In her chair, Michaela took meticulous notes, and watched everyone.

“Then I saw the light. I heard the ocean first,” she corrected, then told the rest.

“You must’ve been really scared.”

“Everything kept shaking, even inside. I had to make it stop when I pretended to sleep or he’d know.”

“How’d you think to use the sheets to make a rope?”

“I saw it in a movie. I thought it would be easier, but I couldn’t tear them, so they were big and thick to tie.”

“You never saw their faces.”

“I saw the one by the tree for a second. He had a beard and he had blond hair.”

“Would you know if you saw him again?”

“I don’t know.” She cringed back against her father. “Do I have to?” “We won’t worry about that. How about names? Did they ever say a name?”

“I don’t think so. Wait—On the phone, when I pretended to be asleep, he called the person he talked to ‘lover.’ That’s not really a name, I guess.”

“Do you know about how long it took for you to get here from when you climbed out of the window?”

She shook her head. “It seemed like forever. It was dark, and it was cold, and everything hurt. I was afraid they’d find me, or maybe a bear would come and eat me.” She laid her head back against Aidan. “I just wanted to go home.”

“I bet you did. How about if I talk to your dad and grandpa for a bit. Maybe Dil can show you his room.”

“I want to hear. It happened to me. I want to hear.”

“She’s right.” When she crawled from Aidan’s lap to his, Hugh stroked her. “It happened to her.”

“All right then. We’re going to need a list of everyone at the house. Guests, staff, outside vendors.”

“You’ll have it.”

“When we’ve got that, we’re going to go over when people left, how they left. For right this minute, tell me when you first noticed Cate was missing.”

“It was Nina, her nanny.”

“Full name?”

“Nina Torez. She’s been with us for six years—nearly seven,” he corrected. “When Catey didn’t come in with the other kids, Nina went to look for her. When she couldn’t find her, she came to us. Everyone looked. I think it was after six, maybe close to seven, I think, when Nina came in, worried.”

“Just before seven,” Hugh put in. “We spread out in groups, to look through the house, the outbuildings, outside. Nina had found Cate’s hair clip over by the garage.”

“I lost my barrettes.”

“We’ll get you new ones,” Hugh promised.

“We were about to call the police,” Aidan continued, “when the phone rang.”

“Which phone?”

“The house phone.”

“What time?”

“About eight. Yes, close to eight. It was a man’s voice. He said he had Cate, and if we called the police, the FBI, if we told anyone, he’d . . . hurt her. He said it would cost ten million, cash, to get her back, unharmed, and he’d call with further instructions.”

“Some of us still wanted to call the police.” Hugh continued to stroke, then turned Cate’s face to his. “We were so afraid for you. But my daughter-in-law was near hysterics by then, and she was adamantly against it. We decided to wait—the hardest thing I’ve ever done. To arrange for the money, and wait.” He kissed the top of Cate’s head. “And pray.”

“The second call came in about ten-thirty. He said we had until midnight tomorrow—that would be tonight now. He’d contact us again to say where to bring the money, then he’d tell us where to find Cate.”

“Aidan and I talked, and we agreed to demand we speak to Cate, to be sure . . .”

“She screamed. She called for me.” Aidan dropped his head in his hands.

“Cate, you said one of the men drove away for a little while?”

“He did. They went outside. I heard them through the window. I saw the taillights.”

“Do you know how long he was gone?”

“I don’t know, but when he left I got the nails out of the window and started to make the sheets. And he came back before I could get out.”

“But you got out right after.”

“I was afraid they’d come back to the room and see I had the window open, and the sheets. So I climbed out.”

“You’re a smart kid. Hey, Dillon, what time did you come down and find Cate?”

“I don’t know exactly. I just woke up hungry, and thought about the fried chicken.”

“I can tell you Dillon woke me up right before one.”

“All right then.” He had the timeline in his head, got to his feet. “I’m going to let you take this girl home. We’re going to need to talk to the nanny, and the others still at the house. I’d like to do that this morning.”

“Whenever you want.”

“Let’s say around eight? Give you all time to settle in, get a little sleep.” He looked back at Cate. He had brown eyes, and put a smile in them for her. “I might need to talk to you again sometime, Cate. That okay with you?”

“Yes. Will you catch them?”

“That’s the plan. Meanwhile, you do some thinking, and if you think of anything—any little thing—you let me know.” He pulled a card out of his pocket. “That’s me, and the number at my office, and the number at home. Got my email, too. You keep that.”

After giving her leg a pat, Red got up, eased around the table. “We’ll be there around eight. We’re going to need to look around the place, especially where Cate saw the man who took her. And we’ll need to talk to everyone in the household. Get that list of guests and staff and so on.”

“We’ll have it ready.” Hugh passed Cate back to her father, got to his feet to shake Red’s hand. Then he walked to Dillon, did the same. “Thank you for doing everything right.”

“Oh, that’s okay.”

“It’s more than okay. Thank you all. I’d like to come back again in a day or two.”

“Anytime,” Julia told him.

“We’re just going to give you a police escort home.” Red winked at Cate. “No sirens, but how about we run the lights?”

She grinned at that. “Okay.”

Outside, Red got behind the wheel, waited for Michaela to get in beside him. Hit the lights.

He headed down the ranch road behind the fancy sedan. “We’ve got us an inside job, Mic.”

“Michaela,” she muttered, then blew out a breath. “Yes, sir, we sure do.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Snuggled in her father’s arms, Cate fell asleep before they reached the end of the ranch road.

“She’s exhausted,” Aidan murmured. “I want to have a doctor look her over, but . . .”

“She can sleep first. I can get Ben to come to the house. He’d do it for us.”

“I was afraid . . . I know she’s only ten, but I was afraid he—they—might—”