Stealing Shadows - Hiding In The Shadows Part 18

"You must know I can't talk in specifics about Miss. Leighton's businessaffairs," Sloan replied immediately.

"I'm not asking you about her business affairs," Kane said with justenough patience to make the effort noticeable. "I'm asking you if youknow any- thing-if you saw or heard anything-that might help us to findyour missing client."

This time, there was a pause. A rather deliberate one, Faith thought.

Her heartbeat quickened as she gazed at the lawyer's face. He knowssomething. He knows something, and he's just been waiting for some- bodyto ask him. But n.o.body had asked, because his relations.h.i.+p with Dinahhad not been a public one- and Sloan was not a man who would evervolunteer information. Which explained why he had not come forward whenDinah had vanished.

"Please, Mr. Sloan." Faith knew her voice was unsteady. "Please help usif you can. Did anything unusual happen in the days before shedisappeared?"

"Just one thing." His voice was composed. "Two days before she vanished,Miss. Leighton asked me to recommend a good private investigator, onewho specializes in missing persons." Faith looked at Kane in confusion, and it was he who said, "Did she say why?"

"The only thing she said to me, Mr. Macgregor, was a rather crypticremark to the effect that she needed someone to look for a corpse."

"And that's all he'd tell you?" Bishop asked.

"That's all." Kane wedged the receiver between his ear and shoulder,reached for a legal pad on the coffee table, and scowled at the noteshe'd jotted down earlier. "Just that Dinah wanted to hire a P I.specializing in missing persons because she needed someone to find acorpse."

"Did he know if she actually hired the P I.?"

"He said that when Dinah disappeared, he called the two people he'drecommended, and neither had heard from her. I'm inclined to believehim. For one thing, news of the reward has been played up heavily in themedia, and I doubt very much that a professional investigator would pa.s.sup the chance to make a million bucks if he had any knowledgee at allabout Dinah."

"That is a point." Bishop paused. "Where's Faith?"

"I dropped her off at Haven House. There's a woman there who seems tohave known both Faith and Dinah months ago, and Faith wanted to talk toher. Understandably, men aren't welcome there, so I've been checking outa few other things. Faith's bank, where she has no safe deposit box.

Dinah's other bank, where the manager was very cooperative and is evennow sending Richardson all the records."

"Did you take a look at those records?"

"Yeah. And they verify what Conrad told us, that Dinah used that bankaccount the way she used Sloan, to handle those bequests and donationsshe wanted to keep quiet.

Guy's team will go over all of it wit a fine-tooth comb." He paused.

"Since you're still at Quantico, I a.s.sume you've been able to look intothat restricted file?"

"I'm not still at Quantico," Bishop said, then went on before Kane couldask him anything about that.

"But, yeah, I found out why the files on the murders of Faith's motherand sister are restricted."

"Why?

"Ties in to what you told me about her former husband and the abuse. Itseems that he was, and still is, under suspicion for the crimes. Thetheory is that abuse escalated to open violence when she dared todivorce him, and that she escaped being killed only because she wasunexpectedly called in to work that night."

Grim, Kane said, "That doesn't explain why in formation about theinvestigation is restricted."

"Yes, well, it makes sense when you learn one more salient fact. Faith's.e.x-husband, Tony Ellis, is an FBI agent."

Katie was at school, but Faith left new sheet music on the piano forher. Kane hadn't asked any questions when she'd requested the stop at amusic store; she'd told him the gift was for a child, and he had made acouple of suggestions as to what might appeal to a budding youngpianist.

Even last names weren't offered, which Faith a.s.sumed was one of HavenHouse's policies-turned out to be a not very tall, solidly built womanof about twenty-one, with wary brown eyes that had already seen far toomuch. She was watching over a small group of toddlers when Karen tookFaith down to the roomy nursery in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the house tointroduce her. The children's mothers, the director had explained, wereworking, or job hunting, or busy with lawyers or police attempting todivorce, arrest, or prosecute abusive husbands.

But it was late in the day, and even as Faith was introduced to Eve,women of various ages were beginning to arrive to claim their offspring.

Karen suggested she take over the nursery to give Eve a chance to talkto Faith, and they went upstairs to the second-floor sitting room nearEve's bedroom.

"So you've lost your memory." Eve's voice was a little abrupt, but notunsympathetic, a tone explained when she added, "Happened to me once.

