“Taylor.” He only said my name, but there was a wealth of meaning in it.
Frowning, I looked around and then walked to the alley. “I’m not supposed to talk to the police.”
“The gallery’s back door is open. Go in, and someone will meet you inside.”
“How did you know?”
“Chelsea,” he said. “Now go inside. We’re here to help.”
His tone was no-nonsense. I pulled my sweater around me and walked through the alley and to the back of the gallery. Trying the door, I discovered he was right. It was open. “Hello?” I called.
“Come in, dear,” Miss Finglestein said. She sat at one of the tables and unboxed a canvas. “Chelsea called Sheriff Hennessey. He called me and asked me to open the back door.”
“I think the kidnappers are watching. They’ll see him come in,” I said. “I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize Aunt Jemma’s life.”
“It’s going to be okay,” she said and came over and smothered me in a Chanel-scented hug.
“Is it?” I asked. “They aren’t asking for a ransom. What does that mean? Will they kill her or keep her for months? How can I deal with that?”
“The front is clear,” Deputy Bloomberg said as he walked through the door. “Hi, Taylor.”
“Oh,” I said as I realized what had happened. “Of course. You came in while I was out front.”
“As far as we can tell, no one’s following you,” he said.
Holly rushed in through the back door. “Taylor, are you all right?”
“Yes—no.” I shook my head. “Sort of.”
“Deputy Bloomberg?” Holly said as she turned to me. “Taylor, did you call the sheriff’s office?”
“Chelsea did,” I said.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Holly put her purse on the table and then her hands on her hips.
I took a deep breath and relayed the entire story. Deputy Bloomberg took notes on a notepad. Holly looked horrified, and Miss Finglestein looked boiling mad.
“How dare they!” Miss Finglestein exclaimed. “Why, I’m in a mind to pummel this person. Poor Jemma, what must she be going through?”
“I don’t understand the lack of ransom,” I said. “What does it mean? They can’t keep her forever.”
“You said she has a heart condition,” Deputy Bloomberg said. “Perhaps they are trying to scare you to keep you out of the investigation.”
“Oh, they’ve scared me, all right,” I said and hugged myself.
“Whoever took her is most likely local and must feel they are able to take her again at any time,” Deputy Bloomberg said. “That threat is most likely what they are trying to accomplish. If they hadn’t taken her, would you be this worried?”
“No,” I said and frowned. “I wouldn’t take any threat that seriously.”
“Then I’d say they accomplished their mission,” the deputy said. “Let’s try to stay calm and see if we can’t get your aunt home.”
“I’ll make us some tea,” Miss Finglestein said.
“You said that you talked to your aunt?” Deputy Bloomberg asked.
“Yes, but not for long.”
“Then she is still alive. Try to relax a little bit. It is most likely they won’t harm her. As I said, the only advantage they have over you is the threat of harming her. They have to keep her alive to do that.”
“Why no ransom?” Holly asked. “Is it really all about not investigating?” She looked at me. “You or Chelsea must have been close to figuring things out.”
“That must be true,” I said. “But what part of our investigation was close? We will never know now, because I need my aunt back in one piece.”
“We get paid to put our lives on the line, Taylor. You and your friends never should’ve gotten involved,” the deputy said.
“I was trying to help Tim,” I muttered and sat down hard in the nearest chair.
“Listen, we can’t know what the kidnappers are thinking,” Holly said and patted my shoulder. “It seems to me that they didn’t think it all the way through when they took her, or they would have asked for ransom.”
“Oh, dear,” Miss Finglestein said as she brought in two cups of tea. “It sounds like our kidnapers are a bit rash.” Her mouth made a thin line as she handed me a teacup and the second one to Holly. “There’s no knowing what a rash person will do.”
“Miss F!” Holly said and gave her a look that said she was worrying me.
“Just saying.” The older woman shrugged. “Can I get you some tea, Deputy?”
“No, thank you,” he said. Miss Finglestein went out to make herself some tea, and the deputy’s expression grew more serious. “She’s right. While it’s encouraging to think that they won’t hurt your aunt because they will lose their leverage, there’s no predicting what will happen.”
“I don’t know how they could have taken her without being seen.”
“Would she have stopped somewhere on the way?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. She didn’t say she needed to stop anywhere, and The Beanery is pretty much a straight shot into town.”
“Was her car in the parking lot?”
“Gosh, I didn’t really look.” I frowned. “I don’t think so, or her friends would have thought she was there. I called Sarah, and she said that Aunt Jemma never showed.”
“Okay, we’ll assume Sarah is right, and your aunt never made it that far. That means either she stopped somewhere, or the kidnappers somehow got her out of her car. Would your aunt have stopped to help someone at the side of the road?”
“Maybe … but we all came down the same stretch of highway. I turned just outside of town to go to The Timbers to pick up my group.”
“I went the opposite direction in town to go to Safeway,” Holly said.
“Chelsea didn’t turn into town because she was headed back to North San Francisco.”
“Then your aunt’s car must be in town somewhere,” the deputy surmised. He got on his radio and put out a notice for the squad cars to be on the lookout for my aunt’s little red MG.
