Texas Ransom

by Amanda Stevens

  Although now that Audrey had left the room, something about the new nurse kept niggling at her, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it was.

  The elevator stopped and as the doors slid open, two nurses got off. They were dressed in the usual scrubs, and as Audrey moved passed them to get on the elevator, she saw a name tag out of the corner of her eye.

  She got on the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby level. Just as the doors started to close, a man stepped quickly through. He was tall and muscular, with long, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. He nodded and smiled, then stood with one shoulder leaning against the wall of the elevator as they began to descend.

  Audrey stared straight ahead, uneasy for some reason that she didn’t understand. And then it hit her. She suddenly knew what had been nagging at her ever since she’d left her mother’s room.

  Connie’s name tag. It was different from the ones the other nurses wore.

  ELLIE HOLLISTER had just walked in the door when the phone started ringing. She grabbed the cordless unit off the island as she walked through the kitchen and headed into the living room where she could glance out the front window.

  When she’d left earlier for her doctor’s appointment, she’d noticed a dark-colored sedan parked at the curb in front of Mrs. Donley’s house two doors down. She’d seen it there yesterday, too, when she’d gone to the grocery store and later when she’d picked Caitlin up from kindergarten.

  Normally, she wouldn’t have thought much about it except she knew Mrs. Donley was out of town visiting her daughter in Phoenix. It was possible the car belonged to another neighbor, but it wasn’t the sort of vehicle that most of the young families in the upscale neighborhood drove.

  Ellie had the phone to her ear as she pulled back the drapes and glanced out. “Hello?”

  “Mrs. Hollister?”

  “Yes?”

  “Are you Ashley’s mother?”

  The question, along with the formal tone of the caller’s voice, sent a chill of fear down Ellie’s spine. Oh, dear God…

  “Yes, I’m her mother. Has something happened? Is she okay?”

  “There’s been an incident at school.”

  The first thing that went through Ellie’s mind was a school shooting. She sat down weakly in the nearest chair. “What kind of incident? Please, just tell me if my daughter’s all right.”

  “She’s not hurt, but the situation is serious. However I’d prefer to discuss it with you in person. How soon can you get here?”

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  “Please come to the principal’s office when you arrive. We’ll be waiting.”

  Ellie felt almost dizzy with relief. Ashley was okay. She wasn’t hurt. For a moment, that was all that mattered.

  And then it hit her. Something had happened at school involving her daughter. Ashley was a little rebellious, but she was a good kid. Not the kind to stir up trouble. Ellie had never gotten this kind of phone call before.

  Something else occurred to her as she got into her car and backed out of the driveway. The caller had never identified himself.

  As she drove by Mrs. Donley’s house, the dark sedan pulled away from the curb behind her.

  IT WAS the afternoon recess at Fair Haven Academy, and five-year-old Caitlin Hollister was playing on the jungle gym with her best friend when Miss Allie, the substitute kindergarten teacher, came and told her that she had to go back inside because her mother was on the phone.

  “Is she sick?” Caitlin asked worriedly.

  “No, no, I’m sure everything is fine. Nothing at all for you to worry about.” The pretty teacher smiled and held out her hand. “Come on, sweetie. I’ll walk you inside.”

  Caitlin scrambled down off the jungle gym and placed her hand inside Miss Allie’s. Together they walked back inside the building and down the long, quiet corridor toward the offices.

  They were about halfway down the hallway when Caitlin wrinkled her nose and glanced around. “It smells funny in here.”

  “What?” Miss Allie paused and sniffed the air. “You’re right. I smell it, too. Kind of like rotten eggs.”

  At that moment, they both saw the smoke. It seemed to come from nowhere, a thick cloud that rolled down the hallway toward them.

  Caitlin’s eyes burned and she started to cough. She couldn’t stop. Still clutching her hand, Miss Allie whirled, but the smoke was coming from the other end of the hallway, too.

  Pulling her shirt over her noise and mouth, the teacher tugged on Caitlin’s hand. Instead of rushing back down the hallway toward the door they’d used earlier, she pulled Caitlin into one of the empty classrooms and closed the door.

  Caitlin had never been so scared in her life. Tears streamed down her face, and her chest ached from the smoke. She clung to the teacher’s hand, terrified to let her go.

  But Miss Allie shook her off and headed toward the windows. When she couldn’t get any of them open, she took a chair and smashed it against the glass. She kept at it until she had all the glass knocked out, and then she motioned for Caitlin. Picking her up, she helped Caitlin through the broken window, then climbed out behind her.

  Still coughing, Miss Allie grabbed Caitlin’s hand and started running away from the building. Caitlin ran, too, as fast as her legs would carry her. She could hear sirens and screams, but the sounds were distant, on the other side of the building. All Caitlin wanted to do was go find her mother, but instead of running toward those sounds, Miss Allie pulled her away from them.

  They ran to the back of the building where a chain-link fence separated school property from a narrow, shady street. A car was parked just outside the fence, and as they neared the gate, a man got out and came toward them.

