“There’s one way to find out if she’s there or not.” Forrest reached into the slim briefcase at his feet and retrieved a small handheld computer. He punched a button and studied the screen for a few seconds. Then he reached for the phone again.
He spoke briefly to whoever answered at Candle Lake.
“I don’t care if she’s in a therapy session,” he snapped. “Get her on the phone.”
There was another tense silence.
“Let me speak to Harper,” Forrest said in his executive office voice. “Now.”
Kimberley got up with a jerky movement and went to the liquor cabinet. She poured herself a shot from the first bottle that came to hand without even looking at the label and listened to the rest of the one-sided conversation in growing panic.
“Don’t give me that bullshit about her fragile mental condition,” Forrest said softly. “You’ve lost her, haven’t you? How long has she been gone?”
Kimberley took a long swallow and stared unseeingly at the sweeping view of San Francisco Bay. What she really needed was one of the little pink pills she kept in her medicine cabinet, but she did not dare take them in front of Forrest. He would see it as a sign of weakness even though he was the reason she had been forced to ask her doctor for the prescription.
Forrest hung up and looked at her across the width of the room his first wife had decorated.
“She’s gone,” Forrest said flatly. “Harper admitted as much. His story is that she managed to slip away a few days ago and that she has been located. He claims that he sent some people to pick her up and that there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Then it will be okay. Everything will be fine once they have her back at Candle Lake.”
“I’m not so sure of that.” Forrest got to his feet. “I’ll give Harper twenty-four hours. If he doesn’t have Sara back by tomorrow, I’ll take matters into my own hands.”
“You’re going to deal with that person who just called? The one who offered to sell you the information about Sara?”
“If necessary. One way or another, Sara has to be found and returned to Candle Lake as soon as possible. I can’t risk having her show up at the annual board meeting.”
Kimberley noticed that her hand was shaking. She lowered her half-finished drink with great caution and set the glass down on top of the lacquered cabinet. “Do you really think she’d have the nerve to turn up at the meeting?”
“She’s crazy, remember? She thinks I murdered Preston. Her goal is to destroy me and the company. Yes, I think she’ll show up unless we get her back into Candle Lake.” Forrest picked up the briefcase and started toward the door. “I’ll be in my study.”
Kimberley watched him walk away from her. It reminded her of the way her father had always walked away when she needed him, the way everyone walked away from her. She tried another swallow of whiskey. The expensive liquor tasted like acid.
Chapter Nineteen
“You told Leon Grady you were going to do what?”
Zoe was so stunned that she could barely get the words out of her mouth. It was as if her tongue had just short-circuited. Her brain, too. She stared blankly at Ethan, who sprawled in her client chair, glancing occasionally at his watch. He was making no secret of his impatience to leave. A busy man who had things to do and people to see.
“You heard me,” he said. “I told Grady that we’re going to get married.”
She pulled herself together with a tremendous effort.
“Why?”
“I thought it was obvious.”
“No,” Zoe said through her teeth. “It is not obvious. Try explaining it to me in short, single-syllable words.”
“Don’t worry, most of the words I know are short and single syllable. Okay, here’s my thinking on this. You told me that the shares you inherited from Preston are now in a trust that you can revoke at will.”
“Yes.”
“Your goal is to materialize unannounced at the annual board meeting, paperwork revoking the trust in your hand, and proceed to vote your shares in such a manner as to force the hostile merger of Cleland Cage, right?”
“Yes.”
“But if you get picked up by the jolly munchkins from Candle Lake before the annual meeting, your big plans go down the toilet.”
“I hired you to keep that from happening, remember?”
“I’m doing my best, ma’am. But in my professional opinion, marriage would buy you a hell of a lot of insurance. It would, in fact, render the entire concept of returning you there null and void.”
The logic finally started to sink into her bemused brain. “Because as my husband, you would be able to vote my shares,” she said slowly. “You could vote them according to my wishes and achieve the same results.”
“True, but practically speaking, it’s a whole lot simpler than that. As your husband, I become your new next of kin. I could override any medical decision that Forrest Cleland or anyone else might try to make for you, including commitment to a psychiatric hospital.”
“Of course,” she whispered. “I never thought of that. Even if they managed to haul me back, you could spring me.”
“Right. But I don’t think it will come to that. I’m betting that once the word gets out that you’re married, everyone involved in this thing will give up on their plans to keep you locked up and slink away into the night.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” she said finally.
“When I’m working, I’m always serious. The quickest, cleanest way to do this is to catch a flight to Vegas late this afternoon.” He shot another glance at his watch. “We’ll get married there tonight and return to Whispering Springs tomorrow.”
“You’d really do this for me? Marry me just to keep me safe for the next six weeks?”
“You got a better idea?”
“Well, no, but this seems a little extreme.”
“Hey, it’s no big deal. Trust me, I’ve been married lots of times.”
No big deal.
“I suppose you do qualify as an expert in the field,” she said neutrally.
