Hidden Legacy (2 page)

“Can you repeat that?” Juliana Shales asked, her voice squeaking with sudden dryness. She could barely hear herself over the frantic beating of her heart.

“You heard me the first time, Miss Shales. I have your daughter.”

“No, she’s at home.” Juliana shook her head. Briana was safe. She had to be safe. Albert and Ella, her live-in help, would protect her. They would die before they let anyone harm Briana.

“She’s wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt with red, orange and blue jungle frogs on the front, and a purple fleece jacket.”

“No, no, no.” Juliana moaned. A strange numbness overtook her. She couldn’t feel her feet. Her knees failed her and she sank onto a padded stool in the workshop of her jeweler’s boutique. Her hand, looking for support, knocked a tray of emeralds from the workbench to the floor, but all she could do was stare blankly as the jewels scattered around her. “Not Briana, anything but Briana.”

“You can have her back as soon as you procure the Nadyenka Sapphire for me.”

Desperately trying not to fall apart, she fisted her hand until her nails dug into her palms. “But I’m a gemologist, not a thief. I don’t know where the Nadyenka Sapphire—”

“I’ll provide you with the information you need. All I require from you is an expert’s eye.”

“But—”

“I’ve done my homework. You’re an expert on precious gemstones. I see here that you testified last year in a case involving diamonds, and I’m most impressed by your testimony. From what I can gather, this stone is nearly perfect. Only one facet is slightly marred by a chip, and a prong hides the minuscule imperfection.”

Why was he going on and on about diamonds? Her ears hummed, her vision narrowed to a straw tunnel, and all her senses could focus only on one thing—Briana. “My daughter—”

“Is safe with me. We’re rather having a fun time of it. She’s quite good at this Skip-Bo game. She’s beaten me twice already.”

Briana was into cards these days. She could play hand after hand of Skip-Bo. Juliana often marveled at Ella’s patience with her driven daughter. And now this man, this monster, had her precious little girl in his claws. Her hand tightened around the receiver as if she could reach through the ether and snatch her baby back to safety.

“Where are you?” she pleaded, forcing herself not to scream.

“In a safe place.”

“I want to talk to her. I need to hear she’s all right.”

“She’s perfectly content. She’s quietly watching
The Princess and the Frog
. I understand it’s her favorite video. And we wouldn’t want to upset her now, would we?”

“I need to hear her voice. I need—”

“Calm down, Miss Shales. Here, we’ll compromise.”

Bells tolled slow and low somewhere in the background. Rustling sounds, footsteps, the voices of Tiana and Naveen singing issued from the clear connection. All the while Juliana sent a silent, desperate prayer.
Please, please, please, let this be a terrible misunderstanding, let her be home, let her be safe
.

Then came the kidnapper’s muffled voice. “Briana, what shall we have for dinner?”

In her mind, she could imagine Briana pondering the question, dark ponytail sinking down between her shoulders, her blue-gray eyes gazing straight up, her mouth crooked in concentration….

Juliana held her breath.
No, no, no
. He couldn’t have her. Briana wouldn’t have gone off with a stranger. She couldn’t lay sprawled in front of a TV, calmly watching a video if a stranger had snatched her. Ella and Albert would never have allowed anyone to take her. And if they’d somehow been incapacitated, then Briana would have panicked. Ella and Albert were like grandparents to her. She loved them.

An interminable five seconds passed before the familiar, assured voice answered. “Macaroni and cheese. But don’t try to sneak any green stuff in there. I don’t like green.”

Oh, God, he had her. He really had her. “My baby, my baby…” She rocked back and forth on her stool, torn between hanging onto this phone connection with Briana, and running to save her. But running where? Where was she?

“Miss Shales, I suggest you stop the hysterics and listen to me.”

She pressed her lips together to keep from bleating her distress. With her free hand, she reached for the pain knifing at her heart. “I want her back. Now.
Please
.”

