Men of Midnight Complete Collection

by Emilie Richards

  They were both silent until they got to the hotel. Sally was gone by then, and Mara listened as Duncan spoke to her on the telephone. He hung up with great care, as if afraid that if he gave in to his impulses, he might tear the phone from the wall.

  “It was Lisa,” he said. “It could only have been Lisa.” He called the police constable who served Druidheachd alone and explained the situation to him, then he hung up again. “There’s not much he can do, obviously. But he’ll be over in a few minutes.”

  “Might she have left a note?”

  He ran his hand through his hair. “I doubt it, but I can look.”

  “I’ll phone Roger and then I’ll check the desk. Perhaps you should have a look around your flat?”

  He left for the second floor without a word. She told herself he was distraught, that his anger was for Lisa, not her. But she knew it wasn’t completely true. She was the one who had convinced him to allow Lisa back into April’s life. She was the one who had slipped behind the barriers Duncan erected to protect himself from his own feelings. And she was the one who understood most what he was going through.

  Minutes later she knocked on his door. When he didn’t answer right away she let herself inside. He was sitting beside the window. In answer to her unspoken question, he held out a slip of paper. She took it. Written in a delicate, feminine script was Lisa’s plea for forgiveness, and her promise that nothing would happen to April. She would return her on Monday.

  “Please believe me. She wants only the best for her,” Mara said. “There’s no malice here.”

  “I’m going to have every police officer in Scotland out looking for them!”

  “I dinna think that will help matters. Can you no’ wait until Monday before you begin to search? Can you no’ have that much faith in her?”

  “I have no faith!” He got to his feet. “You don’t know what she’s like! If she takes it into her head to steal April forever, she’ll do it. Just like that!”

  “She means April well.”

  “Stop it! For God’s sake cut it out, Mara! You don’t know! You can’t know, despite what you think your intuition is telling you. You don’t know her!”

  “And neither do you.” She saw the truth now. With blinding clarity she saw the truth. And it didn’t take second sight. “You dinna know her either, do you, Duncan? You never took the time to get to know her. And that’s what’s been destroying you since you parted. You never really gave her a chance. Oh, it was no’ your fault, no’ completely. She was insecure and fragile, and when you made the effort, she did no’ know how to respond. But when you could no’ get through to her, you stopped trying.”

  He started to pace. “I’ve told you all that. Stop pretending that you’re reading my mind.”

  “But there’s more that you never told me. When you realized how badly Lisa needed your help, you took April and ran instead. You were afraid to reach out to her, even then, even when she was vulnerable and you knew you might have made a difference. Because reaching out terrifies you. You could have helped her. You could have gotten Lisa help, but you paid her off and took April and you vanished.”

  “Stop it!” He started toward her. “Who do you think you are?”

  “I’m the other woman you’re running from.”

  He stopped just in front of her. “You know, you’re more like Lisa than I thought.” His voice shook with anger.

  “And yet you’ve loved us both, have you no’? You’ve loved us both because we’re no’ afraid to feel. And we’re aware, both Lisa and I, that there’s more to the world than anyone can see and touch. And that’s why you’ve loved us both, and that’s why you’re so afraid now. And that’s why you’re going to run again.”

  “I never loved Lisa the way I’ve loved you!”

  “Loved, Duncan?”

  He stepped back, as if he couldn’t bear to be so close to her. “I think you’d better go.”

  She saw his anger; she saw his distress, and she felt as if a hole had opened up inside her. There was nothing more she could do or say. “Aye. Perhaps I’d better.”

  “I’m going to get my daughter back, and then I’m going to sell this place!”

  “And vanish again,” she said.

  “I know how to cut my losses, Mara. Apparently that’s something you’ve never learned.”

  “For which I’m thankful.” She turned and started for the door. Her hand was on the knob when she spoke again. She didn’t look at him. “And I’m thankful for something else. I’m thankful I’ve loved you, Duncan, despite everything that’s happened here tonight. Because loving someone is worth all the risk. No matter how it ends.”

  When he didn’t respond she stepped into the hallway and closed the door softly behind her.

  CHAPTER 15

  Duncan needed a shave and a clean shirt. He was an adept businessman who knew the value of appearance and presentation, but he was also a father, frantic at the thought that he might never see his daughter again. He tucked the shirt in tighter and splashed water on his face, then he left the Gatwick Airport restroom and headed for the next of half a dozen ticket counters that he hadn’t tried yet.

  The airport bustled with travelers coming in and going out of London. Flights were continually announced over the intercom and toddlers wailed as their weary parents hauled them through the foot traffic.

  Duncan stood in a long line and waited his turn. He had plenty of time to scrutinize all the clerks, and by the time his turn was next, he had singled out the one most likely to help him. When he was called, he passed up his turn and waited for the clerk he’d chosen instead. She finished with her customer and the moment the old man stepped away from the counter, Duncan took his place.

  The clerk was pretty, blond and blue-eyed with the classic English milk-and-roses complexion. He had watched her carefully. She had been uniformly polite to even the rudest customer, and she hadn’t rushed anyone. Now she smiled and asked how she could help.

