Fifth Victim

Parker said. ‘It was sent to his PDA by remote feed, on the night of the charity auction at the country club.’

‘Ah … yes,’ Nicola Eisenberg said, as if, had he not narrowed down the precise date, she would have struggled to remember the experience among many others. Her gaze sharpened. ‘How did you get this?’

‘Torquil dropped it – yesterday morning on the beach,’ I said, and explained about the messages Parker had left in his attempts to return it. ‘Your husband didn’t ask for it, so it … slipped our mind,’ I said mildly, receiving a surreptitious wink from my boss by way of response.

‘We understand that Torquil may also have been recording your husband’s … activities on board the yacht,’ Parker said. ‘How would he react if Torquil threatened to go public with the footage?’

She laughed, a high brittle note. ‘Oh, my dear Mr Armstrong, it would never have come to that. Brandon would most likely have patted him on the head, praised his ingenuity, and given him a raise in his allowance.’

‘Really?’ Parker said. ‘And yet Mr Eisenberg seems to set such store by his … reputation.’

‘We have an understanding, my husband and I,’ she said, letting her eyes trail up and down Parker’s lean suited figure with insolent appraisal. ‘He doesn’t interfere in my life and I don’t interfere in his.’ She moved round the desk towards him, ran a predatory finger under his lapel and murmured throatily, ‘Perhaps that’s something we could discuss – say, over dinner.’

‘Mrs Eisenberg,’ Parker said easily, standing his ground, ‘right now it would seem you are the one who does not have your son’s best interests at heart.’

When she looked startled, I leant over and said helpfully, ‘What he means is, if you keep that up he’ll tell both you and your husband to get stuffed – you can deliver the ransom yourself.’

She threw me a vicious glare, face tightening unattractively, but snatched her hand back and whirled away.

Parker’s face remained neutral, but I saw the flat-out amusement in his eyes. He let her take three or four huffy strides towards the door.

‘When you said your husband would reward your son’s blackmail attempts, is that because he’s always done so in the past?’ he asked, coolly objective. ‘Is that why he took this kidnapping so lightly at first?’

The questions stopped her dead. She turned slowly. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Torquil has a generous allowance, but you know how kids are these days. He always wanted more.’

I thought of the elaborate and extravagant birthday party, the Bentley, the use of the family yacht and the executive jet, and wondered what ‘more’ was out there to be had.

‘So, you let him blackmail you,’ I said slowly. ‘And when his security reported that he’d been kidnapped, you assumed this was a variation on that theme.’

‘I know this looks bad.’ For the first time, she hesitated slightly. ‘We can’t afford for the media to get a hold of the story,’ she added, flattening any hopes I might have had that this was a sign of surfacing maternal instinct.

‘We are not in the habit of revealing details of our clients’ private lives,’ Parker said stiffly, more insulted by that, I think, than by the pass she’d made at him. ‘Unless they’re engaged in illegal activities, we’ll protect them any way we can.’

She paused at that, shifted her stance. ‘May I be totally honest with you, Mr Armstrong?’

I doubt she knows how. I didn’t say the words out loud, but from the look on Parker’s face, I didn’t have to.

He inclined his head politely. ‘Of course.’

She took a breath, flicked her hair back, then said baldly, ‘I am not convinced that my husband will go the extra mile to ensure my son’s safe return. I want to be kept appraised of the situation so I can … step in, if I see the need. Whether you believe me or not, I do have my son’s best interests at heart. Like I said, I’m not convinced Brandon feels the same way.’

‘He said he hates giving in to threats – is that all there is to it?’ Parker asked, hitching his hip onto the corner of his desk and folding his arms. ‘Or does he have financial problems?’

She laughed at that. ‘Oh, no, Mr Armstrong. His only problem is that he really doesn’t want to give it away to a bunch of crooks. Not for—’

She broke off suddenly. Honesty, it seemed, only went so far. The lines around her mouth deepened as she frowned.

‘Not for what?’ Parker asked. He sighed. ‘Mrs Eisenberg, you’re asking my operative to risk her life making this ransom drop for you. I’m willing to let her do that, but only if you level with us,’ he said, his voice gentle, persuasive. ‘If you know something that affects how far your husband – or you – are prepared to go to ensure your son’s safety, we need to know, and we need to know right now.’

She brought her chin up, arrogant, defiant. ‘Torquil is not my husband’s son,’ she said. ‘He wanted an heir but couldn’t give me a child, so I made … alternative arrangements.’ She waited, furious, for our condemnation. When we stayed silent, she went on, clear and bitter, ‘And knowing it would not be his genes that carried on, he had that damned necklace commissioned in a bid for immortality – the Eisenberg Rainbow.’ Her lips twisted, derisive over the name. ‘Let’s just say, given a straight choice between that and Torquil, Brandon wouldn’t be heartbroken if he ended up with the jewels.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Two hours later, just as I was leaving the rehab centre, my cellphone buzzed in the inside pocket of my leather jacket. As I pulled it out, I checked the display and saw the number for Parker’s office line.

‘Boss,’ I said, hanging my bike helmet on the mirror of the Buell while I dug for my keys. ‘Any news?’

‘Our new clients are fools of the highest order,’ he said, and even filtered through layers of traffic in the background and the deficiencies of the phone’s tiny speaker, I heard the anger tightly compressed into his voice.

I stilled, a cold pool forming at the base of my skull.

‘What have they done?’

‘The … vendors just called them about the sale,’ Parker said, knowing I would catch exactly what he meant and highly sensitive to electronic eavesdropping on an open line. We could have been talking about anything from property to shares in a racehorse. ‘They agreed to pay the asking price.’

‘Shit,’ I muttered. ‘In full? Just like that?’

‘Apparently, things got a little heated during the negotiations, and there was some screaming and shouting down the phone,’ Parker said in a matter-of-fact tone that made all the hairs riffle along my arms. I could guess exactly what kind of screaming he was talking about. ‘They reckoned they couldn’t afford to lose the sale, so … they caved.’

‘That’s … unfortunate,’ I said, struggling to stick to the same neutral language. Completely on autopilot, I stuck the Buell’s key in the ignition, turned it far enough to release the steering lock. ‘Where does it leave us?’

He sighed. ‘They went directly against my advice, Charlie, and put the whole deal in mortal jeopardy. I had no choice but to withdraw the agency’s services.’ I heard the forced lightness in his voice. ‘Can’t win ’em all, I guess.’

‘Oh,’ I murmured. Mortal jeopardy. Not words chosen lightly, I knew, and I could feel his anger and anguish at the risks they were taking with Torquil’s life.

‘My gut tells me this whole thing is gonna fall apart real fast,’ he said. ‘And when it does we can’t afford to be anywhere near it if they’re not prepared to work with us.’

‘I do understand – completely,’ I said. ‘All they want you to do is stick around to take the blame for their cock-ups. I suppose I would have made the same decision, for what it’s worth.’

‘Thanks, Charlie, I appreciate that.’

‘What about … taking this further?’ I asked carefully, knowing Parker would realise I meant the authorities, the police and FBI.

I could almost hear his head shake. ‘Considering the direction things are moving, nothing would make me happier, but you know as well as I do that we can’t betray confidentiality like that.’ He paused. ‘I do need you to stop by the office on your way back, though,’ he said, apparently casual, but there was something off in his voice that caught at my senses.

‘Of course. Problem?’ Even as I spoke I knew, with a rising sense of dread, what he was going to say.