by Joan Lambert
“Well past midnight. We’ve been looking for you for hours.”
“Sorry. I got lost. It’s nice at night, though. You can hear the animals. Friendly.”
Rachel stared at her. “Lions and tigers are friendly? I would have been absolutely terrified.”
Laura tried to explain “Better than him. He’s… he’s not just terrifying. He’s… he’s monstrous, sadistic. Who is he?”
“Margaret’s erstwhile boyfriend,” Violet said, still in that grim tone. “We’ll tell you all about it later but now you need to rest.”
She helped Laura to her feet. “Once more, I shall greet you in the morning with a lovely tray of tea and ask you questions. Now, let’s go. Time for sleep.”
Laura made no objection. She let them haul her into a waiting car and back to the hotel. Once again, Rachel helped her out of her grubby clothes, into the pristine robe and tucked her into bed. She was so small to have downed that horrible man, Laura marveled as she watched Rachel smooth out the covers. So gentle and yet so strong.
“Where did you learn to do all that?” she murmured sleepily.
“Police Academy.” Rachel grinned. “I figured it would come in handy. Everyone is always bigger than I am. It’s fun, too. They always look so surprised.”
“I think you ought to teach me,” Laura mumbled, and closed her eyes.
“We’ll start first thing tomorrow,” Rachel answered demurely, but Laura was already asleep.
True to her word, Violet appeared the next morning, followed by Rachel bearing a pot of tea and what smelled like freshly baked croissants.
“Magnificent,” Laura exclaimed, sniffing. She poured out a cup of tea, stirred in milk and sugar and sipped ecstatically.
“You have remarkable powers of recovery,” Violet remarked admiringly as she poured a cup for herself and for Rachel.
“Believe me, it feels so good to be away from that man and to know he can’t get at me again, that no amount of aches and pains can compare,” Laura replied.
“But how about all those wild animals,” Rachel protested. “I can’t believe they didn’t frighten you at all.”
Laura popped a bite of croissant into her mouth and considered. “They did frighten me at first, but after a while he seemed so much more of a threat that I began to see them as allies. If he had come at me out there I would have leaped into an enclosure if I’d been sure where one was.
“I think you were the really brave one,” she added, “to take on a huge sadistic bully all by yourself.”
“Well, I know how to do that,” Rachel answered nonchalantly. “It’s just a matter of training.”
“If you have two have finished arguing about who is bravest,” Violet remarked, “I should like to hear Laura’s story. If, that is, she has time to talk between bites.”
“I should also like to say,” she went on severely, “that I am tempted to dump you in a cell until this is over. That might be the only way to keep you safe. Unless you promise not to go exploring again I damn well will!”
“I didn’t mean to go exploring,” Laura pointed out. “And it isn’t my fault they chose yesterday to put a baby in Longleat.”
“I imagine they chose yesterday either because they thought you were out of commission or because they wanted to set a trap for you,” Violet answered. “Regardless, I should have insisted that you stay here.”
“But then I wouldn’t have been able to see Rachel do her stuff,” Laura teased, with her mouth full of croissant, “or to commune with the animals.”
She almost choked as she grasped the implications of Violet’s second statement. “But how could they set a trap for me unless they knew I was going to Longleat House? Even I didn’t know until just before I left.”
“Exactly,” Violet agreed. “That’s why I want you to try to recall who was nearby when you asked me if you and Rachel could go to Longleat.”
“You mean someone in this hotel arranged for a baby to be put in that cradle just so I would find it and they could grab me?” Laura’s voice was unbelieving.
“Seems incredible I know, but we have to take the possibility into consideration. We think it unlikely that the organization would plan another kidnapping right now, and that they would carry it out right under our noses, so to speak, unless they had some other powerful motive, like trapping you.”
“I see what you mean,” Laura agreed, “but I still don’t understand why it’s so important to them to catch me. What have I done?”
