Loyalty

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

Publishers Since 1838

Published by the Penguin Group

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Copyright © 2013 by Ingrid Thoft

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Published simultaneously in Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thoft, Ingrid

Loyality / Ingrid Thoft

p. cm

ISBN 978-1-101-59633-3

1. Women private investigators—Fiction. 2. Missing persons—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3620.H58L69 2013 2013003702

813'6—dc23

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

FOR DOUG BERRETT

I COULDN’T WRITE A BETTER MAN

and

JUDITH STONE THOFT

MUM EXTRAORDINAIRE

This was her punishment. She was sure of that. There was no other explanation for the hell she was in. Being tied up and blindfolded had been bad enough. Then she’d heard the engines come to life and begun rocking against the walls of the small space.

That could only mean one thing: They were going somewhere, probably out to sea.

For days she had struggled to remain strong and optimistic, but now she gave in to her fear and sobbed uncontrollably. This was hard to do with tape over her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes, but every ounce of her energy was directed toward her outpouring of despair.

Minutes passed. She didn’t know if it was six or sixty. The engine seemed to shift, and the boat slowed. A loud grinding sound prompted her to tighten her aching back muscles. The noise stopped after a minute, and she heard footsteps overhead.

When they pulled her out of the hole, she struggled to fight them, but it was useless. She was too weak, and they were too strong. Fresh air skipped across her skin, and she felt something like hope for a moment. But the hope died when the heavy, thick chain swung into her shins and around her calves. Hot urine trickled down her leg and raised goose bumps on her chilled skin.

Her arms and legs were cinched together tighter, and she was picked up off of her feet.

Then it was air.

Then water.

Then nothing.

“We can’t find Melanie.”

“What do you mean, you can’t find her?” Fina asked.

“What I said. We can’t find her.”

Fina steered with her right hand and ate a hamburger with her left. She needed a third hand so she could flip the bird to the asshole who’d just cut her off on Storrow Drive.

“What do you want me to do about it? She’s probably buried under a stack of clothes at Nordstrom.”

“Just get over here,” her father grumbled.

The elevator doors slid open to reveal the forty-eighth floor of the Pru, and Fina pushed through the glass doors etched with the words
Ludlow and Associates
. There were three receptionists behind the enormous granite counter, all thin, young, and pretty. Fina ignored them and followed the hallway through a series of turns. At the end, she found a blond woman she didn’t recognize serving as the gatekeeper outside her father’s door. Fina strode past her and walked into his office, where he was sitting behind his desk in a large swivel chair, his back to the view, a phone pressed to his ear. The blonde flapped into the room, and Carl shooed her away. He shot Fina an annoyed look and gestured to the phone. She shrugged and admired the view; Boston and Cambridge spread out before her, the Charles River a thick snake between the two. The grid of Back Bay looked orderly from this height, belying the disorderly Boston drivers darting through its narrow streets. It was the end of May, but they’d had a few days of heat that made the landscape appear fuzzy and blurred.

Carl Ludlow, Fina’s father, was the king of personal injury lawsuits. He’d built an empire on attorney referrals, connecting the injured and wronged to the people who could squeeze the balls of every insurance company, doctor, and business owner across the land. He once told Fina—with relish—that one of his television ads ran somewhere in the United States every thirteen seconds. In the ads, he stared straight at the camera and proclaimed, “I’m Carl Ludlow, and I can make it better.” Funny, that hadn’t been Fina’s experience growing up.

After a couple of minutes, her father put down the phone, and she plopped down in a leather chair in the sitting area of his office.

“Where are your manners, Fina?”

“I don’t know. Ask my parents.”

Carl was dressed as if he had a nontraditional awards show on the docket—the Grammys, maybe. He was wearing a beautifully cut silk suit in dark blue, which he’d paired with a slightly lighter blue shirt. His tie was a tonal match with his shirt, and bejeweled cuff links winked from his neatly pressed cuffs. His outfit was just this side of flashy, but stylish at the same time. Carl was handsome, in an alpha male kind of way: strong features, slicked-back dark gray hair, an even tan. You could tell from his broad shoulders and thick chest that he didn’t slack off at the gym.

“You called, Father?”

“Melanie is MIA.”

“Where’s Rand?”

Rand, Melanie’s husband, was Fina’s brother and a partner in the firm along with their two other brothers, Scotty and Matthew.

“He’s coming. Did you finish the Williams investigation?” Carl asked.

“Almost. I’ll have the info to you by the end of the day.”

A decade earlier, Fina had been slated to join the family business as an attorney, but flunking out of law school derailed that plan, for which she was eternally grateful. Carl punished her with a to-do list of menial tasks at the firm, but his strategy backfired when she got nosy and discovered that the most interesting work at Ludlow and Associates was being done by the lead investigator, Frank Gillis. Fina learned the trade from Frank and had taken over his role when he left the firm. Private investigation was an ideal fit for her: She could keep her own hours, roam the streets, and carry a gun.

Rand walked into the room, a phone glued to his ear. He was about five feet eleven, trim, with thick, wavy hair. He looked like a younger, slimmer version of Carl. He had full lips, a family trait, but rarely used them to smile.

