Cradle Of Secrets (22 page)

“She has a nasty gash on her head that's bleeding pretty bad,” someone said. “Are the paramedics here yet?”

She felt the rough skin of a cheek against hers and heard the voice she'd been longing to hear.

“She's alive,” Dylan said, nuzzling her face and holding her close. “That's all that matters.”

“Dylan?” Her voice sounded far away, even to her own ears, lost in the commotion around her.

“It's over, Tammie. I have you.”

“You know, you do look a little like Keanu,” she said, her eyes blinking at the bright light.

“What?”

Instead of answering, she smiled. “I'm so glad you found me.”

“Me, too.”

She closed her eyes and then opened them again quickly, grabbing his arm. “You're not going anywhere, are you?”

Tears were streaming down Dylan's cheeks. “Not a chance, lady. I'm not letting you out of my life. Ever.”

Awareness startled her. “Susan! Dylan, she took the baby. Susan was the one who took Serena and Cash's baby. I heard them talking about it. The baby is in Colombia. Turgis has her.” A tear rolled down her cheek.

“Now that we have Susan in custody, we'll be able to find Ellie. Don't you worry about that.”

“How did you stop her?” Tammie said, her eyes slowly closing.

“I jumped on the truck.”

Tammie's eyes flew open. “You are nuts! Do you know that, Dylan Montgomery? What is it with you and moving vehicles?”

He laughed, and it broke the tension she'd been feeling. He'd found her. She wanted to believe that Dylan would find little Ellie, too. They had to.

“You're going to the hospital to get that head injury taken care of,” Dylan said. He looked down into her eyes, and their gazes locked. “No one's going to hurt you anymore. I promise you that.”

With that, she allowed herself to shut her eyes. She didn't sleep. She heard the movements of the paramedics in the ambulance, felt the warm touch of Dylan's hand holding hers. And she heard the comforting sound of his voice as he said a soft prayer of thanks to the Lord that He had answered his prayers.

D
ylan stared through the glass window into the interrogation room as the state police officer interrogated Susan. Sam Watson had already admitted to helping dig out the tunnel from the barn to the house—for a price, of course, with no questions asked and the promise of secrecy.

It hadn't taken him long to give up the information, with a little pressure from the investigation team. But after three hours of grilling, Dylan was sure Sam didn't know anything about Cash or the baby's whereabouts.

Now it was Susan's turn.

The door to the back room opened quietly. Tammie, Serena and Aurore were led into the room by another officer.

“Has she said anything yet?” Serena whispered.

“She can't hear you,” the officer said. “There's no need to whisper. But if she says anything that you recognize, let us know, so we can continue asking questions in that direction.”

Dylan pulled out a few chairs and motioned for them to sit. Serena, who was still a little unsteady, sat down next to Aurore.

At first, Dylan questioned whether or not it was right for Serena to be present when Susan was questioned. If Susan revealed information about any harm that was done to Cash or little Ellie, it would be devastating for all of them, but especially for Serena.

But they all agreed that Susan's statements could touch on something that Cash might have mentioned to Serena in confidence, and that hearing something again could trigger a memory that would give them a lead to finding her family.

Tammie got up to stand next to him, all the while keeping her eyes glued to Susan, sitting on the other side of the glass.

“What were you doing there?” he heard the interrogating officer's voice say through the speaker.

“Cleaning,” Susan answered, her hands folded across her chest.

“Don't get smart with me. We know you have connections with Aztec Corporation and Manuel Turgis. We know you were planted in the Davco home for some reason. What were you after? Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yeah, clean toilets. I'm a good housekeeper.”

“Things would go a whole lot easier for you if you cooperated with us. Just tell us where Cash and Ellie Montgomery are.”

The officer continued grilling Susan for over four hours. Although she stubbornly held on to whatever information she had, the sag in her shoulders and her slight slouch as she sat in the chair showed that she was getting tired.

She turned directly toward the one-way mirror. Although she couldn't see them behind the glass and could only see her reflection in the mirror, anyone who'd watched enough episodes of
Law & Order
would know she was being watched.

“Look, the baby is safe,” Susan finally said. “She's being well taken care of.”

“Where's the baby?” the officer pressed.

She closed her eyes and sighed. “Colombia. And that's all I'm going to say.”

“With who? Who has her?”

“That's all I'm going to say!”

Serena could hardly sit still in the seat.

“I'm going to take her out of here,” Aurore said. “This is too much.”

“No,” Serena insisted.

Dylan could sympathize. It was hard enough for
him
to listen, never mind Serena. “If Susan knows where Cash and the baby are, it's best we're here to listen to any details she might give us.”

Dylan turned his attention back to Susan. Tammie had been quiet, taking in everything that was being said.

The officer in the interrogation room stood up. “We can help you, if you let us. If you want protection, we can give you that. But you have to cooperate.”

Her anger renewed, Susan abruptly stood up. The chair she'd been sitting in knocked over with the motion. “Don't you people get it?” she yelled. “It doesn't matter what I say or what you do. There is no protection from these people. And I'm as good as dead, just for being here. Forget about Cash Montgomery and the baby. They're gone!”

 

The information the police were able to get from Susan was at least enough for Sonny to do more digging in her usual way. On the drive home from the police station, Dylan relayed to his sister what little information they'd gotten regarding key people in Aztec Corporation, in the hopes that she could uncover more clues to Cash's and Ellie's whereabouts.

As soon as they got back to the mansion, Dylan pulled the portrait of Eleanor Davco and Serena off the wall and brought it down to the living room.

