The Daughter-in-Law (39 page)

The cell phone in her pocket vibrated against her leg. “Excuse me.” She reached to turn it off, but then changed her mind. She was adrift in a sea of confusion. Maybe someone was calling with some answers. “I have a call, is there some place ...”

The banker was on his feet. “Use my desk. I’ll be away for a moment.”

Nicole glanced around and lifted the phone to her face. “Yes?”

“Nicole?”

She recognized the voice instantly. “Pam?”

SEVENTY-ONE

“N
ICOLE, WHERE
are you?”

“Back in New York ...”

“Oh, thank God. You came back. Nicole, they’re going to kill me!” Pam’s voice was shrill, almost hysterical.

“Who, Pam? Who’s going to hurt you?”

“I don’t know. It’s you they want. And if you don’t come here right now they’re going to kill me. Please, Nicole. I don’t know what this is all about...”

“What about the money? The ransom?”

Pam shrieked. “They don’t want money. They want
you.
I don’t know why. They just want you.”

They don’t want money? But someone had just handed over a fortune. And the one who wanted her back already had her. He was waiting outside in his car knowing that she had to return.

“Where are you, Pam? Where do they want me to go?”

“I’m at the Newport house. They’ll take me out to sea and dump me if you don’t come.”

Holding her in her own house? It
had
to be someone inside the family.

“I’ll start up right away,” Nicole said with all the determination she could put into her voice. “I have a car. It should take about three hours.”

“Please hurry. They keep talking about a deadline. And for god’s sake, don’t tell anyone. Not Daddy, not the police, no one. Just come, and make sure you’re not followed because they’re watching the bridge and the road. If there’s anyone with you ...”

She sounded terrified, only seconds from mindless screaming.

“All right, Pam. Tell them I’m coming alone. I’ll be there as fast as I can...”

The line went dead.

Now nothing made sense. Someone was paying a ransom that
the kidnappers didn’t want. And the people who wanted Nicole didn’t know that Jimmy already had her. The only thing certain was that Pam was frightened beyond imagining. Whoever was holding her had gotten inside her head and convinced her that she was going to die.

Could Jimmy free Pam? If she transferred the money and went back to the car, would Jimmy be able to end it all with a phone call? If he could, then why would Pam be calling her? Wouldn’t Jimmy have already called Pam’s keepers and told them that he already had found Nicole? The only explanation was that someone else was holding Pam. And who, beside Jimmy Farr, would have demanded that she turn herself in as the ransom? Again, Alexandra seemed the most likely.

“Ahem!” The bank officer settled back into his chair and looked across at her expectantly. “You wanted to make a transaction?”

Nicole looked over his shoulder at the back door that opened out onto the next street. “No, not right now. I’ll have to come back.”

She glanced at the door she had entered. There was no sign of either Jimmy or his driver. She stood and walked out the back, paused for just an instant and then hailed a taxi.

Her car was parked near Jack’s town house, but that wouldn’t be a problem. There was no reason why anyone would be watching Jack’s residence, nor did anyone know the kind of car she was driving. She could just pick it up and head for Newport. But she should tell someone where Pam was being held. If something happened to her Pam might still need to be rescued. Or, if she really was about to be swapped for her sister-in-law, then her own safety would depend on someone knowing where she was.

But whom could she trust? Certainly not Alexandra. And certainly not Greg Lambert. She knew for sure that he was the one that Jimmy Farr was dealing with. Maybe Jack. He was the least likely to be involved in a scheme that would bring Nicole back into his life. Unless he was afraid that Europe wasn’t far enough and had decided to bury his problem permanently. God, could the money Jimmy had picked up be Jack’s payoff for getting rid of his mistress? Jack had protested when she said she was going to meet Jimmy. But he hadn’t stopped her from leaving the safety of his apartment and getting into Jimmy’s car.

She paid off the taxi a block from where her car was parked and
walked slowly down the other side of the street. No one seemed to be waiting in the vicinity and there was no one sitting in a nearby car. Nicole crossed the street, strolled past her car, then doubled back and unlocked the door. She pulled out quickly, cutting off a truck that was plodding up the street. If someone were waiting behind her, the truck would give her a moment to escape. And it would block anyone ahead of her who tried to pull out and follow. She rounded the corner and pulled to the side. No one turned in behind her. Satisfied that she was alone, she drove east toward the highway and the bridge that would start her to Connecticut. Three hours, she had promised, Pam. She would need all of that even if the traffic kept moving.

