Page 21 of Holmes Is Missing
“I don’t know!” she finally shouted. A passing businessman looked over. Dale lowered her voice. “I talked to somebody on the phone. A woman. I used burner phones, like she told me. I threw them into the compacter after each call. I wasn’t on call the night it happened. That was part of the deal. They told meto fly to Rabat and wait until everything got worked out. They said nobody could touch me there.” She took a deep shuddering breath. “The babies,” she said, almost in a whisper. “Did they get the babies back yet?”
Suddenly, a riot of red and blue lights blasted through the window. Dale jumped up. “Oh, Christ! Youarecops!”
“No, Keelin,” said Poe. “I promise we’re not.”
Marple looked outside. “But we know a few.”
A New Jersey State Police SUV screeched to a stop outside, followed by an NYPD patrol car. An unmarked sedan with flashing dashboard lights pulled in front and parked at a hard angle near the entryway. Helene Grey stepped out. Poe rapped on the glass until she spotted him.
In a few seconds, the police were through the main doors, hands on their guns. The two New Jersey troopers approached first. “Keelin Dale?” one of them asked. Two NYPD uniforms were right behind.
Dale turned to Marple. “Are they arresting me?”
Grey stepped between the troopers and held up her badge. “Keelin, I’m Detective Helene Grey, NYPD. Right now we just want to talk. That’s all.”
“I’d go if I were you,” said Marple. “Believe me, you’re a lot safer with them than you’d be with whoever is waiting for you in Rabat.”
Dale turned to Marple with a pleading look. “Will you come with me?”
Poe realized that, for Keelin Dale, Marple had become the least of three evils, right below the cops and the kidnappers. The panicked nurse desperately needed a friend.
“Of course I will,” said Marple. She glanced at the troopers and held Keelin’s forearm. “No cuffs here. We’re walking out together.”
Poe watched as Marple and Dale exited, sandwiched between two cops, and slid into the back of the NYPD patrol car.
Grey sat down next to him. “Auguste, are you insane?”
“I called you, didn’t I?” he replied.
“Right. After you chased down a prime suspect on your own.”
“A prime suspectweidentified. I trusted Margaret to bring her in.”
“Sometimes I think you guys trust each other a little too much,” Grey muttered.
“Anyway,” said Poe, “I don’t think Dale can identify anybody. They were smart enough to keep her at a distance. She was just a cog in the machine.”
“We’ll see,” said Grey. “I’ll have New Jersey get a warrant for a legit search of her apartment. We can press her on the pills and see if her memory improves on the kidnapping.” She stood up, pulled a business card from her pocket, and handed it to Poe.
“I’ve got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning,” she said. “If you want to be there, fine. If you don’t, I’ll understand.” Before Poe could respond, Grey turned and walked out the sliding doors. Poe watched her thank the New Jersey troopers before she climbed into her sedan and led the small motorcade toward the airport exit.
He glanced down at the business card.
Exactly what he’d been afraid of.
CHAPTER26
HOLMES SAT ATthe far end of the communal table in their first-floor office space, with Poe and Marple on either side at the other end. They were all staring down at their laptops.
“I don’t understand,” said Virginia, in the seat at the opposite end of the table. “How are they keeping such a tight lid on this over there?” At Marple’s direction, Virginia had gathered everything she could find about the London hospital kidnappings. There wasn’t much.
“We Brits can be quite tight-lipped,” said Marple. “As long as somebody doesn’t leak it to Fleet Street, they might be able to contain it for a little longer.”
Baskerville lay under Virginia’s chair, panting loudly. From where Holmes sat, he could smell what the hound had for breakfast. He glanced absently at Virginia’s report, organized in a meticulous Google Docs template. But his mind was elsewhere—or nowhere. The buprenorphine had that effect, making him groggy and detached. Logically, he understood how critical this case was. But mentally, he was having a hard time mustering his mojo.
“All wealthy white families,” said Poe. “Same as here.”
“One of the mothers is the niece of an MP,” said Marple. “That may be how they’re controlling it. Claiming national security.”