Ivy Secrets (51 page)

“Do you have the money?” The voice was as garbled as it had been yesterday. Charlie’s heart thumped.

“Yes,” she said. “No. Not yet. It’s coming. Tomorrow.”

There was no response. She cupped the receiver and closed her eyes.

“It’s a lot of money. I can’t get it until then.”

On the other end of the line, there was a sigh. “Tomorrow. Or the girl is dead.”

The caller hung up. Charlie stood, receiver in hand, dial tone boring into her ear.

“Shit,” Greenberg said. “You didn’t keep him on long enough.”

Charlie began to shake. She hung up the phone and burst into tears. “If it’s so easy, you do it!” she cried, then ran from the hallway, through the kitchen, and out the back door.

    That night, Charlie refused to return to the hotel. She was afraid the kidnapper would call; she didn’t want to risk not being at the house. Marina went upstairs, Charlie and Peter sat on the sofa, holding each other, through the night.

At one point, halfway between awake and asleep, Charlie tugged on his shoulder. “Peter? Are you awake?”

“Mmm.”

“Peter, I was just thinking. That woman we saw yesterday. At the hotel? I think I know who it was.”

“Mmm.”

“Peter? I think it was Marina’s sister. I think it was Alexis.”

He moved his shoulder and cradled her with his arm. “Try to get some sleep, honey. You’re overtired.”

Charlie sighed and closed her eyes. Peter was right. She was overtired.

The morning seemed even longer than the night. Charlie sat at the kitchen table, staring out the window. Peter had returned to the hotel to await the courier; Marina had come downstairs and was pouring coffee. She set the mug on the table and sat across from Charlie.

“I’m going to tell them this morning,” she said.

Charlie flinched. “Tell who what?”

Marina stirred a spoonful of sugar into the dark liquid. “I’m going to tell the FBI about Jenny. That she was my baby.”

Charlie swallowed. The coffee singed her throat. “You don’t have to do that, Marina.”

Marina nodded. “Yes, I do. I have to do it for Jenny. I think it is the only way to find her.”

“We’ll find her. As soon as the ransom is delivered, we’ll get her back.”

Marina shook her head. “You and I both know that kidnappings aren’t resolved that easily.”

Charlie stared at the Formica tabletop. “No. Everything’s going to be fine. Jenny’s going to be fine.” She could not let Marina tell the police about Jenny. If they knew, it would ruin everything. Marina would take Jenny back to Novokia …

Charlie’s mind whirred.

“I think this all has to do with Novokia,” Marina said.

Charlie’s hands started to quiver.

“There’s more,” Marina added. “I think that Dell Brooks is behind it.”

“Dell? Don’t be ridiculous, Marina. I know you’ve never liked her—”

“She was close to Viktor. They had stayed in touch. She is a socialist, Charlie.”

“Come on, Marina, this is the nineties. Communism has collapsed. The Berlin Wall is down. That kind of stuff doesn’t happen anymore.”

Marina sipped her coffee. “You are wrong, Charlie. You have no idea what the world is like.”

Charlie stood and went to the sink. She gripped the edge. Her head was light, her body weak. “Marina, let’s just get the ransom delivered. Right now, it’s the best we can do. If Dell is behind it, we’ll know soon enough. Besides, I think
you’re wrong. I think your mind is playing tricks on you. Mine played tricks on me yesterday.” She turned back to Marina and leaned against the counter. “I actually thought I saw your sister at the Hotel Northampton. I actually thought I saw Alexis.”

Marina stared at her. “
What?
”

Charlie reached down to refill Grover’s water bowl. “I said I thought I saw Alexis. It’s amazing what lack of sleep and too much can stress can make you believe.”

    Peter returned at eleven-thirty with the canvas knapsack.

“We’re all set,” he said to the FBI men who had resumed their posts in the living room.

“Give me the bag,” Connors said.

Charlie turned her head away as the FBI man opened the knapsack. She didn’t want to see the money; she didn’t want to think about the filthy person who would receive it, or about what the money meant. She didn’t want to think about Jenny: if she was hungry, if she was scared, if she was hurt.

