THREE. ELEVEN. TWELVE. THIRTEEN. FOURTEEN. FIFTEEN. SIXTEEN. SEVENTEEN. EIGHTEEN. NINETEEN. TWENTY. TWENTY-ONE

EIGHTEEN

arco tries to calm himself, breathing deeply as he drives, his knuckles white on the steering wheel.

He could take his chances and go to the exchange as planned. Maybe Richard hasn’t told the police. Cora will be sitting inside the abandoned garage in an infant car seat. He will grab her, leave the money, and run.

But if Richard has alerted the police, then what? Then, as soon as Marco grabs Cora, drops the money, and flees, Bruce will show up for the money and the police will grab him. What if Bruce talks? Marco will go to jail for a very long time.

He could abort. He could turn around and not show up at the exchange at all and hope Bruce sends him another message through the mail. But how would he explain that to the police? How could he not show up as arranged to pick up his own kidnapped baby? He could have car trouble, he could get there too late, miss the window. Then, if Bruce got in touch again, Marco could try again and not tell Richard the details. But there was no way Richard would let Marco keep all that cash with him in the meantime. Fuck. He couldn’t do anything without his father-in-law knowing about it, because Alice lets him control the money.

No, he has to get Cora today. He has to go and get her. He can’t let this drag out any longer, no matter what.

With his mind spinning, a half hour has sped by. He is halfway there. He has to make a decision. He checks the time, gets off the highway at the next exit. He pulls over to the side of the road, puts his flashers on, and picks up his cell, his hands shaking. He calls Anne’s cell.

She answers immediately. “Do you have her? ” Anne asks anxiously.

“No, not yet, it isn’t time yet, ” Marco says. “I want you to ask your father if he’s told the police about this. ”

“He wouldn’t do that, ” Anne says.

“Ask him. ”

Marco hears voices in the background, and then Anne comes back on the line. “He says he didn’t tell anyone. He didn’t tell the police. Why? ”

Should he believe Richard? “Put your father on the phone, ” Marco says.

“What’s going on? ” Richard says into the cell.

“I need to be able to trust you, ” Marco says. “I need to know you didn’t alert the police. ”

“I didn’t. I said I wouldn’t. ”

“Tell me the truth. If the police are watching, I’m not going. I can’t take the risk that he might smell a trap and kill Cora. ”

“I swear, I didn’t tell them. Just go get her, for Christ’s sake! ” Richard sounds almost as panicked as Marco feels.

Marco hangs up the phone and drives.

• • •

Richard Dries paces his daughter’s living room, his heart knocking against his ribs. He glances at his wife and daughter, hunched together on the couch, and quickly looks away again. He is on edge and intensely frustrated with his son-in-law.

He has never liked Marco. And now—for Christ’s sake—how could Marco even think about not going to the rendezvous? He could blow everything! Richard takes another worried look at his wife and daughter and keeps pacing.

He can at least understand why Marco might think Richard has called the police. From the beginning, when Marco insisted they not tell the cops, Richard had taken the opposite stand—he’d argued for telling them about the exchange, but he’d been overruled. He'd told them that five million dollars is a lot of money, even for them. He’d told them that he wasn’t convinced that Cora was still alive. But he’d also said that he wouldn’t tell the police, and he has not. He hadn’t expected Marco to doubt him at the last minute and put everything at risk by not going to the exchange.

He’d better fucking show up. There is too much at stake here for Marco to lose his nerve.

• • •

Thirty minutes later Marco arrives at the designated spot. It’s a half hour outside the city by highway, and almost another thirty minutes northwest, up a smaller highway and then off a desolate rural road. They’d chosen an abandoned farm property with an old garage at the end of the long driveway. Marco drives up to the garage and parks the car in front of it. The garage door is closed. The place appears to be deserted, but Bruce must be somewhere nearby, watching.

Cora will be in the garage. Marco feels light-headed—this nightmare is almost over.

Marco gets out of the car. He leaves the money in the trunk and walks up to the garage door. He grabs the handle. It’s stiff, but he gives it a good tug. The door goes up with a loud rumble. It’s dim inside, especially after coming in from the bright sunlight. He listens intently. Nothing. Maybe Cora is asleep. Then he sees an infant car seat resting on the dirt floor in the far corner with a white blanket draped over the handle. He recognizes the blanket as Cora’s. He rushes over to the car seat, reaches down, and pulls off the blanket.

The seat is empty. He stands up in horror, staggering backward. He feels as though the breath has been knocked out of him. The car seat is here, her blanket is here, but Cora is not. Is this some kind of sick joke? Or a double cross? Marco’s heart is pounding in his ears. He hears a noise behind him and whirls around, but he’s not fast enough. He feels a sharp pain in his head and falls heavily to the floor of the garage.

When Marco comes to a few minutes later—he doesn’t know how many—he rises slowly to his hands and knees, then to his feet. He’s groggy and dizzy, and his head is thumping with pain. He stumbles outside. His car is still there, in front of the garage, the trunk open. He staggers over to look inside. The money—five million dollars—is gone. Of course. Marco is left behind with an empty car seat and Cora’s baby blanket. No Cora. His cell phone is in the car, on the front seat, but he can’t bear to call Anne.