Got knocked into a wall and out cold. When I came to, more than sixmonths were a total blank."

Faith winced. "Did you eventually remember?"

Eve shook her head. "Not really. But I pieced most of it together,talking to people. I guess that's what you're doing?"

"Trying to. Can you help me?"

"We weren't close," Eve said frankly.

"Friendly, just not confiding. So I don't know much, except that youwere very angry."

"Angry? Not frightened?"

"I don't think you were as afraid of your ex as some of us were. Maybebecause he was so far away, or maybe because you had other things onyour mind.

I think you and Dinah were up to something."

Faith blinked. "Up to something?"

"Yeah. A story of some kind. I don't know what it was about, but I gotthe feeling Dinah was trying to hold you back in some way. To keep youfrom doing something she didn't think you should do. I think she wasworried about YOU."

Faith wondered again if it was her fault that Dinah it I it was in suchdanger, and was conscious of a cold, sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. But all she said was, "Were you close to Dinah?"

Eve's rather immobile face softened. "She talked to me a lot for her story. And, after, she gave me the money I needed to go back to school.

I got my GED, but I wasn't going to do anything else until Dinahconvinced me it was the best thing for me to do. I'm studyingcomputers," she finished proudly.

Faith smiled at her. "That's great."

"Yeah, I think so. I have a future now. Dinah said-" She broke off andbit her lip.

"What did she say, Eve?" The younger woman hesitated, then said slowly,"I've thought about it since she disappeared, and crazy as it sounds, Ithink she always knew she'd- she didn't have a future of her own. Sheseemed almost sad when we talked about my plans. Once, she said I had somuch to look forward to, and that she wished she'd be here to see it."

"Maybe she was ... just planning to go away," Faith said.

"I don't think so. You didn't see her face the way I did, hear hervoice. I think she could see the future sometimes, that she knew aboutthings before they happened. She never said so, but once she warned menot to go back to a certain club I liked, and later I found out my exhad been there looking for me. I heard her tell Andrea she should go seeher mother, and 'just a couple of weeks later the poor lady died of aheart attack. And there were other things. The way she looked at Katieand the other kids. The way she moved really fast to arrange thingswhenever she donated money to Haven House or one of us, as if she knewshe had to hurry." Eve shook her head. "I think she knew she didn't havemuch time left."

Faith suddenly remembered what Bishop had said about Dinah. She wasprecognitive, able to ... tune in to future events, to predict the turnof a card or the throw of dice.

Had Dinah seen her own future?

CHAPTER SIX.

The sky darkened early with a November storm, one of those weathersystems that seemed to circle a place, thunder rumbling and lightningflas.h.i.+ng, warning while it decided if it wanted to strike.

Kane wondered if it was an omen, and tried not to let himself believethat. But it was hard not to. The night and the storm had closed in,cutting him off and making it impossible for him to be out doingsomething, anything, that might help him find Dinah. He hated the night.

It was impossible to sit still. He had learned weeks ago that when hewas barred from doing anything to help Dinah, he had to keep himselfbusy with mundane activities. It kept him grounded. Kept him sane.

At least, he hoped it did.

He dug into the freezer for one of the homemade meals that wereoccasional weekend projects for him.

Dinah had teased him that he went on cooking lags on weekends onlybecause he wanted to make her look bad, but the truth was that there wasa streak of practicality in his nature and a strong sense ofselfreliance, and he regularly practiced the skill of cooking 'just ashe regularly practiced his other skills.

Because one never knew when such things would come in handy.

It was after seven, and the storm was rumbling closer, when Faithemerged from the bedroom. She had retreated there soon after theyreturned from the shelter, obviously upset by what she had learnedthere, although she had told Kane it was "nothing useful."

He suspected she had discovered more details of her own past andpersonality, but even so it bothered him that she hadn't wanted todiscuss it. In the weeks since Dinah had vanished, he had begun torealize just how much of herself she had been unable or unwilling toshare with him. That, coupled with his deepening sense of loss, hisincreasing feeling that Dinah was slipping further and further away fromhim, made him want to hold on even tighter to the only connection to herhe had left: Faith.

"Are you sure you don't want me to move into the guest room now thatBishop's gone?" she asked abruptly, obviously speaking more to fill thesilence than for any other reason.

