Still no message from Amanda, but there was one from Michaelson. I pushed the hands-free button and dialed his cell number. He answered so quickly, I was afraid something awful had happened.
“Have you heard from the kidnappers?” he demanded.
“Nothing yet,” I said.
“Well, you’re doing a lousy job of laying low.”
“I just stopped at the Rosses’ place on shelter business,” I said quickly.
“You were at Duncan Ross’s place?”
“Yeah, it was nothing, they weren’t home. What were you talking about?” I said, sensing I’d goofed.
“You’ve started a firestorm around Elliot’s office. Urquhart called the chief superintendent, an old friend apparently, and complained that you’ve been harassing him at his office and accusing him of being involved in Sheila Kinkaid’s disappearance. Elliot got hell from his governor, and he’s not best pleased with me.”
I winced. “Sorry. I just stopped by to talk to him about the inspection we’d had done on the new property. I guess I got carried away. But as long as we’re flinging accusations around, I told you he’d had me followed. Well, his guy assaulted me with a door last night when I tried to talk to him.”
“Serves you right for trying to talk to him. I’m going to put you under house arrest if you can’t stop meddling.”
Clearly it was time for a change of subject. “Any news on the runner?” I asked. “Have they managed to question this guy yet?”
“No. His roommate says she hasn’t seen him since Saturday morning.”
“Great, another missing person. Have Elliot’s men followed up on Sam?”
“No joy. He was at his mother’s the night Sheila vanished. He goes every other Wednesday to Kirkcaldy and stays over. For now, their best lead is the runner that retrieved the cash, and they’re looking everywhere for him.”
“That might lead us to the kidnapper, but I still believe it won’t lead you to Sheila.” I seethed. “Her time is running out.”
“Elliot’s men are doing all they can.”
“But it’s not enough.” I struggled to keep the anger and frustration out of my voice. “I just came from Templeton Farms. Greer Templeton hired me to take some photos for a company brochure. For what it’s worth, there are a lot of sheds and storage places on that property that are seldom used. If I were trying to hide someone, they’d do the trick nicely.”
“Tell me you aren’t hiding someone.”
“I’m just saying. Also, Urquhart knows that property well. He’s been going there for years.”
“We can’t go crashing in without probable cause,” Michaelson pointed out.
“I’ll send you copies of the photos I took today. Take a close look at the sheds—particularly the long steel one. I still say it looks like a good place to hide something you don’t want found.”
“I’ll take a look.”
“Do Greer and Colin Templeton have alibis for the night Sheila vanished?” I didn’t really suspect Greer was involved, but I was starting to sense that Colin wasn’t all he seemed.
“Greer was at home. Alone. Colin was in town staying with a lady friend. So far, he’s refused to give a name.”
“Amanda Forrester.”
“You’re kidding? Why didn’t you mention that there was a connection between the two of them sooner?”
“I hoped they would.” Michaelson didn’t say so, but I sensed he still hadn’t eliminated Amanda as a potential suspect, and placing her in company with Colin didn’t help her seem any less suspicious.
“That was not your call to make,” Michaelson growled. “Was he staying at the shelter with her?”
“Not sure where they stay,” I replied.
“Hang on a moment,” Michaelson said. “Elliot’s on the other line.”
I waited impatiently for him to return to me.
“What did he say?” I demanded as soon as he came back on the line.
“Nothing good, I’m afraid. They found a body washed up on the shore of the Firth of Forth near the Edenside bird sanctuary.”
I felt my insides turn to water. “Sheila?”
“No. The young man in the green jacket from the CCTV.”
My momentary relief quickly turned to anger. “Damn. That was the only connection we had to the ransom money.”
I pulled the car over to the side of the road and got out. I needed to move. I paced around on the verge and vented my frustration on a large rock, which didn’t budge in the slightest, producing a throbbing toe and a string of invective that startled even Michaelson.
“Elliot’s on top of things, even if it doesn’t seem so,” he insisted.
