Whisper of Revenge (A Cape Trouble Novel Book 4) (11 page)

Daniel nodded.  “If we can find a witness able to swear
Elias was where he said he was all morning, all of this is irrelevent.” 
Except, he couldn’t help thinking, for Hannah Moss, who some would say trusted
Elias Burton beyond what common sense should tell her.

Uneasy on the one hand, Daniel also couldn’t help
remembering the look he’d seen on Elias’s face when he realized Hannah did
trust him – and when he’d held her as she cried.

*****

When he heard the engine and looked to see an SUV he
recognized as belonging to Daniel Colburn, Elias went immediately to the door
to forestall both doorbell and the puppy’s resultant happy hysteria.  He’d
coaxed Hannah into lying down half an hour ago.  If there was any chance at all
she’d dozed off, he was damned if he’d let anything wake her.

Officer Krieger jumped up.  “Is someone here?”  He was smart
enough to keep his voice down.

“Your boss.”  Elias picked up Jack-Jack and wrapped his hand
around the puppy’s muzzle before he opened the door and nodded at the police
chief, almost to the porch.  “I’m hoping Hannah is asleep.”

“Ah.  Why don’t you come on out here, then?  Krieger, I want
you on patrol.  Everyone else is hunting witnesses.”

“But—”  The young officer’s gaze darted to Elias.

“Mr. Burton can answer the phone if it rings.  Assuming—”
Daniel raised his eyebrows at Elias “—he intends to stay?”

They’d have to cuff him to drag him out.  “I do,” he said
flatly.

A reluctant Krieger departed, clearly eaten up by
curiosity.  Watching him go, Colburn grimaced.  “I’m feeling old today.”  He
nodded at the porch steps.  “You mind if we sit down?”

“No.”  Elias assumed that if Colburn intended to arrest him,
he wouldn’t have sent his officer away.  He waited until the police car had
backed out of the driveway and driven away before setting Jack-Jack down and
letting him sniff in the flowerbed.

Both settled on the porch itself, Colburn with his legs
stretched to reach the concrete walkway, Elias planting his feet two steps
down.  He kept his eye on the damn puppy, wishing Hannah hadn’t insisted on
keeping him close right now.

“You’re cleared,” Colburn said directly.  “We found a young
guy who is camping with a couple of friends on the bluff a little south of
where you were set up.  Late morning, he decided to take a walk on his own.  He
passed you, went all the way to the resort, then saw you still in the same
place when he came back.”  He paused, his mouth tight.  “He also saw someone
parking your Land Rover, getting out and walking away, in the direction of the
lodge.”

Adrenaline shot through Elias.  “Someone?”

“Unfortunately, all he had was a glimpse.  Didn’t have any
reason to be interested.  He was exploring the dunes, and is pretty sure the
driver didn’t see him.  The man wore jeans and a black hoodie, with the hood
up.”

“That son of a bitch,” Elias growled.  “He kept up the
disguise in case he wasn’t as alone as he thought he was.”

“Right.”  Colburn hesitated, his jaw muscles knotting.  “He
was carrying a hefty duffel bag.  The witness thinks that’s why the guy caught
his attention at all.  The duffel bag seemed strange, and so did wearing a
sweatshirt with the hood up on a sunny June day.  The high today is only
seventy, but still.  And, by the way, there was no sweatshirt in your vehicle. 
Either you’re wrong and didn’t bring one, or the kidnapper kept it.”  He
sighed.  “The witness heard a car driving out a minute later, but he’d wandered
behind a dune and didn’t see it.  He says it didn’t stop, just went on by and
left.”

Elias rubbed a hand over his face.  He dreaded Hannah
hearing this.  “Ian had to be unconscious.”

“I’d say so.  Carrying a squirming duffel bag any distance
would have been high risk.  The witness is a college kid, but I was impressed
with him.  If he’d seen anything like that, I think he’d have taken action. 
He’s upset that he didn’t.”

“No idea whether the kidnapper turned north or south?”

