“Good question.”
Alice looked at him. “You said that Kelbrook found out only recently that I was missing. Who told him?”
“Twitchell said that one of the Kelbrook accountants had questioned a couple of the hospital bills. That, in turn, caused Kelbrook to send Twitchell to Serenity to verify that you were receiving—and I quote—‘the very best care.’ ”
“Right. The very best care, as in drugged and locked away, out of sight. Kelbrook must have been furious when he discovered that I had been missing for seven months.”
“Let’s just say he obviously wants you returned to Serenity Gardens as quickly as possible,” Owen said.
He rezzed play again.
The pair in the masks moved fast. They crossed to the bed. One of them plunged a syringe into the sleeping woman. They picked her up and settled her onto the stretcher. For a moment there was a clear view of her face. Cold rage iced Owen’s senses.
“No question,” Alice said, her voice very tight. “That’s me. They used the hallucinogenic dream vapor to put me out and then they pretended to be medics, injected me with a sedative, and took me away on a stretcher. When I woke up, I was in Serenity Gardens and Travis was dead.”
“Keep watching,” Owen said. “We’ve got to authenticate the video.”
“If only I could remember more about that night.”
“Just watch,” he said. “Don’t try to overthink it. See if anything looks familiar. Anything at all. The smallest detail might be helpful.”
She did not take her eyes away from the screen. On her lap, Sebastian muttered and huddled closer.
Owen watched the two men heft the stretcher with the unconscious woman on board and start toward the door. The masks concealed their faces, and each wore a cap, so it was impossible to determine hair color. He leaned in, trying to get a sense of postures and body shapes. The man carrying the front of the stretcher had the build of a bulked-up gym rat.The other one was tall and lean, the kind of man who looked good in a tux.
“They aren’t using the hidden passageway,” Alice noted.
“Assuming they were even aware of it, there wouldn’t have been any point sneaking you out of the hotel. Kelbrook obviously wanted the media to know about all of it—Poole’s death and the necessity of sending you away to a hospital for the criminally insane. As far as everyone at the hotel was concerned, you were taken away by a legitimate ambulance crew because you had suffered a para-psych break and murdered your husband.”
Alice froze. “Stop the video.”
He obliged and waited.
“Can you zoom in on the wrist of the tall man?”
He did as instructed, tightening the focus to highlight the amber-and-steel watch. It was a distinctive and expensive-looking timepiece.
“Well, shit,” Alice whispered.
The expletive caught him by surprise.
He paused the video again. “What?”
“I can’t prove that I didn’t have a para-psych break on my wedding night, but I am now absolutely certain I didn’t murder my husband.”
She was staring fixedly at the screen, a flush of outrage brightening her cheeks. Fury and disbelief shivered in the atmosphere around her.
“What makes you so sure?” he asked quietly.
She stabbed an accusing finger at the screen. “See the tall man carrying the back of the stretcher? The one with the fancy watch?”
“What about him?”
“That’s him, that’s my…my husband. Travis Poole. He was one of the kidnappers.”
Chapter Eleven
“What makes you think it’sPoole?” Owen asked.
