Whisper of Revenge (A Cape Trouble Novel Book 4) (9 page)

*****

Just sitting was one of the hardest things Hannah had ever
done.  She needed to help find Ian.  Reason battled hysteria.  Running around
screaming his name would be useless.  But her nerves quivered and her skin felt
too tight and if she couldn’t do something, and soon, she might fall apart
entirely.  Over and over, she relived that moment when she’d refused to believe
it could be Jack-Jack barking in the alley.  If only she’d taken two minutes to
be sure, for Ian’s sake, he’d be safe now.  None of this would have happened.

My fault.

Sweet Ideas was closed, of course, although people kept
staring in the windows, probably because of the activity in here.  Daniel
Colburn had come and gone, his wife sat at the table in the bookstore with
Hannah, and Emily Holbeck had arrived fifteen minutes ago, too.  The two women
flanked Hannah now.  And, while she knew they meant well and probably
understood how she felt, she was incapable of making any kind of conversation. 
She couldn’t think about anything except Ian and what was happening to him. 
How scared he must be.  If—  She shuddered anew.  There was no reason for
anyone to hurt him.  She had to believe that.

Even in her thoughts, she was pleading.

A hard rap on the front door had her swiveling in her chair,
hope surging however irrationally.  It was Sean Holbeck this time.  He was
coordinating the sheriff’s department part of the search.  Emily jumped up to
let him in.

Nobody was using the back door, Daniel had explained
earlier, because the alley was taped off as a crime scene until it could be
searched.  Even so much as a single hair might eventually help convict the
kidnapper.

The minute Sean’s eyes met Hannah’s, he shook his head.  “No
news about Ian.  I’m sorry.  I found Elias, though.  He’s at the station being
interviewed by Daniel.”

“His Land Rover?”

“Parked at the resort.  And, yes, it has a scrape on the
front fender with green paint from the dumpster embedded in it.”

Which meant someone hadn’t just stolen the license plates. 
It really had been his Land Rover in the alley.  Ian had been shoved into the
back of it.

Her mouth opened and closed.

Sean sat beside her, taking the seat that had been Emily’s,
and laid his big hand over Hannah’s.  The compassion on his face almost
shattered her.

“We have crime scene techs going over the Land Rover with a
fine-tooth comb.  We brought in people from the state, because they’re the
best.”

She nodded without knowing why.

“Elias was a mile and a half or so down the beach, his easel
set up.  He showed me ten or twelve drawings he’d done.  Claims to have been
there since eight this morning.”

Claims
.  Detective Holbeck wasn’t sure he believed
Elias.

When Daniel had let her watch the camera footage, she had
been filled with too much terror for any other emotion to slip in.  The man she
saw could have been Elias; there’d been nothing distinctive enough in how he
moved or his height or body type for her to say definitively that he wasn’t
Elias.  All she could think was,
why
?  He’d cared.  She would have sworn
he had.  And then this?

Daniel had gently pointed out that Elias could have used her
fear of the secret admirer to edge his way into her life.  Like a firefighter
setting blazes so he could put them out, be a hero.  What if Elias intended to
“find” Ian and bring him back?

Only…he couldn’t, could he?  Because Ian had to have seen
his abductor’s face.  Anyway…Elias knew about the camera.  He’d recommended she
install it.  He was a complicated man, but not stupid.

Sean was saying something she hadn’t heard.  Digging her
fingernails into her palms, Hannah said, “I’m sorry.  Would you say that again?”

“He was desperate to come here, but he understood why he had
to answer questions first.”

“What do you think?”

She hated that his face was so unreadable.  He took a moment
before he said, “You know I can’t tell you that, Hannah.  We have to be sure.”

She nodded, sinking back into the emotions that felt like a
vicious whirlpool, swirling so she had the same thoughts over and over and
over, except she was being sucked deeper every time.

They would find him.  What would anyone have to gain by
hurting a little boy?  But Hannah wasn’t so naïve as not to know the answer.

If only she’d heeded his urgency.  If only she hadn’t been
too busy for him.

Sophie had said something.  Hannah surfaced enough to hear
Sean respond.  “He says he lost his keys a week or so ago.  Assumed he’d just
misplaced them somewhere at home.  How anyone could get in to take them…”

If they had his car, would Elias have to walk here from the
police station?  Or had he been arrested, and Sean just didn’t want to say?

