Secrets of the Rose

“Yes.” Shelby was just as puzzled as Daniel, but she picked up on the speculative tone of Natalie’s voice. “Why, I wonder?”

“Look inside the envelope. Maybe there’s something else.” Tim squatted beside her, his face inscrutable as he watched the way Natalie carefully examined the interior. “There’s a note.”

“I can see that, Mr. Austen.”

Everyone’s attention focused on the envelope as a slip of paper fell out. Shelby stared at the sprawl of childish letters across notepaper with the Finders logo printed across the top.

Aimee is safe. Don’t worry.

“Don’t worry?” Shelby snorted. “As if!” She watched Natalie turn the paper over, scrutinize the back. “Why is this written on company stationery?”

“Exactly my question. This handwriting looks like a child’s.”

“It’s not Aimee’s. She always makes the A in her name very decorative.”

Natalie’s intense inspection seemed completed. She replaced the paper in the envelope and put both it and the locket in a plastic bag she had pulled from her pocket, then looked at Shelby. “I think we’d better begin investigating your company, Mrs. Kincaid.”

“Us?” Daniel shook his head. “But why? What possible reason could one of our employees have for taking her child? We return things, we don’t steal them.”

“Can you tell me who else would have access to your letterhead, your company notepaper? The general public?”

Flustered, Daniel opened his mouth, closed it, then finally spoke. “N-no. But—”

“Actually, a number of people could have found a sheet of it.” Shelby rose. “I have several pads of that very notepaper in the house. I know there’s a pad on Grant’s—that is, the desk in the study. And probably one by the phone in the kitchen, as well.” She offered an apologetic smile. “I used to scribble notes to myself on them and I often carried a pad home with me. There must be a number of them around. Whoever took Aimee could have easily taken a single sheet, or a whole pad, for that matter—if they’d been in this house before. And they must have, to get in so easily. Don’t you think?”

“This case is a puzzle within a puzzle.” Natalie’s epithet was terse and short, spat out in a whorl of frustration. “No apparent motive, no ransom note or call, no tracks. No fingerprints. No clues until today, and now this one is tainted.”

Then, as if suddenly aware that she had an audience, she straightened, called over a waiting technician and handed him the evidence.

“So what do we do now?” Shelby asked when it became clear that Natalie wasn’t going to volunteer any opinion on the state of her investigation.

“We wait. If your, er, manager?—will give me the names of your employees, I’ll have someone check them out.”

Daniel glanced at Shelby, and in one imperceptible movement of his head transmitted a no. That could only mean that right now he had someone conducting a sensitive search. Police investigations would mess that up.

“I’ll go you one better. I’ll check them out myself.”

The idea had burst upon Shelby only a moment before when she’d seen the company logo on that slip of paper, but it was a good one. She was sick and tired of sitting around, waiting. She needed to do something, anything, to help find Aimee. Checking out employees who had already passed an extremely thorough investigation would be little more than busywork, but at least she could prove that her employees were trustworthy.

“You? But we need you here.”

“Why?” She faced Natalie head-on, saw the confusion in her eyes and realized she had to soften her tone. Natalie was not the source of her frustration. “You and I both know there isn’t going to be a ransom call, Detective. Not after this long. Anyway, I don’t think taking Aimee was about money. It’s about something else. Right now, I don’t know what that could be, but maybe I’ll uncover something at work.”

She knew it sounded weak, as if she was running away. But she had to do something!

“I can’t sit here, waiting for the phone to ring, asking myself a thousand times why I didn’t rush in there and stop whoever did this, blaming myself for her disappearance. I have to act. Can’t you understand that?”

“I can.” Tim stepped forward, patted her on the shoulder. “And I think it’s a good idea.” He turned to Natalie. “Surely you and your team wouldn’t turn down whatever help Shelby’s company can offer? After all, Finders has a sophisticated system dedicated to finding people and recovering lost things. Maybe they could help your…er…department?”

The faintly challenging note in his voice puzzled Shelby. What was he implying?

“You don’t think my office or the police department is handling this case properly?” Natalie’s tone was icy.

“I never said that.”

