Whisper of Revenge (A Cape Trouble Novel Book 4) (12 page)

He interrupted almost immediately.  “He told you not to call
the cops and you did?  What were you
thinking
?” he yelled.

Elias had pulled his chair close enough to hers to feel
Hannah’s tremor.  Angry, he opened his mouth, but Daniel beat him to it.

“Mr. Cline, this is Chief Colburn.”  He gave the same talk
he had to Hannah, not pretending he didn’t grasp the tragic possibility of a
misstep, but also explaining in a way any reasonable person would understand
why he needed to stay involved.  “I will not interfere in the ransom drop, but
if at all possible I want to be in a place where I can see and photograph the
man collecting the money.”

“How much money?”  Caution suddenly altered Grady Cline’s
voice.  He knew this call was about his money, and his reaction was already
subtly wrong.  A spike of anger had Elias wondering why he wasn’t saying,
How
much, and how long do I have to gather it?

Hannah drew a deep breath.  “Three hundred thousand
dollars.”

The silence read to Elias as stunned.

“Three hundred thousand dollars?” Grady whispered.

“You know I don’t have it.”

“
I
don’t have it!  If I did, you’d have gotten more
out of me in the divorce.”

Hannah flinched.  Elias couldn’t believe what he’d just
heard.  Did that creep not realize how nasty the comment was?  And to hit her
like that when she had come to him in such frantic need?

Daniel’s glance touched Elias’s in warning, and he spoke up
again.  “Mr. Cline, the kidnapper is to call her again tomorrow.  She has to
give him an answer.  She may be able to negotiate a lower amount, but how much
lower, it would be premature to guess.  It’s my understanding you have a
well-paying job.”

“I also have a wife and daughter, and another child on the
way!” he snapped.  “I had to make a sizeable settlement in the divorce.  How do
you think Hannah set herself up in business?  And I’m stuck with child support
besides.  Are you suggesting I bankrupt myself?”

Stifling a cry, Hannah slapped a hand over her mouth. 
Vibrating with anger, Elias grabbed her other hand and held on.

“Ian is your child also,” Daniel said quietly.

“
Fuck
.”

A muffled woman’s voice wasn’t clear.

Grady came back on, agitated.  “I don’t know.  I have to
think.  I can maybe cash out…sixty or eighty thousand?”

“I can’t promise you’ll get your money back, Mr. Cline, but
we will do everything we can to make that happen.”

“
God
,” he said in a strangled voice.  “I just don’t
have—”

“What about the rental properties?”  It was Hannah, suddenly
fierce.

“They bring in income, but there are expenses, too,” he said
defensively.  “Taxes, maintenance.  They don’t—”

“You could borrow against them.”  She had leaned over the
phone, anger transforming her face.  “Don’t tell me you can’t.”

“I’d be ruined.”  He sounded shell-shocked.

“If you don’t, Ian will
die
.  Do you understand that,
Grady?”

“Yes, but—”

“You have to help me.  You have to.”

“I need time to think.”

“What is there to think about?  Whether being rich is more
important than your son?”

“I have other kids, too!” he yelled.

She stared at the phone, devastated and yet not appearing
surprised.  Elias was the one stunned that a man wouldn’t sacrifice everything
he had, including his life, to save his child.  Was her ex-husband that
selfish?  Or was she right, that he felt no real attachment to a funny, smart,
talented, loving boy, his own son, because that boy looked too much like her? 
And what was the wife, sitting in the background, thinking?  She’d be weighing
in one way or the other, that was for damn sure.

Elias hadn’t contributed to this conversation yet, and
wouldn’t.  He wasn’t capable of Daniel’s restraint.  The violence welling up in
him wouldn’t help Hannah’s cause.

“We’ll call first thing in the morning,” Daniel said.  “Just
remember that you are Ian’s best hope.”  Gaze on Hannah’s face, he picked up
the phone and made sure it was disconnected before setting it down again as
carefully as if it was fragile porcelain.

