Rough Weather

35

Pearl was visiting in my office, as she often did when Susan was busy all day and out in the evening. When Healy came in he saw her on the couch and paused to pat her. She wagged her tail but didn’t get off the couch.

“Bring Your Dog to Work Day?” Healy said.

“I get so lonely,” I said.

“We got a ransom demand,” Healy said. “For Adelaide Van Meer.”

“Who got it, her mother?”

“Yep. Five million dollars.”

“Note,” Healy said. “Block letters, looks like someone printed them with their off hand.”

“Payoff instructions?”

“To come,” Healy said.

He took a photocopy of a letter from his inside pocket and smoothed it out on my desktop in front of me.

IF YOU WANT YOUR DAUGHTER BACK COME

UP WITH $5 MILLION. YOU HAVE A WEEK TO

GET IT. WE’LL CONTACT YOU THEN.

“How’d it arrive?” I said.

“By ordinary mail, according to her,” Healy said. “She ‘thought-lessly disposed’ of the envelope before she realized it was important. No return address. Postmarked, she thinks, in Boston.”

“She going to pay?”

“Yes. Says she is going to talk with Adelaide ’s father about it.”

“You told her that paying was no guarantee she’d see her daughter.”

“I did,” Healy said. “I also told her that not paying was no guarantee of seeing her daughter.”

I stood up. Pearl raised her head. A walk was possible. A cookie? I walked across the room and patted her.

“She share any other thoughts with you?” I said.

“None worth repeating,” Healy said. “She’s ‘horribly worried’ about her daughter.”

I nodded. Pearl realized the pat was all she was getting, and put her head back down on the couch. I walked back to my desk and stood and looked out the window.

“Whaddya think?” I said to Healy.

“I think it’s bullshit,” Healy said.

“Took them an awful long time to send the ransom note,” I said.

“Might be a wacko,” Healy said. “Might be some harebrain who had nothing to do with the kidnapping.”

“Along for the ride,” I said. “Thinks he can score a little cash from somebody else’s crime.”

“It happens,” Healy said.

“I know. You think it’s one of those?”

“They usually show up sooner than this, also,” Healy said.

“Yeah,” I said. “They do.”

“You got a theory?” Healy said.

“The ransom’s an afterthought,” I said.

“What kind of a kidnapping has the ransom as an afterthought?” Healy said.

“One not about the ransom,” I said.

“Most not-ransom kidnappings are about child custody,” Healy said. “Or sexual perversion, or another kind of ransom.”

“Give us the plans to the atom bomb or you’ll never see your daughter again,” I said.

“Something like that.”

“None of those seem to be in play here,” I said.

“No. This seems like something being made up as they go along,” Healy said. “You know this guy, Rugar. That his style?”

“No.”

“Some people took a run at you, and bungled it.”

“You know about that,” I said.

“I’m a trained investigator,” Healy said. “That Rugar’s style?”

“No.”

“But it was Rugar did the kidnapping,” Healy said.

“I saw him do it,” I said.

“Maybe that’s what you were there for?”

“You think?” I said.

“I don’t think,” Healy said. “I guess. If I knew something, maybe I could think.”

“If I was there for a purpose related to the kidnapping, then it would mean that Heidi knew it would happen,” I said. “She’s the one who hired me.”

“So?”

“So if she is, your theory of the crime is that she had six people killed, including her new son-in-law, and her daughter kidnapped, and hired me to be there so I could watch.”

“It’s a theory,” Healy said.

“Motive?” I said.

“Picky, picky,” Healy said.

We were quiet. I realized I didn’t know what I was looking at out the window. I turned from the window and sat back down at my desk.

“Suppose the son-in-law had a will?” I said.

“Of course he did. People in that bracket, they have wills and trusts and pre-nups and post-nups and up-nups…”

“Be nice we could see the pre-nup and the will,” I said.

Healy was quiet for a time, looking at the thought.

“Wouldn’t do any harm,” he said. “But even if it is for money, the very late ransom demand makes no sense.”

“So maybe it’s time to unleash the forensic accountants,” I said. “Can you do that?”

“I am a captain in the Massachusetts State Police,” Healy said.

“I’ll take that for a yes,” I said.

Healy grinned.

“Tallyho!” he said.