Business and Pleasure (20 page)

Throughout the drive, I keep stealing
glances at my little sister. I still can’t believe she’s
graduating. My sweet little Rebecca is on her way to becoming one
fantastic dentist. Ever since she could brush her teeth, she’s been
fascinated by them. She has never had a cavity, and she brushes,
flosses, and uses mouthwash at least three times a day. She carries
her floss around with her everywhere. I used to make fun of her
about her obsession, but now, looking at her perfect, straight,
white teeth, I’m more understanding. She’s like one of those
toothpaste models, so I wasn’t surprised when she told me her
major, and I think she’ll make a wonderful dentist.

We pull up to the school, and Becca looks
ready to bolt. She has never done well when it came to
participating in big, public events like this. I take her hand and
give it a reassuring squeeze, and then she and I climb out of the
car. Mark and Alex spot us immediately and walk toward us, and I
can’t help but notice that the minute Mark puts his arms around my
sister, she begins to relax.

“Ready, baby?” Mark gives her a quick peck
on the lips.

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose.” Becca
reaches down to smooth out her gown, and then we make our way up
the walkway to the school. At the students’ side entrance, we say
our good-byes.

“Okay, honey, this is it. We’ll see you
after the ceremony. Please relax; you’ll do great. Just breathe,
and if it gets too bad, just imagine the crowd sitting there in
their skivvies.”

Becca laughs half-heartedly at my attempt at
levity, and I lean in to give her a tight hug.

“I love you, sis.” I whisper so only she can
hear me. “And I know Mom and Dad would be so proud.”

She pulls back. Tears fill her beautiful
blue eyes. “I love you too, Lizzy. See you shortly.”

After one last brief hug, I take Alex’s hand
and we head off to find out seats. I look back and smile at the
sight of Mark hugging Becca, then kissing her before he turns and
runs to catch up with us.

Our seats provide us with a perfect view of
the stage, and I dig my little digital camera out of my pocketbook.
As I check the flash, I notice my hands are shaking a little. Why
am I nervous? I’m not the one who’s graduating, so I guess I’m just
sympathizing with Becca. In a few minutes, she’ll walk across the
stage and get her degree. I would give anything for our parents to
be here right now. How happy they’d be to see how much we’ve grown,
me with my own business, Becca graduating, and both of us in
committed relationships. Mom and Dad would have loved Alex and
Mark, of that, I am certain.

Feedback from the microphone draws my
attention toward the stage. The ceremony begins with the emcee
welcoming the graduates, their families, and their friends. I can
hardly contain my excitement for Becca. Alex places his hand on top
of mine, applying steady pressure to my bouncing knee, and I force
myself to sit still and pay attention.

The ceremony seems to last forever, and
then, finally, my baby sister walks across the stage and accepts
her degree. I take picture after picture, determined to capture
every bit of the event, for posterity’s sake, and I probably end up
with about fifty images just of Becca walking across the stage.

At ceremony’s end, everyone stands and
cheers. I lose sight of Becca in the shuffle, so Alex, Mark, and I
headed toward the exit. We made prior arrangements to meet at the
car and travel to go to her celebration dinner together, but we
stop and wait for her at the exit.

Several minutes pass, and I’m getting a bit
impatient. Everywhere I look, I see people in graduation caps and
gowns. Like a page out of a Where’s Waldo book, it’s impossible to
discern one graduate from another. The crowd begins to thin, and
still, there’s no sight of Becca.

“Where in the heck is she?” I say to Mark
and Alex. “She should have been out here by now, don’t you
think?”

Before either man can respond, my cell
.phone rings. A quick glance at the caller ID and I sigh in
relief.

“Becca,” I say, “Good. Where are you? We’re
outside, right by the door.”

“Ah, Elizabeth, so nice to hear your voice
again.”

For a minute, I’m too shocked to speak. Eyes
wide, I glance toward Mark and Alex, and then I pull myself
together enough to address the unexpected caller.

“Bob! What in the hell did you do with my
sister?”

Both the guys’ expressions turn from
slightly bored impatience to angry disbelief. Alex steps closer,
presumably so he can overhear my conversation, but I don’t care.
All I can think about is finding out what the bastard on the phone
has done with my sister.

