He’d pulled himself and Shelley out of the abyss of poverty and ignorance with sheer will and a burning desire to make something out of himself. He put those memories behind him and focused on what he needed to do. Putting Senator Barclay through the pain of reliving what must be hurtful memories wasn’t something he looked forward to, but it couldn’t be helped.
If he was right, Madeline Barclay’s disappearance was the root of Dani’s stalking.
The senator welcomed him, a curious look on his distinguished face. “Rabb. What can I do for you?”
“Sir, I’ve got some questions for you. They won’t be easy.”
The senator swept a hand toward the library. “Come in. Let’s make ourselves comfortable.”
Once seated in an overstuffed chair, the older man said, “Now, tell me what it is I can help you with.”
“It’s about your wife’s disappearance.”
Sorrow shadowed the senator’s face. “I don’t talk about that time. Ever.”
“I understand. But it may have something to do with what’s happening to Dani now.”
“I don’t see the connection.”
“What do you remember of that day?”
“Madeline dressed for the city, told me she was meeting Dani for breakfast, then friends for lunch. That wasn’t unusual. She frequently drove to the city, for lunch, shopping, one of her charity meetings. Later, when the police questioned her friends, the women said that Madeline never showed up. Never even called. That wasn’t like her. Madeline was a stickler for manners.”
“Do you know anything about other appointments she might have had that day?”
If anything, the expression on the senator’s face grew even more regretful. “Later, I learned from the private detectives I’d hired that she had an appointment with an oncologist. She never said a word to me about it, never gave a hint that anything was wrong.” He shook his head as though to wipe away painful memories. “I could only guess that she didn’t want to put Dani and me through a long, drawn-out illness.” He coughed, his voice rough and hoarse. “Why didn’t she know that I would have been by her side, no matter what?”
“I’m sure she did, Senator.”
“Then why? Why leave the way she did?”
“Maybe she didn’t have a choice.”
“You’re thinking someone kidnapped her.”
Jake didn’t know how else to say the next words. “I think someone killed her.”
“Why? Madeline didn’t have an enemy in the world. Everyone who knew her loved her.”
“Are you so sure?”
“Of course. She was a true Southern lady. More than that, though, she cared about others. There wasn’t a charity that she didn’t contribute to and work for. She always said we were blessed and she wanted to give something back.”
Like Dani. Jake had a feeling that he would have liked Madeline Barclay very much.
“Dani told me that your wife didn’t approve of her relationship with Wingate.”
“Madeline never thought Wingate was good enough for Dani. It’s a natural enough thing. Most parents don’t think the man who wants to marry their daughter is good enough for her.”
“Had she felt that way about other men in Dani’s life?”
The senator rubbed his chin. “Dani never went out much. She was always too focused on her studies, then her career. Her mother and I tried to get her to socialize, to get out more, but she said that when she found the right man, she’d know it, and until then she was content as she was. That’s why her relationship with Victor took us by surprise.”
“How do you feel about Wingate?”
“I like him well enough. He’s ambitious, but I’m the last to hold that against a man. To tell the truth, he reminds me of myself thirty years ago. Eager. Too much so, perhaps.”
“Did you ever feel that he was using his relationship with Dani to get to you?”
“You mean that he wanted me to give him a leg up? Sure. Like I said, the man’s ambitious. But that’s not a sin. If it were, half of Washington would be in trouble.” The senator directed a shrewd look Jake’s way. “You can’t think he had anything to do with Madeline taking off as she did.”
“I don’t think your wife took off at all. I think she’s buried, probably not too far from here.”
The senator stood, then sank slowly back into his chair. Within moments, he’d aged a decade. His face had grayed, his body seeming to have shrunk in on itself. “I guess I always suspected she was dead. But I never wanted to believe it. I avoided saying the words aloud, afraid that that would make them true.” He gave a humorless laugh. “I haven’t told Dani, couldn’t even say the words if I wanted to. Sometimes I’d look at her and know she wanted to talk about what had happened to her mother, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.” He shook his head at his own weakness. “Pathetic, isn’t it?”
“Human.” Jake understood the older man’s reluctance to talk about something so painful all too well. Hadn’t he been avoiding that very thing for over a year? Because he’d been afraid, afraid of what he’d reveal, afraid of what he’d learn about himself.
“What is it you want me to do?”
“I want you to go through your wife’s diaries, journals, any scraps of paper you can find. See if you can find anything about that last week and days.”
A baffled expression on the senator’s face, he nodded. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to do a little research of my own.”
Thirty minutes later, he was at the county hall of records, attacking files with the determination of a treasure hunter searching for gold. Rather than precious metal, though, he dug for secrets, for answers, for truth.
Going through the computerized records, he followed the trail. The information had been buried deep. Someone skilled at computers had done a very good job of covering his tracks. If Jake hadn’t been looking specifically for it, he’d have missed it.
