The Shield of Darius (3 page)

She turned her shoulder from beneath his hand and stood as the officer retreated a step. “There may be some simple explanation,” she said, the quiver gone from her lip and shivering down her spine. “But it won’t be that he decided to leave his family in the middle of some ruined castle so he could ‘go have a pint with the lads.’”

“I understand, Mrs. Sager.” The constable’s voice assumed a new note of respect. “I have his description here in my report, and I’ll start passing it about just in case. Things will work out.”

Things did not work out, and Ben was not back by morning. At 8:30 against her better judgment, Kate called her mother in Baltimore on her cell from beside the Sherborne constabulary. Elsie Fitzgerald’s “hello” was slurred with sleep and Kate realized that it was still the middle of the night in Maryland.

“Mother, I’m sorry to call this late, but something terrible has happened.”

Her mother’s voice cleared instantly. “What is it Katie? What’s happened?”

Though she had promised herself she wouldn’t, Kate began to sniffle. “Something…something’s happened to Ben. He’s disappeared.”

“What do you mean – disappeared?”

“Just that! He’s gone! Yesterday we were visiting a castle here and when we got ready to leave, we couldn’t find him and he hasn’t shown up.”

There was a long silence. “Katie, has Ben left you?”

“
Mother –
I
knew
I shouldn’t have called you! I need
help
. Not one of your lectures. Of course he hasn’t left us.”

“Katie, you know I’ve been concerned about….”

“Mother –
please!
Something’s happened to him. I think he’s been taken by someone.”

“And why would anyone take him in Eng….”

Kate punched the “end call” button and leaned heavily against the stone side of the building. Could things have changed so little in twenty years? The woman hadn’t given an inch since Kate first brought Ben home over a spring break. Her mother had been coolly polite, but called Kate into a back room just before the couple left to return to school.

“I know you’re old enough to make these decisions, Katie, but this isn’t the right man for you.”

“Mother, he’s a wonderful man. If you’d only given him half a chance….”

Elsie had smiled sympathetically and placed a motherly hand on Kate’s arm. “I know he’s good looking – in a dark sort of way. Does he have some eastern blood somewhere? But he isn’t even as tall as you are.”

“His family came from Yugoslavia about the same time ours came from Ireland. And who cares if he’s shorter? Paul Newman’s short. Redford’s short.”

Mrs. Fitzgerald had rolled her eyes and given Kate her most irritating slack-jawed “you’re talking to an expert here” expression. “
Believe
me Katie. This is no Paul Newman. And no matter what they say, size makes a difference.”

Kate already knew that Ben was completely satisfying, but wasn’t going to involve her mother in that.

“
And
….” The woman was unrelenting. “Even though he’s seven years older, the man’s still in college! What’s he been doing all this time?”

“He played minor league ball for a few years. I told you that. But he decided he wasn’t going to make the majors, and came back for an MBA.”

“Sounds unstable to me. Jumpin’ from one thing to another….”

Kate decided she’d heard enough. “Mother, he’s bright. He’s sensitive. He’s fun! Most of the Business Admin guys are snobs and the computer guys are weird and bookish, but Ben’s just…well, exciting! He’s been everywhere and has this natural sense of adventure about him. Plus, he has the greatest ideas! Trust me, mother. He’s going to be more successful than any of those other guys.”

He had been, but Elsie Fitzgerald had never found that sufficient. And where in the world was Ben now? She felt so helpless and alone – and so
angry!
Both at her mother and at Ben. She couldn’t imagine that he could leave her and the children out in the English countryside... but could that other car possibly have been someone coming to pick him up...? 

As she walked dejectedly back toward the van, the children pressed expectantly against the windows; PJ curious and confused, and Jenn frightened. Kate forced a smile, then paused and drew a deep breath. She needed to get a grip on herself. Signaling the children to stay where they were, she walked quickly out of range of the van and called David King, Sager Tech’s chief product engineer, at his home in Columbia, Maryland.

“Dave, I know it’s the middle of the night there, and this sounds crazy, but Ben’s disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“Gone! Just gone! Vanished! He’s been gone since yesterday afternoon. We’re in Dorset at a place called Sherborne. We got separated for a few minutes touring an old castle and he just disappeared. I don’t know what to do.”

Dave King was silent for a few seconds. “Jeez, Kate. I…I don’t know what to tell you. Have you been to the police? Any idea what might have happened to him?”

“No idea. And they now seem to have every policeman in two counties looking for him. His picture’s in today’s paper. The constable got a special investigator in from Dorchester and they are even dragging the river. It’s about as deep as a wading pool, but they haven’t got any better ideas. I think he’s been kidnapped.” Kate wondered if she was being coherent.

“In England? That doesn’t sound likely to me, Kate.”

“Please Dave. Just listen.” Her voice was again beginning to waiver. “There just isn’t any other explanation.”

“Any ransom note?”