He should call the police, but he doesn’t want to do that either.

He is a fool. He gives a bellow of pain and sinks to the ground.

• • •

Anne waits in a fever of impatience. She shrugs her mother off, wringing her hands in anxiety. What is going on? What is taking so long? They should have heard from Marco twenty minutes ago. Something must be wrong.

Her parents are agitated as well. “What the hell is he doing? ” Richard growls. “If he didn’t go get her because he’s afraid I sent the police, I’ll throttle him with my own hands. ”

“Should we call his cell? ” Anne says.

“I don’t know, ” Richard says. “Let’s give it a few more minutes. ”

Five minutes later no one can stand the suspense any longer. “I’m going to call him, ” Anne says. “He was supposed to get her half an hour ago. What if something went wrong? He would call if he could. What if they killed him! Something terrible has happened! ”

Anne’s mother jumps up and tries to put her arms around her daughter, but Anne pushes her away almost violently. “I’m calling him, ” she says, and hits Marco’s number on speed dial.

Marco’s cell phone rings and rings. It goes to voice mail. Anne is too stunned to do anything but stare straight ahead of her. “He’s not answering. ” Her whole body is shaking.

“We have to call the police now, ” Richard says, looking stricken. “No matter what Marco said. Marco could be in trouble. ” He pulls out his own cell and calls Detective Rasbach from his list of contacts.

Rasbach picks up on the second ring. “Rasbach, ” he says.

“It’s Richard Dries. My son-in-law has gone to make an exchange with the kidnappers. He was supposed to call us at least a half hour ago. And he’s not answering his cell. We’re afraid something has gone wrong. ”

“Jesus, why weren’t we told about this? ” Rasbach says. “Never mind. Just give me the details. ” Richard quickly fills him in and gives him the location of the exchange. They’ve kept the original ransom note. Marco had taken a photocopy to guide him.

“I’m on my way. In the meantime we’ll have local police get there ASAP, ” Rasbach says. “We’ll be in touch. ” Then he hangs up.

“The police are on their way out there, ” Anne’s father tells her. “All we can do is wait. ”

“I’m not waiting. You take us, in your car, ” Anne says.

• • •

Marco is still sitting in the dirt, slumped against one of the Audi’s front tires, when the police cruiser pulls up. He doesn’t even lift his head. It’s all over now. Cora must be dead. He has been double-crossed. Whoever has her has the money; there’s no reason to keep her alive now.

How could he have been so stupid? Why had he trusted Bruce Neeland? He can’t remember now why he had trusted him—his mind has shut down in his grief and fear. There’s nothing to do now but confess. Anne will hate him. He is so sorry. For Cora, for Anne, what he’s done to them. The two people he most loves in the world.

He had been greedy. He’d persuaded himself that it wasn’t stealing if it was Anne’s parents’ money—Anne would inherit it all eventually anyway, but they needed some of it now. No one was supposed to get hurt. When he and Bruce had planned it, it had never occurred to Marco that Cora would be in any actual danger. It was supposed to be a victimless crime.

But now Cora is gone. He doesn’t know what Bruce has done with her. And he doesn’t know how to find her.

Two uniformed officers get slowly out of the police car. They walk over to where Marco is slumped against the Audi.

“Marco Conti? ” one of the officers asks.

Marco doesn’t respond.

“Are you alone? ”

Marco ignores him. The officer pulls his radio to his mouth as his partner squats beside Marco. He asks, “Are you hurt? ”

But Marco has gone into shock. He says nothing. He has obviously been weeping. The officer standing beside him puts his radio away, draws his weapon, and goes into the garage, fearing the worst. He sees the infant car seat, the white blanket thrown on the dirt floor in front of it, but no baby. He comes back out quickly.

But Marco still isn’t speaking.

Soon other police cars converge, lights flashing. An ambulance arrives on the scene, and the medics treat Marco for shock.

A short time later, Detective Rasbach’s car pulls up the long drive. He gets out in a rush and speaks to the officer in charge. “What happened? ”

“We don’t know for sure. He isn’t talking. But there’s an infant car seat in the garage and no sign of a baby. The trunk is open, empty. ”

Rasbach takes in the scene and mutters, “Jesus Christ. ” He follows the other officer into the garage and sees the car seat, the little blanket on the floor. His immediate reaction is to feel terribly sorry for the man sitting on the ground outside, guilty or not. He clearly expected to get his child back. If the man is a criminal, he’s an amateur. Rasbach goes outside into the sunlight, squats down, and tries to look Marco in the face. But Marco won’t raise his eyes.

“Marco, ” Rasbach says urgently. “What happened? ”

But Marco won’t even look at him.

Rasbach has a pretty good idea what happened anyway. It looks like Marco got out of his car, went into the garage expecting to get the baby, and the kidnapper, who never had any intention of returning the child, knocked him out and took the money, leaving Marco alone with his grief.

The baby was probably dead.

