With very little prompting, Manda told me the story of her captivity and release. It didn’t take long. She had seen or heard nothing that would help to identify her kidnappers. She thought there were three or possibly four of them. They had been of similar size and weight, had spoken with no discernible accent, never used names, and had worn shiny chain store sports clothing and gloves and masks at all times.
In other words, they were professionals.
She recounted the tale with a dry wit, and a lack of self-pity or exaggeration that I found intriguing.
‘How much did they demand for your return?’
‘One million.’ She said it casually, as though it was too small a sum to be worth mentioning. ‘Wired direct to an account in the Caymans.’ She shrugged again. ‘My father had been dead six months by then. The trustees eventually agreed to pay half.’
Half a million dollars. Cheap, by heiress standards. Not much to split between three or four perpetrators, for four days of high tension and no doubt months of planning leading up to that. Perhaps that explained why they’d found another victim comparatively quickly.
‘Benedict was taken not long after me,’ Manda said, matter-of-fact. She had her hands wrapped around her bare arms, gently rubbing her own skin as if for comfort as much as warmth, but the night had begun to turn chilly so I couldn’t read too much into it. ‘I didn’t know him then. We didn’t get together until afterward.’ She smiled. ‘Not many people understand what you went through, unless they’ve been there.’
‘Was he taken by the same means?’
Manda shook her head. ‘Not really – car trouble. He’d gotten a flat and called OnStar assistance, and he was waiting for them to arrive when they grabbed him.’
‘He’d called out help to change a wheel?’ I queried, unable to keep the surprise out of my voice entirely, but Manda just gave me a wry glance where the old Amanda would have sulked.
‘His folks gave him a tricked-out Cadillac Escalade on these huge chromed wheels,’ she explained. ‘He said it was a two-man job, taking them on and off. And it was kinda dark, and raining.’
Another roadside ambush. I made a mental note to be particularly vigilant when Dina and I were out in the car. I’d arrived at the Willners’ place on my motorbike, a Buell Firebolt, and I’d been using whatever was in their garage since, like Dina’s Merc. Maybe I’d call Parker in the morning about using one of the company SUVs, which had a certain amount of non-standard reinforcement in the bodywork and chassis, and run-flat tyres.
‘Did his kidnap follow the same pattern as yours?’ I asked now.
‘If you mean did they threaten to kill him – slowly and painfully – if the police were called in?’ she demanded. ‘Then, yes, it did.’
‘And the amount they wanted was the same?’
Another head shake, harder this time. ‘This time, they wanted two million.’ She saw my reaction and added with a surprisingly resentful edge, ‘That amount is loose change to the Benelli family.’
‘And how much did they get?’
She gave me a cool straight stare. ‘Two million.’
‘They paid up the whole amount, just like that?’ This time I didn’t bother to hide my disbelief. Such a move was not only practically unheard of, it was also unwise and possibly downright bloody dangerous.
Unless …
Manda was watching my face. She levered upright abruptly and began to turn away. ‘No. It wasn’t just like that at all.’
I heard something quiet and brittle in her voice, took a step after her. ‘Manda, what—’
‘Hey, Manda, what’s the matter – you don’t love me anymore?’
A figure had appeared from one of the brightly lit doorways and was standing silhouetted against the light, with a glass of champagne in one hand and the other still stuffed into his pocket. Benedict’s usual studied pose.
‘Of course I do, honey,’ she called, almost bringing off a relaxed drawl while at the same time shooting me a warning glance. ‘Charlie and I were just catching up on the bad old days.’
Benedict sauntered across the deck, looking darkly handsome and completely aware of his own animal magnetism. He draped the arm with the champagne glass around Manda’s shoulders.
‘Come,’ he commanded, giving her a narrow-eyed pout that, to my mind, made him look both sleepy and grumpy. Never two of my favourite dwarves. Each to his – or her – own.
I would have expected her to laugh off this display of machismo, but Manda gave me a vague smile and allowed him to lead her away. I watched their departing backs and wondered what the hell had been so different about Benedict’s kidnapping that his parents were prepared to pay up, in full, an amount that was four times what had been accepted before. And why Manda was so wary of talking about it in front of him. Not for the first time, I cursed the lack of investigation that had taken place into these crimes.
Shrugging off the irritation, I checked the time – a little after two – wondering when I could legitimately insist we pack it in. The night still classified as young, if this lot were anything to go by. I began to feel correspondingly old.
The watch was a cheap-and-cheerful model I’d bought to navigate by on a job in California. Sean had given me a beautiful Tag Heuer when we’d first moved out to live and work in America, twelve months before. The day they flew him back to New York, still in his coma, I’d put the Tag away in a bedside drawer and decided only to get it out again when he was awake to see it.
I’d hoped to have been wearing it again long before now.
I sighed, glanced up at the deck where Dina had been dancing a few minutes before, only to find she was no longer in plain sight.
Swearing under my breath, I headed for the nearest staircase that curved around the superstructure to the upper deck. Nothing.
Working in a logical pattern, I began a sweep of the yacht, checking cabins and walk-in lockers as well as the more crowded areas. It was amazing, the kind of places I found occupied for clandestine reasons, but none of the fumbling encounters I interrupted involved Dina – willing or otherwise. The minutes ticked by, and my anxiety level rose with each one.
Finally, I found Hunt, lounging on one of the built-in sofas that lined one of the smaller sun decks, playing with his iPhone.
‘Where’s Dina?’ I demanded.
Hunt looked up sharply, apparently taken by surprise at my approach. The heels were not only low, they were quiet, too, and the fact he had the phone’s earpieces in place hadn’t helped.
He slid the whole lot into his pocket before uncrossing his legs and rising from the sumptuous cream upholstery with an elegant smile. ‘She’s having a heart-to-heart with Orlando in one of the staterooms, I think,’ he said. ‘Did you want her for anything in particular?’