“I understand your concern. Please be assured I will take good care of her. But I cannot return her without receiving the Nadyenka Sapphire.”

“She’s just five years old. A little girl. You can’t—”

“But I already have.”

Juliana closed her eyes. Yes, he already had spirited Briana away from what she’d thought was a safe haven to some unknown place, and if she ever wanted to see her again, she would have to cooperate.

She had no choice.

Briana was worth more to her than any gem, more than ethics, more than anything.
Stay calm, stay calm
. “How? When? Where?”

“I want you to go home now, Miss Shales. There you’ll find further instructions. I suggest you hurry. I don’t know how long the bonds will hold your hired help captive, and it would be a shame if the police were called. You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course. No police.”

“I don’t want to harm her. She’s really quite charming for a child. But I must have the stone, and I will do anything to ensure your cooperation in the matter. Am I making myself clear?”

“I’m leaving now. I’ll get it for you. Just don’t hurt her,
please
.”

The monster offered no answer and the line disconnected.

* * *

Juliana tore from her car to the precisely manicured Victorian duplex she shared with Albert and Ella Tilton. How could the house still look so calm and quiet with its butter-yellow paint and white trim? How could the tulip tree keep blooming? How could the wicker rocking chair on the porch still seem so inviting when her world had been turned upside down?

Those thirty-three minutes from her workshop in south Nashua had been pure torture. Questions had run round and round in her head. What had she done wrong? How had she exposed her daughter to such a violent act? Aubery, New Hampshire, was a safe little town. How could this happen when she’d left Briana in the care of not one, but two, people who treasured her little girl as much as she did?

Juliana’s first sight when she entered the kitchen was Ella trussed up to a chair. Tears streamed down the old woman’s face, soaking the kitchen towel stuffed into her mouth.

As soon as Juliana released the towel, Ella cried with renewed vigor. Her graying bun tilted to one side and bobbed in time to her sobs. “I’m sorry, Juliana, so sorry. I didn’t know. I never dreamed. He looked so polished, so presentable. Then after he grabbed me, he told me not to worry about Briana, that he was going to take care of her for a little while. And he just left me here all tied up. How could he do that? How could I not worry myself sick? Juliana—”

Juliana hugged Ella to stop from shaking her friend quiet. “It’s not your fault, Ella. You need to stop crying and tell me exactly what happened. Where’s Albert?”

The question hurled Ella into another keening fit. With her wrists and ankles freed, she tottered on her red sneakers toward the back door. “Oh, Albert, Albert. He was puttering in the flower beds in the backyard, planting some of those white pansies you like to go with the daffodils. Albert, Albert!”

Juliana scurried after Ella. They found poor Albert secured to the gardening shed. At sixty-six, stocky—all muscle and heart—and shorter than his wife by half an inch, he could still do the work of two men half his age. Even though time had whitened his hair, it still sprouted thick, but now stood on ends from tussling with the kidnapper.

They freed him. Albert rubbed at the knot on his head, then picked at bits of dried grass sticking to his sweater. “He caught me by surprise.”

“Who was it?”

“Never seen him. He was short, shaggy brown hair, buck teeth. Young. Maybe late twenties.”

“Why, no,” Ella chimed in, fussing over Albert. “He was in his forties, if he was a day. Bald as a cue ball and using a cane. He had a slight limp of his left leg.”

“Couldn’t be. Someone like that couldn’t have jumped me the way this guy did. Hit me from behind, he did. With my own shovel at that.”

“No, I’m sure, Albert. He was bald and had on one of those caps like golfers used to wear. A cream-colored cardigan and pressed gray slacks.”

“Jeans and sneakers and a Red Sox windbreaker.”

“Could there have been two of them?” Juliana interrupted.

Both Ella and Albert stopped their argument and stared at her.

“He was short,” Albert said.

“Yes, shorter than Albert,” Ella agreed.