Rasbach stands up, gets out his cell, and reluctantly calls Anne on her cell. “I’m sorry, ” he says. “Your husband is fine, but the baby is not here. ”

He hears her gasp turn into hysterical sobs on the other end of the line. “Meet us at the station, ” he tells her.

Sometimes he hates his job.

NINETEEN

arco is at the police station, in the same interview room as before, in the same chair. Rasbach is sitting across from him, just as he was when Marco gave his statement a few days ago, with Jennings beside him. The video camera is recording him, just like last time.

The press had somehow already gotten the news of the failed exchange. There had been a mob of reporters waiting outside the station when they brought Marco in. Cameras flashed and microphones were pushed in front of his face.

They hadn’t handcuffed him. Marco was surprised that they hadn’t, because in his head he had already confessed. He felt so guilty he didn’t know how they couldn’t see it. He thought it was a mere courtesy that they hadn’t restrained him, or it was simply deemed unnecessary. After all, there was obviously no fight left in him. He was a beaten man. He was not going to run. Where could he go? Wherever he went, his guilt and grief would go with him.

They let him see Anne before they brought him into the interview room. She and her parents were already at the station. Marco was badly shaken when he saw her. Her face showed that she had lost all hope. When she saw him, she threw her arms around him and sobbed into his neck as if he were the last thing in the world she could cling to, as if he were all she had left. They held on to each other, weeping. Two shattered people, one of them a liar.

Then they had taken him into the interview room to get his statement.

“I’m sorry, ” Rasbach begins. And he genuinely is.

Marco lifts his head in spite of himself.

“The car seat and blanket have gone in for forensic testing. Maybe we’ll get something useful. ”

Marco remains silent, slumped in his chair.

Rasbach leans forward. “Marco, why don’t you tell us what’s going on? ”

Marco regards the detective, who has always annoyed him. Looking at Rasbach, he feels his desire to confess dissolve. He sits up straighter in his chair. “I brought the money. Cora wasn’t there. Someone attacked me when I was in the garage and took the money from the trunk. ”

Being questioned by Rasbach in this room, the feeling of playing cat and mouse, has sharpened Marco’s mind. He is thinking more clearly now than he was after things went so terribly wrong an hour or so ago. Adrenaline is coursing through his system. Suddenly he’s thinking about survival. He realizes that if he tells the truth, it will utterly destroy not just him but Anne as well. She could never withstand the betrayal. He must maintain the fiction of his innocence. They have nothing on him, no proof. Rasbach obviously has his suspicions, but that’s all they are.

“Did you get a look at the man who hit you? ” Rasbach asks. He is tapping his pen lightly against his hand, a sign of impatience that Marco has not seen before.

“No. He hit me from behind. I didn’t see anything. ”

“Just one person? ”

“I think so. ” Marco pauses. “I don’t know. ”

“Can you tell me anything else? Did he say anything? ” Rasbach is clearly frustrated with him.

Marco shakes his head. “No, nothing. ”

Rasbach pushes his chair away from the table and stands up. He walks around the room, rubbing the back of his neck, as if it’s stiff. He turns and faces Marco from across the room.

“It looks like another car was parked in the weeds behind the garage, out of sight. Did you see it or hear it? ”

Marco shakes his head.

Rasbach walks back to the table, puts his hands on it, leans forward, and looks Marco in the eye. “I have to tell you, Marco, ” Rasbach says, “I think the baby is dead. ”

Marco hangs his head. The tears start to come.

“And I think you’re responsible. ”

Marco snaps his head back up. “I had nothing to do with it! ”

Rasbach says nothing. He waits.

“What makes you think I had anything to do with it? ” Marco asks. “My baby is gone. ” He starts to sob. He doesn’t have to fake it. His grief is all too real.

“It’s the timing, Marco, ” Rasbach says. “You checked on the baby at twelve thirty. Everyone agrees that you did. ”

“So? ” Marco says.

“So I have tire-track evidence that a strange car was recently in your garage. And I have a witness who saw a car going down your back lane, away from your garage, at twelve thirty-five a. m. ”

“But why do you think that’s got anything to do with me? ” Marco says. “You don’t know that that car had anything to do with whoever took Cora. She could just as easily have been taken out the front door, at one o’clock. ” But Marco knows it hasn’t done him any good, leaving the front door ajar; it hadn’t fooled the detective. If only he hadn’t forgotten to screw the motion-detector light back in.

Rasbach pushes himself away from the table and stands looking down at Marco. “The motion detector in the back was disabled. You were in the house at twelve thirty. A car drove away from the direction of your garage at twelve thirty-five. With its headlights off. ”

“So what? Is that all you’ve got? ”

“There’s no physical evidence whatsoever of an intruder in the house or the backyard. If a stranger had come into your backyard to get her, we would have some tracks, something. But we don’t. The only footprints in the backyard, Marco, are yours. ” He leans on the table again for emphasis. “I think you carried the baby out of the house to the car in the garage. ”

Marco says nothing.

“We know that your business is in trouble. ”

“I admit that! You think that’s reason enough to kidnap my own baby? ” Marco says desperately.

