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“She’s not here...but she usually is. Isn’t that what you told me?”
“She broke her leg. Are you implying she broke her own leg deliberately? So she wouldn’t be suspected?”
“I’m not implying anything,” Mei-li said in her reasonable way. “I’m merely pointing out the possibilities.”
“No.”
“But—”
“No! Not Hannah.”
“Then Mike or Rafe. Someone is involved.”
“Mike’s an ex-cop.”
Her face was impassive. “And Rafe was a US marine before he retired.” She let that statement lie there for several seconds, then said, “We don’t really have to know who. Not at this point. But we do have to keep whatever we find out to ourselves from now on. That’s not going to be easy.”
“You’re right. It won’t.” An idea occurred to him, an unpalatable one. But if Mei-li had raised the question of Hannah, then... “There’s one other person it could be,” he told her.
She frowned. “Who?”
“Patrick.”
“Patrick?” The suggestion had obviously taken her by surprise. “No,” she insisted, shaking her head. “That’s impossible.”
“Why impossible? Patrick has my cell phone number—I gave it to him the very first day he drove me.”
“Patrick called me in on this case.”
“Yes, but if he’s involved he knows you don’t have any experience in kidnapping for revenge. And it’s the perfect cover.” His voice dropped a notch. “He’s no more impossible than Hannah, but you didn’t hesitate to suggest her.”
“And you immediately ruled her out. I’m doing the same for Patrick.”
“Because he’s your cousin?”
“Because I know him!”
“Are you willing to bet my daughters’ lives on it?”
The words were uttered in such an intense undertone that Mei-li didn’t answer right away. Then her eyes widened in something akin to shock. “No,” she breathed. “I’m not willing to bet your daughters’ lives...not on anything.” She drew a deep, shuddering breath. “That means I can’t trust anyone but you and—” For a minute it looked as if she was going to say something else, but changed her mind. “You have to promise me the same—trust no one but me.”
Dirk touched her cheek, emotion washing through him as he realized he’d be completely alone...completely isolated...if not for Mei-li. His voice was husky when he said, “I promise.”
They stared at each other for several seconds, and Dirk wondered what she was thinking. Wondered if she was feeling what he was feeling, if she felt the tug of the strong bond that seemed to exist between them. He almost asked her, but then she blinked and her next words broke the spell. “Do you have a computer?”
“A laptop. But if you need something printed, you’ll have to go downstairs to the business center.”
She shook her head. “I already forwarded the email to myself to check it out at home, but if you have a laptop we can do it right here. Those GPS coordinates?” she reminded him when he raised a questioning eyebrow.
He hadn’t forgotten—well...yes he had. Seeing Linden and Laurel, so obviously terrified, their faces covered with tears, had driven everything else out of his mind. But Mei-li hadn’t forgotten. She seemed to think of everything. “Let me get my laptop,” he said, fitting word to deed. He was back in less than a minute. He set the laptop on the dining room table, sat down, powered it on and keyed in the password to unlock his user profile. He paused for a minute when his desktop appeared—a picture of Linden and Laurel in happier times, posing with their favorite cartoon characters. He remembered that day he’d taken them to Hong Kong’s branch of a child’s fantasy resort. They were really too young to fully appreciate it, but how could he pass up the opportunity? And when he’d tucked them into bed that night—exhausted but happy—both girls had twined their arms around his neck and hugged him. Pressed their tiny rosebud mouths against his cheeks, and—
“Don’t,” Mei-li told him in a sharp voice, snapping him out of his emotional downward spiral. Jerking him back into the here and now. “It doesn’t help, Dirk. Honestly it doesn’t.”
“How did you know what I was thinking?”
“How could I not?” Understanding and compassion crept into her eyes. “It’s a cruel contrast. That photo,” she said, touching the laptop’s screen, “juxtaposed with the one the kidnapper sent you. It’s hard, but you can’t lose focus.”
