Sweet Fortune (41 page)

“Fine, dear. I was just sitting here watching television and I had a sudden urge to call and see if you were…well, all right.”

“I'm just fine, Mrs. V.”

“Good. I'm afraid I just had one of my little spells of uneasiness and it seemed to have something to do with you. Dear me, I do hope that blow on the head hasn't made my inner vision unreliable.”

“I appreciate your concern, Mrs. V. Is, uh, everything going all right at the office?”

“I've had to close it until things die down. I plan to reopen in a few weeks when everyone's forgotten the Attwood case. Do you know, though, I'm going to miss you. Have you found a new job?”

“Not yet, Mrs. V. But I'm sure something will turn up. It always does.”

The phone rang again at nine o'clock, just as the long, slow twilight of late spring was fading into night. Jessie grabbed the instrument a second time.

The voice was that of a woman and it sounded disturbingly familiar. But it was impossible to identify because she was apparently speaking through a cloth. The message was short and to the point.

“If you ever want to see your precious Elizabeth alive again, you will come to the new Benedict warehouse now. If you tell anyone or bring anyone with you, the child dies. You have thirty minutes.”

Nausea welled up out of nowhere. Jessie's knees went out from under her and she nearly collapsed on the sofa. Frantically she tried to remember Elizabeth's schedule for Monday evenings. Was there a soccer game tonight? She could not recall. Blindly she dialed Connie's number. There was no answer. She tried the office of ExCellent Designs. Again no answer. Then she glanced at the clock.

Twenty-eight minutes left of the thirty she had been given. There was no time to see if Elizabeth was safe, no time to determine if the call was a cruel hoax. No time to do anything but get to the new warehouse in the south end of town.

Jessie grabbed her car keys and rushed to the door.

She nearly fell down the stairs in her haste to reach the car. Outside on the street she fumbled desperately with the keys. She had just gotten the door open when she felt herself pinned by a pair of blinding headlights.

Memories of nearly being run down a few days earlier brought another wave of panic to Jessie's throat. But even as she turned to run she realized the car was pulling in to the curb behind her Toyota, and then she saw that it was Hatch's Mercedes. Jessie ran toward it.

“
Hatch
. She's got Elizabeth. I have thirty minutes to get there. No, about twenty-five now. Oh, God.”

Hatch was out of the car, moving swiftly toward her. “Who's got her? What are you talking about?”

“I don't know,” Jessie sobbed. “A woman, I think. Maybe someone I know. But her voice was disguised. She just called. She's taken Elizabeth to the new Benedict warehouse. Told me if I didn't come alone, she'd kill her.”

“We'll take your car because she'll be expecting it. Get in. I'll drive.”

“She says I have to go alone. Hatch, I'm so scared.”

“Just get into the car. We'll figure this out on the way.”

He was already pushing her into her car, getting in beside her, and starting the engine. Jessie tried to collect her wild thoughts. Something struck her suddenly.

“What are you doing home an hour early?”

“I caught an early flight.”

“But why?”

“Damned if I know,” Hatch said. “A couple of hours ago I just had a feeling I wanted to get home sooner than I'd planned. I made some excuses to the people I was dealing with, phoned the airport, and got on an earlier flight.”

“Thank God. Hatch, I'm so afraid.”

“You said it was a woman's voice?”

“Yes. I'm sure of it. Muffled, but it sounded vaguely familiar. Do you think…?” Jessie could not bring herself to finish the question.

“That it was Glenna who called? I don't know, Jessie. But we have to face the fact that it's a possibility.”

“I can't believe it. Why would she do such a thing?”

“You know why.” His mouth tightened as he guided the Toyota onto the freeway that sliced the city in half. “A part of her still thinks that everything should have gone to David. I wonder if she's finally flipped completely and decided that the best method of ensuring that David inherits everything is to get you and Elizabeth out of the way.”

“No. She wouldn't kill Elizabeth. She would not do such a thing.”

“We don't really know what she'd do, Jessie. There's a lot of old anger buried in her. A lot of bitterness. What happened at the engagement party the other night might have been too much for her. Took away her last hope. Might have pushed her over the edge.”

