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“It means cats can’t be ‘stolen’ because legally they don’t belong to anyone. They’re like squirrels or raccoons.”
Emilie waved off Gabe’s statement. “They’re not a bit like either of those creatures.”
“Legally speaking, Emilie, cats are considered no different from wild animals. Unless they’re living on a game preserve, protected by state or federal government, their welfare falls outside the scope of the law.”
“But that’s absurd—”
“I never heard of anything—”
Both women had spoken at once. Both broke off at the same time, silently considering the implication of Gabe’s words. Cass found her voice first. “What about the break-in at the clinic? Isn’t that a crime?”
“Of course,” Gabe acknowledged. “And if the doctor notifies the police, they’ll take a report and conduct a routine investigation. They aren’t going to hunt for a missing cat, though.”
Cass’s jaw muscles tightened. “What about the ransom note? What happens when the kidnappers call and demand money from Mrs. Crosswhite? Isn’t that a crime?”
“Yes, that’s a crime, too. If anyone tries to extort money from Emilie, naturally she’ll report it to the police. But once she tells the extortionists they don’t have her cat and she won’t pay them a dime, she won’t have any further contact with them.”
“And what happens to my cat if she tells them that?”
Gabe shrugged. “Whoever took him, if someone really did take him, will probably just let him go.” He grinned wryly. “It isn’t as though the kidnappers have to worry about your cat identifying them to the authorities. There’s no reason for them to hurt Crudley.”
“So they’ll dump him somewhere and I’ll never see him again and then everything will be fine. Is that right?” Cass challenged.
Gabe had no answer. Silence fell on the group until Emilie Crosswhite gradually emerged from the fog of thoughtfulness that had enveloped her. “I cannot believe,” she said, “that the Princess could have been kidnapped and the police would do nothing to save her.” She made a nervous fluttery gesture with one hand.
“That would be a completely different situation, Emilie,” Gabe hastened to assure her. “If the Princess had been taken, there would certainly be an investigation.”
Emilie looked from Gabe’s calm face to Cass’s bewildered one as though afraid she was the only one who didn’t understand. “I thought you said the police wouldn’t consider a cat stolen.”
“The Princess is a show cat, Emilie. She has monetary, not just sentimental value. The law recognizes that.”
“Oh.” Emilie relaxed slightly even as Cass stiffened with anger. “Oh!” Emilie repeated with new distress as the meaning of Gabe’s analysis sunk in. She glanced at Cass’s tight-lipped profile. “Oh, dear. That really isn’t fair at all.”
Gabe quirked up one corner of his mouth and raised his eyebrows as if to say, What else is new?
Cass shot an angry look at him. “I’m sure you believed it when you said money can’t buy everything, Mr. Preston. You forgot to add, though, that a lack of money buys even less.”
Cass rose to go, infuriated that none of the sacrifices she made ever seemed to be enough. Money remained the great unequalizer. The world was run by the rich, for the benefit of the rich. Only they could expect “fair” treatment. Only they had the kind of security she’d worked so desperately to create for herself.
Emilie Crosswhite laid a surprisingly firm hand on Cass’s knee, pressing her to stay seated. She thrust her small but determined chin forward. “Well, Gabriel,” she announced, “if the police won’t help this girl, we certainly must.”
Gabe fixed Emilie with a warning look. “Now, Emilie...”
“Now, Gabriel...”
“What is it you propose to do?”
“I don’t know yet. You’ll have to help me figure that out. But it must be something that brings Crudley home safe to Miss Appleton.” Emilie patted Cass’s knee to emphasize her comforting words.
“You can’t mean you want to cooperate with these alleged kidnappers?” Gabe said incredulously.
“If that’s what it takes.”
Gabe threw up his hands in disgust. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, Emilie! Do you seriously believe Mark Gallagher will allow you to write a blank check to pay off some bungling extortionists who can’t even snatch the right cat?”
“He’s a wonderful advisor, but it’s my money,” Emilie insisted serenely. “I don’t see how he can stop me.”
“Emilie, you know very well—”
“Gabriel, I adore you but—”
“Excuse me,” Cass said, “but I already told you I didn’t want—”
The phone jangled loudly, arresting the verbal free-for-all. The three combatants stared at the white instrument perched on the wicker table as it rang again. Emilie Crosswhite and Gabe Preston moved toward it together until Emilie halted Gabe with an imperious look. She picked up the receiver and spoke calmly into it. “Yes, Mark?”