“Eighty thousand.”  With her face bleached of color and her
eyes dilated, even her whisper hoarse, Hannah might have been staggering away
from the center of a bomb blast.  “That’s not even close.  With enough time, I
might be able to borrow another ten or twenty thousand against this house,
but—”

It still wouldn’t be enough.  And even if it was, Elias
guessed she couldn’t afford higher payments.  She could get her son back, and
lose their home or livelihood.

“My parents will help.  It’s just…I don’t think they have
much.  They live on retirement and Social Security.  You know.  But for Ian—”

There wasn’t even a conscious decision.  “I’ll pay the
ransom,” Elias said.

*****

“The best I can do is seventy thousand,” Grady told her.  “I
can get that much in cash today.  I’ll bring it to you by this evening.”

If not for Elias, Hannah would have felt sick.  She still
did, but in a different way.  A way she could live with.

Of course, she had protested at his offer, but the relief
was so huge and deep, he had to have known how half-hearted her effort was.  He
only shook his head and said, “I have plenty.  I’ll talk to my broker and the
bank first thing in the morning.”

Her silence now, on the phone, provoked her ex-husband into
continuing to talk.  “I made a bad investment last year.”  His voice was
tight.  “I lost a lot of money.  That’s the truth, whether you believe it or
not.”

She didn’t want to believe him, but did.  Humility was a
rare quality for him, but she thought that’s what she was hearing.  Or was it
humiliation because Grady Cline, financial genius, had not only fouled up, he
had to confess to his blunder?

“Thank you,” she managed to say.

“If he insists on more—”  He breathed raggedly.  “I don’t
know what we’ll do.”

At least there was a
we
.  He did care, if only in a
limited way.  Or perhaps Nicole had gathered their daughter close to her and
let him see her wondering how complete his commitment was to any of his
children.

“I’m sorry,” he added, and this time his humility sounded
real.  “When you called yesterday, I didn’t take it very well.”  He paused to
shore up his defenses.  “You had longer to absorb the shock.”

“About ten minutes longer,” she agreed quietly.  “I’ll see
you later, then.  Do you have directions?”

“GPS.”

Of course he did.  Grady liked his toys.  Which made her
remember the jet ski – but any price he’d get for it used wasn’t enough to
help.  Ditto for any toys he’d acquired since their divorce.

She set down the phone and stared into space.  A cup of
coffee might be good – but not worth the effort required to brew it.

She should call her parents again.  They’d be sitting by the
phone.  They still didn’t know about the ransom call.  But if she told them,
she’d have to explain where she was getting the money. 
See, this guy I just
started seeing is rich, and he offered, so…

Elias had spent the night on her sofa.  She should have
suggested he sleep in Ian’s room, even if the twin bed was too short as well,
but she hadn’t, and Elias had been sensitive enough to her pain not to ask.  He
had been so tender yesterday evening and this morning.  He didn’t press her to
talk, but was there if she wanted to.  If she’d cried, he would have held her,
but she didn’t dare let herself.  She felt too…fragile.  No, not a word she
would ever have applied to herself, five foot nine inches and too many pounds
that she was.  This was different.  It was as if she’d become aware that the
part of her people saw was nothing but a thin shell, usually sufficient.  So
much filled her now – terror, love, grief, anger and all the subtleties in
between mixing to create toxic waste ready to spill out if that too-delicate
shell shattered.

Like Humpty Dumpty
, Hannah thought dully,
I will
never be able to put myself together again
.

Part of her was glad to be alone, at least for a little
while.  There was nobody to make demands of her.  Even Jack-Jack was gone. 
Edna had insisted this time on taking him and Hannah hadn’t argued.  A puppy
wouldn’t understand why standing to let him out to pee was a monumental effort,
why she didn’t want to play, why she might cry if he chewed up one of Ian’s
toys.

They had decided Daniel would call today, but come by no
more than once, and then briefly.  She would greet him on the porch where
anyone could see, exchange a few words while looking brave, and send him away.

He
might not be watching, but he also might.

Her phone rang constantly, scaring her each time.  By now,
everyone in Cape Trouble knew about the kidnapping.  She wondered if the
footage from the security camera had been released to appear on television
news.  For Elias’s sake, she hoped not.  Whether the police insisted he had
been cleared or not, all people would remember was that he’d been under
suspicion.  Hannah hadn’t let herself watch the coverage or read the paper this
morning.

