Chapter 13

"I got the call," Thomas said, as he and Terri entered the main house.

"What did they say?" Higgins asked.

"They want $100,000 by midnight tomorrow."

"If you need me to call Robin Masters…" Jonathan began, but Thomas cut him off.

"Thanks, Higgins, but I'm going to see if Carlos Pineda can come through for us. I need to test him, and this may be one way."

"You're playing games with Janet's ransom money?" Jack declared, totally baffled at Magnum's audacity.

"No. But I need to know who is on our side," Thomas tried to explain.

"And what if Pineda's not on our side?" Jack demanded.

"Don't worry, Mr. Tripper," Jonathan assured a visibly shaken Jack. "Mr. Masters will provide the needed funds. Of that, I can assure you."

Jack glared at Magnum. "I'm glad someone around here can assure me of something."

"You," Melinda said, pointing a manicured finger at Janet. "I need to talk to you alone."

Hesitating, Janet looked at Frank and then quickly followed Melinda to another part of the vacant warehouse when she yelled her command.

"What do you want?" Janet asked, trying not to let her fear show.

"I want to know what you told Carlos when you looked at his books."

"His books?" Janet said, confused. "What books?"

"Don't play games with me, missy. You know what books I'm talking about."

"No, I don't. I swear."

"What job do you hold at Carlos' company?"

"I work the flower stands. All over Honolulu. Why?"

Melinda let out an aggravated sigh.

"Son of a…you'd better not be lying to me," she warned.

"I'm not," Janet said, trying to figure out how to convince her captor she was telling the truth. "I promise you I don't know anything about any books. I sell flowers. That's all I do."

"Get back over there and don't talk. You're giving me a headache."

Noiselessly, Janet returned to sit next to Frank. Neither spoke, but Janet's mind went into overdrive. Books. Looking at books. Did Melinda think she had access to the accounting books belonging to Pineda's business? But why would she think that? And if she did, what did she think Janet would have discovered if she had reviewed them?

"She knows nothing," Melinda ground out to her two henchmen. "She knows less than nothing. What a waste. If Enrique is behind this, he is going to pay. Enough is enough."

"You're in as deeply as he is," one of the men pointed out.

"Shut up, okay," she said, rubbing her temples. "I'm trying to stay one step ahead of Carlos' no-good brother. Give me some space. And be quiet. You're all giving me a migraine."

"Thank you for coming, Carlos," Thomas said, as he ushered the man into the den.

"Of course. I'm so sorry to hear about Janet. I don't understand who would kidnap her."

Jack had a hard time standing still. He wanted to interrogate the man, but he knew he had to let the others handle this delicate situation.

"We're trying to figure that out ourselves," Jonathan offered.

"We received a ransom call," Thomas said. "The person demanded $100,000 for starters. I need to have it by midnight tomorrow. Any way you can come up with the money?"

Pineda hesitated only a moment. "It will take me some time, but I think I can manage that amount. I'll be in touch."

Once he had left, Jack pounced on Magnum. "So, what's the next move? What do we do now?"

"Hope that Carlos is a good guy who will come through for us."

"And that's it? You gotta be kidding me!"

"No, I'm not, Jack," Thomas said, looking deadly serious as he answered him. "I need to run a few errands. I'll be back soon."

Higgins nodded. "Very well, Magnum. I'll take care of things here."

Jack shook his head at what he perceived to be a cavalier attitude on Magnum's part. Jonathan gave him a look that said they would talk. Later.

Terri followed Thomas.

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked. "I'd like to come with you. If you'll let me."

Thomas gave her a small smile. "I admire your spirit and your willingness," he told her sincerely. "But I need to do this alone. You're much safer here. Keep an eye on Jack. He needs a friend right now, and I need to get out of his way before he totally explodes."

She nodded and assured Magnum she would stay at the estate. He gave her cheek a quick caress which set her spine to tingling and thentold her he would see her soon. He turned to leave, but a warm, gentle hand on his forearm stopped his progress.

"Be careful, Thomas. Please."

"I will be," he told her and then headed for the guest house.

"That man is a total incompetent," Jack shrieked at Jonathan, once they were alone. "How does he manage to stay in business?"

"No, he's not," Higgins said, offering up a decanter of brandy which Jack declined. "As much as I like to say he is, the truth is he's not incompetent at all."

"Well, you couldn't tell it by this case," Jack said, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

"Sit down, Mr. Tripper. Let's chat for a bit, shall we?"

"What's there to chat about?" Jack asked, as he sat in a winged back chair across from Higgins, and then apologized for his rudeness.

"It's quite all right. I understand you're upset."

"Of course I'm upset," he said. "Wouldn't you be if your best friend had been kidnapped and you had no idea why?"

Jonathan nodded after taking a swallow of his brandy. "Indeed I would be. I would be even more upset if the woman meant more to me than a friend."

Jack, who had clasped his hands together and had placed his arms on his jean-clad legs, stared at the older man with the proper British accent. "What are you talking about?"

"Janet, of course."

"Mr. Higgins…"

"Please, call me Jonathan."

