Where's Ellen? (Mystery) (MPP A JOE MCFARLAND / GINNY HARRIS MYSTERY Book 1) (8 page)

CHAPTER 16

B
ack in his office after a troubled hour on the highway, Steve kept thinking about the brief phone call from Ellen.
What could it mean? Was she OK? Was she being forced to make that call? What if she’s dead and that was a recorded message that they had made her say earlier? And then why hadn’t she shown up at the restaurant? Had something happened to her? Had she ever, or had they, whoever ‘they’ are, intended for her to show up? Was she in an accident on the way to the restaurant?
With dozens of questions and no answers, Steve felt as if he were close to losing it. He couldn’t sit in his chair for more than 10 minutes without getting up and pacing his office or making another trip to the restroom.

Nothing else of significance happened until that afternoon around 3 o’clock when Steve’s paralegal brought in a sealed envelope with Steve’s name written in block letters on the front.

“This is for you,” she said.

As he stretched his arm out, Steve responded, “Thanks. What is it?”

“I have no idea,” she responded as she handed the envelope to him. “It was sitting on my desk when I returned from making a bunch of copies down the hall. I asked a few people who sit near me, but no one noticed anyone leaving anything on my desk.”

Steve opened the envelope and took out a single piece of paper. As he unfolded the paper, one of Ellen’s small diamond earrings fell out onto his desk, instantly turning his casual manner to one of fear and shock. After a quick glance at the note, Steve dismissed the paralegal and then read the brief note, handwritten in block letters:

YOUR WIFE IS WELL. HER REMAINING SO IS UP TO YOU.

$5 MILLION TO SET HER FREE UNHARMED.

USE YOUR OWN MONEY OR KIDNAP INSURANCE MONEY FROM WIFE’S EMPLOYER.

WILL CONTACT YOU SOON HOW TO PAY.

YOUR WIFE’S LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS. DON’T BE STUPID!

Steve called his boss and told him that he wasn’t feeling well and that he was going home. The drive home was a blur as Steve’s mind went through a rush of unanswerable questions. By the time he reached home, parked his car in the garage and walked inside, he couldn’t remember any of the red lights, traffic or other details of the drive home.

Steve spent the rest of Friday, along with all of Saturday and most of Sunday, just sitting in the house and pacing in the backyard, worrying and trying to figure out what to do. He did some checking and calculated that he could come up with almost $400,000 immediately by selling some investments that were solely in his name and with another $3 million by selling or borrowing against the mutual funds and money market funds that were either owned jointly by Ellen and him or were owned by one of the three trusts that he and Ellen had set up for estate-tax planning purposes.

Fortunately, he had a power of attorney that would allow him to sell the jointly owned assets and, as one of the trustees of all three trusts, he could authorize the sale of the trusts’ assets. But these sales would take a few more days to complete than the quick sale of the relatively small amount of assets held solely in his name. Steve was confident that he could borrow the remaining amount if he had to. But this also would take a few days to get done. If the ransom had to be paid quickly, Steve knew that he would have to contact Ellen’s employer to try to get money, either from the company directly or from the kidnap insurance policy he knew they had. Fortunately, with the copy of Ellen’s contact lists in the kitchen drawer, Steve could call Ellen’s boss on his cell phone rather than waiting for the Tycon offices to reopen on Monday.

Before calling Ellen’s boss, Steve struggled, trying to decide whether or not to inform the police or FBI. He re-read the kidnap note once again and reconfirmed for himself that it did not say anything about not contacting the authorities. Although he knew that the FBI was more experienced than the local police with kidnapping cases, he decided to contact the local detectives. He knew that both the FBI and the police considered him a prime suspect, but Steve felt at least some level of comfort with Detective Harris. She didn’t disagree when her partner remarked about the insurance money making Steve a suspect, but neither did she explicitly accuse him. Steve looked up and dialed the non-emergency police department number.

“Hello. Jasper Creek Police Department. Sergeant James speaking. How may we help you?”

“Detective Harris, or if she’s not in, Detective McFarland, please,” responded Steve.

