She smiled, a genuine smile, rarely seen on this woman who I’d known so long. “I’m glad I could help,” she said.
I nodded, ready to leave.
But she stopped me, grabbing my hand. “Hudson, I mean that. Whatever else happens, know that I mean that.”
I studied her for a moment, trying to read her motivation. It dawned on me for the first time that I might trigger the same regret and shame in her that she did for me. I was as much a reminder of her past as she was of mine. Perhaps it was becoming as compulsory to her to make amends with her victims—with me—as it had been for me recently.
“All right.” I said in response, and that was all. Because there was nothing else that needed to be said, and I had somewhere else to be.
When I arrived at the security office, I walked into a room full of buzzing activity.
“He gave up his apartment in Atlantic City,” Jordan said, briefing me on the findings so far. “His forwarding address on file there led us to an extended stay here in the city. The front desk said he checked out over the phone last night. He still had items in the room that he asked to be kept and he’d return to pick them up at a later date. No forwarding information. I’ve sent a man to collect those items, and he should be back here shortly.
“Gwen Bruzzo’s account of seeing him at The Sky Launch has been corroborated with the video footage. We were able to spot him arriving at fourteen twenty-seven hours. He can be seen on footage for the next couple hours in the club, but he disappears around seventeen hundred hours after purchasing tequila shots at the bar. He paid cash. This is the same time Alayna left the floor, presumably to look at the space next door. We believe he followed her into the stairwell, unbeknownst to her.
“We’re unable to see that because the camera angled to record that area was taken offline in the previous hour. I believe he must have used the time between leaving the manager’s office and following Alayna upstairs to disable that camera. It’s not an easy task, but considering he’s worked at two Pierce clubs, he would be familiar with the software we use.”
“We should have had a completely new security system put in when he left,” I blared.
“And again when any manager leaves the club?” Jordan asked pointedly. “Not realistic and not something you need to get hung up on now. Concentrate on the task at hand, not the past. We can Monday morning quarterback later on.”
It wasn’t every day I let my staff talk to me like that.
But this wasn’t every day.
“Though he wasn’t seen again inside the club,” Jordan went on, “there is footage of his car driving past the club a little before eighteen hundred hours.”
He led me to a computer screen where an image was pulled up of David behind the wheel of a car. The camera also caught a woman in the passenger seat, reclined so her face wasn’t clear, but I knew it was Alayna. I’d recognize her anywhere.
“She looks...unconscious,” I said, my heart racing at the sight of my wife. I was simultaneously relieved to see her, to know we were on the right track, and devastated to realize we could be too late. But if he’d been stalking her, surely he wouldn’t have… gone too far.
“He’s likely drugged her,” Jordan said, confirming my thought process. “The testing we did on those shot glasses have traces of Rohypnol in one of them.”
A fucking date rape drug. That meant she couldn’t even fight. Alive, but at his mercy.
Jordan quickly moved on, not allowing me to dwell on the worst possibilities, but I silently vowed to murder that bastard Lindt when I had my hands on him. And I would have my hands on him.
“I have a friend at the FBI,” Jordan said, and I could tell he was wrapping up his briefing. “I’ve called and asked him to put an APB out on Lindt. My friend’s giving us five hours before he adds the case into the system as a courtesy.”
He hadn’t asked if I wanted him to use his contact, but I didn’t reprimand him. It was time. Jordan had made the right move. That was why he worked for me—because I knew I could trust him to keep his head about him when I couldn’t.
“What about credit cards? Are you tracing those?” I asked, wishing I could be helpful.
“I have something on that right now,” a woman on the team called out, flagging us over to her nearby computer terminal. “I’ve hacked into Lindt’s bank account and found an unusual transaction within the last month. Here, an amount of forty-eight thousand dollars was transferred out of his savings account.”
“Where the hell did Lindt get forty-eight thousand dollars?” I asked.
“That part’s easy, he rarely spends money on non-essentials. My bank statements are filled with charges to different retailers, but his are nearly all simple bills,” the woman answered. “The interesting thing isn’t that he had the money, it’s that it’s all of a sudden leaving his account in a lump sum.”
“Any idea where the money was transferred to?” Jordan asked.
“It looks like it was deposited directly into another account. Right here,” she said, pointing to the line on the screen.
“I’ll go over to interview her personally,” Jordan said. “This transaction may give us a lead on where to look next.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said as I stared at the familiar name in front of me, hardly believing the coincidence. “I’m going to want to hear from her own mouth how Judith Cleary is involved in all of this.”
We arrived at Judith Cleary's apartment building at exactly seven forty-seven AM. My body was flooded with so much adrenaline, it hardly registered that I hadn’t slept in twenty-four hours. Jordan distracted the doorman, while I slipped quietly by and took the elevator up to her unit. I pounded on the door relentlessly until she opened up.
"Hudson Pierce. I expected to see you at some point, but I must admit I didn't think it was going to be on my doorstep. If you'd like to discuss your daughter’s entrance to my school, you can make an appointment through the office. Though admissions have been finalized for next school year, so—"
I cut her off, unsure why I’d let her go on so long. "I'm not here about Mina. I don't care about your little school." As if it were her school alone, and she weren’t just a board member. "I'm here to discuss something far more urgent." I nodded at her door. “Well?”
