Three hours later Margo was in a corner of the VIP lounge with a cup of hot tea and a plate of cheese, crackers and fruit. She began reassembling her mobile phone, which had been dismantled and painstakingly searched. So had everything else in her possession: her handbag, her carry-on bag, the lining of her coat, her shoes. She was patted down by a customs officer and her supervisor.
They had seemed disappointed to find only bikinis, pareos and some embarrassingly provocative lingerie. Afterwards, they had told her they had received a tip she was carrying drugs.
Margo knew exactly where that tip had come from, the man from 1B. The certain knowledge that her being stopped hadn’t been a random incident did nothing to calm her already disquieted mind.
When finally she was able to get her phone back together, she sent another desperate message to Jack, then hit speed dial and waited. ‘Billy Berlind, please. Tell him it’s Margo.’
In thirty seconds Billy was on the other end of the line. ‘Do you miss me already?’
‘Billy,’ she said, her voice breaking. ‘Jack’s disappeared.’
There was silence on the other end of the line as Billy morphed into the consummate businessman who ran a multimillion-dollar business.
‘Tell me everything. Leave nothing out.’ Billy didn’t speak again. He barely breathed until Margo had finished.
‘Obviously it was Jack’s raincoat,’ he said.
‘Thank God you agree with me. I was beginning to think I’d lost my mind,’ Margo said.
‘I don’t believe in coincidences,’ Billy answered tersely. ‘The real question is did the man take the coat or did Jack give it to him?’
‘Obviously he took it.’ Margo was adamant about that. ‘Why would Jack give it to him?’
Silence on the other end of the line.
‘Billy?’
‘That’s a conversation for another day.’
‘What are you saying? That Jack disappeared on purpose? He would never—’
‘Okay, he would never. Drop it. Did you call the hotel where you were going to stay?’ Billy asked. ‘Maybe he left a message there.’
‘I already checked. Nothing.’
‘Okay, this is what you’re going to do,’ Billy said, taking charge. ‘While we’ve been talking I put my staff to work. Are you in the club lounge, such as it is?’
‘Yes.’
‘In about fifteen minutes you will be paged. Go with whoever it is to General Aviation.’ Billy hardly took a breath. ‘I’ve arranged for a plane to bring you back here. You can land at Midway to go through customs. It takes less time there. You’re not really smuggling drugs, are you?’
‘If I was, they would have been found by now.’
‘We must not lose our sense of humour, my love. Don’t worry. If Jack wants to be found, we’ll find him.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Margo exclaimed.
Billy ignored her. ‘After customs, one of my cars will be waiting outside. I’ll be in it,’ Billy said. ‘In the meantime, I’ll check the apartment and his office, call hospitals, the whole nine yards.’
Margo was silent.
‘We good?’ Billy asked.
‘Expect a black eye when I see you.’
‘I’m not afraid. You hit like a girl,’ he said.
‘So do you,’ she said, fighting tears.
‘So sad, so true.’ His voice was tender. ‘Sleep on the plane, Margo. You need to be at the top of your game when you get back here.’
‘You think something bad has happened, don’t you?’
‘I didn’t say that,’ Billy replied in a careful voice.
‘I’ve known you too long. You don’t have to say it. Truth, Billy. Do you know something I don’t?’
It took a moment before Billy spoke again. ‘No. But maybe I look at some things differently than you do.’
‘Such as …?’
‘Such as, how an incredibly wealthy heiress just happened to meet a guy, who just happened to climb up the side of a ship …’
‘Billy, I’ve explained all that.’
‘Yes, you have,’ Billy said. ‘But maybe that explanation sounded a bit different to someone who hadn’t just fallen head over heels in love.’
Silence.
Finally Billy spoke. ‘I’ll see you in Chicago. Love you.’
‘Yeah,’ Margo said, ‘Love you too.’
‘One last question,’ Billy said, sounding a bit too casual. ‘When you and Jack got married, did you … you know, merge your assets? Did you put the gazillions of bucks your father left you in a trust, like I told you to do? Or did you put all that money in both of your names? Yours and Jack’s?’
Margo hung up the phone.
‘That’s what I was afraid of,’ Billy said to the dead line.