Chapter 13

The Bennet family was in the habit of eating dinner together on the second Saturday of each month. The three sister who no longer lived at home, faithfully trekked up to visit their parents in Nyack for the occasion without fail. Thus Mary Bennet and her husband retrieved their car from their building's parking garage on Saturday afternoon, and headed to the West Side Highway.

Mary had decided on Friday evening to temporarily spare Reg from the details of Jane's request to her. She wanted them to be able to celebrate his successful prosecution of the Scanlon case, without any negative distractions. Her plan had worked out well: they had first gone to dinner at the Gramercy Tavern, a restaurant the name of which belied its superb menu and upscale prices.

Not long after they had been seated at a very nice table, a waiter bearing a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, compliments of Marc Gray, Commander of Manhattan SVU, appeared along side.

Mary laughed after their waiter had walked away. "Who knew that we were coming here tonight?" she asked.

"Just us," Reg replied. "The NYPD never ceases to amaze me: I do believe that they know everything that is happening in the city, at all times."

"We're good, dear, but not that good," Mary said. "So you made the reserves yourself?"

"No, Deidre did."

Mary just looked at her husband until he realized what must have occurred. "Hmm. I'm not sure that I want a secretary who is a spy for the police department," he joked.

"All in a good cause, Reg. After all, she did manage to get us a table here, with only a moment's notice. Knowing Deidre, she probably told them that the 13th would start having their delivery vans towed away."

"Knowing Deidre, she probably threatened the maitre d' with doing 20-to-life at Attica!"

After a very satisfying dinner – red snapper for Reg and roast duck for Mary – the couple walked the few blocks to their apartment and had an even more satisfying night. Reg had already decided not to go into the office on Saturday morning, as was his usual habit. They had decided a few months earlier that they wanted to start a family and Mary was determined to make the best of the opportunity.

The weather was gorgeous, blue sky and sunshine, and the Hudson River sparkled to their left as they drove north. Mary decided that it was as good a time as any to tell her husband about her sister's latest situation.

"So, Jane called me on Friday, asking for a favor." She then went on to describe what she had done and what she had learned.

"Your sister's an idiot, Mare."

"I know, I know. I said the same thing to Jane."

"Who's this guy again? The one that Beth has a hard-on for?" Reg asked.

"His name is William Darcy."

"Darcy? Do you have any idea where he lives?"

"I have no idea. Why do you ask?"

"There's a guy named Will Darcy who sometimes runs with me in the morning. He lives right on Gramercy Park West. Beaucoup bucks but the man's a prince."

"Do you know what he does for a living?" Mary asked.

"He's a shrink."

"That matches. It must be him. Do you know him from court?"

"Just from running. A few months ago, some gal out walking her dog bright and early, started yelling at the two of us as we zipped by her in succession. Thank God, Will's white since otherwise she would have sicced her nasty little poodle on us. Although how she'd think that even a brother would be wearing shorts to a mugging in February is beyond me."

Mary laughed. "Have you seen her since?"

"We see her several times a week. She keeps inviting us up for coffee."

"Huh?"

"After the first run-in we had with her, Will caught up with me and we got to talking a little. I think he later saw her around the park when he was more fully clothed, introduced himself to her, and described me as a prominent member of the law enforcement community."

"So, should I be jealous?"

"Mare, she's eighty if she's day."

"So, should I be jealous?"

"Not this week. So, were you thinking of saying anything to Beth today about this Wickham character?"

Mary shook her head. "I think that I need to speak to Jane first. Beth's going to be mad enough that she spoke to me. Plus, I want talk to Detective Perez first about her impressions of the guy."

Reg took the exit from the Saw Mill River Parkway for the Tappan Zee Bridge. Early season boaters were already out on the river enjoying the warm weather. "Wanna get off here and drive down to Tallman State Park?" he asked, as part of their usual routine.

"Sure, let me out. You can go on to my parents on your lonesome," Mary replied.

If Mary Bennet's parents had been surprised when she decided to become a cop, that was nothing to the barely concealed shock that they had experienced when they first met her black boyfriend, and learned that not only she had been dating him for nine months, but that she had agreed to marry him. Mary sometimes wondered if she had waited so long to introduce him to them out of fear that he would flee their house in horror, after spending one hour in the company of her mother, breaking their engagement.

