‘She’s a very bright girl. Very brave too, from what I hear. She nearly fought them off.’
‘They weren’t playing by the Queensberry Rules.’
‘No.’
She leaned down to smooth Chloe’s hair.
‘I take it you have no news yourself,’ she said.
‘No,’ I said. Lying as smoothly as a politician. ‘But Hannah Shapiro’s father will be here tomorrow morning. Maybe the kidnappers will make contact then.’
‘Annabelle looked at me, a little surprised. ‘You still think that this is what it was, then? A straightforward kidnapping? Why haven’t they been in contact? Made a ransom demand?’
‘I don’t know.’
That’s the trouble with lying: once you start you’ve got to keep doing it – and I didn’t like lying to Annabelle. I could see how distraught she was.
‘What?’ she said.
I guess I had been staring. ‘Her father has got money,’ I said. ‘That’s what it usually comes down to. Money.’
Money or sex, I thought to myself but didn’t articulate the thought.
‘I didn’t realise she came from a wealthy background.’
Saying Harlan Shapiro had money was a bit like saying a forest has a tree or two in it. ‘Yeah. Her father is pretty well off,’ I said, not telling her that he had already agreed to pay the ransom and I had the diamonds already stashed in the safe at our offices.
‘That’s good, then, isn’t it? Like we said. I mean … better that the motive is money.’
I couldn’t keep the image of Hannah Shapiro stripped to her underwear out of my mind and couldn’t help agreeing.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It’s better than the alternative.’
‘You’ll keep me posted if there are any developments?’
‘Of course I will.’
Annabelle seemed to hesitate, looking up at me with those almost fey turquoise eyes. There was a definite charge. Then she seemed to catch herself, blushing just a little, but on her alabaster skin it made her look almost unbearably vulnerable.
‘Tell Barbara I’ll come back tomorrow,’ she said and hurried out of the room, leaving behind a faint trail of a sweet floral perfume. I looked back at my comatose god-daughter and told myself to snap out of it. Like I said, I didn’t have time for distractions.
A few minutes later the door opened again and Chloe’s mother walked in. Barbara Lehman was in her early forties and still had the figure of a woman half her age. She was slim, tanned, beautiful. Her hair every bit as dark, curly and lustrous as her daughter’s. Her large expressive eyes brimmed as she saw me.
She put the cups of tea she was holding down on a side table and rushed into my arms.
‘Oh, Dan,’ she said unable to hold back the tears.
I pulled her to me, hugging her as tight as I dared, patting my arm on her back as she sobbed against my shoulder.
Chapter 60
SOHO IN THE late evening is always a busy place.
Plenty of the pubs remained open and the many restaurants were still alive with chatter and laughter.
I walked along Shaftesbury Avenue, turning left into Dean Street. I had left Barbara some forty minutes ago after giving her as much reassurance as I could. But I was no medical man. Someone was going to pay for it, though, I had told her. Making it a mantra for myself. As if saying it a lot of times would make it so. Coming good on the promise might be a different matter, but I meant every word I said.
Jack Morgan was going to hold me to it, too. This was every bit as personal to him and it was killing him not to be over here working the case with me. But it wouldn’t help me, Hannah or Jack himself if he were arrested. A Supreme Court judge gets sent down for a crime she didn’t commit because Jack Morgan skips a subpoena and the consequences for Private in the States didn’t bear thinking about. So Jack was stuck between a rock and a hard place, so were we.