“The Beanery isn’t too far into town,” the deputy said. “She had to have stopped somewhere else first or run an errand.”
“I just don’t understand. She didn’t say she was going to do anything like that,” I said and put the untouched tea on the worktable. I hugged my waist and chewed on the inside of my cheek. “They could have called her cell phone and gotten her to go somewhere besides town. Wait! Her cell phone … can you do a GPS locator and find her?”
“We need permission to ping her phone,” he said.
“I give you permission,” I said quickly.
“It’s not that easy.” He frowned. “There are procedures that have to be followed. If you’ll excuse me, I need to make some calls.”
Holly gave me a big hug. “I’m so scared.”
“Me too. What if Aunt Jemma has another heart attack? This is terrible.”
Miss Finglestein came back with her teacup and Chelsea.
Chelsea rushed to me and gave me a big hug. “I hope you are okay with the fact that I called Sheriff Hennessey.”
“It was smart,” I said. “I’m glad you did.”
“What’s the word? Is there any?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “I could call the number again. But the last time I did they didn’t answer.”
“Don’t call it,” Miss Finglestein said. “We don’t want to provoke whoever is doing this. If they feel backed into a corner, there’s no telling what they will do. Rash personality, remember?”
“It’s the killer, isn’t it?” Chelsea said. “I think the killer is rash. Neither of these murders felt planned.”
“What do you think triggered them to take Aunt Jemma?” I asked. “We must have gotten too close in our investigation.” I frowned. “But we weren’t that close. I mean, we really have no idea. Plus, how would they know what we were doing?”
“I ran a story about Dr. Brinkman’s deat
h,” Chelsea said. “In it I did speculate that the two murders were connected.”
“But that’s not news,” I protested. “The police have arrested Tim in connection with both murders. What would make the killer desperate enough to take Aunt Jemma?”
“Maybe there wasn’t anything you did,” Miss Finglestein said and took a sip of her tea. “Perhaps the person is simply insane. There’s no predicting how insane people will act.”
“They certainly didn’t think this through,” Holly said. “Tim is still in jail. They have now pretty much handed him reasonable doubt.”
I studied Holly for a moment, mulling that point over. “They could twist that and say Tim orchestrated Aunt Jemma’s kidnapping.”
“We have to stop speculating,” Chelsea said. “Let’s all go over what we know from the beginning.”
We all moved to the kitchen and sat down around the table.
Miss Finglestein took away my teacup and made me a fresh cup. The cup was warm, and I wrapped my hands around it. “What happened last night?” she asked.
“Chelsea, Holly, Aunt Jemma, and I had Sarah over to see if we could figure out who the killer was,” I said and sipped the tea.
“Who else was there?”
“No one,” Holly said.
“Who did you talk to about last night?” Miss Finglestein asked.
“I didn’t talk to anyone. I was concentrating on today’s tour group.”
“I contacted that guy I know,” Holly said. “The one with a winery near Tim’s. I left a message and asked him what he knew anything about the Senator and the zoning commission.”
“What time did you contact him?” I asked.
“Right before I went into Safeway,” Holly said.
“I don’t think it’s connected. Aunt Jemma was taken early.”
“Chelsea, did you talk to anyone?” Holly asked. “Maybe last night? Did you email anyone at the paper?”
“No,” Chelsea said.
“Then it probably wasn’t part of last night’s meeting,” Miss Finglestein surmised. She drummed her fingers on the table. “What about yesterday?”
“I spoke to a guy named Bruce about Dr. Brinkman,” I said. “And then there was Mandy, of course.”
“Bruce told us that it was Harvey Winkle who was having an affair with Mandy,” Chelsea said.
“And Sarah said that Jeffery Hoag caught Mandy making out with a man at Tim’s—what if this Harvey Winkle is behind everything?”
“Why would he take Aunt Jemma? How would he know to do it?”
“Maybe Bruce told him what he told you. Brinkman’s team seems pretty close. Even an off-handed comment about you thinking that Mandy was sleeping with Dr. Brinkman might have set off Harvey.”
“Where’s Deputy Bloomberg?” I asked.
“He’s in the office.”
I got up and went to the office to find the deputy on the phone. “Excuse me,” I said.
“Yes?” He covered the phone’s receiver.
“Can you tell Sheriff Hennessey to look into a man named Harvey Winkle? We think he might be involved.”
The deputy wrote down the name. “What makes you think that?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’m all ears.”
I sighed and walked into the room and sat down. I relayed our thinking to the deputy.
“Have you ever met Mr. Winkle?” he asked.
“No.”
“Has Mandy ever told you anything about Mr. Winkle?”
“No.”
“I hate to say it, but this is all conjecture. I can’t send police over to talk to a man who has no real connection.”
“Then talk to Mandy,” I said. “She’s got to be connected.”
“We’ll do what we can.”
“Have you found out anything about the number the guy called me on?”
“As best we can tell, the phone was bought at a big box store, and the number was registered to John Smith. The address was a post office box number. We haven’t been able to trace it to a real person. Has he called you back?”
“No. Should I try to call him again?”
