The President's Daughter - Mariah Stewart [116]
“What are the chances that Celeste knew about Sarah killing Blythe?” Simon asked.
“That’s one of the things I plan on asking her.”
Norton turned to Jude and said, “Jude, I know how distressed you are, but you need to be very careful about what you tell the police at this point. If there’s a way out of this without telling all, I think you should consider taking it at this point. Once the truth about Dina’s parentage is out, there will be no taking it back. Her life will never be the same. I think this needs to be played very, very carefully.”
“Assuming she’s still alive when they find her,” Jude snapped.
“For what it’s worth, I agree with Philip,” Betsy told them. “I say we not give away anything that Dina may not want made public, unless and until we have to. This needs to be her decision. Besides, supposing we’re all wrong and Mrs. Dillon was legitimate and Dina just got distracted somewhere. How do you think she’d react if we called the local police and told them everything?”
“Do you really think that Dina’s just distracted?” Jude snapped.
“No. No, I don’t, Jude,” Betsy replied. “But I think that we need to consider that it is a possibility when we have no facts.”
“Jude, can you call the police in Henderson and tell them merely that Dina went to meet a prospective client at a property and hasn’t been heard from all day?” Simon asked. “See what they suggest?”
“Yes,” Jude agreed. “And I can call Linda Best; she’s a realtor down there. She’ll be able to pull up a list of all the properties that are for sale in the area.”
“Particularly the vacant ones,” Betsy added.
“Do it.” Simon pointed to the phone; then to Betsy he said, “We’ll need a description of the car Dina was driving. License plate number . . .”
“I’ll get that for you.” Betsy turned her chair on a dime and wheeled down the hallway.
“Simon, if I could take your car . . .” Philip stepped forward.
Simon tossed Norton his car keys. “Keep in touch, Philip.”
Norton caught the keys with his left hand. On his way out of the room he turned back to Simon and said, “I agree with Jude that some law enforcement involvement is called for. I’d like to speak with an old friend at the FBI. I can assure you that this can be done discreetly. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few agents in the area and on call, so to speak.”
Simon nodded. “Do it.”
“Consider it done.” Norton disappeared through the front door.
“Here’s the information on the Jeep that Dina took this morning.” Betsy returned to the room moments later.
“Then let’s get on with it. My realtor-friend has agreed to put together a list of properties and fax it over to the police department,” Jude told them. “I also spoke with Tom Burton; he’s with the Henderson police. He’s going to radio all of his patrol cars to look for the Jeep that Dina was driving, though I could tell he thinks she’s just having a beer with a few friends someplace. He also suggested that she might have stopped for dinner somewhere with this client. I guess that’s a possibility, isn’t it, Simon?”
Jude’s eyes pleaded. She wanted so badly for Dina to be out of harm’s way someplace, wanted to believe that there was a logical explanation for the fact that Dina had not been heard from all day. That Mrs. Dillon was in fact a client. That very shortly Dina would be walking through the door, annoyed that her phone wasn’t working but bubbling over about the new job she’d lined up that day.
“I don’t think it’s likely, Jude.”
“I can’t lose her, Simon. She’s my child. She’s my everything,” Jude whispered, momentarily frozen to the spot where she stood.
“We can’t lose her,” a somber Betsy chimed in.
“We’re all in agreement then. We won’t lose her.” He turned to Betsy. “Is there a car we can use?”
“I have Dina’s car,” Jude told him.
“And I have a van. It’s equipped with a lift for my chair,” Betsy said.
“Then we’ll take the van, Betsy, if you don’t mind driving, and we’ll head down to Henderson,” Simon