The Ghost Who Stayed Home

by Anna J. McIntyre

  Sunlight briefly cut through a portion of the warehouse when the door opened. Looking at the door, he saw two figures—the large man wearing a mask and a blindfolded woman. It was Carol Ann. Edward leapt to his feet; his chains rattled.

  “You have fifteen minutes,” the kidnapper said as he roughly shoved Carol Ann in Edward’s direction. He turned and went back outside, shutting the door behind him and cutting off the incoming sunlight.

  Carol Ann stood there a moment, the blindfold still covering her eyes. The others all called out to her. Her hands reached up and removed the blindfold. She looked around, trying to adjust to the darkness.

  “Carol Ann!” Edward called out again.

  “Ed!” She dropped the blindfold to the floor and ran to him, throwing herself into his outstretched arms.

  When the hug finally ended, he placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “Yes. They haven’t hurt me. I don’t think they will. They need me to take care of Chris.”

  “How is he?”

  Carol Ann shook her head. “He’s unconscious. When he was getting off the plane, he fell and landed on his forehead.”

  “Do you think he’s going to be okay?”

  She shook her head again. “Honestly, I don’t know. Head trauma can be fatal. Even if the person survives the initial fall.”

  “He needs to go to the hospital.”

  “They aren’t going to allow that.”

  “How many of them are there?”

  “At least four. But whenever I’ve seen them, they all have ski masks on.”

  “Do you have any idea where they have us?”

  Carol Ann leaned into Edward, resting her head on his shoulder. “No. When they took me outside, they put a blindfold on me—like when they brought me here. I have no idea where we are. As far as we know, we could still be in Frederickport.”

  “We’re not in Frederickport,” the chief said.

  Carol Ann pulled back and looked up into Edward’s face. “Why do you say that?”

  “Aside from the fact I don’t know of any buildings like this in town, the temperature in here. If we were anywhere near the coast, it would be damp and cold, especially at night.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” Carol Ann leaned back into him again.

  “They could have flown us anywhere. My guess, we’re someplace like Nevada, Arizona, or maybe even Texas, where we were supposed to go.”

  “They’re going to be back to get me. So I don’t want to waste any time.”

  Edward hugged Carol Ann again.

  When he let her go, she looked up into his eyes and said, “I don’t want you to worry about me. From what I’ve gathered, they intend to hold us hostage until Chris transfers the ransom money, and then they’ll let us go.”

  “How is he going to do that if he’s unconscious?”

  “Well…that’s why they need me, to take care of him. I don’t think they’ll hurt me.”

  “Carol Ann, we need to figure out some way to get out of here. Even if Chris does come to and manages to transfer that money, there is no guarantee they’ll just let us go. And what if he doesn’t? Will they keep us here indefinitely?”

  “As long as they let me take care of Chris, there’s a chance I can get a message to the outside world. There’s a telephone in the room they have Chris in. I don’t know if it’s hooked up or not, but if I could get to it somehow, even if it’s only to dial 911…”

  “If the phone’s hooked up, I can’t imagine they’d leave you alone in there.”

  “I understand that. So far, whenever I’m in the room with Chris, one of them is always in there, keeping an eye on us. But maybe…maybe they’ll let their guard down and step out of the room for a moment, without thinking.”

  “You be careful!” Edward told her.

  “I will be. I just don’t want you to do anything crazy or impulsive. I don’t think Chris is in any immediate danger, which means none of us is in immediate danger. I overheard them talking. They plan to keep you here and supply you with adequate food and water and give you access to the bathroom. I don’t think there’s any danger of them coming in here and randomly abusing any of us. I don’t think that’s on their agenda. They just want the ransom money.”

  “Unfortunately, Carol Ann, when men get desperate, when their plans go awry, they can behave erratically. I want you to be careful and pay attention to everything.”

  SKY SAT ALONE in the small room, thinking of the computer he had set up at the rental house. If Chris Glandon hadn’t taken that tumble down the steps, they would have already cleared out of the rental house, and the hostages would be waiting for the police to find them.

  Standing up, he gave the rusty office chair a shove as he walked to the window and looked outside. He had been planning this for over a year now. In the beginning, Andy thought he was crazy. But she went along with the planning—like she always went along with him. He suspected one reason was she didn’t think it would ever get this far. And maybe it wouldn’t have if she hadn’t stumbled across the ideal mark.

  The door to the office opened and in walked Andy and Clay.

  “Is he any better?” Sky asked, turning from the window.

  “He’s the same,” Andy told him. “He could die if we don’t get him to a hospital. And you promised no one would get hurt.”

  Sky looked at Clay.

  “It was an accident!” Clay said defensively.

  “It doesn’t matter. I don’t know about you two, but if we get caught, I don’t want murder charges on top of kidnapping, and not to mention the fact we took them across the state line,” she told him.

  “Andy, we’ve already gone this far. We can’t turn back now,” Sky insisted.

  “When that plane doesn’t show up in Texas, people are going to start looking for them. This was supposed to be over by now,” she reminded him.

  “They will never find us here. I made sure of that,” Sky told her.

