Whisper of Revenge (A Cape Trouble Novel Book 4) (22 page)

“Did he have hair on the backs of his hands or his arms
below the cuffs of the sweatshirt?” Elias asked unexpectedly.  He shoved up the
sleeve of his sweatshirt to reveal gold hair on his arms.  “Lots of men have at
least a few hairs on their fingers, too.”

Ian stared.  “You don’t.”

“I do,” Daniel said, and held out a hand.

The little boy pondered those few, curling strands.  “I
won’t have to have hair on my hands, will I?”

Elias smiled.  “You might.  It’s normal, just like having to
shave is for a man.”  He rubbed a hand over his jaw.

Ian looked dubious, but nodded.  His face worked as he
appeared to be thinking.  “It was brown,” he said suddenly.  “He had more hair
on his hands than Chief Colburn does.”

Darker brown, too, they concluded, which, if true, finally
ruled out Jeff Lee, who had sandy hair. 

More interestingly, the man talked to him in his regular
voice.  And, yes, it sounded familiar to Ian.  Unfortunately, because he spent
a day or two a week at his mother’s shop, he’d probably heard every man in town
speak.

“All right,” Daniel said at last.  “I need to talk to Elias
for a minute, Ian.  Is it okay if I ask the nice woman in the uniform to keep
you company?”

Panic widened his eyes as he looked up at Elias.  “You’re
not leaving, are you?  You’ll come back?”

“I will.”  Elias smoothed a hand over Ian’s head. 
“Promise.  I’ll be back in just a few minutes.”

Ian took a deep breath for courage and nodded.  Elias tucked
blankets more securely around him before hopping out of the ambulance after
Daniel.

The two men walked a distance away from the ambulance and
the crowd, apart enough from the action that nobody seemed to be looking at
them.

“I didn’t get a chance to say how sorry I am about your
house.”

“Thanks.”  Elias cleared his throat.  “Right this second, a
building doesn’t seem very important.”

Daniel rolled his shoulders.  “This was a disaster.  He got
away with the money
and
Hannah.  I’d say I fucked up, except I don’t
know what else I could have done.”

“How did he get her off the beach?”

He shook his head.  “We were spread too thin.  He couldn’t
have knocked her out, she had to be cooperating.”

“Because he pulled a gun on her.”  Elias sounded as if he’d
had to drag every word out of a deep well.

“And because she would do anything to draw him away from
Ian.”

“I want to kill him.”

Daniel wasn’t deceived by the calm voice.  “Arresting him is
my job, but I understand.”

After a moment, Elias nodded acceptance.  Or maybe it was
just a nod that meant nothing.

“Anything Ian said ring bells for you?” Daniel asked.

“Because I now know he has brown hair?”

Daniel sighed.  “Earlier, after you were called to go out to
your house, I sent officers to locate a bunch of these men.  Jeff Lee – I
haven’t looked at him as hard as I maybe should have.  Ron Campbell and Patrick
Fletcher.”

“And?”

“Lee is supposedly over in Portland.  After a neighbor told
Officer King, he then called Lee’s cell phone, which was answered by a woman
who handed it to him.  Unless she’s in on it…”

Elias spoke up.  “His hair is too light, anyway.”  Says a
five-year-old, they were probably both thinking.

“Both of the others have done a disappearing act.”  Daniel
was not happy they’d been able to pull it off.  Expecting Hannah to get the
call anytime, he had sent two of his young officers in search of Campbell and
Fletcher mid-morning.  It appeared neither man had been at work or home all day
or had yet to show up this evening.  Phone calls had gone unanswered, messages
not returned.

“I had a thought on the drive down here,” Elias said
abruptly.  “Not about motive.  I might have pissed Campbell off the once, but
we’ve had next to nothing to do with each other since.  Fletch…we were friends
since grade school.”

Daniel zeroed in on the ‘were’.  “Are you still?”

“Friendly acquaintances, I guess you’d say.”

Absorbing that, Daniel prodded, “The thought?”

“This guy got into my house tonight.  You heard about the
painting?”

“I did.”

“He got into Hannah’s locked business, too.”