  Caitlin stopped running. She tried to pull her hand free, but the teacher’s grip tightened and she wouldn’t let her go. Not even when Caitlin started to cry.

  Chapter Ten

  Cell phone pressed to his ear, Special Agent Pinson gave the kind of monosyllabic responses that wouldn’t allow Graham to interpret the one-sided conversation.

  “Was that Heller?” he asked when the agent finally ended the call. “What’s going on with my family?”

  “Heller will fill you in as soon as we get back to the office.”

  “Tell me now,” Graham said through clenched teeth. “What the hell is going on?”

  Pinson hesitated. “It may not be anything…”

  Fear clawed at Graham’s lungs. “What happened?”

  “It’s your niece, Caitlin. There was a fire at her school.”

  Graham’s chest felt ready to explode. “Is she…how bad is it?”

  “We don’t know yet,” the agent said, not taking his eyes from the road. “We haven’t been able to find her. She and her teacher are missing.”

  WHEN Graham and Pinson walked into Heller’s office, he was just getting off the phone. There were two other agents in the room, but they got up and left, nodding at Graham on their way out.

  “Your niece is fine,” Heller said before Graham could question him. “It was just a miscommunication on the ground. The thick smoke in the hallway created a lot of confusion, and the substitute teacher panicked and took Caitlin out through a window. That’s why no one could find her, including our agent. She’s fine, Graham. Everyone in your family is safe.”

  Graham sat down weakly in the chair opposite Heller’s desk. “How could something like that happen? You said my whole family was under surveillance.”

  “They are. Everything is under control.”

  “Under control?” Graham asked in disbelief. “A fire breaks out in my niece’s school, no one is able to find her and you call that under control?”

  “There was no fire. Several smoke bombs were set off in the hallway. The children, including your niece, were never in any real danger.”

  “Who set them off?” Graham asked.

  “We’re looking into it. But let me stress again that no one in your family was
in any real danger. We have agents watching your brother’s home, his office, his daughters’ schools, and your grandmother’s hospital room. Everything is under control.”

  “I want to talk to my family,” Graham said. “I want to make sure they’re okay.”

  Heller nodded. “I understand. But we need to debrief you first. If Esteban knows about our involvement, then we may have a leak.”

  “What do you mean if? I told you about his phone call.”

  “Yes, and as I said earlier, he could have been bluffing. The guy in the restaurant wasn’t one of our agents. It’s possible that you confirmed to Esteban what may have been nothing more than guesswork on his part.”

  Graham’s stomach roiled sickeningly. What had he done?

  “No, wait a minute,” he said slowly. “I didn’t confirm anything. All I said was that I had the money. I’d do whatever he asked.”

  “Then here is my next question.” Heller folded his hands on his desk and leaned forward. “If it wasn’t a bluff, how did he know? How could he know, unless someone told him? Someone you know may be working against you, Graham. Who have you talked to about this?”

  “No one.”

  “Not even Michael Barron?”

  Graham hesitated, wondering if Heller was bluffing.

  “What did the two of you talk about yesterday?”

  So he was being watched. Graham didn’t like this. Not one bit.

  “Did you tell Michael Barron about the kidnapping?” Heller pressed. When Graham still said nothing, the agent frowned. “We’ve just established that someone close to you could be feeding Esteban information. I would think, under the circumstances, you would want to be a little more cooperative. So let’s try this again. Did you talk to Barron about the kidnapping? Yes or no.”

  “Yes. I wanted to talk to someone I could trust,” Graham said pointedly.

  “How well do you know Barron?”

  “He’s been my best friend for years. We went to college together. He’s like a brother to me. I’d trust him with my life.”

  “You may have done exactly that,” Heller said with grim satisfaction. “How well does your wife know Mr. Barron?”

  There was a strange glint in the agent’s eyes that Graham didn’t like.

  “Like I said, he’s my best friend so she’s known him for years.”

  “Did you know she went to see him at his town house on the day of the reception? Did either of them tell you about that meeting?”

  Graham swallowed. “No.”

  “Have you ever seen these photos before?”

  Heller pushed a folder across the desk toward Graham. He hesitated a long moment before opening the file. The photographs inside had been taken from a distance, probably with a telephoto lens. They were of Michael and Kendall embracing, kissing, making love…

  It took him a moment to realize the photographs were from before the accident, before Kendall’s appearance had changed so drastically. But it didn’t matter. Graham was stunned, blindsided. He closed the folder with a trembling hand.

  “You didn’t know about the affair?”

  Graham’s gaze shot up at the sound of Heller’s voice. “Where did you get these?”

  “Barron’s ex-wife. That’s why she left him. You didn’t know about that, either, I suppose.”

  “I haven’t seen Trish in years. Why would you talk to her about Kendall’s kidnapping?”

  “Because we don’t think you’re a random target. We’ve suspected from the start that someone close to you is working with the kidnappers.”

  “And you think that person is Michael? Have you talked to him?”

  “Not yet. We wanted to talk to you first.”

  “Why?”