Twenty years ago, a Mick Devane had petitioned the state to change his name, and with that, Victor Wingate had been born. A further check into Devane’s background showed his date and place of birth. It wasn’t too much of a leap to surmise how Devane, now Wingate, had enrolled in Harvard and invented the background he’d told Dani.
Jake made a quick call to Shelley, asked her to check Harvard’s records. His computer skills were passable, but Shelley’s were outstanding. What she couldn’t find wasn’t worth finding.
He drove to Dani’s office, anxious to share what he’d learned. When Shelley called, confirming his guess, he wasn’t surprised.
“I have you now,” he said, addressing the individual who had been making Dani’s life a misery. “I have you now.”
Fury roared through Jake at what Dani and her father had been put through in not knowing what had happened to Madeline Barclay. It was the cruelest form of torture, the uncertainty as to her fate.
Jake white-knuckled the steering wheel, as though all his anger could be absorbed by the act. Patience, he reminded himself. He would bring Dani and her father the peace of mind they deserved and make the person responsible pay.
* * *
“Dani. I need to see you. There’s something you need to know.” Victor’s voice came over the line, the urgency of it at odds with his usual smooth tone.
“I have work. Can it wait?”
“No.” His voice lowered. “I have information about your stalker.”
Dani’s hand tightened around her phone. “When and where should we meet?”
“One problem—my source is the nervous type. He won’t agree to meet if you bring your bodyguard.”
She didn’t have to think about it. “No.”
“Think about it,” Victor wheedled. “You want to put an end to the stalking, don’t you? My source can give
you the ammo you need to do just that.”
“Just who is your source?”
“Not over the phone.” Victor’s voice took on a hint of desperation. “I went out on a limb for you, Dani. If you don’t show up, I’m going to take some grief.” He waited a beat. “We meant something to each other at one time,” he said and let that sink in.
He was right, and she felt herself weakening for a moment. Then she hardened her resolve. “Don’t play the relationship card.”
“I’m just reminding you of what we had once. What we could have again, if you’d give us a chance.”
“It’s over. I’m sorry.”
“I figured you’d say that. But I still want to help you. For old times’ sake.” And with that, he was the friend she had known and relied on, the man who had helped her through the worst time of her life.
“What if I tell my bodyguard to stay in the car while I talk with you and your source?”
“He’ll think it’s a setup. He’s more than a bit paranoid.”
Dani ran through scenarios. She thought of Jake’s reaction if she were to ditch Sal. The last thing she wanted was to cause problems between the two men. “I’m sorry, Victor. I can’t come. If you want to come here—”
“That’s not possible,” he was practically shouting now. More quietly, he added, “You’re making a mistake.”
“If I am, it’s mine to make.”
Dani hung up the phone, convinced she’d made the right choice. She didn’t have anything to fear from Victor, but going out alone to meet an unknown source was more than foolish. It was stupid.
She’d never been stupid.
Determinedly, she put the incident out of her mind and got back to work. With the new charges against Brooks, she had added another case to her already heavy caseload.
When the phone chirped, she checked the ID and saw it was Victor. She couldn’t deal with any more of his pleas or demands, not now, and turned off the phone.
If she didn’t get the brief she was working on finished, she risked annoying the judge. The brief needed to be perfect, t’s crossed and i’s dotted. Judge Prescott was a stickler for citing case law for every point raised.
The concentration required kept her mind off Victor and his badgering.
At six, a timid knock sounded on the door.
Dani called out a distracted “Come in.”
“I’m sorry to bother you, Ms. Barclay—I mean Dani,” Clariss began, “but Mr. Rabb called. He wants you to meet him at Mr. Brooks’s apartment. He said there’s something there you have to see.”
“Why didn’t he call me on my cell?”
“He said you weren’t picking up.”
Her own fault. She’d never turned the phone back on. “Where’s Mr. Santonni?”
“He told me to tell you that he had to step out and check on something for Mr. Rabb. He said he’d be back in a few minutes.”
Dani debated. “Call Mr. Rabb back. Ask him if I can meet him in an hour.”
Clariss cleared her throat. “I can’t do that. He said he was watching someone and couldn’t alert them. If the phone rings...”
“I get it. Did he say anything else?”
Clariss looked confused. “Anything else... Oh, he did say something, but it sounded sort of strange.”
“What was it?”
“He said to tell you grace.”
“Thank you.” Dani gathered up her purse. “Would you please call me a cab?”
“Right away.”
Clariss scurried off, leaving Dani to tidy up her paperwork. She’d finish the brief later tonight.
By the time the cab arrived, Dani was waiting on the front steps of the city building. She climbed into the backseat and gave the cabbie the address.
“You sure, ma’am? That’s a bad part of town.”
“I’m sure.”
What had Jake found? And who was he watching? Anticipation raced along her nerves as she wondered if this would put an end to the stalking.