When she recognized phone numbers, she let most callers
leave messages.  She’d heard from fellow merchants along Schooner Street who
had her cell phone number, like Monica from the gallery and Anita from Sea
Watch Café, Norma and Garn and Cheryl.  Customers mostly called her landline,
which was listed in the small local directory.

Closer friends had left short, comforting messages.  Over
and over, she heard, “If you need me, just let me know.”  Any of them would have
come over to be with her, she knew, just as her parents would be on an airplane
as quickly as they could, but she only wanted Elias.

Which was why it hurt so much to realize she had to send him
away when he came back from his errands.  Not much was penetrating her
all-encompassing terror, but a niggling awareness last evening had become
certainty this morning.

He didn’t want to be here.

She’d seen the same retreat other times.  However courteous
his voice, even when his mouth curved, his eyes had a way of becoming
chillingly remote.

And how could she blame him?  He’d been supportive, taken
her out to dinner, kissed her.  Now he found himself compelled to prop up a
hysterical woman and probably bankrupt himself to ransom her kid.

No matter what, she was taking his money.  If she’d thought
she could get away with a couple hundred thousand dollars, Hannah would have
robbed a bank.  Because of him, she wasn’t sitting here frantically concocting
schemes to achieve the impossible.  For that, he had her eternal gratitude. 
Asking any more of him…no.

*****

Elias knocked lightly then, without waiting for a response,
let himself in the house.  Futile to hope Hannah would be napping after what he
knew full well had been a sleepless night, but he didn’t want to be the one to
wake her if he was wrong.

Futile was right.  She sat in the same spot on the sofa
where she’d been when he left almost two hours ago.  Her head turned slowly,
her expression blank, her gaze incurious.  She had crawled deep inside.  No
one, nothing but Ian mattered.  If he never came home…Elias wondered how she
would survive.

“I’ll be able to pick up the money as soon as the bank opens
tomorrow morning,” he told her, giving her that measure of relief.  “Up to
three hundred thousand dollars.”  Much of that would be from hastily approved
loans, as selling stocks and closing out other investments took too much time. 
He’d been lucky to reach both his broker and the bank manager on a Sunday to
set this up.  Of course, he had told them as little as possible, and sworn them
to secrecy on the transactions and his need for cash.  If there was a leak from
either – he’d find a new bank or a new broker, and they knew it.

“Thank you.”  She paused, as if pulling together thoughts
had become difficult.  “Grady called.  He has seventy thousand.  He said he’d
drive over this evening to bring it.”

Big of him
, Elias couldn’t help thinking.

“I’ll heat some soup,” he said.  “You need to eat.”  He’d
scrambled eggs this morning and watched her push them around on her plate.

Her brown eyes met his.  “Elias, you should go home.”

A squeeze of panic had him staying very still.  “You
shouldn’t be alone.”

She didn’t even blink.  Maybe she’d forgotten she was
supposed to.  “I want to be alone.  And if I change my mind, I have friends. 
Or…my parents want to come.”

The panic developed sharp-tipped barbs.  This was his
fault.  Retreating to his customary solitude was the smartest – maybe safest –
thing he could do for both of them, but right now she needed him.  He’d tried
so damn hard not to let her see what had been a different kind of panic.

“I appreciate what you’ve done more than I can ever tell
you,” she said.  “But…we both know you need to go.”

He
had done this.  Let her think he didn’t want to be
here.  “You’re wrong.”

“I’m not.”

He had to tell her at least a part of what he feared.  “This
could be my fault.  If I hadn’t started something with you—”

“You always did have mixed feelings, didn’t you?”  Her voice
was soft and a little sad, her eyes still…distant.  “I’ll see you in the
morning, because I’m not a good enough person to refuse the money that may save
Ian’s life.  Until then, please go.”

“Hannah,” he said.  Begged, in an unrecognizable voice.

She didn’t say anything, didn’t even look at him again.

He went.