SEVENTY-TWO

“S
HE’S TAKING
too long,” Jimmy Farr announced after he had waited for more than twenty minutes. “See what she’s up to.” His driver climbed out and dodged through traffic to the bank entrance. A minute later he appeared, his expression anxious. “She’s not inside. There’s a door out to the next street.”

Jimmy screamed in pain. “The little bitch. She screwed me! She fucked me over!”

The driver was back behind the wheel. “Where to?”

“How the fuck would I know where to? She could have moved her money anywhere. And now she’s on her way to join it.” He shook his head. “She’s a hustler, but I didn’t think she’d throw her friend to the wolves.” He sat silently, weighing his options. Then he looked down at the satchel of cash that rested beside him. He shook his head and smiled. “The hell with her. Let’s just go back to the club.”

He had two million in cash plus the half-million fee that Jack Donner had paid for his services. And Jack Donner was supposed to be the world’s toughest wheeler and dealer. Wouldn’t Jimmy love to see Jack’s face when he finally understood that he’d been played for a fool? But that would have to come later. Right now he needed to go along with the game. Just waste a few hours so that he seemed to be earning his money, then call Greg Lambert and tell him where he could pick up Pamela Donner. Sure, Nicole had put one over on him. But their paths would cross again. In the meantime, having two and a half million fall into his lap was more than enough salve for his injured feelings.

Nicole was on the Connecticut Turnpike going as fast as she dared without attracting the attention of a policeman. She might look like the photo in her passport, but there was little resemblance between
her new look and the photo on her license. She could lose hours if she were pulled over.

She still hadn’t called anyone to tell where Pam was being held and where she was headed. There was no one she could trust completely. She had thought about William Kimes, Pam’s partner. He had seemed genuine when she met him. But Kimes was interested in the kind of money that would make a spectacular impression on the art world, and Pam wouldn’t be able to deliver that kind of money for several years. Maybe he had found a faster way to tap into Pam’s fortune. That would also explain why she was part of the ransom herself. She was the other investor.

She had also thought about Ben Tobin. Jonathan had told her that she could rely on Ben, and he had represented her well in the negotiations with the Donner lawyers. But she knew that Tobin was under surveillance by Lambert’s detectives and, worse, that Alexandra might have turned him. Hadn’t he suddenly balked at transferring her funds abroad? Wouldn’t he need her on hand if he planned on retrieving the money from her account?

Everyone seemed to be tainted. She could make a case for any one of them kidnapping Pam, or at least pretending to kidnap her in order to keep Pam’s sister-in-law from escaping to Europe. But even as she ran the possible scenarios she knew how ridiculous they sounded. Jack Donner didn’t need to set up an elaborate scheme. All he had to do was pay her off which was exactly what he already had done. Alexandra would never stoop to dealing with the likes of Jimmy Farr even to rid her family of her unwanted daughter-in-law. Nor could she see Greg Lambert betraying his years of loyal service. William Kimes was an art dealer, hardly the credentials needed to pull off such an elaborate scheme. And Ben Tobin was a successful lawyer who would be risking everything if he became involved with kidnapping and extortion.

She had to trust someone. Nicole couldn’t take the chance that she might vanish along with Pam. But who? Of all the players, which one had the least to gain by luring her back and collecting a ransom? That thought made her decision easy. She picked up her phone and keyed the number of Jack’s town house. The phone rang a few times and then an answering machine picked up. She broke the connection and then dialed the private line at his office. Again, ringing but this time it was a secretary who finally picked up. “Mr.
Donner’s line. He isn’t available right now ...” Nicole hung up before the secretary could finish.