Hannah crossed her arms, each hand gripping the opposite
elbow.  She was rocking in some instinctive attempt to comfort herself, but it
wasn’t working.  Nothing would work until she could hold Ian.

What if Elias wasn’t coming?

“I should call Grady,” Hannah heard herself say.  “Ian’s
father.”  Surely he would care.

Another knock on the front door.  For just an instant, she
closed her eyes.  It could be somebody holding Ian’s hand, restoring him to
her.  Ian would run into her arms.  She’d swing him up, hold him so tight…

She heard Sean pushing back his chair.  There would have
been exclamations of delight if Ian had been found.  Instead, there was only
silence.

Hannah opened her eyes and turned her head to see Ron
Campbell walking in.  He zeroed in on her, crouching beside her chair.  “I just
heard.  If there’s anything I can do—”

She saw compassion, but it didn’t touch her.  “Thank you,”
she managed, while wondering why he was here.  What did he think he could do?

After a minute, he stood and turned to Sean, acid etching
his tone.  “You’re county, not city.  Is my police chief delegating to the
sheriff’s department now?”

My
police chief?  Oh – he was on the city council.

With a glance at her, Sean took Ron’s arm and walked him out
of earshot.  She dismissed him from her consciousness.

Seconds later, another rap on the door had her tensing
again.  This time, Sophie leaped to her feet.  The moment she unlocked, Daniel
walked in.  Behind him came Elias.

Closed in, expressionless, he could have been the remote
stranger who used to be an occasional customer.  He looked at her, but he
stayed by the door, his posture rigid.

Waiting.

*****

Hannah rose slowly to her feet.  The sheen in her beautiful
eyes had Elias’s heart clenching.  He wanted to take her in his arms, try to
absorb as much of her pain as he could.  But if she believed what she’d seen on
the surveillance tape, she must hate him right now.  What if she turned her
back?

If his presence offended or hurt her, he’d leave.  It was
his only choice.

Her tears overflowed and she took a couple of steps before
she stopped as if uncertain of him.  “Elias?”

All the fear he’d suppressed ripped through him.  “Hannah,”
he said hoarsely.  “God, I’m so sorry.”  He held out his arms and she flung
herself at him.  As he pulled her close, his own eyes stung and he laid his
cheek against her springy hair while whispering he didn’t know what.  Her body
shook with grief and her tears wet his shirt.  Elias forgot everyone else in
the room, the horror of knowing he’d been set up, of seeing doubt in the eyes
of men he respected.  There was only Hannah, and trying to give her what she
needed.

“We’ll find him.  I’ll do anything,” he heard himself
promise, brokenly.

It was a long time before the tension seeped out of her. 
The fists that had been gripping his shirt in back loosened.  She simply leaned
on him.  His hands seemed to know what to do, kneading her nape, her shoulders,
stroking.  At last she let out a long sigh and straightened and looked at him
again.

“Thank you for coming,” she whispered, then backed away.  “I
need—  I’d better—”  She fled toward the back hall, disappearing into the
bathroom.

Shaken by the torment he’d seen in her red, swollen eyes,
Elias wiped his own cheeks with the back of his hand.

A hand gripped his arm.  “Sit down,” Daniel said, voice
softened.  “Do we still have coffee on?”

One of the women answered.  Elias slumped into a hard chair
and struggled to hide his emotions.  He didn’t cry.  His composure was innate. 
He didn’t understand what was happening to him.

A minute later, a mug of coffee appeared in front of him. 
“Thanks,” he managed, and took a swallow.  The warmth felt good, even though
Colburn had allowed him to dry off and had provided a pair of sweatpants from a
stash kept at the police station.

Finally, he lifted his head and looked to see that the
police chief had stepped away to talk to Ron Campbell, of all people.  Who had
let him in?  Colburn didn’t quite succeed in hiding his irritation as he walked
the businessman to the door, nodded a couple times, then locked it behind him. 
He was shaking his head when he returned to the table.

Elias looked at him.  “What next?”

“We hunt for witnesses,” Colburn answered readily.  “If
someone borrowed your Land Rover, he had to leave his own vehicle somewhere
over there.  When he returned it, he had to transfer Ian.  I don’t see how he
accomplished all that unseen.”

