shelton hadn’t mentioned it.
Martha wiped her hair from her temple. “I came right about five-thirty. Lenore was dancing with her father, so I went upstairs to get her room ready for the night and run her bath. Not too long after that, he and Anne brought her back upstairs. I gave Lenore a bath, gave her her medicine, and read her some stories till she fell asleep—about eight or eight-thirty.”
Shelton began the questioning. “Had she mentioned anything that was bothering her? Or that anyone had been bothering her?”
The woman shook her head slowly. “No. She was happy, chattering about going back to school when she felt better, and showing me the Valentines from her class. Andrew came up to check on her about eight, maybe a little later? She asked about Anne, but he told her Anne had to stay down at the party so he could get away to come upstairs.”
“How does she get along with Anne?”
“Good. Lenore wants them to marry so Anne will be her new mother.” Martha looked at Reid, appraising him. She obviously knew who he was vis-à-vis Anne. “Soon as she’s free, of course.”
“Understood.” Reid wondered for the millionth time why he’d agreed to stay.
Shelton grunted. “Let’s go back to what happened last night.”
“After I got Lenore in bed, I put her night light on, and sat in the chair in her room. When I noticed she was asleep, I went downstairs and let Andrew know, then I went back upstairs to keep an eye on her. I worked on my cross-stitching while she slept. When the party was getting ready to end, I left.”
“You checked on her before you left?” Shelton asked.
“Yes, she was sleeping soundly.” The woman started to cry and her stout body shook with her sobs.
Reid could tell that the housekeeper would not soon forgive herself for leaving Lenore, no matter that she had done nothing wrong. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and she turned into his chest. Shelton gave him a what-the-hell look. Reid shrugged and held her until she stopped crying, then handed her a tissue.
Shelton pushed back his chair, and Reid knew the interview had been turned over to him.
She sniffled. “Sorry, I’m just so worried about her. I’ve been with her since she was born.”
Reid shook his head. “Not at all. Of course you’re worried.”
“I just can’t believe someone took her. This, on top of everything else. There’s only so much a person can stand.”
“Is something else wrong, Mrs. Warren?”
“You can call me Martha.” She sniffled again. “Everything seems to be going wrong. My husband’s out of work, my mother-in-law moved in, and my niece is involved with some man who’s treating her bad.” She made a face. “Nothing to do with Lenore. I was going to talk to Anne about Lucy, but now, I can’t bother her with that.”
Reid tried not to look confused. “Lucy?”
“My niece. She and Anne were friends in high school, not so much afterwards, but I wanted Anne to talk to Lucy about this man Lucy’s involved with. Make her see he’s using her.”
“Does this have anything to do with Lenore?”
“No, I’m sorry.” She sniffled.
Reid made sure no impatience showed. “That’s all right. Can you answer a few more questions for us?”
“Yes, of course.”
“We’ve been trying to figure out how the kidnappers got in. Are the windows in the house kept locked?”
“This time of year, yes. In the summer, not so much. But the ladder would have to be gigantic, and the ground below Lenore’s room is so steep there’s no place to put a ladder.”
“Anyone come up to her room besides Andrew and Anne during the party?”
“No.”
Reid tilted his head at her, sensing she was keeping something back. “You’re sure?”
Martha looked chagrined. “No one, except Gus.”
“Gus?”
“My husband.”
Chapter 23
REID WAS SITTING in the Colony’s kitchen with another cold cup of coffee, stroking the fat gray cat that had wandered in and settled on his lap, when Shelton brought Andrew Grainger back.
Grainger nodded at the cat. “She’s Lenore’s.”
Reid nodded, kept his hand moving languidly along the cat’s back, and spoke in a calm voice. “Andrew, could revenge be a factor in someone doing this?” The low ransom demand continued to puzzle him.
Grainger sat down, while Shelton moved to lean against the kitchen island. “I don’t think so. I just don’t have that kind of life.”
Reid let the irony of Grainger’s remark silently tickle him for a masochistic moment. Should he ask Grainger if he was sleeping with anyone else’s wife? Someone who might want to exact revenge by taking from Grainger someone who was just as precious to him?
“You think it’s connected to the publicity from the sale of the paintings.”
Grainger nodded. “That’s all I can think of. And they can have all the damned money. I just want Lenore back.”
Reid looked at Shelton. “The ransom’s arranged?”
“The banker is standing by to send the wire.”
“And manpower for the retrieval?”
“We have cars all over because we don’t know where it’ll be. The local police, some of our people, and some guys from the county sheriff’s department. All unmarked cars, plain clothes. Ready to go where we send them.”