Daniel leaned back in his desk chair.  He didn’t like phone
interviews, but if Randall Bresler was here in town, he wasn’t showing his
face.  The timing of this absence was interesting.  It would have been more so
if several of the other men on Daniel’s short list hadn’t also been hard to pin
down.

“You mind my asking where you are?”  Daniel tried to sound
no more than mildly curious.  It was too soon to antagonize a man as powerful
as Bresler.  “I’ve been trying to track you down.”

“Seattle.  I have a condo here.”  There was a momentary
pause.  “I needed to talk to some money people.”

Daniel had assumed Bresler had investors or had taken out
massive loans.  Elias had been right in pointing out that extensive delays in
getting the resort open had to be costly, putting Bresler under pressure. 
Enough, apparently, to demand face-to-face meetings.

“Is this about the kidnapping?” he asked.

“I’m afraid so.” 
Get it out of the way.
  “Can you
tell me when you left for Seattle?”

“You’re really asking,” he said, incredulous.

Daniel wasn’t a man to be cowed by the dangerous edge in
Bresler’s voice.  “Are you aware someone has been giving Hannah anonymous
gifts?”

Silence.  Then, “A secret admirer?  Are you serious?”

“Very.  The gifts became…threatening.  Right before her son
was snatched.”

The guy swore.  “I left town on Friday.  Had dinner at my
parents’ on Friday evening.  Met Saturday with one of my backers.  Does that
satisfy you?”

“If I can verify those facts.”

“You really think I—?”

“No.”  Daniel rolled tense shoulders.  He’d guess $300,000
was a drop in the bucket to Rand Bresler.  The man could be brutally direct,
besides.  Anonymous gifts were hardly his style.  “No,” he said. “I don’t.  But
I had to ask.”

“Because I’ve let her know I’m interested.”

“I won’t apologize, Mr. Bresler.”

“You don’t need to.”  He gave names and phone numbers.  Tone
altered, he asked, “Is she all right?”

“No.  Her five-year-old son has been gone for twenty-seven
hours now.”

The silence had his skin prickling.  What Bresler said caught
him by surprise.

“The resort is empty.”

The tension gripping Daniel redoubled.  “The thought has
crossed my mind.”

“My foreman can let you in.  You have my full permission to
search the place, top to bottom.”

Daniel had had dealings with the foreman, a middle-aged man
named Kurt Freeman.

“I’ll send a couple of officers to pick up Freeman and have
him let them in and wait while they conduct a search.  Thank you, Mr. Bresler. 
The resort is unlikely, but...”

“You have to look everywhere.  I understand, Chief Colburn. 
Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.  I should be back in Cape
Trouble Wednesday.”  He paused.  “I hesitate to call Hannah right now.  If you
have a chance to express my sympathy…”

“I’ll pass it on.  Thank you, Mr. Bresler.”  Daniel ended
the call, not letting himself take even a minute before he reached Sean
Holbeck, who agreed to take a deputy along and conduct the search.  Daniel
trusted Sean.  Given the owner’s permission, it wouldn’t have mattered, but the
resort was outside the Cape Trouble city limits and therefore in the sheriff’s
department jurisdiction.  “Let me know,” he said, but knew Ian wouldn’t be
there.

They wouldn’t find one small child until they knew who had
taken him and why.

One phone call later, he’d verified Bresler’s alibi. 
Looking down at his list, he drew a line through the name.  Then his gaze
strayed to his wall clock.

Fueled by desperation, he dialed Patrick Fletcher’s mobile
number.

*****

Hannah had no reason to notice occasional traffic on her
residential street, but the rumble of a truck stopping in front of her house
was unexpected enough to stir minor curiosity.  A moment later, her doorbell
rang.

Feeling stiff and old, she went to the window and peeked out
to see Arlo Castaneda on her doorstep.

Whatever Daniel and Elias thought, Hannah didn’t believe
Arlo had been especially bothered when she refused his single, casual
invitation.

She opened the door and saw the shock that appeared on his
face. 
Because I look so bad
, she realized, without caring.

An inch or two taller than her and strongly built, Arlo had
dark, curly hair, hazel eyes and had an easy-going manner that, she suspected,
was a cover for energy and ambition.  He had already expanded his father’s
truck garden business until it was something completely different.