She tapped her foot smugly while she considered, and it took everything I had in me not to push her against the wall and demand answers.
Finally, after what felt like forever, she stepped aside and allowed me into her apartment. "Very well. Because I'm dying to know what's so urgent that you would need to speak to me face to face. At my home. But make it quick—I have to be at a showing in an hour and it’s across town."
Oh yes, I'd forgotten she was a real estate agent. The classic rich housewive’s occupation. I pulled a copy of the bank records that Jordan had given me out of my pocket and showed them to her.
"I need to know about this transaction from a David Lindt in the amount of forty-eight thousand dollars that ended up in your account. Can you tell me why that transaction was made? What he was paying you for?"
"Oh, that's your angle. You're trying to find something to blackmail me on, bribe me?" She rocked back on the heel of one of her shoes. "Well, I can assure you that entire transaction was above board. Trying to use that information to get your daughter into the New Park School is not going to—"
"I told you, I am not interested in your fucking school." I lost my patience. "As soon as I learned you had anything to do with that foundation, I wanted to run a thousand miles away. I'm not putting my child into a place run by a board of bitches who use their elected positions to settle petty grievances. Now tell me why the fuck you accepted the payment from David Lindt!"
She stood up straighter, held her chin up high. "How dare you speak to me in that way!" she exclaimed haughtily. "You can leave now, Mr. Pierce. This conversation is concluded."
"I am not leaving until—"
"I will call security!" She already had her hand on
the phone next to the door, and I didn't doubt that she would follow through.
I took a deep breath and let the oxygen clear my head. I knew how to handle a woman like Judith Cleary. The old Hudson knew exactly what to do, how to manipulate her, what tactics to use. She’d immediately assumed I was trying to blackmail her, which meant there was something that she could be blackmailed about. I could discover it. Could play that card once I knew what it was, and with Jordan’s team on the case, I imagined it could happen before security made it up to her floor.
I knew how to do that, and I'd promised myself that I could be that old Hudson again if I needed to be. To protect my family.
But I’d done that already, set fresh plans in motion to discover who was behind this, and Alayna was still gone.
I could practically hear her voice in the back of my head telling me it wasn't the direction she would choose for me. She would rather I be honest and transparent whenever possible. She would prefer I put scheming aside, leave it for a last resort. She would prefer I become vulnerable, as hard as that might be.
"I apologize," I said, forcing the words passed my lips. "I spoke rudely and inappropriately. I'm desperate, you see. My wife is missing."
Judith's hand fell from the phone and she moved it to her chest as she gasped. "Oh my God, Hudson, I am so sorry. But I don't understand what this has to do with me."
"We believe she's been taken by David Lindt. He’s a former employee who has been infatuated with her in the past. He was the last one to see her, but now we can’t find him."
I took a step toward her and hung my head immediately. "You have to know that you are the last person that I would ask a favor of. But right now this transaction from his account to yours is the only lead we have."
"I see. In that case, and I'm still not sure why you're here instead of a police officer, but okay. She’s a very rude woman herself, but her blood’s not going to be on my hands."
This is where I hated the vulnerable, honest approach—because transparency made it apparent how terrible other people were. But I refrained from saying anything.
"David Lindt came to me as a client. He was looking for a real estate purchase, something out of town. He was under the delusion that he could afford something much grander. Of course I couldn't find anything in his price range, but I felt sorry for him and I ended up selling him a piece of land that I've been holding on to for a while. There's nothing much on it, silly little hunting cabin up in the woods."
She considered for a moment. "He kept talking about how he wanted to make it special for his wife who was coming home soon… Are you sure he is the man you're looking for? He was quite sincere about the two of them having a quiet place to really focus on each other."
It felt like my chest was collapsing inward, each breath was difficult, sharp with icy pain. "David Lindt has never been married," I said gruffly. "I believe the woman he was preparing the cabin for was Alayna."
Judith’s expression turned to one of shock. "Let me write down the address for you, I’ll not be having a poor Yelp review for abetting a criminal," she said, as she left the room and returned a minute later with an address written legibly on stationary.
Just as I was thinking I'd been wrong about the woman, that she really wasn't as much of a bitch as I thought, she pulled the paper toward her chest and said, "Now, I do expect a good word at the country club for this."
Then she handed me the paper.
Her mistake was giving it to me before I'd agreed.
As soon as the thing was safely in my hands, I tucked it into my suit jacket and gave her my honest response. Alayna would appreciate that, too, I was certain. "Like fucking hell, Judith. You were a nasty piece of work when you kicked Mirabelle out of the girls club all those years ago, and it’s clear you’re still a conniving, selfish, mean girl. While I don't care who is a member of the club you’re still so keen to be part of, my mother cares deeply. She's a member there herself, as you might have known had you not been so hasty to punish my sister, and there is no room for two narcissistic witches of that caliber in one place. Thank you for the information. Have a nice day."
