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She stood up and looked down at them. “You have no idea of the depth of hatred that you’re trying to bring into the light. It will eat up the good.”
After a quick glance at Kate, she called the guard and he opened the door for them to leave. Her dismissal of them didn’t make Chet soften his attack. Obsessions aren’t destroyed by a few scary words. His voice was barely more than a whisper. “Just so you know, I can identify the kidnapper. Cross my heart.” He made the gesture on his chest where he’d seen the birthmark. When Tayla’s face went pale, he got up and walked out without a backward glance.
Jack paused by her. “Sara is on your side.” He stepped out of the cell.
Kate kissed Tayla’s cheek, but she said nothing. There wasn’t anything she could say.
Tayla caught her arm. “Nobody is what they seem.” She started to say more but the guard separated them.
* * *
Carl was hiding again. His weight loss was good for slipping into small spaces and his age and lack of good looks were assets. No one paid any attention to a skinny old man.
As he waited for the young woman, he thought back to when it all began.
After his dear wife died, he’d been so alone. They’d been together since they were fourteen. It had been her idea to start manufacturing ink cartridges. She said, “Someday every house in America is going to have a printer and they’ll need ink.” The bank thought the idea was ridiculous—you just pour the ink into the machine, right? Ink was cheap so there was no money to be made in that. Carl and his wife had borrowed and hocked things until they could start a small company. It flourished. Eventually, he bought a high-rise and rented out the floors his company didn’t use.
For years, he’d been a happy man. They weren’t blessed with children but they had each other.
She died when they were in their fifties. She had a headache, took a nap, and never woke up. People said he should be glad she hadn’t suffered. But Carl hadn’t been glad about anything.
One thing that had especially distressed him was that he was suddenly considered “a catch.” He had money in the bank but he was also fat and losing his hair—but still women went after him. All of them seemed to think that he needed to have “fun.” To them, that meant getting drunk and dancing all night. He just wanted to watch a movie, or sit in the shade and read a book.
Wherever he went for lunch, a restaurant or in his office, some female would “accidentally” show up there.
Out of frustration, he took his packed lunch and went into a broom closet to eat. He did this three times before he was disturbed. One day the door was opened by a woman. She was fortyish and not especially pretty, but then, neither was his late wife. He wasn’t attracted to the supermodel type. She was curvy, also like his wife was. She jumped in surprise when she saw him, and he had to coax her to stay. He found out that she worked on another floor and didn’t know who he was. She said she was escaping giggling girls in her office who wanted to spend lunchtime talking about men. “There’s some guy on the twelfth floor who is a recent widower. All of the women brag that they’re going to get him. I feel sorry for the poor man. They’re clearly after his money.” He didn’t tell her that he was their prey.
He and Janet began to meet in the closet every day. She shared her home-cooked lunches with him. He managed to keep his identity secret from her for weeks, but when she found out, she was hurt. She suffered in such a sweet way that he felt strong and protective.
However, it didn’t get serious between them until he found out that her parents had left her money. She had her own wealth, so even though she knew about his money, she didn’t see him as a living bank account.
When they were married three months later, Janet had insisted on inviting every female who worked in the building Carl owned. All two hundred and seventy-one of them. At the reception, she told him that she wanted the women to see that she’d won. Carl Olsen had never seen himself as a prize to be fought for, but it certainly felt good. For the second time in his life, he had found someone who saw him as a person to be treasured. His second wedding was as happy as his first one.
That was years ago and he didn’t like to think about what happened after the wedding ended. But that was the cause of what he had to do now.
He’d followed Sara Medlar to a hotel because she had Zelly in her car with her. He knew that Janet had practically adopted the young woman, but he’d also seen Zelly with Lisa. She thought Carl hadn’t seen the scraggly-haired woman hiding behind her, but he had. He knew of Zelly’s connection to the women but he didn’t know how much she knew.
Carl waited by the pool, unnoticed, until Sara left, then he checked into the hotel. After he’d purchased swim gear and a change of clothes in the gift shop, he went out to the pool. As he’d expected, Zelly was there in a tiny bikini and flirting with the staff.
He would have liked the time to draw her in, but he couldn’t afford it. He told her that he was Janet’s ex and that Chet Dakon and he used to work together. Chet had asked him to look after her. “For Janet’s sake.”
“That’s good,” she said. “Those people are too dumb to know when there’s trouble. I tried to tell them but they wouldn’t listen.”
“Yeah, that’s what Chet says too. I bet you know a lot.”
Zelly smiled. “More than they think I do. They talk when I’m around ’cause they think I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Carl laughed in a way that said the joke was on them. “I bet you saw the files.” He’d seen them being unloaded.
“They tried to keep it a secret, but I think he has a picture of some kidnapper.”
“Oh.” Carl swallowed. “A photo?”
“Maybe. But those three—you know?”
“Jack and Sara and Kate?”
“That’s them. They keep whispering that they know something they don’t want him to know. I think they’re hiding something really big. They’re worried what will happen if that cop finds out what it is.”
