Mind Game

by Iris Johansen

  But she needed a breath of air and a few minutes outside the confines of this tent. She was getting claustrophobic.

  She dropped down outside on the bank and looked out at the lake. She tried to relax and just absorb all that information she’d gathered about helicopters and the Mediterranean and the Aegean and the distances from the Romanos’ estate, and a hundred other details she’d crammed into her mind.

  Let it go. Just take this moment.

  Her gaze shifted to the north bank, where Jock and MacDuff were probably moving, working, somewhere in that eternal fog. Looking for the treasure, searching for the end of the rainbow, searching for the end of the story.

  Searching for Cira …

  The lake was as beautiful as always and the late-afternoon sunlight was casting a luminous golden glow over the mist. Jane always loved it at this time of day, when it was almost like—

  She stiffened, her breath leaving her body. “Oh my God!”

  She jumped to her feet and ran into the tent to get her computer.

  8:40 P.M.

  Her hand was shaking as she punched in Caleb’s number. “You come and get me. I’m heading for the Edinburgh Airport. Don’t argue with me. Just get in that fancy jet of yours and come and pick me up.”

  “Something’s wrong? I told you that—”

  “Something’s right. And I don’t care what you told me. You come and get me. I’m not going to go through another night wondering what’s happening to Lisa.” She hung up.

  Then she turned and went to Jock, who was back now and sitting at the campfire. “I need your car. Will you give me the keys?”

  He immediately took them out of his pocket and tossed them to her. “Am I allowed to know when I get it back?”

  “It will be at Edinburgh Airport. Thanks, Jock.”

  “No problem. I offered. If you need anything else, let me know.”

  “I will.” She headed up the incline. “I hope it will all be over soon.”

  “I think you should know that Eve was on the phone with MacDuff earlier this evening. He didn’t tell me why. Is she concerned about this?”

  “Eve is always concerned about everything if it has to do with family.” But Jane was surprised that Eve had thought she had reason to contact MacDuff. “But if he mentions anything, tell him we’re taking care of it.”

  “You and Caleb?” He was smiling that warm, radiant smile. “That makes me feel better. I didn’t like the idea of your bolting out of here by yourself. Even though I can see you’re full of vim and vigor and ready to conquer the world.”

  “Only a small part of it,” she called back to him. “But I’m praying that may be enough.”

  EDINBURGH AIRPORT

  Three hours later, Jane was standing at the private terminal when Caleb’s Gulfstream 650 pulled up at the hangar. The moment the stairs were lowered, she was climbing them, and she met Caleb as the aircraft door opened. “Turn around,” she said curtly. “I don’t want to waste any time. Get back in the air.”

  “A good many orders seem to be being hurled around,” he said silkily. “Am I going to be allowed to pilot my own plane?”

  “Yes, I told you to get back in the air, didn’t I? You know I don’t fly.” She went past him into the plane. “It seemed like a long time for you to get here, but it really wasn’t. You must have started right after I called.”

  “I’d hardly dawdle when you were so adamant.” His lips tightened. “I was afraid something had happened to you.” He went ahead of her to the cockpit. “Though you were obviously not prepared at the time to confide in me.”

  “I had to get you here in a hurry. You have a tendency to play games or argue with me.” She took out the bottle of water she’d bought at the airport and took a long drink. It tasted good going down, though she probably should have brought coffee. The adrenaline was fading and she might need a stimulant. She dropped down in the copilot’s seat. “Could we please leave now, Caleb?”

  His lips quirked. “Shouldn’t I file a flight plan?”

  “Why? You’ve been known to change them en route.”

  “True.” He smiled mockingly. He was taxiing down the runway. “What’s this about? Did you by any chance get a hint from Lisa about where we can find her?”

  “Nothing new from Lisa. No dreams. No sketches. Did you find anything out in Rome about the Romanos?”

  “Only that Gino was on the verge of bankruptcy and their estate was mortgaged to the hilt. He resigned from his position at the bank three weeks ago and the bank is trying to keep it from the investors. Lisa’s trust fund seems to be intact, because it can’t be touched until she is twenty-one. But I can see how the Romanos could be frustrated about having all that money just out of reach and be bitter toward Lisa.”

  “And do they have any connection to this Santara?”

  “Not that I’ve been able to establish yet,” he said, then added, “And now that you’ve squeezed everything I know about the Romanos out of me, it’s time that you—”

  “I haven’t squeezed everything out of you, only what’s happening now with them. If they’ve had anything to do with hurting Lisa, I want to know them like you know them.”

  “That would be a difficult feat to accomplish.” He made an impatient gesture as she opened her lips. “Okay, I’ll try to give you what you want. Gino is old money, inherited his estate and partnership in the bank from his father. Likes the good life, was a playboy when he was younger, spent money like water, never married until he was in his fifties. Then he met Teresa Matalo, good family, but impoverished. They couldn’t keep up with the rest of their set. All her life, Teresa was subject to slights from the society that she’d been taught was all-important. When she was twenty-five, she met and apparently seduced and then married Gino, almost thirty years her senior. She took over everything in his life and made him like it. Most of the time. She was always trying to find ways to move up and secure her position in society. She’s beautiful, totally self-serving, perhaps the most ambitious woman I’ve ever met.” He reached for his phone and brought up a photo. “And she has the equipment to make most of those ambitions bear fruit.” He handed her the phone. “Gino and Teresa.”