“Probably not a good idea,” the deputy said. “He’s most likely ditched the phone.”
“What about Aunt Jemma’s phone? Were you able to trace it? Or her car?”
“The phone takes time. We have to go through proper channels, and we’re working with her carrier service right now.”
“What about her car? It’s pretty distinctive.”
“We haven’t found the car yet.”
“Can’t you do a “find my phone” app?” I asked. “Wait! I can do it.” I pulled out my phone. “I set up the ‘find my phone’ app on my phone the last time Aunt Jemma lost hers.” I thumbed through my apps and pressed the button. Nothing happened. “I don’t understand.”
“The phone could be dead,” he said. “Let me see that.” I handed him my phone, and he fiddled with the app for a moment. “Yeah, no signal. The phone is either dead or turned off.”
“Darn it.” I stood. “I can’t just sit here and wait for something to happen. Aunt Jemma could be having a heart attack.”
“The best thing you can do is sit here and wait,” the deputy said. “We have officers out throughout the county, looking for your aunt. It’s best if you let us do our job.”
“I want to talk to Sheriff Hennessey,” I said.
“I can get him on the line for you, but every moment of his that you take up is a moment lost in finding your aunt.”
“Put him on anyway.”
Chapter 23
“Hennessey.”
“Hi, it’s Taylor. What are you doing to find Aunt Jemma? She has a heart condition, you know. Have you found her car? Pinged her phone? What am I supposed to do? I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
“Taylor, calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down. My aunt’s life is at stake. She is probably with the murderer. You know, the one person you haven’t put in jail.”
“Taylor, I need you to sit tight.”
“This is not about what you need, Ron.”
“Okay.” He was calmer than he should have been. I imagined he had his flat-eyed, cop face on. “Taylor, sit down.”
“What?”
“Find the nearest chair and sit.”
I did what he said out of instinct more than anything; the tone of his voice was commanding.
“Good,” he said. “Now, we still haven’t found your aunt’s MG. That means there is most likely more than one person involved. You talked to her yourself, correct?”
“Yes, but—”
“She’s a strong woman, and you know that. I’ve got every man in our county and two adjacent counties out looking for her. You need to stay safe.”
“But—”
“Don’t let Chelsea or Holly out of your sight. There’s safety in numbers. Also, stay away from the winery.”
“But Millie and Clemmie are there.”
“I called Juan. He and Julio are watching out for your pets. I’ve got Deputy Bloomberg there with you for a reason. Can you stay there? Can you be a part of this? Can I count on you, Taylor?”
“Yes,” I said with a sigh. “We think it might be Harvey Winkle.”
“Who?”
“Harvey Winkle. This guy, Bruce Warrington, from Dr. Brinkman’s group said that they all took turns giving the lectures and acting like Dr. Brinkman. That night I saw Mandy kissing Dr. Brinkman, it was actually a man named Harvey Winkle. I’m certain if you find Harvey, you will find my aunt.”
“I’ve written that down,” he reassured me. “Do you trust this Bruce guy?”
That stopped me for a moment. “Sure, why would he lie to me?”
“Taylor, what do you know about him?”
I thought about it for a moment. “I guess nothing other than that he works for Dr. Brinkman.”
“Listen, I’m going out to the Brinkman headquarters right now. I’ll see what I can find
out about this Harvey guy and this Bruce Warrington. I’ll keep you posted if anyone knows anything about your aunt’s whereabouts.”
“Wait, you don’t think she went out to Dr. Brinkman’s compound, do you?”
He paused. “Why would she do that, Taylor?”
“I don’t know,” I said and frowned. “She should have gone straight to The Beanery, but she didn’t. Maybe she went out there to investigate.”
“I told you ladies to leave it to the professionals.”
“Ron, don’t lecture me right now. I need you to focus on finding my aunt. Deputy Bloomberg tells me that the number that called me is untraceable. Can I call him back? I did before.”
“No,” Ron said. “No, let him call you. My guess is that he’s dumped the first phone and is getting a second.”
“What do I do when he calls again? It’s not like he’s asking for money. All he asked for was for us to stop investigating. I don’t know how to prove that we’ve stopped. I don’t know how to get my aunt back.”
“Listen to me, Taylor. When the kidnapper calls back, I want you to get Deputy Bloomberg. Put the man on speakerphone. Try to keep him talking, and we will try to trace the call.”
“How will you trace the call? Is there something you need to put on my phone?”
“Deputy Bloomberg took your phone, right?”
“Yes, but only for a minute. I thought he was writing down the phone number.”
“When you gave your permission, he put a tracking app on your phone. I’ve been working through the process to get the courts to allow us to find the phone that calls you. We can track them as soon as the court order comes through.”
“What if they call me before that?”
“Listen, I know this is hard. I need you to trust me. We’re doing our best while working through the system,” he said. “That said there are a few apps you can use.”
“I’m going to do a search and download some now.”
“Don’t do anything questionable,” he said. “We want to catch this guy and make the charges stick.”
“I’m calling Patrick.”
“That might not be a bad idea. Is there anyone else we should contact about your aunt? Any cousins, siblings?”
Seven Deadly Zins Page 17