  “I’m looking for my daughter,” he said. He handed her April’s most recent photograph. “She may have come through here with her mother. I have custody and three days ago her mother kidnapped her.” He pulled out the documentation that proved the courts were on his side. Then he pulled out Lisa’s photograph, the one that April had kept in her wooden chest of secrets. “This is my ex-wife. Do you remember selling her a ticket?”

  She frowned, obviously not happy to be involved.

  He glanced down at her hand and saw a wedding ring. “Do you have children?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “Then maybe you can guess how I might be feeling? The court gave me custody because my ex-wife isn’t fit to raise a child. And now she has our daughter, and I may never see her again.”

  She took the photograph of Lisa, but she didn’t look at it. “Hundreds of people come through here every day, sir.”

  “I know. I know this is a long shot. But I’m desperate. Please. Just look at it. And show it to your colleagues. That’s all I ask.”

  “Do you have reason to think she came here?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve already been to Prestwick and Heathrow. No one remembers her.”

  The clerk sighed and shook her head. Then she looked at the photograph. “Well, she’s quite lovely. She has a memorable face.”

  “Yes. I see it clearly in all my nightmares.”

  “But I’m afraid she doesn’t look familiar.” She picked up April’s photograph again. “And neither does your daughter. She favors you, doesn’t she?”

  “Will you show it to your colleagues?”

  “I’ll just be a moment.”

  “Take all the time you need.”

  Duncan had learned patience in the past three days. He had learned to stand and wait, and he had learned that disappointment left the taste of ashes in his mouth. He watched the young woman show the photograph to first one clerk, then another, and he watched them shake their heads. As she moved steadily down the row, he realized that he ha
d chosen her to be his emissary because in appearance she reminded him a little of Mara.

  He hadn’t seen Mara since the night April had been kidnapped. Mara had been gone for only minutes when he regretted everything he’d said to her. But he hadn’t gone to find her. He didn’t know how she’d gotten home, and he hadn’t inquired. He had let her slip out of his life without ceremony.

  There’d been little time since to think about her and no time to grieve. He had to concentrate on finding April. Too many days had passed already, and by now Lisa and April could be living anywhere in the world. But Lisa was a creature of impulse, with little talent for long-range planning. He was counting on that to help him. Perhaps Mara had been right and he’d never known Lisa well, but he did know enough to guess how she might proceed.

  Snatching April was probably as far ahead as Lisa had been able to think. Now that she had April, Lisa would begin to make plans. She had money. She could fly anywhere and settle down, but she would need a passport to get out of Great Britain, and April would have to have one, too. Lisa probably wouldn’t chance using her own name, in case the airports were being watched, and April’s passport was under lock and key at the hotel. So she would have to get false papers. And false papers took time.

  If he could just get one lead, one possible sighting, it might not be too late.

  The clerk returned. She looked genuinely sorry. “No one recognized the photographs. But if you have copies to leave?”

  He left her several copies of each photo, along with his thanks, his name and the number of the Sinclair Hotel. Then he headed for the next counter.

  By the time there were no more counters to try, he was exhausted. But a new shift would settle in after the dinner hour, and he planned to make the rounds of the counters all over again then. Now he headed for the closest restaurant and waited for a table. Once he was off his feet with a drink in his hand, he let exhaustion overwhelm him. He leaned back and closed his eyes, and he wondered what more he could possibly lose.

  “Can you squeeze in another invitation to this affair?”

  He opened his eyes and saw Iain standing beside the table. He leaned forward. “What in the hell are you doing here?”

  “Looking for you.” Iain held up his hand. “No, we haven’t heard anything.”

  Duncan slumped back in his chair and gestured to the seat across from him. “I’m surprised you found me.”

  “I thought you’d probably stay on until you could interview the evening shift.”

  Duncan nodded. “Why are you here?”

  “To take over. I’ve got you a seat on a flight back to Prestwick in about an hour. Then you’re to go home and get some sleep. And have a shave, for God’s sake. You look like a barbarian. Your car’s there?”

  Duncan was so tired he could hardly make sense of it all. “You’re going to take over for me?”

  “I’ll stay for this change of shift and the next. Andrew’s checking all the other routes out of the country. Ships, ferries.” He shrugged. “It hits me every once in a while that we live on a great, huge, bloody island.”

  Duncan’s throat felt tight, the way it had as a boy when he’d needed to cry but known he was too old. “I don’t know what to say.”

  Iain made a face. “Then please, by all means, don’t say anything.”

  “Nobody’s heard anything back at the hotel?”

  “Not exactly.”

  He was almost too tired to pick up on Iain’s words, but not quite. “What do you mean?”

  “Mara came by to see me this morning.”

  “Mara?”

  “You remember her?”

  “Cut the crap, Iain. Has she heard something?”

  “No. But she still thinks Lisa is sincere. She still thinks she’s planning to bring April back tomorrow.”

  Duncan didn’t say anything.

  “I gather the two of you fought,” Iain said.

  “Is that why she came to see you?”

  “No. She’s having disturbing dreams. Apparently she’s been having them since Lisa took April.”

