The Couple Next Door(75)

Marco takes her by the shoulders and looks into her eyes, which are big and frightened. “I think your father must have her. Or he knows who does.”

“What are we going to do?” Anne whispers.

“We have to think this through,” Marco says. He gets up from the sofa, too anxious to sit still. “If your father does have her, or knows where she is, we have two options. We can go directly to the police or we can confront him.”

Anne stares into space, as if her mind has become overwhelmed.

“Maybe we should talk to your father first, rather than going to the police,” Marco says uneasily. Marco doesn’t want to go to jail.

“If we go to my father,” Anne says, “I can talk to him. He’ll give Cora back to me. He’ll be sorry, I know he will. He just wants me to be happy.”

Marco stops pacing and looks at his wife, questioning her grip on reality. If it’s true that Derek Honig was a friend of her father’s, then it could well be true that her father manipulated Marco into financial desperation, into kidnapping their child. Her father might have orchestrated the deception at the exchange; he might have murdered a man in cold blood. He has caused his daughter intense pain. He doesn’t care if she’s happy. He just wants things his way.

He is utterly ruthless. For the first time, Marco realizes what an adversary he has in his father-in-law. The man is possibly a sociopath. How many times had Richard told him that to succeed in business one had to be ruthless? Maybe that was it—maybe he was trying to teach Marco a lesson about ruthlessness.

Anne says suddenly, “Maybe my father is not part of this. Maybe Derek befriended you, and manipulated you, because he knew my father and knew he has money. But my father might not know anything about it. He might not know that Derek was the kidnapper—he might have gotten the phone and the note in the mail, like he said.” She seems more lucid again.

Marco thinks about this. “It’s possible.” But he believes that Richard is running things behind the scenes. He feels it in his gut.

“We have to go over there,” Anne says. “But you can’t just barge in and accuse him. We don’t know for sure what’s going on. I can tell him that I know you took Cora and that you gave her to Derek Honig. That we need his help getting her back. If my father is involved in this, we have to give him a way out. We have to pretend he had nothing to do with it, beg him to work with the kidnappers, to figure out how to get Cora back to us.”

Marco thinks about what she’s said and nods. Anne seems more like herself again, and he’s relieved. Besides, she’s right—Richard Dries isn’t the kind of man you back into a corner. The important thing is to get Cora home again.

“And maybe my father isn’t behind it at all. Maybe he really is in touch with the kidnappers,” Anne says. She so obviously wants to believe that her father wouldn’t do this to her.

“I doubt it.”

They sit for a moment, exhausted by all that’s happened, steeling themselves for what’s ahead. Finally Marco says, “We’d better get going.”

Anne nods. She puts a hand on his arm as they’re leaving. “Promise me you won’t lose your cool with my father,” she says.

What can Marco do but say yes? “I promise.” He adds miserably, “I owe you that.”

? ? ?

They take a cab to Anne’s parents’ home, passing by increasingly stately houses until they arrive in the wealthiest suburb of the city. It’s late, but they have not called first. They want the element of surprise on their side. Anne and Marco sit in the back of the taxi, saying nothing. Marco can feel Anne trembling against him; her breathing sounds fast and shallow. He takes her hand in his, to calm her. He is sweating with nerves in the hot, sticky cab; the air-conditioning doesn’t seem to be working. Marco puts the window down a bit so that he can breathe.

The cab drives them up the circular gravel drive and stops at the front door. Marco pays the driver and tells him not to wait. Anne presses the bell. There are still lights on in the house. After a moment Anne’s mother opens the door.

“Anne!” she says, clearly surprised. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Anne pushes past her mother, and Marco follows her into the front hall.

And at once all their plans fly out the window.

“Where is she?” Anne demands. She looks wildly at her mother. Her mother seems stunned and doesn’t answer. Anne starts walking rapidly through the large house, leaving Marco standing in the front hall, horrified by her behavior. Anne has lost it—he wonders how to play this now.

Anne’s mother follows after her on her frantic search through the house. Marco can hear Anne calling, “Cora! Cora!”

He senses movement above and looks up. Richard is coming down the grand staircase. Their eyes meet, steel on steel. They can both hear Anne’s cries: “Where is she? Where is my baby?” Her voice is becoming more and more frantic.

Suddenly Marco questions everything: Was Anne right about recognizing Derek Honig? Was Derek an associate of her father’s, or has her brain supplied a detail that is simply a delusion? He found her at home in the dark, holding a knife. How reliable is anything she says? Everything he believes hinges on Richard’s knowing Derek Honig. Now it’s up to Marco to find out the truth.

“Let’s go sit down, shall we?” Richard says, and passes him on his way to the living room.