“I’m putting in a homing device,” Connors said. “Once the bag is picked up, we’ll be able to track where it goes. That will be our best chance to find the girl.”

    The phone call came at noon.

“Leave the bag inside the front door of Neilsen Library,” the garbled voice said. “In half an hour. Got it?”

“Half an hour at the front door of the Neilsen Library,” Charlie repeated. “What about Jenny?”

The drone of the dial tone was her only answer.

“Just as I thought,” Greenberg said. “We won’t have enough time to stake out the area. Or bring in the dogs from Boston. We’ll have to play it out.”

Charlie turned to ask Marina’s opinion, but Marina had disappeared from the house.

    Marina now knew all she needed to know, including that there was only half an hour until the ransom pickup.
She sped halfway across town in the rental car, not caring if the police tried to stop her. Finding Jenny was more important, and now, she knew the answer.

She squealed up to the front of the hotel, double parked, then raced up the stairs into the lobby.

“I need to see the register,” she demanded at the front desk.

A young man scowled. “I’m sorry, miss, I can’t do that.”

“I am Princess Marina Marchant from Novokia. I have reason to believe that international treason is going on here. Now give me the goddamn register.”

The young man laughed. “Lady, I don’t care if you’re Princess Di, I can’t let you see it.”

Marina’s thoughts swirled. The hotel was huge; she had less than half an hour. “Call the police,” she said.

“What?”

“I said call the police. Now.”

A hand appeared on the counter. “There’s no need to call the police.”

Marina snapped around. Standing behind her was Dell.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Marina asked.

“Your sister is in room 304,” Dell said. “Follow me.”

Marina was dumbstruck.

Dell turned around. “You’d better hurry. Joe just called to tell me we have less than half an hour.”

Marina thought quickly. “How does Joe know? He wasn’t there when the call came in.”

Dell marched toward the elevator.

Marina caught up to her. “How does he know, Dell? What the hell is going on?”

The elevator doors opened. Dell stepped inside. Marina darted in behind her.

Inside the old mahogany and brass lift, Dell turned toward Marina. “Joe wasn’t at the house because he was here. Listening in on Alexis’s phone line.” She stared smugly at the brass-adorned mahogany wall. “You have always underestimated the power of the townies,” she said. “As soon as Alexis landed in town, I knew about it. So did my nephew. He tapped the line in her room this morning.”

“You’ve known all along that Alexis was behind it?” The elevator doors opened. Marina followed Dell quickly down the hall. “Is Jenny here?”

Dell shook her head. “I don’t think so. We’ll find out in a minute.”

The door to room 304 was open. Voices came from within. Marina pushed past Dell and stopped in the doorway.

“Forget it, you assholes,” she could hear Alexis scream. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Marina stepped inside. Two uniformed police officers stood by an antique bureau. In front of them stood Joe Lyons, his left hand encased in a bulk of gauze bandages. On the edge of the bed sat Alexis. She was dressed in yellow leggings and an oversized T-shirt. A broad-brimmed straw hat rested on her lap. She looked about eighteen. Marina stared at her sister until Alexis noticed her.

“Shit,” Alexis said and turned away.

“Please step outside,” Marina said to the police. “I need to speak to my sister.”

“Do it quickly,” Joe said as he motioned the officers to leave the room. “We need her to pick up the money. If her accomplice knows we’ve caught her, Jenny could be killed.” The men left and Joe closed the door, leaving Marina alone with her sister.

“Where is Jenny?” Marina demanded.

Alexis shrugged. “She’s alive.”

“Where?”

A slow smirk inched across her sister’s pink-painted lips. “I really don’t know.”

Marina lunged forward. “Why, Alexis? Why did you do this?”

Alexis stared at the wall. “She’s yours, isn’t she? She’s your bastard.”

Marina’s throat tightened. She put her hand to it, certain something was there—a rope, a cord, some kind of strangling, life-ending device. There was none.

“It isn’t right,” Alexis said bitterly. “
My
sons should inherit the throne,
my
sons would appreciate it.”

