Simon went back to his eggs and bacon, clearly relieved by the change of subject.
“It won’t work,” he said. “I doubt the police will go along with it. But even if they do, the hotel and spa staff won’t be able to keep their mouths shut. This is a small town. I can see the headlines already:Fiend Buries Woman in Hot Wax at Local Spa.”
“No doubt.”
“The murderous-fiend-on-the-loose angle will work better for the killer or killers, anyway. It will distract the public and the police.”
“I agree.” Lyra picked up her coffee cup. “Well? Don’t keep me in suspense. What did Luther Pell tell you?”
Simon’s eyes heated with a familiar intensity. “We’re looking for a nice house in the foothills about thirty minutes from the cabin where we found Miss Kirk’s notebook. Mrs. Merryweather told Luther she was held in an upstairs bedroom, chained to the wall. Food came from the hotel kitchen.”
“This hotel?”
“Yes. Her captors always wore spa masks that covered their faces and heads. And yes, the kidnapping was done for the usual reasons—money and blackmail.”
“Blackmail?”
“Photos were taken.”
“Those bastards. They not only kidnapped her, they raped her?”
“She was assaulted, and the photos appear graphic, but she said theman who did it was unable to get an erection. He was never able to penetrate her but in the photos it appears that he succeeded. The man wore a spa mask, but he had a distinguishing birthmark on his upper chest.”
“Anything else?”
“Dark hair on his chest and... elsewhere. Athletically built. The ransom demand was telephoned to Mr. Merryweather within hours after they grabbed her.”
“But there has been no ransom demand in Raina’s case. It’s exactly as Kevin Draper told us—they took her for a different reason.”
“Pell is convinced this is connected to Miss Kirk’s past.”
“He thinks Raina may have been the woman in those clippings, doesn’t he?” Lyra said. “The one in Bar Harbor who disappeared on a sailboat.”
“Yes. Pell told me that Irene Ward dug up some new information. There were rumors in Bar Harbor that the marriage was unhappy. Mr. Whitlock kept his wife a virtual prisoner. A lot of people in town suspected that he somehow murdered Mrs. Whitlock and made it look as if she had been lost at sea.”
“But he died about eighteen months later.”
Simon finished the eggs and put down his fork. “The rumor in Boston is that he died in an asylum, not at home. Suicide.”
Lyra tapped her fingers on the side of her cup. “What if the husband isn’t dead? Maybe his family made him disappear inside a psychiatric institution and told everyone he fell down the stairs. Maybe he escaped.”
Simon’s eyes tightened at the corners. “And came looking for Raina? It’s a possibility. But that would mean he knew Guppy was in the kidnapping business out here in California.”
“Don’t forget she had a long history in New York before she moved her spa to Labyrinth Springs. From the outset she catered to the socialworld. That’s a small one. She and Whitlock may have known each other.”
“Very true. It’s interesting that Guppy suddenly closed down her New York business and opened up on the other side of the country.”
Lyra considered briefly for a moment. “There’s another possibility. Raina told me she worked for a small but exclusive law firm in New York. It handled a lot of confidential business for its clients. Secretaries know all the secrets. Maybe someone thinks she knows too much, tracked her down to Burning Cove, and arranged to lure her to Labyrinth Springs so that she could be kidnapped without drawing Luther Pell’s attention.”
“If that was the plan, it failed,” Simon said. “I agree, it’s on the list of possible motives, but, again, we don’t have time to investigate that angle. Our priority this morning is to find the house where they’re holding Miss Kirk.”
The cup in Lyra’s fingers trembled. She put it down very carefully.
“If Raina is still alive,” she said.
“We keep going until we find her, regardless. Pell needs to know what happened to her.”
“So do I, but I was hoping you would offer a more optimistic scenario.”
