“I threw it away as soon as I got it. I mean, it might not mean anything, but it...it scared me.”
“Valeriya,” Kelsey said, her voice low and controlled. “When was this? It’s important that you remember when it was.”
Valeriya shook her head. Her fingers were clenching her teacup so hard that her knuckles were almost a solid white. “I’m not sure. Maybe a month ago? Yes, before the first. I used it to help pay for my rent.” She looked at the two of them. “It’s bad that I kept it, isn’t it? I do get nice tips, though. Guests who only stay a night leave me twenty dollars sometimes. I thought maybe he had miscounted. Or he was really rich and the money didn’t matter to him. Or...”
Her voice trailed away, and she let go of her cup and looked at her hands. They were just shaking.
“What is it that he wants so badly?” she asked.
“A treasure chest,” Kelsey said.
“A treasure chest?” Valeriya echoed. She frowned and looked at Hannah. “But a treasure chest is big. If there was a treasure chest here, we would have seen it.”
Hannah didn’t intend to tell her that while they hadn’t found a treasure chest—and she agreed that it would have been found if it had been in the house—they had found a key. “What should we do?” she asked Kelsey.
“First, we have to act as if everything is normal. Then we need to get someone over to Valeriya’s to keep an eye on her mother and her baby.”
“He’ll see. He sees everything!” Valeriya said.
Kelsey stood. “You’re right. So, we’ll make it look as if you’re doing exactly what he told you to. Let’s go up to my room. I actually think I’ve seen him standing by the banyan out front, looking up and watching the house.”
The three of them went upstairs.
“I’m going to slip into the captain’s room and watch from that window. I won’t let myself be seen,” Kelsey said.
Hannah nodded, then led the way into her room.
“You already made the bed,” Valeriya said.
“Yes, but...pretend to straighten it or something.”
“I will get the vacuum,” Valeriya said.
“Valeriya, we don’t really need—”
“I need to do something! I must.” She hurried downstairs to get the vacuum from the downstairs utility closet.
While Valeriya was gone, Hannah realized that she needed to call Dallas. They needed to make sure that someone was watching Valeriya’s house, so as soon as her mother left with the baby they could intercept her and get them somewhere safe.
She had just pulled her phone from her pocket and punched in Dallas’s number when she was startled by the sound of the doorbell.
She paused, frowning. The cop in the patrol car out front usually called to warn her before someone came to the door.
“Wait!” she called, aborting the call and shoving her phone back into her pocket.
But it was too late.
“Hello, how are you?” she heard Valeriya say, her tone surprised but friendly.
Hannah waited. Waited for someone else to speak.
Nothing.
Holding her breath, she walked to the landing, but she couldn’t see anything.
Kelsey silently joined her on the landing, frowning. She drew her Glock and motioned to Hannah to get behind her. Hannah obeyed, reaching into her pocket and feeling for the button that put the phone in silent mode. All she needed was Dallas calling her back and alerting whoever was at the door.
They went down the stairs slowly, cautiously.
“It’s just me, Hannah.”
She knew the voice instantly.
“It’s okay,” she told Kelsey, pushing past her as Kelsey slid her Glock back into her waistband.
But then they reached the foot of the stairs and saw Valeriya—saw why she hadn’t answered them.
Saw the massive knife that was pressing so tightly against her throat that a thin trickle of blood was already oozing slowly down her neck.
16
“Stop!” Dallas told Logan.
“In the middle of the road?” Logan asked.
“No, but turn around,” Dallas said, staring at his phone. He looked over at Logan. “Hannah called me, but the call cut out before I could answer. And now, when I try her back, I’m not getting an answer.”
Logan pulled off on the side of the road. Luckily they had only gotten as far as Stock Island. It wouldn’t take them more than twenty minutes—maybe less—to get back to town. He used his Bluetooth device to call Kelsey, and Dallas saw the worry on the other man’s face when she didn’t pick up.
“I’ll call Liam,” Dallas said.
In a minute, he had the detective on the phone.
“Hannah and Kelsey aren’t answering their phones,” he said without preamble.
“I drove by not ten minutes ago,” Liam said. “Officer Bickford was sitting in his car, right where he was supposed to be. Hang on. I’ll get him on his radio.”
Long seconds went by. Logan was already turning the car around.