"I'm sure." He didn't offer a reason, not wanting to admit that eitherbed was useless to him anyway, since he spent his nights pacing thefloor until exhaustion finally drove him to close his eyes for an houror two.

Faith shrugged. "Something smells good."

"Irish stew. My own version, anyway." A boom of thunder interrupted him,and he waited it out before adding, "Perfect night for it, I thought."

"Isn't it a little late in the year for this kind of ?" Faith wondered,automatically the plates and silverware he had stacked on the counterand going to set the table. She was just as restless and edgy as he was,a fact he had noticed before now.

"Maybe, but it's not so unusual. According to the weather reports, it'llprobably storm all night." Great.

He checked the bread baking in the oven, then looked across the room ather. "Do storms bother you?"

"Just a bit. More if there's wind."

"Dinah's 'just the same," he said, keeping his tone casual. "A felinetrait, she calls it. Never having owned a cat, I have no idea what shemeans by that."

"I do. Means we hate change and low-pressure ems." Thunder boomedsuddenly, and Faith jumped. 'd.a.m.n," she murmured a little sheepishly.

"You're wound pretty tight," Kane noted.

"I'll be all right once the storm actually arrives. It's all thisrumbling around beforehand that gets on my nerves. The table's set. CanI do anything else?"

"You can pour the wine. I'll have this ready in just a few minutes."

It wasn't until they were sitting at the table with the meal before themthat Faith finally said, with obviously forced nonchalance, "Did youhear from Bishop about that restricted file?"

Kane nodded slowly.

"I can see from your face I'm not going to like it.

Let me guess. My abusive ex had something to do with the murder of myfamily?"

"Is that a guess?" he asked.

"Educated. I've been talking to the women at the shelter, remember. Beenhearing a lot about violent men. So I had to wonder about the violentman in my past." She paused and seemed to brace herself. "Did he kill mymother and sister?"

"He was-and is-suspected. But the police haven't found any evidence,Faith, and he not only pa.s.sed a couple of lie detector tests but alsotold the same story under some kind of experimental truth serum."

"Truth serum?"

"Noah said to forget we heard that." She smiled, but it was an effort."Okay, so what story did he tell?"

"He claims that after you left him in L A.-where you two had lived forthe ten months of your marriage-he didn't hear from you again until hewas served with divorce papers. At which point he says he got calmly ona plane for Seattle, intending to talk to you about the situation. Healso says he checked into a hotel in Seattle, called your mother'shouse, and learned that you were working. So he says he stayed at thehotel and didn't have a clue what had happened until the police roustedhim out of bed the next morning.

"The police, on the other hand, believe that blind rage overcame himwhen he was served with the papers. That even though phone records showhe did call your mother's house, he could have driven out there, stillenraged, killed your mother and sister, and burned the house to theground. There wasn't much forensic evidence, nothing to say who'd doneit, but Tony Ellis had motive and no real alibi, so-"

"Tony Ellis. Is that his name?"

Kane heard in her voice a loss he could barely comprehend. At least heknew what he had lost; Faith was almost hourly discovering bits andpieces of her life, good and horrible, that had vanished from her mind.

"Is it his name?" she repeated steadily.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Faith."

She shook her head and looked down at her plate for a moment, thenslowly s.h.i.+fted her fork from her right hand to her left. "I'm glad Idon't remember him," she said almost absently. "But I'm still confusedabout why that file is restricted."

"Ellis is an FBI agent."

She looked up swiftly. "Ali. Now it makes more sense. Covering for oneof their own?"

"That was apparently your view. But it really does appear that there wasno evidence to arrest him. Or even for the FBI to fire him, for thatmatter. They demoted him, and he's under close observation in L A.,something he's well aware of, apparently. From everything Noah couldgather, he's been behaving himself for the last eighteen months."

"I told someone at the shelter that I had medical evidence that could ruin his career."

"Yes. Hospital records showing broken bones and severe bruising." Kaneheld his voice even and steady, but it took effort. "You turned it overto the police in Seattle. But when they couldn't prosecute him for themurders, you apparently decided that rather than let them prosecute fora.s.sault against you, you'd use the evidence to pressure him into signingthe divorce papers and getting out of your life for good."

Faith shook her head. "And then what? I crossed the country just to makesure?"

"Maybe."

And maybe not.