But she heard the barn door creak as it was opened, her gut told her to do the opposite. She made herself very small and hid behind the firewood rack.
“I told you, Dad—no one’s here,” Lincoln said.
“Then whose purse is in your front seat?” Crispin Adams asked.
“A friend’s. She forgot it when I dropped her off earlier,” Lincoln said.
“What friend?”
“You don’t know her, Dad,” Lincoln said.
“How old is she?” his father asked.
There was a long silence when Lincoln didn’t answer. Sam’s heart was pounding. What a strange question—what would his father care about Lincoln’s friend’s age?
“How old is this friend?” his father pressed. “Is she a possibility?”
“Forget it, Dad,” Lincoln said. “Let’s get out of the barn, okay? It’s damp, and it smells like mold.”
“I’d like to know what you were doing in here,” his father said. “You seemed very secretive when I saw you closing the door behind you.”
“No,” he said. “I was just looking for some rat poison. Some animal has practically decimated the annuals. I was going to put traps in the greenhouse and garden.”
“Little fuckers,” his father said.
“Yeah, the dahlias are basically gone.”
“I’m glad you called. I need your help, and this can’t wait, Lincoln,” his father said. “The police are getting close. We have to move the party, got it?”
“Got it,” Lincoln mumbled, dropping his voice.
“Don’t sound so sullen. You’re my son, and this is your inheritance. Be proud.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Lincoln said.
Sam stayed where she was until their voices faded and she heard the rasp of the barn door being pushed shut. She poked her head up, saw that the door was still cracked open a few inches, and crept forward. She glanced outside and didn’t see anyone, so she squeezed through the door’s narrow opening. She walked softly to the edge of the barn and peered around the corner to see the driveway.
Parked right behind Lincoln’s Mercedes was a black Range Rover just like the one Sam had seen on the video, stopping on Bluff Avenue to pick up Maeve and her captor. Lincoln was standing there with his father and a woman with her back turned. She heard someone calling loudly from inside the Range Rover and practically jumped. Was that Kate’s voice?
“This is beyond the pale. Can you shut her up?” Crispin Adams asked.
“Of course, Crispin,” the woman said.
When she turned to Lincoln, Sam saw her face and gasped.
“Maybe your father believed you about no one being in the barn, but I don’t,” Maeve said. “I recognize that purse in your car. It belongs to Sam Lathrop. Were you really so stupid as to bring her here?”
“Maeve . . .” Lincoln began.
“You idiot. Now Sam is part of it. Go get her, and we’ll bring her with us, along with her aunt.”
Sam held her hand to her mouth.ThatisKate in the car, she thought.
“No way,” Lincoln said. “Leave Sam alone.”
“You’re an idiot. I’ll get her myself,” Maeve said, sounding furious.
They have Kate, they have Kate, and Maeve’s part of it, Sam thought, shaking with panic. She pulled back, hiding around the corner, just as Maeve started toward the barn.
