“Why do you need help?” Ann shot back.
Matt, who’d been silent up to that point, suddenly understood the problem. “We don’t wish Susan any harm, Mrs. Broszczynski. If anything, the contrary is true, which is why we’re here. Susan is in danger. Apparently you know that, or at least you know she’s living somewhere new under an assumed name and that there’s a potential for danger if she is discovered. What you don’t know is that Lauren was mistaken for Susan by Theodore Prinz’s men. For weeks they’ve put her through hell, using one scare tactic after another. Last week they abducted her and came very close to killing her. It was during the time she was being held that she learned about Susan.” He spoke with soft urgency. “We need to find your sister. She must be told that she’s being hunted. We have to convince her to go to the police. Between her testimony and Lauren’s, we know that something can be done about Prinz.”
Ann was pale. She gnawed at her lower lip and clutched the folds of the apron in her fists.
“May we come in?” Lauren asked again, this time pleadingly.
After another moment’s hesitation, the woman nodded. Shooing her daughter away, she led them into a small, modestly furnished living room. None of them sat; the air was too tense for that.
“I’m not sure if I know what you’re talking about,” Ann burst out. “I’m not involved in Susan’s life.”
“We realize that,” Matt said quietly, intent on convincing her of the legitimacy of their mission. “We’ve just come from Kansas City, where we spoke with both Timothy Trennis and Alexander Fraun. Do those names ring a bell?”
After a pause, Ann nodded.
“Do you trust them?” he asked. When, after another pause, Ann nodded again, he went on. “Alexander Fraun was the one who found your name on Susan’s old employment application. He was obviously fond of Susan and wouldn’t have given us your name unless he trusted us.” Though he raised a hand to emphasize his point, his voice remained soft. “We wouldn’t be bothering you if we had anywhere else to turn, but no one seems to know where Susan is or what she’s doing. Prinz doesn’t seem to be aware that Susan had any family, which may explain why no one has reached you sooner. But it’s simply a matter of time before he gets to you, and then to Susan, because it may well be that you’re the only one who knows Susan’s new name and address.” He paused, gentling his voice all the more. “Will you tell us, Ann? We only want to help.”
“I wish my husband were here,” Ann wailed softly, hands tightly clenched before her. “I’m no good at things like this.”
“You’re Susan’s sister. It’s your decision, more so than your husband’s.”
“But things are so tenuous between Susan and me,” she argued. “For years we had very little contact. She was in one world, I was in another. There was no middle ground between us. I don’t want to do something that will anger her, or worse, put her in danger.”
“Then you have to tell us where she is,” Lauren urged. “Noneof us will be safe until we find her and convince her to go to the police with us. For all we know, Matt and I are just one step ahead of Prinz’s men right now.”
Ann pondered Lauren’s words nervously, her gaze shifting from one spot in the room to another. Then she brightened. “Why don’t you letmecall Susan? I can tell her everything you’ve told me—”
“Do you think she’ll believe you—or that we’re legitimate?” Matt cut in. “She’ll run, Ann. She’s done it before, and she’ll do it again if this isn’t handled right. She needs toseeLauren and the physical similarity between them in order to believe what’s happened.”
Ann looked from one face to the other. “You’re asking an awful lot.”
Lauren nodded. “We know.”
“If you turn out to be the bad guys—”
“We’re not! You can call the police back home, either in Boston or Lincoln. They’ll verify everything that’s happened to me.”
“And Fraun took precautions of his own,” Matt added soberly. “He has our names and addresses. He knows where to send the police if anything happens to Susan.”
“I’ll never forgive myself if she’s hurt because of me!”
Matt put every ounce of feeling into a single, last-ditch plea. “Noone will be hurt if we reach her in time. But time is of the essence, and we can’t reach her if we don’t know where she is.”
Ann worried the issue for several minutes longer, her eyes filled with concern, her lips clamped tightly together. Her gaze slid from Lauren to Matt and back to Lauren, asking questions for which there were, as yet, no answers.
Just as Lauren was about to scream in frustration, Ann straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, let it out in a sigh and surrendered.
Chapter Eleven
A single long shadow stretched across the grass behind him as Ted Prinz stood in his garden staring out over the hills. Absently he lit a cigarette and dragged deeply on it. Pensive, he narrowed his eyes through the tunnel of smoke.
So Susan was in Washington, D.C. That made sense. He could picture her trying to hook up with a politician who had enough clout to protect her.
He grinned. She’d never make it. His men would make sure of that. At this very moment Kruger and the girl were being staked out at the Hay-Adams House. When they moved, his men would, too.
And Susan would regret the day she’d been born.
“Whaddya think?” Matt asked, looking at his watch. “Should we make a stab at it tonight?”
