by Dale Mayer
“That,” Ryker said, tapping his laptop screen, “was your black car disappearing from the main road.”
Just as Asher almost passed the turn on the left, he saw the vehicle way up ahead on a perpendicular road. Asher quickly pulled their vehicle into the next lane, crossed the other lane, and disappeared down the side road, following the black vehicle. “That was fast on his part. I almost missed it.”
“I know,” Ryker said. “So it makes me feel like either they changed their plans at the last minute or knew they were being followed.”
“My vote goes with being followed,” Asher said. “Or they’re even warier now.”
“Most likely both,” Mickie muttered.
He looked at her in the rearview mirror and then back at Ryker. “Now what were you saying?”
“I’m not sure what I’m saying,” Ryker said. “But, if you think about it, the first ransom note was all about a wedding planner being forced to work with bridezilla, pointing the finger at the bride-to-be. Then Mickie updated us on the twins’ history—which Chandra conveniently failed to tell us about—how that man in Spain had the twins taken years ago. But he was cleared. Our next theory was that it might be somebody who wanted to rescue the twins, not to hurt the twins. Which linked Lana to the current kidnappings. And, of course, now we’ve got firsthand knowledge that the ex-nanny is involved, seeing her on the scene just an hour ago.”
“The storyteller, yes,” Asher said. “So?”
“And what if Lana’s the one who orchestrated all this?”
“But that’s what we were thinking earlier,” he said impatiently.
“Yes, but what if it’s her son who’s doing the rescuing?”
“Chandra’s son?”
“Yes, what if the nanny started it, and the son realized that he could end up making this work to his advantage? He’d jump in, save the twins from Lana, and now he’s got his men pulling the twins back to the hotel to be the savior.”
“And yet, do you think it was set up like that from the beginning?”
“I doubt it,” Mickie said. “Edward’s too selfish to care about the twins.”
“So then why would he have any interest in rescuing them now?” Asher asked. “At least the second ransom note would transfer the twins’ trust fund to him. What does he get if he doesn’t cash in on the ransom demands?”
Ryker turned to look at Mickie behind him. “What do you think?”
“He’d get his family’s undying gratitude,” she said quietly. “And, because the twins have been unconscious hopefully through most of this, Edward can make up all the stories he wants and can still have control of their lovely trust fund.”
“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Asher muttered.
“It doesn’t because you’re not thinking about being a brother who was always out in the cold because the twins took everything the mother had for attention and love, then money too for the twins’ ongoing medical needs,” she said. “Because now the mother will be undyingly grateful, and the sisters will be undyingly grateful, and, as the man in the family, with a retiring mother and difficult sisters, everybody’ll turn everything over to him. Then Wilson Chang is out of a job for sure. Remember? A lot of money is involved, and someone needs to manage it.”
“So you think Edward manipulated this from the beginning?”
“No, I still don’t think Edward was part of the original plan,” she said. “But he must have jumped on board thereafter. I don’t know. We must talk to him.”
“Yeah, he was involved,” Ryker said. “About the time that second ransom note came through would be my guess.”
“I agree.” Asher nodded. “And, Mickie, you think this Sweng, the head of Edward’s security, is the one bringing the girls back to the hotel?”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” Mickie said.
“Call Chandra,” he urged. “See if she has talked to her son recently.”
“Why?” she asked, pulling out her phone.
“Because maybe she’s already got word that the twins are on their way back,” Asher suggested. “Something she has failed to tell us about as well. Or … maybe she got word on the ransom drop. Because, after all, somebody needs to get paid out of this. So, if we’re wrong about Edward’s participation in all this, then maybe that’s how the ex-nanny gets paid off.”
“God, the webs we weave,” Mickie muttered behind him.
“Hey, it’s all about opportunity and being opportunistic,” he said. “When something like this happens, all kinds of people jump on board to get a piece of the pie. Because, right now, Chandra is willing to pay almost anything to get her girls back.”
“So her son gets to ride to glory,” Mickie added, “and won’t get the cash ransom money but will end up with a bigger paycheck over the long-term.”
“Absolutely,” Ryker said. “But, in the meantime, somebody’ll get blamed for all those deaths. Who’s that? Who’s behind all of those?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “That’s still left to be determined.”
“My vote is with the brother,” Asher announced.
“No,” she said. “I doubt it. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it wasn’t her brother.”
“Yes, that’s what I said,” he said, “the brother.”
“Which brother?” she asked. “Too many are involved.”
“Not the twins’ brother. Not the dead sister’s older brother. The nanny’s brother. Because what does he get out of this deal? He gets nothing if she hands them over Edward.”
“And that won’t sit well with Wilson.”
Chapter 15
Mickie slowly dialed Chandra, wondering how she was supposed to formulate the questions even now surging through her brain. Could there be so many people so close to Chandra who were just absolute assholes? When she heard Chandra answering the other end, Mickie frowned and held back saying anything. A note of excitement in her employer’s voice was something Mickie didn’t recognize.