Emilie turned to smile at Cass, pointedly ignoring Gabe who stood, hulking over her, apparently trying to look menacing. “Put him through, dear,” she said. For the next few moments she concentrated on her conversation. “Yes...yes, I do... I see... Well, of course I do... No, no I wouldn’t do that... Is he, er, she all right?... Good, because if anything were to happen to him, uh, her, naturally I wouldn’t pay... Yes, I understand... Yes... Well, that’s quite a lot of money—not the sort of sum I have just lying about the house. I’ll need a few days to make arrangements to have it ready.... No, that would be quite impossible. I’ll need until Friday at least—Friday, that’s right... Very well.” Emilie hung up the phone and turned to her expectant audience.
Emilie still ignored Gabe and looked at Cass, breaking into a triumphant grin as she did. “They’re giving us until Friday. I told them I couldn’t possibly have the money before then. That gives us three whole days to come up with a plan.”
Gabe took a quick step to Emilie’s side. “What kind of plan?”
“The police may not be interested in our problem now,” she said haughtily, “but once we capture the catnappers and hand them over, I assure you the authorities will take us seriously.”
Cass could hardly fail to notice she seemed to have acquired a new ally. Neither could Gabe. “This has gone far enough, Emilie. Despite my advice, you’ve done all Miss Appleton claims she wanted you to. You’ve stalled the kidnappers. Now stay out of it.”
Emilie shook her head determinedly. “She was counting on the police to help her after I’d done my small part. But as you’ve so logically explained, they won’t I’ll have to, instead.”
Gabe stared into Emilie’s unwavering blue eyes. Sighing heavily, he ran his fingers through his sun-streaked hair. “Just how do you two amateur detectives propose to catch these crooks? Where are you going to begin your investigation?”
Emilie flicked a glance at Cass, who could only look back blankly. Her meeting with the society matron hadn’t gone quite as she’d hoped. She’d never planned on doing any investigating on her own. She’d expected to turn the whole mess over to the police. Suddenly left to her own devices, she hadn’t a clue what to do next. She shrugged and bit her lip. “We’ll think of something,” she said lamely.
Emilie Crosswhite was not so easily daunted. She looked Gabe square in the eye and smiled engagingly, as though they hadn’t been arguing ten seconds before. “You could help us,” she said sweetly.
“No.” The softness of the immediate response did nothing to lessen its forcefulness. Gabe picked up Emilie’s tiny fragile hand and held it tenderly in his own. “You know I can’t. And you know why.”
For a long moment the two of them looked at each other as though conducting a private conversation in complete silence. Emilie patted Gabe’s hand and smiled pensively. “I know, dear.” She turned back to Cass. “I suppose we’ll just have to pay the ransom.”
“What?” Gabe and Cass chorused with varying degrees of surprise.
“I don’t see any other choice,” Emilie said to Cass. “And it’s only ten thousand dollars,” she said to Gabe, adding with a meaningful lift of one eyebrow. “Hardly worth arguing about.”
“Ten thousand dollars?” Cass echoed. Unlike Emilie Crosswhite, she was horrified at the thought of spending so much money in a lump sum for anything. At the same time she was relieved that complying with the kidnappers’ demands would not be impossible, after all.
“Ten thousand dollars?” Gabe repeated in turn. “Are you sure that’s what they said?”
“Ten thousand dollars,” Emilie confirmed. “Since you won’t help us capture the kidnappers, we’ll just have to pay them off. I would have given them ten times that amount to secure Princess Athabasca’s return.”
“I know,” Gabe said. He frowned in confusion. “It’s almost as though whoever planned to take her doesn’t understand how much she’s really worth. I don’t like it.”
Cass stared at him in amazement. “I don’t believe you! A minute ago you were insisting Mrs. Crosswhite not pay anything, and now you’re insulted because they’ve asked for too little money!”
Gabe conceded the seeming oddness of his remark with a wry smile. “Not exactly. I am worried, though, that whoever stole your cat doesn’t have a better grasp of what its market value should be.”
“Worry all you like,” Cass replied in exasperation. “Personally I’m thrilled. If they’d demanded any more, I would never have been able to pay. As it is, by emptying my bank account and floating a small cash loan on my credit card, I can come up with the ransom.”
