Mariah Stewart - Cry Mercy

“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…”

Okay, 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.”