“The wall looks so empty now,” Serena said, looking at the place where the portrait had hung for years. The days since she'd cleared her body of the drugs she'd been given had been hard, but she was thinking and talking more clearly now. While her depression over Cash and the baby was still evident in her crying bouts, she'd managed to hold herself together during the interrogation for the sake of working toward getting her family back, and had only needed to leave the room for an hour or two to rest.

“Tell me again what Byron did?” Tammie asked, brushing the dust off the top of the picture frame.

“Susan never said why she'd been planted here,” Dylan said. “I'm guessing it was to find the third painting. If I'm right, this portrait is not the original painting that was done on this canvas. The stolen painting was probably given to Byron, but never delivered to its final destination. I think that's why Turgis put so much pressure on Byron.”

Tammie frowned. “I don't get it. Why would Byron keep the painting? If Manuel Turgis was so upset about it, why not just give the painting to him?”

“Turgis put a lot of pressure on Byron. Perhaps he'd wanted to go straight after Eleanor became suspicious of his dealings, but Turgis wouldn't let him. We'll never know for sure. But Turgis needed Byron to continue his illegal dealings here. Without his help to launder money, his operation would stop.”

“But my father continued working with Turgis,” Serena said. “He gave him money. He wanted me to give him the family fortune.”

“My guess is that whoever the original painting was supposed to go to put pressure on Turgis. I don't think this was ever about money. It was about power. Byron defied him by wanting to leave the organization. When Turgis refused to give him his freedom, Byron withheld the last painting, and that made Turgis lose face with his customer. He needed to make Byron pay for that. If Byron commissioned the artist to paint over the original painting with the portrait of Eleanor and Serena, this was Byron's only bargaining chip.”

“It all makes sense,” Aurore said. “He used to look at that painting and cry, saying it was all he had left. But what he meant was that it was all he had left to ensure his family's safety.”

With the edge of a knife, Dylan pried the canvas away from the frame. “That's right. As long as Byron had the painting, they were assured some element of safety.”

Aurore held the other side of the portrait. “The artist who painted this portrait died in a car accident not long after the painting was finished. There was no way at that point to find out information regarding the painting that Turgis was looking for. Byron had commissioned so many portraits from this artist that Turgis didn't know which painting was the portrait he was looking for. Only Byron knew.”

As Dylan inspected the paint on the borders of the canvas, he said, “Byron was a smart man. Turgis would have killed the entire family from the start if he'd been able to get his hands on that painting.”

Tammie took a soft cloth and brushed dust off the front of the painting as she stared at the images. “Then why all those years of extorting money?”

“To ruin Byron,” Aurore said. “When the statute of limitations was up on the art theft, Turgis was under bigger pressure from his buyer to get the painting back. Susan must have been planted here to find it. Only she never figured it was right under her nose the whole time. None of us did. Only Byron knew. And, of course, he must have known that if Serena had given back the painting, she was as good as dead, too. So he left that part out of his letter, hoping the family fortune would be enough to satisfy Turgis.”

“And it may well be,” Dylan said. “The painting was stolen a long time ago. Who knows if the original buyer is even still alive?”

He used the knife to pick at the paint on the border and then peeled a small piece back.

“What do you think?” Tammie asked.

“I can't tell for sure, but it looks as if this canvas was reused. Only a professional will be able to remove the paint and see what's underneath.”

“So what do we do now?” Serena asked. “How can we use this to get Cash and Ellie back?”

Dylan dropped the knife onto the coffee table and propped the painting up against the wall. “We do what Byron was too afraid to do. We go after Turgis and dangle the painting right in front of his face.”

Serena gasped. “But they'll kill Cash and Ellie!”

“We have to be realistic,” he said delicately. “Susan said the baby was being taken care of. But Cash might already be dead.”

Silence filled the room.

Tammie came up beside him and touched his arm. He wanted to take comfort from her, but they had to move beyond what might be to what they actually knew, to be of any good to Cash and Ellie.

Dylan cleared his throat. “The fact remains, we know where to start. If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to find Cash and Ellie. I'm going after them.”

“Then I'm going, too,” Tammie said resolutely.

He shook his head. “No, you're staying here. I know you all want to help with this but we have to be careful. It's much too dangerous to have all of us showing our faces on their territory.”

“I can't just sit here and do nothing. This is my family, too. I want to do something,” Tammie insisted.

“I know you do. And you will. We just have to be careful. But don't you worry, I have a plan. None of us are going to sit back while Cash and Ellie are left in the hands of those gangsters. I'm going after them and I'm going to make sure they don't hurt anyone in this family again.”

“You mean, we're going after them,” Tammie said, smiling.

He drew her into his arms and kissed her soundly on the lips. “I do like the sound of that.”

All of them vowed there'd be no more secrets between them.

And later that evening, Dylan sat in the same chair he always sat in, by the window overlooking the garden in the backyard. Tammie found him there, looking intently out into the woods.

“You were right, Dylan.”

He turned to her. “About what?”

She shrugged. “It's a done deal for me, too. I love you.”

He smiled and opened his arms to her. She climbed into his lap as she had the other night, and was enveloped by his warm embrace. She was safe and secure. And she was in love.

“I love you, Tammie. Always.”

He kissed her lightly on the lips and stroked her hair back from her face gently with his fingers.

“Do you think we'll really find them?” Tammie asked.

He kissed her head and answered honestly. “I don't know. But I'll thank the Lord every day for the rest of my life that I found you.”

She closed her eyes and thought about how good that was to hear. And for the first time in a long time, Tammie finally felt that she was home.