“I think we’ve reached the point where we have to let the police go at it full on,” I said. “While Elliot’s tiptoeing around trying to be subtle, he’s getting no answers and Sheila’s still being held prisoner somewhere.”
“I only hope she is.” Michaelson sighed. “Send me the photos and call right away if you hear anything.”
I pulled up in front of the shelter and steeled myself for another emotional encounter. I was tired of always being the bearer of bad tidings. Amanda answered the door so quickly, she must have been sitting in her office waiting. “Any news?”
I followed her inside to the kitchen. “The police identified the guy who retrieved the cash, but unfortunately his body washed up on the shore of the Firth today.”
Amanda sat down hard on the nearest wooden chair. “That means the kidnapper won’t hesitate to kill if he needs to,” she said grimly. “In fact, he may’ve already done so.”
“I’m afraid so.” I watched Amanda, fearing a meltdown was imminent. But as much as anything, she looked as if she was trying to embrace the reality of the situation by speaking the words aloud. I watched her pick up her phone and send off a message.
Her lover, I presumed. “How long have you and Colin been an item?” I asked.
“About six months or so,” Amanda said wearily. “I knew I couldn’t fool you, but for the most part we try to keep our relationship under wraps. It’s Greer, you see. She’s very possessive about her brother. Gets insanely jealous of the women in his life.”
I tried to picture earthy, levelheaded Greer Templeton going into a rage over her brother’s girlfriend. The woman who’d just told me she’d like to see her brother settled with someone who would make him happy. “Who told you that?”
“Colin’s told me some incredible stories. She looks so quiet and meek. You’d never think it.”
“Was it Colin you were with the night Sheila disappeared?”
“Is that important?”
“It would give you both solid alibis if you were,” I suggested.
“That’s something, at least.” Amanda sighed. “Yes, I was with him that night at his flat in town.”
“He has a flat in town?”
“Sure. He can’t trek out to the farm every night if he’s been out late drinking and wooing clients. It’s not safe.”
I wondered if Amanda thought she was the only one whom Colin was spending time with at that flat. The brunette at La Mer the other night certainly seemed to have captured his attention. “So you were there with him all night?”
“Yes. We’d had a few too many drinks and we both crashed by midnight. That’s why I felt so guilty the next day when I found that Sheila was gone. I was off having a good time and she was—” Amanda started to cry.
I could see that she was being tortured. A replay of the guilt she felt at her own sister’s passing. “You can’t blame yourself now, any more than you could about your sister.”
“You’d be surprised how much blame I can heap onto myself.”
There was nothing I could say to that. I knew what it was like to feel responsible for the fate of others. It was a burden I frequently carried myself. The silence around us deepened and we both nearly jumped out of our skin at the sound of the mail flap clanking.
Amanda was down the hallway in seconds, picking up the envelope. I followed behind and threw open the front door. I looked both ways down the street, but the only person in sight was a kid on a skateboard. I called out and started after him, but he took off, outpacing me on his four wheels.
I returned to the steps of the shelter. Amanda handed me the paper in her hand. Instructions will come tomorrow.
“Thank God, they’re planning to release her.”
I could hear the joy and relief in Amanda’s voice and I didn’t want to be the one to burst her bubble. The kidnappers might be thinking of releasing their captor, if we were very, very lucky, but the logical part of my mind insisted it was much more likely that they were attempting to keep us from contacting the police until they’d disposed of the body and removed any traces of her confinement. I took a deep breath and did my best to sound chipper. “That’s great, Amanda. You should call Elliot and let him know that the note came. Now that we’ve heard, I think I’ll take the opportunity to go home for a night. I’ll be back here in the morning, of course.”
“Will you tell Nora the good news?”
I hesitated. “I think it’s too soon. We need to wait until we have Sheila safe back with us.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
The only thing worse for Nora than losing her mother would be to have her hopes raised and then dashed again at the last moment.