“I shouldn’t have bothered you,” he said, body language
giving away his discomfiture.  “It was…that is, my father insisted I tell you
how sorry we are.  He asked me to bring you a basket.”

Hannah’s gaze dropped to the rustic basket in his arms.  It
brimmed with fresh produce, including some she vaguely thought should be
out-of-season.  Greenhouses, she remembered.  Rows of them, where Arlo produced
what his restaurant customers demanded year around.

“Dad wants to believe good food mends all ills,” Arlo said
apologetically.  “But even he knows better.”

His eyes met hers, and she saw that he, too, had suffered a
loss.  His mother?  She had a vague memory that didn’t surface.

Of course, this wasn’t the same, she told herself fiercely. 
Ian wasn’t dead.  He couldn’t be.

Still, she nodded.

They both turned when a car swung into her driveway.  Elias
got out and slammed the door.  Staring hard at Arlo, he cut across the lawn.

The two men greeted each other tersely.

Arlo took the opportunity to thrust the basket of produce at
Elias.  “From my father and me.”  He looked back at Hannah.  “I’m sorry for
intruding.  If there is anything either of us can do…”

She tried to smile, suspected the effect was ghastly.  Her
response came by rote.  “Thank you.”

He nodded and returned to his truck.  Hannah stood where she
was until it rounded a corner and was out of sight.  Then she looked at Elias.

“Why are you back?”

“Because you need me,” he said huskily.  “And because I need
to be here.”

“You have no obligation—”

He only shook his head.  “No.  You misunderstood me.”  He
nudged her.  “Let’s get inside.”

“But…”

His pale gray eyes no longer held that remote look. 
Determination burned in its place.  “I’m not going anywhere.  No argument,
Hannah.”

Her vision blurred.  Elias moved swiftly, finding someplace
to deposit the basket of produce and returning to wrap her in his arms.

Surrounded by his heat and solid muscle, Hannah felt the
dense fog enclosing her retreat.  No longer muffled, her pain sharpened – but
so did her anger, and
her
determination.

*****

After Hannah kicked him out, Elias hadn’t gone five miles
before he knew he was turning around.  Not yet – he could use a change of
clothes, and might as well shower while he was home.  But he wasn’t letting her
try to get through this alone.  He knew her well enough now to be sure she’d
find a reason not to ask any of her many friends to stay with her.  She didn’t
seem to want her parents – and they’d take too long to get here, anyway.  Part
of it was how far she had pulled inside herself.  Interacting with anyone new
required a huge effort.  Because he’d been pushy from the start, she’d become
used to his presence, until he had been stupid enough to let renewed panic find
a toehold.

This time, he hadn’t been afraid of enraging her secret
admirer.  Colburn was right about it being too late to worry about that.  Last
night, this morning, had more to do with the years he’d spent alone.  He had
intended to move cautiously with Hannah, be sure he didn’t wake up one morning
wondering what in hell he had been thinking.  But then he realized she had a
stalker, and some powerful impulse had taken over.  There he was, telling her
without words that she could depend on him, when they’d barely dipped their
toes into a relationship.  He couldn’t even label how he felt about her, and
all of a sudden he was offering her everything, the money being the least of it.

Last night, holding her as they sat on the couch, he’d
suddenly frozen and wondered what he was doing.  During his mother’s
frightening bout with cancer, he’d discovered how awkward he felt comforting
her, emotionally and physically – and she was the one person in his life Elias
could safely say he loved.  How could he possibly be the best person for Hannah
to rely on?

The clench of panic came when he asked himself if he could
live with another failure.  The familiar chill had crawled over him.  If Ian
was miraculously restored to her tomorrow, what then?  Was there any way for
him to back away?

But then came this morning, when she looked at him without
expression and told him he should leave.

We both know you need to go.

That was when he discovered how idiotic his fears had been. 
Hannah needed him.  And if he’d learned anything in the last week, it was that
he wouldn’t be backing off.

By the time he reached her house again, all he knew was that
her smiles, offered with coffee and truffles, had woken him up.  It had been a
very long time since he’d felt much of anything except what he sometimes
thought of as phantom pains.  Hannah was earthy, warm, real – and hurting.

