Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set (192 page)

“How do I know this isn’t a trick?” Suki asked. “Maybe this is a ploy to get me to talk.” She raised her head a bit and looked at the men. “You could have found my foster mother and given her this note and told her to lie to me so I would talk.”

“Suki, no,” Mrs. DiMarco said, stretching her hand out across the table. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Look at the handwriting. I think you know it’s your dad’s.”

“Where is Whitney?” Porter asked again.

“And Kate?” Ryan demanded.

“Kate?” Suki prickled at the question. “How would I know? I don’t understand. What do you mean
where’s Kate?
”

“Kate’s gone missing, too. You’re telling us you don’t know anything about that?” Patel questioned, placing his hands on the table as he leaned toward her. “I find that hard to believe!”

“Well, I—I—” Suki stammered.

She’s hiding something, Ryan thought. She may not know where Kate is, but she must know that her brother has taken her and what his intentions are. The question is, will she give up him up to the police?

“Where’s Kate? Spit it out!” Patel snarled.

“I don’t know where Kate is!”

“But you do know who took her, don’t you?” Patel pushed. “Now, come on, Suki, when you thought Kate was responsible for killing your mother, maybe you were willing to help Ethan. But now…” he paused, looked her straight in the eyes, “…how can you let your brother kill an innocent woman?”

Suki remained silent.

Ryan couldn’t take his own silence any longer. “If you can let Ethan know about the note, and that it wasn’t Kate’s fault after all, maybe you could stop him before he goes through with his plans.”

Raj shot him a warning glance and Ryan thinned his lips, forcing himself to stay out of it. He stepped back.

“Do you have any idea what he’s done with her?” Porter asked, maintaining more composure than his partner or Ryan.

The young woman sat stony silent.

“Suki, for heaven’s sake, tell them what you know,” Mrs. DiMarco pleaded.

“I want my lawyer. I told you that before.”

“If we have to wait for your Public Defender to show up,” Patel said, “Whitney and Kate could be dead. Is that what you want?”

“No, but I need someone on my side to help me out of this,” Suki replied.

“I understand, Miss Henderson, but look at it this way. Right now, you’re in a little hole. It won’t be so hard to dig your way out of it,” Porter said. “However, if Whitney or Kate are found dead, you’re going to be in a hole so deep you’ll never see the light of day again—your brother, too. Now, tell me, do you still want to wait for a lawyer?”

Suki looked at Porter and paused, likely weighing her options. “No, I guess not, when you put it that way.”

“Let me ask you again,” Porter said, “do you know who took Kate?”

“I think my brother, Ethan, took her,” she said, guardedly.

“Do you know where he would have taken her?” Porter questioned, leaning in closer to Suki, searching her eyes for the truth.

“No, I don’t.” Suki shook her head as she answered. “I wish I did, but, no.”

“But you do know where Whitney is, don’t you?” Patel asked.

“Yes,” Suki hesitated, “but—”

“Tell us!” Patel yelled. “Where is Whitney McAllister?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you. She’s in a hidden room in the underground city, below Pioneer Square, where I work,” Suki cried, the truth spilling out. “I hid her in a locked storage room to get Kate to come to Seattle.”

“Is she dead?” Porter asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Suki replied, avoiding looking him in the eye. At least she seemed ashamed of what she had done to Whitney.

“You don’t think so?” Patel questioned. The veins in his neck were visibly pulsating from the stress.

“I don’t know, I don’t know. I’ve kept her sedated with sleeping pills.”

“Oh, Suki…” Mrs. DiMarco sounded stunned.

“I was going to check on her when you picked me up outside of the Underground Tours,” Suki explained. “I didn’t just leave her there.”

Porter directed Raj to call for an ambulance to meet them at the building in Pioneer Square where the Underground Tour begins, and he dashed out of the room to make that call.

Then Porter stepped out in the hallway for a moment and Ryan paced back and forth, desperate to find Kate too.

Porter returned with a uniformed policewoman. “Suki, we need you to help us figure out where your brother took Kate. And we need to find Whitney now—right now.”

She looked up at him with understanding. “Okay.”

Time was not Whitney’s friend and Porter’s face had grown gravely serious. “I think you already know that I’m going to have to arrest you, but don’t make it any worse. I need you to show us, this minute, where you’re keeping Whitney. Hopefully, she’s still alive.”

