Suspicions (6 page)

“At least getting the money won't be a
problem,” Stacey informed Jason, a grim smile on her face. “She has
a fortune invested in stocks and other things. They just live off
the dividends and Mark's income, you know.”

They were in the kitchen preparing dinner.
Actually, Stacey was doing the preparing and Jason was doing the
sampling. She'd told him about the ransom note Amanda had found in
her mailbox and felt calm enough to look at the situation with some
detachment.

“Exactly how much money do they have?” he
asked. “Mark's never told me and I certainly wouldn't ask him. You
and Amanda are pretty close. Has she ever told you how much she
inherited?”

Glancing at her husband before turning back
to the stove, she said, “Actually, she did mention one time that
her parents had left her two million dollars.”

He shook his head in astonishment. “I knew
they had at least one million.” He gave a low whistle. “But two!
Wow! I never guessed they had that much money.”

She raised her eyebrows in question. “You
want to know something else?”

“Of course. We don't have any secrets.”

“Apparently, Mark receives a monthly
allowance from Amanda.”

“What?!”

“That's right. She didn't want to give up any
control of her money.”

He looked at her in amazement. “And he agreed
to that?”

“What other choice did he have? It's her
money. He couldn't force her to part with it, could he?”

Jason drew his eyebrows together. “I wonder
if that causes problems.”

Stacey thought about that as she chopped the
tomato for the salad. “It’s a possibility,” she said. “Don’t they
say money is the number one thing couple’s fight about?” Thinking
about Amanda’s comment that there were issues in her marriage,
Stacey wondered if money was one of them.

Jason bent over the pot of spaghetti sauce,
dipping a spoon in for a taste. “I wouldn't know. We don't have any
money to fight over.”

She laughed at their standing joke. “Poor,
but in love, that's us.” As she laughed out loud, she allowed
herself to smile inwardly as well. The last few days things had
seemed better between them and she hoped that was a sign of their
future relationship.

Stacey tossed the salad in a bowl, then put
it on the table. The spaghetti and French bread were next. “Before
we eat I want to take some of this food over to Mark and
Amanda.”

Jason nodded. “They'll probably appreciate
that.”

Spooning a generous helping of spaghetti into
a bowl, Stacey then tossed a small salad and put several warm
slices of French bread into a basket and walked out the front door.
It was getting dark outside, but that didn't stop the reporters
from practically pouncing on Stacey as she walked to the Stone's
front door.

After knocking several times, a man in a suit
opened the door and looked doubtfully at the basket in Stacey's
hand.

“Can I help you?”

The unmistakable smell of food wafted out as
Stacey held out the basket. “I brought some dinner for Mark and
Amanda.”

He took the basket from her. “And you
are?”

“Stacey Hunter.” She pointed across the
street. “I'm their neighbor.”

“I'll give it to Mrs. Stone.” He smiled
briefly and shut the door.

Stacey walked back across the street,
ignoring the questions that were tossed at her like pebbles. As she
entered her home, she went directly into the kitchen where Jason
was standing in front of the counter, making some lemonade.

Stacey walked over to where he was stirring
the yellow liquid. “I'm not sure if the guy who answered the
Stone's door will let them eat our food.”

He looked at her quizzically, but didn't
comment. She helped him carry the glasses to the table, then called
Robby and Nikki to come eat. She noticed Robby was quieter than
usual and wondered what he must be thinking about all the commotion
going on at his friend's house. She wondered if he had any idea
what had really happened. Were they talking about it at school? She
made a mental note to talk to Jason about it that evening.

After dinner the children went into the
family room to watch a DVD before getting ready for bed. Jason and
Stacey stayed in the kitchen to clean up the dinner dishes. This
was a nightly ritual for them. It gave them some uninterrupted time
to be together to talk and the only topic of conversation that
night was Kyle's kidnapping.

Whispering so the children wouldn't overhear,
they didn't notice Robby wasn't paying attention to the movie, but
instead had his head turned so he could make out a few words they
were saying.