“Right. I’m an expert. After the annual board meeting, we’ll get a quickie divorce and life will go back to normal.”
She cleared her throat. “You make it sound so easy.”
“It is easy.”
She rubbed her temples. “I’m touched, really I am, but I can’t allow you to do this.”
“Why not?”
She frowned. “Because it’s too dangerous, of course.”
“I’d like to say that danger is my middle name, but it’s not. Relax, this’ll work. You’ll see.”
She shook her head. “I can’t let you do it. In essence you’d be putting yourself into the same situation that Preston was in. Don’t you see? Forrest killed Preston. Who’s to say he wouldn’t try to murder you, too, if he thought that you were standing in his way?”
His mouth curved. “You really mean that, don’t you? You’re worried about me.”
“As the saying goes, you don’t have a dog in this fight, Ethan. I don’t want the responsibility of putting you in mortal danger.”
“You hired me to take care of a blackmail problem,” he said gently. “Let me do my job.”
“I won’t let you take the risk.”
“As your husband, I won’t be at risk in the same way that Preston was.”
“What do you mean?”
“One dead husband who was apparently the victim of an armed burglar can be explained,” he said. “A second dead husband at this point would arouse suspicion and invite a lot of questions. Trust me, that is the last thing Forrest will want if he is trying to fend off a takeover. He needs the full support of his board and all of the major shareholders he can get on his side.”
He had a point, but she was reluctant to admit it.
“The most likely scenario is that Forrest will try to buy me off when he finds out I’m married to you,” Ethan said.
“Hmm.”
“It’s
the only approach that would make sense.”
“And if he does try to buy you off?” she asked. “What will you tell him?”
Ethan got up, walked to the desk, and flattened his hands on the surface. He leaned in close. “I will tell him to go screw himself.”
“Ethan—”
“Come on, let’s get moving. It’s going on one o’clock. I’ll drop you off at your apartment. You can pack a bag while I take care of some loose ends at the office. I’ll pick you up at three-thirty and we’ll head for the airport. There are dozens of flights all day long to Vegas, and they take only about an hour. The time change is in our favor.”
“What loose ends?” she demanded, struggling to hold on to at least one rational thread.
He shrugged. “There are a few things I want to do before we leave town.”
She hauled her ultramarine blue tote out from under the desk and got slowly to her feet. “Such as?”
“I’m going to line up someone to keep an eye on Arcadia while we’re out of town.”
A new rush of anxiety stopped her in her tracks. “Do you think she’s in danger?”
“Probably not. Leon Grady never mentioned her.” Ethan was at the door, holding it open. “And I’m inclined to agree with her that the hacker who sold your file to Grady would have offered to sell hers as well if he had it. But I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“I understand your concern, but I think you’d better check with Arcadia before you hire a bodyguard for her.”
“Arcadia strikes me as a smart lady. I don’t think she’ll go stubborn on me.”
“Unlike me, you mean?”
“You are a smart lady, too,” he said a little too smoothly.
“But stubborn?”
“Very.” He looked at her. “You going to walk out of here on your own two feet or do you want to be carried out?”
She raised her chin, clutched her tote very tightly, and marched toward the door with as much dignity as she could summon. “There is one very important little fact that you seem to be forgetting more and more often lately.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m the client.” She poked a finger at his chest as she went past. “You work for me, Truax. That means I give the orders.”
“Oh, yeah.” He closed and locked her door. “I knew that.”
“Getting married again, huh?” Singleton leaned on his counter and regarded Ethan with a meditative expression. “If you’d given me a little notice, I could have organized a bachelor party.”
“I appreciate the thought,” Ethan said. “Tell you what, you can buy me a beer when I get back from Vegas.”
“Sure. Look, I can follow your reasoning here, but I gotta tell you that marrying the client is a little over the top, even for an ace private detective like you.”
“That’s what Zoe said.”
“She’s not keen on this plan?”
“I had my hands full talking her into it. She was afraid that she would be putting me in danger.”
“And you told her that danger was your middle name, right?”
“How’d you guess?”
“I saw the movie.”
“It’s a cool line and I’ve waited all of my professional life to use it, but unfortunately, she was not in a mood to buy it. I had to fall back on reason and logic.”
“Don’t you just hate when that happens?”
“Yeah. I pointed out that the probability that Forrest Cleland would take the risk of murdering two of her husbands was real low.”
Singleton took off his glasses and started to polish them with a cloth. “You think it’s all that low?”
“Sure.” Ethan lounged against the counter. “But enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What have you got for me?”
Singleton replaced his glasses. “Not much, I’m afraid. As far as I can tell Candle Lake Manor is a legitimate private hospital that is wholly owned and operated by Dr. Ian Harper.”
“How’d he get enough money to buy his own hospital?”
“He did it the old-fashioned way. He married it.”
“Wife?”
