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She considered him carefully. “Because I’ll hold you responsible for kidnapping my son and kill you if you don’t?”
He let out an exasperated sigh. “Look. They pay me a small fortune to be the public face of AbaCo. But I’m not about to go down in flames, as you say, for all the activities they’re into.”
Nick leaped on that right away. “What else is AbaCo up to besides human trafficking?”
Kloffman snorted. “That’s the tip of the iceberg.”
Laura had no trouble believing that. “Again, I ask if you have any proof.”
“Why should I hand any of it over to you?”
Nick asked reasonably, “Who else would you give it to? If you were going to hand it over to the U.S. government, you’d have done it before now—when it became clear the feds are going to come after AbaCo with everything they’ve got in the upcoming trial. But you saw what Meredith’s goons did to me. I think you’re afraid to cross her. And rightly so, by the way.”
Nick was doing an excellent job of playing good cop. Which left her to play bad cop.
She leaned forward. “Don’t be stupid, Werner. I have the gun, and I won’t hesitate to use it.”
The German looked back and forth between them. “Let me make a phone call to inquire about your boy.”
She considered briefly. Why not? What could it hurt? She nodded and allowed the man to pull out a cell phone. He put it on speaker and laid it on the coffee table in front of him before hitting a speed dial number.
Nick commented as a man’s voice came on the line, “I speak fluent German.”
She threw him a grateful look. That could prove immensely helpful.
Kloffman nodded irritably at them. “Klaus. It’s Kloffman. Did you hear that Nick Cass’s boy was kidnapped?”
“It’s all over the news,” a heavily accented voice replied in English. “Serves the bastard right.”
Kloffman asked, “Do you know anything about it that could implicate AbaCo?”
“No.” The guy sounded genuinely surprised. “We had no such orders. Besides, everyone would suspect us right away. We’re not that stupid. Just do what you were sent to Washington to do and stay out of things that don’t concern you.”
Laura was surprised by the scorn in this Klaus guy’s voice. That didn’t sound anything at all like the respect due a genuine CEO. She glanced over at Nick and he was frowning, too. Apparently, Werner was telling the truth about being a figurehead.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Klaus.”
The German ended the call. “Satisfied?” Kloffman spit out.
She answered, “Not yet.”
“Look. I have children of my own. I would not hurt your son.” As her gaze hardened, he added in desperation, “Why would I kidnap your boy? The trial’s going to be stopped anyway.”
Laura started, and it was Nick who leaned forward and said smoothly, “Who did you cut the deal with, Werner?”
“The CIA.”
Laura was stunned. Her own agency had sold her out?
Thankfully, Nick didn’t miss a beat and nodded beside her. “Of course. I’ll bet you’ve held a few prisoners for the agency, maybe given them a heads-up where certain shipments were headed. You scratch their back, and now you’ve called in the favor and forced them to scratch yours.”
“Exactly,” Kloffman exclaimed, obviously relieved that Nick was on the same page. “In another day or two, the federal prosecutors will announce that national security could be compromised by proceeding with the case, and all charges will be quietly dropped. I have no need to kidnap your boy to silence you.”
Then why did Meredith and the shadow operators at AbaCo go after Adam? Petty revenge? The question still remained as to how they’d managed to move so fast against her heavily defended estate. It just didn’t add up in Laura’s gut. She was missing something major, here.
Nick, bless him, was carrying the conversation while her mind stayed frustratingly blank. He asked the German, “When will the announcement be made stopping the trial?”
“Two days from now.”
Laura’s heart sank. If AbaCo was behind his kidnapping, they had two days before Adam’s life became irrelevant to his kidnappers. How were they ever going to find him in so little time? Worse, if the trial was dead in the water, she and Nick had no leverage whatsoever to force this man to help them find Adam. Unless …
She leaned forward. “Werner, here’s the deal. Even if the trial is halted, Nick and I aren’t going to stop. We’re going to go public with everything we have on your company. We’ll use the media to full advantage, and with what we’ve got on AbaCo, we’ll destroy the company. In fact, we can probably do a more effective job of ruining it without the constraints of a trial to tie our hands. Do you believe me?”
Kloffman stared at her for several long seconds. Finally, he said heavily, “What’s it going to take to stop you from doing that?”
He might be a figurehead, but he undoubtedly liked his paycheck. He also seemed to understand that, as the figurehead, he’d be the sacrificial lamb.
Nick replied gently, “Save yourself, Werner. You don’t strike me as a bad type. Don’t let Meredith and her cronies drag you down with them.”
