Authors: Mariah Stewart
“Your children?” Emme noticed that most of the pictures were of a boy and a girl.
He nodded. “My daughter. My son.”
“Your daughter's lovely,” she said, leaning closer for a better look. “Look, Nick, how pretty the congressman's daughter is.”
“Yes, she is.” He agreed. “Very pretty.”
They stepped out onto the shaded porch and down
the steps to the sand-and-shell drive, but Gardner did not follow. He stood on the top step and watched them, looking like a man who knew that something was about to change his life, something he wasn't going to like, and he was powerless to stop it.
H
e heard her on the steps and in the hall, knew she was now standing in his doorway, but didn't bother to turn around.
“What?” he asked.
“You have a problem.”
“Yeah? What?”
She crossed the carpeted floor to his desk and slid something under his nose. He glanced sideways, studying it, then raised his eyes to meet hers.
“Where did that come from?”
“It was on the table in the front hall.” Hand on hip, she stood as if waiting for his response. When one didn't come, she poked him in the back and said, “You have a problem. What are you going to do about it?”
“
I
have a problem?” He snorted and spun around in his chair. “
We
have a problem. This is just as much me as it is you.”
“You have got to be kidding.” She scoffed and flipped her hair over her shoulders. “I haven't raised a finger…”
“Who are you kidding? This was all your idea.” He
stood and faced her down. “Who found the folder in his desk drawer? Who did all the research on this donor sibling stuff? Whose idea was it to go online and see if anyone was looking for Donor 1735?”
“Whose idea was it to eliminate the competition?” She lowered her voice. “What did you do with them, J.J.? Before you killed them, I mean? Did you play with them? Did you rape them?”
He turned away from her, feeling the hot flush rise up above his collar.
“You did, didn't you?” She smirked. “You had sex with your own half sisters. You're a disgusting, perverted—”
“They're not our half sisters.” He grabbed her by the arm and squeezed it. “Do not dignify what they are.”
“Did you tell them that while you were putting it to them?” She was still smirking, even though he knew his grip must be hurting her arm. “Did you make it clear to each of them that you were
not
fucking your sister?”
“Don't make me hurt you,” he said. “And don't pretend that your hands are clean in all this. We have a legacy to protect, a name that used to mean something, and don't ever forget that. Besides, don't pretend for one minute that you'd be happy about having to share all geat-grandmother Gardner's china and silver with all your
half
sisters.”
She yanked her arm away and took a step back. “So what do we do now?”
He shrugged and sat back in his chair at his desk. “You tell me. You're the idea person. I'm just the grunt who carries out your every whim.”
“Stop it, JJ.” She exhaled and looked almost defeated for a moment.
He knew better. His sister—his
real
sister—was never to be counted out.
“The investigator has been here. She talked to Dad.”
“How do you know he talked to her?”
“I found that card on the table when he was leaving just now. When I asked him about it, he said she was someone who was looking for a missing person that she thought he might know something about.” She sat on the edge of his bed. “He said it was a conversation for another time because he was in a hurry and didn't want to miss his tee time.”
“You really think he's going to explain how he got his rocks off years ago for a little cash, and how all those chickens scattered up and down the east coast are coming home to roost?”
“I didn't press him. The important thing is that she knows that Dad is Donor 1735. How do you suppose she figured it out?”
“Easy. One of the donor-sibling boys gave Belle some of their DNA.” With a few strokes on the keyboard, he pulled up Emme's email asking who the DNA donor was. “Read it and weep.”
He turned the screen in her direction.
“Swell,” she muttered after she'd finished reading. “That's just swell. Who do you think it was?”
“My first guess would have been Henry.”
“Well, then, let's just email Henry and ask him … oh, right.” She snapped her fingers. “We can't. You killed him. I guess we'll have to go to plan B.”
“Very funny. He and Lori were going to meet
Emme Caldwell and Belle's uncle. They would have told them everything they knew.”