Robby knew something was wrong with Kyle
because Mrs. Hershfield hadn't been at school that day and some
kids said she was talking to the police about Kyle. The substitute
teacher had even talked to them about being careful of strangers.
Everyone was acting weird and the police had been at Kyle's house
all day. And Mr. Gowen said Kyle wouldn't be coming to school for a
while, but he wouldn't say why.

Though he could not forget what had happened
the previous afternoon, Robby was afraid to tell his mom because he
thought he would be in worse trouble if she knew he had been
sneaking out. Not only that, he had promised Kyle he wouldn't tell
he had been at the treehouse alone.

Scared and confused, he didn’t know what to
do. Then he heard a word that made him even more frightened. He
heard his Dad say the word “kidnap.” He knew what that was. That
was when a bad person takes you away from your parents and
sometimes hurts you. His heart pounded and he suddenly had a pain
in his stomach at the thought of Kyle getting hurt.

He wondered if maybe he should tell his Mom
what he had seen yesterday. He could tell she was worried about
Kyle. Maybe if he told her what he had seen, she would forget he
was supposed to be in his room after school that day. He decided to
tell her when she tucked him in.

After Jason and Stacey were finished cleaning
up, they helped the children put on their pajamas and brush their
teeth. When they were about to put them to bed, a knock sounded at
the front door.

“I'll get it,” Jason said. “Go ahead and put
the kids to bed. I'll take care of this.”

After Nikki was tucked in bed Stacey headed
to Robby's room. She could still hear voices coming from the living
room and wondered who it was at this time of night.

Robby was just getting under his covers as
Stacey entered his room.

“Who's at the door?” he asked.

“I don't know, honey. Daddy's taking care of
it.” She was distracted by what was happening in their living room.
“Now go to sleep. You went to sleep too late last night.” She bent
down and gave him a kiss.

“But Mom . . .”

“No 'buts', Robby. I mean it. You need to get
to sleep.”

His shoulders sagged. “Goodnight, Mom.”

Stacey turned off the light as she left. When
she went into the living room, Jason was alone. His jaw was
clenched and his eyes were narrowed, but his face relaxed when he
saw her.

“Who was that?” she asked.

He laughed in contempt. “The friendly police
officers that have been at the Stone's house all day. They wanted
to talk to Robby about Kyle.”

Stacey wasn't surprised. “They mentioned
they'd want to talk to him.”

“Well, I told them no. As soon as he finds
out what's happened to Kyle he's not going to want to go to
school.”

“What would it really hurt to let them speak
to him?” Stacey asked, surprised Jason had told them no.

“Look, Stacey, you know as well as I do that
Robby came straight home from school yesterday and couldn't know
anything. Why make him scared?”

“I suppose,” she said, then added, “You
realize they'll probably come back when you're not home.”

He lifted his eyebrows. “Just don't answer
the door.”

She remembered she had wanted to discuss with
him whether to tell Robby what had happened, but it was obvious he
didn't want to tell Robby anything. She decided to broach the
subject the next day, when he wasn't so upset about the police.

Stacey had completely forgotten to talk to
Robby about Mr. Gowen.

Robby tiptoed over to his dresser and slid
open his top drawer, pushing aside his underwear and socks, then
lifting the object tucked into the corner. It glinted in the shaft
of moonlight that trickled in through his partially closed blinds.
He examined it closely and thought about Kyle.

Mr. Gowen had slipped it through the fence
earlier that day telling Robby it belonged to Kyle. Robby had
recognized it as soon as he had seen it. It was Kyle's lucky stone.
Kyle insisted the clear, smooth rock held magical powers. Robby had
been surprised Mr. Gowen had it. Gowen had said he’d found it in
their treehouse and had asked Robby to keep it for Kyle for
safekeeping. Robby had taken it without question and hidden it deep
within his underwear drawer.

Hearing sounds from the living room, he
quickly dropped the stone back into his dresser, slid the drawer
back into place, and crawled under the covers.