Frustration carving grooves in his forehead, Colburn shook
his head.  “You know how much traffic there is on the highway midday in the
summer.  The witness looked at his watch, by the way.  The timing is right for
the kidnapper to have thrown Ian in the back and driven straight to the resort
to exchange vehicles.  What we’ll do now is search for anybody who might have
seen the Land Rover in that window of time.  I think this has to be connected
to the secret admirer crap, and I’m convinced the man lives locally.”

“Hannah knows him,” Elias agreed.

“You do, too,” Daniel Colburn said, his blue eyes steady. 
“He doesn’t like you.”

That’s what the guy from the tire shop said.  The echo shook
Elias.

He lived with unease so familiar it had become like the
background hum of an electrical appliance.  He was suddenly aware how
discordant the sound, the feeling, was.

I knew better than to get involved with Hannah
, he
thought, even though his fear made no sense.  She’d been the target, only her,
until  this bizarre attempt to incriminate Elias.

But, however irrational, the belief he’d screwed up
persisted.  Bad things happened to people he cared about.  Too many of them had
ended up dead.  None of those deaths had been his fault, but his gut didn’t buy
what his head knew was true.

He was meant to be alone.

“I need to get out of here.”  Elias was on his feet without
having made a conscious decision to stand.  He’d been wrong – to protect her,
he had to leave.  “Can you get somebody here to stay with Hannah?”

Without moving, Colburn studied him, assessing him in a way
that made Elias edgy.

“Don’t you think it’s too late for that? This SOB isn’t
going to just drop Ian off and send Hannah flowers because you’re not in the
picture anymore.  You pissed him off, sure.  He may especially dislike you. 
But sooner or later, he’d have gone off the rails anyway.  Even if she didn’t
start seeing another man, she wasn’t receptive to him.  He wouldn’t be able to
deal with the rejection.”

“However it happened, I’m a focus of his rage, too.  If me
backing off would help—”  Elias’s throat closed as he battled competing needs. 
For all the force of his certainty that he brought trouble with him, he didn’t
want to leave Hannah.  He didn’t trust anyone else except maybe Daniel Colburn
– and Daniel had too much else to do to stay with her.

“Sit,” Daniel said.  “Let me ask you something.”

Instantly wary, Elias nonetheless turned his head.  “Shit. 
Where’s the puppy?”  At his whistle, Jack-Jack bounded around the corner of the
house.  This time, Elias let him inside, waiting only a second after closing
the door to be sure he didn’t begin to whimper.  Then he resumed his seat.

Daniel said, “You’re the one who put me on the trail of a
woman here in Cape Trouble who had a secret admirer.”

“I didn’t know much.”

“I’ve done some research.  I learned there was a second one,
also before my time.”

Elias only nodded.  The memory had been no more than a
scratch of alarm when he saw Hannah’s shock after opening the gift that day in
the bookstore.

The police chief continued, “I’d convinced myself Lori
Dressler’s secret admirer wasn’t the same man as Hannah’s, but I’m
second-guessing myself now.”  He described what had happened to the poor woman,
fleshing out Elias’s recollection.  “You didn’t know her?” he asked, apparently
casual.

Interrogation disguised as information sharing.  As little
as Elias liked being the target, he appreciated that Colburn was being thorough
for Ian’s sake.

“I must have heard the name from whoever told me about the
crap she went through, but it didn’t sound familiar then, and still doesn’t.” 
He frowned.  “You said she worked at an escrow company?  Which one?”

Colburn told him, and Elias shook his head.  “We used
Coastal when I closed on my house.”

“What about Beth Stanford?”

Again Elias shook his head.  “Unless it’s a married name?”

“No.  I looked into her history.  She graduated from Newport
High School, did her two years at the community college there.  Held a couple
different jobs but never went too far from home.”

He braced himself.  “What happened to her?”

“Like Hannah’s, her first few gifts were typical –
chocolates, a romantic comedy on DVD, that kind of thing.  After a while, her
admirer got mad, probably because she hadn’t figured out who he was and
therefore wasn’t responding the way she was supposed to.  He gave her a bouquet
made up of poisonous flowers and leaves.  Not long after, she had an arson fire
at her rental house.  Packed up and moved home to Newport.”

