I bit my tongue as the dialogue in my head explained to him that I thought he was the criminal—a fraudster, a corrupt piece of dirt, if I ever met one. That he was the man who I should be after and put away behind bars. And that the world would be a far better place as a result.
Chase stood and moved to the door. He was clearly struggling to stay still. He held his arms across his chest, staring at the ground. Practically hugging himself.
“I couldn’t talk to Ruby, but her father returned home and said that she’d gone to L.A. He flew there with her. I don’t know if I believe him,” Chase said. “Maybe now is the time to call the cops? I don’t want to lose the money.”
“What about Millie?”
“Millie will be fine.” He was almost dismissive.
“And if she’s not?”
He shook his head, and then began pacing the room, agitated and jumpy, trying to use up all his nervous energy, which was almost spilling out of him.
“She has to be. I couldn’t live with myself,” he whispered.
At last, a glimpse of humanity.
He paced the floor a while longer, before he turned back to me.
“Do you think I should call the cops? I’ve never had a good experience with them. They hate me. I’ve got enemies there. People who would love nothing more than to lock me up.”
“It wouldn’t be the cops. The FBI would handle this case, and maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s time to hand it over to an organization with unlimited resources and manpower.” I leaned forward on the table. “We’ve investigated all the major suspects, and we haven’t come up with much. We’ve felt like we’ve got close, but in the end, we’ve got nothing concrete. The drop is in two days. Just two days, Chase. If you’re going to call them, now is the time to do so.”
“No, no.” He shook his hand at me. “Not the FBI. I can’t have them snooping around my business. I’m already on their radar and this would be the perfect reason for them to get into my files. They would turn my penthouse upside down before they had even considered Millie.”
“What do they want you for?” I quizzed, doing my best to sound surprised.
He looked shocked that he had just given that information away.
“Nothing.” He shook his head hard. “It’s nothing. A disgruntled investor reported me, but they had nothing solid. The lead of the case, Special Agent Ramon Wright, said he was going to make sure that I would go down. I told him that I’d done nothing illegal, but he was adamant that he was going to get me. Hasn’t managed it yet though and I’ll be damned if I’ll be the architect of my own downfall by inviting him in.”
I sipped my whiskey.
“But,” A thought went through Chase’s mind. “Do you think that the FBI set this up? As an excuse so that they could search my apartment? Of course, they would have. They’ve wanted to search my apartment for a year, and I won’t let them. No judge will sign off on a search warrant of my place with the small amount of evidence that they have. And it’s all circumstantial anyway. But if I invited them to talk about the kidnapping? Then they could take their liberty. They’d go through everything with a fine-tooth comb, going through my private business, my accounts, my files, stuff that has nothing to do with them. Maybe it’s all just one big set up.”
“I doubt that’s the case,” I responded. “But that’s not entirely impossible.”
“I can’t have them involved.” He sighed. “And that’s just my luck—when you need them, you can’t go to them. And when you don’t want them, they’re on you like a swarm of bees.”
Chase paced the floor again.
“There aren’t many crimes that happen over a long period of time,” I said. “That’s why kidnappings are so hard. You know that the crime is taking place, you know that something is happening, but there’s too much to risk before getting the cops involved.”
Chase nodded. “One million dollars is a lot of cash.”
“I was talking about Millie.”
“Of course.” He quickly agreed. “What’s our next step?”
I took another sip of whiskey. After Chase left my office, I was going to need another one. Just being in the presence of this man makes me angry. He had an unusual presence about him, a sort of stench, not of the body but of character. There was just something repellent about Chase, that although difficult to define was easy enough to recognize, which made me sick whenever I was near him.
“We’ve looked at all major suspects, and we’ve got nothing. We’ve looked into all the people that you’ve suggested could be involved, and we have no further leads. It’s time to take this to the next level. It’s time to prepare for the end of this.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that it’s time to prepare for the drop and prepare to save Millie’s life.”
Chapter 19
The playground looked so different on a weekday. More stay-at-home Moms and less Dads making up for lost time. There were a handful of nannies too, they were more interested in good gossip, on catching up and swapping notes than whether little Jenny could finally manage the monkey bars yet, or if Johnny could ride his beloved bike without his training wheels. And the kids didn’t need their approval, they were happier just to play today outside in the clear fresh air. It was calmer, more relaxed. The atmosphere was still jovial, the laughter of children sliding