He must be tired, his thinking molasses slow, or he wouldn’t
have had so much trouble reconstructing the timeline in his head.  “It wouldn’t
have been hard to sneak into Hannah’s office, borrow her keys and make copies. 
Stop by later in the day, return her keys.”

“That’s true.  But he might not have had to.  Fletch sold me
my house.  He sold Hannah hers, and arranged the lease for the space Sweet
Ideas occupies.  At some point, he’d have had keys.  I never changed the locks,
and I doubt she did, either.”

Damn it, Daniel thought.  Why hadn’t that occurred to him
when the first threat was left inside the bookstore?  “That’s quite a thought.”

“He’s likeliest to have known Hannah’s ex probably had money,
too.  I don’t like to think it, but—”  Elias’s phone rang.  “My mother.  Her
condo is right over there, you know.”  He jerked his head just inland.

“So she’s watching the show.  Talk to her.  Looks like one
of my officers has something to say, anyway.”  Daniel strode away, leaving
Elias alone in the shadowy parking lot.

*****

Looking toward the ambulance, Elias hesitated, but there was
a lot he couldn’t say in Ian’s hearing.

Leaning against the fender of the closest car, he called his
mother back.  When she answered, he said immediately, “We have Ian safe, but he
took Hannah.”

“Oh, no,” she murmured.

“He wore a mask every time Ian saw him.  We’re no further
ahead identifying this creep than we ever were.”

“I wouldn’t have called,” she said, “but I’ve been
thinking.”

Hearing a burst of voices, he turned his head, but it was
only a bunch of tourists talking excitedly, not the cops.  “And?” he prompted
his mother.

“The year Fletch lived with us.  I could tell your
friendship had soured.  I was almost sorry I’d taken him in, but…”

“You did the right thing, Mom,” Elias said, knowing she
couldn’t have done otherwise.  Not his mother.

“After the car accident, I’d see him looking at you with
this…  I don’t even know how to describe his expression.  I convinced myself I
was imagining it, but…”

He pushed himself away from the fender of the car.  “Now you
know you weren’t.”

“I’m afraid so.”  She sounded troubled.  “Do you remember
how convinced he was that he and you were being scouted by college football
programs?”

He frowned.  “Come on, Mom.  We all used to talk about that,
but we knew we were kidding ourselves.  None of us were the kind of superstars
that would have made anyone bother coming to a Cape Trouble High School game.”

“You knew you were kidding yourself.  I’m not so sure Fletch
did.”

“It’s not like he couldn’t go to college without an athletic
scholarship.”  Damn.  Elias realized he sounded defensive.  Because he’d never
acknowledged the damage he did do to a friend?

“That’s true.  The university was generous with need-based
aid, and he picked up some local scholarships.”

The ones Elias hadn’t.  He winced.

“It’s just…”  Her hesitation was telling.  “He hungered to
be someone important.  Don’t you remember?  He was so crushed when he ran for
student body president in middle school and was beaten by…I don’t even remember
who.”

Elias didn’t either.  He’d thought the student council was a
joke.  “You’re saying he’s convinced that, if he hadn’t gotten injured in the
accident that was my fault, he’d have been the starting running back at the U
of O, had alumni fawning over him, been too successful to ever need to come
back to Cape Trouble?”

“Probably all of that,” she agreed, “but what’s really to
the point is that he thinks he’d have been a star running back his senior year
of high school, he’d have been able to swagger because he was being scouted,
and he’d have gotten the girl.”

“Who I nabbed right out from under his nose,” Elias said
slowly.  He tipped his head back and stared up at the night sky.  He hadn’t
remembered until now, but one of the things that had dealt the death blow to
their friendship was the angry edge in Fletch’s voice when he gave Elias a hard
time for having been elected Prom King.  He wouldn’t let up with it, even after
Elias lost his temper.

Perfect symbolism, he thought now; Fletch in the crowd
with…  Who had he taken to prom?  A face rose from the recesses of Elias’s
memory.  Andrea Kobernik.  Like Lauren, she’d been a cheerleader, nice enough,
but too shy to have ever been the center of attention – or elected Prom Queen. 
Rumor had had it that she asked him to prom.