“You tracked her down?”

“I did.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell me anything new. 
The whole thing gave her the creeps.  Her word.  Fortunately, her secret
admirer wasn’t obsessed enough to follow her, assuming he knew where she
went.”  He paused.  “She was a redhead.”

Elias breathed an obscenity.

“That may not mean anything,” Daniel said.  “Lori Dressler
was a brunette.”

The silence felt thick.

Colburn rolled his shoulders, his tension suddenly not as
well hidden.   “Hannah turning to me may have played a part in the escalation.”

Was this display of guilt supposed to make him feel better
about his own role in Hannah’s ordeal? Elias wondered.  “You aren’t the one he
set up to take the fall.”

“True.  But part of what he accomplished was to set us at
odds.  That might have given him a little extra pleasure.”

“It might,” Elias said after a moment.  “What I don’t
understand is why he took Ian.”

“Best way to hurt her.”

“He can’t bring Ian back.”  The words left his throat raw.

“Unless he was wearing a mask.  We assumed he was hiding his
face from the camera, but it might have been the mask.”

God, he hoped the cop was right.  Even so, underlying anger
still roiled.  “If you’d seen that, you might not have been so quick to believe
it was me.”

Colburn turned a glare on him.  “Would you really want me to
have shrugged and said, ‘Nah, I know Burton, couldn’t have been him’?”

His own anger fell flat.  “Put that way…no.”

“I had to check you out.”

Elias could only nod.

“I never believed you were the kind of man who’d do
something like this.  But if we’re right and we know this guy…  Who is he? 
I’ve encountered most people in town.  Some I like, some I don’t.  But I don’t
see any of them as this twisted.”  He rubbed a hand over his jaw, his
frustration evident.  “I have an officer trying to pin down where the men on
Hannah’s list were while Ian was being kidnapped, but it hasn’t been very
helpful yet.  The only one we’ve eliminated—”

A phone rang.  Feeling the vibration, Elias looked down. 
Not his ringtone - Hannah’s.  Didn’t have to mean anything.  Her friends had
been calling.  Still, his heartbeat accelerated.

He pulled her phone out of his pocket and tilted the screen
so Colburn could see it, too.  No name, only a number with an area code he
didn’t recognize.

It could be bad if he answered.

He leaped to his feet and tore into the house, Colburn at
his heels.  “Hannah!  Are you awake?”

“What?”  She came out of the bedroom and stumbled over the
puppy, barely regaining her balance.  Her hair was wild, her eyes still swollen
– or swollen again.  “What is it?”

“Call,” he said tersely, and thrust the phone at her.

She took in the number and raised a terrified gaze to
Elias’s.  Then, on the next ring, she took a deep breath, touched the screen
and said, in a voice that shook only a little, “Hello?”

“Hello?”  The phone trembled against Hannah’s ear.  Not the
phone – it was her hand that was unsteady.

“I have your son,” said a muffled voice.

Oh, dear God, it was
him
, the monster who had stolen
Ian.

“Where is he?  He’s a little boy!  Have you hurt him?”  She
was nearly screaming at the end.

“I haven’t hurt him, but I may if…”  He kept talking, but
however she strained, Hannah couldn’t make out what he said.  Thank God the
call was being recorded through some kind of app Daniel had downloaded.

“I…I’m having trouble hearing you.”  She didn’t look away
from Elias, who had a hand on her shoulder and his head tilted to listen.

“Try harder.”  That was almost crisp, and not as muffled. 
It was also coldly angry.

Making him mad wasn’t smart.  Daniel had advised her if a
ransom call came in to let the kidnapper feel he was in control.  The initial
hysteria – she hadn’t been able to help herself, and he had probably expected
that.  Even enjoyed it.

Her stomach roiled.  “Tell me what to do.”

“I expect three hundred thousand dollars in various
denominations.  Non-consecutive serial numbers.  If it’s marked in any way, the
boy dies.”

