“Do you know where he lives?”
“Yes, he had us all out there for a barbecue last year. But I can’t tell you that, it’s-”
“Tania, please. I wouldn’t have called if it weren’t urgent. This isn’t just about David anymore. My partner’s been abducted.”
“Oh my God. That’s-I–I don’t know what-”
“Dr. Stayner can help me find her. She’s a woman your age, and she was taken by a man who will kill her if I don’t find her first.”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes you do, Tania. You want to find out what happened to David too, don’t you? You told me that. You need to know how you got your new position. Just tell me where Stayner lives. He’ll never know it came from you.”
I heard her take a deep breath in and blow it out. “Do you know Concord at all?”
CHAPTER 23
Dusk was falling as we drove into Concord. It was quaint, historic, a fine slice of period Americana. A month from now they’d be re-enacting the skirmish between the Minutemen and the British regulars that essentially marked the beginning of the revolution. Who gave a shit? I was dialled in on Stayner and how best to approach him. Reason with him? Push him around? Leave him alone in the room with Ryan? There was no guarantee he’d be home. He might have had plans for the weekend, might be gone up or down the Cape or the shore, whatever they called it here. A man of his means might have season tickets to the theatre, opera, a Celtics game. The road was dark-no street lights, banners or bunting out here, just a ditch and a line of hedges or walls in front of houses that were fairly traditional in design but big, the lots at least a hundred feet wide, with long driveways running up to columned entrances.
As the numbers rolled up to Stayner’s, there was nowhere to pull up, get a sense of how many people might be home, if any. There was no curb, barely a shoulder. We either had to go past his driveway for some further recon, or up it.
When in doubt, go up.
His was a large Tudor cottage with a substantial two-storey extension on one side that almost doubled the size of the original house, matched closely but not exactly with timber and stucco. Lights showed on both floors. A black Mercedes SUV was parked on a crushed-shell drive. I parked directly behind it so it couldn’t move. We walked up a flagstone path to a door that had a wrought-iron knocker in the centre, a plain oval that I banged three times hard against oak.
A tall, graceful woman in her fifties answered. She looked at me pleasantly, then at Ryan and something shifted subtly in her, like a doe picking up a feral scent in the woods.
“I’m sorry to bother you at home, but I need a moment with Dr. Stayner.”
“Is he expecting you?”
“No. But it’s an emergency.”
“But he’s not on call.”
“It’s not a medical emergency. Please-is it Mrs. Stayner?”
“Yes. I’m Mrs. Stayner.”
“Please tell your husband Jonah Geller is here and that I have to speak to him.”
“Will it take long? We have to leave in an hour to pick up friends and then we’re going out for the evening.”
“The sooner you call him, the sooner we’ll be out of here.”
“All right, just a minute. I hope you don’t mind if I don’t invite you in.” Whether I minded or not, she closed the door and locked it. About forty seconds later, Charles Stayner opened it. He was wearing a casual gentleman’s weekend outfit: tan corduroy pants, a navy V-neck sweater and a white turtle-neck under it. Polished loafers, even in the house.
“Mr. Geller,” he said, extending his hand. “And you are?”
Ryan said, “Giulio.”
“I think my wife mentioned we don’t have much time-”
“Neither do I, Doctor. My partner’s been kidnapped.”
“That’s awful. Terrible. But why come to me?”
“Because it was Sean Daggett who took her.”
His face went taut fast, but not fast enough to conceal the flash of fear he felt at that name.
“I know everything,” I said. “The organ ring. The secret operations. That’s what David was running from, isn’t it?”
“Please, keep your voice down.”
“Tell you something else, Chuck. Carol-Ann Meacham is dead. She was murdered last night.”
“Are you serious?”
“Beaten to death and dumped in a park. The police haven’t released her name yet but my partner was watching her house. Someone lured her out with a phone call and killed her to keep her quiet. First David, now her. How safe do you feel, Chuck? Geez, I hope no one followed me here.”
His eyes darted up the driveway to the road, as if to scope it for more cars.
“Invite us in. Now. You tell us what we need to know, we leave, and you go on your double date.”
“The other option,” Ryan said, “is you cancel on medical grounds.”
“Are you threatening me?” Stayner hissed, his face growing red. “Geller, I can’t believe you brought this thug to my-”
His voice cut off as Ryan bunched his sweater and turtle-neck collar tight in one first. “This thug happens to love that girl too, Doc, so cut the shit and ask us in.”
He had Johnnie Walker Black in his study. He poured himself a drink and diluted it slightly from a jug of water in a beer fridge. He didn’t offer one to Ryan or me, which meant one less thing to throw in his face.
“This isn’t what you think,” he said.
“What do I think?”
“That I’m in this for money. I’ve never made a penny, not one. Everything he pays me I give to the hospital.”
“Guess what?” I said. “I don’t care. All I need from you is a way to find my partner.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
“I saw it with my own eyes. And if he hurts her, Doctor, you’re going to pay with everything you have. Now start with David. Where is he?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t contacted me since he disappeared.”
“Not even once.”
“No.”
“That means he didn’t trust you. If you were really his friend and beloved mentor, he would have. It gets me thinking. Maybe you were the one who sold him out, told those thugs where to find him.”
“Never!”
“What happened to Mr. Patel?” I asked. “What went wrong?”
He looked stricken and sank down onto a couch that faced a wall unit lined with books on medicine and science and ethics, the scheming hypocrite.
“Two things,” he whispered.
“Speak up.”
“Are you recording this?”
“No, you asshole, just speak up.”
“Two things went wrong. The first was that David was there at all. You don’t imagine for a minute that I would have asked him to join this-this team I was forced to put together.”
“Forced?” I snorted. “That’s your story?”
“It is.”