Because he wasn’t good at making a move on a girl even
then?  Or because the only girl he wanted was already going with his good
friend, Elias Burton, prom king?

How oblivious could I be?
Elias asked himself.

So there Fletch had been, just another face in the crowd
since he had played only a single game of his senior year thanks to that damn
car accident, watching Elias being crowned up on the stage with Lauren, the
girl he’d wanted.

A disappointment most kids would have shrugged off, but
corrosive to a boy who hadn’t grown up in a home with any stability, who’d
maybe never received love and support from his parents.  Who desperately wanted
to be somebody.

Elias shook his head.  How could he not have seen the
animosity that must have eaten away at Fletch for all these years?  Or had he
just not looked, because the guy had long since faded from his radar?

Not liking himself very much at the moment, Elias went in
search of Daniel Colburn.

*****

To cut out any awkward explanations of who Elias was in
relation to Hannah, Daniel took on the task of calling Ian’s father, although
Elias stood within earshot, shoulder propped against a wall in the deserted
hospital cubicle they’d been told they could use for privacy.

Grady Cline answered the phone with a grunt.

Asleep.  Still wired, Daniel had forgotten how late it had
gotten.

“Mr. Cline, this is Chief Daniel Colburn, in Cape Trouble.”

A silence was followed by a more coherent sounding, “What is
it?”

“We’ve recovered your son.  He’s battered and scared, but
otherwise fine.  Unfortunately, the kidnapper not only got away with the money,
he abducted Hannah, we believe at gunpoint.”

“You
believe
?”

“He was smart setting up both ransom drops.  We took what
precautions we could, but it wasn’t enough.”

“The FBI should have been involved.  They know what they’re
doing.”  The lean on they was subtle, but there.

Daniel gritted his teeth even though he was already kicking
himself.  Yes, he should have pushed harder for Hannah to let him bring in the
FBI team that specialized in child abductions, especially after the first
debacle.  But he’d let her make the call, and now she was the one paying the
price.

Had Elias heard that?  At least he’d been decent enough not
to express the same sentiment.

Yet.  Maybe because he was kicking himself, too.

“Perhaps so, Mr. Cline,” Daniel replied after giving himself
a moment.  “Hannah believed strongly she would endanger Ian by taking that
step.  In a community this small, working with outside law enforcement without
anyone noticing is a challenge.  We have good reason to believe the kidnapper
was watching her.”

Hannah’s ex made grumbly sounds Daniel disregarded.  Finally
he asked where Ian was.

“We made the decision to keep him overnight at the
hospital.  He was checked out here by a doctor and wouldn’t have needed to
stay, but it seemed like the safest temporary alternative.”

“I suppose I’ll have to come and get him.”

He’d
have
to come and get his own son?  Daniel
blinked.  He hadn’t liked the guy after their earlier interaction, and liked
him even less now.  He glanced at Elias, whose eyebrows had shot up just before
he gave an emphatic thumbs down.

“Thank you for offering,” Daniel said carefully, “but I
think for the moment it would be best if he remained here in Cape Trouble. 
I’ve already spoken to him about what he experienced when captive, but I have
hopes he’ll remember more that may help us find his mother.  Also, he’s
traumatized enough, I think he needs to stay close.  He’s pretty scared for his
mother.”

The discussion continued briefly.  Cline wanted to take
charge, but didn’t actually want his son, if Daniel was diagnosing correctly. 
Think how disruptive he’d be, dropped into that perfect little family.  To his
credit, Cline kept offering, but he surrendered without much of a struggle to
Daniel’s argument that, for now, Ian would do best in the care of familiar
friends.

This was a call Daniel was glad to end.

Obviously steaming, Elias said, “How can he not love his own
son?  A kid as great as Ian?”

Daniel only shook his head, even as he wondered if Elias had
known how gone
he
was over Hannah’s son.

Hannah pried open eyes that felt gummy and stared at the
rough, concrete wall only a few feet from where she lay.  At least she wasn’t
in the dark, although this wasn’t daylight.  An overhead light, she guessed.