“People have kidnapped for less, ” the detective says.

“Well, let me tell you something, ” Marco says, leaning forward, looking up into Rasbach’s eyes. “I love my daughter more than anything in this world. I love my wife, and I am extremely concerned for the well-being of both of them. ” He sits back in his chair. He thinks carefully for a moment before he adds, “And I have very wealthy in-laws who’ve been very generous. They would probably give us whatever money we needed if Anne asked them for it. So why the hell would I kidnap my own baby? ”

Rasbach watches him, his eyes narrowing. “I will be questioning your in-laws. And your wife. And anyone who ever knew you. ”

“Knock yourself out, ” Marco says. He knows that he’s not handling this well, but he can’t help it. “Am I free to go? ”

“Yes, you are free to go, ” the detective says. “For now. ”

“Should I get a lawyer? ” Marco asks.

“That’s entirely up to you, ” the detective says.

• • •

Detective Rasbach heads back to his own office to think. If this was a fake kidnapping, staged by Marco, he has clearly fallen in with some real criminals who’ve taken advantage of him. Rasbach can almost feel sorry for him. He certainly feels sorry for his distraught wife. If Marco did set this up, and has been duped, his baby is probably now dead, the money is gone, and the police suspect him of kidnapping. How he’s holding it together at all is a mystery.

But the detective is troubled. There’s the babysitter, a problem that’s been niggling at him. And there’s this commonsense question: Why would someone who could probably get money easily enough just by asking risk it all with something as stupid, as fraught with risk, as a kidnapping?

And there’s that disturbing information about Anne, about her propensity for violence, that has recently come to light. The more he gets involved in this case, the more complicated it seems. Rasbach has to know the truth.

It’s time to question Anne’s parents.

And he will talk to Anne herself again in the morning.

Rasbach will figure it out. The truth is there. It’s always there. It simply needs to be uncovered.

• • •

Anne and Marco are at home, alone. The house is empty but for the two of them and their horror and grief and dark imaginings. It would be hard to say who of the two is more damaged. Both are haunted by not knowing what has happened to their baby. They each hope desperately that she’s still alive, but there is so little to sustain that hope. Each tries to pretend for the other. And Marco has additional reasons to pretend.

Anne doesn’t know why she doesn’t blame Marco more than she does. When it first happened, when their baby was taken, she blamed him in her heart, because he was the one who persuaded her to leave Cora at home alone. If they had taken the baby next door with them, none of this ever would have happened. She’s told herself that if Cora didn’t come home unharmed, she would never forgive him.

Yet here they are. She doesn’t know why she clings to him, but she does. Perhaps because she has nothing else to cling to. She can’t even tell if she loves him anymore. She will never forgive him for Cynthia either.

Perhaps she clings to him because no one else can share or understand her pain. Or perhaps because he, at least, believes her. He knows she didn’t kill their baby. Even her mother suspected her until the onesie arrived in the mail. She’s sure of it.

They go to bed and lie awake for a long time. Finally Marco gives in to a troubled sleep. But Anne is too agitated for sleep to come. Eventually she gets out of bed, goes downstairs, and roams the house, growing increasingly restless.

She begins combing the house, but she doesn’t know what she’s looking for and gets more and more upset. She is moving and thinking faster and faster. She’s looking for something that incriminates her unfaithful husband, but she is also looking for her baby. She feels lines blurring.

Her thoughts speed up and become less rational; her mind makes fantastic leaps. It’s not that things don’t make sense to her when she’s like this—sometimes they make more sense. They make sense the way dreams do. It’s only when the dream is over that you see how odd it all was, how it actually didn’t make sense at all.

She hasn’t found any letters, or any e-mails from Cynthia on Marco’s laptop, or strange women’s underwear in the house. She hasn’t found any receipts for hotel rooms or hidden matchbooks from bars. She’s found some worrying financial information, but that doesn’t interest her right now. She wants to know what’s going on between Marco and Cynthia and what that has to do with Cora’s disappearance. Did Cynthia take Cora?

The more Anne turns this over in her mind in her frenzied state, the more it seems to make sense to her. Cynthia dislikes children. Cynthia is the kind of person who would harm a child. She is cold. And she doesn’t like Anne anymore. She wants to hurt her. Cynthia wants to take Anne’s husband and her child away and see what that does to her, because she can.

Eventually Anne works herself into an exhausted stupor and falls asleep on the sofa in the living room.

• • •

The next morning, early, she wakes and showers before Marco realizes she’s spent the night on the sofa. She pulls on black leggings and a tunic as if in a trance, filled with dread.

She feels paralyzed when she thinks of the police, of being interrogated by Rasbach again. He has no idea where their baby is, but he seems to think that they do. He asked her yesterday, after taking Marco’s statement, to come in this morning. She doesn’t want to go. She doesn’t know why he wants to talk to her again. What’s to be gained from going through the same things over and over?

From his place in the bed, propped up against the pillows, Marco watches her getting dressed, his face expressionless.

“Do I have to go? ” she asks him. She would avoid it if she could. She doesn’t know what her rights are. Should she refuse?