“Good,” Reid said, then turned to Andrew. “What about the mother’s family? Any reason to think they might be involved?”
“No. We have a good relationship and they see Lenore all the time. And they don’t need money. At least not that I know of.”
“Any possibility they’re worried that you’ll remarry, and they’ll be cut off from seeing her?” Reid kept his gaze on the photographs of the little girl.
“No, they’ve encouraged me to remarry. And they like Anne.”
Shock reverberated through Reid from his head
to his chest, landing in his heart. Anne? The man was talking about marrying Anne? Surely they hadn’t talked about getting married? No, she would definitely have told him. Besides, she was still his wife.
But then doubt started to creep in. Grainger obviously believed that Reid and Anne’s marriage was dead and that Reid didn’t care if Anne had moved on and found someone else. And that impression could only have come from Anne herself. He was in worse trouble than he’d realized, but he couldn’t deal with that now.
Reid handed his phone to Shelton. “Jack, there’s a video Anne took of Lenore the night she disappeared. She e-mailed it to my mobile. Here.” He’d already watched it several times and knew exactly what Shelton would see.
Lenore was dressed like a ballerina, wearing a pink and silver tutu over a pink leotard and tights. She wore a tiny tiara in her hair and in her hand was a sparkling wand. The little girl, although still very young, looked hauntingly like the beautiful woman in the painting, despite being thin and pale from her illness. Lenore looked too fragile to withstand any rough treatment by kidnappers. There was a pause on the recording, then music started, and Lenore and Andrew Grainger began dancing, smiling and talking to the off-camera Anne. Lenore laughed and twirled her skirt, struck a pose for the camera, and resumed her dance without a pause. Lenore, like her mother, was apparently a natural model.
Shelton watched, nodded. “We’ll get that downloaded in case we need to use it.” He handed Reid’s mobile back. “It’s getting close to the call time.”
Grainger gestured to the refrigerator. “I’m not hungry, but help yourselves to whatever’s there if you’re hungry. There should be plenty of leftovers from last night’s party.”
Reid, still thinking about how fragile the child looked, said, “Andrew, tell us about the intercom system you have set up between your room and Lenore’s.” The cat stood up on Reid’s lap, stretched, and leaped down to the floor, then made an elegant departure up the kitchen stairway, its tail swishing back and forth.
“The intercom system?” Grainger looked blank. “Oh, you mean the monitors? Those are baby monitors from when Lenore was younger. When she got sick, I set them up so we can hear her if she needs us.”
“Were they on last night?”
“I’m sure they were. I leave them on all the time.”
“How many are there?”
“I have one in my room and one up in my studio. And there’s one here in the kitchen.” He pointed to a far counter.
“Why didn’t you mention this before?”
“I guess I didn’t think of it because I didn’t hear anything.”
“How sensitive are they?”
“Pretty sensitive.”
“And did you hear anything at all last night?”
“No.”
“Was it on this morning when you went to look for her?”
“I didn’t notice, but I’d assume it was.”
Shelton broke in, “You leave it on even when you have company?”
Grainger nodded. “Of course.”
“In your bedroom?”
The man didn’t seem fazed by the question. “You mean Anne? Of course. She knows I need to listen for Lenore. We can hear Lenore, but she can’t hear us unless we press the button to talk.”
Shelton pursed his lips. “Not to put too fine a point on it, is it possible you wouldn’t have heard Lenore if you were, you know, entertaining Anne?”
Reid stood up abruptly. “Shelton, show me what you’ve set up for the telephones.”
Chapter 24
SEVEN O’CLOCK CAME and went and the telephone did not ring. Reid watched Grainger grow more and more agitated, pacing up and down the room and looking out the windows.
“What now? Why wouldn’t they have called?”
Shelton said, “No way to know. They may call later. Tonight or tomorrow. This isn’t uncommon.”
Grainger’s voice held a note of menace. “So we’re just going to sit here and wait for them to call?”
“We aren’t just sitting here. As I told you earlier, we have agents investigating where the kidnappers may have taken Lenore. We’ve been making discreet inquiries into all of the area motels, shops, gas stations, and the marinas—everywhere. We’ve done what we call dumps of telephone lines to see all calls to and from the Colony. We have people checking out all of the travel routes, airlines, trains, buses, rental cars, things like that. Chief McLendon and his people are out there nosing around. If we can find the kidnappers before the ransom transfer is scheduled, and get Lenore back to you, all the better.”
