Chapter 43

FORTY-THREE

Ronnie assures her sister we're going to look into the Ohio case and see if we can rule out a link. We don't want to ask Lucas for the file. I know he'll tell us it has nothing to do with us and then we'll have to go over his head and start a war. I make another pot of coffee, this time it's strong enough to stand on its own, and go back outside to think in private. My coffee sloshes over the side of the mug when Ronnie comes running outside saying, "Come quick."

Rebecca meets us in the downstairs hallway, holding her phone out. "Listen," she says, and touches the screen.

Caller: "I guess you didn't believe me."

Rebecca: "I believe you. Please don't hurt my mom again. We're getting the money together and just need to know how to deliver it."

A long pause.

Caller: "Expect another gift. You kept Lucas involved after I warned you. Are those other detectives still with you?"

Rebecca: "No."

Caller: "Liar."

The call ends.

Ronnie asks, "Does Dad know about this one?"

"I came and got you as soon as the call ended."

Ronnie says, "No secrets. We have to tell him."

"But not Lucas," I say. "Not yet, at least."

Rebecca is gripping the phone hard enough to break the screen. "He said there's another gift. Oh, God! What do we do?"

Victoria might have been forced to give the kidnappers information about security at the house, but she couldn't tell them who was doing what. Either the kidnappers are watching the house, or they have someone that is keeping tabs on us and Lucas.

"Rebecca, you and Ronnie check the mail and search the front of the property."

Ronnie asks, "What are you going to do?"

"Give me your phone, Rebecca." She does. "I'm going to talk to Jack. He needs to get the money. They'll call again. They're greedy. Do you know where he is?"

"He's in his office. He hasn't come out this morning."

The call Rebecca just received reminds me of a warning I've been receiving. Someone calling themselves "Wallace" has been sending emails to my work and my personal accounts. The emails are becoming increasingly threatening. I've made some enemies since becoming a detective, but these threats are to expose my past. A past that if ever exposed, would be the end of my career. The end of my relationships. The end of me. I'd have to start over again. New name, new appearance, new apartment, new job. No friends. The thought makes me feel ill. Whoever Wallace is, he doesn't want me to let the past go. He wants to punish me with it. He doesn't seem to realize that my past should be a warning to him. Much like the warning given in the phone call to Rebecca. I still wonder if these threats are not payback of some sort for whatever Jack has done.

I remember my stalker's last email: I doubt you know what it's like to be hurt so deeply you've lost part of yourself. I know what it feels like. Soon, Rylee, you will too.

Jack knows what it's like to be hurt so deeply he's lost. But he knows more than he's telling. He'd already talked to Lucas and tried to shut Rebecca down. He was too calm when Rebecca told him about the first call threatening his wife if we didn't stop looking into her disappearance. He only came clean about the photos and the ransom demand after his wife's finger arrived. Why? What does he know?

The calls may be made to Rebecca but directed at him. To make him afraid. To make him suffer. Maybe Jack did some bad things in his past and is being punished for it now. The kidnappers, a man and a woman as far as we know, may want more than money. They may want revenge. But for what? Because the Marshes are wealthy? If so, why Victoria? Why not Rebecca? I'm sure Jack is the target. He's the one with the power. And the money. I'm still not convinced one hundred percent Jack's not behind this.

I knock on Jack's office door. He doesn't answer but I'm sure he's in there. I knock more insistently, and Jack says, "It's unlocked."

Jack's office is spacious with every wall covered with shelves of books and pictures and paintings. One wall is full of legal tomes, some look ancient, some new. He's also an art collector. Leaning against the shelves are a dozen or more water paintings. Most are of the bay with sailboats and suns. I notice they are laid out in the order where you see the sun at its zenith and sequentially sinking toward the horizon. The last painting is of a beautiful sunset with reds and golds and blues saturating the striated clouds.

"You have quite a collection."

"Those are Victoria's. She has a small studio downstairs."

"They're beautiful. Does she show them?"

"She's given some away. But not these. She did these for me when we first moved into the house. I plan to hang these someday. She's quite talented."

He's sitting behind a mahogany desk, a bay window behind him, a credenza below the window. "You should hang them in order on the wall leading to the window. You can watch the sunset from here and it will be like going back in time."

A sad look crosses his face. "If only." He's quiet for a moment and I take a seat beside his desk. "I take it you've found something."

"Yes. Rebecca just got another call."

I wonder if he's heard me but then his eyes widen. "Oh my god! Is she dead?"

"We don't think so, but there's bad news. First I want you to tell me why your wife has been sleeping in her reading room."

"I don't have to explain myself to you. I suggest you leave that avenue for the real authorities."

Asshole. "Ronnie and I have been deputized by your friend. Sheriff Longbow. We are the real authorities. Your daughters are doing everything they can to find your wife while you sit here looking out the window. Don't you care?"

His expression is one of anger but his eyes are wet. "Don't you dare talk to me like that. You're only here at the invitation of my daughter. You're staying under my roof. If you persist in insulting me, I'll call your sheriff and you'll be home before you can say you're sorry. Do you understand me?"

I lean forward on the desk. "I'll speak to you any way that will bring you back to doing what you should be doing. What the police should be doing. What you have the resources to scour the state to do. I understand where you're coming from Mr. Marsh, but now you understand me. I'm going to find your wife. I won't stop until I do. And if you've harmed her in any way, you'll find your ass sitting in prison and not among your wealth. Got it? If you're holding something back that causes her death, I'll make you…sorry." Get it under control. He's not the enemy.

He says nothing. He's not accustomed to being put in his place or made to face facts. He's not accustomed to being helpless, and I can have some sympathy for how he feels. I've felt it a few times. But I don't give up and that's what he's doing.