“Hello?” Chandra said. “Is that you, Mickie?”
“Yes,” she said. “What happened?” She glanced at the two men, Asher driving and Ryker desperately keeping track of the vehicle in front of them now that they were well into the town city limits. The traffic was crazy.
Asher glanced in the rearview mirror to see her face, trying to figure out what was going on.
Mickie hit the Speaker button and said, “You sound really excited. Has there been news?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Chandra said. “But it’s not for sure yet. But I can’t stop being hopeful.”
“What happened?” she asked.
“My son’s got a line on what’s going on.”
“Seriously? Edward?” she asked. “I didn’t realize he was looking.”
“Of course he is,” Chandra said in a warm, glowing tone. A tone Mickie had yet to hear from Chandra. Only to have Chandra’s tone turn caustic. “They are his sisters too, you know.”
“Of course,” Mickie said quickly. “I didn’t mean anything by that. I didn’t realize that he was in the loop and actively doing something about it. Of course he knows though.”
“Ever since they went missing, he’s hired private investigators,” Chandra said. “But we didn’t realize because he never told me.”
“Of course. Edward is used to running his businesses on his own,” Mickie said with a nod. She rolled her eyes at Asher, who was listening. “Well, I’m really glad to hear he’s found some good news.”
“With any luck, we’ll have answers, and potentially the twins will be back within an hour or two,” she said; she sounded like she was almost out of breath.
“Are you okay?” Mickie said instantly. “You sound short on breath.”
“That’s because I’m dancing around the room,” she said, laughing. “This is the best news ever.”
“But is it just a line on information or have the twins actually been rescued?” She studied the traffic ahead and could see the black cross over ve
hicle in front of them.
“Well, Edward didn’t want to tell me too much information, just in case,” she said. “And I respect that. But I also know my son. And, if he can do something about this, he’ll do it, and he seems to think that he’ll get them back here anytime now.”
“Wonderful,” Mickie said warmly. “In that case, now I don’t really have anything to report …”
“Come back. Come back,” Chandra said. “They’ll need you.”
“Well, it sounds like they’ve had quite an exciting adventure,” Mickie said. “At least I hope that we can make it sound like that.”
“Well, that’ll be the story that they’ll get told, and we’ll stick with it,” Chandra said. “We know perfectly well that they’ll take on whatever we present to them. They’ll have their own fears to deal with, and I’ll hire the best psychologist that I can. But not here. Not until we get back home to Switzerland.”
“Of course,” Mickie said. “But you don’t know when you’re heading home, do you?”
“Well, I’m so confident in my son,” she said, “I have flights booked back tonight.”
“Commercial flights?”
“Commercial? Gosh, no,” she said. “A private jet of course.”
“Oh, of course,” she said slowly. “And did you book me one too?”
There was a startled surprise, and then Chandra said, “Oh my, I completely forgot.”
“Oh,” Mickie said, feeling very disoriented with the sudden turn of events. “Is there room on the private jet for me?”
“I’m not sure,” Chandra said. “But don’t worry. I’ll make arrangements for you to get home too.” And then she said, “Oh, I must go,” and she hung up.
Mickie stared at her phone in dismay. “Well, you heard all that,” she said. “Which makes me feel like potentially Edward is involved in this somehow.”
“Well, from what she said, yes,” he said. “That’s very suspicious.”
“I know,” she said. “But I’m a little perturbed that they didn’t think about me flying back either. As if I’m not even part of the equation.”
“Right,” Asher said. He quickly changed lanes again. “What’s your relationship been like with them?”
“Friendly but businesslike. I’m an employee. Obviously I’m not family,” she said but couldn’t still the bewilderment inside. “But it’s like she didn’t even consider me.”
“Well then, she just got some of the best news ever apparently,” Asher said. “So you must go a little easy on her over that.”
“Right. Of course,” she said, but it was hard to still that sense of disquiet. “She’s making plans to rush back to Switzerland.”
“Which is what we would all do in her situation,” Ryker said reassuringly. “Just think about it. This is the place where they’ve been kidnapped, so she wants to go home where she feels like the twins will be safe and secure.”
“Right,” Mickie said quietly. She stared out the window, trying to shake off that odd sense of dismissal from that conversation.
“Are you worried about going back with her?”
“No, she’ll get me home somehow,” she said. “If nothing else, a commercial flight.”
“But you don’t feel like you count all of a sudden, right?”
She gave him a smile. “It’s funny because, when you’re interacting with the whole family, you feel like you’re family too, but, when you’re not there, you realize that you really aren’t part of the family. You’re just an employee.”
“Exactly, yet surely she won’t leave you here,” he said. “But, if she needs you for the twins, it’s odd that she didn’t even consider that you would need space on that private jet. And what private jet? Does she own one?”
Mickie looked at him in surprise. “No, she doesn’t. But she has multiple friends who have them. So it could be any one of them. She has an old friend. A long-term male friend,” she said with emphasis. “He has a small Learjet that they fly all over the place in.”
“Any idea how many it holds?”
