Prime Suspect Read online

  Brent warmed to his topic. “I did find an interesting fact, though. The Colombian government says the value of illegal emerald exports from their country was close to two billion dollars a decade ago. About six years ago they cracked down on the smugglers, so they’re losing less now.”

  Interesting maybe, but helpful? Not so much.

  “It was worth a try. Thanks, buddy.”

  He hung up, thoughts whirling. Six years ago. That would be about a year before Kenneth Pryor was arrested for embezzlement. About a year before the construction of the Fairmont’s kennel and underground room.

  He shook his head, trying to make his thoughts fall into some sort of order. Something was missing, but what?

  Mason pulled the car into his garage. Caleb gathered the things he’d rescued from the truck and followed him into the house, where Karina waited.

  “Sit there.” She pointed to one of the stools around the kitchen island and placed a mug in front of him. The string of an herbal tea bag hung over the side. When she poured steaming water over it, Caleb drew the relaxing scent of mint chamomile into his lungs.

  But there was no relaxing tonight.

  “Where’s Darcie?” he asked.

  “I think she went to bed.” Karina’s brow wrinkled. “I thought she was going to get dressed and come out for a cup of tea after her shower, but I guess she changed her mind.”

  “She’s probably exhausted, poor kid.” Mason opened the refrigerator and inspected the contents. “We got anything to eat?”

  “Have a mug of tea,” Karina told him. “It’ll fill you up.”

  “Okay.” He emerged from the fridge with a package of ham and a brick of cheese. “It’ll wash down my sandwich.”

  Caleb smiled absently at Karina’s expansive eye roll, but his thoughts were elsewhere. What if Pryor’s “insurance” was proof that the Fairmonts were gem smugglers?

  “What’s this?” Karina picked up the collar.

  “Oh, it’s some sort of fancy status symbol that came with Darcie’s dog.”

  “Huh.” She held it up to the light to inspect it closer. “Well, I wouldn’t put it on my dog, but then again, I wouldn’t pay a thousand dollars for a puppy, either.” With a finger, she tapped the jewel-encrusted barrel. “That’s cute. What do they put in the real dog barrels, anyway?”

  “Brandy,” answered Mason as he sliced off a thick chunk of cheese. “Saint Bernards were trained to find people lost in avalanches. The brandy was supposed to keep them warm until help arrived.”

  Caleb watched the dangling barrel swing. If he were trapped in a snowstorm, he’d rather have hot chocolate or coffee or—

  He went still. They put brandy inside the dog’s barrel.

  “You don’t suppose...” He held his hand out for the collar. “Let me see that for a minute.”

  Alerted by the intensity in his voice, Mason stopped slicing to watch as Caleb examined the barrel charm. It wasn’t big, about two inches long and maybe an inch and a half wide. Tiny gem chips covered the sides, but he didn’t spare more than a cursory glance at those. Of course they weren’t real. Nobody would be stupid enough to glue real emeralds on the outside of a dog collar. But inside...

  “Mason, do you have a small flat-head screwdriver?”

  Mason abandoned his sandwich and dashed out of the room. He returned with a tool kit, the kind used for eyeglasses. Caleb selected the smallest screwdriver and inserted the tip into a tiny indentation he found in the edge of the barrel. With a twist of the handle, one end of the barrel popped off like the back of a wristwatch.

  Shoved inside the barrel was a piece of gray felt. He grabbed a corner between his fingers and pulled it out. Not merely a piece, but a small drawstring bag. And inside...

  Karina gasped aloud when he emptied a mound of gleaming green stones into the palm of his hand. No mistaking these for glass. Their faceted surfaces caught the overhead light and tossed green fire into the air.

  “You’d better go wake Darcie.” His voice was hoarse, husky.

  Karina hurried out of the room.

  “Dude, look at the size of that one.” Mason bent close to inspect the stones. “It’s got to be five carats. And the others are at least a carat or two each.”

  “How much do you suppose these are worth?” Caleb asked.

