by Merry Farmer
“Uh, maybe the two of you should wait for all that until we’re back at the house,” Viggo said, laughter clear in his voice.
Slowly, Johan and Tracy disentangled themselves and stepped back to stand on their own power.
“I’m happy to see you too,” Tracy laughed. “But your brother’s right.” She nodded to the crowd now watching them. “We don’t need to do this in public.”
Face red, he took Tracy’s hand and headed toward the door on the other side of the lounge that led to passport control and customs. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t share that pic with the press,” he told the man who’d snapped their pic with his camera.
“Press?” The man blinked. “Why would the press be interested?”
Beside him, Tracy burst into a snorting giggle. Apparently, the businessman didn’t know much about Aegirian royalty. And that was just fine with him.
“Let’s get you home,” he said to Tracy with a wink.
Present day….
Johan broke the kiss and leaned away from Tracy. It took far more effort to move his hand off her ass, but they were in the middle of an investigation.
“The only thing stopping me from picking you up and tossing you on that bed over there is the fact that this is my aunt’s room,” he said, humor creeping into his voice.
“Yeesh.” Tracy made a grossed-out noise and backed away from him. She followed that with a laugh. “But hey, at least we wouldn’t have an audience.”
“How do you know I don’t perform better in front of a crowd?” he teased. They had work to do. He shouldn’t let himself get distracted. But being with Tracy made it hard to concentrate on anything but the electricity that had sizzled between them from day one.
“Believe me.” She sent him a sideways look as they left the bedroom. “I don’t want to do things like that in front of anyone.”
His heart felt light, which helped the knots in his stomach, as they walked back down the hall. But his mood shifted back to investigative mode as they passed the door to Marina’s office. On instinct, he stopped and backtracked to peer into the room.
“Something in there?” Tracy asked, taking a few backward steps to look with him.
“There might be.” He walked in, flicking on the light.
The advantage of living in the palace for most members of the royal family was that they could have their business offices inside of their personal quarters. It meant less daily interference and more security. It also meant that they didn’t have to be careful about leaving stuff lying around. Marina’s office looked like any other on the surface. As with the rest of her apartment, she was neat and organized. Her bookshelves were arranged precisely, and the papers that sat out on her desktop were in perfect stacks. In lieu of a larger computer, a sleek laptop sat on the center of the desk. Johan walked around to open it.
“Password protected,” he said when the screen lit.
“Any idea what the password would be?” Tracy asked.
He shrugged. “Not a clue.”
Tracy hummed in disappointment. There was a brief pause, then she picked up the topmost paper on the stack beside the laptop. “What exactly does your aunt do again?”
“She’s my mother’s chief advisor,” he said. “Or at least she has been. Now that job will fall to Dr. Hayes. But Marina will still have a lot of influence on policy and governance. She was a governmental minister before Father died, and I’m sure she’ll go back to that. She worked in the same department I work in, actually, Trade and Commerce.”
He’d rambled far longer than he should have, but only because Tracy had remained silent as she stared at the paper. Finally, she said, “A government job.”
“Yes,” Johan answered slowly.
“Marina works in the government.” Tracy still stared at the paper.
“That’s what I said.” He wasn’t sure what she was getting at.
Until she turned the paper to face him. “Then what’s Storm Holdings, Ltd.?”
Johan frowned as he took the paper from her. It wasn’t so much the company name that grabbed his attention as what the paper actually contained. It was a financial statement. A financial statement that showed a massive profit. Not just a massive profit, but one that had been gained by sales of crude oil.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “There isn’t a Storm Holdings that’s licensed to trade oil in Aegiria.”
“There isn’t?” Tracy picked up another paper from the desk. “For a company that doesn’t exist, they’re turning quite a profit.”
Johan put his paper down and glanced at the one Tracy had, as well as the rest in the stack. There weren’t just financial statements there. As he sifted through the papers that had been left out, he found projections, bank statements, and receipts. Whatever Storm Holdings was, they were engaged in a thriving trade with several African nations.
“Why does Marina have all this?” he wondered aloud.
“Could she have been investigating these guys?” Tracy suggested. “I mean, you said she used to work in Trade and Commerce before she became your mother’s chief advisor. Maybe she’s gearing up to go back to that job.”
“Possibly,” Johan said, rubbing his chin. But something still didn’t feel right. “She hasn’t said anything to me about it at all. You’d think if she was returning to a job where the two of us would be working together, she’d want my input on all this.”
“Do you investigate companies and stuff?”
“Not exactly. I may be a prince, but I’m extremely junior in the ranks of the T&C Department. I know more than the average Aegirian about national companies, foreign investment in Aegiria, and who our trading partners are.” He touched the pile of papers. “I wasn’t aware any of us were trading with Côte D’Ivoire, though.”
“Huh. Weird.” Tracy crossed her arms, studying the rest of the desktop as though looking for more clues. “I wonder why your aunt would have all this stuff then.”