“I don’t think you have to, ” Marco says. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s time we spoke to a lawyer. ”

“But that will look bad, ” Anne says worriedly. “Won’t it? ”

“I don’t know, ” Marco says tonelessly. “We look bad already. ”

She approaches the bed, looks down at him. Seeing him like this, so plainly wretched, would break her heart if it weren’t broken already. “Maybe I should speak to my parents. They could get us a good lawyer. Although it seems ridiculous to think we even need one. ”

“It might be a good idea, ” Marco says uneasily. “Like I told you last night, Rasbach still seems to suspect us. He seems to believe we staged the whole thing. ”

“How can he think that now—after yesterday? ” Anne asks, her voice becoming agitated. “Why would he? Just because there was a car going down the lane at the same time you checked on Cora? ”

“That seems to be the gist of it. ”

“I’ll go in, ” Anne says finally. “He wants me there for ten o’clock. ”

Marco nods tiredly. “I’ll come with you. ”

“You don’t have to, ” Anne says, without conviction. “I could call my mother. ”

“Of course I’ll come. You can’t face that mob out there alone. Let me put some clothes on, and I’ll take you, ” Marco says, getting out of bed.

Anne watches him walk to his dresser in his boxers. How much thinner he looks—she can see the outline of his ribs. She is grateful that he’s coming to the station with her. She doesn’t want to call her mother, and she doesn’t think she can do this on her own. Also, she thinks it’s important that she and Marco be seen together, to appear united.

There are more reporters outside their house again now after yesterday’s fiasco. Anne and Marco have to fight them off to get to their cab—the police have the Audi for the time being—and there are no police officers here to help them. Finally they make it to the taxi on the street. Once inside the car, Anne quickly locks the doors. She feels trapped—all those jabbering faces crowding in on them through the windows. She recoils but stares back at them. Marco swears under his breath.

Anne looks silently out the window as the mob falls away. She can’t understand how the reporters can be so cruel. Are none of them parents? Can they not imagine, for one moment, what it’s like not knowing where your baby is? To lie awake at night missing your child, seeing her little body, still, dead, behind your closed eyelids?

They head downtown along the river until they reach the police station. As soon as Anne sees the building, she feels herself tensing up inside. She wants to run away. But Marco is beside her. He helps her out of the cab and into the station, his hand on her elbow.

As they wait at the front desk, Marco speaks quietly into her ear. “It’s all right. They may try to rattle you, but you know we haven’t done anything wrong. I’ll be out here waiting for you. ” He gives her a small, encouraging smile. She nods at him. He rests his hands gently on her shoulders, looks into her eyes. “They might try to turn us against each other, Anne. They may say things about me, bad things. ”

“What bad things? ”

He shrugs, averts his eyes. “I don’t know. Just be careful. Don’t let them get to you. ”

She nods, but she is more worried now, not less.

At that moment Detective Rasbach approaches them. He doesn’t smile. “Thank you for coming. This way, please. ”

He leads Anne to a different interview room this time, the one they’ve been using for Marco. They leave Marco alone in the waiting area. Anne stops at the door of the interview room and turns to look back at him. He smiles at her, a nervous smile.

She goes in.

TWENTY

nne sits down in the seat offered to her. As she sinks into it, she can feel her knees give way. Jennings offers her a cup of coffee, but she shakes her head no, because she doesn’t trust herself not to spill it. She is more anxious this time than the last time she was interviewed. She wonders about the police, why they’re so suspicious of her and Marco. If anything, the police should be less suspicious of them after they received the onesie in the mail, and after the money had been taken. Obviously, someone else has their baby.

The detectives take their seats across from her.

“I’m so sorry, ” Detective Rasbach begins, “about yesterday. ”

She says nothing. Her mouth is dry. She clasps her hands in her lap.

“Please relax, ” Rasbach says gently.

She nods nervously, but she cannot relax. She doesn’t trust him.

“I just have a few questions, about what happened yesterday, ” he tells her.

She nods again, licks her lips.

“Why didn’t you call us when you got the package in the mail? ” the detective asks. His tone is friendly enough.

“We thought it was too risky, ” Anne says. Her voice is unsteady. She clears her throat. “The note said no police. ” She reaches for the bottle of water that has been placed on the table for her. She fumbles with the cap. Her hand is shaking slightly as she moves the bottle to her lips.

“Is that what you thought? ” Rasbach asks. “Or is that what Marco thought? ”

“We both thought so. ”

“Why did you handle the onesie so much? Any evidence it might have offered us has been contaminated, unfortunately. ”

“Yes, I know, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I could smell Cora on it, so I carried it around with me, to have her near me. ” She begins to cry. “It brought her back to me. It was like I could almost pretend she was in her crib, sleeping. That none of this ever happened. ”

Rasbach nods and says, “I understand. We’ll run whatever tests we can on the garment and the note. ”

“You think she’s dead, don’t you? ” Anne says woodenly, looking him directly in the eye.