“I understand,” Suki agreed. “I never intended to kill Whitney…” she let the words trail off.

“Officer Diaz, after you handcuff her and read her her rights, meet me at my car. I want both of you to go with us to find Whitney.”

“Yes, sir,” the officer answered.

“Mrs. DiMarco. Thank you for your help.”

“I hope you get there in time.”

“You and me both.”

At that, Ryan rushed out of the room and dashed to Raj’s desk. Patel was on the phone calling for an ambulance. He stood by as Raj then phoned a junior officer, directing him to contact the manager of the Underground Tour to meet them there too, ASAP, to unlock the place and turn on all the lights.

“Did you hear back from the forensic team yet?” Ryan asked. “Do you have some word on Kate?”

“No, not yet. But the investigators have been all over the area behind the restaurant and didn’t find anything.”

“When was that?” Ryan asked.

“I sent a couple of CSI’s out there when I stepped out of the room, while Will was questioning the DiMarco woman.”

“Raj, I need to find Kate!”

“
You
need to find Kate? Ryan, you’re not on the force anymore. You can’t be running all over town trying to do our job.”

“I know I’m not a cop, but I can keep my eyes open. If you let me ride along, I promise I’ll stay out of the way.”

“We’ve got to go and find Whitney,” Raj said as he headed toward the door.

Ryan reached out and tapped Raj’s arm to stop him. “I understand about Whitney, but what about Kate? Maybe I should take my own car.”

“We don’t have any leads on Kate yet. We’ll continue questioning Suki in the car on the way to find Whitney. Hopefully, we can get her to tell us something that will lead us to Kate, too. But in the meantime, I can’t have you doing anything crazy. Do you hear me?”

“I hear you, but if Kate
is
right about Ethan killing her parents, it’s more than possible he took her. And if that’s the case, you know he won’t hesitate to kill her.”

“We don’t know for sure that he killed her folks.”

“I know, but it’s possible, isn’t it?”

“I guess, anything’s possible.”

“So, let me come with you and Porter. I can help you question Suki.”

“All right,” Raj said, his eyes darting around to be sure no one was within earshot. He lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “You better stay in the car and wait, or we’ll all be in a lot of hot water.”

“You have my word.”

“Raj!” Porter called out on his way out the door.

“I hope my partner agrees to this,” Raj said. They sprinted to catch up to Porter and dashed out the door.

Chapter Seventeen

Officer Diaz and Suki met them at Porter’s car, and they all climbed in and sped off, lights flashing and siren blaring, to meet the ambulance and other officers at the Underground Tour. Ryan, Diaz and Suki rode in the back, while the detectives used the opportunity to try to draw more information out of their suspect.

“Suki, I appreciate the fact you decided to cooperate and show us where you’ve been keeping Whitney.” Porter peered up to see her momentarily in the rearview mirror as he drove. “It was the right thing to do.” He swung the car around a sharp corner. “But it’s critical we find Kate, too. Do you have
any
idea where Ethan might have taken her?”

“Not really.”

“What’s he planning to do with her?” Patel asked, twisting in his seat to look at her.

Suki didn’t respond. With her hands cuffed behind her back, she dropped her head down. A few tears fell onto her cotton blouse, leaving dark spots.

It took everything Ryan had not to reach over and make her talk.

“Suki, answer me,” Patel pressed. He wore an expression that looked like he had the same bad feeling that Ryan had, when he saw her bending forward and crying.

“Suki, look at me! What is your brother planning to do with Kate?” he insisted. “Tell me.”

She lifted her face. “He’s going to kill her.”

Porter glanced at the rearview mirror again, then over at his partner. Their eyes met with a look that said they didn’t have much time.

“Think, Suki. You know your brother better than anyone else does. Where would he take her?” Porter demanded.

“I don’t know!” she screamed, shaking her head from side to side. “I don’t know. If I knew I would tell you!”

Ryan felt a thin layer of sweat forming on his forehead and his pulse began to race. He felt helpless as he sat beside Suki, listening to this unproductive line of questioning. If it were up to him, he would find a way to make her tell them what they needed. Suddenly his phone vibrated. He snatched it up hoping it might be Kate.

“Hello, Ryan,” Vanessa said.