  “How long are we going to have to stay here?” Clay asked. “Are we going to wait until Glandon wakes up—or until he dies? Then what? Like Andy says, then we could be facing murder charges.”

  “I can’t believe you two! After all this, you want to give up?”

  Andy walked over to a chair and sat down. “Maybe we need to turn our attention to one of the other hostages. Maybe one of them can pay our ransom.”

  “Are you saying one of them can give us fifty million bucks?” Sky asked.

  “I don’t know about that much. But Danielle Boatman has money,” Andy told him.

  “Danielle Boatman?” Clay asked.

  “That’s the one that was sitting next to Glandon on the plane,” she explained. “I don’t know how much money exactly, but she got two inheritances—one from her cousin, who reportedly was worth millions—and she was the one who inherited that necklace I told you about. The Missing Thorndike.”

  “I read about that,” Clay piped up.

  “And remember the article I showed you about the gold coins? The ones worth a fortune?” Andy asked.

  Sky frowned. “What about it?”

  “Danielle Boatman, she was the one in the article. The coins supposedly belonged to Walt Marlow—who left his estate to Danielle Boatman’s great-aunt,” Andy explained.

  Clay let out a low whistle. “Damn. I thought Glandon was the only rich one in there.”

  “No, there are a couple,” Andy told him. “I’m pretty sure Danielle Boatman’s friend Lily Miller is worth at least a couple million. She’s the one who won that lawsuit from the Gusarov Estate.”

  “Damn, what are we waiting for? What about the other ones?” Clay said excitedly.

  “We won’t get anything from the two cops. They’re both squeaky clean. But the other guy, he might be worth something.”

  “Maybe we can consider them—later. If there’s nothing we can do with Glandon,” Sky said. “The plan was to keep this simple. Getting money from
a couple of them would be complicated—and may not even be possible.”

  Andy stood up. “How about this. We give it a few more days. See if he wakes up. But if it looks as if he’s taking a turn for the worse, maybe we should consider the possibility of one of the other hostages paying the ransom, and cut our losses and get out of here.”

  “Could we get fifty million from Boatman?” Clay asked.

  “I doubt it,” Andy said. “But we should be able to get something.”

  “Then I say we wait,” Clay said. “I didn’t come all this way to give up.”

  SEVENTEEN

  What was supposed to be her first night at the dude ranch was spent sleeping on the concrete floor next to Lily. Although, to say she actually slept would be overstating how she had spent the evening. It wasn’t until the wee hours of the morning did she finally manage to fall asleep, yet her brief slumber was interrupted several hours later when she woke to one of her captors jerking her by one arm, telling her to stand up.

  They removed her ankle from the shackle, yet fit the blindfold back over her eyes. Overtired and achy, she stumbled in the darkness, led from the building by the masked man with the football-player physique.

  When the blindfold was finally removed, Danielle found herself standing in the middle of what appeared to be a sparsely furnished, well-worn, single-wide mobile home. Sitting in front of her was a masked man, who lounged casually on a stained sofa, his gaze fixed on her. The man who had brought her left her side and walked from the room, leaving her alone with his partner. Silently, she glanced around. All the blinds were drawn, making it impossible to see outside.

  “So you’re Danielle Boatman?” the man on the sofa asked. By his voice, Danielle guessed he was the pilot.

  “Can I see Chris?” Danielle asked.

  “If you cooperate, that might be possible.”

  “How is he? I understand he was unconscious.”

  “He’s alive—for now.”

  “What do you want from me?” she asked.

  “I understand you are a very wealthy woman.”

  “I…I suppose I’ve been fortunate.”

  The man started to laugh and waved his hand, as if showing her the interior of the trailer. “Is this what you call fortunate? My, you do have low expectations.”

  When he stopped laughing, Danielle asked, “I suppose you want money. How much?”

  “I would like it all,” he said with a shrug. “But I suppose I can’t be greedy. I understand you own the Missing Thorndike. I’m not especially thrilled with having to find a buyer for it, yet I suppose it’s a start.”

  “If I give you the necklace, you’ll let me and my friends go? You’ll let us take Chris to a hospital?”

  “Like I said…it’s a start.”

  “The necklace is in a safe deposit box in Frederickport. I’d have to go to the bank to get it out.”

  He sat there quietly for a moment and then shook his head. “No. That wasn’t part of the plan. It won’t work. Have you cashed in those gold coins yet? Did you put the money in the bank?”

  “Gold coins?”

  “Don’t play dumb!” he snapped. “I know about those gold coins. They’re worth millions.”

  “I wasn’t playing dumb…it’s just that I don’t have the gold coins yet, so I couldn’t very well put any money from them in the bank.”

  “What are you talking about?” He sounded angry.

  “That’s still going through the legal process—there’s no guarantee the court will decide I’m the rightful owner.”

  “But you do have your money from your inheritances? Substantial ones, I understand.”

  Danielle shuffled her feet. “Umm, yes…sort of.”

  “What do you mean sort of?” He stood up abruptly and began to pace in front of the sofa. “Do you want to get you and your friends killed?”

