Sam stayed out of sight until Maeve entered the open door, and then she began to run.
She had no idea where to go, but she knew she had to get out of there. Her eyes stung with tears and fury at Maeve’s betrayal as she dashed for the woods, needing to lose herself in the trees so they couldn’t see her. She made sure to avoid the trail Lincoln had pointed out—they would look there for her. As soon as she was a relatively safe distance away, hidden in the forest, she stopped to call Conor for help.
That’s when she realized that her phone was in her bag, the one Maeve had seen in the front seat of Lincoln’s car. She couldn’t go back for it; her only chance was to start running again, to keep going as fast and as far away as she could.
Tuesday, July 6; 3:30 p.m.
“We’ve got to locate Miranda,” Conor said, focused on finding Kate. “And given the connection Sam noticed between her and Leo, we should find him too.”
“Could Miranda be on the boat with him? Did you hear an engine in the background when she called?” Tom asked.
“There was background noise, but I’m not sure what it was. She talked in a low voice—someone was there, and she didn’t want them to hear what she was saying about Kate.”
“About Kate being next,” Tom said.
“Kate’s already been taken,” Conor said, berserk over that fact.
“You don’t know that.”
“You saw that room in Fernando’s house. Her car’s there, and she’s not. They’ve got her somewhere. I should have gone with her.”
“Let’s focus on what we know,” Tom said.
Conor had called Uncle Mike to ask if he knew the name of Leo’s boat or where he docked it. Mike didn’t know the boat’s name, but he remembered that Leo had mentioned that he kept it at Breakwater Marina in South Kingston. Tom said he knew the manager there, so he made the call. Both calls steps in finding Kate, but time was ticking by. Conor knew that anything could be happening to her, and every minute that passed meant that she was farther away from him, in greater danger.
He waited impatiently while his brother spoke with Henry, the boatyard manager. It was a short conversation—summer days at any New England marina meant busy times and long hours for yard managers. Clearly Tom and Henry had known each other for years, so Tom used sailor shorthand to get the information he needed.
“What did he say?” Conor asked.
“First, Leo told Henry the same thing he told us—that he’s heading to Block Island. He said that Leo sometimes takes women out on the boat, rarely the same one twice, and he doesn’t remember anyone named Miranda. He saw Leo when he was getting ready to leave today, and he had a friend with him. A judge from Providence.”
“A judge? Did he give you a name?” Conor asked.
“Yes,” Tom said. “Randall Flook. Do you know him?”
“No, I don’t know many Rhode Island judges. We can ask Uncle Mike about him. What else did he say?” Conor asked.
“He told me the name of Leo’s boat,” Tom said. “You’re not going to believe this.”
“What?” Conor asked.
“Rosebud,” Tom said. “Like inCitizen Kane—it’s the last word spoken in the movie, the main character’s obsession—he says it on his deathbed. Guess Leo’s a film buff.”
“That’s not it,” Conor said, his heart smashing in his chest. “An obsession, yes, but of a different kind.Beauty and the Beast.”
“How does that work?”
“Belle asks her father to bring her back a rose from his business trip. He picks one, but it’s from the Beast’s garden, and the Beast says he has to trade his daughter if he wants to stay alive. The father hands Belle over to him ... she becomes the Beast’s prisoner.”
“Like the women onPsyche,” Tom said.
“And maybe onRosebud,” Conor said, feeling sick. “This can’t be a coincidence—it’s all too close. Leo is in on this, Tom. He’s part of the whole thing.”
38
Tuesday, July 6; 3:45 p.m.
Kate sat in the back seat of Crispin’s Range Rover as they drove away from Enchanted Petals, feeling as if she was living in a nightmare tableau staged by a surrealist. Jean Cocteau couldn’t have done it better. She was sitting between Suzanne and a girl she had never met before. Crispin sat in the front passenger seat.