A groan escaped.  Her head throbbed so painfully, she was
afraid to move.  The rest of her hurt, too, but not like her head.  Finally,
she lifted a hand and cautiously explored with the lightest of touches.

Huge lump above her temple.  Goose egg.  And blood.  She
peered at her fingers.  The fresh streaks of blood must be from her head, but
her whole hand was also crusted with mostly dried blood.

What happened?  She closed her eyes again and saw
disconnected images and feelings.  Lights in the darkness, too far away. 
Sliding door. Walking through quicksand that sucked at each foot. 
Just
walk, and shut up.
  The weight of the duffel bag straining her shoulders
. 
One flash.  Come to me.
  Falling. 
Mommy, Mommy!
  Punching, clawing,
hanging on. 
Run!  Run, Ian.

After rearranging the bits of memory until they flowed,
Hannah felt satisfaction even as dampness leaked from her eyes.  She had saved
Ian.

Finally, with a supreme effort she rolled all the way over. 
Her head tried to explode, but she closed her eyes long enough for the agony to
subside, before she opened them again.  The wall in front of her now was bare
wallboard.  A hole that looked as if someone had punched it didn’t quite allow
her a peek out.  Although maybe
she
could punch through, until she could
squeeze between studs.  And then…?

The silence felt heavy, making her suspect she was in a
basement.  Basements often had only one entrance and exit – stairs up to the
main floor.  But there might be windows high up, or a wooden hatch.  She’d seen
those.

Right now, the idea of so much as sitting up was more than
she could imagine.

Patrick Fletcher, she thought, stunned. 
Call me Fletch
. 
How many times had she heard him say, “Trust me?”  Every time she had a
question while looking at real estate, too often during contract negotiations. 
She had – mostly – trusted him.  As far as she knew, she’d paid a fair price
for her house, and had never regretted the terms of her lease for the business,
either.  But she’d never one hundred percent believed in his personable,
confident front, either.  He was a little too friendly, in the way of
successful salespeople.

No, she’d been drawn to a man so detached, she had sometimes
wondered if he would even recognize her if they came face to face on the
sidewalk or in the grocery store.  And look how he’d come through.

Apparently her instincts were trustworthy.

Hannah winced at the choice of words.  Reliable.  That was
better.

Time to try sitting up.  If there was a way out of here
before he came back, she had to find it.

*****

Elias wanted desperately to join the search for Hannah, but
separating himself from her son hadn’t been possible so far.  They had yet to
figure out what to do with Ian.  Elias shared Daniel’s worry that the asshole
might try to grab Ian again.  From what the boy described, his abductor had
been trying to hold onto him.  Taking him home didn’t seem like a good option. 
And Elias no longer had a home.

Not something he could think about now.

Ian might have liked staying with Mrs. Stanavitch and
Jack-Jack, but an old lady couldn’t protect him.  The way he clung to Elias
every time anybody walked into the hospital room, sending him to stay with a stranger
wasn’t an option.

And, damn it, every time he looked at that wan face with the
ugly bruise and the bald head with a couple of scabbed nicks where the razor
had caught skin, Elias remembered the gabby, bright-faced boy he’d just been
getting to know.  The ache in his chest never subsided.  To think he’d worried
about whether he could deal with Hannah’s kid if they started a relationship.

A sympathetic nurse had provided a disposable razor so Elias
could shave that morning.  That hadn’t helped a lot.  He couldn’t remember the
last time he’d had more than snatches of sleep.  The mirror showed hollows and
bones, and what would first appear to be a pair of black eyes.

Where was Hannah?  In that same basement room?  He knew she
was scared, but was she hurt?  He was tormented by the possibility Fletch might
rape her.  An ultimate form of payback.  Even as Elias distracted Ian with
board games and drawing, he couldn’t wipe from his mind pictures of her tied
up, gagged, unconscious, bloody.  Not dead.  No.  Fletch would want that final
act to be spectacular.

Did he have any idea that he was even a suspect?  Did he
think he could go back to his life, shaking his head in dismay whenever anyone
mentioned Hannah?