"Okay. Jonathan. Janet and I are very good friends and have been for a long time. Actually, we're best friends, even though we no longer live in the same state."

Jonathan gave Jack a small grin and a knowing wink as he sloshed the amber liquid in the tumbler. "I've seen people who are worried about their best friends, and yes, they are usually quite upset. But you look ready to jump out of your skin. You can't sit or stand still. You look like a man who has just lost the love of his life, Mr. Tripper. And quite frankly, there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise."

Jack stood at Jonathan's words. "Love of my life? No, that's not true, Mr. Hi…Jonathan. Yes, I care about Janet. A lot. I don't want any harm to come to her. But the love of my life? That's not the kind of relationship we have."

"Mr. Tripper…"

"If I'm going to call you Jonathan, then you should call me Jack."

"Okay, Jack. Let me just say that one does not have to be in a certain kind of a relationship to have deep feelings for someone. The feelings are there, whether one chooses to acknowledge them or not."

Jack paced the room while rubbing his hands together. "I just…I've had a bad feeling about this since Janet told me about the phone call. I told her I wanted her to return to LA with me. Seeing her again made me realize how much I've missed her, but I couldn't say I was honestly ready to begin a serious relationship with her. I just knew I wanted to keep her safe."

"Of course, you did," Jonathan said, now standing next to Jack. "That's what one always wants to do when one is in love."

"He's inside," Rick said to Thomas when he arrived at his friend's private office at the Club.

"Thanks," Thomas said and then entered the room.

"Look, man," the waiter who had given the tip to Rick said, as soon as Magnum entered the room, "I didn't make up that story. Enrique was following your friends around the night of your party. Why, I don't know, but he was."

"And what made you decide to come forward when you did?"

The young man shrugged. "She seemed like a nice lady that night. I felt bad when I heard she had been threatened."

Thomas' gaze narrowed. "Who told you Janet had been threatened?"

The waiter had the decency to look embarrassed. "I overheard you guys talking about it. At first, I didn't think anything about it, but then I remembered seeing that guy here. So, I decided to tell Rick."

"And how did you know the guy was Pineda's brother?"

"Hey, man, I know Rafael. He introduced me to his uncle a couple of times. I knew it was him."

"For your sake," Thomas said, "you'd better be telling me the truth."

After assuring him he wasn't lying, the waiter hastily left the office. Rick walked in moments later followed by TC.

"Anything?" Rick asked.

"Not really," Thomas said and sighed.

He straightened his baseball cap as he tried to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Anything we can do, TM?" TC asked.

"Thanks, guys, but I don't think so. At least not now. I'm going for a drive. Maybe it will clear my head. I'll be in touch."

When Magnum's drive didn't produce any results, he returned to the estate but not the house. He wasn't ready to face the questioning eyes he knew he would rightfully encounter. Especially from Jack. Instead, he walked to where the kidnapping had taken place, wondering if he'd somehow missed a clue. Night had fallen, but the full moon provided enough light for him to look around. Halfway down the tidal pool, he found a bracelet lying in the sand as if waiting for him to finally find it. He picked it up and inspected it. The stones looked real, but he was no expert in that field.

Janet's? He couldn't be sure, but he didn't think he'd ever seen her wearing a bracelet, much less one with diamonds and rubies. Had an honest-to-goodness clue finally come his way?

Clutching the bracelet inside the palm of his large hand, he raced back to the main house, eager to ask Terri or Jack if they recognized the jewelry. He found them both with Higgins in the den.

"I found this on the sand near the tidal pool," he said without preamble. "Do any of you recognize it?"

"I don't," Jack said immediately.

Terri looked at it, whistled and shook her head. "I don't either, but I wouldn't mind owning something like that."

"What about you, Higgins? Can you think of anyone who's been here lately who might have lost this bracelet?"

Jonathan shook his head. "No. Unless you've been entertaining…"

"I haven't," Thomas said quickly, and then smiled apologetically at Terri when he noticed her looking at him curiously.

"Then I would have to say it doesn't belong to anyone we could identify," Jonathan concluded.

"So, does this mean the kidnapper is a woman?" Jack asked, incredulous.

"Possibly. Or a lady was present for some reason when the kidnapping took place."

"You need to take that to the police," Jonathan said.

"I know," Thomas said, continuing to hold the bracelet in his hands as if willing it to talk to him. To tell him the missing pieces he hadn't been able to yet identify.

The buzzer sounded; Jonathan asked who was at the security gate. When Carlos Pineda identified himself, Jonathan allowed him entry and then waited for him at the front door.

"I need to talk to Magnum," he said.

"Of course. Right in here, Mr. Pineda."

As soon as Carlos entered the room, his dark eyes were drawn to the bracelet Magnum was holding up for inspection.

"Where did you get that?" Carlos asked.

"I found it on the sand by the tidal pool," Thomas said.

"But that can't be," Carlos said, his legs growing weak as he thought about what this discovery could mean.

"Why not?" Jack asked, watching Carlos very carefully and noticing the change in his pallor.

"That bracelet. That belongs to my girlfriend. I gave it to her for her birthday. There's no way you found that piece of jewelry here. No way at all!"