Reg had in fact been mesmerized by the lunacy of her mother and younger sisters, but had later assured Mary that nothing her family did could possibly dissuade him from marrying her. He also assured her that his family was equally idiosyncratic, one of the main reasons that he had left his native Bermuda to go to school in and then settle permanently in New York.

Mary did not meet Reg's family until they flew to New York, a few days before their wedding. To her surprise and amusement, his mother did indeed share quite a few personality traits with her mother, once one got beyond her cultured British accent, the color of her skin and the size of her attorney-husband's bank account.

They had visited the Jacksons in Bermuda several times in their nine years of marriage, and never failed to spend a few minutes laughing about the similarity of their mothers, on the flights home. The most common refrain these days was the need for a grandchild. While Mrs. Bennet was certainly eager for one, since he was an only child, Reg's family was even more insistent.

Ten minutes later, they made the turn onto Longbourn Street and were soon at the Bennets' house. It appeared that Jane and Beth had not yet arrived: there were no cars in the driveway, behind the one belonging to Nell Bennet. Reg parked their car at the curbside and the two of them headed to the front door. It was opened by Mary's sister Cathy, before they could ring the bell.

"Hi guys," she said. "I'm glad that you made it. Jane and Beth called to say that they are running late and mom's having a fit."

That piece of news might have concerned Mary and her husband, were it not for the fact that something similar happened almost every visit. All it meant was that Reg would need to put up with an extra half hour of sports talk with Mary's father, a history and physical education teacher in the Nyack school system.

"Hi mom, hi dad," Mary said, as they walked into the family room.

"Oh I am so glad to see you!" her mother exclaimed. "Your sisters will be the death of me yet! I don't understand how it can be that you and Regis are always on time, and they are always late. They take delight in vexing me!"

"Come sit down, Reg," Thomas Bennet called out, from the far side of the room. "There's a PGA tournament on. Tiger's in the lead. Bring the man a beer, Nell."

Reg resignedly complied. His interest in Tiger Woods was rather limited and his interest in golf was non-existent, but for the sake of his wife, he could pretend that was not the case. For Mary's part, she followed her mother into the kitchen, where she would as usual be treated to a long lament about the roast or turkey or ham or whatever the woman had cooked that day, growing dry because of the tardiness of her sisters.

"Hey, I read about the case you won this week," Mr. Bennet said to his son-in-law, as Reg took a seat. "That British guy. Congratulations."

"Thanks, Tom. He was one arrogant punk. He thought that he was going to smooth talk his way to an acquittal. It was unbelievable. He actually kept giving two of the younger female jurors the eye. One of them later told us that he made her skin crawl."

"Like the poor girl he killed, I guess."

"Yep."

"Were her folks there? She was from down south somewhere, wasn't she?"

"Georgia. She accepted a promotion that required her to move to New York. Her parents came up for the trial. They had never objected to her moving to the City: after all, it's about as safe as an American city gets these days. Then she runs into a wacko at a staff meeting. They were so grateful for the verdict. It made me feel worse, I think."

Mr. Bennet looked at Reg, then reached over and briefly clasped him on the forearm. "You made them realize, son, that people who never knew her in life, cared about what had happened to their child. Don't dismiss the importance of that." Then he leaned back in his seat. "Hey, it looks like Anthony Kim is giving Tiger a run for his money."

Twenty minutes later, Jane and Beth finally arrived. Both looked extremely irritated.

"Traffic problems, dears?" their father asked.

"No," Beth snapped at him. "Excuse me. I need to use the bathroom."

Mary walked out of the kitchen and greeted Jane. "I'm glad you made it. Mom's worried that the roast will soon be in the ritual sacrifice category."

"Oh, she couldn't ruin a meal if her life depended upon it," Jane replied. She glanced over to where her father and brother-in-law were sitting. Then she motioned for Mary to walk out with her, to the screened-in porch that ran the length of the family room.

"What's going on?" Mary asked.

"I decided to tell Beth that I had asked you to check up on George Wickham," Jane said.

"I assume that she didn't take the news well?"