“How?” Werner snapped. “Who’ll believe me?”
“Why wouldn’t people believe you?” Nick asked. “I’m living proof that someone at AbaCo is up to no good. And there are others who have been victims of the company.”
Werner shook his head. “You don’t understand. It’s not about the prisoners they keep. It’s about the cargo.”
Nick glanced at her. Werner seemed inclined to talk to Nick, so she nodded subtly at him to take the lead. “What about the cargo?” Nick asked.
“AbaCo has become the freight carrier of choice for every nefarious group you can think of—drug lords, weapons dealers, terrorists, slavers, illegal lumber smugglers, you name it.”
Nick paled beside her. It had to be painful to hear that his family’s firm had fallen so far. “Do you have proof?” he asked hoarsely.
Kloffman hesitated one last time, and then he capitulated all in a rush. “I’ve been collecting it for years. Bit by bit. I had to be careful. But I’ve got cargo manifests, incriminating emails from customers, shipping documents, even financial records.”
“Why haven’t you taken it to the authorities before now?” Nick queried.
“What authorities?” Kloffman answered bitterly. “The same ones who are also using AbaCo to do their dirty work? How do you think the CIA gets weapons and supplies to the various regimes Uncle Sam can’t publicly support?”
The three of them fell silent.
Laura eventually broke the silence. “Who within the company does the dirty work?”
“The Special Cargo division,” Kloffman answered promptly.
That made sense. The people on trial for kidnapping Nick came out of that group. But the Feds had been combing through that division’s records for most of the past year and not found anything to indicate that AbaCo was engaging in widespread criminal activity.
“Do you have access to their real records, then?” Laura asked curiously.
Kloffman nodded eagerly. “I’ve been copying everything for the past three years.” He added sourly, “They didn’t even bother to restrict my access to the accounts. They think I’m too stupid to notice what they’re up to.”
Nick made a commiserating sound, and Werner shared an aggrieved look with him. Nick really was incredible at garnering empathy and trust from the German. He asked gently, “Do you have copies of these records with you? If you wouldn’t mind sharing them with us, I swear to you we’ll see they fall into the right hands.”
Kloffman reared back sharply. “No way. They’ll kill me.”
No need to ask who “they” was. Nick said soothingly, “Not if they don’t know who the source of the leak was. I give you my word of honor we won’t reveal where or who we got the information from.”
Kloffman didn’t look convinced. Laura spoke quietly. “Somebody has kidnapped our son. He’s six years old. And he’s going to die if we don’t find him. Soon. Please help us, Herr Kloffman. I promise we’ll help you.”
He nodded slowly. “I will give you everything I have. Maybe you can find something about your boy.”
Laura rose to her feet eagerly and Nick did the same.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have the files with me. I keep them in a safe place.”
As would she in the same situation. So. It was going to require a leap of faith on their part, too. “Of course, Herr Kloffman. How soon can you get us a copy?”
“Twenty-four hours, maybe.”
A whole day? Her gut twisted in dismay. But it wasn’t like she had any choice in the matter. “Please hurry.” Desperation crept into her voice. “He’s so little….”
Kloffman squeezed her elbow reassuringly. “I shall do what I can to help, Fraulein.’’
She nodded, too choked up to say any more. Nick quietly traded contact information with the German and then guided her to the front door.
“A word of advice, Kloffman,” Nick commented as he reached for the doorknob. “Convince whoever’s actually running the show to sell off the pre-1970 ships before you have a major accident. Dump the Euro debt and invest in new, Norwegian-built, fast ships.”
Kloffman stared. “I beg your pardon?”
Nick shrugged. “Spiros Shipping has been in my family for three generations. And it’s being run into the ground. Stop thinking about short-term profit and look to the future before you destroy my company.”
The German stared, flummoxed. “Assuming I still have a job in a week, I’ll try.”
“Thank you for your help, Herr Kloffman,” Nick said soberly as he opened the front door. “We are in your debt.”
Out of reflex, Laura reached for the light switch and turned off the porch light as she stepped outside. The night was dark and cold, and she was more terrified than ever of the forces that had taken her son from her.
Chapter 9 (#ulink_5cb229a1-2392-5af9-9e42-78a95adba1eb)
Nick’s breathing still hadn’t returned to normal, and he’d been driving as fast as he dared back toward the estate for nearly a half hour. His company had become a major crime syndicate, compliments of a wife he didn’t remember? Why on God’s green earth had he ever married the woman? He supposed it didn’t matter, now. The deed was done, the damage cascading down on everyone he loved.