“Now, Elizabeth, it isn’t very ladylike to
use that kind of language. Especially not in public.”

By now, Alex and Mark are both on their cell
phones, no doubt contacting private security and the police.

“Trace this number now!” Mark is screaming
at the top of his lungs while everybody stands around and
watches.

“Alright Bob. Where is my sister?”

“Rebecca is right here with me. She is
unharmed…for now. She will stay that way, as long as you do as I
say.”

My heart is racing, and panic fills me.

“What do you want? I’ll do whatever it is
you want.”

“That’s a girl. Go back to your apartment
and wait for me to call you later tonight. I can’t tell you
everything on this phone, since it’s your sister’s, and
I’m sure everyone is having it traced right
now
. So, until tonight, Elizabeth.”

“Wait!” Before I can get out another word,
the line goes dead, and I break down in tears. Alex comes up behind
me and wraps his arms around me.

“What did he say about Becca?”

“He told me to go back to the apartment and
wait for him to call.”

Mark joins us, his phone still at his
ear.

“Okay, Lizzy, you and Alex go back to the
apartment. I’m going to pick up a few guys and some equipment and
meet you there. Don’t worry; we’ll find her.”

Still stunned by this sudden turn of events,
I stare after Mark as he runs off to round up his men.

“Elizabeth? Honey?” Alex puts a hand on my
elbow. “Come on. Let me take you home.”

Alex leads me to the car, and the moment I
climb into the front seat, I begin sobbing. Alex drives toward the
apartment, and throughout the entire drive, he keeps trying to
assure me that we’ll find Becca and that everything will be okay.
But I’m not so sure. I know Bob fairly well, and I would never have
imagined he’d do any of the things he’s doing now. As if he has
snapped, he seems to have gone off the deep end, and if he’s
willing to shoot me, then he’s probably willing to do just about
anything. He worked up the nerve to actually
kidnap
my
little sister; God only knows what else he might be capable of
doing.

The drive to my place seems to take hours,
but we finally arrive. The moment Alex cuts the engine; I climb out
of the car and race inside. In a daze, I change my clothes, and
then take up a position near the phone to await Bob’s next call.
While I wait, all kinds of scenarios run through my brain. What if
he has already killed her? What if we do what he wants and he still
doesn’t let her go?

“Who—?” I jerk and look toward the door,
drawn from my thoughts by a series of loud knocks.

“That’ll be Mark and his men,” Alex says.
“I’ll get it.”

Alex greets Mark with a curt nod, and then
stands aside. Mark and two other guys I’ve never seen crowd into my
foyer. The strangers carry cases of equipment, and at Mark’s
direction, they turn toward my dining room area to set up shop.
After issuing orders to his associates, Mark turns toward me, and
his expression softens.

“That’s Officers Stevens and McAllister,” he
says. “They’re two of the best in the business. Don’t worry, Lizzy;
we’ll find that asshole and bring Becca home.”

I look Mark right in the eye, and even
though a part of me realizes what I’m about to ask of him is
irrational and unrealistic, I say, “Promise?”

Mark doesn’t blink. “Promise. Remember…I
love her too.”

I give him a nod, and he joins the others to
help set up the equipment. Alex, who’d disappeared into the kitchen
after greeting our guests, comes back into the room. He’s carrying
two glasses, and he sits next to me and hands me one of them. I
give him an inquiring look.

“Yes, it’s a drink,” he says in response. “I
figured you could use one.”

Despite the insane situation, I smile
softly. Alex is beginning to know me pretty well. I down the glass
of Brandy like a sailor, and then place the glass on the table. The
alcohol burns its way down my throat and warms my stomach, chasing
away the chill I’d had since hearing Bob’s voice come over the line
from my sister’s phone. For now, at least, I’m warm.

“Alex, what if he already killed her?” I
give voice to the thought that’s been nagging me since the moment I
found out Bob had Becca.

Alex places his glass down next to mine on
the table, and then turns and wraps his arms around me.

“No way, baby. That hasn’t happened. He
needs her. He won’t kill her.”

Not yet, anyway
. The unspoken words
hang like a black cloud between us.

