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A sensation like heady relief washed over Sandor and he had to fight to keep his voice level. “Who does Ellie say the woman is?”
“Her twin sister, kidnapped from the hospital almost immediately after their birth. There were no leads and the baby just disappeared. No request for a ransom was ever made.”
It took several seconds for Sandor to assimilate Hawk’s words because they were so different than anything he would have expected the other man to answer. “I did not know Ellie had a sister.”
“Neither did she.”
“Her father did not tell her?”
“No and I get the feeling he’s on her black list at the moment.”
“Along with me.”
“Afraid so.”
Sandor swore, but he still felt lighter than he had in a long time. Ellie had not gone to another man’s bed. Shewas his. “How did she find out?”
“She knew the pictures were not of her.”
“So, she immediately thought she had a twin?”
“No. She told me she tried to believe the woman was just a doppelgänger, but her instincts were telling her otherwise, so she searched her birth records.”
“And discovered another baby had been born?”
“Yes. I verified the birth records and newspaper accounts of the kidnapping as well as the fact that Miss Wentworth was staying in a small hotel in a town further along the coast than Barcelona during the time my agent was following her twin and Menendez around the city.”
Trust Hawk to have double-checked the facts to be sure.
“I see. What are the chances they would have been in Spain at the same time?”
“Slim, but in my line of work, you learn to accept that kind of thing does happen. A lot more often than people want to believe.”
“I believe.”
“It upset her.”
“You mean Ellie? What upset her?”
“That she was so close to her unknown sister and that they did not meet.”
“She is no doubt upset about a lot of things right now.”
Hawk’s silence was agreement enough.
“Have you spoken to Wentworth yet?” Sandor asked.
“He’s the next call I’m making.”
“Let me know what you find out.”
“No can do. Telling you I am looking is a courtesy, but in this case, Eleanor Wentworth is my client.”
“Understood.”
Sandor picked up the phone and dialed Ellie’s number. She didn’t answer and he wasn’t surprised. She had caller ID. He tried three more times before deciding his best alternative would be to do what they had both said they did not want for him to do ever…return to her apartment.
He’d changed his mind, but he was under no illusions that she was in a similar place. Getting through the door was going to be no easy task. She’d said she never wanted to see him again. And she’d meant it. But he had not gotten to where he was by giving up.
He was on his way to her apartment when his cell phone rang.
It was Hawk again.
“What is it?” he asked without preamble.
“When I called to try to talk to George Wentworth, I discovered he had been rushed to a nearby private hospital. He was found collapsed on his office floor two hours ago.”
“Did someone call Ellie?”
“She’s not answering her phone.”
“I am on my way to her apartment right now.”
“Good. When you see her, tell her I’m working on finding her sister.”
“Will do.”
He tried calling Ellie’s apartment again, but there was still no answer.
His next call was to his mother. That conversation was almost as difficult as the one he anticipated with the woman he fully intended to claim once again.
Sandor knocked on Ellie’s door, having gained access to the building without her assistance. She hadn’t been answering her apartment buzzer, either.
There was no answer to his knock. That did not surprise him, either, but he did not give up, knocking again. No sound came from the other side of the steel door.
The next time he knocked, he called her name. Then called out, “Ellie, it is Sandor. I have news of your father.”
Still nothing.
He strode quickly to the apartment that housed her security detail and banged on the door.
A tall man in his fifties, but obviously fit, opened the door almost immediately. “Yes?”
“You know who I am.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Has Miss Wentworth left her apartment this evening?”
“No, sir.”
“Are you certain?”