Jessie shook her head, unwilling to believe such a possibility. “I've known her all my life. I just can't believe Aunt Glenna would go this far. I won't believe it until I see it for myself. Hatch, what are we going to do?”

“Give me a minute to think about the layout of the new warehouse. I took a look at the plans last week. Thanks to your father's outdated management style, the doors were rehung last week and we started moving inventory into the place. There should be a lot of cover inside the building by now, what with equipment and product stored in there.” Hatch fell silent beside her, his face set in forbidding lines.

A few minutes later he turned off the freeway and drove into a dark, silent warehouse district in the south end of the city. Buildings loomed, their windows unlit for the most part. Huge trucks were parked for the night near loading docks. The streets were empty.

“Hatch? We're almost there.”

“I know.” He glanced at his watch. “I'll get out at the next corner and cut through those two buildings over there. That will bring me into the back of the warehouse.”

“How will you get inside?”

“I know the security-system code. Your father and I chose it together so we could both memorize it.”

“How would Aunt Glenna get it?”

“Hell, she's family, isn't she? And she's smart.”

“That's true. You want me to drive straight up to the front entrance?”

“Right. But stay in the car. Let her know you're there but don't make it easy for her. She'll have to think about her next move, and that should give me some time to act. Glenna's not a professional kidnapper and she's got a very rigid personality. My guess is she won't know what to do if things don't go exactly according to plan. Still, we don't want to push her too far. She's obviously unstable.”

“We're assuming it is Aunt Glenna.”

“I'm afraid she's the logical candidate. But that's in our favor. It won't be easy for her to kill Elizabeth. We'll have some negotiating time.” Hatch stopped the car a moment later and got out. He closed the door and leaned down to speak through the open window as Jessie slid into the driver's seat.

“Remember. Stay in the car. Keep the engine running. If she calls to you, pretend you can't hear her.”

“All right.” Jessie's fingers trembled on the steering wheel. She watched as Hatch vanished down an alley between two darkened buildings. His dark gray suit blended perfectly into the shadows. Then she turned the corner and drove toward the warehouse.

There was no sign of life around the entrance of the building. But one of the front doors was open, revealing a gaping darkness inside. Jessie brought the car to a halt, leaving the engine running as Hatch had instructed. She waited.

Long moments passed in terrifying silence. Jessie began to wonder if Glenna or whoever it was inside had realized she was there. The thirty minutes were up.

Fearing that the kidnapper might think she had not followed orders and would do something violent, Jessie cracked open the car door. She had to get out and see what was happening.

At that moment a familiar voice shouted at her from the gloom of the open doorway.

“
Jessie
.” Elizabeth's small figure came pelting out of the building. “Jessie, watch out.”

“Elizabeth.” Jessie was out of the car without even pausing to think. She ran toward Elizabeth, instinctively grabbing her arm and jerking her off to one side of the entrance. Something told her to get her sister out of the direct line of sight.

An instant later a shot crackled through the darkness. It shattered the awful stillness that cloaked the warehouse.

“Jessie, she pushed me out here to get you out of the car. She's got a gun.”

“I can't believe she'd actually shoot us. I just can't believe it.” Jessie dragged Elizabeth farther away from the main entrance, deep into the shadows around the corner of the building.

Elizabeth clung to her hand. “What are we going to do?”

“Hush.” Jessie pressed herself back against the wall of the building, trying to listen. She held her sister close to her side. “Hatch is here,” she whispered in Elizabeth's ear.

“Geez. That's a relief.”

“You think I couldn't have handled this on my own?” Jessie muttered.

“Nothing personal, but something tells me Hatch is better at this kind of thing.”

“Something tells me you're right.”

Another shot echoed through the night, and then a vast silence descended on the warehouse. Jessie and Elizabeth held their breaths.

A moment later Jessie heard footsteps coming around the corner of the building. It was the familiar, solid-sounding tread of a pair of wing tips.

“Jessie? Elizabeth? It's all over.”

“
Hatch
.”

Both sisters ran to him and Hatch opened his arms to catch them both close for a moment.