  It was a photo of a man and woman sitting at a table beneath an umbrella. The man was in his fifties or sixties, handsome, a little overweight, with black hair threaded with silver and wearing a gray business suit. The woman was much younger, sleek, blond, blue-eyed, with almost perfect features, and wore a navy blue dress that had to be by a designer. “You’re right, she’s stunning.”

  “I’m right about the rest, too,” he said tersely as he took the phone back. “Now stop cross-examining me and tell me what the hell I’m doing here. I believe I told you that you weren’t invited, and yet here you are.”

  “Because I’m more generous than you,” she said curtly. “And since I may not have a choice, I might be forced to issue you an invitation of my own.”

  He went still. “If that means what I think it means, I believe you’d better let me get this plane on course before you make any explanation.”

  “Whatever.” She looked out the window at the ground below gradually disappearing from view. “The quicker the better.” Now that the decision was made and the action taken, she was being bombarded by doubts. She was working mostly on guesswork, wasn’t she?

  No, dammit, it felt right.

  Ten minutes later, Caleb turned to her. “You’ve changed your mind? You’re going to let me link with you and Lisa and question her?”

  “No, I didn’t say that.” She moistened her lips. “In Lisa’s eyes, it’s probably much worse than that.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I’m going to do the one thing she’s been fighting against from the beginning. I’m going to let you take me to Lisa and try to get her away from Santara.”

  His body became even more rigid. “You lied to me? She did manage to communicate something to you?”

  “I didn’t l
ie. But I suppose you could say that Lisa did manage to tell me what I needed to know. She’s been trying to do that all along. Today I just concentrated and tried to put everything together. I believe I know where she’s being held, Caleb.”

  “Talk.”

  “She was taken to that gray stone house in a helicopter and that meant probably no really long distances or high mountains. The time factor she told me about indicated that, too.” She held up her hand as he started to speak. “I know, that’s not much. I was getting frustrated, too. But when I asked her if she’d noticed anything else about the place where she’d been taken, she said she’d gotten an impression it was sort of golden. Very casually, she just threw it into the mix and moved on.”

  “And?”

  “There’s only one place on earth that I’ve ever been that would have that kind of strong impression on someone who was in the emotional state Lisa was at the time. I spent six months there as an art student because I was drunk with the sheer headiness of waking up to that golden light.” She paused. “The Greek Isles, Caleb. If those sketches hadn’t been black and white, I would probably have shown how it cast that wonderful glow on everything that—” She shrugged. “The light pervades everything. You’ve been there, haven’t you? Do you see what I mean?”

  He slowly nodded. “I never noticed it from an artist’s point of view. But I’ve heard people talk about its effect on them. I guess I don’t tend to embrace the light as much as you do.” His lips twisted. “Maybe I’m more fire and brimstone.”

  “Anyway, the moment I realized the possibility, I started to try to pull it all together. I spent hours on the computer, calling real estate companies and tourist bureaus to track down the exact location. A large gray stone house on the coast with a tower that overlooked the ocean and an island some distance away. Mountains to the north, a garden … The island helped. The curving road leading to the top and that flat, triangular area to the east that was fairly unusual. But there are so many islands.… Over six thousand, but not nearly that many are inhabited. And that road leading to the top of the island indicated it was inhabited. Still, I nearly went blind Googling them all. I found two that were similar and I did a scan of the areas on the coasts within view of them. One in the Aegean Sea had no mountains anywhere near it. The other one had mountains. That was in the Ionian Sea, fairly close to the boot of Italy.” She met his eyes. “And it also had a gray stone house with a tower.”

  “Show me,” he snapped.

  She pulled out her computer and found the page. “The stretch of coastline is called San Leandro. It’s hard to tell anything much from this overhead satellite view, but it’s—”

  “Close enough,” he said, interrupting, not taking his eyes off the computer page. “Because I’d bet that square near the house is a helicopter pad.”

  “I wondered about that. But I didn’t see a helicopter.”

  “Which only means that they were dropped off.” His gaze was raking the rest of the screen. “But this isn’t good enough to show us any details of where Santara’s men would be located. It would take extensive reconnoitering to make it a safe hit.”

  “Then you believe me?”

  “I believe you believe it. Show me that sketch you did of Lisa looking at the island again.”

  She dug into her bag and pulled out her sketchbook. She flipped it open to the correct page. “It’s the island of Zakyos. You see the triangular shape on the lower east side? The island is small and it has only fishing and a small inn in the hills open to tourists during the summer.”

  His brows rose. “You did some research.”

  “As much as I could on the computer. I need to do more, but that may have to be on the phone. But I had a three-hour wait for you at the airport and I didn’t want to waste it.”

  “Heaven forbid.”