"Let's say it was a good thing that I waited until we were on the Tappan Zee Bridge, since otherwise, I think she would have jumped out of the car."

"She's going to be even more ticked off when she finds out what I learned."

"Which was?"

"This guy is shaping up as a real sleaze bag. I need to speak to one other person, to get a few more details, but it seems that this Wickham has been trying to break into the porn business. He even borrowed money from a bunch of wise-guys to finance his dreams. He almost wound up in the Meadowlands, and I don't mean in the good seats on the fifty yard line at Giant's Stadium."

"Should we talk to her today?"

Mary shook her head. "I want to speak to the SVU detective who actually interviewed him first. Hopefully, I can do that on Monday. And besides, this isn't the place for the conversation."

"Okay," Jane agreed, then smiled. "Mom will be perfectly happy to harangue you about babies for the next two hours."

~.~

As it turned out, Lydia was not home, which generally made for a more civilized meal. Even at the age of 23, the youngest Bennet remained self-centered and constantly craving attention. It appeared that she was staying with friends for the weekend but who they were, and where she was, had escaped her parents' attention. She still lived at home, working at a local mall but came and went as she pleased.

The one consolation to the older Bennet girls, was that Lydia's influence over their fourth sister Cathy had significantly waned in the last year. Cathy had originally gone through a paralegal program and worked for a local law firm, but for the last two years had been taking evening classes at a community college.

Tom Bennet was not always the most involved father in the world, but he quickly sensed the tension among his oldest daughters. As a result, he maneuvered the dinner conversation to Reg's success at the Scanlon trial, while avoiding the more salacious aspects of the case.

Did the British embassy intervene in the case at all?" Cathy asked. Her paralegal work made her aware that certain foreign countries often lodged protests, if one of their citizens was convicted of capital murder in a state which had the death penalty.

Reg shook his head. "Since the death penalty was overturned in New York State, they had no official reason to do so. They went through the motions to assure that he was adequately represented but since he's from a well-to-do family, there was no issue there. Unofficially, they're just as happy to have us pay his room and board for the rest of his life."

"I'm glad he didn't try for an insanity defense," Mrs. Bennet said. "They could have set him free in no time."

All four of her daughters and Reg simultaneously shook their heads.

"It's a very hard defense to prove," Reg replied. "Most defense attorneys won't try it."

"Harder than it should be," Beth said, in a tone of voice that implied that she was interested in starting an argument.

Reg, however, would not take the bait. "I don't fundamentally disagree. That poor woman in Texas, the one who killed all of her kids, while suffering from acute postpartum psychosis, is a case in point. Unfortunately, most states do not provide adequate care for the criminally insane, so a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity doesn't do much for the person in question. And it's elected officials responsible for that, not the criminal justice system."

The dinner conversation quieted down after that. Cathy spent some time describing her next term of classes. When the meal was over, the group quickly split up, earlier than would usually would be the case. Jane briefly wondered if Beth would try to make her own way home, but public transportation from Nyack into New York City was not overly convenient. Thus, the two sisters drove back together, although mostly in silence.

Earlier that day

The helicopter began its descent to Gardenia Island, a large private island off of the South Fork of Long Island. Other than some service buildings, it contained nothing other than a large estate house. It could be reached only by helicopter or boat.

Several years earlier, the current owner had fallen onto hard times and moved off of the island. She then decided to lease the property out. Some time ago, she had discovered that certain businesses made much better customers than seasonal holiday renters. She demanded payment in advance, required a security deposit related to potential damage to the house and paid no further attention to what went on at the location, as long as the customers' check cleared.

At the present, the island was being rented to a company called Visigoths & Virgins.

As soon as the helicopter's blades stopped spinning, Anne Bourger jumped down and strode towards the front entrance of the mansion house. Behind her, a young Asian woman followed her, struggling as she carried several pieces of luggage on her own. Right before they reached the house, the girl tripped and one of the valises fell to the ground. Anne turned and glanced at the bag, before opening the unlocked door.

She walked into the empty foyer and could hear voices coming from the rear of the house. A moment later, her companion arrived behind her. After she had deposited the suitcases onto the floor, Anne turned around and slapped her face hard enough to cause the girl to stagger backwards.