“You’ve hinted at it more than once.” Natalie shrugged her elegant shoulders. “I don’t really care what you think, Mr. Austen.” She laid heavy emphasis on his last name. “I’m in charge here and I intend to find that little girl.” She nodded at Shelby. “Go ahead. Do your checks. You’ve got files on everyone, I imagine?”

“We have.” Daniel smiled.

“I’ll want to see them.”

“I can arrange for copies to be sent to your office, but you don’t have to bother. If anyone can find out something that’s not obvious, it’s Shelby. Research is what she does best. No stone unturned.” He held out his arms. “I know it’s not the best of circumstances, but welcome back, Shel.”

“Thanks. I think.” She returned his hug. Already Shelby felt better, as if she could somehow come to grips with this by doing something to help Aimee.

Natalie watched them, her veiled glance hiding her true feelings.

“Anything, however small, that could connect your daughter to someone in your company is what we’re looking for.” She waited for Shelby’s nod of understanding. “We’re patched into your phone here in case something comes through, but I expect you to contact me immediately if you find anything. Anything,” she repeated with emphasis.

“Of course. We have worked with the police before, you know, Natalie. We also have a very secure method of screening incoming calls to Finders, Inc. I’m not unfamiliar with the way things are done.” Shelby frowned. “I certainly wouldn’t dream of holding anything back that could jeopardize the safe return of my child.”

The detective’s cheeks flushed, but all she said was, “Right,” before she turned and walked back inside.

“Bossy, overbearing, pushy…” Tim ran out of words.

“What’s going on with you two?” Shelby was curious about his attitude. “You’ve been at loggerheads ever since you met.”

“Something about her bugs me. I don’t know what it could be, other than the aforementioned attribute of pure bossiness.” Tim shook his head. “Forget about our personality differences, Shelby. Go and do what you have to do.”

“I’ll do it,” she agreed. “But I hate it. We screen very carefully. Once our staff have been cleared, we do periodic updates and yearly investigations. It’s all part of the very specialized work we do. I don’t see how anyone in our offices could be implicated in this.”

“Nor do I.” Daniel walked along beside them, his forehead pleated in a frown. “But I’ll be glad to have you there, Shelby. I’d like to keep this as low profile as we can.”

“Is something wrong with the company, Daniel?”

He appeared to debate his answer. Finally he spoke, his voice soft, reflective. “Now’s not the time to burden you with work, Shel. Let’s just concentrate on Aimee. The rest can wait for a more appropriate time.”

He wasn’t telling her everything, and she knew it. But for now, Shelby wouldn’t press him. Daniel might be holding his own counsel until they could speak freely. Or he might not yet be sure of his facts. One thing she knew—Daniel was as loyal as any of her employees. Grant had trusted him implicitly. So did she.

Daniel may not want to bother her now, but if something was seriously wrong at Finders, she intended to find out during her own probe. Finders, Inc. had gained its reputation because of its specialized capability to locate and recover without eliciting undue attention. One rotten apple could spoil the entire business; seriously threaten their ability to handle confidential work, especially those government contracts they periodically won. So she’d do whatever she could to ensure that Daniel’s investigation would stay hush-hush. For now.

Shelby left home to the tune of Esmeralda’s grumblings about the policemen who’d moved into the house she’d lovingly cared for these past twenty years, men who couldn’t get enough of her double chocolate cookies, men who left footprints from the rose garden on her clean carpet. Shelby left, knowing the older woman was just as upset about losing Aimee as she was. Looking after the officers would keep Esmeralda busy.

But as Shelby drove through the security gates and onto the lot of the company that she and Grant had built, a shiver of trepidation crept up her spine—which was probably natural. After all, she hadn’t returned to Finders since Grant’s death. Perhaps that accounted for the foreboding she felt as she watched the security camera track her steps, punched in her pass code to transmit the secure sequence that sent the elevator to the top floor. The feeling didn’t lessen when she unlocked her office door.

Everything was as she’d left it, though Joanie, her secretary, had already pulled the files and placed them on her desk. And apparently the cleaners had also been in for there wasn’t a speck of dust on the clear glass surfaces. When she caught a glimpse of the photo on her desk, a snapshot of her and Grant laughing at each other on a catamaran off the Sicilian coast, her heart took over and she struggled to remain calm.

He’d died here, on these grounds.