Free The Puzzled Heart by Amanda Cross Page A

was guarding the “girls,” as Toni and Reed continued to call them. Jane, who—as Leslie the artist liked to put it—worked for a living, had left earlier. She was in their confidence but was not able to be part of their consultation. Leslie, who had been brought up to date on the events and discussions of the previous evening, announced her agreement with Toni’s plan.
    “You two can stay here as long as you like,” she said to Reed and Kate. “After grandchildren, believe me, you will hardly be noticed.” But of course they would be. Lofts are designed for one or two people, never more, not unless one built a lot of rooms—inwhich case why not rent an ordinary apartment? Leslie and Jane had raised the bedroom walls to assure themselves of privacy in case of guests, but otherwise it was all open space.
    “That’s generous of you and Jane,” Toni said, “but I think it will make most sense to let Kate and Reed go home. Kate can go home in the ordinary way. We’ll have to sneak Reed in, wrapped in a Persian rug like Cleopatra if necessary. He’ll have to pretend not to be there with Kate, which, once he’s in, shouldn’t be too hard. But what about your teaching?” she asked Reed.
    “If I’m kidnapped, I can’t teach. I’ve already missed classes. It’s true that when they learn that I could have returned and didn’t there’ll be a certain amount of explaining to do, but I think I can straighten it all out and make it up to the students. The question is, once Kate and I are returned home, what next?”
    “Let’s get you home first,” Toni said. And by providing suitable diversions for the doorman and arranging for the fire stair to be opened for Reed’s ascent (the elevator being closely monitored), getting him in the apartment was accomplished without too much difficulty. Toni, Kate was mildly amused to observe, went into her sexy act to distract the doorman while she, Kate, having returned to the apartment in the elevator, descended the stairway to the ground floor and from inside released the gate for Reed and Toni, who by that time had persuaded the doorman to look around the corner to see if her car was likely to be ticketed. It was all a matter of a fewmoments. The doorman, having earlier been memorably greeted by Kate, was prepared to swear that she had returned to the apartment alone with the cute puppy.
    The three of them, once home, and after Reed had changed his clothes, settled down to continue their council.
    Toni began. “With the girls held in their apartment incommunicado—that’s going to be Harriet’s job, dealing with the phone, visitors, whatever comes up—everyone but those girls will assume Reed is still properly kidnapped. Either the powers that be, the ones we’re searching for, will get in touch with the girls about Reed or they won’t. If they don’t, fine. If they do, we have to have a plan. The point is, you see, that with Kate willing to write her article, they have every reason to wait patiently.”
    “But surely they’re going to want a report from the girls.”
    “Surely, and with Harriet’s threats the girls, or the one she selects, will tell them what we want them to hear. This can’t go on for very long, as you can see, so I suggest that Kate send in her article today or tomorrow.”
    “Saying what exactly?” Kate asked.
    “I’ve been thinking about that,” Reed said. “If you don’t send in an article, they’ll threaten to do something terrible to me, but since I’m here, they can hardly do it. They would then, of course, find out I wasn’t where they thought I was. If you do send inthe article it will come to exactly the same thing in the end, since the article, however cleverly you devise it, will not be what they want. So”—here he turned to Toni—“why should Kate bother writing?”
    “Here’s my reasoning,” Toni said. “They’re planning to run the article in one of their right-wing journals or papers, so you know that what