“Who are you kidding?” The smirk was back. “You have no idea what they knew or what they didn't know. You just wanted to get your hands on Lori.”
She leaned closer and whispered in his ear. “Was she worth it? Was she that good?”
“Actually,” he whispered back, “she was.”
She rolled her eyes. “So how many are left?”
“The twins and Hayley.” He held up three fingers, then he added two more, and grinned. “And Ava and Justin.”
“Leave Hayley alone.” Her eyes went hard.
“We'll see.”
“No, she's just a kid, J.J. You leave her out of this.”
“And when she figures out she's the last man standing? Then what?”
“You leave that to me. But you give me your word, you don't touch her.”
“Fine.” He held up both hands as if in surrender. “Hayley's untouchable. Not that I would have. As you say, she's just a kid. I really do have some standards, you know.”
“Right. I seem to recall those
standards
going right out the window when it came to Jessica. She wasn't much older than Hayley.”
“Jessica looked like she was twenty.” He waved her off.
“Yeah, well, that's what started this whole mess. You couldn't keep it in your pants, and the next thing I know, you're coming back from Florida with a dead girl in the trunk of your car.”
“She was the one who insisted that we get together,” he reminded her. “I wouldn't have thought of—”
“Spare me. You couldn't wait to get your hands on her once you saw her picture.”
“She was pretty hot, you have to admit.”
“I bailed you out of that one. Now I'm wondering if I should have.”
He laughed out loud. “I have to admit, ‘My dad just got transferred to France and we're moving to Paris’ was a pretty good cover. Which of course would not have worked if I hadn't brought her laptop back with me so that she could occasionally check in with the group.”
“That's quite a collection you've got, isn't it? Jessica's, Belle's, Lori's.”
“And Ali's. Don't forget Ali's. You have to admit, they've come in real handy.” He smiled. “It's sort of my version of keeping my friends close and my enemies closer.”
She pushed at his chest and walked to the door. “When you get serious about figuring out what we do next, you let me know.”
“I already have it figured out,” he told her calmly. “Sit yourself back down and listen. I'm going to need you to set this up…”
O
kay, what was the first thing you noticed about that photograph of Gardner's daughter?” Emme turned to Nick as soon as they were in the car.
“That the silver frame it was in was probably worth more than your car?”
“Funny man.” She turned the key in the ignition. “Who did she look like?”
He thought it over. “Like Belle. Hayley. And the picture Ali sent us of Lori.”
“And the son. He reminded me of one of the other boys. The first thing I'm going to do when we get back to the office is pull up those photos on my laptop.”
“Well, one thing you can say for the guy, his gene pool is pretty damn consistent. There is a resemblance among those kids. But what did you think of him? Do you think he was telling the truth?”
“I do. I think he was totally caught off guard about the whole thing. I think he really expected us to be envoys of some sort from Robert, and I think this was the first he's heard about these kids looking for him. I believed him when he said he did it for the money and
then promptly forgot about it. I don't think he ever spent two seconds wondering what might come from all those donations he made way back then.”
“So you don't think he's involved in Belle's disappearance?”
“No, I don't. I know you were hoping we'd find the answer in that house, but everything tells me the man knew nothing about all this until we told him.”
“Did you think his reaction was strange? About the kids disappearing?”
“No, I think it was spot-on for a man in his position. Look, something he did twenty or so years ago, with little or no thought to its consequences beyond the obvious financial benefit—except maybe to do something good for someone else, someone like your sister, for example, who wanted a child—has just come back, big time, into his world. I'm sure he was shocked to hear about the kids getting together and trying to find him, and I'm sure he was shocked to hear that so many of them have disappeared. But he's a man of considerable means and stature. He's not going to open his doors to these kids. He's going to stay as removed as possible, and frankly, I don't know that I blame him.”
She turned onto Route 50 and headed for the bridge.
“He has a lovely family and a high-profile career to protect. He's going to protect those things. But my gut tells me he didn't know about any of this until we told him.”
“So where do we go from here?” Nick asked.