“Now, dear, you shouldn’t have to spend your life’s savings, even for such a worthy cause as rescuing your beloved pet. When I agreed to the kidnappers’ terms without consulting you, I made myself responsible for paying. I had no intention of forcing you to accept the financial burden.”
“That’s very generous of you, Mrs. Crosswhite. But I already explained I didn’t come here to ask for money. You’ve been very kind. Without your help I don’t know what I would have done. This isn’t how I expected to save my cat, but it doesn’t matter as long as he comes home safely.”
“Just a minute,” Gabe said, completely frustrated by the rapid turn of events. “You seem to have forgotten one or two minor details. Who is going to deliver the ransom money to the kidnappers? Where? When? These kinds of transactions don’t usually occur in broad daylight in public places. There is bound to be some danger to the person carrying the money.”
“He’s my cat. It’s my money. I’ll make the delivery,” Cass said shortly.
“And what if they want Emilie herself to be the courier?”
“Then I will be,” Emilie chimed in.
Cass threw an uneasy glance at the tiny woman. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. If we come to it,” she said with more confidence than she felt. “Look, all these people want is the money. They don’t want trouble. Why are you looking for problems where there are none?”
Gabe sighed heavily. “The problems are there whether or not you choose to see them. I already told you, the relatively small ransom the thieves have demanded means something. The only possibilities I can think of aren’t good. Most likely, it means we’re dealing with amateurs who don’t understand the value of what they’ve stolen. As amateurs, they’ll be twice as dangerous as professional crooks. They’ll be nervous and unpredictable, easily frightened into doing something stupid that could hurt someone. They’ll make mistakes and, unfortunately, you could be the ones to suffer for it.”
The women silently thought over Gabe’s analysis. Cass shifted uneasily on the wicker sofa. “There could be other explanations for why they asked for that particular amount of money,” she said.
“Perhaps ten thousand dollars is all they need,” Emilie suggested.
Gabe smiled tolerantly. “Greed, not need, usually motivates a kidnapper, Emilie. Maybe this first demand is only a way to test the waters. Maybe when the kidnappers call back Friday they’ll ask for twice as much. Or ten times as much. Maybe this is a kind of training exercise for them. Maybe they plan to go into business kidnapping the pets of wealthy people and ransoming them back. It’s a lot safer than kidnapping people, and could be almost as lucrative if you pick the right victim.”
He spread his hands and lifted his palms to indicate the world of possibilities. “I don’t know. But that’s my point. None of us understand the kidnappers’ motives, beyond the obvious desire to acquire some of somebody else’s money. My concern—” he leveled a serious expression at Emilie Crosswhite “—is you, Emilie. I can’t let you endanger yourself. That would be completely irresponsible of me.”
Emilie gazed at him fondly for a few moments. “I know, dear,” she said. “But my mind is quite made up. I intend to help Miss Appleton recover Crudley. You’ll just have to find a way to keep all three of us out of danger.” Gabe shook his head and rolled his eyes heavenward. Emilie leaned toward Cass and confided in a loud whisper, “That means he knows he’s lost the argument.”
“I heard that,” Gabe announced. “And contrary to your interpretation, all it really means is that I’m willing to call a temporary truce. I’m not making any commitments. You’re not making any commitments, Emilie. But Miss Appleton says she has the money. The kidnappers are supposed to call back Friday with further instructions. We’ll wait and see what they have to say.”
“That’s all we ask, dear,” Emilie assured him soberly while giving Cass a surreptitious wink.
As if on cue, a servant entered carrying a tray with three glasses of iced tea. The timing made Cass suspect the woman had been listening at the door, waiting for a break in the conversation. A second look at the woman’s elegant dress and regal bearing caused Cass to reconsider. She was hardly the type to eavesdrop. Her manner was deferential, but not the least bit servile. Tall and slender, she had the same smooth caramel complexion and piercing amber eyes of the gate guard. The two employees had to be related.
Tempting as the iced tea looked, Cass decided to take advantage of the natural break in events to leave. “Well,” she said, standing and ineffectually trying to smooth her wrinkled skirt, “I’ve taken enough of your time. I should be going. Despite Mr. Preston’s conviction that the police won’t be interested, I’d still like to stop by the station and make a report.”
“Suit yourself,” Gabe said with apparent indifference.
“I think that’s a fine idea,” Mrs. Crosswhite said. “And if you think it will help poor Crudley at all, be sure and tell the police that you’ve spoken to Gabriel and me and we’re willing to cooperate in every way.”