Rage wasn’t conducive to clear thinking, but for the first
time in his life, Elias couldn’t step back, observe, use emotions without being
clouded by them.  It was teeth-grittingly hard to nod his approval of the crude
perspective Ian had achieved in his current drawing of the basement room. 
Elias’s every attempt to get Ian to draw something less stressful had met with
a brick wall.

“I remembered something,” the boy said suddenly.

Elias felt himself point like a setter.  “Yeah?”

“When I peed in the toilet, I could see outside.  There was
this little window up high.”

This was the first time he’d mentioned a window.  So –
daylight basement, after all.  “And what could you see?”

“Kind of long grass.”  He wrinkled his nose.  “Mr. Nolt on
our street hardly ever mows, and Mom says some of the neighbors get mad.”

Elias had noticed the dandelions.

“’Cept this was even longer,” Ian said, frowning in
thought.  “And I could see a fence, all gray and splintery, and a little bit of
another house.”

“What color was the other house?” Elias asked in the closest
thing to an easy-going tone he could manage.

Ian’s forehead stayed wrinkled.  “Sort of brown, but kind of
yellow, too.  It was an ugly color.”

Elias whipped out his phone and went straight to a website
that showed color chips for oil paints available for sale.  A cross between
mars yellow and raw umber, they decided.  “Sort of like mustard—” the face Ian
made expressed his opinion of the condiment “—but more brown.”  He hadn’t been
able to see it that well, and the awful man got mad if he didn’t hurry, so he
couldn’t say if the paint job was fresh or the unfortunate color was a result
of fading.

Elias stepped out in the hall and called Daniel, who sounded
as weary as he felt.  He perked right up at the description, however.

“We’ve looked at damn near every house for sale in the
county,” he said.  “Fletcher could have a key to any of them.  Ian’s
description may ring a bell for someone who’s been looking.  Smart kid,” he
added in approval.

Yes, he was.

Twenty minutes later, he and Ian were playing Clue Jr.
instead of another repetition of Chutes and Ladders when his phone rang. 
Daniel again.

“Nothing on Hannah,” he said.  “But it turns out the father
of one of Ian’s buddies at his daycare is a deputy.  He and his wife and their
son are coming to get Ian.  He’s promised to stay home to protect him.  I
should have asked you first, but I thought you could at least use a break.  And
we can’t keep him in the hospital forever.”

“No.  That sounds good.”

Ian looked suspicion.  “What’s good?”

Elias explained.

“I bet it’s Walker.  He’s one of my best friends, and his
dad is a policeman.  He talked to us one time and let us get in his police car
so we could see the lights and everything.”

“Have you ever spent the night with Walker?”

Ian’s uneasiness showed in the way he shook his head.  “I
never spent the night anywhere.  Except at a hotel with my dad, ’n that was a
long time ago.  I don’t remember so good, except I wanted to go home.”

“But you’ve played at Walker’s house before?”

Ian nodded vigorously.  “Lots of times.”

“Good.”  Elias smiled.  “Try to have some fun, okay, even if
you are worried?”

“Can’t you come, too?” Ian asked.

He shook his head.  “I need to help look for your mom.  But
I promise I’ll call tonight, and you can call me anytime if you’re scared or
just want to say hi.”

Ian obviously felt shaky about the new plan, but his
enthusiasium grew once his buddy showed up with his parents.  He liked the idea
of going to McDonald’s for lunch, too.

“Good bribe,” Elias murmured to Walker’s dad, who grinned.

“Bribery plays an important role in preventing conflict with
your child.”  He sobered.  “I’d rather be hunting for Ms. Moss, but Chief
Colburn seems to think Ian is still at risk.”

“It’s a possibility.  The guy didn’t want to let him go.”

After sharing phone numbers, he walked them to a
family-style van and gave Ian a last hug.  “See you soon.”

Watching the van drive away, Elias felt something
unfamiliar.  Maybe akin to what parents felt when they left their kid on the
first day of kindergarden.  Or leaving them at the dorm for freshman year of
college.

Parenting, he had begun to realize, demanded a whole lot of
sacrifice.

Elias was damned if that kid was going to have to grow up
without his mother.