She slowly shook her head. “No. I’ve never been invited on board. It wasn’t the one we flew in on.”
“Well, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Ryker said. “There’ll be the four of them for sure, plus any security guards or head of security that might be with them.”
“A daunting thought,” she said, sagging back. “How long until we’re back at the hotel?”
“At the rate we’re going, about ten minutes,” Ryker said. “If they slow down or try to shake their tail, it could take us two or three times as long.”
“Do you think they know that we’re following them?” she asked.
“I would think so, yes,” he said, “especially from the way they’re moving.”
She nodded. “Okay. That makes sense.”
And just then Asher swore. She straightened and tried to look through the traffic, but it was streaming all around them. She asked, “Did you lose them?”
“They crossed several lanes of traffic and booked it onto an off-ramp.” Asher pounded the steering wheel as he maneuvered his way past and through. By the time he got off the massive freeway, the crossover vehicle was several miles back, somewhere caught up in the suburbs.
“Well, that was a deliberate move on his attempt,” Asher said. “So obviously they knew they’re being followed.”
“And what’s our best tactic at the moment?” Mickie asked. “Wait for them to return to the hotel where the twins will be delivered?”
“That is quite likely our best avenue, yes,” Asher said. “It’ll be interesting to see who brings them in.”
“But what we don’t have,” she said, “is any way to know if they’ll be transferred from one vehicle to another.”
“I know,” Ryker said. “And I could lose all of today just trying to backtrack and find them here. Better we head toward the hotel, which isn’t very far away now, and see if we can capture them or find them as they head in.”
“And do you really think that we’ll have a confrontation when we do?”
“I highly suspect,” he said, “we’ll find the brother is there as the savior, and the twins will be carried up to the hotel, and a doctor would be called immediately to check on their condition, while everybody celebrates.”
“And that’s seriously scary,” she said slowly. “Because the brother has a lot to lose if he’s involved in this and we can prove it.”
“He has a ton to lose,” Ryker said. “So we can’t trust anybody who’s involved.”
“Including Chandra?”
“The thing is, right now, she’s all about getting her daughters back. She won’t want anything to do with finding out who did this. All she’s interested in now is getting the twins home safe.”
“Don’t you think she’ll want somebody punished?”
“Well, not a lot of damage has been done in a way, has it? Her reputation is intact, and she’s quickly shedding clients and distancing herself from the industry, so she can retire earlier and go home and spend time with the twins who she has ignored for so much of their lives,” Asher said in a dry tone. “The brother, Edward, is now back in favor with the family again, although Lana needs to change her name and probably never show her face anywhere close to where Chandra is.”
“Would the twins say anything about Lana’s presence there?” Ryker asked.
“Well, it depends,” Mickie said. “For one, were they conscious? For two, did they see her? And three, sometimes when the twins talk, nobody believes them anyway. It can be hard when they have a tantrum or go on a tirade. Most of the time, the twins keep repeating what they’ve seen over and over again until it’s acknowledged. That could be the case now.”
“Would the mother do anything about it is the question,” Asher said.
“Smile indulgently, pat their hands, and tell them that she’ll look after them from now on,” Mickie said calmly. And suddenly Mickie realized that her job was coming to an end. It didn’t matt
er if she was ready for it or not. With the mother going home and staying with the twins now as much as she could, that wouldn’t really require Mickie’s presence. And the brother, knowing that she might have some inkling of what was going on—particularly if she let him know in any way, shape, or form—would do his utmost to get rid of her.
As a matter of fact, he’d likely do that anyway just because she was connected to the mess here. She wouldn’t be surprised if she was offered a nice little sum of money to leave quietly, all with the good intentions to keep the twins safe and stable.
“What are you thinking about?” Asher said.
“I think I’ll need a new job,” she said as she quickly outlined her thinking.
He pondered that for a moment and then said, “That would make sense on Edward’s part. He’ll pay off everybody involved and make it all go away. But that doesn’t stop the dead bodies from showing up.”
“But all the dead are over here,” she said. “As much as I hate to say it, what I don’t want is for him to turn any of that suspicion on me.” She saw the confirmation of her fears in his eyes.
“That would be a little too nice for him, wouldn’t it?” Asher said. “He wouldn’t even have to pay you that nice little payout.”
“Particularly,” she said, “when I wasn’t even given a flight home.”
Asher hated her logic but had to admit there was just a little bit of something to it. So far, they’ve been running around in circles, and he needed to ensure that the blame wasn’t conveniently dumped on Mickie’s head. Since she was a foreigner, lost and alone, as soon as the police were contacted, and she was labeled as a suspect, she’d be taken in custody and thrown into jail. And the police wouldn’t be in any hurry to clear her as a suspect.
Asher glanced at Ryker to see the taut line of his jaw. They exchanged hard looks.
With a nod, Ryker bent down and pulled out his phone and started sending messages.
That was the last thing Asher needed to happen here. Their own presence was in the same delicate situation. “We’ll need a place to get out of here,” Asher said.