Page 18

Chapter Eighteen

J etta’s phone rang as she chirped the car locks outside the rehab facility. A smile stretched across her face, thinking it was Seth. She swiped to answer. “Miss me already?”

Silence.

She frowned. Wrong number or spam call. But before she could disconnect, a voice said, “Next time, the bullets won’t miss.”

The cold, arrogant tone sent a chill down her spine. “Why are you doing this?”

A soft chuckle from the caller. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is you and that muscleman stop sticking your noses into where they don’t belong.”

“But—” The caller hung up before Jetta could formulate the rest of her thought. Anxiety made her shoulders slump, but Seth’s words about God being in control strengthened her. She would not be cowed by these circumstances. After sending Seth a text outlining what the caller had said, she squared her shoulders and marched into the rehab center.

She signed in at the front desk, then made her way to her mother’s room, only to find it empty. Maybe she was in PT. She returned to the nurse’s station and waited until for a nurse to finish a phone call.

“May I help you?” The older woman wore impatience like a shawl, her tone indicating she hoped she could send Jetta on her way fast.

“I’m looking for Emily Ainsley.”

The nurse huffed and pointed to the room. “That’s her room.”

“She’s not there. I wondered if she might be in physical therapy?” Jetta kept her tone light and friendly, though she was a bit put out by the woman’s unhelpful attitude.

The nurse frowned and tapped the computer keyboard. “She’s not scheduled for anything else today and should be in her room.” She craned her neck to look past Jetta. “Nurse Chara, do you know where Mrs. Ainsley is?”

“In her room.”

“Not there.” The concern Jetta had been wrestling with broke out of her hold and filled her body. “I didn’t see her wheelchair either. She’s not able to get around herself, so someone must have helped her.”

The panic climbing in her voice must have transferred to the seated nurse because she stood. “Right. I’m calling security, and we’ll do a search of the hospital.”

“I’ll check her room again.” Nurse Chara headed into Mom’s room and Jetta followed.

While the nurse did a cursory sweep of the room, then left, Jetta decided to do a more thorough search. The nurse was looking for Mom. Jetta was looking for clues as to where her mother might have gone. Initially, she spotted nothing out of the ordinary until she got on her hands and knees to peer under the bed. There, one slipper lay on its side. She plucked it out to examine it. The right slipper, the one Mom wore on her good leg, rested in her hand. She got down on all fours and used her phone’s flashlight to see if the left slipper had been pushed farther under the bed. Nothing but a few dust bunnies.

Jetta frowned. Mom wouldn’t have put the wrong slipper on her bare foot. Even though the difference between the right and left slipper wasn’t that noticeable to the eye, Emily insisted she could tell when the left slipper was on her right foot. Having helped Mom to wear the slipper during her rehab stay, Jetta could attest to the fact Mom would never have put on the wrong slipper. While she couldn’t wear the left one because of her cast, she’d insisted on having it with her for when the cast came off.

“Ms. Ainsley?”

Still holding the lone slipper, Jetta sat back on her heels to see a tall, angular woman standing in the doorway. “Yes?”

“I’m Holly MacNamara, head of security.” The woman come into the room, bright from the sunlight spilling into it from the two large windows. “We’re conducting a search of the hospital and grounds for your mother.”

Jetta held up the slipper and explained its significance. “She would never deliberately put on the wrong one.”

Holly furrowed her forehead, but before she replied, her radio squawked something Jetta couldn’t understand. “Repeat please.” The woman put the radio closer to her ear but this time, Jetta heard the words loud and clear. “We found a woman’s bedroom slipper near the hedges at the east end of the property.”

“I’m on my way.” Holly turned to Jetta. “You stay here.”

Shaking her head, Jetta followed the security guard out of the room. “I’m coming with you. It’s my mother who’s missing.”

Holly didn’t reply but powerwalked to the closest exit and pushed open the door. Jetta kept up as the other woman veered to the left on one of the many paths crisscrossing the open expanse of the outer lawn. The facility was essentially a rectangle with an inner courtyard of flower beds, shrubs, and small trees with concrete walkways and benches for the patients to use. Manicured lawns surrounded the building with woods along one side, residential homes on the opposite side, and thick hedges where it backed up to farmland. Jetta tried to pray for her mother’s safety as she jogged after Holly, but the words jumbled together in her mind. Three people wearing similar uniforms to Holly stood in a clump near a gap in the hedge.

“What did you find?” Holly barked the question as she approached the group.

