The Couple Next Door(19)

Anne thinks for a minute. “But if a kidnapper has her, why hasn’t he made a ransom demand?”

“I don’t know! Maybe he panicked. Which scares the hell out of me, because then maybe he’ll kill Cora and dump her somewhere!”

Anne asks, “How do we start negotiating with the kidnapper if he’s not even in touch with us?”

Marco looks up. “Through the media.”

Anne nods, thinking. “How much do you think it would take, to get her back?”

Marco shakes his head in despair. “I have no idea. But we only get one shot at this, so we have to make it worthwhile. Maybe two or three million?”

Anne doesn’t even flinch. “My parents adore Cora. I’m sure they’ll pay. Let’s get them back here, and Detective Rasbach, too.”

? ? ?

Rasbach returns hurriedly to the Contis’ house, summoned by Marco on his cell phone.

Both Marco and Anne are standing in the living room. They have freshly tearstained faces, but they look resolved. For a brief moment, Rasbach thinks they are about to confess.

Anne is watching for her parents at the front window. At that moment Richard and Alice arrive and come swiftly up the steps past the reporters, somehow maintaining their dignity in spite of the flash of cameras around them. Anne lets them in, careful to remain unseen behind the door.

“What’s happened?” Richard says, alarmed, looking at his daughter, at the detective. “Did you find her?”

Alice’s sharp eyes try to take everything in at once. She seems both hopeful and frightened.

“No,” Anne says. “But we need your help.”

Rasbach watches all of them closely. Marco says nothing.

Anne speaks. “Marco and I think we should offer money directly to the kidnapper. A significant amount. Whoever’s got her, maybe if we offer enough money and promise not to prosecute, he’ll give her back.” She turns to her parents. Marco stands beside her. “We have to do something,” she says piteously. “We can’t just sit here and wait for him to kill her!” Her eyes desperately search her parents’ faces. “We need your help.”

Alice and Richard regard each other very briefly. Then Alice says, “Of course, Anne. We’ll do anything to get Cora back.”

“Of course,” Richard agrees, nodding emphatically.

“How much do you need?” Alice asks.

“What do you think?” Anne says, turning to Detective Rasbach. “How much would be enough to get someone to give her up?”

Rasbach considers the question carefully before answering. If you’re innocent, it would be natural to want to throw money, any amount of money, at the person who has your child. And this family appears to have almost unlimited funds. It’s certainly worth a try. The parents may not be involved at all. And time is running out.

“What were you thinking, in terms of amount?” Rasbach asks.

Anne looks uncomfortable, as if she’s embarrassed to put a price tag on her child. She has no idea, really. How much is too much? How much is too little? “Marco and I were thinking maybe a couple million, maybe more?” Her uncertainty is obvious. She looks at her mother and father uneasily. Is she asking too much of them?

“Of course, Anne,” Alice says. “Whatever you need.”

“We’ll need some time to get it,” Richard says, “but we’ll do anything for Cora. And for you, too, Anne. You know that.”

Anne nods tearfully. She hugs her mother first, then goes over and puts her arms around her father, who hugs her back. He holds her while her shoulders shake with sobs.

For a brief moment, Rasbach thinks about how much easier life is for the wealthy.

Rasbach watches Richard look over his daughter’s head at his son-in-law, who says nothing at all.





NINE


They settle on three million dollars. It’s a lot of money, but it won’t ruin Richard and Alice Dries. The couple has millions more. They can afford it.

Less than twenty-four hours after they first reported their baby missing, early Saturday evening, Anne and Marco face the media again. They have not spoken to the press since seven o’clock that morning. Once again they have carefully crafted a message at their coffee table with the help of Detective Rasbach and then gone out onto the front steps to give a statement.

This time Anne has changed into a simple but chic black dress. No jewelry, save pearl earrings. She has showered, washed her hair, even applied a small amount of makeup, trying to put on a brave face. Marco has also showered and shaved and changed into a white shirt and clean jeans. They look like an attractive, professional couple in their thirties, blindsided by tragedy.

When they step out onto the small porch, just before the six-o’clock newscasts, the cameras flash as before. Interest in the case has built throughout the day. Marco waits for the hubbub to die down and then addresses the reporters. “We would like to make another statement,” he says loudly, but he is immediately interrupted before he can begin.

“How do you explain the mix-up in what the baby was wearing?” someone asks from the sidewalk below them.

“How could you make a mistake like that?” another voice demands.

Marco glances at Rasbach and then answers, not bothering to hide his annoyance. “I believe the police already issued a statement about that earlier, but I’ll tell you again.” He takes a deep breath. “We put Cora down earlier in the evening in the pink onesie. When my wife fed her at eleven o’clock, the baby spit up on her sleeper. My wife changed her into a different one, a mint green onesie, in the dark, but then in all the distress of her being taken we simply forgot that.” Marco’s manner is cold.