Yeah, and one more thing – the sight of another man on her
doorstep had his hackles rising.

*****

“Is this a vendetta, Chief Colburn?” Ron Campbell snapped. 
“Having you question me about Doreen Steadman’s murder was bad enough, but now
you’re suggesting I’d kidnap a little boy?  I’m a respected man in this
community, but because I’m not impressed with you, you’re determined to drag me
down, aren’t you?”

“Mr. Campbell—”

“I’ll be speaking with my fellow city council members, you
can be sure.  You might want to start job hunting, Chief.”

Daniel squeezed the bridge of his nose until he felt
confident he could keep his temper.  “Mr. Campbell, your name came up only
because of your relationship with Ms. Moss.  I have to be thorough.  Given the
gifts she’s been receiving, I am obligated to interview any man who indicated
romantic interest in her.”

Cop speak.  Maybe he should try it on Sophie some night.

“She told you I invited her out?”

Hearing the sharpness, Daniel raised his eyebrows. 
“Actually, your interest in her has been observed by other people.”

“Who?”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”

His back up, Ron couldn’t say exactly where he’d been during
the relevant period.  He had been at his store in Rockaway Beach from early
morning yesterday, but had  no idea what time he’d left.  No, he didn’t know if
employees had noticed his departure, as he went out the back.  He’d bought a
burger and fries to go and pulled over to eat.  Had he kept the receipt?  Of
course not.  He kept a neat car.  He’d balled bag, wrappings and receipt and
thrown it away.  He wouldn’t apologize for not having paid attention to time.

Still furious, Campbell had no sooner cut Daniel off than
his phone rang.  Not Hannah’s number, but Elias Burton’s.  Adrenaline kicked
in.

“Elias?”

“Two things,” he said, his voice as hard as any cop’s.  “The
kidnapper called again, not fifteen minutes after Arlo Castaneda stopped by to
express his sympathy.”

“Arlo.”  Greenhouses, sheds, parked trucks…  Daniel didn’t
even want to think about how many hiding places the now-extensive Castaneda
farming operation offered.  He had met the father a few times and liked him,
but knew Arlo only because of a vehicular accident within the city limits
caused by one of the delivery drivers employed by the Castanedas.  What he’d
learned so far was that Arlo had no criminal record, and people spoke
positively about him.  Daniel hadn’t found even a hint that the Castanedas had
suffered any kind of financial hit.

“Brought a basket of produce.  Supposedly at his father’s
insistence.”

“What does Hannah think?”

“She believes him.  Said he was clearly uncomfortable and
apologetic.”

“Seems like the kind of thing the dad might do. 
He’s…old-fashioned.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t like having him pop up now.”

Elias didn’t have to say anything.  They were no closer to
identifying this bastard than they’d been when they first watched surveillance
footage of him using the puppy to lure Ian into the alley.

He shook off the frustration.  “Okay.  Tell me about the
call.”  He’d be able to hear the recording of the conversation himself, but
wanted Hannah’s and Elias’s impressions first.

“The exchange is to be tomorrow.”

“Was she able to knock down the total?”

“She told him the most she could come up with was two
hundred thousand.”  Elias’s tone was wry.  Daniel had suggested she start
lower, but wasn’t surprised she hadn’t been able to follow his advice.  She
probably wasn’t much good at bargaining in any circumstances, and right now she
was operating on a desperate need to offer up anything at all that would
increase the likelihood of her child being returned to her.

“And?”

“Sounded like a snarl to me.  ‘Two hundred fifty thousand or
nothing.’”  Elias sounded suddenly thoughtful.  “There was almost something
there for a second…”  He let out a breath that expressed frustration at his
inability to pin down the hint of familiarity.  “Hannah said she’d find the
money somehow.”

“And have you?”  Daniel had thought of a couple people he
could ask if push came to shove.  One was Emily Drake, Sean Holbeck’s wife. 
She’d received a sizeable settlement as well as life insurance after her
husband and son were killed by a driver speeding away from police pursuit.  If
anyone could understood what Hannah was going through, it was Emily.