Laura burst out, “Do we dare trust him? With Adam’s life?”
“I think we should,” he answered.
“Why?”
He shrugged. “The time may come when we need Kloffman to hesitate before he calls his dogs down on us or Adam. I think we gave him good reason to hesitate.”
Laura sighed beside him. “You’re right, of course. I’m just not capable of thinking that clearly right now.”
He glanced over at her. “You’re not supposed to be thinking clearly. You’re a mother. You’re allowed to be panicked.”
“But Adam needs Super Mommy.” Laura’s voice cracked, sending a glass shard of pain through him. How was she ever going to move past the fact that he’d done this to their child? Even assuming Adam returned home safe and sound—and he refused to consider any other possibility—how were they going to move forward as a couple?
He asked slowly, “Do think you’ll ever forgive me for all of this?”
She stared across the dark interior of the car at him a long time before she answered. “I don’t know. After you lied to me in Paris and then spent the past year knowing you were living under an assumed identity and never told me, I don’t know how I’m going to trust you again.”
If only he could remember why he’d deceived her in Paris! For the first time, he regretted not really trying to work with the doctors who’d attempted to help him regain his memory.
“Now what?” Laura asked.
What, indeed? He was as stymied as she was and hated feeling this helpless. He’d felt this way in his box and had vowed never to be at anyone’s mercy again. No, this time it was his son’s life on the line. His control threatened to crack. Swearing silently, he fought off the urge. Laura needed him strong. Adam needed him strong.
“I don’t have a lot of contacts in the crime world,” Laura commented, “but I’ll put out some feelers. See if anyone’s heard anything.”
“I’d lay odds that whoever kidnapped me grabbed Adam, too,” Nick declared. “I’d love nothing better than to get my hands on that person and wring their neck.”
“You only want to wring their neck? I had something slower and more painful in mind,” Laura replied.
He shrugged. “I got you and the kids out of the deal. I learned things about myself in that box I’d have learned no other way. Things that have changed my life—changed me—dramatically for the better. Yes, the experience sucked. But, at some point, I have to get over it and get on with my life. I’m not kidding when I say that part of my past is over and gone. I don’t dwell on it.”
“I’m not so altruistic,” Laura muttered.
“You can sit around hating your life and bemoaning all your problems. Or you can accept that everyone has them and get on with dealing with yours in a positive frame of mind. I’m not saying life can’t be hard as hell. But it is possible to find joy in small things in the midst of all the bad stuff. I have my kidnapper to thank for making me understand this.”
“Will you be so philosophical if we find out he or she is behind Adam’s kidnapping?”
“I’ll kill him.” He added grimly, “And I’ll be entirely philosophical about it afterward.”
Laura smiled reluctantly and reached over to put a hand on his leg. He took a hand off the steering wheel and covered hers.
“We’ll find Adam,” Nick murmured. “Just keep the faith.” Why did it take something so awful to bring them together like this? How was he supposed to feel anything other than too guilty to breathe when he was finding Laura again in the midst of losing his son?
The house was in an uproar when they walked in. Marta had gone upstairs for Ellie’s 2 a.m. feeding and one of the FBI agents had discovered their disappearance.
The FBI agent-in-charge, a guy named Cal Blackledge, was not amused and chewed them up one side and down the other. Nick blandly explained that the two of them had needed to get away for a little while, to be alone and share their grief without an army of onlookers. Blackledge didn’t look convinced, but Nick and Laura stuck to their story, and there wasn’t much the FBI man could do about it.
As their chewing out was winding down, another FBI agent rushed into the kitchen. “You just got a message from who we believe to be the kidnapper.”
Laura’s coffee mug slipped out of her fingers and shattered into a hundred pieces all over the floor. Nick moved for the door nearly as quickly as she did, but Blackledge still got to Laura’s office first. When Nick stepped into the spacious room, a team of people was huddling in front of her computer. They moved aside, and Laura slipped into her desk chair. He watched eagerly as she clicked on the email message.
Your son and his nanny are safe. They will stay with me until you testify against AbaCo. When those bastards are put away for good, then you can have your son back. Do not fail, or else.
Laura looked up at him in shock, the thought plain on her face the same as the one he was having. The kidnapper was an enemy of AbaCo’s?
He asked, “What’s the kidnapper going to do when the government announces that it’s going to drop its charges?”
Laura paled and started to shake. He knew the feeling, dammit. They had two days until Adam’s life was forfeit. Two days to find and save their son.
