Free The Dark Tide Free for a Limited Time by Andrew Gross Page B

the car door.
    It was about Charlie.
    This was about something he had done. Something she was growing more and more afraid that he had withheld from her.
    They would have found Samantha at the mall, or at someone’s house, or at the club where she worked. But they weren’t trying to get to Samantha, she knew.
    They were trying to get to her.
    And the scariest part was, Karen had no idea what these people wanted from her.
    When she spotted Lieutenant Hauck come through the front door, her body almost gave out all at once. She leaped up and ran over to him. She had to hold herself back from hugging him.
    He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Is she all right?”
    “Yes.” Karen nodded in relief. “I think so.”
    “I know she’s already been through it a couple of times, but I need to talk with her, too.”
    Karen took him over to her daughter. “Okay.”
    Hauck sat down on the coffee table directly across from Samantha. “Sam, my name’s Lieutenant Hauck. I’m the head of detectives with the Greenwich police here in town. I know your mom a little from when your dad died. I want you to tell me exactly what took place.”
    Karen nodded to her, sitting next to her on the couch and taking her hand.
    Sniffling back tears, Sam went through it all again. Coming out of the gym after practice, stepping into her car, putting on her iPod. The man in the backseat, completely surprising her from behind. Cupping her mouth so she couldn’t scream, his voice so chilling and close to her ear that his words seemed to tingle down her spine.
    “It was so scary, Mom.”
    Karen squeezed. “I know, baby, I know….”
    She told Hauck that she’d never gotten a good look at him. “He told me not to.” She was certain she was about to be raped or killed.
    “You did right, honey,” Hauck said.
    “He said that the investigation was going to start soon. And that it was going to get very personal. He said something abouttwo hundred and fifty million dollars.” Samantha looked up at Karen. “What the hell did he mean by that, Mom?”
    Karen fitfully shook her head. “I don’t know.”
    When they’d finished, Karen eased herself away from her daughter. She asked Hauck if he would come outside with her. The awning on the patio wasn’t up yet. Still too cold. In the darkness there were lights flashing out on the sound.
    “Do you have any idea what she’s talking about?” he asked.
    Karen drew a sharp breath and nodded. “Yes.”
    And no…
    She took him through the visit she’d received. The two men from Archer and Bey, who had pressured her about all that missing money. “Two hundred and fifty million dollars,” she admitted.
    Now this.
    “I don’t know what the hell is going on.” She shook her head, eyes glistening. “Charlie’s trustee—he’s a friend—he promises that everything in the partnership was one hundred percent by the book. And I’m sure it was. These people…” Karen looked at Hauck, flustered. “Charlie was a good man. He didn’t handle that kind of money. It’s like they’ve targeted the wrong person, Lieutenant. My husband had a handful of clients. Morgan Stanley, a few well-to-do families he’d known a long time.”
    “You understand I have to look into this,” Hauck said.
    Karen nodded.
    “But I need to tell you that without a physical description from your daughter, it’s going to be very tough. There are cameras at the school entrances. Maybe someone around spotted a car. But it was dark and pretty much deserted at that time. And whoever these people are, they’re clearly professional.”
    Karen nodded again. “I know.”
    She leaned toward him, suddenly so full of questions she felt light-headed, her knees on the verge of buckling.
    The lieutenant placed his hand on her shoulder. She didn’t pull away.
    She’d handled Charlie’s death, the long months of uncertainty and loneliness, the breakup of his business. But this was too much. Tears rushed in her eyes—burning. Tears of