“I don’t know,” Johan answered with a sigh. He was beginning to have his suspicions, though. People didn’t keep financial records of companies they had no stake in lying around on their desk. His mind instantly jumped back to all the jewelry he’d seen on Marina’s dresser. It was too easy to link the two in his mind, to assume that the income from the company he’d never heard of was the source of the money Marina had used to buy her jewelry. But as far as he knew, that was pure speculation brought on because he’d discovered two things within such a short amount of time.
“Well,” Tracy said when they’d both been silent for several seconds. “Do you want to keep poking around here or do you want to go back to the reception and tell your brothers what we’ve found?”
He winced, rubbing a hand over his face. In truth, he wanted to turn Marina’s apartment upside down looking for more information about Storm Holdings or Earl Lindqvist. Lindqvist was a whole other facet to the problem that might or might not fit. It felt as though everything had to be connected somehow, even though he couldn’t imagine what the connection could be.
“We’d better tell the others Marina isn’t here, at least,” he said, pushing away from the desk and starting toward the door. “But now more than ever, I think it’s important that we figure out where she is.”
4
Tracy was mostly silent as she and Johan made their way back through the palace to the ballroom in the public wing. Her mind was racing with possibilities, both in terms of where Princess Marina was and where things were going with her and Johan. Admittedly, kissing him in the middle of an investigation was a bit over-the-top, but he was hot as hell when he was working to solve a mystery.
They’d almost reached the ballroom when he glanced sideways at her, then did a double-take. His mouth twitched into a grin. “What’s that look for?”
Tracy realized she was grinning herself. A lot. She shrugged. “I’m just having fun is all.”
“Fun because my aunt is missing and might be involved in illegal activity?” He arched
one eyebrow at her, but his grin stayed in place.
“Fun racing around, getting to the bottom of things with you,” she answered, then added, “We make a good team.”
“We do,” he admitted.
They turned a corner, and the sound of music and talking that had been a distant buzz flared to a lively roar.
“We should do it more often,” Tracy went on, forced to raise her voice as they stepped into the crowded ballroom. People were dancing, including the queen and Dr. Hayes, staff members were serving refreshments, and the party was in full swing.
“We should track down errant family members and criminals more often?” Johan teased her, searching out his brothers as he did. He must have spotted them, because he took Tracy’s hand and led her to one side of the room.
“We should work together more often,” she said. “Like, every day.”
His grin turned downright sultry. “Are you proposing to me?”
A flash of nervous energy zipped through her. She’d been going more for making things official between them. Anyone with eyes could see they were together, though they hadn’t actually had “the talk” yet. But marriage? To a prince.
Her shivers and breathlessness stopped when they reached Alek and Toni.
“Did you find anything?” Alex asked.
Arne was dancing with Emma, and Viggo and Marcia, cleaned up and dressed perfectly, were over by the refreshment table, helping Stefan fill a plate with snacks. But Mack and Gloria were close enough to drop their conversation with an elderly couple, and Kristoff and Cassandra were making their way over from the other side of the room.
“Aunt Marina isn’t in her quarters,” Johan said once everyone was gathered.
“Which means she’s not in the palace,” Alek sighed.
“Not anywhere?” Gloria asked with a suspicious frown.
“Someone would have seen her,” Alek said.
“Where could she be, then?” Kristoff asked.
“That’s not all.” Johan skipped his brother’s question, charging right into, “Have any of you ever heard of Storm Holdings, Ltd.?”
A round of blank looks met his question.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Alek asked.
“We didn’t find Marina in her apartments, but we found a few other things that are…interesting,” Johan said.
“There were documents for Storm Holdings on the desk in her office. Whatever it is, it’s making a tidy profit off sales of oil to Africa.”
“I still don’t see what that has to do with Aunt Marina not showing up to the wedding,” Kristoff said.
“Is it possible that someone from Storm Holdings went after her for some reason?” Cassandra asked, eyes wide with worry.
“It’s possible,” Johan said, rubbing his neck, “but I think there could be other answers as well.”
“Like what?” Alek crossed his arms.
“Did you know your aunt might still be dating Earl Herman Lindqvist?” Tracy asked.
She was met with shocked expressions.
“She can’t stand him,” Kristoff said. “Not since their break-up.”
“There’s a photo of the two of them together somewhere in France, looking extremely cozy, on her bedside table, and it’s from this year, recently,” Tracy said.
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Kristoff said.
“Unless it does.” Alek let out a breath and dropped his arms. “Lindqvist was arrested early this morning, and Marina went missing at the same time. Maybe she went to bail him out or get to the bottom of things.”
“We should check the police station,” Kristoff said.
“And Lindqvist’s house,” Tracy added. “If they really are together, they might be there.”
“Good thinking.” Alek nodded.
“I still don’t understand what the holding company has to do with any of this,” Cassandra said.
“It might not be connected at all,” Johan said. “But something isn’t right about it.”
