I’d been up most of the night turning over what I knew. Paige had pulled together this abduction project and kept all those plates spinning. She would have covered every base. Or at least she thought she’d covered them all, but one had come crashing down along the way.
A little after two in the morning I’d sat straight up in my bed. I actually got out of bed and moved toward the door before I realized I wasn’t going to be able to break into the library. I’d have to wait until they opened at eleven.
By morning, I’d started to second-guess myself. Many things seem brilliant in the dim glow of streetlights, but ridiculous once the sun comes up. I was standing at the entrance of the library bouncing on the balls of my feet and waiting for them to unlock the doors five minutes before they were due to open.
“I can always tell when it’s exam season,” the librarian trilled as she pulled open the heavy door. “It’s one of the few times this place is standing room only.”
I smiled absently as I moved past her. Exams were the least of my problems. I checked my phone. Still no word from Drew. I’d texted her first thing this morning. Knowing her, she’d let her phone battery die and didn’t even know it.
I took the stairs two at a time to the reference room. I stood in the doorway. If I believed in ghosts, I’d have expected to see Paige there. Nothing but dust motes spun in the rays of sunshine coming through the window.
I stood in the center of the room. It was a long shot, but it was worth checking out. Paige had planned for everything. Now I had to hope she’d considered there might be someone out there who didn’t want her to succeed.
I grabbed the L encyclopedia off the shelf and dropped it onto the table. The whole reason Paige had picked this way to communicate was because the odds of anyone looking here were slim. I looked to the heavens and crossed my fingers. This was it.
I turned the thin pages, and there, at the entry that detailed the Lindbergh kidnapping, was a single sheet of folded paper. I backed away.
Jesus. I had to get control of myself. This wasn’t some message from beyond the grave. Paige left it for me before she took off. It was her backup plan. Even though I’d guessed she might have done this, it was still a shock to see it there. I picked up the sheet, half expecting it to burn my fingers, but it was an ordinary piece of copy paper folded into thirds. It was typed, like all of our notes.
If you find this note, something went wrong. I didn’t tell you everything. The kidnapping was never my idea. It was my dad’s. I didn’t tell him about you—?or about our plan for a ransom.
His goal was media attention for his campaign. He gets to be the noble brave father. He told me if I went through with it, he’d give me money for a car. One of these days he’ll figure out that paying me off is going to be more expensive than he ever imagined.
My goal is payback. Payback for all the manipulation. It’s time he learned I’m a lot smarter than he gives me credit for. He’s got a big surprise coming.
I’m sure everything will go fine—?if a girl can’t trust her daddy, who can she put her faith in? But at the same time, I’m leaving this note just in case. You seem like a smart girl. You’ll check here eventually. You’re my safety net he doesn’t know about. If something went wrong, he’s the one. Get the bastard.
Pluto
Thirty-Eight
I sat on the edge of the leather bench in the reference room. I’d read the note from Paige at least a hundred times over the past two hours. She’d left me more questions than answers. I felt lightheaded, and not just because I’d missed lunch.
Until I’d seen the paper, I’d been so sure that Lucy was somehow involved. I’d expected to find something about her in the encyclopedia. I never expected this.
Paige’s dad had been behind her abduction the entire time. Now that I knew the truth, it made sense. Things had been too perfect. Paige was smart, but she would have needed help to do everything. The cops had even admitted they didn’t really see me or Ryan as suspects because they didn’t think a kid could pull off something this big. Instead of realizing they were right, I’d just been impressed with Paige, but it was never all her. Knowing where there were cameras, making sure the cabin was abandoned, getting supplies out there, all of it telegraphed that someone logical and methodical had been involved. Someone with resources. An adult.
Her dad had been front and center for all the media events since Paige went missing. His calls for Paige’s safety had been political ads—?showing that he stood for truth, justice, and the American way. I’d known he liked the attention, but it never occurred to me that the entire abduction was about getting that attention. Judge Bonnet’s reputation was for being tough, but having a daughter in peril made him seem more human, vulnerable. It made people feel sorry for him.
Maybe even want to vote for him.
Paige’s so-called diary pages had been endorsements at first. How he was this great dad and how she knew he’d do whatever needed to bring her home. For all I knew, he’d written the pages, or at the very least given her direction on what she should write. Then she changed the rules of the game when she asked for the ransom. He hadn’t seen that coming.
My mind scrambled back. The time I’d gone out to see her and thought I’d heard someone. Had he been there? If he’d been the one to set things up, he would have known where to find her. He might have gone out there to make her get in line. An image of her bruised face flashed in front of me, and I swallowed down a wave of bile.
Had he done that to her? My bet was that she was supposed to stay in Comstock Park for a set amount of time and then find her way back, having escaped. But I knew how stubborn she could be.
Of course if I was right, he had done much more than give her a black eye for changing the strategy.
The money didn’t really matter. The real wound was that she hadn’t done what he wanted. When she wasn’t discovered at the cabin, he must have called her. Maybe he promised her the cash if she came back. Then she told him where she was. It was possible she thought they could talk it out. That since she’d made her point, taught him a lesson, she was safe to come back. But she’d been wrong. What’s more sympathetic than a man who has had his daughter kidnapped?
A man with a dead daughter.
I flopped back on the bench, and the springs squealed in protest.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. But it wasn’t just sympathy. Paige was a liability. She had a tendency to get attention for all the wrong things. People figure if you can’t keep your own kid in line—?how are you going to run the government?