His phone rang before she could respond. “Hold that thought,” he said as he answered it. A minute
later, he hung up and asked, “What number should I call to get Robert on the phone?”
“You can use the same number you call for me, then when it asks you for an extension, just put in R-O-B.”
“Give me the number again, please.”
While he tapped in the number, she slanted a glance in his direction. He caught her eye and said, “I located a car that Robert might want to look at.”
She smiled. If she knew Robert as well as she thought she'd come to know him, Robert would want to look
now
.
Listening to Nick's side of the conversation proved her right. Once he completed the call, he turned to her and said, “Robert wants to see the car first thing tomorrow. To say he sounded enthused would be an understatement.” He put his phone back into his pocket and leaned back against the seat.
“Where's the car you're going to look at?”
“Indiana. Robert said he'd line up a plane if I can make the arrangements with the owner.” He smiled. “It must be nice.”
“I heard he has his own plane. No surprise. He can afford it. He doesn't seem to travel a whole lot, though. Mostly stays around the house or does things with Kevin. Father Kevin, his cousin. They golf and stuff like that.”
“It must be tough, losing your wife and child. Not knowing.”
“He may never know,” she told him. “I think it's going on two years since they disappeared. That's not good. After a certain amount of time has passed, it's unlikely—”
She stopped, biting back the words before they could leave her mouth.
“It's all right, Emme. I know the odds about finding Belle. I just hope we can get to the bottom of it.”
“Me, too. For both your sakes.”
He glanced over at her and in response to his unasked question, she added, “Yours and Belle's.”
•
“I can't remember when I last saw Robert so excited about anything.” Trula wandered into Emme's office around lunchtime the following day. “He just called a few minutes ago; they're on their way home. He bought this car Nick found for him and he sounded so happy. He said that Nick is going to fix it for him.”
Emme smiled. “Restore.” She corrected Trula as Nick had corrected her. “Nick would tell you that he restores cars, he doesn't fix them.”
“Whatever he's going to do to it, Robert is just so enthused. It's good to see him interested in something again. Even if it is just a car. He's been at such loose ends for so long now.”
“It was nice of you to send them off with such a great breakfast this morning.” Emme put her pen down and turned from her computer. “Even nicer of you to have made enough for the rest of us, too.”
“Well, I couldn't very well have fed the three of them and not the three of you growing girls—Suse, Mal, and yourself.” Trula draped herself over the back of one of the wing chairs near Emme's desk. “I know that Kevin likes bacon with his eggs, and I know that Robert likes pancakes, so it made sense to
keep them both happy. Your Nick seemed to like everything.”
“He's not my Nick.” Emme averted her eyes and turned back to her laptop.
“Well, he's the Nick who's involved in that case of yours. He's what we used to call a handsome devil.”
When Emme didn't respond in any way, Trula sat in the chair. “Don't you think he's a good-looking boy?”
“Very.” Emme pretended to read her email.
“Nice, too. Polite. Chloe sure likes him a lot. She told me all about the trip to the zoo. I'll bet she didn't leave out one second of the day. Said he took you both out to dinner on the way back and promised to take her to one of those amusement parks where they have all the wild animals roaming around.” Trula smiled. “She also said he came back to your room and—”
“He came back to the hotel with us so he could carry Chloe upstairs. She fell asleep over dinner.”
“No need to be so defensive, Emme.”
“I just wouldn't want you to think that …”
“Why? You're a lovely young woman, and he's … well, we've already established what he is. And Chloe likes him. What's the problem?”
“The problem is that Chloe likes him.” Emme gave up. When Trula wanted to talk about something, damn it, you were going to
talk
. “Look, since I adopted Chloe, I've made it a point to not get involved with anyone.”
“Are you telling me you haven't had a date in four years?” Both of Trula's eyebrows rose almost to her hairline.
“No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I haven't gotten involved with anyone in particular because I didn't want her to get attached to someone who wasn't going to be around.”
“Don't go so fast. You haven't met anyone you liked in four years?”