“But what if they don’t call?” Grainger looked at Reid for reassurance, his voice despondent.
“If they want the money, they’ll call.” Reid said, with more confidence than he felt. If this were his child, he knew he’d feel much the same despair as Grainger.
The night dragged on. Grainger started to drink scotch, but the FBI agents and Reid all stayed with coffee. At around ten o’clock, despite the coffee, exhaustion deflated them all.
Reid suggested Grainger get some sleep. “We’ll come get you if a call comes in.”
“I can’t sleep. but this room has enough couches for anyone who wants one, or you’re welcome to use any of the guest rooms upstairs.”
“I’ll stay up for now, as well,” Reid said. “But I might grab a couch later.”
“Me, too.” Shelton looked at Grainger. “If we don’t hear anything tonight, we need to make this public. We need to get people reporting to us if they’ve seen anything. In fact, I’d prefer we went public tonight.”
Grainger focused his gaze on the FBI agent. “I thought you said they might still call. Are you saying you think they won’t? That it’s over? She’s just gone?” His voice choked.
“No, of course not. They may still call. Which is why we can justify waiting to go public until morning. If they’re just playing with us, we’ll likely get a call soon.”
Grainger turned to Reid. “What do you think?”
“Jack’s right. If we don’t hear tonight, let’s talk about it in the morning.”
“Maybe they’ll bring her home tonight.” Grainger’s voice was desperately hopeful, pleading for reassurance. “Maybe they’ll still call.”
Shelton nodded. “They might. We’ll wait to go public until morning. I can’t promise you anything more than that.”
Grainger said nothing, but strode out of the room toward the study.
Reid kept his voice down so that only Shelton could hear. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Shelton shook his head. “We both know it’s not unusual for kidnappers to play games like this to raise the family’s anxiety level.”
“True.” Reid agreed. “Or to have changes of plans and scenarios to try to protect themselves from getting caught.” He looked around the room. “How do you think they got in the house?”
Shelton said, “I don’t know. Maybe the caterers or someone left a door unlocked, but how could a kidnapper plan on that? It’s more likely that whoever took the girl had a key. Probably the set of keys that’s missing. So the kidnappers had to have had access to the house earlier in order to get the keys to use to come back in later to take the child, and with as public a house as this is, that doesn’t narrow it down much. Still, they had to know how the place operated, because how would a stranger know to count on the alarm not being turned on?”
“The alarm?” Reid raised his eyebrows. How had he missed that? Of course there was an alarm. Dealing with Anne had definitely put him off his game.
Shelton said, “There’s a lot of expensive art here, so they have an elaborate alarm system. And most of it invisible to anyone who doesn’t know it’s there.”
“But they didn’t use it on Saturday?”
Shelton met his gaze. “Grainger never puts it on when Anne stays over.”
Reid knew he wasn’t going to like the answer, but asked anyway. “Why not?”
“She likes to be able to leave wi
thout waking him after they screw.”
Reid’s hands fisted and his vision narrowed. “Shelton, if you ever say anything like that again about my wife, I’ll kill you.”
The other man looked at him, nodded. “Good to know you’re human.”
Reid willed himself to stand down. “I’m human. Unfortunately. So you think it was an inside job?”
“We have to keep our minds open to the possibility.”
“And if she’s already dead?” Reid voiced the thought in both of their minds.
“They’d try to bluff.”
“That would be hard. They’ll know we expect proof of life.”
“Maybe that’s why we haven’t heard anything. I’m going to try to get some sleep.” Shelton indicated one of the leather sofas in the back, darker corner of the huge room. “I’ll be over there if anyone needs me.”
Reid got up, went over to the windows, and looked out to the sea. From the nearby study door, he heard Grainger’s voice. He could tell the other man was talking to Anne, giving her an update on what was happening. Reid listened, knowing he was eavesdropping, but not able to stop himself.
He heard Grainger ask Anne if she would come over and spend the night with him. Reid froze, then felt a huge wave of relief smack the inside of his chest when it was clear that she’d declined. He wasn’t sure he could survive it if he had to sit watching while she went upstairs to bed with another man. He moved away, not wanting to hear any more.
Grainger had called her babe again. Hearing that term of endearment coming from another man to his wife wrenched his heart.
An almost debilitating sense of loss settled over him.
Chapter 25
EVEN THOUGH he was operating on Eastern time, Reid could not settle down enough to sleep. Taking advantage of the quiet, he went through the investigation notes and interview memoranda that Shelton had in a file by the telephone station.