28

Keller stood in the building’s parking garage, behind the large pillar in a dark alcove—exactly where Lira told him to meet.

The click clack of Lira’s dress shoes got louder as they approached Keller, five minutes late.

“I got detained,” Lira said in a low voice. “The au pair is becoming a potential liability. I may need you to deal with her.”

Keller, whose back was to the wall, glanced around over Lira’s shoulder. There was no one nearby. “What kind of liability?”

“She feels guilty about the kidnapping. I don’t want her to do something stupid if she gets too anxious.”

“Stupid like … what?”

Lira shrugged. “Who knows? Talks to people. Walks into the Tribune. Or goes to the police.”

“She thinks the cops are already involved. Want Investigator Carr to pay her another visit, tell her we’ve made progress and that we’re negotiating her release?”

Lira considered that a moment. “I want you focused on finding Melissa. I’m sending Giselle home to Germany in a few hours. If she doesn’t get in the car with my driver or refuses to get on the plane, yeah. Go see her. But if she doesn’t bite, you’re gonna have to make her disappear for a couple weeks, until after the IPO launches.”

Keller absorbed that without comment. That was certainly possible—but not easy to pull off. He would need to bring Tait into it and have another operative dispatched to drug her and transport her to a black site. They could even sedate her and fly her back to Germany on a private charter. If it became necessary, they could keep her drugged and at a secure location for a month. He would have to do some research on Giselle, but if the Ellises were onboard with the plan, and no one back home would miss talking to her, they could pull it off. When she was finally released, she would be so afraid of the people who abducted her, she would keep her mouth shut.

Keller glanced around, ever vigilant. “Keep me informed.”

“Will do.” Lira shoved his hands into his wool overcoat pockets. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Trying to get a complete picture of who this Amy Robbins woman is and why she’d want to kidnap a young girl.”

“Why’s that important?”

“Get to know the person you’re looking for, what her motives are, you can get a line on where she is, or may be headed. I’ve done some poking around and it seems that Robbins’s husband and daughter were killed several years ago in a car accident.”

“Okay.”

“And she and her husband needed help to get pregnant. They went through IVF at a Boston fertility clinic. That clinic had a fire a few years ago and—”

“Let me stop you right there, Mickey. I’m not paying you to ask questions. I’m not paying you to play detective. I am paying you for one thing right now. Get the girl back. Help me manage this situation without the cops or media getting involved. Pretty fuckin’ clear. You going to do that? Or do I have to call Tait and tell him this isn’t working out?”

“Nothing’s changed, Angelo. I just wanted to let you know what I’d found in case it mattered to you. I know you’ve got a business deal in place and, well, things may not be kosher. This could cause some problems, so I wanted you to have a heads-up.”

Lira yanked on his tie and opened the top button of his dress shirt. “Okay. Fine. I appreciate the tip. Meantime, find the girl. Let me worry about the details.”

“Got it. Keep you posted.”

Keller waited a couple of minutes after Lira left, then walked out of the garage and headed to his car, which he had parked on the street. It gave him some time to think.

He could not pass up the payday. That was clear. But despite his expectations when he took this case, he again found himself on the wrong side of the tracks, propping up the bad guy and contributing nothing to society.

How much longer he could do this, he was not sure.