Through the phone, she could hear the sound of things being moved around. Drawers opening and closing. What was he looking for? “Dad? Do you know who the woman was?”
“Woman? Oh, you must mean the babysitter.” He paused. “Why are you asking about her?”
“Do you remember her name?”
“Let me think. She told Ethan to call her Miss Alice. She seemed very nice, and Ethan liked her. What’s going on?”
“Where did she come from?”
“Some babysitting service. Star made the arrangements.”
“Is Star there? Can you ask her?”
“She isn’t here.” His voice sounded strange.
“Tell me what you know about the babysitter.”
She listened to him breathe and wondered whether he was trying to come up with a story.
“I remember it was last minute,” he said finally. “I don’t like going off without Ethan when he visits, but Star hadn’t known he was coming. She surprised me with tickets to a concert. She said we didn’t have to go, but I didn’t want to disappoint her. She said she’d find a trustworthy babysitter. A grown-up, not some kid.”
Through the phone, she heard a zipper open. Then another. As though he were going through their suitcases.
“Was that the only time Alice watched him?” she asked.
“She came the next night, too. Like I said, Ethan seemed to like her. I didn’t think there was a problem. Is there a problem?”
“She looks like a woman who was in one of the photos at the carnival watching Ethan.”
“What are you saying? You think the woman we hired to babysit Ethan kidnapped him? That’s ridicu—” He stopped abruptly.
She heard a rustling, like her father was shaking out a large piece of paper, maybe a sheet of newspaper. “What the hell,” he said.
“What’s the matter? Did you find something?”
His breathing was all wrong, like he couldn’t quite catch it. “What is it, Dad?”
“Nothing,” he said. There was a muted shuffling noise, as though he were folding the paper.
Then she heard a woman’s voice in the background. “Larry, are you here?”
“I’ve gotta go,” he said, and before she could say another word, he had disconnected from the call.
She stared at the phone in her hand, wondering what the hell that was all about.
CHAPTER 36
Her father was behaving strangely, but at least Aubrey had gotten some information from him. Now she had something to work with.
Starting with Star. She had hired the babysitter, which meant that she might have something to do with the kidnapping.
But what about Dad? Was he involved? He had seemed genuinely surprised when Aubrey asked about the babysitter, so for now, she’d stay with the assumption he wasn’t.
But that created a troublesome possibility. What if her father mentioned to Star that Aubrey was interested in the babysitter? Would he be putting himself in danger? But her father had seemed so preoccupied by whatever it was he had found, it seemed unlikely he would bring it up. Besides, it was possible Star had nothing to do with the kidnapping and that the babysitter had been working independently or for someone else.
Of course, all this hinged on the assumption that the babysitter and woman at the carnival were the same person, and that she was the kidnapper, which was yet to be proven.
“Alice,” her father had called her, but who was she?
She sent Smolleck an e-mail with a brief explanation and attached the two photos:
Woman at my father’s apartment two weeks ago appears to be same as woman at carnival watching Ethan. Note similarities in lips, chin, and mole over lip. My father said she was a babysitter from an agency that Star contacted. She watched Ethan two evenings in a row and Ethan seemed to like her.
If they got lucky, the FBI would be able to identify her. Maybe even confirm that the babysitter and the woman at the carnival were the same. But would that lead them to Ethan?
A moment later, she got a reply from Smolleck.
Thanks. Will check into it.
She was surprised he hadn’t called or come upstairs. She went to the window. One of the black sedans was gone. Smolleck had probably left the house after their confrontation in her mother’s office. She wondered whether he had returned to Jonathan’s condo or was out looking for her mother.
She returned to her computer and stared at the screen.
If the babysitter had come from LA and was waiting for Ethan at the carnival, where would she have taken him?
Aubrey discounted a hotel, because with all the publicity about Ethan, someone might notice a woman and little boy checking in on Sunday. So where would a kidnapper bring a child and not expect to be noticed? Probably not a condo, because of nosy neighbors. Maybe they had rented a private house for the purpose, but Aubrey had a different idea.
It was a long shot, but she googled “How to find who owns property in Florida.” There were several links to Miami Beach property records. She chose one that charged a small fee, figuring she would get access to more complete information. Because of Star’s possible connection to the babysitter, she decided to start there. She entered Star Matin’s name. There were no matches. She entered her father’s name, and was relieved when only the house in Coconut Grove came up. Full ownership had been transferred to her mother eight years ago. Next, she tried the address of the time-share her father and Star were staying at. She was hoping to see Star’s name, but the property had been acquired two years before by Time-Share Dreams for $1.2 million.
That sounded like a legitimate business, but she googled “Time-Share Dreams” to see what other properties the company owned. She found nothing, nor any online marketing presence, which she would have expected for a company selling time-share properties. She returned to the county-records website and went deeper into the ownership behind Time-Share Dreams, finally finding a document identifying J. W. Hendrix as the president, and an address in Atlanta.