Marina closed her eyes. “You are such a fool, Alexis. If only you’d left Jenny alone, your sons would have inherited it. I never wanted the throne. I didn’t want it for Jenny either.”

“You? You never wanted it? Come on, Marina, I may be a fool, but I’m not stupid. You’re Daddy’s favorite. No matter
where you’ve gone or what you’ve done, he’s always welcomed you back with open arms. They way I figure it, you were waiting until you were queen before you sprung Jenny on us. Then it would be too late for me … for my sons.”

“So you decided to kill her.”

The corners of her mouth turned up, her eyes stared off toward the wall. “Yes. But we set it up to make it look like a kidnapping.” She laughed. “No one would ever suspect that I would be involved in a kidnapping. I have millions in my jewels alone.” Her smile evaporated. “But he got too damn greedy. I told him to ask for a million. He wanted three. But it’s taken too long for those commoners to raise it. She’d be dead by now if he hadn’t asked for three.”

“Who is he?” Marina’s voice scratched. “Who’s done this with you?”

Joe stepped back into the room before Alexis could answer. “Come on, Princess,” he said to her. “Time to make the pickup.”

Alexis looked coldly at Joe. “You can’t make me. I have diplomatic immunity.”

Marina stepped forward, grabbed Alexis’s arm, and shook her. “If they tell you to do it, you are going to do it,” she shouted.

Alexis didn’t move.

“Do you really need this worthless piece of shit?” Marina asked Joe.

“Afraid so. The plan is that she’s supposed to pose as a college student and blend in with the coeds on campus. She’s supposed to pick up the bag, then hand it off to her accomplice by the front porch on Morris House.” ’

“Morris House?” Marina was struck at the irony, then shook off her thoughts. “Then why don’t you just catch her accomplice there? What are you waiting for?”

“He could spot us and run. But the FBI put a homing device in the knapsack. We have to play it out. If he thinks everything is fine, hopefully he’ll lead us to Jenny. It may be the only chance we have to find her.”

Marina snapped back to Alexis. “Get off the fucking bed and do what they tell you. Or I’ll see to it that none of your sons ever plants his spoiled pink ass on the seat of my throne.”

She watched Alexis stiffen, then relent, to Joe’s prodding arm.

“Go back to Tess’s,” Joe commanded Marina as he led Alexis to the door. “It won’t be safe unless you wait for us there.”

Marina’s eyes followed her sister’s back as it edged down the hall. Then another question clicked into her mind:
An accomplice? Who the hell is her accomplice? Her diminutive husband? Surely, not one of her sons …

    Charlie lifted the knapsack. It was ten minutes to twelve. The weight of the money crushed her shoulder. But the pain didn’t matter: it was time to get this over with, time to get Jenny back.

The FBI men had changed into jeans and T-shirts. Connors had put on glasses; Greenberg grabbed a couple of books from the shelf in Tess’s living room. “We’ll be right behind you,” Connors said. “Don’t turn around and don’t acknowledge us. But we’ll be right behind you.”

Charlie thought of Nicholas, always right behind Marina. She wondered how much protection the FBI would be if the kidnapper wanted to kidnap her, too.

“I’m coming with you,” Peter said.

“Absolutely not,” Greenberg said. “We need you here by the phone in case something goes wrong.”

“What’s going to go wrong?” Peter yelled.

Charlie shushed him. “Nothing. Nothing.” She kissed him good-bye and left the house, headed toward campus, toward the place she’d once called home.

    At five minutes to twelve, throngs of young women emerged from the different buildings on the main campus. Summer session, Charlie thought, and tried not to remember that one summer she’d spent here, the summer after Willie Benson. She shook off her thoughts and walked to Neilsen Library, her shoulder aching, her heart breaking. She climbed the stairs and over and over repeated the words, “Please, God, let this work out. Please, God, let Jenny be safe and unharmed.”

She opened the huge door just as a man came out. She
jumped back and looked into his square face. He was distant, disinterested.
Was it him?
Her heart pounded loudly.