“No. In fact, one reason I called was to see if maybe you’d been contacted. Guess not, eh? But are you working on any product ideas that someone might be after? Anything a competitor might really want? I know I’m grasping for straws here, but I’m trying to think of anything.”

“You know everything that’s on the drawing board, Kate. I don’t think we’re far enough along with anything new to lead to this.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so either. Well, if nothing turns up today, I’m driving back to London to talk to the Embassy people and check in to a place where I can sit at a computer rather than try to do everything on this phone. I’ll let you know where I am. Listen, I’m sorry for calling so late and worrying you about this. But I’m so uptight I’m about to pop. I needed to talk to someone.”

“You did right, Kate. Call me as soon as you learn anything, and I’ll do the same. By the way, did they think to try to track his phone? If it’s used, they can get an approximate location.”

Kate reddened. “He’d been on it all the time, Dave, and when we went into the castle, I insisted he leave it in the van.”

“Bummer,” Dave muttered.

Inside the gray stone Sherborne constabulary the constable faced her with withering resolve.

“No news, I’m afraid. Have you seen the papers? We have the picture you gave us all over the country. Calls have started to come in, and we’re following every lead.”

“That’s not enough. I’m going to London tomorrow to see what the Embassy can do. Please let me know immediately if anything turns up.”

The policeman nodded with mild relief. “Tomorrow’s Sunday. You won’t get anyone until Monday. Why don’t we put the family in a hotel here overnight, and you can all get a good rest. If you drive up to London tomorrow the traffic will be lighter and you can be at the embassy early Monday morning.”

She had forgotten about Sunday and nodded with resigned disappointment. “We’ll do that.” She started for the door then turned again to the constable. “I know you’ve done everything you can,” she said, managing a weak smile. “And I haven’t made it easy. But I’ve never been in a mess like this before.”

“That would be both of us,” he said.

THREE

Before noon on Sunday, Kate loaded Jenn and PJ into the rented caravan and drove back to London. She had started to drive on English roads during their last visit and was finally feeling moderately comfortable with cars whizzing by on her right side. She still hated roundabouts – the ingenious British substitute for intersections where traffic converges on a first-come, first-serve basis, loops left at breakneck speed and by some law of centrifugal force, is thrown off again at the proper exit. But the van had a standard transmission and, thank God, English auto designers had left the brake and clutch peddles where they belonged and the gear shift pattern the same.

She returned the caravan two weeks early to Brooks and Sons rentals in South Kensington. By four o’clock they were checked into the London Hilton on Park Lane, five blocks from the U.S. Embassy. She spent the late afternoon walking with the children through Hyde Park immediately across the street, trying to explain what she could about their situation without making things worse.

“I’ll need to visit some people by myself tomorrow,” she concluded, “but it won’t take long and the hotel has helped me find someone good to stay with you. I’ll need you to be helpers.”

“Will daddy ever come back?” Jenn asked and started to sob.

“Of course he will.” She didn’t sound convincing, even to herself.

While Jenn sat hunched over her cell phone and PJ played fitfully at a computer game in the hotel room, she placed another call to Dave King.

“Any contact with you there?”

“Nothing. I take it you don’t have anything.”

“It’s incredible, Dave! A man can’t just totally disappear like this – especially out in the middle of the English countryside! There’s no sign of him anywhere.”

“What can I do to help? You’ll need to be there awhile.”

“Two things. Look again at the product line and think about whether we’re working on something that someone might desperately want – or want to stop. And see if you can keep this quiet at home ‘til I figure out what’s going on. I really
do
believe Ben’s been abducted and expect some kind of contact. If anything shows up, call me here at the Hilton. We’re in 2212. I want to be careful about this so we don’t make things worse for Ben.”

On Monday morning at 9:00 a nanny was at her door, a smiling ruddy woman of about fifty who immediately gathered the children about a large shopping bag full of assorted treasures.

“Have you been to see the Horse Guard?” she was asking as Kate slipped out the door. “Now, this piece of brass is from one of the halters….” Kate quietly pulled the door closed and caught the elevator to the lobby.

She left the Hilton and walked down Park Lane, away from the swirl of morning traffic that wheeled recklessly around Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner. The noise and the press of heavy traffic added to her depression and she turned down Pitt’s Head to get away from the park-side avenue, turning left again on Audley Street to Grosvenor Square and the U.S. Embassy. She had called for an appointment, but wasn’t certain what she would do once she went inside. Explain her situation, at least, and insist that the Government get involved. As long as she could complain, she felt that she was doing
something
.

She cleared a security network that would have adequately protected the White House and entered the long, rectangular stone building with its imposing eagle spread above the entrance. A receptionist immediately ushered her to the office of the Attaché for American Services, a flinty woman of about her age, possibly a few years older. The Attaché wasn’t wearing a ring. The habit of checking embarrassed Kate mildly but she did it anyway. It helped her establish some initial sense for the woman.