“Took our Briana.” Albert drew in a long, ragged breath. “I couldn’t stop him, Juliana.”

“How could he take her without her fussing?” Juliana sank to the greening grass and picked up the small blue-and-yellow rubber ball Briana liked to bounce against the shed. The noise drove Albert crazy, but he never said a word. Juliana tightened her fist around the ball. Tears sprang to her eyes. “How could she willingly go with a stranger? I’ve told her. I’ve taught her.”

“Now Juliana, you can’t go blaming yourself.” Albert patted her shoulder stiffly. “You’ve done everything you can to keep her safe. If anyone’s to blame, it’s us.”

“He took her from school,” Ella said, sniffing. “Had to. He got here just as I was leaving to pick her up from her kindergarten class. She never saw us all tied up.”

Well, there was something to be thankful for. Juliana hated the thought of Briana seeing her caretakers in distress. She rocked back on her heels, stood up, and hugged herself against the empty coldness numbing her senses. Briana. Her baby. She was gone. Snatched. Kidnapped.

“Juliana?” Ella asked, forehead creased with worry.

Juliana launched the small ball against the shed. It hit the aluminum siding with a satisfying
whop
. “He said he left something for me.”

“Oh, yes.” Ella plodded back to the kitchen. Juliana followed, trailed by Albert. “A large envelope on the counter. Shouldn’t we call the police?”

“No police. I can’t risk it.”

“Juliana,” Albert said, “they always say no police, but we have to call them.”

“No!” Juliana whirled to face him. “I can’t risk it. She’s counting on me. I won’t let her down. I have to follow his instructions to the letter.”

“The police know how to handle these things. The FBI deals with kidnappings all the time. When it comes to situations like this, time is of the essence. You have to call.”

The thought of having police swarming through her house, of giving the kidnapper any excuse to harm her daughter sent chills up and down her arms. “No, no police. Definitely no FBI.”

“She’s right, Albert.” Ella slanted him an odd look. “We can’t take a chance with little Briana’s life. Whatever he wants, we have to do.”

As if realization suddenly hit him, Albert’s eyes grew wider, then his features became tauter and sterner. He gave a reluctant half nod.

Sitting at the kitchen table, Juliana tore open the envelope. Inside she found a typewritten note commanding her to wait for a phone call, a newspaper article, and a set of house plans.

More waiting. A silent wail howled through her.

This was pure torture. How long before she completely fell apart? The type swam in front of her eyes, so she tucked everything back into the envelope and wrapped her arms around her middle. She was not going to crack. To get her daughter back, she had to think, she had to stay in control.

She called the woman who ran the private kindergarten and asked her who had picked up Briana from school.

“Why it was Albert Tilton,” Marcia Price said. “I wondered why Ella hadn’t been the one, but he said she was dealing with a bit of stomach flu. It’s going around. I didn’t think anything of it. Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine,” Juliana lied. She couldn’t involve anyone in her problem. She couldn’t take any risk where Briana was concerned. “I just wanted to make sure she hadn’t walked home by herself.”

“You know I don’t allow that.”

“Yes, I’m sorry. I think Briana’s got the same stomach flu as Ella. She probably won’t be in tomorrow.”

“Well, she looked perfectly healthy this afternoon. She skipped all the way to the library for story time and ate well.”

Marcia’s home stood seven houses down, and Briana could easily have walked the distance by herself, but Juliana had never allowed her. Not that her overprotectiveness had spared her daughter.

Now she had a third description of the kidnapper. This time, the spitting image of Albert. The stranger had probably picked the busiest time, and Marcia might not have gotten a close look, but how could he have fooled Briana? And Albert had been tied in the garden shed. He couldn’t have taken Briana himself or faked the knot on his head.

Juliana berated herself for thinking ill of Albert for even a second. He did so much for them. He loved Briana. He would never harm her in any way. Someone else had to have kidnapped her, but who?