“A woman’s slipper.” A chubby man with a bald head hitched his duty belt, then pointed to the slipper lying on the ground.

Jetta immediately recognized it as the mate to the one she suddenly realized she still clutched in her hand. “It’s my mom’s.” Her voice wavered and she cleared her throat. “It’s a match to this one.”

All four guards stared at the slipper in her hand, then at the one near the hedge. “It appears to be the other one,” Holly agreed. She leaned forward as if peering through the narrow pathway in the hedge. “There’s a bit of fabric snagged on the branch near the exit too.”

“What does that mean?” Jetta asked the obvious question to which she was sure she didn’t want to know the answer.

“It might mean someone has taken your mother against her will,” Holly said, her voice firm but gentle. “I’m calling this into the police as a possible kidnapping.”

Jetta gasped, bringing the slipper to her chest as she blinked back tears. Crying wouldn’t help them find her mother and would only distract them from their work. While Holly phoned the police, Jetta stood, unable to move her gaze from the slipper resting so peacefully on the dirt. Please God, keep Mom safe!

After she finished her call, Holly addressed her people. “Clive, go back to Ms. Ainsley’s room and shut the door. Then stand guard outside of it. No one goes in or out until the police arrive. Javier, you’ll do the same here—no one touches anything until the cops arrive. Make note of anything you see or hear while you’re waiting. Vicki, you’ll come with me and start reviewing the security footage. Ms. Ainsley, it’s best if you come back to the facility, as the police will want to interview you right away.”

Jetta nodded and trudged behind the two women as they made their way back to the building. Once inside, Holly guided her to a small conference room, assuring her she would send the police to her as soon as they arrived. Alone, Jetta gave into temptation and buried her head in her arms as the sobs engulfed her, the prayer to God for Mom’s safety looping in her mind.

* * *

Emily slowly opened her eyes. The room didn’t spin quite as badly has it had the first couple of times she’d attempted to return to the land of the living. Maybe whatever they’d given her was wearing off. She lay on a thin mattress on the floor of a bare room. Light spilled in from two un-curtained windows, telling her wherever she was, she wasn’t close enough to any other house that they feared discovery. Her head ached like the time she’d drunk too much champagne at a New Year’s Eve party and Jay had to practically carry her home. She’d vowed never to indulge like that again and hadn’t, but she still recalled the awful feeling.

She became aware of pain building in her leg as she continued her inventory. Sweat beads popped out on her forehead and she bit her bottom lip to stem the whimper rising in her throat. The door opened and a figure entered. Fear gripped Emily by the throat, but she couldn’t move her limbs at all, much less try to see who was in the room.

“I see you’re awake.” The voice, muffled by a facemask, sounded neither male nor female. “But you’re in pain. I do apologize for that and brought you something.” The person squatted and set down several prescription bottles on the floor near Emily’s head, along with a bottle of water. She recognized the labels as hers. The thugs who took her must have swiped her pills as well.

“I’ll be back in a bit, once you’re feeling better.” The figure rose and left Emily alone again.

She struggled to sit up, propping her back against the wall. Despite its bare appearance, the room was clean, the linoleum floor dust-free, and the mattress covered in a clean sheet. The cinderblock walls had a fresh coat of white paint, if the faint scent she now discerned was any indication. She managed to snag all of the bottles and took a long drink of water before examining the pills. Yes, these were indeed her prescriptions. She fumbled to open the one with her pain pills and popped two in her mouth, followed by another swallow of water. Then she rested against the wall to wait for the pain to recede.

Emily wasn’t sure how much time had passed, as she must have fallen asleep. She stretched her neck to relieve a crick from sleeping slumped to one side, but at least the pain in her leg wasn’t as sharp as before. The sunlight wasn’t as strong either, leaving the corners of the room in shadows. Jetta must be frantic with worry, as surely her presence must be missed by now. Emily prayed for her daughter’s safety, for someone to find her soon, and for this entire ordeal to be over. Thoughts of her late husband filled her mind. All she wanted was to restore Jay’s good name so he wouldn’t be remembered as someone who’d bilked his company out of millions but as someone who tried to do the right thing. Her older children refused to discuss their father, his fall from grace hitting them harder than it had Jetta.