“I’m Sandra Silcox,” the Attaché said, extending her hand and smiling perfunctorily. “The Sherborne police called us late Friday and I want you to know how disturbed and deeply sorry we are about your husband’s disappearance.” She motioned to a satin upholstered Queen Anne chair that was uncomfortably centered across the desk from her own and sat down stiffly, opening a thin, blue tabbed manila folder.

“We’ve been in constant touch with the police since... well, over the weekend. You know about the notices in the paper?”

Kate nodded.

“They’ve resulted in over a hundred calls from Birmingham and Peterborough to Penzance, claiming to have seen Mr. Sager. Every lead is being followed up but I’m afraid that so far, we’re not making much progress.”

“Nothing promising at all?”

“In Weymouth – which is just south of where you were at Sherborne – a fisherman reported that while working late the evening of the disappearance….” She paused and glanced at her folder. “…repairing a motor mount on his boat, he heard people boarding a launch anchored near him in the bay. It was dark and he could barely make them out, but thought there were four, and that they were loading something heavy into the boat. Port officials at Weymouth didn’t have records of the launch, and nothing else unusual was reported during the night. That’s the only solid lead we’ve had.”

“And you didn’t follow up?”

“I don’t follow up personally, Mrs. Sager,” Ms. Silcox said with a thin smile. “We work with local authorities.”

“But that sounds like a fairly important lead.”

“As I said, we do have authorities checking on these, and nothing else out of the ordinary was reported in the harbor that night. They’re still seeking other information but it’s a very difficult thing to trace.” The Attaché closed her folder and straightened even more rigidly in the chair.

“Mrs. Sager, there are several things I would like to ask that may not be pleasant. Please understand as I do that we’re just trying to get to the bottom of this.” She folded her hands in front of her on the desktop and looked steadily at Kate, who sensed in the directness an attempt to look matter-of-fact about something that obviously wasn’t going to be.

“Mrs. Sager, has it occurred to you that your husband might have chosen to disappear? If the reports are correct, a car came into the lot, stayed a few minutes, and your husband was gone. Perhaps he left with someone.”

Kate knew her answer would disappoint the woman. “Of course it has occurred to me. I’d have to be either very naïve or very foolish not to have considered that possibility.”

Ms. Silcox seemed more confused than disappointed. “And do you think he did?”

“I’m certain he did not.”

“How can you be certain?”

Kate knew now why she had checked the ring. “It’s one of those things you just know,” she said. “Ben and I have had our little problems, just like everyone does. But right now our marriage is the best it has ever been.”

“Forgive me,” Ms. Silcox said, “but I do understand there are those situations in which men leave, and their wives feel there’s been no indication of trouble or unhappiness.”

“The wife hasn’t been paying close attention then,” Kate said coolly, wondering if the absence of the ring indicated spinsterhood or an ex who had departed with ‘no indication of trouble or unhappiness.’

“We’ve come close more than once,” she admitted. “But there were always indicators. He was either too remote or too close. My family hasn’t made it easy. But the  last few years have just been filled with the normal ups and downs of things being as they should.” She thought momentarily that she needn’t be telling this stranger all of this. But she wanted her to know that Ben wasn’t the kind of man who’d walk out on her – let alone his children.

“I see,” Ms. Silcox said, looking down at her hands. “Perhaps there were some business pressures you weren’t aware of….”

Kate shook her head. “We started our business together. He’s the technical end and I’m financial. We have a very successful business that develops computer language translation software, but I know much more about the finances than Ben does. We’ve just closed out our best year and are in excellent shape.”

“Could someone have taken him for his technical knowledge?”

Kate frowned skeptically. “It’s all available from a hundred other sources. His real talent is in seeing applications others have missed in existing technology, and in finding other people to work with him who can do the same. We’ve done well because of some innovative program designs, but there’s nothing secret about them. Anyone who’s willing to ignore copyrights could duplicate them.”

“How wealthy are you, Mrs. Sager?”

Kate hesitated. “We have assets in the millions, but don’t really have huge amounts that could be considered liquid. Most of our value is in the company.”

“But you think this could be kidnapping for ransom?”

“I can’t come up with another explanation.”

Ms. Silcox stood abruptly and closed the folder. “We’ll certainly do what we can and will keep in touch. You’re at the Hilton?”

Kate nodded and stood, wondering as she shook Ms. Silcox’ hand if she really
had
been paying close enough attention to her relationship with Ben.

By the time Kate walked the five blocks from Grosvenor Square back to the hotel and checked her muted cell phone for messages, a voicemail had already arrived asking her to call the Attaché for American Services.

“Mrs. Sager….” Sandra Silcox sounded less businesslike over the phone. “I’m sorry this didn’t reach me before you left. I tried to catch you but you were already out of the building.” She hesitated. “Did your husband have his passport with him when he disappeared?”

“Yes. It was in an inside pocket in his jacket. Have you found it?”

Again the embassy official paused. “In a sense. We just received a call from officials in Manchester informing us that a person carrying your husband’s passport and meeting his description left the airport there Thursday night with a one way ticket to Paris – accompanied by a young woman on a French passport.”