When the cab pulled up outside Brooks’s building, an old hotel that had seen better days and was now operated on a pay-by-the-week basis, Dani pulled some bills from her purse and handed them to the cabbie.
“You want me to wait for you?”
She shook her head. “No, thank you.” Jake would see her home.
Inside, she crossed the once grand front lobby, now shabby, its velvet drapes and carpet dingy, the windows dirt-streaked, and thought of how Jerry Brooks had fallen. He and Stephanie had once had a beautiful home. With his arrest and the forfeiture of his assets to pay his bond, he had been reduced to living in this place.
There was no clerk at the front desk. She gave the ancient elevator a dubious look, then decided to take the stairs.
On the third floor, she walked down the hallway until she found the number of Brooks’s room.
She pushed on the door. “Jake?”
There was silence. And then, “Surprise.”
“Victor?”
Her senses went on alert, but she felt no real alarm. After all, Clariss had given the code word. Maybe Jake had arranged for Victor to meet them here.
“You were expecting your bodyguard, perhaps?”
She nodded.
“That’s the surprise. He’s not coming. You got me instead.” Victor’s eyes held a maniacal glee, unsuited to the situation.
“I don’t understand.”
“But you will, Dani darling. You will.”
He advanced toward her.
She took an instinctive step backward. Another.
He lunged for her, yanking her toward him. A sharp prick stung her arm.
She felt herself falling. Falling, falling, falling. Until there was only blackness.
ELEVEN
“Where is she?”
Jake found Sal slumped behind a desk in Dani’s office. His friend looked groggy, disoriented. If Jake hadn’t known better, he’d have said that Sal was drugged, but that was impossible. Sal had lost a younger brother to drugs. He never touched anything stronger than the mildest painkiller.
“Wh...what?”
“Dani. Where is she?”
Sal shook himself as though to dispel whatever drug was still inside him. “I don’t know.”
Take it easy, Jake told himself. Unable to reach either Dani or Sal on their cell phones, he’d raced to the city building, only to find Dani missing and Sal out of it.
With an effort, Sal got to his feet. “I’m sorry, man. I don’t know what happened. The last thing I remember was that I was drinking some tea. The little secretary said how she was brewing a pot and asked if I’d like some. Chamomile with honey. I said yes and...” He ended with a shrug.
“Clariss? Are you saying she drugged you?”
“I don’t know.” Sal’s words were still slurred, his eyes glassy. “She’s a little bit of a thing with no reason to hurt me.”
“Unless she wanted you out of the way so that she could get to Dani.”
“Why?”
“She could be another pawn. We’ve all been played. Dani. Newton. Brooks. Me.” It hurt his throat to give voice to the words, to his failure to keep Dani safe.
Sal shook his head, more in an attempt to clear it than to deny Jake’s words. “I’m not following.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to find Dani.”
Jake looked around. Nothing appeared out of place. Dani’s desk was tidy, as it always was, the computer shut down, any files she might have been working on presumably locked away.
“Think,” Jake ordered. “What were you doing before you drank the tea?”
“I was going back through the detective’s notes on the Madeline Barclay case. It doesn’t make sense that nothing ever tu
rned up.”
“Unless she was dead, buried someplace where she’d never be found.”
“That’s what you’ve thought all along, isn’t it? That she’s been dead these four years. Not missing.”
Jake nodded. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Then who? And why?”
“I’ll tell you on the way.”
“On the way where?”
“You’ll see.”
Jake drove like a madman. Late-afternoon traffic was heavy, but he maneuvered the Jeep in and out of lanes.
“If you want to kill us both, there’re easier ways,” Sal said mildly.
“Shut up and listen.” Jake outlined what he’d found out. He had Sal’s full attention now.
“It’s Wingate? He’s the one behind it all?” Sal’s skepticism was plain. “The way you described him, he sounded like a weak sister.”
“He’s far from that. He’s clever, cunning and a master manipulator. Wingate wanted Dani. Four years ago, when her mother threatened to break up their relationship, Wingate got rid of her. That accomplished two things. First, it removed the barrier that stood between him and Dani. Second, it made Dani turn to him. For comfort. Support. And that’s exactly what she did. Maybe she was even falling in love with him a little bit.”
“Can’t blame her,” Sal put in. “She was hurting. Her daddy was hurting, too, and probably couldn’t give her what she needed right then.”
“I don’t blame Dani.” Never Dani. Jake put the blame squarely where it belonged. On Victor Wingate’s head. “She was grateful, and he used it to play her.”
“Then she smartened up and sent him packing.” Sal took up the story.
“Yeah. From what she told me, he got possessive, started trying to control her life.”
“What about all the business with Newton and Brooks?” The blurriness had vanished from Sal’s gaze, his expression now grimly focused.
“Wingate contacted them, being careful that it couldn’t be traced back to him. He told Newton about Dani’s allergy to peanuts. He set it up so Newton could get hired on with the caterer for the awards night.”
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