“I suspect it has a lot to do with your research,” Violet replied. “Your field is the treatment of women and children in areas of the world where fundamentalism is taking hold. You have been particularly vocal about female circumcision. If you add that to the fact that you found the first baby and haven’t stopped hounding them ever since, their assumption that you are dangerous to them or know something they don’t want you to know makes a good deal of sense. They might even think you came on this tour to spy on them, right from the start – you saw the first baby’s family in the airport even before you got here, don’t forget.”
Laura blinked. “I hadn’t thought of that!”
“Well, they did,” Violet retorted. “Now, who was nearby?”
“Okay.” Laura took a deep breath and tried to recreate the scene in the hall. “I saw Claudine in the next room with Richard, and I think I saw the Takaras near the door, cameras in hand. One of the maids was carrying towels up the stairs…”
Her voice trailed off, and she shivered. The list of suspects was shrinking. Who among that small group could have betrayed her?
“Roger Brown must know who it was,” she said. “Has he told you anything?”
“Not a thing,” Violet answered. “Abdul is more cooperative since he’s facing a murder charge. He told us that he works for an organization that procures baby girls from Islamic backgrounds for wealthy Saudi men. He says he isn’t sure what it’s all about and that he doesn’t know who else is involved. I don’t believe him.”
“Roger could be the brains behind the organization, but maybe Abdul is afraid to say so,” Laura suggested.
Violet shook her head. “I wish it were so, but I don’t think he is. Roger recruits workers and parents in this country, but someone else runs the operation. When we ask who it is, both Abdul and Roger get a frozen look on their faces and won’t utter a word. They’re afraid, very afraid, so whoever is in charge must be formidable.
“They can’t or won’t reveal the identity of the Saudis who organized the group, either,” she added in frustration. “So we’re stumped on those essential pieces of evidence. We need a breakthrough, and I’ve got to figure out how to get one.
“Your turn now,” she ordered. “Tell me everything that happened.”
Obediently, Laura related her story, complete with baby, French students atop her spread-eagled assailant and her flight from the pugnacious man.
“He was so confident, so cruel looking,” she said with a shiver. “If you two hadn’t come I would have been… Well, I don’t want to think about it.”
A voice came from the doorway. “Bravo! Bravo!” Lady Longtree stood there, with William behind her. “A woman after my own heart.”
Laura felt herself blush, outrageously pleased at the compliment. “You should check out Rachel,” she said hastily. “She felled the guy who had a gun at my head with a few well directed blows and her car keys.”
“Wow! I’d like to be able to do all that stuff.” William’s face registered awe. Laura frowned, aware that a delicate piano concerto was floating up the stairs. How was that possible? William was here, not in the music room.
He seemed to realize it at the same time. “Whoops! I forgot to turn it off. I leave it going, a recording, that is, when I want to do some sneaking around,” he explained. “It’s amazing how much you can learn when people think you are somewhere else.
“Who is that guy, anyway?” he asked Violet. “Did you lock him up?”
“Locked up ti
ght,” Violet answered. “And he calls himself Roger Brown. We don’t know much about him except that he says he’s British and that he has a reputation for charming women. Apparently, they find him irresistible, at first anyway.”
“Which means he can get them to do anything he wants and believe anything he says, and that he can do anything he wants to them, like abuse them,” Rachel contributed. “I’ve seen quite a few of those types. Bastards, all of them.
“It was a pleasure to knee him,” she added matter-of-factly. “Men like him deserve a good deal of punishment in that area.”
“True enough, Rachel,” Violet agreed, “but be careful who you say it to. Someone behind you is taking notes.”
Laura turned and saw that her audience had grown. Richard was there, busily scribbling on a note pad. He smiled at Rachel. “May I quote you, Madam?”
“In general terms, you can. About this specific man you cannot,” she answered. “You’d get me in real trouble.”
Laura gave Richard a quelling look and turned to Rachel. “I haven’t asked what happened to you after I got abducted at gunpoint. Did someone come after you, too?”