"That's a five hundred dollar bag, you moron. When I return, it had better be as clean as it was when I bought it, even if you have to lick the dirt off with your tongue." Anne then walked off in the direction of the voices.

She found George Wickham and a girl whom she did not recognize, sitting on the rear veranda and drinking what appeared to be a pitcher of martinis. The girl was pretty enough, in a cheap sort of way, enhanced by her bleached black hair. She also looked somewhat familiar to her.

Wickham jumped to his feet. "Oh, hi. I hope that your trip was smooth. This is a friend of mind, Lydia Bennet. Lydia, this is..."

Anne interrupted him and held out her hand. "Anne Barringer."

Wickham looked a little confused but continued the introductions. "I met Lydia recently. She's very interested in breaking into the film business." He could not resist a patronizing smile at that.

Anne offered him one in return, then asked Lydia to excuse them. As they went into the house, she first walked back to where she had left her companion. "I assume that I have the suite at the front of second floor." When he nodded, she gestured to the young woman, whose name was Maya, to take her things upstairs. As she did so, Anne called up to her. "Be in position in thirty minutes. If you are not, you know what to expect."

She next motioned to George to go outside with her. When they had walked about twenty feet from the house, she quickly asked him what on earth he was doing with the other girl in the house.

"I spoke to Vinny. He thought a second girl was a good idea. She's a lot cheaper than the one he had in mind. She'll work for free."

"Is she related to Beth Bennet? The woman from the club?"

"She's her sister, actually. I met her one night when I was leaving the place. She's been desperate to get into the place, but Beth won't let her in. One thing led to another."

"My cousins showed up at the club on Thursday night, looking for Georgiana," Anne said. "Bennet didn't tell them anything, from what I was told, but I'm puzzled as to how they even found the place."

"I have no idea, but does it really matter?"

"No, I guess it does not. What have you done with her?"

"She's completely sedated, on an IV. She hasn't been awake since before we left for the island."

Anne nodded. "When do you expect her co-stars?"

"Probably tomorrow, at least to look her over."

"Tell Lydia to cool her jets on the veranda, then why don't you join us upstairs."

Five minutes later, Wickham walked into the large suite occupied by Anne. She was stretched out in a large wicker chair, naked from the waist down, with Maya on her knees before her, her ass in the air and her face buried in Anne's crotch. The younger woman had a large anal plug inserted into her that Wickham assumed could not be very comfortable.

Anne grinned when he walked in, already undoing his pants. "I'd get to work, if I were you, Maya," she said, clearly amused. "If he comes before I do, you're in very big trouble."

~.~

As they drove home on Saturday evening, Reg asked Mary a question that had occurred to him much earlier in the day. He didn't expect an argument with her: astonishingly, they never fought with one another, but he thought it was a too important a topic to be interrupted by their parental dinner.

"Mary, do you think that we should speak to Dr. Darcy ourselves. About what you learned? I may run into him on Sunday by the park."

Mary was doing the driving on the way home. She considered the question for a few minutes, before responding.

"I still want to talk Jo Perez. Plus, I think that Beth deserves a chance to make a reasonable decision here."

~.~

Unable to sleep on Saturday night, Darcy finally got out of bed and went to his library-study room, thinking of finding a ponderous book to read. Mansfield Park, perhaps, he thought. He actually liked the novel quite a bit but found that he needed to read it slowly. As he walked into the room, he noticed his sister's laptop sitting on his desk. He had grabbed it from her apartment on Thursday, but not thought about it since.

Sitting at his desk, he removed it from its case and plugged in its power source. Then he pushed the boot button before getting up to pour himself a drink.

When it was running, he scanned the desktop but noted only a few program icons. Then he started an Explorer Window running and opened her My Documents folder. He laughed. His sister was clearly much better organized that he was, at least on her computer.

He quickly scanned a few files related to the gallery before spotting a sub-folder entitled My So-Called Life. He recalled that as being the name of a television show, about high school kids several years back. He hesitated for a moment, then clicked on the folder to open it.

A password box appeared.

