“I’m not sure. I think he’s upstairs. Do you think he’s seen Chris? I would imagine that she’s the last person he’d want to see.” He was following Ty out the door. “Did she tell you what she overheard, that Hamilton was going to kill his nephew? Not that I believed her, I mean, I just came along on this so I could pretend to be her husband. I think a man should take advantage of what he can.”
Tynan stopped on the staircase. “If you keep flapping your gums, I’m going to apply some force to that spot.” He turned on his heel and started up again.
Owen Hamilton was sitting in his office looking over papers on his desk. Tynan shut the door behind him, locked it, then very calmly walked to the window and tossed the key to the ground below.
Asher plastered his back to the door and held his breath but Owen just looked up with eyebrows raised. “To what do I owe this little charade? Have the aphids been too much for you?”
“Where is she?” Tynan asked in a low, husky voice.
“I have no idea who you mean,” Owen answered, a study in unconcern as he shuffled the papers on his desk. “If you think that wife of yours and I—”
He didn’t finish the sentence because Ty grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up across the desk. “I want to know where she is and I don’t want to play games. Either you tell me right now or you start losing parts of your body, bit by slow bit.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Chris!” Asher said. “I mean, Diana. Where is she? She isn’t in her room where I left her.”
“Who’s Chris?” Owen asked.
Tynan slapped the man across the face. “I don’t know how much you know but I suspect it’s a great deal. I’ve already turned that extra set of books of yours over to an accountant friend of mine. I think he’ll find out how much you’ve stolen from that nephew of yours.”
“Books, what books?”
Tynan hit him again, this time making the corner of his mouth bleed. “I’m tired of your lies. I didn’t much care what you did within your own family but that little girl is my responsibility and I want to know where she is.”
“Who is she? Diana Eskridge was killed.”
Ty’s grip on his throat tightened. “By you, no doubt, but I’ll leave that up to the law. Where is Chris?”
When Hamilton didn’t answer, Ty struck him again, then drew his gun and held it to the man’s head. “What do you want to lose first? A hand or a foot? I think I can keep you from bleeding to death long enough for you to answer me. Now, one last time, where is she?”
“Dysan took her.”
Tynan was obviously surprised by this, so much so that his grip on Hamilton lessened. “What does Dysan want with her?”
“I don’t know. He came here because of a cousin of his”—Owen’s eyes shifted to one side—“and he decided he wanted the woman pretending to be Diana.” He looked back at Tynan. “He had your wife taken too.”
“Pilar?” Ty asked. “Who is this man?”
Ty’s grip had relaxed so much that Owen was able to pull away and begin rubbing his bruised throat while applying a handkerchief to his bleeding mouth. “He’s somebody you don’t want to deal with. I don’t know much about him. He’s very mysterious about where he lives, who he is or anything else about himself. He comes here once a year and buys lumber and horses from me, then disappears. I’ve never dared ask him much about himself.”
“Yet he took Chris,” Asher said. “Do you think he plans to hold her for ransom?”
“Ransom?” Hamilton exploded. “Who is she?”
“Del Mathison’s daughter,” Tynan said under his breath.
“Oh Lord,” Owen gasped and sat down heavily in the chair. “I thought she was a two-bit actress trying to get what she could.” He looked at Ty. “How did you find my other books?”
Tynan didn’t bother answering him. “I want to know all there is to tell about Dysan. I want to know where to find him.”
“I told you that I know nothing. He just app
ears and disappears. He said he wanted the two women and it was all right with me. All of you were trying to play me for a fool anyway, following me, searching my office, pretending to be related to me. What did I care what he did to the women? If he wanted them, it was fine with me. I had no idea she was Mathison’s daughter. If that man finds out…” He trailed off.
“Open the cash box,” Ty said. “We’re going after them and we’ll need capital.”
“I don’t intend to be part of a robbery,” Asher said.