I gritted my teeth. Yeah, so I can do my job. ‘I just need to know where she is, that’s all.’
‘Relax, Charlie.’ His tone was gently chiding, as though I was taking all this much too seriously. ‘She said if you came looking for her, to tell you she was OK but wanted to talk privately, and you were to just chill out and wait for her.’
‘Nice of her,’ I said shortly, ‘but that’s not how it works.’
He moved in front of me, still affable. ‘Do you really think a kid like Dina is a likely prospect for a kidnapping?’
‘Was Orlando considered at risk?’ I asked quietly. ‘Were any of them?’ He didn’t answer. I sighed. ‘Dina’s parents are not exactly on the poverty line, and she’s twenty – hardly a kid anymore. She’s a legitimate target, and it’s my job to see that she stays safe.’ I started to turn away, mind already on finding the staterooms, when Hunt’s question stopped me dead.
‘Have you considered that she might not want to feel safe?’
‘What?’
‘She might not want to feel safe,’ he repeated. ‘Her father lives in Europe – Vienna, I think. Dina was supposed to go and stay with her old man for the summer to get her out of the way, but she’s refusing. You didn’t know,’ he added flatly, seeing my face. ‘So, how exactly are you supposed to protect her, Charlie, if they haven’t told you what’s going on?’
‘Good question,’ I muttered, already on the move. ‘When I find that one out, I’ll let you know.’
I went below. The first familiar face I encountered there was the last person I wanted to bump into again that night.
Torquil.
I was rushing along a plushly carpeted internal corridor when he came out of a cabin just ahead of me, pulling the door closed behind him. He gave a kind of start when he saw me, face colouring furiously as recognition flashed in, and he muscled sideways as if intending to block my path.
‘I’m in a hurry and not in the mood,’ I said tightly. ‘Which stateroom is Dina in with Orlando?’
His head jerked with shock and I suddenly realised how my question might be misconstrued. Give me strength!
‘I believe they’re only talking. But I need to find Dina,’ I explained. Still he hesitated, but when I checked his face I saw indecision rather than obstruction, and tried a more reasonable approach. ‘Look, Torquil, I’m sorry about what happened earlier, but I’m sure you’ve had enough bodyguards of your own over the years to know how we respond to a perceived threat.’
For a moment I thought he was going to sneer, then he grinned at me, all sunny like a little kid distracted from a grazed knee with a lollipop. ‘Yeah, I’m … um … sorry, too, I guess,’ he said, surprising me utterly with the apology.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ I said blankly. ‘Do you know where they are?’
He took a breath, let it out. ‘Come on. I’ll show you.’
Naturally distrustful of this sudden change in behaviour, I kept half a pace behind him as he led the way along another short corridor. If my bearings were correct, we were working our way towards the stern of the yacht. We passed through an open salon area with an oval ceiling, beautifully inlaid with different coloured hardwoods, and a curved bar at one side. The only large vessel I’d been on before this was an Irish Sea ferry and it really didn’t compare. The art on the walls here was genuine, and didn’t look cheap, but I was in no mood for admiration.
Eventually, Torquil stopped outside a pair of double doors and jerked his head. ‘You wanna do the honours, or shall I?’ he asked with a grim smile.
I shrugged. ‘It’s your boat.’
Torquil forgot his supercilious demeanour for long enough to grin at me again. I just had time to wonder why he was enjoying this so much before he grabbed both handles at once, flung the doors wide, and strode in.
If Torquil had been my principal, I never would have allowed him to go first, but he wasn’t, so I waited half a beat before I followed.
Our arrival was greeted by a moment’s immobile silence and I flicked my eyes across the whole scene. Inside, the stateroom had every convenience, from its own private sun deck beyond the wall of tinted glass, to a huge oval four-poster bed carved from some semi-precious timber. On the wall opposite was the biggest flat screen I’d seen outside a multiplex cinema.
But the people in the stateroom were not there to use any of those facilities, it seemed.
There were three of them – Orlando, Benedict and Dina. They sat in the curved easy chairs, which were grouped around a low coffee table set with lilies to perfectly complement the decor.
Orlando gave a startled gasp when Torquil made his grand entrance, and couldn’t stop the dismay from passing across her features shortly afterwards. Benedict shoved his fist in his jacket pocket so fast I didn’t catch what might have been in it. There was a buzz about them both that sent prickles of apprehension racing across my skin.
Dina was jazzed, eyes glittering. She stiffened at the intrusion, but there was a reckless challenge in every line of her body.
‘Charlie!’ she said, shock making her voice haughty. ‘I told you to wait.’
‘That’s not your order to give,’ I snapped. ‘What the hell are you doing in here, Dina?’
She brought her chin up stubbornly. ‘That’s none of your business.’
‘It is when you sneak off without telling me where you’re going—’
‘I left a message!’
‘Not good enough.’ I moved closer, saw the size of her pupils, the excited jitter she couldn’t quite hide. ‘What have they given you? What have you taken?’
‘Nothing! And how dare you speak to my friends like that!’ Her voice was an outraged squawk. ‘How dare you?’
I whirled on Benedict. ‘What did you try to hide so fast when we came in?’ I demanded. ‘Because if I find you’ve given her anything, I’ll have you arrested as a dealer, and I don’t give a damn who your family is.’
‘Charlie …’
I ignored Dina’s sharp protest, holding Benedict’s gaze. Eventually, he got to his feet, slow and insolent.
‘It’s not what I’ve got that I’m trying to hide,’ he bit out. ‘It’s what I haven’t.’
And with that he took his hand out of his pocket, fingers spread, and with a cold ripple down my spine I discovered exactly why the Benelli family had been prepared to pay up all that ransom money without haggling.