Rasbach returns her look. “I don’t know. She may still be alive. We will not stop searching for her. ”

Anne takes a tissue from the box on the table and presses it against her eyes.

“I’ve been wondering, ” Rasbach says, leaning back casually in his chair, “about your babysitter. ”

“Our babysitter? Why? ” Anne asks, startled. “She didn’t even come that night. ”

“I know. I’m just curious. Is she a good babysitter? ”

Anne shrugs, not knowing where this is going. “She’s good with Cora. She obviously likes babies—and a lot of girls don’t really. They just babysit for the money. ” She thinks about Katerina. “She’s usually reliable. You can’t blame her that her grandmother died. Although—if only she hadn’t, we might still have Cora. ”

“Let me ask you this: If someone wanted to know whether you’d recommend her, would you? ” Rasbach asks.

Anne bites her lip. “No, I don’t think so. She tends to fall asleep with her earbuds in, listening to music. When we get home, we have to wake her. So no, I wouldn’t recommend her. ”

Rasbach nods, makes a note. Then he looks up and says, “Tell me about your husband. ”

“What about my husband? ”

“What kind of man is he? ”

“He’s a good man, ” Anne says firmly, sitting up straighter in her chair. “He’s loving and kind. He’s smart and thoughtful and hardworking. ” She pauses, then says in a rush, “He’s the best thing that ever happened to me, other than Cora. ”

“Is he a good provider? ”

“Yes. ”

“Why do you say that? ”

“Because it’s true, ” Anne snaps.

“But isn’t it also true that it was your parents who set your husband up in business? And you told me yourself that your parents paid for your house. ”

“Just a minute, ” Anne says. “My parents did not ‘set my husband up in business, ’ as you put it. Marco has degrees in computer science and business. He started his own company, and he was very successful on his own. My parents just invested in it, later on. He was already doing very well. You can’t fault Marco as a businessman. ” Even as she says this, Anne is faintly aware of the financial information she came across on Marco’s computer the other day. She hadn’t looked deeply into it at the time, and she hasn’t asked Marco about it; now she wonders if she’s just lied to the police.

“Do you believe your husband is honest with you? ”

Anne blushes. And then hates it that she’s given herself away. She takes her time answering. “Yes. I believe he is honest with me”—she falters—“most of the time. ”

“Most of the time? Shouldn’t honesty be an ‘all of the time’ thing? ” Rasbach asks, leaning forward slightly.

“I heard you, ” Anne confesses suddenly. “The night after the kidnapping. I was at the top of the stairs. I heard you accusing Marco of making out with Cynthia. She said Marco came on to her, and he denied it. ”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that you were listening. ”

“I’m sorry, too. I wish I didn’t know about it. ” She looks down at her hands in her lap, clutching the bunched-up tissue.

“Do you think he made sexual advances toward Cynthia, or do you think it was the other way around, as Marco says? ”

Anne twists the tissue in her hands. “I don’t know. They’re both at fault. ” She looks up at him. “I’ll never forgive either one of them, ” she says rashly.

“Let’s go back, ” Rasbach prompts. “You say your husband is a good provider. Does he share with you how his business is doing? ”

She shreds the tissue into small pieces. “I haven’t taken a lot of interest in the business these days, ” Anne says. “I’ve been absorbed with the baby. ”

“He hasn’t been telling you how the business is going? ”

“Not recently, no. ”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit odd? ” Rasbach asks.

“Not at all, ” Anne says, thinking as she does that it is odd. “I’ve been really busy with the baby. ” Her voice breaks.

“The tire tracks in your garage—they don’t match your car, ” Rasbach says. “Someone used your garage shortly before the kidnapping. You saw the baby in her crib at midnight. Marco was in your house with the baby at twelve thirty. We have a witness who saw a car driving down the lane away from the direction of your garage at twelve thirty-five a. m. There’s no evidence that anyone else was inside the house or yard. Perhaps at twelve thirty Marco took the baby out to an accomplice who was waiting in a car in your garage. ”

“That’s ridiculous! ” Anne says, her voice rising.

“Do you have any idea who that accomplice might be? ” Rasbach persists.

“You’re wrong, ” Anne says.

“Am I? ”

“Yes. Marco didn’t take Cora. ”

“Let me tell you something, ” Rasbach says, leaning forward. “Your husband’s business is in trouble. Deep trouble. ”

Anne feels herself go paler. “It is? ” she says.

“I’m afraid so. ”

“To be honest, Detective, I don’t really care if the business is in trouble. Our baby is gone. What does either of us care now about money? ”

“It’s just that. . . ” Rasbach pauses, as if changing his mind about what he’s going to say. He looks at Jennings.

“What? ” Anne glances nervously back and forth between the two detectives.

“It’s just that I see things in your husband that you may not see, ” Rasbach says.

Anne does not want to take the bait. But the detective waits, letting the silence expand. She has no choice. “Like what? ”

Rasbach asks, “Don’t you think it’s a bit manipulative of him not to be honest with you about the business? ”

“No, not if I didn’t show any interest. He was probably trying to protect me, because I’ve been depressed. ” Rasbach says nothing, just regards her with his sharp blue eyes. “Marco is not manipulative, ” Anne insists.