  “Hard to tell. It depends on the clarity and color and all kinds of things, but I’d guess at least two grand per carat.”

  Which meant Caleb was holding a small fortune in the palm of his hand.

  “Caleb! Mason!” Karina’s shout preceded her into the room. When she appeared, her eyes were wide. “Darcie’s gone.”

  “What?”

  Caleb jumped off the stool and ran down the short hallway. The door stood open, and the bedroom was empty.

  “She told me she was going to leave Atlanta.” Karina’s voice held tears. “But I thought she meant later, after the case was solved.”

  His heart plummeted. Whirling, he sought Karina’s face. “She said she was leaving?”

  A hand over her mouth, she nodded. “But I’m sure she meant when this was over. I’m sure of it.”

  He turned toward the wall to wage a private battle with his thoughts. He’d been right about her all along. The first day he’d met her he knew she was a runner. Just like Anita. The way they dealt with a problem was to run away from it.

  And just like Anita, she’d taken a piece of his heart with her when she ran.

  Why, Lord? Why did You let this happen? I trusted You not to let this happen to me again.

  He’d been betrayed, just like the last time. Not once but twice. By Darcie and by God. It was almost enough to bring him to his knees. His fist tightened, and the stones in his hand cut into his palm.

  Then he spied something on the nightstand.

  Leaping forward, he snatched the ring. Tiny green stones sparkled in the dim light of the lamp, miniature versions of the ones he’d removed from the collar.

  Whirling, he held the ring aloft. “She didn’t leave on her own. She would never leave her mother’s ring behind.”

  The impact of his statement struck him hard. His arm fell to his side. “She’s been kidnapped.”

  NINETEEN

  Darcie sat on the floor of the van, her hands and mouth bound with duct tape. The cloth the man had stuffed into her mouth back in the bedroom stank and tasted of sweat. Her stomach threatened to heave, but she fought against the nausea. If she vomited she’d probably choke, and the man in the ski mask sitting across from her would no doubt enjoy watching her die. It would save him the trouble of killing her.

  She closed her eyes but could still feel the weight of those cold eyes staring at her.

  “How close are we?” Her captor’s voice raked like gravel across her fear-sensitive ears.

  The answer came from the driver’s seat. “Ten minutes.”

  “You better call.”

  “I’m driving. You call.”

  The man in the back with her gave a disgusted grunt, but she heard the tones of cell phone keys being punched and then the faint sound of a phone ringing through a tiny speaker.

  “Got her.” The kidnapper who’d dragged her through the bedroom window at Karina’s house clipped the words short but in a more subdued tone than he’d used when speaking to the driver. “We’re ten minutes out.”

  A muffled voice answered, but she couldn’t make out the reply.

  “Understood.” A shuffle and then he said to the driver, “Go the back way.”

  “What do you think I am, an idiot? Of course I’m going in the back. You think I want to mess around with Caesar? That dog’s nuts when he’s on guard duty.”

  When she heard that, Darcie knew where they were taking her. Caesar must be the rottweiler who guarded Fairm
ont Estate at night. Of course. Where else would they take her but to the secret room beneath the pool house? And who would she meet there? Mrs. Fairmont? Dread mounted inside her.

  * * *

  “We have to go right now.” Caleb’s fist slammed down on the kitchen counter so hard Karina jumped.

  Detective Samuels wasn’t intimidated. He shoved a finger in Caleb’s face. “You calm down, you hear me? We’ll handle this my way.”

  “But you’re not doing anything.” Frustration boiled in his stomach, but Caleb forced himself to lower his voice. “They’ve taken her to that underground room.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  He ran a hand roughly across his scalp. “Where else would they go? They’re going to take her someplace where we can’t find her, and they think nobody knows about that room.”

  “Who is this they you keep talking about? If you have a name, give it to me. Give me someplace to start.”

