Her Mistletoe Protector

He quickly swept through the house, including the upstairs bedrooms but didn’t find anything suspicious. There were only three bedrooms, and they were all empty. He even went down in the basement, which was dark and dank, smelling strongly of mold.

Nothing. Which he found a bit odd. Usually people left a bit of themselves strewn around, at least a bill or a coupon or something. But the place was so void of anything personal that he couldn’t help wondering if he was on the right track. Granted, he hadn’t found Joey here, but he wasn’t willing to give up his theory just yet.

Back up in the kitchen, he searched for notes or anything at all that might indicate where Dr. Errol had gone. The garbage can was empty and there wasn’t a single stray note to be found. He even went back to the master bedroom, but still didn’t find anything.

Dr. Errol was either innocent or smarter than he’d given the guy credit for. And he was leaning toward the latter.

He left the house the same way he’d come in, returning the key to its hiding place in the fake rock. He hurried back around to the front, where Rachel was waiting in the car.

“What took you so long?” she asked, when he slid in behind the wheel. “I was getting ready to come out and look for you.”

“Sorry, I was poking around and lost track of time. Did you get in touch with Edith?”

“Yes, she said that Karl called in saying he was staying home today.” She stared at the house through the windshield. “Maybe we should try knocking at the door again?”

Time to come clean. “Actually, I found the house key hidden in a rock near the back door. I went in and checked out the house. Believe me, no one is home. And from what I saw, I don’t think he’s been home in a couple of days, either.”

“He hasn’t been home?” She stared at him incredulously. “But that’s crazy. I know for a fact that Karl was at work the day we met in my office. I had a meeting scheduled with both him and Josie that I canceled.”

“That was on Wednesday,” he said thoughtfully, going back through the timeline. It was Thursday and he found it hard to believe that only twenty-four hours had passed since he’d sat in Rachel’s office looking at the threatening notes she’d received. “That means he must have been planning this for a while.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rachel said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I saw the guy who kidnapped Joey, remember? He was young, in his late twenties or early thirties. I can guarantee he wasn’t Karl Errol. Karl is a short, rather nerdy type of guy with glasses and a half-bald head, although I don’t think he’s hit the age of forty yet.”

She was clearly exasperated with him, but he couldn’t just let this go “Rachel, it’s best if we keep all possibilities open, okay? Errol could have easily hired Morales to kidnap Joey.”

“Believe what you want,” she said with a disgusted sigh. “I know that Karl isn’t capable of doing anything like this.”

There was no point in continuing the argument, so he concentrated on backing out of the driveway and heading back toward the city. They still had a good hour and fifteen minutes before they were due at the bank.

However, Rachel wouldn’t drop the subject, even though he hadn’t said a word. “Obviously you’ve forgotten how we were shot at outside Margie Caruso’s house, which implicates the Mafia, not one of my employees.”

He hadn’t forgotten, but that incident had been more of a warning rather than an attempt to kill them. “Maybe we should head back over there, then?” he asked. “We have time.”

“Great idea,” she agreed enthusiastically.

He stifled a sigh and headed toward the freeway. They’d driven about twenty minutes when Rachel’s cell phone beeped. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel because so far the only person who’d texted Rachel since this nightmare began was the kidnapper.

“He wants to know if I have the money yet,” Rachel said, glancing up nervously. “What should I tell him?”

“Tell him that we’ll have the money by one o’clock this afternoon. That gives us a little bit of a buffer since we’re hoping to have this settled by noon.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she protested. “I don’t want to make him angry.”

Nick understood her concern, but he wanted some time to react to the kidnapper’s exchange plan. Since Logan was out of the country, he’d had no choice but to call his friend and fellow cop, Jonah Stewart, for assistance. Jonah lived with his wife, Mallory, in Milwaukee, but once he’d heard the story, Jonah had readily agreed to drive up to Chicago. “If this guy understands anything about banks, he’ll understand the time frame is more than reasonable.”