Chapter 11
Nate had been in Penelope's room for more than two hours and the tension outside the room was growing.
"How the hell did she get a gun in the first place?" Sterling said and although he did not direct the question directly at Eliot everybody knew that was who he was asking.
Eliot glared at the man without responding. He had been going over that particular issue in his mind since they had found the woman standing over her dead husband.
"How did she get into the room…?" Maggie asked also to nobody in particular.
"I don't know, but it doesn't really matter. It happened, the man is dead and I'll wager, just like Nate in there, that she planned it. She didn't want us talking to him." Bonnano said. He could feel the tension between Eliot and Sterling. He did not know the setup and he did not know the history, but one thing he did know, getting into anything right now was not going to help the situation in any way whatsoever.
"The question is really why didn't she want us to talk to him? Because he had nothing to do with this and it was all her doing? But for what purpose? I mean Nate helped her get away from that guy…Sophie was her friend…and Kate…it just makes no sense." Hardison said.
"A classic case of wanting what you haven't got." Parker said. "She wants Nate and Sophie has him and so she freed him up so she could move in."
"Why didn't she just 'get rid of them' then?" Maggie asked not understanding why Penelope would go to all the trouble she had in staging the accident and the so called deaths of Sophie and Kate.
"I don't think she wanted to hurt Sophie or Kate, she just wanted them out of Nate's life. I don't think she is a killer." Parker told the woman.
"But we don't know that for sure." Hardison said.
"No we don't." Parker affirmed.
"This must have been a long time in the planning." Maggie said.
"Yeah a long time…but how…?"
"I am sure Nate will tell us when he gets out of there." Parker said. "But for now instead of sitting around wondering, let's dig into her past. Not when she was with her husband but after. What was she doing…who was she spending time with…how did she fill her time." Parker said looking at Hardison.
"On it…" Hardison said moving off to get started.
"Patrick has she ever been involved in anything…A person of interest in anything…?" Parker asked.
"Yeah, I'll check."
"I'll check on my side too." Sterling said before Parker could ask.
"I'll see if she has any connections, if she tried to hire anybody..." Eliot said moving off and flipping open his phone.
"How long ago did Nate and Sophie actually get involved with her?"
"About a year ago…" Hardison called out from his computer station, he had done some research when checking out Hilton as a suspect. "Hilton was a real bastard, liked beating on his wife and his child. She, Penelope met Sophie when she started getting involved with the theatre as a Patron. That was about a year ago and then Sophie, well she asked Nate to help with Mrs Cowan's problem. He did and…well let's just say the end result was Hilton ended up in prison."
"Ok but usually men like that put nothing in their wives names, I mean they like to keep them dependant, tell them nothing about finance or anything else…they tend to keep them on a short leash." sterling offered.
"True, but Mrs Cowan was the one with the money. It was her family money inherited when her father died shortly before she met and married Mr Cowan." Hardison said. "When he married her she had just turned twenty one. She led a very sheltered life, protected by Daddy…" Hardison continued. "She studied languages at university and graduated shortly before her father's death. She met Hilton Cowan a few months later. Six months after that they were married."
"He targeted her?" Maggie said raising her eyebrow.
"Yeah…zoomed in on a vulnerable woman who had lots…and I mean lots of money." Hardison confirmed. "Anyway Penelope fell pregnant almost immediately with their only child… Their daughter Shirley, now sixteen and in boarding school…she also suffered at the hands of her father."
"So along comes Nate and gets her out of the hell she had been in for eighteen years or so." Maggie said.
"Yeah and then she started getting more involved in the theatre, spending more time with Sophie…" Hardison confirmed.
"Yes, she spent a lot more time, she even baby sat Kate for us on a few occasions." Nate's voice startled all of them as he walked into the room.
"Nate…" Maggie said looking up at him and then back at the closed door of the room he had just left.
"She's sleeping." Nate said. He had sat with Penelope allowing her to rest her head on his lap as the talked until she fell asleep. "It's been a big day for her." He said as he poured himself a whiskey then returned to stand in the front of the room facing all of them.
"She's got Sophie and Kate." Parker said. It was a statement and not a question.
"Yes I believe she has." Nate said calmly. "Penelope set up a network to help other woman like herself."
"Abused woman…"
"Right, the network is extensive. She has experts working for her. She gets woman out of their…situations…makes sure they are set up in new lives with new identities, money…"
"So she has the means to do this…"
"Yes."
"But Nate these networks they are set up so that they are almost impossible to follow, volunteers and things, why would they help her to spirit away Sophie and Kate when they did not want to go, I mean I don't think she could use them."
"No she couldn't you're right, but she could use her contacts, people she uses to set up the 'disappearances', get the woman out in the first place."
"Ok I'll check that out." Hardison said.
"Well that was my sergeant at the precinct. Penelope Cowan bailed out a woman…one Susan Sellwood…she was arrested for beating a man to death…"Patrick said as he finished on the phone.
"One of the husbands…?" Nate asked.
"Yeah it seems so, that was about six months back. Anyway Susan dropped off the face of the earth after that there is still a warrant out for her arrest on suspicion of murder. She also has a bit of a rap sheet for assault with a deadly weapon amongst other things."
"Nice woman…" Maggie said under her breath.
"Investigating officer will mail me the file on her."
"Good…Hardison you do some digging too. I want to know everything about this Susan Sellwood." Nate instructed the Hacker. "I don't think Penelope would hurt either Sophie or Kate, but…"
"Susan might." Parker finished for him.
"That's not going to happen, now that we have something to work on we'll get them back…" Hardison said softly.
"Yes we will…" Nate said downing the rest of his drink and, putting the glass down, he made his way back to Penelope's room. "You guys need to follow my lead with her…wherever that goes." Nate said not turning round to face them. Then he disappeared back into the room closing the door behind him.
"What does that mean?" Maggie asked staring after Nate.
"I don't know, but I got a feeling that we are not going to like it." Eliot said softly.
"Well let's get him what he needs." Parker said. She did not care what Nate was planning as long as it brought Sophie and Kate back and she would back him in anything he did.
Thank you all again for the great reviews I have received. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as well. So how is Nate going to get Penelope to tell him what he needs to know? Will they be able to get to Sophie and Kate before Susan does something to them? Next chapter will be up soon.