“Agreed.” Alek shifted his shoulders, taking on an air of command. “Someone needs to head down to the police station.”
“We can do that,” Mack offered, glancing to Gloria.
“And we can go check Lindqvist’s house,” Tracy offered. Johan sent her an approving nod.
“Perfect,” Alek said. “And we’ll—”
He was interrupted as someone tapped on a microphone. Their attention was drawn to the dais at the front of the room. The dancing had stopped, and one of Dr. Hayes’s sons stood behind the microphone, smiling. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you could gather ’round so that we could celebrate the happy couple.”
Alek let out an impatient breath. “Speeches. I have to make a speech.”
“That’ll be the perfect distraction,” Mack said. “Draw it out as long as possible, then maybe people won’t notice that we’re gone.”
“In the meantime, we’ll check things out as quickly as we can,” Johan said.
A round of nods and smiles of encouragement followed before the group broke up. Alek headed toward the dais as Tracy, Johan, Mack, and Gloria rushed to the door. Out of the corner of her eye, Tracy spotted Kristoff making his way over to Viggo, Marcia, and Stefan, presumably to fill them in on the situation.
“Let’s all try to be back here within an hour,” Mack said as they reached the family’s parking garage beneath the palace. “The reception will still be going for a while, and you two really should make an appearance.”
“Maybe.” Johan sent his brother a wry grin, then opened the door of his BMW.
It took no time at all to drive out to the street. The crowds that had been out celebrating earlier had thinned. Traffic was down because of it, so it took less time than Tracy would have imagined to get out of the heart of the city and on the road out of town. Lindqvist’s estate was just beyond the city limits, where the countryside began to roll and look pastoral, but where there was still a slight metropolitan feel.
“Do you think it’s safe to park right out in front like this?” Tracy asked as he cut the car’s engine just beyond the gates to the estate.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Johan shrugged, climbing out of the car. “Lindqvist was arrested and Marcia is at the reception. The only other person who might be here to see us snooping is Aunt Marina, and she’s the one we’re trying to find.”
“Good point.” Tracy grinned and fell in by his side as they approached the gate. “See, we do work well together.”
He met her grin with a wink. “I never said we didn’t.”
Lucky for them, the gate was open. It was a tall, imposing thing made out of wrought-iron, but to Tracy, it looked like it was the kind of gate that was kept open and was mostly for show. The entire mansion looked showy. It wasn’t quite as massive as some of the great European estates she’d toured on past vacations, but it was three stories with at least two wings. A wide set of stairs led up to a small patio, then more stairs led to the imposing front door. She could easily imagine grand, Victorian ladies sweeping out of their carriages to attend balls and supper parties hosted by Lindqvist’s ancestors.
“So, do we just knock?” Tracy asked once she and Johan were standing in front of the door.
“I guess so.”
He knocked, then rang the doorbell. Deep inside the house, chimes sounded. But everything else was silent. The house gave off a feeling of being empty. They stood still for several seconds just listening. Johan tried the doorbell a second time, but with the same results.
“She probably isn’t here,” Johan said. “We should head back to the palace.”
He started down the stairs.
Rather than follow him, Tracy edged sideways, looking in the first window beside the door. “You can’t give up so quickly. The lights aren’t on.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Johan called to her from the bottom of the stairs. “It’s barely past noon.”
“And just because no one answered the doorbell doesn’t mean
nobody’s home.”
She studied the window, attempting to grip it from the bottom to see if it would open. The house was well-preserved, but no one had replaced the windows in decades, maybe centuries. The thick glass was wavy, which told Tracy it had been hand-blown instead of manufactured. Which meant that even if she couldn’t get the window open from the outside, she could break the glass to get in.
“What are you doing?” Johan asked from right behind her.
Tracy glanced over her shoulder at him, the thrill of the mystery making her giddy. “Figuring out a way to get inside.”
“By breaking in?”
“Yeah, if we have to.” She abandoned the window she’d checked to cross to the other side of the door. The window on that side was the same, giving a slightly different view of the front hall.
“Tracy, you can’t just go breaking into someone’s house.” Johan followed her.
“We have to find your aunt,” she argued. “And I want to see if this Lindqvist guy has pictures of her the way she has of him.”
“I don’t see how that would help things.” She could feel Johan frowning behind her, even if she couldn’t see him. “We’d be better off heading back to the palace to check in with the others.”
As he finished, Tracy braced her hands against the window glass and pushed up. To her surprise, the window clicked and crept open just enough for her to get her fingers around the edge. Someone had forgotten to lock it, which meant she was able to swing it open wide.
“Well, that was lucky.” She turned to grin at Johan before raising a leg to climb through the window—which was no easy feat in the dress she’d worn for the wedding.
“Wait!” Johan called after her. “You can’t break in. It’s too risky.”
“I’ve already broken in,” she argued. “And there’s no risk to it. The house is—”