“Sorry, they’re both off duty today. Detective McFarland’s not expected back here until 8 o’clock tonight. Detective Harris is expected back in at 6 this evening. May I take a message for her?”

“Yes, please. Ask her to call Steve Sanders. She has my home phone number. Tell her it’s about my wife and is very important.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll make sure that Detective Harris gets the message. Have a good day.”

CHAPTER 17

S
ure enough, Ginny called Steve about 6:10 that evening. Steve brought Ginny up to date about the kidnap note and asked for her help.

“Hang on, Mr. Sanders. I’ll try to get hold of Detective McFarland. Either both of us or just I, if I can’t reach him, will be at your house in about half an hour. In the meantime, don’t do anything or talk with anyone, and don’t touch the note or the earring or envelope any more than you already have.”

“OK,” responded Steve.

True to her word, Ginny and Joe pulled up and parked in front of Steve’s house 35 minutes later. A few minutes later, the three of them were again sitting in the family room and Joe was reading the note aloud, taking care to hold it only on its edges and to not touch the envelope or the earring to avoid smearing any possible fingerprints. Seeing this, Steve kicked himself mentally for not thinking of this fingerprint possibility earlier as he repeatedly held the note and the earring in his bare hands. So much for his extensive education from TV crime shows.

“OK, Steve. This note is pretty clear. Any idea who might have sent it?”

“No idea,” responded Steve.

“We’ll want to talk with your paralegal and with others in your office in case one of them saw who dropped it off. We’ll also check for video cameras outside your building. Whoever left the note might have been videotaped.”

“Sure,” said Steve. “I’ll call my paralegal. She can arrange everything for you, but she probably can’t line up many others for you to talk to until first thing tomorrow morning.”

“That’ll be fine,” said Ginny. “Have you thought about the money being demanded? Do you have or can you get that amount of cash? Do you want to agree to this or do you want to try to negotiate the price down? You should also seriously consider refusing to pay anything. It is often most dangerous for the kidnap victim
after
the ransom is paid.”

“No, no. I want to pay the amount asked for. I’ve been thinking about this since I received the note. I don’t want to do or not do anything that might upset the kidnappers,” responded Steve.

“You said ‘kidnappers,’ ” said Joe. “How do you know that there’s more than one kidnapper?”

“Uh, I have no idea. I just said ‘kidnappers’ without even thinking about it.”

“Understood,” replied Ginny. “In fact, since most kidnappings involve more than one kidnapper, we initially tend to think in terms of kidnappers — until such time that the evidence indicates it’s only one kidnapper working alone.”

“OK,” said Joe. “Let’s keep moving. Steve, when you called us, did you also call the FBI?”

“No. I trust you two more than the FBI. Those two agents made it very clear that they see me as their prime suspect. They even gave me a lie detector test.” Joe did not visibly react to this, not wanting to emphasize that Joe and Ginny, especially Joe, also considered Steve a suspect in his wife’s disappearance. This suspicion had grown since Steve had received the phone call from Ellen. Ginny waited until Steve was clearly looking at Joe rather than her before she gave Joe one of her raised-eyebrow looks, followed by a quick smile. Joe instantly read the look to mean, “Now that you know how much he likes you, don’t you feel horrible about all the bad things you’ve said and thought about Mr. Sanders?”

“Steve, I think you, or we, need to inform the FBI. In addition to kidnapping being one of their specialties, your wife’s disappearance is officially an FBI, not a local police department, case.”

“Well, if you have to, go ahead. I’d prefer that you call them. I’d rather not,” replied Steve.

Joe took out his cell phone and was soon bringing Martin up to date. Martin indicated that he and Florio would meet them at the Sanders’ house in an hour or so and he urged Joe to ensure that Steve did nothing until then.

In their Cincinnati office, Martin complained to Florio that Sanders had called the local police, not the FBI. But since the police quickly called the FBI and brought them up to speed, he had decided that he wouldn’t raise the issue with Sanders or with the two cops. Martin and Florio chuckled about the fact that neither Steve nor the local-yokel police seemed to have realized that the FBI would have already been aware of Steve’s call to the police through the taps that the FBI had placed on all of Steve’s phones.