“Elizabeth Pangbourne Harper was a spinster most of her life. She inherited a fortune and used it for good works. She was fifty-four when she married Harper. He was forty-two. That was eleven years ago. She died three years later. Heart attack.”
“Convenient. Harper got her fortune?”
“Not all of it. A good chunk went to various charities.” Singleton consulted some notes. “But he got some of it, and he also got Candle Lake Manor. By catering to a wealthy clientele who will pay dearly for privacy and by steering clear of insurance and government funding, he has evidently found a way to make the place quite profitable.”
“A real entrepreneur. Staff?”
“About what you’d expect. Orderlies, aides, housekeepers, kitchen crew, and some security personnel. Turnover seems to be high.”
“What about the medical side?”
“As far as I can tell, there’s only one full-fledged psychiatrist on the payroll, Dr. Venetia McAlistair. She oversees a small number of so-called therapists. Most of them don’t have much in the way of degrees or experience. High turnover in that group, too.” Singleton looked up from his notes. “Given the piss-poor patient to medical staff ratio, I’ve got a hunch that Candle Lake Manor relies heavily on pharmaceuticals to treat the patients.”
Ethan nodded. “Drugs are cheaper than doctors, and Harper seems to be a guy who keeps an eye on the bottom line. Anything else?”
“That’s about it except for the fact that, as far as I can tell, none of the patient history or billing records are online.”
“You’d expect that from a place that sells the promise of privacy and a very low profile. What about Cleland Cage? Anything new there?”
“Just what you already know. Third-generation commercial real estate development and investment company. Because it is a closely held corporation, there’s not much news in the financial press. But there have been rumors that the company has had some serious financial problems lately because of some outstanding debt accrued after it acquired a smaller outfit a couple years ago. Forrest Cleland has been struggling to fight off a hostile takeover from another large development operation for the past year. Big decisions are expected at the annual board meeting next month.”
“What about the Merchant?”
“A very secretive type, our Merchant. I used the code that Arcadia provided, though, and I dropped a name. He responded.”
“Yeah? What name did you drop?”
Singleton shrugged. “I mentioned the think tank I worked for a while back. He recognized it and was suitably impressed. Reacted like he considered me a sort of peer or colleague. At any rate, he refused to believe that he had been hacked. Takes a lot of pride in his security. But he assures me that he’s looking into the matter and that he’ll get back to me.”
“All right.” Ethan pushed himself away from the counter and went toward the door. “If you get more, you know where to reach me.”
“Sure. Congratulations on your forthcoming marriage, by the way. You know what they say.”
Ethan paused in the doorway and looked back over his shoulder. “No, what do they say?”
“Fourth time’s a charm.”
“That’s good to hear.”
He went out into the hall and climbed the steps to the upper floor. He let himself into his office, sat down behind his desk, and reached for the old-fashioned file in which he kept important phone numbers. He flipped through the cards until he found the one he wanted.
Harry Stagg answered on the first ring. “Stagg Consulting.”
“I need a baby-sitter for a woman in Whispering Springs and I need him ASAP. Like tonight. You available?”
There was a short pause. “If I say yes, it makes it sound like I’m not doing much business.”
“You want the job or not?”
“I’ll take it,” Stagg said. “Business is a little slow.?
??
“How soon can you be here?”
“Let’s see, the flight from San Diego to Phoenix takes about an hour in the air but there’s the time change. If I leave now I should be in Whispering Springs by six or six-thirty. That work for you?”
“It works.” He gave Arcadia’s name and address to Stagg. “I’ll talk to her. She’ll be expecting you. I’m leaving town with my client as soon as I can get away. We’ll be back in Whispering Springs sometime tomorrow.”
“Where are you going?”
“Las Vegas.”
“I take it this isn’t a gambling junket?”
“I’m getting married.”
“Yeah? How many times does this make? Three? Four?”
“Four.”
“Well, you know what they say,” Stagg said. “Fourth time’s a charm.”
“I’ve heard that.”
He filled Stagg in on Leon Grady and the situation.
“Grady will probably be gone by the time you get here. It doesn’t look like he knows about Arcadia Ames, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Got it.”
Bonnie walked into the office just as Ethan hung up the phone.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Congratulate me,” Ethan said. “I’m getting married.”
“Married?”
“You know what they say, fourth time’s a charm.”
“A bodyguard?” Arcadia contemplated Ethan. “For how long?”
“A couple of days,” Ethan said. “Just until we can be sure that you’re not on Grady’s blackmail list.”
“If he was aware of me, he would have made his move by now.”
“It will make Zoe feel more comfortable if she knows that you’re in safe hands while we’re out of town.”
He was right, she thought. Zoe would worry.
“Okay,” she said. “But only until you two return.”
“I appreciate the cooperation. His name is Harry Stagg. He’ll show up around six or six-thirty if all goes well.”
She smiled slightly. “Is he just a big hunk of muscle or is there some brain?”
“There’s some brain.” He looked into the nearest display case and saw several pieces of unusual looking jewelry. “Got any rings?”