  “Then we still share that much, at least.”

  “She’s afraid that despite Lisa’s intentions, she’s going to be prevented somehow from returning April.”

  Duncan rapped his fingers on the table. “I’d thought better of Mara than that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Can’t you see what she’s doing? She’s talking out of both sides of her mouth. She’s making completely different predictions so she can’t possibly be proved wrong. Whether Lisa returns April or not, Mara’s hedged her bets.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “Well, what do you you think?”

  “I think you’re a fool.” Iain got to his feet.

  Duncan reached across the table to stop him from leaving. “Why am I a fool?”

  “Because Mara has no need to prove herself to you or anybody. She’s not selling her talent, Dunc. She doesn’t need a perfect record.”

  Duncan realized just how low he had sunk. Now he was trying to invent a case against Mara when all she had ever tried to do was help. And why? Because even this tenuous connection to her was too painful. “Sit down.”

  Iain must have heard something promising in his voice, because he sat. “What can I do?” Duncan asked. “What should I do?”

  “Go to her. See what she can tell you.”

  “I don’t know if I can face her.”

  “You know, I’ve always envied you.”

  “Me?”

  “Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. You have April.”

  “You forget. I don’t have April anymore.”

  Iain shook his head. “And then Mara came into your life. And for a while you had her, too. And what man wouldn’t count himself fortunate? There’s nothing she wouldn’t share with you if you’d let her.”

  “So what are you trying to say?”

  “You’re in danger of letting them both slip through your fingers. And then you won’t be a man to envy.”

  Duncan held out his hand. Iain took an envelope from his inside coat pocket and handed it to him. Duncan shuffled through his ticket, noting the gate and time of departure. “Do you remember the day I left for America? We were just eight.”

  “I remember.”

  “Andrew reminded me of it when we were at Fearnshader the other night.”

  “Our Andrew can be ruthless.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that day in years.” Duncan gave a harsh laugh. “I was sure my world was ending.”

  “It did.”

  Duncan looked up. “I guess it did. I felt like I’d been ripped out by the roots. And I didn’t transplant well until I stopped caring about everything.”

  “Do you need something else to think about?”

  Duncan didn’t answer.

  “In your absence I took Martin through the hotel and showed it to him. He’s made a bid for it. With some negotiation, it should do. It’s rather generous, actually.”

  “Why are you telling me now?”

  Iain gave a sad smile. “Because somehow, it’s all connected, isn’t it?”

  * * *

  Mara was waiting at the hotel when Duncan, weary beyond imagination, walked into the lobby after his drive back to Druidheachd from the airport. It was already past midnight, but his own exhaustion seemed insignificant when he saw her. She looked pale and drained, as if she hadn’t slept in days.

  She didn’t smile when he approached, but she rose and nodded in greeting. He wondered how she had known when he would be arriving.

  “Iain told me what time your plane would be getting in,” she said, as if to set the record straight immediately.

  “He told me he’d talked to you.”

  “I dinna want to take up much of your time.” She hesitated. “For what it’s worth, Duncan, I did no’ want to take up any of it. I’d hoped that Iain would speak to you for me, but he refused.”

  He was too tired to fight his own fe
elings. Regret as deep as the bottom of his heart surged through him. “I hope you feel you can always talk to me.”

  She met his eyes, and he saw her answer. She was a woman willing to risk almost anything, but she was not a fool. She, too, knew how to cut her losses. “I will speak to you about this because I’m afraid for April.”

  “Let’s go upstairs.” She appeared to consider, as if she didn’t want to be alone with him. His regret dug deeper. “Mara, come upstairs. I’m not going to hurt you. And we can’t talk privately in here.”

  Her nod was almost imperceptible. He led the way and she trailed after him. He ushered her into his apartment and turned on the lights. She went straight to the couch and sat down, as if her legs were too tired to hold her.

  “I’m going to make some tea,” he said. “We can both use it. Just sit tight.”

  Her eyes were closed when he returned, but she held out her hands for her cup. She wrapped her fingers around it and hugged it to her chest as if she needed the warmth. The night was unusually cold for September, and the hotel hadn’t yet turned on the heat for the season. Duncan didn’t think about his next move. He picked up a soft wool afghan from the end of the couch and draped it over her shoulders.

  “I’m quite capable of looking after myself,” she said.

  “I know.”

  She opened her eyes, but they might as well have stayed closed because there was no expression in them. “I’ve told you from the beginning that I believe Lisa means no harm by what she’s done. I think she has every intention of returning April.”

  “So you’ve said.”

  “What I have no’ told you is that I’ve been plagued with…other feelings? Sensations? I dinna know how to explain. I can only say that there is something else very wrong.”

  Duncan took a seat beside her instead of one across the room. She shifted subtly, as if she didn’t want him to touch her. “Tell me more,” he said. “Tell me whatever you can.”

  “I’ve had nightmares, and waking dreams, too. The images are frightening. They make no sense to me, and they get no clearer with time. It’s as if I’m seeing everything through a fog. The mists swirl, then there’s a brief opening. I see a face or a figure and then the mists swirl over them again.”