The Other Lady Vanishes

  “That’s certainly where she belongs. She is a very fragile patient. She never recovered from the shock of her parents’ deaths.”

  “You told me back at the start that she was unstable. She needs help.”

  Somehow that had made the scheme seem almost all right, he thought. Gill had succeeded in making him believe that he would be doing Adelaide a favor by marrying her and then sending her to Rushbrook for treatment.

  When he realized that she was going to refuse his offer of marriage, he had panicked. The plan had been to slip just enough Daydream into her champagne to make her highly suggestible. Gill had assured him that the stuff had strong hypnotic properties and that once she was under its influence he could convince her to marry him.

  But everything had gone wrong. In hindsight he wondered whether Gill had deliberately miscalculated the dose or if the drug was inherently unpredictable. Maybe a little of both. Whatever the case, after drinking the drugged champagne, Adelaide had plunged into a delirium. Gill and Ormsby had taken charge of her that night.

  “As her doctor, I can tell you that she’s liable to suffer another nervous breakdown at any moment,” Gill said. “But I doubt very much that you’re going to get another shot at trying to convince her you are passionately in love with her. Truett would be a fool to let her out of his sight now that he knows you’re in the picture. Adelaide is worth a lot of money.”

  “I know.” Conrad snorted in disgust. “Truett doesn’t need her inheritance. I’m the one facing bankruptcy.”

  “I understand,” Gill said. He lowered his voice. “There may be another way to rescue poor Adelaide from Truett’s clutches and return her to the sanitarium where she belongs.”

  One last chance to save Massey Shipping, Conrad thought. He downed the last of his martini and lowered the glass.

  “I’m listening,” he said. “How do we get Adelaide back to Rushbrook?”

  Chapter 42

  “Are you crazy?” Adelaide said. “It’s a trap. You can’t possibly be serious about meeting Conrad alone. He told you it was a matter of national security? Surely you don’t believe that.”

  It was nearing midnight. The phone had rung a short time ago. When Adelaide had answered, she was at first startled and then outraged to hear Conrad’s voice. He had pleaded with her to let him speak to Jake. She was about to hang up but Jake had taken the phone out of her hand.

  Now she and Jake were in the middle of her kitchen, arguing. She was dressed in a robe and slippers. Jake had pulled on a pair of trousers.

  “I’m starting to wonder if Massey is right,” he said. “This may be an issue of national security.”

  “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “You said Gill and Ormsby were determined to make Daydream work as a truth serum and a hypnotic. A drug with those properties would be worth a lot to certain people in the government. Hell, it would be worth a lot to foreign governments, too.”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean you can trust Conrad.”

  “Don’t worry, I don’t trust him.”

  “He’s a desperate man. I wouldn’t put it past him to try to murder you.”

  “Give me some credit,” Jake said. “I do realize he sees me as an obstacle in his path and that he would very much like to get me out of the way. But he does have information we need—it may be information that he isn’t even aware he possesses.”

  Adelaide had been pacing the kitchen. She paused at the far end and whipped around to face Jake.

  “You said the spy game was always about information,” she said. “That nothing else mattered. But you are no longer a secret agent.”

  “Sometimes you need information in order to survive. I think this may be one of those times. I’ve got a feeling that whatever is going on at Rushbrook, it involves something much larger and potentially more dangerous than a scheme to market drugs to celebrities and gain control of your inheritance.”

  “Excuse me?” Adelaide folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. “You make it sound like I simply got conned out of my money. That’s not what happened. I was deceived, kidnapped, and used in a drug experiment. And to top things off, someone tried to murder me. I didn’t just get fleeced by a fast-talking con man, damn it.”

  “That’s my point,” Jake said in his infuriatingly unruffled manner. “It’s clear that the drug, Daydream, is at the core of this situation—not your inheritance. I think that was just a bonus for Gill—something he could offer Massey to get him to cooperate with the scheme. I doubt that Massey knows much, if anything, about the drug and probably couldn’t care less.”

  “He just saw an easy way to get his hands on my money.”

  “Yes.”

  Adelaide drummed her fingers on her forearms. “I agree that the drug is the key here. But it’s Conrad you’re planning to see tonight, and he’s dangerous because he’s desperate. I’m telling you, he will do anything to save Massey Shipping. It’s an obsession with him.”

  “Trust me, I understand the nature of obsession,” Jake said. “It’s obvious Massey did a deal with Gill in order to get his hands on your inheritance. But he may know something about Gill’s plans for Daydream.”

  She frowned. “If you’re right, it means Gill is manipulating him.”

  “Massey went into the arrangement with his eyes open.”

  “I know.”

  “Huh.”

  Adelaide eyed him. “What now?”

  “You told me that Conrad Massey breezed into your life one day and tried to sweep you off your feet. But you never explained exactly how the two of you met.”

  “Conrad and I met in an antiquarian bookstore. My mother collected old herbals. After her death I inherited her books. I wanted to continue the tradition.”

  “Is Massey interested in antiquarian books?” Jake asked.