She let out a sound like a sob.  Ian.  Oh, God, Ian.  “Three
hundred thousand dollars,” she whispered.  Again her voice rose.  “I don’t have
ten thousand!”

He said something.  All Hannah could make out was “Ian’s
father”.  He thought Grady was rich.  Terrified, she wondered if Grady really
did have that kind of money lying around.  And if so…would he relinquish it for
a son he hadn’t bothered to see in a year?

“Do not contact the police.  If I see police at the drop—”
she strained to hear “—the boy dies…call tomorrow.  Set time.”  And he was
gone.

The phone dropped from her hand and clattered to the floor. 
Hannah’s knees folded.  She was going down, too, until strong arms caught her.

Terror snatched her with sharp teeth. 
Your boy will
die.  Will die…will die…will die
.

“Hannah!”  A sharp voice.  Elias’s, she thought.

She struggled to surface.  She was lying down, she
discovered.  It had to be the sofa.  Yes.  And there he was, his knees touching
her.  He sat on the coffee table, bent protectively over her.  A hand that
trembled the way hers had earlier stroked hair away from her face.  He was
afraid, too, she saw, but for her.  The pale eyes that could be so icy with
indifference had clouded with anguish.

“I’m sorry,” she managed.

He made a sharp exclamation.  “There’s nothing to be sorry
for.  That son-of-a-bitch—”  His voice had descended to a growl.

Daniel Colburn sat down beside Elias on the coffee table. 
“Hannah, I couldn’t hear most of what he said.”

Do not contact the police.  If I see police…your boy will
die.

She fought to sit up.  “He said no police!  You have to
leave, now.  Please go.  Please.  If he sees you—”

“Hannah.”  Elias again, cupping her cheek, his eyes steady. 
Touch and gaze, he became her anchor.  “Whoever he is, he knows the police are
searching for Ian.  If he’s watching your house, he already knows Daniel is
here.”

She processed that.  “That means he isn’t watching the
house, or he would have waited.”

“He won’t assume you called Daniel if he finds out. 
Everyone in town knows about the search.”

Yes.  She just had to keep the police away from the ransom
drop.  Which meant they couldn’t know when and where it was.  She had to make
sure they weren’t watching her.  Her head bobbed.  “It’s better if you go now,”
she told Daniel.  “He said no police or…or Ian will die.”

“Those were his exact words?”

He wasn’t listening to her.  “Please.  Please.”

Elias moved suddenly to the sofa, sweeping her up and
settling her within the secure circle of his arm.  He pressed a soft kiss to
her temple.  “Let him help, Hannah.  You trust Daniel, don’t you?”

Her teeth chattered.  Trust.  Did she trust—?

“I can help from behind the scenes,” Daniel said, sounding
both calm and compassionate.  “But here’s our goal:  we need to see him pick up
the money.  It’s our only hope if he doesn’t release Ian.  Do you understand?”

New horror blossomed in her.  “You think…he won’t?”

“We don’t know if Ian has seen him, or heard his voice well
enough to identify him.  Probably this is a straight-forward kidnapping for
money, but…”  The police chief hesitated, glancing sidelong to Elias.

Elias responded by turning her face to be sure she was
looking into his eyes, hearing him.  “This almost has to be your secret
admirer, Hannah.  He’s angry at you.”  His jaw muscles worked.  “He’s angry at
me.  So we can’t be sure money is all he wants.”

Hannah knew everything they were saying was true.  She
wasn’t usually stupid enough to cling to a naïve kind of hope, but right this
minute she wasn’t sure she could bear to let go of the belief that all she had
to do was collect enough money, and Ian could come home.

All she had to do.
  Her heart spasmed in new terror. 
Not her, Grady.  What if he refused?

Daniel studied her.  “There’s something else I need to say. 
I’m no expert on kidnapping.  The FBI has a unit dedicated to crimes against
children with a major focus on kidnapping.  We should bring them in.”

“No!” she cried.  “The minute they show up, he’d know.”