  “Time’s important. I can’t stand the thought of her being there any longer than she has to be,” she said. “I thought it was probably safe to ask questions about the island on the Net. I didn’t want to risk making any inquiries about San Leandro or that house with the tower. The last thing I wanted was to have Santara know we might have found out where he’s keeping Lisa. He might have whisked her away somewhere.” She added deliberately, “Or he might have set the trap for you that appeared to be his intention from the start.”

  “We might just oblige him,” Caleb murmured. “I believe he might deserve to meet me.”

  “No.” Jane had seen that flickering, lethal recklessness before and she had no intention of dealing with it now. “I know you’re tempted to indulge yourself, but back off, Caleb. I didn’t bring you here to turn you loose on this Santara. I want Lisa out of that house in as safe a manner as possible.”

  “Providing that’s where she is,” Caleb drawled. “No proof. I might have to go in and determine it for myself. We wouldn’t want to disturb the neighborhood for nothing, would we?”

  “Back off,” she repeated. “As you say, no proof.” Then she added fiercely, “But it’s where she is, dammit. Everything fits together. And you think so, too, or you wouldn’t be so eager to go in and cause your particular brand of mayhem. Admit it.”

  He glanced away from her. “Perhaps.” Then he looked back at her. “I humbly admit it. You did well, Jane.”

  Her eyes widened. “Humble? You?”

  He smiled. “I only threw that in to catch you off guard.” He added quietly, “Very smart, Jane. My small contribution about the Romanos pales in comparison. Yes, I’ll have to check it out, but I’ll bet you’re right.” His smile faded. “And my particular brand of mayhem is going to be necessary from now on. So step down, Jane.”

  “The hell I will. Do you think I didn’t know that you’d react like this as soon as you were convinced?” She glared at him. “I even thought about not calling you. Jock would have been willing to help me.”

  “That would not have been a good move,” he said softly. “I like Jock.”

  “But that wouldn’t have stopped you from doing exactly what you wanted to do. Mayhem or not.”

  “It might have. But I would have had to think about it.”

  “But now you don’t, because Jock isn’t involved. But that isn’t why I didn’t ask him. Lisa is your sister and you share something that no one else does. You have the right to help her. She’s wrong about keeping you away from it.”

  “I believe I’ve made my agreement known on that score,” he said drily.

  “And you have a greater stake in this than anyone else … except maybe me.” She wearily shook her head. “No, more than me. Except that Lisa pulled me into this and made me responsible. You say that she belongs to you? I believe she belongs to me, too, now. I think about her all the time. I worry about what’s happening to her. I don’t think she’s been telling me everything. Every time I see one of those damn bruises, it nearly kills me. That’s why I called you and told you to come and pick me up. I can’t bear to see her hurt any more than she has been and know that I had a chance of stopping it.”

  “You have stopped it. Turn it over to me now.”

  “No, I promised her that I wouldn’t let you come after her. I lied to her and she’s not going to forgive me. But there’s no way that I’ll let you go into that house. She’d fight you; she might not even go with you. Her first impulse will be to push you away. She might even run from you. I’ve had a demonstration of how stubborn she can be.”

  “Then I’ll take care of it.”

  “No, you won’t. You’ll stay outside that house. I’ll go in and get her and bring her to you. I’ll keep that much of my promise.”

  “No,” he said sharply.

  “Yes,” she said fiercely. “You plan something clever and foolproof to get us away from Santara and keep Lisa alive. But if she thinks there’s a chance of your being hurt because of her, she’s not going to budge from that place. And she’ll be so upset that there’s no telling what reaction it will trigger. She might go after Santara herself. Possible?”


  “Possible,” he said slowly. “You’ve gotten to know her very well.”

  “I’ve never even seen her in person. But, yes, I know her,” Jane said. “Now, can we get any help? Santara is supposed to have three men on the island.”

  “I’ll check it out. It could be more dangerous to Lisa if we call in the local gendarmes. Santara’s been paid to do a job. If threatened, he may decide to cut his losses and get rid of her and go on the run.”

  “You’re saying he might kill her.”

  “I’m saying we have to think about it. We don’t know anything about him yet.”

  She didn’t want to think about it. It frightened her too much. “Three men, plus Santara,” she repeated. “And Lisa thought he might have more men in the north sector, where she wouldn’t see them.”

  “I’ll make a decision once we’ve reached Greece. The only thing that seems clear is that we should probably use that island as a place to launch any action. You were right: We need to find out more about it on the flight down there.”

  “I told you that I’d do it.”

  “Okay.” Caleb glanced at her. “But you still haven’t convinced me that I should let you do this.”

  “I don’t have to convince you. I’m the one who invited you. If you don’t go along with the rules I make, we part ways once I get off this plane in Greece.”

  “Unless I decide to tie you up and leave you in the plane.”

  “You won’t do that. You’re not Santara.”

  “There are people who believe I’m much worse.”

  “I’m not one of those people.” She paused. “Neither is Lisa. Don’t prove either of us wrong.”

  He chuckled. “That sounded almost like a threat.” He held out his hand. “Pull up that Google map on your computer again and let me study it. I can at least memorize the outbuildings and natural features while I’m winging my way toward Lisa.”

  She handed him the computer. “I’m right, you know. If you walk into that house, she’ll go ballistic. It has to be me.”