  Adelaide unfolded her arms and raised one shoulder in a small shrug. “He told me that he collects old books related to the maritime industry. It wasn’t a complete lie. When we were dating, he showed me his library. He did have a lot of volumes on the subject. He mentioned that his grandfather had started the collection.”

  “Do you really think it was a coincidence that he walked into that bookshop the same day you did?”

  “In hindsight, I’d have to say probably not.”

  Jake nodded. “Someone, most likely Gill, arranged for Massey to meet you in that bookshop. After the first encounter, it was up to Massey to deliver the goods.”

  “Me.”

  “You,” Jake agreed. “Why did you choose that particular afternoon to go to that particular antiquarian bookshop?”

  Adelaide summoned up the memories of that fateful day. “I got a telephone call from the proprietor of the shop. He told me that he had just found an eighteenth-century herbal that he knew I might want for my collection.”

  “You were set up.”

  “Good grief. Do you really think the proprietor of the bookstore was in on the scheme? That’s ridiculous. Mr. Watkins did have the herbal. I bought it that day.”

  “I doubt if the bookshop owner had even an inkling of what was going on,” Jake said. “I suspect that Gill made sure the herbal got into his hands and suggested that Watkins telephone you to arrange a time for you to come into the shop.”

  Adelaide shivered. “You really do think like a professional spy.”

  “I’ve had some practice.” Jake’s jaw tensed. “Any idea how Gill might have discovered that you were interested in old herbals?”

  “It was no secret. I told you, Gill knew my parents rather well because he followed the results of their research. He would have been aware that my mother loved old herbals and he may have known that I shared her interest in them.”

  “The next question is, how did Gill know that Massey would agree to become part of the conspiracy?”

  Adelaide
stopped abruptly.

  “The Duchess,” she whispered. “She’s the patient who insisted that I did not belong at Rushbrook. She helped me escape.”

  Jake went very still. “Tell me about her.”

  Adelaide turned to face him. “I never found out her real name. Everyone called her the Duchess because she claimed to be descended from an exclusive San Francisco family. It was probably true. Rushbrook was in the business of locking up the mentally ill relatives of wealthy families. The Duchess was not dangerous, but it was obvious that she was delusional.”

  “In what way?”

  “She acted as if Rushbrook was her own private country house. The other patients were houseguests. Because she was considered harmless, she had the run of the place and the grounds. She never left her room unless she was wearing a hat and gloves. In the dining room her manners were impeccable.” Adelaide smiled. “I loved that she referred to the orderlies and the nurses as servants. In her mind Gill was the butler. Ormsby was a handyman.”

  “That explains why everyone called her the Duchess.”

  “She was crazy but harmless. For the most part she lived in her own world and she seemed happy. She didn’t cause any trouble so the staff humored her. For some reason she took a particular interest in me right from the start. I often met up with her in the gardens when the orderlies escorted me on my daily walks. She would invite me to have a cup of tea with her. The orderlies didn’t care. They were bored with their jobs. I looked forward to those invitations to tea more than you can possibly know. When I had tea with the Duchess, I felt almost normal for a while.”

  “Tea with a crazy woman in the gardens of an insane asylum.” Jake shook his head. “Sounds like a scene out of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

  Adelaide smiled ruefully. “Yes, it does. But I considered the Duchess a friend. She, on the other hand, was convinced that I was a member of her family. A cousin. Once I tried to explain that we weren’t related but she got very upset so I never mentioned it again.”

  “Did she realize that she couldn’t leave the mansion?”

  “Oh, yes. In her own way she had arrived at a very clear understanding of her situation. She said that she could never leave the mansion because she was crazy. She explained that respectable families like ours had to keep their mentally unbalanced relations hidden away. It wouldn’t do to have other people knowing that there’s a streak of insanity in the bloodline.”

  “Did she think that she had other relatives besides you at the asylum?”

  “I asked her that from time to time. She always said no, that it was just the two of us. But she insisted that I didn’t belong there. She said it was fine for me to visit occasionally but that I must not stay there forever because I wasn’t crazy like her. She told me that it was high time I did my duty by the family.”

  “What was your duty?”

  Adelaide smiled. “I was supposed to go out into society and entertain on a proper scale. I was also instructed on my responsibility to beget a few heirs to the family fortune.”

  “Did she ever say which family the two of you were supposedly descended from?” Jake asked.

  “No. I asked that, too. She just winked and told me that I knew the answer and that we mustn’t mention the name of the family because the servants might overhear us. I’m sure her family came from San Francisco, though. She talked a lot about her past. It was clear she had grown up in the city.”

  Jake turned thoughtful. “Conrad Massey’s family would certainly qualify as an old, established San Francisco family.”

  Adelaide looked at him, startled. “You’re thinking that maybe I wasn’t the first person the Massey family had tucked away at the Rushbrook Sanitarium, aren’t you? That maybe the Duchess is a Massey relation?”

