Don't Forget Me (37 page)

He glanced around the station. Helen had gone home early at Toleffson’s urging. Ham was patrolling with a new sense of importance since he was one of the few people in the office who claimed he could recognize Brody on sight. Toleffson was off at the wedding rehearsal. Nando was supposed to be doing his eternal paperwork, but in fact he was playing Sherlock Holmes. Badly.

He’d clicked to Google on the office computer, trying to find more information about Brody’s escape, when the phone on Helen’s desk rang. He pushed himself to his feet and ambled over. Whatever minor crisis somebody was having might at least give him something else to think about.

He picked up the receiver. “Konigsburg police.”

“Let me speak to your chief,” a man’s voice said abruptly.

“The chief isn’t here right now. Can I take a message?”

“Who are you?”

Frowning, Nando managed to keep from snarling back. “I’m Assistant Chief Avrogado. What can I do for you?”

“Assistant Chief Avrogado?” The man said. His voice seemed faintly mocking, as if he found Nando’s title absurd.

Nando stiffened. “What can I do for you?” he repeated through clenched teeth.

“Well, Officer, I’ve got a hostage here. She’s all right at the moment. She’ll stay that way if you do exactly what I say.”

Nando grasped the phone so tightly his fingers ached. “What? Who the hell is this?”

“Keep it down, Officer,” the man snapped. “You don’t want to involve anybody else in this, not if you want her to stay healthy. And you know who I am. Or you should if you think about it.”

Nando leaned a hand on the desk. Brody. Had to be. “Yeah. I know who you are, you crooked son of a bitch. Who’s your hostage?”

“Easy, Officer Avrogado. You don’t want to piss me off. My hostage is Ms. Maldonado,” Brody said.

Nando’s breath caught in his throat. “Kit,” he choked out.

There was a pause at the other end, then Brody was back. “No. Allie Maldonado. Still want to save her?”

Nando thought he heard a noise in the background, maybe a gasp.
God damn it to hell!
“What do you want?”

“Here’s what you’re going to do,” Brody said calmly. “I want the contents of the chief’s desk. All of it. Every drawer. Put it in a sack and bring it to the Woodrose. I’ll have Ms. Maldonado in the Damask Meeting Room. Once I have the sack, I’ll give her back to you. Come alone, Officer, and don’t tell anybody else. You’ve got twenty minutes before she starts getting hurt.”

This time the gasp was definite. “Twenty minutes isn’t enough time,” Nando said hurriedly.

“Maybe. But it’s all the time you’ve got. Better get moving.”

The phone went dead in his ear.

Kit stood in the back of the event center, studying the decorations. They weren’t great. If she’d had a few weeks longer she might have been able to find people who’d have done a better job. Still, they weren’t awful. They’d do.

The silver swags along the benches glowed in the late afternoon shadows. The pale pink roses with sprigs of lavender were charming and besides they smelled great. The lavender roses at the front were maybe a little over the top, but not so far over that they’d upset Allie.

Allie.
She frowned quickly. Shouldn’t she have come back by now? Even if she was having yet another crisis of confidence, she should at least get back here in time for the rehearsal. It wasn’t like Allie to keep other people waiting, no matter how upset she was.

Members of the wedding had already begun to straggle in. Cal Toleffson stood up front with Docia and his brother Erik, the chief of police. She could see Jess and Lars heading down the gravel walk from the parking lot. Maybe it was time to go looking for Allie.

“Where is she?” The voice at her elbow made her jump. She hadn’t seen Wonder come in.

“She went for a walk,” Kit explained, pressing a hand to her heart.

Wonder’s forehead was furrowed, his jaw set. He looked like he was going through a mild crisis of his own. “Was she still upset?”

Kit nodded. “A little.”

“Damn it. All I did was ask her if she’d listed her place with a realtor yet. How does that qualify as pressure?”