An hour later, the two detectives, the two FBI agents and Steve were vigorously debating how to proceed. Steve wanted to start getting the $5 million together so he’d be ready when the kidnappers contacted him again. The two FBI agents wanted Steve to try to negotiate the amount of the ransom if the kidnappers contacted him by phone or e-mail. This stalling tactic would provide the FBI with more time to try to trace where the kidnappers were and who they were. And, while not saying so out loud, Joe wanted to aggressively interrogate Steve to determine whether he was involved in this real or fake kidnapping. In the end, all agreed that Steve should proceed to gather the funds. Neither the detectives nor the agents had altered their opinions, but they concluded that getting the funds ready would provide them the most flexibility without yet committing to any specific course of action.

Steve picked up his cell phone and dialed the cell phone number of Ellen’s boss, using the speaker on the phone so that the detectives and FBI agents could hear both sides of the conversation. Ellen’s boss answered on the third ring. Reception was only mediocre as he was in a fancy restaurant in New York City, where he was spending the weekend with his wife.

“Hello, Ken Symington.”

“Hello, Mr. Symington. This is Steve Sanders, Ellen’s husband. Sorry to be calling you over the weekend.”

“No, no. Not a problem. Have you heard from Ellen? Hold on a minute, let me walk outside where I can hear you more clearly.” And a minute later, “OK. That’s better. Is Ellen OK? Did you hear from her?”

“Well, not exactly. But we…”

“What do you mean ‘not exactly’?” interrupted Symington.

“We, or rather I, received a ransom note from her kidnappers. I’m here now with the local police and the FBI.”

“Oh my god!” Steve heard a deep breath on the other end. “But that must mean she’s alive — doesn’t it?”

“Maybe. We think so, but we really don’t know anything at this point. We’re trying to figure things out,” answered Steve.

“Well, thanks for keeping me informed. Please be sure to let me know if we can do anything to help. We’re all very fond of Ellen.”

“Thank you, sir. In fact, there is some help I do need. The ransom note demanded $5 million, but on a very short-term basis, I can only raise part of that. I know that Tycon has a confidential insurance policy in case any of its senior executives are kidnapped and that may be our only hope if we need the funds quickly.”

“Yes, yes. Of course. We do have such a policy, but I really don’t know much about how it works. Fortunately, we’ve never had to use it. Up until now. Let me call Charlie Hawkins, our chief financial officer. He and his staff handle all of our insurance matters. I’ll have him call you right back. Is this the phone number he should call you on?”

“Yes, this number is fine. And thank you very much, Mr. Symington.”

“Please. Don’t mention it, Steve. I’m glad you reached out to me. Please keep me informed. We’ll be thinking of you and praying for Ellen’s safe return.”

Five minutes later, Charlie Hawkins called. After a quick update from Steve and confirmation from the FBI agents that it looked like it could be a real kidnapping, Hawkins promised to get the kidnap insurance policy activated immediately and to be back in touch with both Steve and the FBI as quickly as possible. Joe and Ginny gave each other several glances, bristling silently at their apparent exclusion from all this. However, they did not want to start a public inter-agency battle at this moment.

CHAPTER 18

C
harlie Hawkins and a vice president from Mutual Insurance of America were soon back on the phone with Steve. Again, thanks to Steve’s using the speaker on the phone, the two FBI agents and the two detectives could fully hear and participate in the conversation. They all learned that getting the ransom money from the insurance company was certainly possible but would not be very timely. As Hawkins explained, “The insurance company will reimburse monies paid as ransom, but it will not provide the money up front to be used to pay the ransom.” But he quickly put Steve’s mind at ease. “As long as Tycon can be reasonably sure that the insurance company will repay us, the company will provide you with a short-term, interest-free loan of the money needed to pay the ransom.”

“Great,” said Steve. “That’s at least one less thing for me to worry about. Thanks.”

The insurance executive explained, “All we need is written confirmation from the FBI that the kidnapping and ransom note ‘are likely,’ not ‘are definitely,’ but ‘are likely’ to be real. As soon as we get that, we will commit to repaying the entire $5 million.”

“I can raise some of the money by selling some of our investments,” offered Steve.