“This isn’t a good time.”

“But—”

“I can’t talk now! Something terrible is going on—Kate is missing.” He didn’t want to discuss it with her, but he didn’t want to get stuck talking to her either.

“Missing?” she asked. “Are you sure? I saw her not that long ago.”

“You did? Where?”

“I was at Yellowfin’s, on a date. When Jonathan and I first walked into the restaurant, I saw her head for the ladies room. It was weird—because all of a sudden, she turned and walked toward the kitchen instead.”

“I was at the restaurant then. How come I didn’t see you?”

“Because you had your head buried in the menu. I saw no reason to bother you.”

“Vanessa, this is important. Did you see anything else?” Ryan asked. “Anything out of the ordinary?”

“As a matter of fact, yes, something peculiar.”

“What?” Ryan pressed.

“I saw her stick her phone down her shirt, probably into her bra. I thought that was odd. Don’t you think that was odd?”

“Yeah, that is strange,” Ryan said, wondering why. “Anything else?”

“No, that was it. I just don’t understand why you believe she’s missing. It wasn’t that long ago.”

“I can’t talk about it right now. I need to go. Thanks for the info.” He hung up.

Questions swirled around in Ryan’s head. Was that Ethan on the other end of her phone call? Did she leave on her own? Did he hurt her? Or kill her?

Ryan looked up to see Patel staring at him over his shoulder and Porter glancing at him through the rearview. “Well?” the two detectives asked in unison.

Ryan explained what Vanessa had told him about seeing Kate duck into the kitchen.

“Too bad she didn’t say anything we don’t already know,” Patel said.

“Suki, we really need you to think,” Porter urged the young woman. “Is there any place you can think of where your brother might have taken Kate? A warehouse? A park? Or a house your brother might go to? Somewhere he used to work maybe?”

“Think!” Ryan demanded.

“I’m trying,” Suki snapped back. She paused for a moment. “Our house. Yes, he might have taken her to our house, the one we lived in when our mom died.”

“Wouldn’t someone else live there now?” Officer Diaz asked.

“No, it’s vacant,” Suki said. “Yesterday, my brother told me he went by the house, just to look at it for old-time sake. He said he wanted to remember when we were kids and we were happy. He told me it was empty and had a for-sale sign out front. We lost the house after my mom died, but the people who bought it must have lost their jobs or something and lost the house, too.”

“So, what’s the address?” Patel asked.

“Oh, gosh, that was ten years ago. I was only fourteen.”

“You have to remember!” Patel yelled, his eyes wide, staring at her in the back seat. “Think!”

“Well, it was on Queen Anne Hill.”

“What was the name of the street?” Patel demanded.

“Let me think. Stop yelling at me and just let me think!” she cried.

Ryan crossed his arms and looked out the window.
Maybe she’s already dead.
He shook his head, as if he could shake the thoughts out of it.
No, I have to stay positive. I have to find her.

Then he thought about what Vanessa had said—that Kate put her phone in her bra.
Why?
Normally, she would have stuck it in her pocket or in her purse, but putting it down her bra meant she did it for a reason. It occurred to him that maybe she left her phone on and silenced it so the police could track her by GPS. That would mean she knew she was going to be taken.

“Raj.”

“Yeah?” Raj shifted in his seat and looked at Ryan over his shoulder.

“Vanessa said something else. I didn’t think anything of it at first, but now—”

“What is it?”

“She said she saw Kate put her phone down her shirt before she went to the kitchen. I think that says she knew she was in danger. Do you think you could get a police tech to track her phone by GPS?”

“Yes, that’s a great idea,” Raj agreed.

“And what about finding the last person who called her? Could the tech find out who that was and track that phone, too?”

“Probably. Let me give them a call.”

“We’re almost there,” Porter said. “I see flashing lights ahead.”

“What now?” Ryan asked.

Patel met his gaze. “Ryan, just sit tight, like you promised.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Look, there’s the ambulance, Raj. The Underground Tour building must be right up ahead.” Porter pulled over to the curb. A couple other officers had already blocked off part of the street for the ambulance and police cars.

Porter and Patel jumped out first, grabbing their flashlights. Officer Diaz helped Suki out of the vehicle and kept a firm grasp on her arm while Ryan stood beside the car.