“What about the relationship between Marco and your parents? Marco and your father? ” Rasbach says.

“I told you, they don’t like each other. They tolerate each other, for me. But that’s my parents’ fault. No matter what Marco does, it’s never good enough. I could have married anyone, and it would have been the same. ”

“Why do you think that is? ”

“I don’t know. That’s just the way they are. They’re overprotective and hard to please. Maybe it’s because I’m an only child. ” She has reduced the tissue in her lap to crumbs. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter about the business, not really. My parents have a lot of money. They could always help us if we needed it. ”

“But would they? ”

“Of course they would. All I’d have to do is ask. My parents have never denied me anything. They came up with five million dollars just like that for Cora. ”

“Yes, they did. ” The detective pauses, then says, “I tried to see Dr. Lumsden, but apparently she’s away. ”

Anne feels the blood drain from her face but forces herself to sit up straight. She knows he can’t have talked to Dr. Lumsden. Even after she returns, there is no way Dr. Lumsden will talk to the detective about her. “She won’t tell you anything about me, ” Anne says. “She can’t. She’s my doctor, and you know it. Why are you toying with me this way? ”

“You’re right. I can’t get your doctor to breach doctor-patient privilege. ”

Anne leans back in her chair and gives the detective an annoyed look.

“Is there anything you’d like to tell me, though? ” the detective asks.

“Why would I talk to you about my sessions with my psychiatrist? It’s none of your goddamned business, ” Anne says bitterly. “I have mild postpartum depression like lots of other new mothers. It doesn’t mean I harmed my baby. I want nothing more than to get her back. ”

“I can’t help thinking it’s possible that Marco might have had the baby taken away to cover up for you, if you killed her. ”

“That’s crazy! Then how do you explain our getting the onesie in the mail and the ransom money being taken? ”

“Marco might have faked the kidnapping, after the baby was already dead. And the empty car seat, the hit on the head—maybe that was all for show. ”

She gives him a disbelieving stare. “That’s absurd. And I did not harm my baby, Detective. ”

Rasbach fiddles with his pen, watching her. “I had your mother in for an interview earlier this morning. ”

Anne feels the room begin to spin.

TWENTY-ONE

asbach watches Anne carefully, fears she might faint. He waits while she reaches for the bottle of water, waits for her color to return.

There is nothing he can do about the psychiatrist. His hands are tied. He hadn’t gotten any further with the mother, but Anne is obviously afraid that she’d said something. Rasbach is pretty sure he knows what she’s afraid of. “What do you think your mother told me? ” Rasbach asks.

“I don’t think she told you anything, ” Anne says sharply. “There’s nothing to tell. ”

He considers her for a few moments. Thinks how different she is from her mother—a very composed woman, busy with her social committees and charities and much more canny than her daughter. Certainly less emotional, with a clearer head. Alice Dries had come into the interview room, smiled icily, stated her name, and then told him she had nothing to say to him. It was a very short interview.

“She didn’t tell me she was coming in this morning, ” Anne says.

“Didn’t she? ”

“What did she say? ” Anne asks.

“You’re right, she didn’t say anything, ” Rasbach admits.

Anne smiles for the first time in the interview, but it’s a bitter smile.

“I have, however, spoken to one of your old schoolmates. A Janice Foegle. ”

Anne goes completely still, like an animal in the wild sensing a predator. Then she stands up abruptly, her chair scraping the floor behind her, taking Rasbach and Jennings by surprise. “I have nothing more to say, ” she tells them.

Anne joins Marco in the lobby. Marco notices her distress, and puts his arm protectively around her. Anne can feel Rasbach’s eyes on them, watching as they leave. She says nothing as she and Marco walk out of the station. Once they’re on the street and hailing a cab, she says, “I think it’s time we got a lawyer. ”

• • •

Rasbach is putting pressure on them, and it doesn’t look as if he’s going to let up. It has come to the point that even though they haven’t been charged, they know they’re being treated like suspects.

Marco is anxious about what happened in the interview between Anne and Detective Rasbach. There was panic in her eyes when she came out. Something in that interview had rattled her enough to make her want to get a lawyer as soon as possible. He tried to find out what it was, but she was vague, evasive. What is she not telling him? It’s putting him even more on edge.

When they arrive home and have fought their way past the reporters into the house, Anne suggests they invite her parents over to discuss hiring a lawyer.

“Why do we need to have your parents over? ” Marco says. “We can find a lawyer without their help. ”

“A good lawyer will expect a hefty retainer, ” Anne points out. Marco shrugs, and she calls her parents.

Richard and Alice arrive soon after. It comes as no great surprise that they’ve already been looking into the best lawyers money can buy.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this, Anne, ” her father says.

They are sitting around the kitchen table, the early-afternoon sunlight slanting through the kitchen window and falling across the wooden table. Anne has made a pot of coffee.