“That’s not necessary. The policy doesn’t require any reduction based upon the amount of cash or able-to-quickly-liquidate assets owned by the company or by you,” explained Hawkins.

Martin jumped into the conversation: “I’m Assistant Special Agent in Charge Martin with the FBI. Written confirmation from the FBI shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll talk with my superior in Cincinnati as soon as we hang up and I’ll have him fax the confirmation directly to both the insurance company and Tycon Technologies. What are the fax numbers?” Martin still had serious concerns about Steve being involved or this apparent kidnapping merely being a ruse to hide espionage by Ellen, but with no evidence and only his gut to go on, he was reluctant to not have the FBI confirm the likelihood that this was a kidnapping. He didn’t want to be the one to cause Ellen’s death if his gut turned out to be wrong.

With the arrangements for getting the FBI fax to the insurance company and to Tycon, and then for the money from Tycon to Steve’s bank understood by all, the phone call ended and the two FBI agents, the two detectives and Steve returned to their sometimes heated discussion as to what to do and not do when the kidnappers again contacted Steve.

Martin pointed out, “Once the ransom is paid, we’ve lost any leverage we may have. Kidnappers are mostly concerned with keeping the kidnap victim alive and healthy while they’re waiting for the money. The victim is the only reason that the ransom will be paid. Of course, in addition, if things go south for the kidnappers, the victim may prove useful as a hostage.”

“Yes,” countered Steve, “but what if they kill or hurt my wife if we refuse to pay?”

Florio jumped in, “We’re not suggesting that you refuse to pay. What we’d recommend, as the opportunity presents itself, is to buy time so we can continue searching for them.”

“How do we buy time?” asked Steve.

Martin continued, “By trying to negotiate the amount of the ransom, or by arguing about how and where they want payment to be made. By demanding proof that your wife is alive and well before you pay anything. You can claim that you need three or four days to assemble that amount of money.”

Steve started wandering back and forth across the room, his pace quickening or slowing depending on what was being said at the moment. He was getting more and more anxious as the discussion continued. If he didn’t have the personality and play-acting skills to be a courtroom lawyer, or even to play a major role in negotiating a business contract, he surely wasn’t capable of successfully negotiating over his wife’s life, especially when most of his arguments would be bluffs and lies.

“I hear what you’re all saying,” Steve concluded. “But I want to do whatever the kidnappers ask. This seems to be the best chance for getting Ellen back, alive and in one piece. Like you, I want the kidnappers to be caught, but my first priority is my wife.”

Joe and Ginny had remained mostly silent during this portion of the discussion, but Ginny succinctly wrapped up the discussion: “Well, in the end, so long as Mrs. Sanders’ employer is willing to front the ransom money, it’s Steve’s decision whether to pay and whether to try to negotiate or stall for time. In any event, until the kidnappers make contact again, and depending on whether or not the contact allows for some two-way conversation, there’s nothing to do.”

Joe gave Ginny an admiring glance, impressed with how she accurately summarized the situation and ever so sweetly ended the discussion. Steve nodded his head in silent agreement with Ginny. Shortly thereafter, the FBI agents and the detectives departed, once again leaving Steve alone in his big, silent house.

Back at their office, Martin followed up on a few phone messages he found on his desk. One follow-up was disappointing but not surprising. “Damn!” he said.

“Damn who or what?” asked Florio.

“They declined our request about the Van den Broecks.”

“What are you talking about? What request? Who’s ‘they’? And who the hell are the Van den Whoevers?” asked Florio.

“Oh, sorry. We haven’t had much time to catch up with each other these past few hours. Van den Broeck is Ellen Sanders’ maiden name, and I was referring to her parents.”

“And?”

“As I expected, the Belgian police rejected our request to place a surveillance team on them. They said we have no evidence, just a theory we thought up. I can’t argue with them about that. They also said that with no idea of how long we’d need this surveillance to go on, they could not justify the significant resources that would have to be devoted to this.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah, it’s too bad. But I’m not surprised given our lack of evidence. If our places were reversed, we would certainly decline such a request from the Belgians until they had more evidence.”

“I know,” said Florio. “But it’s still too bad.”