Chapter 4
Becky sank into her deep sofa and pulled an ugly blanket over her lap.
Crocheted from a rainbow of different yarns, each patch of color was completed in a different stitch, each color sewn together like a quilt.
The blanket could have been done in complementary colors and an intricate design to great effect, but Becky’s grandmother had never intended the blanket to be pretty.
She had made it as a gift for her own mother-in-law, a woman who cared very much for beautiful things.
It was a slap-in-the-face from one woman Becky loved to another, and Becky’s most treasured family heirloom.
A small tan dog hopped up beside her and walked in two circles before settling into a curled ball.
“Me, too, Lucy,” said Becky as she turned on the TV.
Reaching for a big bowl of peanut butter ice cream, she wrapped its sides with the ugly blanket and sighed.
Gwen and Colin had made it into town several hours ago, calling her to locate Rowan.
She offered them her guest room and they accepted, though Becky had no idea what time they would make it back to her house. She wanted to wait up if she could.
Turning to the local cable news station, she mindlessly watched the weather as she ate. Her thoughts wouldn’t let go of Rowan and the way he treated her in the car, as much as she wanted to forget about it.
How embarrassing!
Why had he felt the need to dress her down in front of that creepy FBI agent? It’s not like she was making a pass at him or batting her I’m-available-even-if-you’re-married-to-a-missing-woman eyelashes in his face. Please. She would never go after a married man. Not even Rowan.
Not even Rowan.
A big spoonful of ice cream sat at the top of her closed throat.
Okay, so maybe she was attracted to him, and this was an inappropriate time in his life for her to feel that way.
She forced herself to swallow. Or maybe he was right, and she totally needed him to get in her face and tell her to back off.
“Damn it,” she muttered, spooning another heaping mound of peanut butter and cream. Her eyes went back to the TV and she froze as she read the words at the bottom of the screen. Woman found bound and gagged at The Grand Hotel. Becky turned up the volume, the remote now trembling in her hand.
“…a full recovery. A hotel employee confirms the room was registered to Tamra de Toffoli Mitchell, the woman who was reportedly abducted from a private event at the Gardner Museum this afternoon.”
“Oh, my God,” she whispered, her heart hammering as something cold passed through her like electricity.
They found Tamra…
Becky pictured the golden revolving doors of the historic hotel where she had stood and hailed a taxi not three hours before. And inside, while she walked away, Rowan walked in to find his wife tied up and hurt…
Where the hell was the baby?
“Oh, please!”
The newsroom cut to a uniformed police officer at a podium. “Carmella Bitetto, nanny to the infant who was abducted with his mother from the museum, was attacked and incapacitated by a man wearing a black ski mask.”
A reporter from the press conference on TV called out, “What about the father? Was he involved?”
Becky scowled and leaned forward. Why had she left Rowan alone, when there were vultures like that woman out to get him? Suddenly, she seemed so far away from the action, too far away from the man who needed her help.
He didn’t want you there, remember?
“Mr. Mitchell is cooperating with law enforcement and helping us find his wife and son. That’s all for now.”
The shot went back to an anchorwoman in the studio. “A painting valued at more than thirty million dollars was stolen from the museum at the same time as the kidnapping. Investigators refuse to speculate on whether the same person is responsible for both the kidnapping and the art theft.”
Lucy stood up and began a low growl. Becky looked to the front door just as the bell rang and the dog bounded off the couch, barking furiously.
Throwing aside the blanket, Becky went to the door and opened it to the blustery winter’s night.
Gwen stood on the threshold in a puffy pink coat stretched tight across her middle, a smile on her pretty face despite the news of the day.
“Becky, my dear!”
Becky threw her arms around Gwen like a child. Gwen was Julie’s aunt, but Becky had long ago staked her claim on this particular member of her best friend’s family. “Thank God you’re here.”
“Is that ice cream that I smell?”
Becky blinked. “Seriously?”
“Oh yes. This baby is quite serious indeed.”
Becky took Gwen’s coat, her eyes lingering over the other woman’s curving breasts and swollen belly.
Gwen had always been thin, with the grace of those who are naturally so.
Now she was curvy—at least twenty pounds heavier—and even more beautiful, if that was possible.
Her long blond hair fell in soft curls just past her shoulders.
“I’ll get you a bowl.”
“Don’t be shy, now. Colin says I have the appetite of a linebacker.”
“Where is Colin?”
“He’s still at the hotel.”
“I just heard about the nanny on the news.”
“Awful. That poor girl.”
“How’s Rowan?”
“Upset. They told him they’d found a woman tied up in the hotel room, but no baby, and of course he thought it was Tamra but not Anthony. Moments of sheer hell.” Gwen rested a hand on her belly and gently rubbed in a circle. “I hate to be rude, dear, but I want that ice cream now.”
“Oh, of course.” Becky moved toward the kitchen.
“I don’t think the nanny would begrudge a pregnant woman her dinner, do you?”
Becky glanced at the clock. “Is this really your dinner?” She couldn’t believe Colin would let his wife go so long without food.
Gwen dropped down on the couch. “I suppose it’s my second or third dinner, but it feels like I haven’t eaten in days. What a lovely blanket!”
“That’s the ugly blanket.”
“It has a wonderful feel to it.”
“Soft.”
“Yes, but that’s not what I mean. It has love attached to it, strong womanly love. I like it.”