Rachel nodded impishly. “They did. Or rather he did. Another underling, I expect, sent out to do the dirty work.”
“Did you knock him out, too?” William asked eagerly.
“No. I was a bit hampered by the baby. It was screaming at the top of its lungs and I suspect the poor fellow couldn’t think straight. He just poked a gun at my ribs and told me to drive out of the park. I happily obeyed knowing we would run straight into Violet and her reinforcements, which is exactly what happened.”
Lady Longtree moved aside to let another visitor enter. It was the doctor. He took one look at Laura and her audience and threw up his hands in despair. “Young lady, you are an impossible patient. I tell you to stay quietly in bed for a day or two and instead you get chased through a Safari Park by a maniacal stalker, and now I find you surrounded by chattering people. What do you do for a living to merit such unusual attention?”
“I’m a professor,” Laura admitted in a chastened voice. “It’s usually a very quiet occupation.”
“Perhaps we should remove ourselves,” Lady Longtree suggested politely. “I shall be back,” she added in a stage whisper as she went out the door. William and Richard trailed after her.
The doctor frowned at their departing backs and made a quick examination. He scowled at Rachel. “See that she stays quiet this time. She has an excellent constitution but she’s not twenty any more.”
“Yes, Doctor,” Rachel replied obediently. “I will try. I will certainly try.”
“See that you do,” the doctor growled, but he sent each of them a charming smile as he hurried through the door.
“Nice man,” Laura said drowsily, aware that every muscle in her body ached and her legs felt like lead weights. “I guess the doctor’s right and I’m not twenty any more,” she grumbled. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so tired. I’ve only been sitting here talking.”
Rachel raised her eyebrows in disbelief. “You are the limit. Of course you are tired. What you did last night took more out of you than you think. So go to sleep again and stop prodding yourself into action.”
Gratefully, Laura closed her eyes, but a steady stream of visitors precluded sleep. Mrs. Takara was the most persistent. She kept turning up with packages of biscuits or pieces of fruit - no doubt cadged from the kitchen - to tempt Laura’s appetite, which she seemed to assume had been compromised by her experience. Laura finally asked Rachel to warn her so she could feign sleep when Mrs. Takara came to the door. She meant well, but she was as annoying as a mosquito.
After an early lunch the next day, the group returned to Bath, with Alan once more driving. The bus looked pathetically empty. Dr. Bernstein was still being held, and Violet had accompanied a nervous but resigned looking Claudine to the police station for yet another interview. Hans hadn’t come back, which left only Laura and Rachel, Lady Longtree, William and the Takaras. No one said much during the trip. It was hard to know what to say. The usual discussion of the weather or the passing countryside sounded ridiculous when everyone’s mind was occupied with the case.
Mrs. Takara, who was sitting behind Laura, broke the strained silence. Leaning over the seat, she commented once more on Laura’s ordeal, as she insisted on calling it. “That man who came after you was not nice,” she said in a subdued tone. “Once, a man like that came after one of my girls. She was so frightened. She was crying and crying for many days. You are very brave, I think.”
“How many daughters do you have?” Laura asked politely in an effort to lure Mrs. Takara away from the overworked subject of her escape.
Mrs. Takara uttered her tinkling laugh. “Oh, so many girls come to me for advice it is hard to remember which are my own!” she exclaimed. “They are all my daughters, I tell them.” She leaned further forward to whisper into Laura’s ear. “I wonder if that man came after Amy too. Perhaps that was why she did such a terrible thing…
“But we must not speak of this. It is too soon, is it not? Still, I cannot help but wonder whether he… well, if he was not nice to her but she could not speak of the attack because she was shamed. It is like that with some of the girls.”
Nodding her head sagaciously, Mrs. Takara leaned back against her seat. “Yes, it is so, is it not?” she murmured, apparently to her husband, who didn’t reply.
Laura didn’t reply either. The idea that Amy had killed herself because she had been raped, which Mrs. Takara seemed to be implying by way of polite euphemisms, sounded ridiculous to her.