Despite my misgivings, I nod. My gaze goes
to the little red numbers on the front of the cable box across the
room. Less than an hour has passed since Bob’s last call. The wait
is driving me crazy. All I can do is sit here while Mark and the
other officers rig up their recorders and whatnot, and I feel
helpless, so I focus on trying to find explanations for some of my
unanswered questions. For instance, how did Bob even know about
Becca’s graduation? And how was he able to kidnap her right out
from under my nose, while she was surrounded by hundreds of fellow
students, their families, and school faculty? Why didn’t she
scream? How is it possible nobody even noticed her abduction? A
frustrated sigh finds its way past my tightly pursed lips.

When is he going to call? Once again, I
check the time on the cable box. Five minutes have passed since the
last time I looked. I feel like I should be doing
something…anything other than just sitting here, waiting. Alex has
been on the phone a few times, and so has Mark, but my phone has
been dead silent. Good thing. I can just imagine myself, jumping
for the phone every time it rang, only to find it’s a friend or
acquaintance. I’d go nuts.

My phone rings, and for a moment, I’m so
shocked by the sound, I don’t respond.

“Elizabeth?” Alex says.

“Right.” I draw a deep breath, and then
reach for my cell. The word “blocked” is written on the caller ID
screen. “It’s gotta be Bob.”

I hit the button to connect the call, and
then the one to turn it on speaker. “Hello?”

“Hello there, Elizabeth. Are you ready to
give me what I want?”

The mere sound of his voice makes my blood
boil.

“No, Bob. I’m ready to get my sister
back.”

“Then I suggest you listen carefully and
keep that smart mouth of yours shut. I want a plane that will take
me from where I am now to Mexico. I also want five million in cash
to be waiting on the plane for me. I want this done by ten o’clock
tonight. Oh, and last but not least, I want your fifty one percent
of Neo Corp.”

“Are you crazy? I can’t just hand over my
share of Neo Corp. Besides, what would you do with my shares? You
can’t show your face here; the stock would be useless to you.”

A high-pitched laugh rattles over the phone.
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. You know as
well as I do that you don’t
have
to show up at the meetings.
Hell, if I was you, I wouldn’t even work. I would be on a beach
somewhere.”

I glance at the clock one more time. 5:35
p.m. How are we going to pull all this off? Unwilling to discuss my
work habits with the monster who abducted my sister, I decide to
cut right to the chase and address his demands.

“We need more time, Bob. It takes time to do
everything you’ve asked me to do. I’ll especially need more time to
get that much money. You can’t just walk into a bank and write a
check for a million dollars. Most banks don’t even keep that much
money on hand. I—”

Mark grab’s the phone out of my hand.

“Listen here, asshole, I want to talk to
Becca before we start doing anything for your ass.”

From my vantage point on the sofa, I observe
Mark’s shaking hands and red face, and my first thought is that
this man really,
really
cares for my little sister. The
second thought that runs through my mind is that he’s also
very
pissed off, and Bob better watch his ass.

“As you wish.” We hear a rustling noise, and
then finally, Becca comes on the line.

“Elizabeth? What’s going on?”

She sounds horrible, like she hasn’t had a
thing to drink in days, even though it’s only been hours. She has
no doubt been crying.

“Becca, we are all here—me, Alex, and Mark.
Don’t worry; we’ll get you back.” I hurry to reassure her.

Mark turns away a little, taking the phone
with him.

“Honey? We’re on it, okay? Just don’t do
anything stupid. We’ll find you. I love you.”

The sound of Becca sobbing softly causes my
stomach to tighten. That son of a bitch; I could kill Bob for
upsetting my sister like this.

“I love you too, Mark.” She whispers. “Be
careful, Lizzy!”

Before we can say another word, Bob comes
back on the line.

“You only have about four hours. I suggest
you get on it. Oh, and to answer your earlier question, you can
thank your assistant.”

With those last words the phone went
silent.

My assistant? What does he mean by that?
Natalie? I recall her asking me several times about my schedule and
Becca’s graduation. Has Natalie been working with Bob? I grab my
purse, and snatch my phone out of Mark’s hand, and then run toward
the door. I make it as far as the front foyer, when Alex calls out
to me.