There was one other place she could try—Jonathan’s apartment where Jimmy Farr had picked up the ransom money only a few hours earlier. But she knew that Greg Lambert was there, and probably Alexandra. The odds of getting through to Jack were slim. She decided that the town house was her best bet and dialed it again. She waited through Jack’s message and then spoke quickly. “Jack, it’s Nicole. Two things you should know. First, Jimmy Farr is working with Greg Lambert. He picked up a satchel full of cash at Jonathan’s apartment. I hope you know what it’s all about because it sounds as if someone on your side might be involved in the kidnapping. And next, I got a call from Pam on my cell phone. She’s being held at your Newport house. She said if I didn’t show up they were going to kill her, so I’m on my way there. I should make it at about five o’clock. I’m not supposed to tell anyone. Pam says the people holding her are watching the bridge and the roads, and they’ll kill her if they see anyone with me. So be careful, Jack. You can’t come barging in.” Nicole closed with words that she immediately regretted. “I’ll talk to you as soon as I know something. . . . if I can.”

SEVENTY-THREE

J
ACK PACED
the confines of the apartment like a caged animal, circling around the sofa where Alexandra sat in silence. Occasionally, he veered over to the chair next to the telephone where Greg Lambert was keeping vigil.

“How much longer is this going to take?” he demanded for the third time in the past half hour. Alexandra didn’t even favor him with a shrug. Lambert repeated that it was hard to tell, but that it was probably too soon for them to be concerned. Then he got up and poured himself another cup of coffee.

They were all working with incomplete information. They knew that Jimmy Farr had arranged the kidnapping. Who else would want Nicole to turn herself over as ransom? They knew he had agreed to take money instead, using the ruse that he was only a messenger. They knew the ransom had been paid and that there was no reason for the thug to harm Pam. He had gotten more from the family than he ever would have gotten from Nicole. They also knew that Nicole had contacted him and gone to meet him, and that she was out there someplace trying to arrange her own deal for Pam’s release. What they didn’t know was whether Nicole’s arrival on the scene had fouled their deal. Was Farr now looking for more, perhaps the money Nicole had gotten in her settlement? Was Nicole balking? Or did Farr have issues with her that went beyond the ransom? If Greg Lambert had known that Nicole was coming back, he never would have cut a deal with Jimmy. And if Nicole had known that Jimmy had agreed to a ransom, she never would have returned. It was the fact that two different plans were operating that posed the greatest danger to Pam’s safety.

“Jesus,” Jack growled as he made his turn at the window, “if he’s the one holding her all he has to do is make a phone call. What in God’s name is taking him so long?”

Alexandra couldn’t take it any longer. “Jack, will you please sit down. You’re driving me crazy.”

He dropped onto the sofa beside her, but in a second he was back up and hovering over Lambert. “Isn’t there someone you can call? You don’t just turn over a few million without knowing where it’s going.”

Jack wasn’t completely sure of Greg Lambert. It had been Lambert’s idea to contact Jimmy Farr with the ruse of Jimmy serving as messenger to the kidnappers. He had, in effect, offered Jimmy the ransom without Jimmy admitting that he held the victim. If Greg were so inclined, it would be the perfect way to pocket a bit of the family’s money without leaving a trail. Greg was the one most familiar with Pam’s movements, the one responsible for protecting her. It would be easy for him to have one of his operatives take her, and for him to make it look as if Jimmy Farr was the kidnapper. Jimmy would get a half million for his services, and Greg would leave with two million.

In fact, he wasn’t even sure of his own wife. Alexandra would do anything to bring Nicole back and strip her of the settlement money. Could this whole kidnapping be something she cooked up with Pam? Was he being played for the fool?

He snatched up the telephone. “Someone must know something,” he announced.

Alexandra winced. “Who are you calling?”

“My office!” He dialed the town house. If Nicole had tried to reach him that was where she would have called. He listened to his machine and heard Nicole’s voice. Pam was alive at the Newport house and that was where Nicole was heading. Greg Lambert was working with Jimmy Farr. He already knew that; they had all agreed to pay Jimmy the ransom. Don’t contact the police. Pam’s captors would know if anyone were closing in.

“What is it?” Alexandra had watched him as he listened and had seen the confusion in his expression.

“Nicole . . .” he said absently. “Pam is being held at our Newport house. She’s on the way there now.”

Alexandra jumped to her feet. “Pam is all right?”