“They’re capable of subtlety.  If they look like tourists…”

“He’s going to be watching for something like that,” Elias
said.  “How will they be able to talk to Hannah or set up here in the house
without being noticed?”

“It’s more of a challenge in a town this size,” he
conceded.  “But they have the experience to think five steps ahead of this
guy.”

If I see police…your boy will die
.  Hannah shook her
head hard.  “No.  If I do what he says, he’ll bring Ian back.  I have to do
what he says.”  Even she knew hysteria ran through her voice.

Daniel sat back.  “The decision is yours, Hannah. 
Just…think about it.”  When she stared mulishly at him, he nodded.  “I won’t
involve anyone else without your permission,” he promised.  “We’ll let the
search continue, as if we have no idea you’ve received a call.”

“What if…”  Somehow, her chest kept expanding with each new
injection of fear.  “What if he – the man who called – isn’t the one who took
Ian?”  Her voice rose.  “What if he just heard about him being abducted and
thinks he can get some money?”

“That’s why we – you – will insist on hearing Ian’s voice or
receiving similar proof he really has your son, and that he’s okay, before you
agree to the drop.”

Proof of life.  Daniel Colburn was kind enough not to use
those words.  They were too terrible. 
Your boy will die.  Will die…will…
 
No!

She sneaked a look at Elias, closed her eyes for a second to
soak in his warmth and strength before she took a deep breath.  “Yes.  Okay.”

“Then let’s start with you repeating everything he told
you.”

“Wait!  Can you trace the call?”

“I’ve already started an attempt.  I got the number from your
phone.”  Seeing her surprise, Daniel said, “While Elias was carrying you to the
couch.”

Oh.  Had she completely lost consciousness for a minute? 
She didn’t think so, but wasn’t sure.

“I’m betting the phone is what we in law enforcement call a
throwaway, or a burner.  One of those cheap ones you can buy almost anywhere. 
If he’s smart, he’s already disposed of it and will call tomorrow using a
different one.”

So she repeated, to the best of her ability, exactly what he
had said, guessing at the parts she couldn’t quite hear.  The recording would
be forwarded to Daniel’s phone and he might have access to technology to
enhance clarity.  But if she really knew the man, that meant she was the
likeliest to recognize his voice or phrasing.

“I think he was using something like cloth to muffle his
voice,” she explained.  She had tried so hard to make out words, she couldn’t
summon any memory of intonation.  By letting herself get so upset, she’d
screwed up.  She began to shake again, but pictured the way Ian had of looking
up at her with such complete trust.  She couldn’t fall apart.  She had to be
strong.

“Nothing about his particular phrasing?” Daniel asked.  “The
way he constructed a sentence?”

Hannah shook her head.  “He didn’t say enough.”  She
frowned, trying to think through this miasma of terror.  “Most of it sounded
like he’d borrowed it from a thriller.  You know?  He wants the money in
‘various denominations.  Non-consecutive serial numbers’.”  She found herself
mimicking in a way that made her realize she had taken in more than she’d
thought. “‘If it’s marked in any way, the boy…’”  She stuttered to a stop.

Elias’s hand tightened on hers.  “He’s trying to scare you,
Hannah.  That’s all.”

“That’s true,” Daniel agreed.  “Most amateur kidnappers
aren’t prepared to kill anyone.  What he’s done already is huge and traumatic
for him, in a way.  He may be excited, but shaken, too.  Like you said, he’s
using a script.  If he admitted he’d let Ian go in a couple of days anyway, you
wouldn’t be motivated to pay.”

Hannah wanted desperately to believe them.  “What if I can’t
come up with that much money?”

“Then you negotiate,” Daniel told her, with continuing
calm.  “He probably doesn’t expect to get the full amount.”

“If…if he’s my secret admirer, why the money?  It seems…” 
She hesitated.

“I’m going to guess he has financial problems.  Initially,
he probably didn’t expect you to solve them for him.  But now he’s mad at you. 
Why not kill two—”  He saw her expression and stopped.  “I’m sorry,” he said
gently.  “That was a poor choice of words.”