When he drove out of the parking lot, he was still trying to
decide where to start.  It was a sure bet Fletch would make his next move in a
place that he believed held meaning to Elias.  Over the years, they’d had a
dozen favorite hang-out spots.  Some they’d been able to reach on their bikes
when they were kids.  Others required a car and a hike, but were hidden away
enough they’d been able to drink or smoke a joint or get naked with a girl.

He didn’t know what he expected to find…but his gut said he
needed to take this trek down memory lane.

*****

Daniel suspected Elias was on a wild goose chase, but he
didn’t say so.  Elias knew Fletch better than any of the rest of them, and at
least he was staying in touch.  He and dozens of other people.  Daniel’s main
job was coordinating the massive hunt, so his phone rang constantly.  The word he
heard most often was “nothing.”

Early afternoon, a call came in from Aaron Krieger, Daniel’s
officer.  “I finally spoke to Mr. Campbell,” he said.  “He’s been in Lincoln
City since yesterday evening.  Says he didn’t have his phone on because he
needed time to make some decisions.”

“You sure he’s actually there?”

“Yes, sir.  I spoke to the front desk clerk at the hotel who
checked him in and the manager of the restaurant where he had breakfast.  The
manager was able to isolate security footage taken from behind the cashier.  I
emailed him Campbell’s DMV photo, and he’s confident of the identity.”

“He could have checked in, driven back to Cape Trouble,
stowed Hannah then gone back.”

“I don’t see how.  He checked in right about the same time
Elias Burton found his house on fire.  Plus, the evening clerk saw him park and
insists the vehicle stayed where it was all night.  His shift ended at seven
a.m.  Unless someone picked up Mr. Campbell…”  He didn’t need to finish.

The confidence in his young officer’s voice and the
persistence he’d shown surprised and impressed Daniel.

“You did a good job,” he said, hoping he had succeeded in
hiding his surprise.

“Uh…Mr. Campbell says you’ll be hearing from him.”

“I’m sure I will,” he said dryly.  Campbell hadn’t liked him
to start with, and during that phone call he’d already expressed how seriously
pissed he was at once again being looked at for a major crime.

Daniel called Elias, who said, “We already know it’s
Fletcher.”

“Confirmation is good.”

Elias grunted.

Of course, Fletch would have a story when he surfaced,
Daniel felt sure.  He probably did get tired of being available
twenty-four/seven to anyone who’d seen his name and number on a real estate
sign.  It made sense for him to leave the damn phone off when he took a short
getaway.  He was smart enough to be ready to provide proof of where he’d
stayed, too.  Krieger had gotten lucky with Campbell.  The few restaurants that
had cameras usually aimed them at the till to keep cashiers and waitresses
honest.  Desk clerks and managers at inns rarely noticed where a guest parked,
let alone paid attention to whether the vehicle stayed put.

And what if they were wrong?  Or what if they found Hannah’s
body, and yet were unable to prove Fletch was the killer, whatever they thought
they knew?

Too restless to sit behind a desk, Daniel did some driving
around himself as the afternoon dragged on.  After stopping in front of a house
for sale by Fletcher Realty, he had a thought.

He called his Realtor contact.  “What if a house has been
recently listed?  Does it appear on the multiple listing service immediately?”

She was quiet for a minute.  “Usually within about
twenty-four hours.  I like to confirm all the information before I put it out
there.  If I have any doubts, I might return to a property to measure square
footage, for example.  If the owners didn’t have children and aren’t sure, I
need to be sure what school district the home is in.  Real estate taxes, type
of roof and heating, exact dimensions of the lot…  The list is long, and I
don’t like to make mistakes.”

“So you might have signed the papers to list a property for
sale but not have entered it in the multiple listing service or put up a sign.”

“Usually the sign goes up immediately, especially if the
homeowner is there in person.  It gives them confidence you’re doing the job.”

“Lock box?”

“At the same time.”  She hesitated, smart enough to guess
where he was going with this.  “An agent could make an excuse.  Have to make
copies of the key.  Or he could go back later and remove the lock box.  If the
owner has already moved out, they’ll likely be satisfied that the sign is up
and not think about how much else is involved.  And why would they?  They know
we don’t make a penny until we sell the house.  Dawdling is not to our benefit.”