  Caleb threw a hand in the air. “I don’t know! Start with Mrs. Fairmont. She’s the one selling dogs with jewels stuffed in their collars. Go get her out of bed and ask her to explain that. And while you’re there, find that underground room.”

  His voice rose to a shouting pitch, and Karina stepped forward to place a warning hand on his arm. Caleb fought against the rising urgency that vibrated in every muscle of his body.

  When he had regained control, Samuels nodded. “That’s better. Now, listen to me a minute. We can’t wake Mrs. Fairmont up to question her because she’s not home. When her husband died, she told me she was going to stay with her sister in Stone Mountain for a few days.”

  “Good,” Caleb shot back. “Then nobody’s there to see if you search the pool house. Let’s go.”

  Samuels rolled his eyes and said to Mason, who stood nearby, “You used to be a cop, didn’t you? Talk sense to him.”

  Mason caught and held Caleb’s eye. “Dude, you know they can’t search without a warrant. If they find anything it’ll get thrown out of court.”

  Caleb gritted his teeth and said to the detective, “Then wake up the judge and get a warrant.”

  “I’m heading there right now,” Samuels said. “But not until I’m sure you’re going to stay out of trouble and out of my way. You are not to leave this house, do you understand me, Buchanan?”

  His eyes held Caleb’s in a steely trap. Without a doubt, he wouldn’t leave without a promise that Caleb wouldn’t strike out on his own the minute he was gone. But Caleb couldn’t promise that.

  Do I understand you?

  Yeah, he understood the detective’s order. He had no intention of obeying, but he understood. He nodded.

  That satisfied Samuels. “Good. I’ll call when I know something.”

  He left the kitchen, and Caleb stayed where he was, tracking his progress by sound. He heard the front door open, and then Samuels’s voice speaking to someone outside before the door closed.

  The home phone rang. Karina answered and then put her hand over the mouthpiece. “It’s Brent. He wants an update.”

  Caleb shook his head. He couldn’t talk right now, not even to his friends. He knew what they’d say, that he should wait here and let Samuels do his job. Given different circumstances he’d agree with them. But this was Darcie’s life he was talking about. He’d promised to keep her safe. Was he going to sit around and twiddle his thumbs all night? Not a chance.

  Taking the receiver from Karina, Mason looked at him and spoke into the phone. “Yeah, he’s doing okay. I mean, as good as you or I would do in the same situation.” Brent said something, and Mason sauntered casually from the room. Caleb heard him speaking in a low voice as he headed toward the bedroom. With a quick smile in his direction, Karina followed.

  The minute she was out of sight, Caleb acted. Mason’s car keys and cell phone sat on the counter where he’d laid them when they had returned home from the crash site. Caleb snatched them up, pocketed the phone and then whirled to jerk the refrigerator open. Thoughts fired through the inside of his brain like bullets. He’d need to create some sort of distraction for when he got to the Fairmont Estate. There. Next to the ham was a package of hot dogs.

  He could no longer hear Mason’s voice from the other room. Had he hung up the phone? Caleb didn’t stick around to find out. With three long strides he passed through the family room on his way to the garage and snatched up one of the big throw pillows from the sofa. A plan was forming. Not a good plan, and not one he was looking forward to. But at least he would be doing something to help Darcie.

  * * *

  From her position on the floor, Darcie couldn’t see outside the van but she felt the moment they left the main road and pulled onto another paved surface. When the driver turned off the lights, she assumed they were entering the Fairmont Estate by a rear entrance, since they’d been instructed to come in the back way. Why were they entering under the cover of darkness, though? They were expected, weren’t they?

  In a few minutes the van slowed, and she heard a dog barking, a deep, ferocious sound. Caesar? Then even the little bit of light in the van went dark as the vehicle pulled into an enclosure of some sort.

  “I’m not setting a foot out there until he gets that animal under control,” said the driver.

  “There he is.”