  “That would certainly explain how Gill and Conrad Massey knew each other and how Gill might have been aware that Massey was desperate for money.”

  “Yes, it would. It also explains why the Duchess took such a personal interest in me. She knew me as Adelaide Massey.”

  “Massey is headed for bankruptcy, so it’s very likely that he was thinking of cutting a few corners in his financial affairs. Keeping a crazy relative tucked away in a high-class asylum is expensive. Maybe Massey told Gill he was going to stop paying the bills for the Duchess.”

  “And Gill suggested a way that he could solve his financial problems?” Frustrated by the unknowns, Adelaide swept out her hands. “It’s all speculation at this point.”

  “Which is why I agreed to meet Massey tonight,” Jake said. “We need whatever information he can provide.”

  “I’m terrified that you’ll be walking into a trap.”

  “Knowing it’s a trap gives me an edge.”

  “How?”

  “It allows me to set a trap of my own,” Jake said.

  “Did you learn that sort of thing in the import-export business?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “In that case, I’d say it’s a very good thing you got out of that line—except that now you’re back in the business, aren’t you? All because of me.”

  He crossed the room to where she stood, and closed his powerful hands very firmly around her. His eyes were no longer enigmatic. They were very fierce.

  “We’re in this thing together. Don’t ever forget it.”

  “Right. We’re partners. I should come with you tonight.”

  “No,” Jake said. “I’m going to take you to the safest place in Burning Cove.”

  “Where is that?”

  “The Paradise Club,” Jake said. “Luther has a small army working for him. You’ll be well protected there.”

  “Hah, the last time we were there you were drugged.”

  “Trust me, Luther’s security people are on guard now.”

  The tone of his voice told her there was no room for argument.

  “Jake,” she said. She stopped because she could not think of anything else to say.

  He covered her mouth with his own. The kiss was as fierce as his eyes.

  Chapter 43

  The pier was located in a sheltered cove a few miles outside of town. It had been built for the owner of the summerhouse perched on the low bluff above the beach. The owner was not in residence, however, so the house was dark.

  There were no lights, but the night was clear and the moon was still nearly full. There was a boathouse and a shed designed for hooks, nets, ropes, and other boating gear.

  Jake waited in the shadow of the boathouse.

  “Think he’ll show?” Luther asked from the darkness beside the shed.

  “He sounded desperate,” Jake said. “He’ll show.”

  They had arrived by boat an hour earlier because they knew that Massey would expect Jake to come to the meeting point in a car. The first rule when rendezvousing with a contact who promised to provide important information was to change the rules. That was especially true when you had a reason to think that the person who had set up the meeting was probably planning to kill you, Jake thought.

  It occurred to him that he was feeling remarkably good considering that he was there to meet with a man who might try to murder him. Adelaide had changed everything, he thought. He had stopped drifting through life. He had a sense of purpose. He was starting to think about his future. For the first time since the nightmare of his doomed marriage had ended, he felt as if he was no longer trapped in a bad dream.

  He had the feeling that he was not the only one who might be slowly surfacing from an old nightmare.

  “I was surprised to see Raina Kirk with you at the club tonight,” he said.

  “I told you, she’s investigating a small problem for me,” Luther said.

  “At midnight?”

  “Well, I do operate a nightclub. Most of the action happens around midnight or later.”

  “I
couldn’t help but notice that the two of you were sitting in your private booth.”

  “The location provides an excellent view of the bar. My problem involves the theft of liquor.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Look at it this way: Adelaide won’t have to spend the evening alone while she waits to hear what happens here at the pier tonight. Raina is keeping her company.”

  Before Jake could think of anything else to say, headlights lanced the night. A vehicle lumbered down the rutted dirt road that led to the dock. He couldn’t see beyond the glare of the beams but he knew from the rumble of the car’s engine that Massey had not driven a speedster to the late-night meeting. It sounded as if he had borrowed an unremarkable Ford for the occasion, the sort of car that no one would remember later.

  “We’ve got company,” Luther said.

  The Ford was nearly at the bottom of the access road. In another few seconds the headlights would illuminate the pier.

  The vehicle came to a halt but the driver did not turn off the engine or the headlights.

  A few more seconds passed before Jake heard a car door open and close.

  “Truett? Are you here? You’re supposed to be here, you bastard. Where are you? It’s all gone wrong because of you, but I’m not going to let you destroy me. Do you hear me? You can’t have her. She’s mine.”

  Massey sounded as if he’d had a few martinis to work up his courage for the meeting. His voice was too loud and very blurred around the edges. It was probably sheer luck that he hadn’t driven into a ditch or gone over the edge of Cliff Road on his way to the pier.

  “I’m here, Massey.” Jake did not move out of the shadows behind the boathouse. There was no way Massey could see him.

  “Where are you?” Massey shouted. “Show yourself, you son of a bitch.”

  Jake put his back to the wall of the boathouse and took a quick look around the corner. Massey was a dark silhouette against the glare of the headlights that now illuminated the pier. The object he gripped with both hands was not a flashlight. It was a gun.