The ‘if’ wasn’t reassuring, but Elias let it go.  “Would a
tourist pay any attention to a guy switching cars?”  Maybe to an artist
working; that was a more unusual sight.  Elias had no doubt the police officers
were searching for people who’d seen him with as much determination as
witnesses to any exchange between vehicles.

“Not to think about then,” the police chief said, “but all
of us constantly take in detail that seems unimportant.  Mostly, we don’t
retain it, but with luck we’ll find any witnesses while they do still
remember.  I have officers going to every inn and resort and campground in the
area, knocking on doors.  And tents.  Some of those people came and went from
that beach today.”  He hesitated.  “I also have an officer monitoring Hannah’s
landline, in case ransom is the objective.”

“What about the boy’s father?” Elias asked.

“He doesn’t want Ian,” Hannah said dully from behind
Colburn, who turned sharply.  Apparently Elias wasn’t alone in not having seen
her coming.

He opened his mouth but thought better of what he’d been
going to say.  He didn’t want to be the one to point out that her ex-husband
likely wasn’t thrilled about having to pay child support for the next thirteen
years, followed by a share of college expenses, for a son he didn’t want.

Colburn pulled out the chair beside Elias for her.  She sank
into it and reached for his hand, even as he was reaching for hers.  He wasn’t
sure the act was even conscious for her, but the grip seemed to steady her.

Colburn said, “Hannah, you know the man and I don’t.  Has he
been angry about lack of access to Ian, with you living here on the coast?  Or
does he resent paying child support?”

“He hasn’t said anything like that.  He’s just…not
interested.  I think…”  She shook her head.  “It doesn’t matter.”

Elias squeezed her hand.  “Anything could matter, Hannah. 
What were you thinking?”

She gave him a desperate look.  None of the puffiness had
subsided, and her face was blotchy besides.  “Ian looks like me,” she said
after a minute.  “I guess…red hair and freckles must be kind of dominant
genetically.  Grady never exactly said it, but I could tell he was bothered not
to see himself in his own son.  And now he has a new family.”

Could anybody be that shallow?  Elias took after his mother,
the way Ian did his, but as an adult he could look back and know, without a
shadow of a doubt, that his father had loved him wholeheartedly.

“Can you tell me where he works?” Colburn asks.

“I have his number in my phone, if you want to call him,”
Hannah said, her voice still dull.  She wasn’t thinking with her usual
discernment.

“No, I want to confirm he’s at work.”

“Oh.”  She blinked.  “Oh!”  She gave the name of a financial
firm in Portland.

Daniel walked away to make his call, Sean Holbeck going with
him.  Emily was on the other side, pouring coffee, but Sophie remained at the
table.  Quiet, but there if Hannah needed her.

Hannah stared into space, but her grip on Elias’s hand stayed
strong.  He asked quietly if she wanted coffee or tea, but she shook her head.

A couple minutes later, the two cops returned to the table. 
“He’s there,” Colburn said.  “Hannah, I think you’d better let him know what’s
going on.”

She turned that stricken gaze on him, then finally nodded
and looked at the phone lying on the table in front of her.  Elias couldn’t
tell if she was girding herself or trying to form the words she’d have to say. 
But finally she picked it up and made the call.

He was close enough to hear some of what her ex-husband
said.  Starting with, “Hannah, my boss just got a call from a cop wanting to
verify my whereabouts.  You have anything to do with that?”

“Ian has been abducted, Grady.  He was…lured to the alley
behind my business and pushed into a car.  We…we don’t know why.  The police
chief just needed to…to make sure this wasn’t a custody dispute or something. 
I told him, but…”  She trailed off.

He asked urgent questions.  She answered, but never said oh,
by the way, suspect number one is sitting here beside me, holding my hand.

Elias was still stunned.  She had turned to him with no
hesitation.  She wanted him here.  Whatever the damning camera footage showed,
she didn’t believe he would do anything to hurt her or her son.

The first time ugly accusations had been made about him,
from a still unknown source, the woman he’d been seeing hadn’t even asked
whether any of it was true.  She’d left a message breaking off their
relationship, quit her job and moved away.