“We think it’s a good idea to get a lawyer, too, ” Alice says. “You can’t trust the police. ”

Anne looks at her. “Why didn’t you tell me they had you in for questioning this morning? ”

“There was no need, and I didn’t want to worry you, ” Alice says, reaching out and patting Anne’s hand. “All I told them was my name, and that I had nothing to say. I’m not going to let them push me around, ” she says. “I was only in there for about five minutes. ”

“They questioned me, too, ” Richard says. “They didn’t get anything from me either. ” He turns his eyes on Marco. “I mean, what can I possibly tell them? ”

Marco feels a jolt of fear. He doesn’t trust Richard. But would Richard say anything to the police to stab him in the back?

Richard tells Anne, “They haven’t charged you with anything, and I don’t think they will—I don’t see how they can. But I agree with your mother—if you’re represented by a top defense lawyer, maybe they’ll stop pushing you around and calling you in for questioning all the time and start focusing on who really took Cora. ”

Throughout this entire meeting at the kitchen table, Richard has been colder than usual to Marco. Richard barely looks at him. They have all noticed it. No one has made more careful note of it than Marco. How stoic he’s being, Marco thinks, about my losing their five million dollars. He hasn’t mentioned it once. He doesn’t have to. But Marco knows what Richard is thinking: My useless son-in-law screwed up again. Marco imagines Richard sitting around in the lounge at the country club, drinking expensive liquor, telling his rich friends all about it. About what a fuckup his son-in-law is. How Richard has lost his beloved only grandchild and five million of his hard-earned dollars, all because of Marco. And what’s worse, Marco knows that this time it’s true.

“In fact, ” Richard says, “we’ve taken the liberty of putting one on retainer, as of this morning. ”

“Who? ” Anne asks.

“Aubrey West. ”

Marco looks up, clearly unhappy. “Really? ”

“He’s one of the best goddamned criminal lawyers in the country, ” Richard says, his voice rising a notch. “And we’re paying. Do you have a problem with that? ”

Anne is looking at Marco, pleading with him silently to let it go, to accept the gift.

“Maybe, ” Marco says.

“What’s wrong with having the best lawyer we can get? ” Anne asks. “Don’t worry about the money, Marco. ”

Marco says, “It’s not the expense I’m worried about. It just looks like overkill to me. Like we’re guilty and we need a lawyer who’s famous for big, high-profile murder cases. Doesn’t that lump us in with his other clients? Make us look bad? ”

There’s silence around the table as they consider this. Anne looks worried. She hadn’t thought of it that way.

“He gets a lot of guilty people off—so what? That’s his job, ” Richard counters.

“What do you mean by that? ” Marco says, slightly menacing. Anne looks like she’s going to be sick. “Do you think we did this? ”

“Don’t be absurd, ” Richard says, reddening. “I’m just being practical here. You might as well avail yourself of the best lawyer you can get. The police aren’t doing you any favors. ”

“Of course we don’t think you had anything to do with Cora’s disappearance, ” Alice says, looking at her husband instead of either of them. “But you’re being vilified in the press. This lawyer may be able to put a stop to that. And I think you’re being persecuted by the police, who haven’t charged you and keep bringing you in under the guise of voluntary questioning—it’s got to stop. It’s harassment. ”

Richard adds, “The police haven’t got anything on you, so maybe they’ll start to back off. But he’s there if you need him. ”

Anne turns to Marco. “I think we should keep him. ”

“Fine, ” Marco says. “Whatever. ”

• • •

Cynthia and Graham have been arguing for days. It’s been a week since the fateful dinner party, and they’re still arguing. Graham wants to do nothing, pretend the video doesn’t exist or, better yet, destroy it. It’s the safest thing to do. Yet he’s troubled, because he knows the right thing to do is to go to the police with the video. But it’s not legal to film people having sex without their knowledge, and that’s what they’ve been doing. The video shows Cynthia on Marco’s lap, and they’re enjoying themselves. If Graham and Cynthia were charged, it would be catastrophic to his career. He’s a comptroller for a very large, very conservative company. If this gets out, his career would be finished.

Cynthia isn’t interested in doing what’s right. What matters to her is that the video shows Marco going into his house at 12: 31 a. m. the night of the kidnapping and coming out the back door of his house at 12: 33 a. m., carrying the baby in his arms and into the garage. He’s in the garage for about a minute, and then he comes back into view and into the Stillwells’ yard. Shortly after that the soft-core porn starts.

Graham was horrified that the man had taken his own child, but he’d been indecisive, he’d dithered. He wanted to do the right thing, but he didn’t want to get into trouble. And now it is too late to approach the police. They would ask why it had taken them so long. He and Cynthia would be in even deeper trouble than they would have been for simply using a hidden camera to secretly film sex acts—they could now be charged with hiding evidence in a kidnapping or obstructing the law or something. So Graham wants to pretend that the video doesn’t exist. He wants to destroy it.

Cynthia has reasons of her own not to go to the police with the video. She has something on Marco, and it’s got to be worth something.

She will tell Marco about the video. She is sure that he will pay her handsomely for it. No need to mention it to Graham.

It’s a heartless thing to do, but what kind of man kidnaps his own child? He has it coming.

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