Holding onto any kind of poise was almost beyond her, but
she managed to nod.

Jaw set, Elias looked at Daniel.  “You’ll be looking into
who might have money problems?”

“I will be.  Especially anyone on our list.”

Of the men who’d asked her out at some point, he meant. 
Hannah began an automatic protest.  “But they’re all—”  Successful?  No, that
wasn’t true.  Blushing, freckle-faced Ron Slawinski certainly wasn’t, but she
didn’t think any of them had taken him seriously as a suspect.

Daniel said with irony, “They’re among our town’s leading
citizens?  On the surface, some of them are.  Doesn’t mean they haven’t hit a
bump in the road.”

“Like Rand Bresler did when sabotage and protesters held up
construction on his resort for months,” Elias said grimly.

Hannah had already seen that he didn’t like Rand, although
whether they’d clashed in the past or she was the only issue, she had no idea.

Daniel didn’t argue.  “Fletch is in real estate.  Lot of ups
and downs.  Right now, tourism is hanging in there, but real estate is slow. 
He isn’t new at this, though.  He’s ridden this roller-coaster enough times to
know how it goes.”

Hannah nodded.  Furrows between Elias’s eyebrows suggested
he was less convinced.

Daniel went on.  “Ron Campbell could have over-extended.  I
know he opened his fourth store a few months back.  The other three are in
small towns, but the newest one is in Lincoln City, where he’s probably facing
established competition.  Castaneda?  Maybe a pest wiped out his crops.  With
organic, he couldn’t spray.  Jeff Lee – no idea.  Oh, by the way, the D.A. you
mentioned moved over a year ago.  Took a job in Bend.”  He glanced at Elias. 
“He’s the one I started to tell you we’d crossed off our list.”

“Something else,” Elias said slowly.  “Did he say how he
thinks you can come up with the money?”

“He said Grady.”  She frowned.  “No, not his name.  ‘Ian’s
father.’  That’s what he said.”

“You don’t talk about him.”

“Not…usually,” she whispered.

From Daniel’s expression, she wasn’t alone in understanding
what Elias was getting at.

“So how does this guy know that your ex-husband likely has
that kind of money?”

“You can find almost anything on the internet,” she offered,
not really knowing whether that was true or not.

But Elias nodded.  “He could have done his research.”  His
eyes locked on hers.  “Or he already had an idea.”

She swallowed.  “Fletch sort of knew how much I had and
probably guessed it was a divorce settlement.”

There was a small silence.

“But I had to tell the loan officer at the bank even more. 
And there had to be somebody who processed the paperwork.  I’m sure I’ve told
friends what Grady does for a living.”  She looked at Daniel.  “Sophie, for
one.  Someone could have overheard.  And…people talk in Cape Trouble.”

Daniel grimaced.  “They do.  One careless word, and everyone
in town knows all.”

When neither man said anything for a minute, she knew what
they were waiting for.  She had to call Grady.

*****

A woman answered the phone, Elias could tell that much from
where he sat at Hannah’s side.

“Nicole, this is Hannah.  I…need to speak to Grady.” 
Despite the police request, any pretense of civility had been stripped from her
voice.

The new Mrs. Cline spoke, and Hannah said raggedly, “Yes. 
Yes, I am.”  Pause.  “I know you do.  Thank you.”

She sat without moving, not looking at either man.  Seeing
her so lost tore at Elias.

Then she jerked.  “Grady?”

After listening for a moment, she said, “I’d like to put the
phone on speaker.  A…a friend of mine is here, and so is our police chief.” 
Apparently he agreed, because she did what she needed to and set the phone on
the dining room table, to which they’d moved in preparation for this call. 
Clenching her white-knuckled hands together, she said, “I got a ransom call,
Grady.”

“Jesus, Hannah.  What did he say?  Wait.  It was a man?”

“Yes, I think—  Yes, I’m sure it was.  His voice was
muffled.”  She visibly gathered herself and started describing the call.