Gabe tensed at this suggestion and came dangerously close to scowling at his employer. “I’ll show Miss Appleton out,” he said curtly, striding to the door and waiting with obvious impatience as Cass thanked Emilie Crosswhite one final time.
Chapter Three
Outside, the heat seemed more intense than before. Where were Newport’s famed cooling ocean breezes?
Cass trailed her swift-moving escort back across the broad green lawns to the service road. By the time they reached the rear gate, Cass felt wilted all over again. “I hope you remembered to bring the key,” she said irritably. “I don’t feel like leaving the same way I came in.”
Gabe ignored her tone and stepped to one of the brick stanchions flanking the thick iron gate. Deftly he exposed a hidden control panel and punched in a coded number sequence. The heavy metal grillwork slid smoothly back.
Cass regarded her guide with a fresh flare of anger. “You knew all along how to open the gate. Why did you make me climb that fence?”
Gabe met her hostility impassively. “I needed to confirm my suspicions.”
“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Cass said with a superior tone.
“You didn’t disappoint me at all. I suspected you had great legs, and you do.”
The unexpected turn of the conversation flustered Cass completely, as she was sure Gabe had intended. He was probably still testing her, hoping to provoke some revealing reaction. She wheeled and stalked through the gate.
Gabe caught her before she’d taken two steps, grasping her wrist gently but firmly to pull her up short. “I had to know how serious you were about needing to see Emilie,” he said unapologetically. “It’s your own fault,” he added. “You refused to tell me what was going on.”
“Oh, right. I’m sure if I had told you that my cat was mistakenly kidnapped, you would have flung the gates wide and happily ushered me in.”
“You’ll never know now, will you?”
“I can make a pretty good guess, based on the way you acted up at the house. I would never have been permitted within a mile of Mrs. Crosswhite.”
“Maybe not. Just remember, I don’t have to justify my conduct to you. I’m not only Emilie’s godson and friend, I’m also chief of security for Crosswhite Enterprises. I’m certainly not going to defend myself for wanting to protect Emilie from the con artists and opportunists who’ve been trying to get at her ever since her husband died.”
“Con artists? Opportunists?” Cass bridled. “You have no right to lump me in with people like that. I work for a living. I pay my own way. I came here to ask for the smallest of favors—a little of Emilie Crosswhite’s time and an inconsequential delay in telling the kidnappers they goofed. I’m the only one who’s been taken advantage of.”
“Maybe.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Just that I’m reserving judgment until this scenario has played itself out. Completely.”
“I don’t expect you to be around for the finish. Once I have the ransom instructions, I’ll gladly disappear from your life. What happens after that is between me and the kidnappers. It won’t concern you or Mrs. Crosswhite.”
“I hope you’re right. I hope you don’t give me any reason to regret the impulse to let you in here today.”
“What are you talking about?” Cass demanded in exasperation.
Gabe stared at her for a long moment, making his face an unreadable mask. “Let’s pretend,” he said evenly, “that you weren’t strictly on the up-and-up. Let’s say that you wanted to win Emilie’s confidence, and her sympathy. You might come to her with a story exactly like the one you told today. You’re an innocent bystander, caught up in a bungled extortion attempt. Fortunately you have just enough money to meet the kidnappers’ demands.
“Then on the day the exchange is to take place, and at the very last minute, the crooks demand more money. You’re totally tapped out. You’ve mortgaged your soul to scrape together the ten thousand they originally wanted. Tears and hand-wringing. What are you to do? Oh, happy day! Mrs. Emilie Crosswhite, noted philanthropist with enough money to pay the ransom a thousand times over, steps in quickly to offer assistance. Whether you let her give you the money or force her to accept a promise of repayment, the result is the same. You and the money and the phantom kidnapped cat vanish forever.”
Cass jerked her wrist out of Gabe’s fingers. Angry color mottled her cheeks. “That’s a very convincing story, Mr. Preston,” she said tightly. “Except that my cat is not a phantom and I am not a thief. If you’re really worried about people taking advantage of Mrs. Crosswhite, I suggest you look in the mirror. You’re a little too familiar with the worst in human nature. You might ask yourself why.”
“My character is not in question,” he said softly.
“And mine is?” Cass challenged.
Gabe raised one shoulder and tilted his head to regard her speculatively. He didn’t answer.