“She’s just nervous. I think the whole wedding thing is getting to her.” And, of course, to everybody else. For the hundredth time, Kit gave thanks that the whole thing was almost over.

“Where did she go walking?” Wonder glanced around the parking lot. “I’ll see if I can find her.”

“She’s in the rose garden. I’ll come with you.” Kit walked purposefully toward the main entrance. If she was with Wonder, it might cut down on the chances that Allie would do anything to disappoint everybody. At this stage, she was willing to use any strategy she could think of to keep everything running on track.

After a moment, she heard Wonder trailing after her. “She doesn’t have to sell her house,” he muttered. “She doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to. Hell, we can live there if that’s what she wants. She keeps getting worked up over everything.”

“She’s just nervous,” Kit repeated absently. “Don’t worry. It’ll be okay.”

Of course, right now the problem was that she didn’t see Allie anywhere in the rose garden, where she’d supposedly been walking. She felt the first faint stirrings of panic. Allie wouldn’t really bolt, would she? Leaving her favorite niece holding the bag?

“I don’t see her,” Wonder said from behind her.

“I don’t either. Maybe she went into the inn.” Kit turned up the path that led back to the lower inn entrance, then paused. A flash of something bright had caught her eye. She leaned down, pushing aside a rose bush.

Allie’s purse sat half-propped against a floribunda, the gold clasp shining in the sun. A pair of garden clippers lay on the ground nearby along with a trash bag full of dead roses.

“What the hell?” Wonder stopped behind her. “Isn’t that Allie’s? Where would she go without her purse?”

Kit nodded slowly. “And Mr. Didrikson’s stuff. Why would either of them leave these things here?”

Suddenly she had a flash of memory—Didrikson on his mower, riding back and forth across the lawn, his broad back straight above the seat.

His broad back.
I’d swear I’ve seen him somewhere before. But I don’t know where or when. It’s just…I’ve seen that back. Doing something.
Her chest clenched tight. Suddenly it hurt to breathe.

“Christ,” she breathed. “Oh Christ. Brody. He’s Brody. And he must have taken Allie with him. That’s why she left her purse. He grabbed her.”

“What?” Wonder glanced around the garden, his head swiveling like a turret gunner. “Brody? Where? That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he take Allie?”

Kit pressed a hand to her pounding heart. “I don’t know.”
Think!
“Maybe for a hostage. Maybe he’s kidnapped her to help him get away.”
Please let that be it. Please don’t let him hurt her.

“A hostage?” Wonder shook his head slowly. “That’s nuts. She probably just went inside the inn. Maybe she was so frazzled she forgot her purse.” He turned toward the rear entrance.

Kit pulled back on his arm, holding tight. “Listen to me. Please, Steve! Go get Erik. I’ll call Nando. If I’m wrong, it’ll be just another false sighting. You can all laugh at me. But if I’m right, we need them. Now!”

Wonder stared down at her, blinking. “Erik?”

“Please. He’s in the event center. Just do it!” She pushed him in the direction of the building.

He stared back at her for a moment longer, then began trotting back up the path.

Kit pulled her phone from her pocket, running toward the rear entrance to the inn. There was no way she was going to stand outside waiting while somebody threatened her aunt. Particularly not when they had a wedding tomorrow.

Nando took one frantic glance around the station. Helen and Ham were gone. Toleffson was gone. The night shift wouldn’t be in for an hour.

And he had less than twenty minutes to pick up the stuff and drive to the Woodrose.

He pulled a large plastic trash sack from behind Helen’s desk and headed for the chief’s office. The desk and file cabinet contents lay where they’d left it earlier, spread out on the folding table. Nando grabbed handfuls and threw them into the sack, not taking the time to look at them. He checked his watch.

Seventeen minutes.

He pulled the drawstring at the top of the sack and ran for the parking lot, locking the door behind him, although a fat lot of good that would do. His truck was parked next to the cruiser. After a moment’s hesitation, he unlocked it and climbed in. The less attention he drew the better, and taking the cruiser to the Woodrose would definitely draw attention.