Day 3 – Wednesday

As Stacey and her children left for school
she noticed there were more news people in front of the Stone's
house.

“Mom? Why are all those people at Kyle's
house?” Robby asked.

Running late, she tried to hurry them along.
“I don't know.”

When they reached some bushes near the
school, Robby stopped. “This is where I was when it happened.”

Stacey looked at him, puzzled. “When what
happened, sweetheart?”

He turned and looked at her with wide brown
eyes. “When Kyle was tying his shoes.”

She laughed and ruffled his hair. “Oh Robby,
you're so silly.”

“But Mom, I saw him.”

“Saw who? Kyle?” She was more confused than
ever.

He started crying. “No! I mean, yes. He was
tying his shoes and then he wasn't there anymore.”

A sickening feeling swelled in the pit of her
stomach. “When was this, Robby?”

“The day the police were at Kyle's house. You
know, when they were asking his mom and dad questions.”

“Come on, Mom,” Nikki said, tugging Stacey’s
arm.

“Just a minute, honey.” Stacey knelt in front
of Robby. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

He told her what he saw.

Shocked her son had been a witness to Kyle’s
abduction, Stacey felt the blood drain from her face. “Can you tell
me what the car looked like?”

Screwing up his face in concentration, he
said, “I think it was brown and it looked kinda old.” He looked to
her for approval

“Good, Robby. What else can you remember? Did
it have four doors like ours or was it smaller?”

“It was smaller than our car.” His face lit
up. “I remember! On the back part? You know, the trunk?” She
nodded. “Well, on the lid part of the trunk it was all red. Like it
didn't really go to that car.” He stood taller, somehow proud he
had remembered that detail.

“Are you sure it was a brown car with a red
trunk?”

He nodded, smiling. “Yes, Mom. 'Cause I
thought it looked so funny to have two different colors on one
car.”

She barely got out a whisper. “Good job,
honey. We'd better get you guys to class.”

He tilted his head. “Are you okay, Mom?”

“I’m fine. Now let’s get you to school before
the bell rings.”

Walking home, she thought back many years and
recalled climbing into a little brown car to go out on a date. It
was almost brand new then. Jason had been so proud of his car and
so upset when they had come back from their hike to find that a
huge branch had fallen off the tall redwood tree, right onto the
trunk.

He couldn't afford to have it replaced with a
new one so he had gone to a junkyard to find a replacement for the
damaged trunk lid. The only problem was, it didn't match the rest
of the car and he didn't have enough money left to buy a can of
brown paint. After a while he had gotten used to the different
colors and even after he could afford to buy paint he chose not to
because of all the good memories associated with that car, just the
way it was.

Stacey had finally made him get rid of it
several years before. At least he had told her he had gotten rid of
it.

“What a strange coincidence,” she murmured as
she entered her home.

Preparing to go over to Amanda’s house to
report this important piece of information, she wondered if it was
possible that Jason’s old car had been used in Kyle’s
kidnapping.

How bizarre, she thought, that someone we
know would have her child kidnapped using a car we once owned.

Then, with unexpected clarity, she recalled
the conversation from the night before. She heard Jason say, “I
knew they had at least one million. But two! Wow! I never guessed
they had that much money.”

Halfway to the front door, she stopped. Why
would he have been guessing how much money the Stone's had? They
had never talked about the Stone's financial worth before. How long
had he been thinking about it? And why did the amount the
kidnappers had asked for match the amount Jason thought the Stone's
had?

And why, she wondered, wouldn't he let the
police talk to Robby last night? Did he know about Robby's
observations? Or was he really just concerned for Robby's
well-being? And he said he'd been running an errand on the very
afternoon of the kidnapping.

Then, a comment Jason had made a few weeks
before crept into her memory. Once again, they had been discussing
their growing pile of bills and Jason had said almost to himself,
“There must be something I can do to get my hands on a large amount
of cash. Something quick and easy.” When she had asked him what he
meant, he’d shaken his head and said, “Nothing. Nevermind.”