Alan was next to break the silence. “Arrangements have been made for all of you to stay at the hotel where we stayed before,” he explained. “I hope you will try to enjoy some of the attractions near Bath that we have not yet visited despite… despite what has happened. Elise, our guide in Bath, has offered her services for those who wish to take a guided tour of any kind. As you are aware, she knows the area well.”
His voice bore none of its former cheer and there were lines in his face Laura hadn’t noticed before. She wondered again what his role was in this case. He didn’t seem to be a suspect, since he was driving the bus. Why then had he hired Abdul?
Richard, who came to see her later in the day, had unearthed the answer to that question from one of his many contacts in former investigative days.
“Alan had no reason to suspect him,” he explained. “He checked out Abdul’s credentials and got excellent recommendations from people purporting to be former employers. Unfortunately for all of us, they were fakes, thanks to Roger Brown, who no doubt has plenty of acquaintances who make fake ID’s.
“That was well-planned,” Laura mused. “Some of the things that have happened in this case seem opportunistic – acted on at the last minute when the circumstances were right, like my accidents, but others seem impeccably planned and brilliantly executed. It makes me wonder if there’s more than one group involved.”
“Or they’ve had to improvise with you getting in their way and Violet on their heels,” Richard answered. “Still, I’ll try to find out if other groups are competing with the Saudi lot. There’s plenty of money to be made selling babies.”
“Be careful,” Laura warned. “These people really are dangerous.”
Richard grinned. “I will. I’m like Lucy, though. Can’t resist sniffing.
“Where’s your guard?” he added suddenly. “Rachel I mean. And who’s that guy outside your door?”
“Rachel is enjoying a well-deserved day off,” Laura answered, “and the man outside is my temporary guard. I can’t go outside the hotel without an escort until Rachel gets back. It’s a nuisance.”
“I’m sure you’ll be allowed out in another day or two,” Richard answered optimistically. “In the meantime, stay put. Someone seems to have quite a grudge against you.” He gave her a quick brotherly hug and went whistling out the door.
He returned within a few minutes. “Al
most forgot! I just heard that the Swiss guy, Hans, was arrested at the airport. Before he even got to the gate, two policemen grabbed his arms and escorted him to the proverbial waiting car.”
With a cheerful wave, he left again.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Laura sank back on the bed, dumbfounded. Could Hans really be the master mind behind all this? It was hard to believe. She hadn’t liked that gloating look on his face, but she hadn’t thought of him as a full-fledged criminal!
Another knock on the door brought her to her feet. Maybe it would be Violet, ready to explain. It wasn’t. Instead, Claudine stood at the door, looking distraught.
“Sorry,” Claudine apologized, attempting the tight-lipped smile Laura had seen before. “I didn’t mean to come in here looking upset. I’ve had a nasty time at the police station. They keep asking the same questions over and over. I hate it. But that’s not your problem.”
“It sounds awful,” Laura agreed sympathetically.
Claudine grimaced. “It is but I’ve survived worse. I’m more worried about my husband than me. He really did get himself involved in something nasty this time. But that’s another story, too.
“How are you by the way? I gather you had a merry chase through the Safari Park. You do seem to have a knack for that sort of thing.”
Laura laughed. “I like the description. And I’m fine if a bit tired.”
“You’re a survivor too,” Claudine commented matter-of-factly. “Actually, I came to ask about something else,” she went on hesitantly. “It’s harder, for me anyway. It’s about Richard. I gather you two have seen a lot of each other, so I wanted to check, to see if you…
“Oh really, I can’t believe I’m saying these things. Me, the cold-blooded bitch. But I mean it. I’ll get out of the way if you’re interested in him. So for god’s sake say something so I can get off this subject.”
Laura smiled at her. “Claudine, all I can say is that I wish you both well and I think it’s great. I like Richard very much but not in that way. So he’s all yours and for goodness sake start enjoying what you’ve found together in spite of the mess we all seem to be in.”