The highway into town was clogged with weekend tourists, but fortunately he was headed the other direction. One part of his brain kept track of the time while the other tried to figure out what to do. Brody would want to hang onto Allie as his hostage. He had to figure out a way to keep him from taking her with him when he left. If only Toleffson…

Nando blew out a quick breath, remembering suddenly just where Toleffson was tonight. The wedding rehearsal. At the event center behind the Woodrose. But there was no time to go and get him before the twenty minutes was up. Nando punched the button on his automatic dial, praying the chief would pick up.

He wouldn’t, of course. He was in the middle of a wedding rehearsal, and he’d probably turned his phone off. The voice mail message came on as Nando turned into the drive leading to the Inn. “Brody’s got Allie,” he barked. “He’s holding her in the Damask Room at the Woodrose. I’m supposed to go alone and bring everything from your desk. I’m almost there. Don’t let him see you when you come over there. He says he’ll kill her. I’m going there directly. Maybe you can find a back way in.”

He snapped the phone closed and tossed it onto the seat, then pulled the truck into the parking lot at the back of the inn, heading for the rear entrance at a dead run.

He looked at his watch. Four minutes.

It would help if he knew which room the Damask Room was, but he couldn’t take the time to ask, and besides, he didn’t see anyone to ask anyway. He headed down the hall that led to the ballroom, noting the names of the other rooms along the way. Floribunda, Bourbon, Gallica.

Jesus
. He had no idea what those names meant or if he was even in the right hall. They didn’t look to be arranged alphabetically, unfortunately.

Ahead of him, he saw a card on an easel standing next to one of the doors.
Maldonado-Kleinschmidt Rehearsal Dinner,
it said. Behind it, he saw the room plaque.
Damask
.

He took a deep breath, then knocked on the closed door.

“Nando?” Allie’s voice sounded shaky.

“Yeah,” he muttered.

The door opened and he was looking down at Allie’s pale face. “He’s right behind me,” she said.

“I’ve got the sack. Let me in.”

She stepped to the side, letting him slide past. A tall man with silvery hair and a weathered face stood behind her holding a Walther PPK aimed at the middle of her back.

“Cutting it close, Officer,” he said. “I wasn’t sure you’d make it.”

“I’m here,” Nando said through clenched teeth. “Here’s your stuff. Take it and get out—I won’t stop you.”

“Of course you won’t. You can’t, as long as I have Ms. Maldonado here. Take the sack, Ms. Maldonado.”

Allie reached for the sack he held loosely in his hand. As their fingers touched briefly, he felt the coldness of her skin.

She swallowed hard. “Here,” she said, holding the sack toward Brody.

“Open it,” he said.

She blinked. “Me?”

“You. Let’s make sure the officer hasn’t decided to do something supremely stupid, like dropping in a couple of dye packs.”

Nando’s jaw tightened. If he’d had more time, he might actually have done that, assuming they had any dye packs at the station. “It’s clean,” he snapped.

“Open it,” Brody repeated. “Tell me what you see.”

Allie pulled the top of the sack open, peering inside. “It’s just office stuff.”

“Tell me what’s in there.” Brody’s voice was sharp. “Now.”

She licked her lips, then looked inside again. “I see a couple of legal pads, a lot of pens and pencils, some gum, some file folders with papers inside, some old computer disks, some energy bars, a bunch of paperclips and rubber bands, some spare change, some envelopes and stamps and some stationery. Do you want me to dig through it?”

Brody’s lips spread into the ghost of a smile. “No. That’s enough.” He stepped beside her, taking hold of her upper arm. “We’re going into the parking lot now. Hold onto that sack. You’ll stay here, Officer.”

“Take me,” Nando said quickly. “Leave her here. She’s got nothing to do with this.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.” Brody folded the sack under his arm. “Ms. Maldonado is a lot safer hostage than you would be.”