I left before she could call security, which she was no doubt doing, and called Jordan from the elevator, even though I would see him as soon as I arrived in the lobby. "I got the location. I know where he's taken her. We're going to need the helicopter fueled."
"I’ll get on it. Mind telling me where we’re going?"
"Lake Placid."
It was a ninety minute flight to Lake Placid, but it felt like ninety years. The address, it turned out, wasn’t in the village, but in the woods of the Adirondack Mountains nearby.
Of course. The quiet place he’d asked for.
We filled all eight seats of the helicopter with the pilot, Jordan, myself, and five men from the security team.
On the ride up, Jordan assigned me tasks to keep me busy and feeling useful. I knew what he was doing, and I was grateful.
First, he had me locate a field where we could land the copter. The nearest spot was seven miles from the log cabin, so the next assignment was arranging for a van to be delivered from Lake Placid to the field to meet us. When that was done, Jordan had me find a hospital in Manhattan that would allow us to arrive by helicopter.
“I’m not assuming that she will be injured or harmed,” he said, in an attempt to reassure me. “But since she’s been drugged, you’re going to want to have her checked out anyway. It’s good to be prepared.”
Finally, after everything else had been completed, he said, “Now call your house. Check on your kids. Talk to Mina. Alayna will want to know how they’re doing. And I think it would do you some good to hear your child’s voice.”
He was right. Listening to Mina’s sweet, floating voice brought a begrudging smile to my face. It was impossible to resist being lit up by her sunshine. She might have been a product of both of us, but she was her mother’s daughter in all the best ways.
As slow as the ride up had been, once we landed, it seemed like everything moved in double time. The van took us to the address Judith Cleary had given us. Jordan didn’t let us use the driveway, but rather had us park in a nearby cluster of trees, hidden from the main road. His plan was that we’d approach the house through the woods, reducing any chance of being seen before we made it to the house.
“You should stay—” he began when we started to pile out of the van.
I cut him off. “Like hell I’m staying behind.”
For the first time all morning, Jordan seemed to hesitate. “Fine, but you’re not going in the house until we’ve cleared it. You’ll hang back, understood?”
Again, I had to wrestle with my ego. I wasn’t used to taking orders. I reminded myself what could happen if this went down wrong, what was on the line.
“I’ll hang back,” I agreed, reluctantly. I wanted mine to be the first face my wife saw when this nightmare was over, but that was far less important than being able to see her face at all.
It wasn’t too far of a trek through the woods to get to the cabin, though it was one that would have been better made in outdoor wear. I still had on yesterday’s suit and dress shoes, and after sliding on loose dirt for the third time, I began to understand why Jordan thought I might have been better off in the van.
Finally we were outside the cabin, a dilapidated dwelling that looked like it’s best days had been half a century in the past. David’s car was parked outside, the doors left unlocked. I opened the door and looked inside, searching for some sign that Alayna was all right.
All I found were her shoes on the floor of the passenger side, a favorite pair of Jimmy Choos that she would never part with voluntarily. It made my stomach drop to see them abandoned like this, and I had to sit down inside the car to catch my breath.
Jordan and the team went ahead of me, and when I looked up again, they’d surrounded the cabin. On his signal, three of them burst through the front door, their guns aimed and ready.
I wa
tched them from the car, holding onto Alayna’s shoes, praying like I’d never prayed in my life. Please, let her be safe. Please, God, bring her back to me.
The men had been inside for only a couple of minutes when movement caught my eye in the woods on the other side of the car, away from the cabin. I scanned the trees, my heart beating in my ears, looking for the source.
Then there he was—David Lindt, coming toward the car, bent over as though hoping to not be seen.
But I’d seen him.
And a second later, he saw me.
He took off running back to where he’d come from, but I was right behind him, sprinting at top speed. He might have had the lead and been wearing the right shoes, but I had the adrenaline and the will. I had the fury. There was nothing that was going to stop me from reaching him.
I caught up with him before he’d disappeared into the woods, tackling him to the ground with a heavy grunt. A handgun went flying across the ground, dislodged from where it had been tucked in his belt. He had a fucking gun? The sight of it, knowing he had likely threatened my wife with it, gave me the extra boost of energy I needed to wrestle the larger man’s wrists behind his back.
“If you touched her,” I threatened, crushing my knee forcefully into his tailbone and using my upper body to smash his head into the ground, “If you laid even a finger on her, I will break every bone in your body right now with my bare hands. Don’t think I won’t do it, you stupid motherfucker. I’ll do it, and I’ll do it in whatever way hurts the most, I swear on my fucking life!”
David’s response was muffled, apparently he was unable to speak clearly with his face in the dirt.
“The house is empty!” Jordan announced from the front step.
Empty?
The house was empty.
A volcano of rage burst from inside me. Vile hatred and venom spewed from my pores like lava. “Where is she!?” I screamed at the man held underneath me. “Where is she? Tell me now if you want to live another second! Tell me where my wife is!”
“I don’t know!” he squealed as he squirmed underneath me. “I was in the woods looking for her!”
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