“Okay, okay. I’ll let you know.” He tossed the phone onto the coffee table and lowered himself onto the couch. “Patty hasn’t heard from her,” he said, referring to their brother Scotty’s wife. “Any ideas?” he asked Fina.

“Does she have a regular Thursday appointment?”

Rand shrugged. Fina waited and glanced between her father and brother.

“Look, Rand, I know your marriage has been dicey for a while,” Carl snorted. “But she’s still your wife.” For Rand and Melanie, marital drama was like oxygen, and they had flirted with divorce on more than one occasion.

“Remind me why I’m still married to this woman?”

“Beats the hell out of me,” Carl grumbled.

“You can file for divorce the moment she shows up,” Fina said. “That should comfort you.” Rand glared at her. “In the meantime, I need more info.”

Carl leaned back in his chair and motioned for Rand to speak.

“Melanie didn’t sleep at home last night, and she isn’t answering her phone.”

“When did you last see her?” Fina asked. She reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook and pen.

“Yesterday afternoon.”

Fina made a beckoning motion with her hand.

“We had a meeting at Grahamson,” Rand said. Grahamson was the pricey private school that their daughter, Fina’s fifteen-year-old niece, attended.

“I assume the meeting was about Haley.” Fina made a note. “Is she in trouble?”

“She’s fine,” Rand replied. “Then Melanie was going to have dinner with Risa.”

Risa Paquette was Melanie’s best friend and had a long history with the Ludlows. She’d grown up a couple doors down from the family and had attended school with Rand. Risa and Rand had lost some of their fondness for each other as they matured, but by that time, Risa and Melanie were as thick as thieves. Risa’s connection to the family was solidified through their tight friendship, and Fina was used to seeing the Paquette family at most Ludlow celebrations and gatherings.

“Wait. Back up. Why were you at the school if everything is fine with Haley?”

Carl drummed his fingers on his desk. He was barely able to conceal his frustration when it came to Haley. The only kid in a family that would have benefited from more, Haley had been spoiled as a young child and had evolved into an entitled, impulsive adolescent. Fina had dragged her out of nightclubs and house parties on more than one occasion and knew that she dabbled in a variety of drugs and boys. Carl seemed to think that he could tame her if only given the chance, but Fina wasn’t so sure. In her experience, teenagers were closer to wild animals than humans.

“There was a misunderstanding with her teacher. That’s all.” Rand and Melanie were the kind of parents who made teaching unbearable. They viewed Haley’s private school education as a business transaction, one in which the customer was always right.

“So Melanie had dinner with Risa?” Fina asked.

“I don’t know,” Rand said, walking over to the window.

“You haven’t checked with Risa?”

“You know I’m not her biggest fan, and the feeling’s mutual. She’s nosy and is always giving Melanie advice—bad advice. I’d rather keep her out of it.”

Fina looked at her father and then Rand. “That’s not going to be possible. I have to figure out who saw her last.”

Rand started to protest, but was silenced by Carl. “Be discreet.”

“Thanks for the tip, Dad. I assume you haven’t contacted the police yet?”

“It’s too early to file a report,” Carl said.

“I realize that, but I could make some calls to see if anyone has heard anything.”

“There’s no point in involving the police unless they’re actually going to do something. As soon as you tell them, it will leak to the press. We’ll look like idiots when Melanie shows up.”

Given their line of work, the Ludlows were disliked by entire populations in the city, including the police and blue-blooded Brahmins. Their wealth and the privileges it afforded were suspect to many, and Carl went to great lengths to avoid bad publicity. If he wasn’t winning a huge settlement or making a donation to a worthy cause, he didn’t want to read about the Ludlows in the
Globe
or the
Herald
.

“I don’t want the police involved,” Rand said.

“Fine,” Fina acceded. “What makes you think she hasn’t just taken off to the spa for a few days? She’s done it before.”

“I called her usual place. They haven’t seen her,” Rand said.

“She could be someplace new,” Fina ventured.

“And if she is, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding her,” Carl said impatiently. “Do you want me to call Frank?”

“What? Dad, give me a chance to look before you decide I’m not up to the job.”

“I thought you might want help, that’s all.”

“No, thank you. If I need help, I’ll call Frank myself.” Even though Frank had left the firm and was semiretired, sometimes he worked with Fina as a subcontractor. Fina loved working with Frank, but she resented her father’s implication that she needed her mentor to get the job done. Frank had taught her well, and she managed just fine on her own.

“What about Haley? Has she seen Melanie?” Fina asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her today,” Rand said.

“Where is she now?”

“School?” he said.

Fina glanced at her watch. “It’s four thirty. Isn’t school out already?”

Rand shrugged. “So she’s home.”

Fina looked at Rand and blinked. “Rand, you don’t know where your kid is?”

“Really? The spinster aunt is going to critique my child rearing?”

“You’re right, of course. I have to squeeze a watermelon out of my lady parts before I can ask a child-related question.”

Carl threw his hands up. “I don’t want to hear about your lady parts!”

“Great! I don’t want to talk about them. Did you see Melanie after the meeting?” Fina asked Rand.

“No. I was working late, and then when I got home, I worked in my office and crashed on the couch. I didn’t realize she wasn’t home until I went upstairs to shower this morning.”