Page 59 of The Cottage on Plum Island
“Yes.” Harley nodded.
“Oh. Where was Clair’s car found?” Wallis put the empty glass on the coaster on the coffee table.
“At the Newbury Port Hospital,” Harley told him, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Margaret and Randal. “Haven’t you filled him in?”
“We haven’t had the time,” Margaret answered before Randal could.
Something in her eyes made Harley wonder if she’d deliberately withheld information from Wallis.
While Harley hadn’t been the Wesleys’ first choice of a husband for their precious daughter, they had always treated Harley as part of the family. Even when he and Angela divorced, they’d invited him to all the family events—even Angela’s wedding when she married Wallis.
Not wanting Daniel to think Harley was against Angela remarrying, Harley had gone to the wedding. Randal had surprised him at the reception when he’d told Harley that he and Margaret were unhappyabout Angela and Harley splitting up. They were even more unhappy about her marrying Wallis Hanover.
His eyes pinned the man who was a few feet shorter than Harley. While the man was fit, he was more slender than muscular. Wallis was quite the lady’s man before he started having an affair with Harley’s wife. His eyes narrowed, and he watched Wallis scan his phone again. The man oozed playboy charm that went hand in hand with his family’s name and money.
Harley’s eyes returned to the family portrait wall and noted that his and Angela’s wedding photo was still on the wall. Angela and Wallis’s wedding photo was missing from their family portrait wall. Harley suspected that Margaret must’ve taken it down when Wallis divorced Angela and married her twin sister, Clair—another picture that was missing from the wall.
Harley was drawn from his thoughts when the clock in the hallway chimed as it hit another hour. He glanced at his wristwatch. It was nine pm. It had been fourteen and a half hours since he’d gotten Margaret’s call that morning. He’d barely answered when Margaret’s voice, ringing with uncustomary urgency, told him that Angela and Clair were missing.
Harley’s mind was clouded in confusion as he’d only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before. Harley had been tossing and turning asJennifer tormented his thoughts, and the feeling of her lips still tingled on his. When Margaret called at six-thirty that morning, he felt he’d only just closed his eyes, and for a few seconds, Harley thought he was dreaming.
Until another call came through while Margaret was on the phone, and Harley saw it was the Mental Health Institute that looked after Angela. He put a panicky Margaret on hold to answer the call.
The institute was also panicked as Clair had knocked out two of the guards with tranquilizer darts to get Angela out of the facility. When he ended the call to the institute, he was surprised to find Margaret still on the line.
The Wesleys were relieved to hear that Harley was in Boston and wanted him to go to Chestnut Hill immediately to help them. Randal had put a call into his police commissioner friend, Grant Nickle, who put out a bolo for Clair’s car. Clair had left her car at the Newbury Port Hospital, a block from the institute. They had walked or taken a cab to the nearest car rental company.
While Clair had used a credit card to rent a car, she hadn’t used one of hers—she’d used one of Angela’s that Clair had taken out in her sister’s name. Which wouldn’t be too hard, considering they were identical twins. Harley’s eyes went to the pictures of the sisters on the wall. He could tell the difference, andso could their parents.
Uncle Sam had managed to get those details from some of his old contacts from when he was a US Marshal. That’s how Harley could track Clair and Angela to a motel on the outskirts of Boston. However, Harley had no idea why they’d go there. It was in the middle of an industrial area.
Another mystery was where Angela and Clair had gone for the day. They’d left the motel at ten that morning, and according to a retired US Marshal friend of Sam, who was watching the hotel, the women had yet to return.
Wallis’s phone beeped again, which made Harley suspicious. The man certainly got a lot of text messages.
“Any news?” Harley asked Wallis.
Wallis’s head shot up, and something Harley thought looked a lot like guilt flashed in his eyes before he shook his. “Oh, no, this is work.”
“Wallis’s father has retired,” Randal told Harley. “And the man announced Wallis as his successor to taking over the family business.”
The look of disdain Randal shot Wallis didn’t go unnoticed by Harley, although Wallis didn’t see it as he was too busy on his phone.
“We were shocked at the news,” Margaret told Harley. “We thought for sure Shaun would give that title to his eldest and the far better option, Wallis’s older sister, Shannon.” She took a sip of her drink. “Shannon has always been the apple of Shaun’s eye.” She gave Wallisa disgusted look. “It’s no wonder though, as brother and sister are like chalk and cheese.”
Wallis looked up, unphased by their remarks. “My sister didn’t want the company,” he informed them. “All she wanted was some obscure business my father has.” He waved it off.
Harley put his unfinished drink on a coaster on the coffee table.
“It’s getting late.” He glanced at his wristwatch again. “I’d better get back to the hotel and apologize to my friend for letting her down today.”
“Her?” Margaret looked at Harley curiously. “Someone special?”
“Just a friend,” Harley said casually while his heart screamed.Jennifer is much more than a friend, or at least you want her to be.
“And who is this friend?” Wallis was suddenly interested in their conversation.
“Not someone you’d be interested in,” Harley assured him.