  “Because some things still don’t add up for us, Mr. Hollister.” Heller’s voice had cooled, and he was no longer on a first-name basis. Graham figured that probably wasn’t a good sign. “We’re hoping you can help us out.”

  “With what?”

  “We find it a little strange that no one remembers seeing your wife at the reception the night the ambassador was shot.”

  “What are you talking about? Dozens of people saw her there. We came in together.”

  “Your brother and sister-in-law didn’t see her. And when we showed her picture to some of the other guests, none of them could say definitively that the woman they remembered in the red dress at the reception was the same person in the photograph.”

  Graham thought about that for a moment, and he recalled how Kendall had gone to freshen up when they came down from the roof. She hadn’t come back for a very long time. “What about surveillance cameras or the guard who signed us in?”

  “You were seen with a woman in a red dress. But the funny thing is…she always seemed to have her face turned away from the cameras. And the guard…well, he’s just disappeared altogether.”

  Graham was silent for a moment as he tried to quell his fear. Whatever else he’d done, Michael had been right about this. The feds were trying to pin something on him. Only now it seemed as if Michael might be working against him, too.

  And Kendall?

  Graham glanced away and drew a long breath. All the lies were getting to him. Especially from the people he’d trusted the most.

  His gaze jerked back to Heller as he forced himself to concentrate. “Am I a suspect?”

  “In what?” Heller asked innocently.

  “You seem to be suggesting that I might have had something to do with my wife’s kidnapping.”

  “I’m not suggesting anything. I’m just thinking out loud. A man with your means finds out his wife has been having a five-year affair with his best friend. He confronts her, things get out of hand, he goes a little crazy and maybe he concocts a kidnapping story to cover up another crime.”

  Graham gripped the arms of his chair. “You’re out of your mind.”

  “Did you know your wife has a record? She was arrested on a DUI charge back in college. Her fingerprints are in the system.” Heller’s eyes hardened as he leaned forward. “Her fingerprints are in the system, but they’re nowhere to be found in your hotel suite.”

  Graham opened his mouth, but he had no idea what he was about to say.

  Heller said it for him. “If you’re about to suggest that the room has been cleaned, let me assure you that we found plenty of other prints. Yours. The maid’s. Dozens of others we can’t identify. But not your wife’s. Not even on items that would have been used by her exclusively. Her lipstick. Hairbrush, toothbrush.”

  Graham shook his head. “That’s impossible.”

  “So you can’t explain the absence of your wife’s fingerprints in the hotel suite you supposedly shared with her. You can’t explain why no one can positively identify the woman in the red dress that you brought to the reception. You can’t explain why—so far at least—the threats to your family haven’t been carried out.”

  Graham was in a full-blown panic by now, but he managed to keep his voice low and even as he looked Heller in the eyes. “I’m not saying anything else until I’ve contacted my attorney.”

  “If you mean Mr. Barron, we’d like to have a word with him as well. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to reach him. But I don’t suppose you know anything about that, either.”

  Graham rose. His legs were shaking, but he managed not to make a complete fool of himself. “Am I free to go?”

  The question seemed to catch Heller off guard. “We’re not done here.”

  “Let me put it another way then. Am I under arrest?”

  Heller hesitated, then shrugged. “No.”

  “Then I’m outta here.”

  GRAHAM didn’t know where else to go, so he headed back toward his office. As he walked along, he couldn’t help reflecting on the near absurdity of the situation—he had two million dollars in his briefcase, he was a suspect in his own wife’s kidnapping and no one on the street paid him the slightest bit of attention.

  Once he got back to his building, he deci
ded against going inside. Instead, he crossed the street and entered the parking garage. Opening the door of his car, he tossed in the briefcase and slid behind the wheel, still with no clue where he was going or what he should do.

  He felt numb at the moment, but he knew that he was also on the verge of losing control.

  Kendall and Michael…

  He couldn’t let himself think about that now. He had to keep his cool, figure a way out of all this.

  Esteban had done a real number on him, maybe with the help of Graham’s best friend. But he couldn’t dwell on that right now, either. Not until he was someplace safe, where he could think. Where he could break down if he needed to and no one would see him, be able to use the lapse against him. Because, at the moment, he felt that his every move was being monitored and analyzed by both sides of the law.

  Pulling out of the garage, he merged with the heavy downtown traffic. He still hadn’t made any conscious decision about his destination, but a few minutes later, he found himself on the outskirts of the city, heading toward home.

  He wondered if Agent Jones would still be in the house or if he would have already packed up and left now that Heller suspected Graham of masterminding Kendall’s kidnapping.

  Her fingerprints hadn’t been found in their hotel suite. The only possible explanation was that Esteban had had them removed, but how could hers be cleaned away without disturbing the others? It made no sense.

  And why couldn’t anyone place her at the reception that night? She’d worn red, for God’s sake. Her dress alone would have made her stand out.

  Although, according to Heller, people remembered the dress but not the woman. Graham didn’t understand that. Kendall was still very attractive. She got noticed wherever she went.

  Unless for some reason she’d made a point of not getting noticed. If she had deliberately stayed away from the crowd until the last possible moment…