But given all that had happened, Emily wasn’t sure her quest was as noble as she’d thought. She didn’t think it would put her daughter in danger, much less herself. At least this had brought Seth more into Jetta’s life. Emily had liked the big young man from the moment he’d jogged over to help her move the pile of mulch in her driveway around to her flowerbeds a few years ago. She’d been calling herself all sorts of a fool for continuing the practice of loose mulch that needed a wheelbarrow and shovel to haul rather than hiring a landscape company to pretty up her beds. She hadn’t wanted to admit her body wasn’t up to doing the things it once accomplished with ease. But Seth hadn’t minded, and from then on, he always appeared exactly when she needed brawny assistance.

Her daughter deserved someone who would treat her right. Emily had never liked Kyle, even though she hadn’t met the man in person. What Jetta said—and didn’t say—about her boyfriend had told Emily all she’d needed to know, but she could only offer a listening ear and snippets of advice as Jetta struggled through the relationship. When they’d broken up months ago, Emily had been thrilled. But learning about Kyle’s attack on her sweet Jetta, leaving her pregnant, made Emily’s heart ache.

She wasn’t sure whether Jetta would keep the baby or not, but Emily had the sneaking suspicion Seth wouldn’t mind raising another man’s child. In fact, she was sure he wouldn’t. If only Jetta would be able to overcome her fear of trusting the wrong man and see Seth for the godly man he was, then things might turn out okay for her youngest.

The door opened and the same person came back, this time carrying a tray. “I brought you some soup.”

The scent of chicken broth triggered an answering rumble in Emily’s stomach. She straightened as best she could as the figure unfolded the legs on the tray and set it before Emily. A bowl of steaming soup and another bottle of water rested on the tray.

“Eat before it grows cold.” The person stepped away as Emily picked up the spoon and savored the soup.

When she’d finished, the figure placed the tray by the door before returning to crouch in front of Emily.

“You have been busy digging up the past, despite your injuries.”

Emily stayed silent, waiting for the other person to come to the point of her kidnapping.

“Your husband stole that money, Mrs. Ainsley. All the evidence points to that.”

She could keep quiet no longer. “No, he did not. Evidence can be manufactured, and Jay was gathering proof of his innocence before he died.”

“Maybe so, but that was a long time ago. Why pursue this now, especially as your husband is dead?”

“Justice.” Emily nearly hissed the word, her anger at her captor’s cavalier attitude toward Jay’s tarnished reputation growing by the second. “He was innocent—and I intend to prove it.”

A rough chuckle emanated from the person. “You’re tilting at windmills. There is no proof to exonerate Jay Ainsley because he was guilty, guilty of more than just the money.”

“What are you talking about?” The question burst out of her like a bullet.

“You don’t want to find out. Stop this quest now, or you’ll regret it.”

Emily shook her head but didn’t bother asking what she would regret. She would not halt her search for the truth, not while she still had breath in her body. Despite being snatched from her rehab room, she could sense no ill will from her captor, only a sense of frustration overlaying another emotion she couldn’t identify. What was clear was that this person needed something from Emily, something that could only be obtained from a face-to-face encounter. “If all you wanted to do was threaten me, why kidnap me? Seems like quite a risk to warn me off.”

The figure rose, pacing to the other side of the small space and keeping their back to Emily. “I shouldn’t have underestimated you.”

The hushed words made no sense. Emily hadn’t made much progress in proving Jay’s innocence, but maybe Seth and Jetta had? Jetta had been coming by to see her when Emily had been taken. The person whipped around, the dark eyes visible above the surgical facemask blazing with fury. “But you shouldn’t have meddled with Topher Robotics.”

The increased anger shocked Emily. Before, when discussing the embezzlement, her captor had seemed almost pleasant, but now their fury blasted her like a hot oven, sizzling her entire being. “I’m only looking into who could have embezzled the money.”

“Liar!” The person narrowed their eyes to slits. “You have been poking around Project Z. Don’t bother to deny it. I saw through your minion’s pathetic attempt to gather information. It was clever of you to use someone close to Ryan for the job, less likely to run into questions from the staff. But you miscalculated they wouldn’t report the unusual request to the boss himself.”

Emily shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What’s Project Z?”

For a moment, her captor stared at her, the tension rising like flood waters coming closer to swamp her. Without another word, the person left the room, slamming the door so hard, the windows rattled. The snick of a deadbolt brought Emily a measure of relief that her tormentor wouldn’t be returning soon. But the questions being asked made her tremble in fear for herself and for Jetta and Seth. For she caught a glimpse of something bigger than embezzlement going on at Topher Robotics. And she feared they would be caught in the crossfire.