  “I don’t care about the money!” Danielle insisted. “If I had it all right here, including the necklace and gold coins, I would gladly hand them over to you. But I can’t give you something I don’t have.”

  He stopped pacing. Standing about six feet from her, he stared at her through the eye holes of his ski mask. “What did you mean you sort of have your inheritance money?”

  Danielle let out a sigh and glanced over to a chair. She had been sitting on concrete for hours and the worn recliner looked inviting. “May I please sit down?”

  Her kidnapper nodded and pointed to the recliner, and then he sat back down on the sofa. “Explain what you were talking about.”

  “My cousin, Cheryl, left me her estate. A portion of that—her house—was left in a trust to me. But the bulk of the estate was not in a trust and is going through probate. So really, I don’t have access to that at the moment. At least, not until it finishes going through probate, and my attorney says that can take up to a year.”

  “What about the money your great-aunt left you?”

  “Well…aside from Marlow House, which I still own, the money I eventually got—a significant portion of that—well—I gave it away.”

  “Gave it away?” he asked incredulously.

  “I didn’t really need that much money. And I thought Chris’s foundation could do so much more with it than I could.”

  “Are you saying you gave your inheritance from your great-aunt away?”

  “Well, not all of it…just most of it. And then there were the income taxes.”

  “Income taxes?”

  “Well, yeah, on the gold coins and necklace. I might not have the gold coins yet, but I thought I might as well go ahead and pay the taxes on them, since the money was just sitting in the bank account. I figured if I didn’t get the coins for some reason, I would just get a tax refund back.”

  “Just how much do you have left—or more accurately—how much do you have that’s being kept in a bank account?”

  “Umm…I did have almost forty thousand—well, I did until I put that new heating and air-conditioning unit in Marlow House. Maybe a little over thirty thousand.” Danielle shrugged.

  Jumping to his feet again, he shrieked, “Thirty thousand! What kind of nut gives away most of her inheritance?”

  Danielle was tempted to remind him that she would be getting over ten million dollars after her cousin’s estate was finally settled—as it turned out to be worth even more than what she was originally told, and donating a significant portion of the money from her aunt’s estate to the Glandon Foundation helped alleviate some of the tax burden. She also owned the Missing Thorndike, and according to her attorney, he didn’t doubt she would get the gold coins. But she thought it best to keep that to herself.

  “I will be happy to give you whatever I have in my bank account,” she told him.

  “Get her out of here!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. The larger man who had brought her to the trailer walked back into the room from the hallway.

  “Do I get to see Chris now?” she asked.

  “No, you don’t!”

  Several minutes later Danielle found herself once again blindfolded and led back to the warehouse where her friends were being held captive.

  “WHAT ARE you so angry about?” Andy asked Sky after Clay took Danielle back to the other prisoners.

  “She doesn’t have any money,” he spat.

  “What do you mean? Yes, she does,” Andy insisted.

  Sky went on to recount his conversation with Danielle Boatman.

  “Oh my…” Andy muttered, taking a seat on the sofa.

  Sky sat down on the recliner Danielle had been using earlier. He and Andy sat in silence for several moments, considering the turn of events.

  Finally, Sky looked up at Andy and asked, “Do you think she’s lying?”

  Andy considered the question for a moment and then shook her head. “From what I’ve heard about her, I don’t think so. I can’t imagine she’d jeopardize her friends’ lives, much less her own, by coming up with a story like that. From what I understand, money is not that important to
her. So I can’t imagine she’d concoct a lie like that to hold on to hers and risk getting everyone killed.”

  “Money not important? Why is it always people who have money that believe stupid crap like that?”

  Clay walked back into the trailer just as Sky said, “Well, I sure as hell am not going to do all this for a measly thirty thousand bucks. What would we all end up with, less than seven thousand each? Sure as hell not worth the risk. This was supposed to be the big score.”

  “Seven thousand is better than nothing,” Clay said as he took a seat on the sofa next to Andy.

  “Don’t you understand?” Sky shouted. “After I use the program to move the funds—the chances of getting it to work again are slim at best. Days after they realize what we did, that hole will be closed so tight. I certainly don’t want to waste this on pocket change!”

  Clay shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t understand why we can’t use it again.”

  Andy let out a weary sigh and turned to face Clay. “If Sky uses it to transfer money out of Danielle’s account, the bank will eventually realize someone other than Danielle moved those funds. Once they look into it, they’ll discover the vulnerability and it’ll be corrected. I don’t think this is something they’ll keep to themselves. Sky’s program is brilliant. But we only have one shot to use it.”

  “DID YOU SEE CHRIS?” Lily asked Danielle after she returned to the warehouse.

  “No.” Danielle picked up a granola bar packet and ripped it open.

  “So what did they want?”

  “Money. Ransom money. I would have been happy to give them what I have to get us out of here, but I’m afraid what I have in the bank isn’t what they had in mind.” Danielle bit off the end of the bar and started to chew.

  “What I don’t understand, they told us they’d let us go after Chris transferred fifty million dollars into their account. How would that even be possible? I mean, who keeps that kind of money in a bank?”

  “Actually, Chris has that much money in one bank—the bank his family owns.”