“I think,” Hatch said after a while, “that you'd better come and take a look at the kidnapper, Jessie.”

Jessie closed her eyes, steeling herself. “Yes, I guess I'd better. What am I going to tell Mom? And David?”

“Not too much, if I were you.” Hatch's voice was wry as he led the way back into the warehouse and turned on a workman's light.

Jessie stared down at the familiar wiry figure lying unconscious on the floor. A stocking mask lay crumpled beside her pale face.

“Nadine Willard.”

“You know her?” Elizabeth asked curiously. “She tried to tell me you did when she grabbed me in the rest room at the mall, but I didn't believe her. Then she pulled that gun out of her purse and made me go with her. She even knew how to deactivate the security system. She cut some wire and did some things with a pair of pliers.”

“Yes, I know her,” Jessie said, meeting Hatch's eyes with a sense of chagrin. “I vote we don't ever tell anyone about our earlier suspicions.”

“I agree,” Hatch said dryly. “Dr. Ringstead would no doubt diagnose us both as severely paranoid.”

“She was working for Edwin Bright all along,” Jessie explained to Lilian, Constance, and Elizabeth two days later in the offices of ExCellent Designs. “A real dedicated type. The kind Aunt Glenna told me got lured into cults. She idolized Bright. Thought he was some kind of savior.”

“And he used her,” Constance said.

Jessie nodded. “She had a strange background. Grew up in a rough neighborhood and got into gangs and drugs at an early age. Had some trouble with the law when she was caught breaking into houses. But she seemed to have straightened out. She got her GED, got into Butterfield, and was holding down a job.”

“And then she got involved with Bright?” Lilian asked.

“The police say he used her as sort of an inside person to screen the people he was recruiting. She was the one who broke into Mrs. Valentine's office and later tried to get into Hatch's car. She was trying to find out how far our investigation had gone and whether or not we were a genuine threat to DEL.”

“And when she realized it was all over for Bright, she decided to try to get rid of the people who could testify against him. Starting with you.” Lilian shuddered.

“Her first try was the night she nearly ran me down. She was fanatically devoted to Bright. She was going to try to kill all of us involved in the case. She started with me because she blamed me for having carried on the investigation in the first place.” Jessie paused. “She had actually tried to stop things right at the beginning.”

Constance looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Mrs. Valentine called to say she recognized her picture in this morning's paper. Nadine is the one who pushed her down that flight of stairs.”

Lilian shuddered. “She'd found out that Mrs. Attwood had gone to her?”

Jessie nodded. “Nadine apparently believed in Mrs. V's powers and was afraid that a true psychic might be able to hurt Edwin Bright's cause. Nobody worried about me for a while, until it became apparent I was determined to pursue the case. Then things got complicated. Bright told her to let Hatch and me come on out to the island so that Landis and Hoffman could assess the situation.”

“But they still weren't overly concerned until they found out Susan had been contacted,” Constance concluded.

“Right.”

Constance laced her fingers together on top of her desk and looked at Elizabeth. “I hope you understand that you are never again going to go to the mall with your friends. From now on out, one of us goes with you or you don't go.”

“Ah, Mom,” Elizabeth muttered.

Jessie patted her hand consolingly. “Don't worry, Elizabeth. I'll go with you whenever you want. The way I figure it, I owe you about a hundred trips to the mall.”

“Fat lot of good that will do,” Elizabeth complained. “Hatch won't let you out alone now either.”

Jessie grinned. “He's a little overanxious these days, but I expect he'll relax after the wedding.”

“Who's overanxious?” Hatch asked as he came through the door with several cups of coffee. He glanced around at the smiling faces of the four women. Then he shrugged. “You finish telling them the story, Jessie?”

“I told them everything.”

“Good. Then we can get out of here.” He glanced at his watch. “I've got a lot of work to do before we leave on our honeymoon.”

A month later Jessie awoke in the pink-and-white bridal suite of the luxurious beachfront hotel. Outside the lanai window, sunlight danced on the incredibly blue tropical sea. She stirred, aware of Hatch's strong, solid warmth beside her. His arm lay across her breasts, his face buried in the pillow beside her.