  The dog’s barking stopped, and the man in the back of the van with her slid open the door. The dome light illuminated, and Darcie blinked to adjust her eyes. Her captor pulled off his ski mask. Though she wasn’t surprised, she couldn’t stop a gasp when she caught sight of his face. The stranger who’d watched her house in Indiana and who’d followed her to Atlanta.

  His lips curled into an unpleasant grin. “Recognize me, do you?”

  She wasn’t given time to answer before he slipped a hand beneath one arm and hauled her forward. She was dragged out of the van, and the dog began barking again, this time with a frantic edge.

  “You got a good hold of him?” The van’s driver leaned out of the open door.

  A male voice came from the shadows nearby. Not Mrs. Fairmont then. “Caesar, attack.”

  The dog’s barking took on a frenzied tone, punctuated by snarls.

  “Hey, that ain’t funny,” said the driver, raw fear apparent in his voice.

  His answer was a laugh. “Just bring her. I won’t let the big, mean dog get you. Caesar, stay.” The last was uttered in a commanding tone.

  She found herself being propelled forward. When she exited the building she immediately recognized her surroundings. The structure beside her housed the Fairmont Kennel. They’d just exited the barn-shaped garage at the opposite end from the pool house.

  A dozen or so fluffy white puppies ran through doggie doors into their fenced yards, yapping an excited greeting.

  “Shhhh, quiet, you mutts.” Her captor shoved her forward. “You’ll wake the missus.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Just get her down to the lab.”

  Fear dropped into her belly as she was propelled forward, past the row of dog kennels toward the pool house. The underground room housed a lab?

  TWENTY

  Mason’s cell phone rang. Caleb knew the identity of the caller without looking. With one hand on the wheel, he punched the button to answer.

  “I know what you’re going to say.” He executed a curve, watching the speedometer. Not too fast or he’d attract attention, even though every fiber in his body urged speed.

  “Dude, you stole my car!” Outrage gave Mason’s voice volume.

  “Remember the time you borrowed my truck to pick up your new washer and drier?”

  A pause. “Yeah, so?”

  “So I’m calling in the favor. I’ll return your car when I have Darcie back.”

  “You are one crazy guy, you know that? That cop is going to go ballistic when he
finds out you’re going to the Fairmonts’.”

  “By the time he gets the paperwork together and wakes the judge for a warrant, I’ll have Darcie and we’ll be back at your house.”

  “Caleb.” The voice on the other side of the phone was Mason at his most serious. “What if she’s not there?”

  “I know she is.”

  “How? How do you know that?”

  He could describe the feeling of absolute certainty that had settled deep in his gut. Mason would understand that. He was a brother, a fellow believer in the power of God. But the truth was, Caleb wasn’t at all sure this feeling was God. Maybe it was nothing but him, his own desire to keep his promise to Darcie. Since the day he had met her, his feelings had turned upside down. But one thing he was sure of. He couldn’t sit around and do nothing while she was in danger.

  “If I’m wrong,” he told Mason, “then I’m no worse off than now. I’ll find an empty building and I’ll come home.”

  “You’re wrong about that, buddy. In about an hour the cops are going to swarm all over that place and you’ll end up in jail for trespassing and obstruction and whatever else that detective wants to throw at you.”

  For that, he had no answer. If he was wrong, if the men who’d abducted Darcie had taken her someplace else...he couldn’t bear to think about the consequences.

  Mason’s voice took on a tone of resignation. “All right. I get it. I’d probably act like an idiot, too, if I were in your shoes. Pull over the next place you can and wait for me. I’ll call Brent and we’ll be there as soon as we can. Friends don’t let friends act stupid alone.”

  Caleb smiled at the offer. Mason and Brent were good friends, the best a guy could have. And there was no doubt in his mind that he could use their help. But he couldn’t drag them into a situation like this, not when both of them had wives who cared for them.

  “Thanks, brother, but by the time you get there, it’ll be all over. Stay home. I’ll call you when I have her.”

  He ended the call and tossed the phone in the passenger seat. It rang again immediately, but he ignored it.