Chapter 29

Finn

I still couldn’t reach Elspeth and I was in full alarm mode. I felt guilty—so involved in my company fiasco that I’d ignored my responsibilities to her. In my defense, I told myself that she was being looked after in my absence in a place where she wanted for nothing, was secure and could recover from her incident without anyone demanding anything of her.

Am I being too soft on myself?

I called Neenah. “Hello?” She sounded normal, which was a good sign.

“Neenah, it’s Finn. I can’t get Elspeth to answer the phone.”

“Oh, really? There were lights on when I drove by,” she said casually.

“Did you stop in or get her on the phone?”

“No, didn’t get a chance, Finn. Is anything wrong?”

I sighed with exasperation. For whatever reason, Neenah was being obtuse, and I didn’t appreciate it. She knew very well that I was in town and unable to look in on Elspeth. She knew there were reasons for this, even if she didn’t specifically know what those were.

“Neenah, would you do me a favor, please, and go over to the house right now? I need to somehow verify she’s okay. If you can’t do it, I’ll call the emergency number.”

“Oh, no, no, don’t do that!” Her voice perked up at my veiled threat. She didn’t want her name bandied about town that she’d neglected her promise and something bad had happened due to her negligence. “I’m getting my shoes on right now. I’ll be over there in two clicks and call you as soon as I’ve talked to her.”

The line went dead, and I felt like a neutered dog. My presence in Chicago was critical at this point—it wouldn’t be flexible until at least four more days when the legal transitions had gone through. If I left now, I stood to lose my entire enterprise to the mob who backed Jerry Hanson.

I looked at the silent phone in my hand and made a decision. I phoned Pam, Leigh’s temporary replacement, and told her to order the company helicopter immediately. There was a helipad on the building’s roof, and I could make the lake house in forty-five minutes by air.

As soon as I knew, personally, that everything was okay with Elspeth, I could come back. Two hours, tops. I hoped this was an unnecessary trip—that it was just my imagination that had me so jumpy. Maybe Neenah would call back before I boarded, or had traveled the entire distance. We could always turn around.

I grabbed my laptop and headed for the roof. The phone had remained silent. I boarded the helicopter, put on my headphones, and we’d lifted off and begun heading northwest when my phone finally rang. Neenah’s name showed on the caller I.D.

“Finn, I don’t know where she is,” Neenah whined. “Everything is locked up and I can’t get in. She isn’t answering the door or her phone. But, Finn… I peeked through one of the sidelights of the front door and I can see a phone on the foyer side table. I think it’s hers. When I call her number, I can see its face blinking from here.”

I disconnected and motioned to the pilot to speed it up. Fury and fear fought for possession of my stomach.

We landed in my backyard, and Neenah was sitting in her car in the drive. I went in through the back door and called Elspeth’s name. There was no answer, nor any sound to indicate that someone was in the house. I bounded up the stairs to my bedroom and then to hers. Her closet was standing open, and I could tell by several empty hangers that she’d removed some clothes—more than one day’s outfit and less than moving out.

I sat down on the edge of her bed, my heart hammering as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

Neenah was ringing the doorbell. I didn’t want her involved—she was a consummate gossip. I casually went downstairs and opened it. “Hi, Neenah. Nothing to worry about. She left me a note. She’s just gone up north for a day drive and probably forgot her phone. I’m guessing she laid it down as she was putting on her shoes and walked out without it. Thanks for checking. Tell James hello for me, would you?”

As I spoke, I was slowly closing the door, forcing her to back up. I slid the chain in place and knew she heard the sound of it. She stood on the porch for a handful of seconds, her hands on her hips as she looked around. I could tell she was upset and calculating her next move. She finally moved off the porch, slid on her sunglasses, got into her car, and left.

Immediately, I went to the lower level, into the small room where our surveillance system was located. I fast-rewound the digital recording until I saw movement in the house. It was Elspeth, a backpack on her back and what appeared to be a suitcase in her hand. She wasn’t carrying a purse, and she laid the phone on the side table, staring at it momentarily, before she opened the door and left.

No one coerced her. She wasn’t disoriented, which was what I had feared. No, it was much worse than that. She’d left me on purpose. I switched to the feed from the garage at the same time and saw her get into the convertible and leave. Oddly, she turned right out of the drive, instead of left toward town.

I felt faintly woozy from the shock of it and my mind reeled at the overwhelming emotions I was feeling. I had to decide what to do next. The helicopter was standing by in the backyard. She’d taken her car and my Escalade was in the city, so either I had to order a loaner or get back in the copter.

I walked into the kitchen to grab something to eat, thinking the last few days were catching up with me and I needed some nourishment. That was when I saw the note on the counter.

Finn ~ I’m sorry, but I can’t lean on you any longer. The memories came back; we both knew they would. This is your world and I don’t belong here – it just took me a while to remember that. Thank you for everything. ~ Elspeth Alexander

P.S. I borrowed some money from the account, took the laptop and a few clothes you bought me. I didn’t have anything of my own. I will pay you back as soon as I can. Don’t look for me, please. It will hurt too much to leave a second time.

Alexander. That clinched it – the fear of all fears. She had remembered and now she’d gone. Why? Was she married? Wanted by the law? I would do a background check immediately, but had to clear my head and absorb what had happened.

I went back upstairs to her room. I tried to absorb her energy into my mind, grabbing her pillow to smell her scent and embed it into my memory. I couldn’t let her go. Not like this. Something was very wrong with this picture.

I stopped breathing then. A new line of thinking suddenly hit me. Is she somehow involved in this whole takeover scheme by Jerry and his friends? Has she been a plant all along, but in a very different sort of game than I remember from that movie? Or… worse yet… have they gotten to her? I just saw her leave alone and calm. Maybe they called and threatened her… maybe they knew something about her or threatened to harm me if she didn’t leave. What the fuck was going on?

That was when lightning struck. As if drawn like a magnet, my eyes went to the small white trash can next to her vanity. I stood up and headed for it, drawn by a force I couldn’t explain. There was a plastic object, about the length of a pencil lying on top. Bending to pick it out, I recognized the object to be a home pregnancy test. I turned it over, and my heart stopped. It was showing a pink plus sign. Elspeth was pregnant!

Then came the thought that threatened to split me in two.

Who was the father?

I began my strategy on the ride back to the city. I was not without contacts. The first lead came when they found her car at the ferry port. She must have crossed the lake and headed north. After all, that was where I found her. She must have had somewhere to go there, someone who knew her.

I thought about finding her in the shack, and I knew that someone had hit her at some point. How else could she have been unconscious? I just wasn’t sure whether the footprints had been someone carrying her into the shack, before they set it afire and left by a back route, or whether she’d wandered in there, confused by a fresh injury and collapsed. That didn’t explain the fire, though.

Had Marty uncovered something before he died. Was it even remotely possible that she was somehow connected to the whole mob thing and Jerry or one of his people were involved? How big could a game like this be?

I didn’t know what to think, but I knew that I wasn’t thinking clearly. I tried to process the facts, but a pair of huge blue eyes and waist-length curls kept confusing my thoughts.