Becky smiled out of the side of her mouth. Gwen was a special woman, whose special thoughts added something beautiful to the lives of everyone around her. “Thanks.”
Gwen ate slowly, seeming to savor every bite. “I couldn’t stay at that hotel any longer. There was nowhere to sit down and my feet and ankles have had it.”
“What did I miss?”
“They found the poor nanny before we got there. Then they had to process the scene. Every now and then, they’d ask Rowan a question. Did Tamra bring this or that, did he know where she kept something.”
The intimacies of marriage were not lost on Becky, and she felt a tug of guilt as she listened to Gwen talk. Rowan and his wife have a life together, a real life as husband and wife.
“That’s when the concierge came over and talked to one of the policemen, telling him that Rowan had his own room, and all hell broke loose.”
“What?”
Gwen nodded. “Apparently, they just assumed Tamra and Rowan were sharing a room because they’re married. Some things were missing from her hotel room, so they didn’t realize none of his belongings were there.”
“And he didn’t tell them?”
“No.” She took another bite of ice cream. “I don’t think anyone asked him directly. He just didn’t correct their assumption to the contrary.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm, what?”
“You don’t find that strange?”
Gwen put down her spoon into her bowl with a clink. “I find several things about this strange.”
“Shoot,” said Becky.
“When Rowan flew to the States last year, he seemed unhappy.”
“Yes, I agree.”
Gwen seemed to consider her words. “Unhappy with his life, with the choices he’s made.”
“Did you talk to him about it?”
“Some, yes.” Gwen draped the blanket across her protruding middle, fingering its puffy stitches. “Becky, I need to ask you something.”
A familiar heat began to creep into her cheeks. “Okay.”
“You and Rowan…” she clucked her tongue, “seemed to have a connection when he was here.”
“Nothing happened.” Becky rubbed the back of her neck.
“That wasn’t what I was going to ask.” She smiled sweetly. “Did he mention Tamra to you at all, or the baby?”
Becky remembered every word of every conversation she and Rowan had. She especially remembered that the mention of a wife back home in Italy had come rather late. “He told me he had a wife, that he followed her to Italy and married her.”
“When we spoke,” said Gwen, “he told me their relationship was complicated. That he wasn’t sure he loved her. Tonight, when the police found out about the separate hotel rooms, Rowan told them Anthony wakes a lot during the night so he got the second room so he could get some sleep.”
Plenty of Becky’s friends were settled down with husbands and children. She’d heard of similar sleeping arrangements. “Sounds reasonable enough.”
“It does…” Gwen picked up her bowl and began stirring the ice cream into a creamy swirl.
“But I was standing right there, and I didn’t believe him.
I love Rowan. He was a good friend to David, and a great help to me when David passed on.
We may not have kept in touch through the years in between then and when I married Colin, but Rowan has forever been in my thoughts.
I consider him to be part of my family.”
“Well, he is, now.”
Gwen nodded. “I’m afraid there’s more going on here than Rowan has shared with us, or the FBI.”
“I think so, too.”
“They really started to question him after it came out about the separate rooms. They set up a makeshift interrogation room.” Her eyes met Becky’s. “I didn’t see him again before I left tonight.”
Becky didn’t like the idea of Rowan lying, and she sure as hell wanted to know the real reason husband and wife were not sleeping together, but despite all of that she found it hard to believe Rowan could have done anything wrong.
What were they imagining, that he had something to do with the disappearance of his own wife and son?
“He would never hurt them.” Becky didn’t know how she knew, but she did. She had never been more certain in her life.
“Oh, of course not, dear. I’m just worried for him.
Worried that the police are barking up the wrong tree, and our Rowan will be stuck in the branches.
” She sighed as she leaned back and adjusted the blanket.
“I think, if it’s all right with you, I’ll just lay right down here and close my eyes for a few minutes. ”
“You can go upstairs, I have your room all ready for you.”
“Thank you, but I really just need a quick little power nap and I’ll be fine…I’m sure…” Her eyes were already closed, the ugly blanket pulled up to her chin.
Becky must have fallen asleep too, because the next thing she knew, she woke up when Lucy began to growl. Her eyes met Gwen’s, who was now awake and watching a movie. The clock said it was almost five o’clock, which Becky slowly realized must be a.m.
“Is Colin back already?” asked Becky.
“He was going to stay with Rowan, but you’ve been asleep for a few hours.”
“It must be him.” Becky shook off the last of her sleepy haze and shrugged. She opened the door to find both the Mitchell brothers on her front porch. “Come on in.”
Colin walked over to Gwen and kissed her cheek. “I wasn’t expecting to see you tonight,” Gwen said.
Becky’s eyes were stuck to Colin, his tired expression and his cold-red cheeks.
She was avoiding Rowan’s stare, though she could feel it down to her toes.
It was surreal having this man in her home, standing just feet from her.
Her knees felt wobbly and she remembered with horror that she wasn’t wearing a bra, folding her arms in front of her chest as subtly as she could manage.
“We’ve had a change in plans.” Colin looked to his brother. “Rowan’s leaving town.”
Becky’s jaw fell open and she finally looked at Rowan. He was staring at her, just as she’d thought, his eyes dark and intense.
“Leaving town?” she asked.
Why would an innocent man leave town in the middle of the night when his wife and child have been kidnapped?
Because he’s not innocent after all.
Rowan took two purposeful steps toward Becky, making her start. “And I need you to come with me.”