Promise Not To Tell(62)

“Your mother?”

“Yes.” Virginia flipped through a couple more pages. “Hannah’s name appears as well. There’s also a Jacky.”

“My mother’s name was Jacqueline Kennington Sutter.”

Without a word, Virginia handed him one of the pages. He read a few sentences and then he put the paper down on the table.

“This isn’t just a collection of memories of life in Zane’s cult,” he said. “This is hard evidence. Your mother and mine, together with Hannah Brewster and Abigail Watkins, came up with a plan to steal from the devil himself.”

CHAPTER 42

Cabot drew up a chair and sat down at the table, his phone at the ready. Virginia sat beside him. Together they went through the papers.

“There are only half a dozen pages here,” Virginia said. “And they’re just photocopies. I wonder what happened to the original diary?”

“No way to know. But obviously Rose Gilbert must have considered these pages important. She didn’t throw them into the bottom drawer of the bureau along with the rest of Abigail’s things, and she didn’t throw them away.”

Every page contained a fresh shock. Virginia had to keep wiping the tears from her eyes.

… We know the plan is terribly dangerous but what choice do we have? Kim and Jacky are right. As long as Zane holds the children hostage and as long as his thugs control the compound, there is no escape. We need leverage that we can use to force the monster to give up the kids and let us go. All he cares about is the money…

… We know that he is capable of murder. Jacky and Kim are certain now that he murdered their husbands…

Virginia turned over the last photocopied page.

… Kim says the money has been deposited in the secret bank account that Jacky set up using her trust fund. Regardless of what happens to us, the money will be safe, held in trust for the children. Only the four of us know the location of the key. Tomorrow we will confront Zane.

Virginia looked at Cabot. For a moment neither of them spoke.

“They had a plan,” Virginia said eventually. “They were going to try to force Zane to free the children. They were so daring, so brave. So desperate. They must have been terrified of Zane.”

“Somehow he must have discovered that some of the cult members were plotting against him. He decided to destroy the whole operation and kill as many people as possible on his way out the door. At that point he probably didn’t know that the money had disappeared into a secret account. He made the mistake of murdering most of those who could have told him where it was hidden.”

“Except for Hannah and Abigail.”

“It was sheer luck that they survived that night. They weren’t locked up with the mothers of the children. Zane kept them in a different section of the compound. He evidently saved it for last. Someone driving past out on the old highway reported the fire. Anson and the local fire crew responded immediately. Zane must have heard the sirens. He had vanished by the time the first responders arrived on the scene.”

“Yes. But after Zane realized that the money was gone, why didn’t he go after Hannah and Abigail?”

“Best guess is that he probably didn’t think they knew about the plot or, if they did, he assumed they hadn’t been entrusted with the information needed to access the money. Neither of them had any experience in the financial world. Abigail and Hannah were just the cult’s housekeepers and cooks.”

Virginia did not say anything; she couldn’t speak. Without a word, Cabot got to his feet and pulled her up into his arms. She did not feel trapped. Maybe that was because she was holding him as tightly as he held her.

After a while, she raised her head. “I wonder what happened to the original diary. And why did Rose have only photocopies of those pages?”

“No way to know where the diary ended up, but I have a hunch Rose only bothered to photocopy the pages that described the plot to hide the money and use it as a ransom payment to free the kids.”

“Because all she cared about was the money. What are we going to do with the diary pages and the photograph?”

“I was planning to give them to the authorities, but I’ve changed my mind,” Cabot said.

“Why?”

“There’s no information in those pages that will give the investigators a lead on the guy who set off that fire today. But the main reason I don’t want to mention them to the authorities is because I don’t want whoever is chasing the key to know that we found part of Abigail Watkins’s diary. You’d be in even more danger than you are already.”

She got a little misty-eyed again. “You’re bending the rules. For me.”

He shook his head. “There are only two rules on this job: keep you safe and find out if Quinton Zane is still alive.”

She smiled. “In other words, you make your own rules.”

“Are you okay with that?”

“You’re an artist. A very good artist knows when to follow the rules and when to break them. It’s how creativity works.”

“I am not an artist but I’ll take that as a yes,” Cabot said. He glanced at her phone, which was lying on the table next to her handbag. “One more thing.”

“What?”

“From now on we don’t discuss this on our cell phones. No texts. No e-mail.”