I soften my voice and try to look compassionate although it's easier to be angry. "I want to help Ronnie. She's like a sister." That's true. Now for a lie. "If you aren't responsible for your wife's disappearance—and I'm sure that's what Lucas is thinking—then I think you know, or at least suspect, why she's missing. Talk to me. It's just you and me now."

One little tear starts to fall but he catches it with a fingertip and takes a deep breath. "This is hard for me, Detective Carpenter. I don't think you appreciate how hard. I don't know what you might have been told about our marriage. I know Vic has been in touch with Vinnie. She's kept in touch and doesn't think I know. The trouble between us started a couple of months back. I'd found out she was bailing Vinnie out and sending money to her parents."

I'm surprised and he can see it on my face. "You don't know about Vic's parents. My girls don't even know. I was unaware that she was still in touch with them, but I found out she'd been selling off stock. I thought it was unusual so I had my investigator look into it. Her parents aren't fit to be around my girls. Vic's dad is a drunk who is in constant rehab paid for by free medical in Canada. The wife has dementia and wouldn't know Vic if she saw her. But Vic kept bleeding money paying for an apartment for the old man, and put her mom in an assisted living home. An expensive one. Those two never did anything for their kids. Vic paid her own way through college and was dead broke when I met her. Don't get me wrong. I admire her spirit. I love her more than my own life. She's a fighter. I know the girls don't see it, but believe me, Vic doesn't give up if she thinks she's right."

I ask, "Does she keep in touch with Vinnie?"

"I was being truthful when I told you Vic kept bailing Vinnie out of trouble and I put a stop to it. It was like throwing money on a fire. I understand she felt an obligation but she was only enabling him. The only way for a man to rid himself of the devil is with his own will and maybe some sacrifice. Vinnie wasn't even trying to straighten himself out."

"You're telling me Ronnie and Rebecca don't know their grandparents? Their mom's parents."

"They might have heard Vic and I talking about them when they were younger, but they've never met them and it's going to stay that way if I can help it."

What a dick! If Victoria left him, I don't blame her. "You're still keeping secrets, Jack. I don't like secrets. Secrets get people hurt. You've witnessed that."

"Why do you keep after me? Do you think I'm behind this? You do. That's what cops do. They badger people until someone confesses. But I want Vic back more than anyone. If you don't believe me, I don't really care."

"Okay, Jack. Let's say I don't believe you. You know your wife better than anyone. Where would she be? Why did the kidnappers know your address and phone numbers and who is staying in your house? Why do they know Lucas is still working on this? Why haven't you made arrangements to pay the ransom?" I look around his office and say, "Look at all this. You can't tell me you were unable to come up with the money. And why was Lucas telling you not to pay? I want to know what's going on."

"No. I don't know where my wife is. You're wasting your time and frightening my girls."

I put a hand up to slow him down. "One of your girls is a cop. And she knows exactly how important what we're doing is."

He's practically yelling now. "What you're doing is making people mad and endangering my wife. Just leave us in peace. This isn't your battle. You're not family."

He's right. I'm not family. And he's right about our digging alerting the kidnapper. I pray it doesn't make things worse for Victoria. But if I believe everyone else I've talked to, and I do, he's fooling himself. Lucas should have contacted the FBI. A case this big is what they eat for breakfast. I don't like to call them because it takes them a week to make a decision. But neither Lucas, nor the FBI for that matter, will do what Ronnie and I will do to get her back safe and sound.

He seems to be a little embarrassed by losing his temper. He grimaces and sits down, shooting me a look that almost looks like one of apology. I soften my voice.

"Could it be someone from your past? Someone that you've hurt getting revenge."

He waves the statement away but his calm is put on. "It's the nature of the business we're in. My office gets threats toward me all the time. Why didn't Rebecca tell me about the call herself?"

"It doesn't matter, Jack. We have to focus. Your wife is in danger." Or already dead. "We don't think Vinnie took her. I know there's been issues with your marriage. Did she ask for a divorce? Is that why you called your personal attorney right before this happened?"

"Who told you I called…" He catches his mistake. "I called about a business matter. It's none of your business. Besides, Vicki would never divorce me. The idea is ridiculous."

"Has she ever left for days without telling you or Rebecca?"

"No. When we were first married, she had the crazy idea of moving her parents in with us. I put an end to it right then and there. She got angry and stayed with them one night but came home the next day. She worked and put herself through school. Something none of her family had the desire to do. Moochers. That was what she had to put up with before I married her."

"Where are her parents living?"

"White Rock. Just across the border in Canada."

"It doesn't bother you that your daughters never had a chance to meet their uncle or grandparents?"

"Of course it bothers me. But the decision was made a long time ago to not introduce them to that side of the family. We never told them about Vicki's brother because I wanted my daughters to believe in themselves and not know they had relations that were criminals.

"Why are we going over this again? The note is proof her bother is involved somehow. I know for a fact she bonded Vinnie out of jail recently. Where she got the money, I don't have a clue. She's sold all her holdings. There's not much in her savings."

"Jack, if you don't take this seriously and your wife is injured, your daughters will never forgive you. If you love her, if you love them, you'll stop denying what's obvious."

He cups his head in his hands, and I can barely hear him say, "I can't. I just can't." His voice rises to a whine. "This kind of thing doesn't happen to a family like ours."

He's wrong. Victoria was leaving him. She was divorcing him and he knew it. Or at least he suspected it.

"Are you making any headway on the ransom?" It's gone from two million to ten because he probably asked for proof of life. Look how well that worked out.

"I'll get it. Now, leave me alone."

I leave him in his denial. He's from a different world and I can't show him the way back to mine. He has to find it for himself. I just hope when he comes to his senses it won't be too late.

The last threatening phone call has me worried that it's already too late.