money out of this family; he’ll take it from Amy first, but he’ll go after the sisters if that’s the only way to get it.”
“Amy’s going to be worried for her sisters’ safety and with reason. She’s going to be heading to this town; it’s the only reasonable conclusion,” Sam said.
“She’ll contact you surely?” Connor asked.
Sam looked his way. “Maybe. Amy knows I’ll already be doing what can be done to watch out for her sisters. She’ll assume Richard either has my office bugged or has someone following me.”
“Will he?”
Sam shrugged. “Years back he sent someone to break into my office in order to pilfer through the file after I’d been in New York, probably on the assumption I had a lead written down regarding where Amy might have gone. I used that fact to feed back some false information that may have bought her some time. I’ll be hoping they use the same tactics again this time. Whoever arrives will have to get information from somewhere. You can be certain they’ll have someone following the sisters, expecting Amy to make contact there. You can also assume they’ll be paying for inside tips from anyone even remotely close to the family, their friends, the reporters around them. They’ll be wanting to know movement times and places and who is important to them. Consider what is coming to be a case of information warfare. But if they locate Amy before we do-she’s going to be dead.”
“Assuming she’s not already dead,” the chief said quietly. “We don’t know why she went silent. What was the longest silence before this?”
“Six months.”
Connor winced.
The chief just absorbed the bad news and nodded. “Do you know how much of the money she had turned in? All of the accounts, some of them?”
“She still had one final batch of accounts and the oldest of the logbooks to deliver when she went cold. My guess, she’s still holding something between five and ten million. The feds are hoping against hope she’ll still make contact and turn them in.”
“The oldest log-it’s likely the one with information about what got the boyfriend’s father in the sights of Richard Wise to begin with.” The chief leaned forward in his chair. “We need to know a great deal more than we do at present about Richard Wise and his current organization. How much control he still exerts from jail, who in New York might be at the top of the list to see disappear from there and show up here.”
“I know the New York cop to ask; I’ll be flying out and back tomorrow.”
“And if they don’t send anyone?” Connor asked.
Sam looked back at him. “Then they already know Amy’s dead. But even then I think they’d still send someone to come after the sisters for the money.” He got to his feet. “I know Amy well enough to know it’s not that easy a thing to get a jump on her. I believe she’s still alive and she’s going to be heading to town to watch out for her sisters. Jonathan’s guys are in place for the security, so I’ll put my focus on Richard Wise and getting the latest out of New York on who might be coming this way to cause that trouble.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
“I can find my way out-you two need to talk some more.” Sam left the office.
Connor took the seat Sam had vacated. “What are you thinking, Chief?”
“If Amy’s going to make contact, it’s going to be in the next forty-eight hours.”
“What’s the plan if she does?”
“That I haven’t figured yet.” The chief tapped his pen on the pad of notes he was working from. “The Silver Security guys can cover Marie and Tracey for the most part-the gallery, their basic routines. The problem is if Amy contacts one of the sisters rather than Sam. If we’ve got one or both of the sisters trying to slip away for a private meeting with Amy and if Amy is the one giving them a list of steps to take to shake any tails-I don’t think there will be enough Silver Security guys around the sisters, at least not in close enough, to be able to stop it.”
“Tracey isn’t going to keep a secret like that from Marsh. I have to believe that.”
“Probably not, but Amy calling Marie is the more likely first contact. And if she stresses the danger-Marie may get convinced to go alone.”
Marie didn’t strike Connor as particularly foolish or suicidally brave, but her sister calling-Marie would go alone and never hesitate on it. The thought didn’t sit well with him either. “We need to tell the sisters that Amy is alive.”
“I know. But I’m not willing to raise hope only to have to tell them Amy spent years running and died twenty months ago. At least not for the next couple days. After that there may be no choice but to tell them.”
Connor understood that. “Marsh and I can keep in pretty tight with them for the next forty-eight hours. The weekend makes that pretty easy to handle, and the number of reporters around does at least contain where the sisters are going to want to go. Daniel can help too. The sisters will be spending time with him at places where we’ve already got security established. The gallery and their apartment flat is covered. Is it enough?”
“The sisters have got money, and Richard Wise is going to want it; so how does the trouble come?” the chief replied.
“A kidnapping or threat of one,” Connor finally said, dreading the very thought of it.
“That’s what I think too. Forty-eight hours and we’ll have to tell the sisters why the security bubble has to stay tight and close. I just hope Amy comes in before then.” The chief pushed aside the pad of paper. “Are you okay with this, Connor? I realize it’s turned into a pretty personal thing from the initial favor you were asked to do for Daniel.”
“Don’t worry about it. Marsh dating Tracey would have had me in the middle of this anyway, and I find I like Marie a great deal too. It’s no hardship.” Connor got to his feet. “Marsh and Tracey are due back tomorrow midday. I’ll touch base after I’ve talked with him. Chief-” He hesitated to ask the question.
“Ask.”
“You and Amy-it sounds very personal.”
“She wrote an ‘if I die’ letter; my name’s on the envelope. And I’m wondering if I’m about to get it in the mail.”
Chapter Seven
LUKE WAS WAITING for the mail to arrive, lingering around the house before starting his Saturday errands until he flipped through what was delivered, but he didn’t let himself dwell on it. He finished his coffee and walked through to his workshop to open the gun safe. Amy had disappeared twenty months ago, but the news of her disappearance was fresh, as was the real fear she was dead. He would be dreading the mail now until he knew one way or another where she was.
He tugged out a box of gear he’d stored years before.
That “if I die” letter had been written. Amy had hated the idea of disrupting his life by putting his name on the letter. She had asked him to think about it and then never got back to him to see what he thought-but the news she had sisters in his town had removed any question from his mind. Amy had written the letter, put his name and his title on it, and given it to someone she trusted to mail if it became necessary. She would have hoped by doing so she was providing him with enough ammunition to help him keep her sisters safe. If something happened to her she would have wanted him to understand why she was appealing from the grave for his help. The fact Sam had mentioned Amy had made an odd request for Luke’s home address and Sam had passed it on just suggested the letter might be coming here rather than the office.
Luke listened for the vehicle with the rough exhaust to rumble by delivering mail into the street-side boxes while he cleaned and repacked gear he had rarely had cause to use since he had been promoted to deputy chief and then police chief. When he’d been down in the trenches he had headed vice, robbery, and then major cases, working when needed on the SWAT team, and while he didn’t have the reflexes to be doing that SWAT job again, he figured the equipment and knowledge were going to be useful if this got ugly. If she was alive Amy had to have the news about her sisters by now; she was going to be on her way here.