Darcy sat back in his chair and stared at the screen. Obviously, whatever was in the folder, was something that his sister wanted to remain private. But she only used her computer at home, where the risk of someone else using the machine was limited.

Not sure whether he was doing the right thing, he began entering words and numbers into the password space. He tried their parents' names, birth dates, and even the dates of their deaths. Then he tried Titus and a few other things without success. He was about to give up when something occurred to him. He tried Titus Andronicus from the name of Shakespeare's play, then Andronicus alone.

Thinking for a minute, he went over to the bookshelves and pulled down a volume of Shakespeare's Tragedies. He flipped through pages and returned to the computer, typing in Tamora, the female protagonist in the play, Titus Andronicus. The folder immediately opened.

It contained a number of items and was set in a thumbnail view. As a result, Darcy's heart almost stopped beating, when he saw several photos of his sister naked, which looked to have been taken with a cellphone camera. They were dated from four months earlier: she did not look as if she was aware that they were being taken. He quickly changed the file view to the detail style, and the images morphed into their names and dates alone.

The folder also contained a copy of an email and a Word document. He opened the email file first. It had been sent from a Cooper Union address and was the source of the photos, which were linked as attachments to the email. The tone of the message was mocking and insulting. He did not recognize the name of the person sending the email.

The Word document was written by his sister. By the time he had finished reading it, the tears in his eyes prevented him from seeing anything at all. His sister, the person whom he loved more than anyone else in the world, had started dating an art professor at Cooper Union about six months earlier. Her early entries were full of joy. Then apparently, the man began to pressure her to have sex with him, something that she was not ready to do. The story was an old one: the man had eventually forced himself upon her and then dumped her, sending her the email with the photos, belittling her in many ways, including her sexuality.

What followed next completely stunned him. He had devoted his life to helping individuals harmed by the evil within other people. And yet, his sister did not turn to him for help, concerned that he would see her as a complete failure. Instead, in her naiveté, she had spoken to their one female cousin, Anne. It was Anne who had introduced her to George Wickham, who in turn had brought her to Beth Bennet's club.

As his tears and thoughts cleared, three things were apparent to him. He was the one who had failed his sister, not the other way around. He had likely misjudged Dr. Bennet, at least in terms of any involvement in his sister's disappearance. And whatever was going on with Anne Bourger and George Wickham, they did not have his sister's best interests at heart.

~.~

About five blocks away, Beth Bennet lay awake in bed, considering her brief conversation with Jane on their way home from their parents. Mary had not told Jane much about Wickham but what she had learned, Jane ultimately could not resist passing along to Beth. While Beth had her differences with Mary in certain ways, she never doubted her sister's honesty. Thinking back to the tape that she had watched, of Wickham and the woman whom she now knew was Georgiana Darcy, she was starting to wonder if she had made a terrible error in judgment.

Chapter 14

At nine on Sunday morning, Darcy and Richard Fitzwilliam were in the lobby of the building in which their aunt, Catherine Bourger, lived. Ignoring the exhortations of the doorman, to wait until he had at least called up to her apartment, they headed immediately to the elevator.

Richard had arrived at Darcy's town house at 7AM, after Darcy had called him to tell him what he had found on Georgiana's laptop. They had first gone to their cousin Anne's apartment house, only to learn that she had left the day before, for points unknown. Anne's doorman, unlike Catherine's, was perfectly willing to cooperate with them, for some additional compensation.

Thus, he had called the man who had been on duty on the day before, who told them the little that he knew of the matter. Unfortunately, the other doorman had only seen her leave the building along with a young Asian woman, who had been staying with her, who had been carrying several pieces of luggage. She did not ask him to get them a cab nor did he see whether they had been picked up by a car service.

The door to their aunt's apartment was opened by a confused looking Sally Farmer, her current housekeeper. "Mr. William, Mr. Richard, your aunt is still in her rooms," she said. "Is there some sort of problem?"

"Is Anne here, by any chance?" Darcy asked.

"No, she isn't. She was last here a few weeks ago, at least as far as I know."

"Has she called?"

The housekeeper was beginning to realize that something unusual was going on, although she naturally assumed that it had something to do with Anne.

"I haven't spoken to her on the apartment phone, but it is possible that she called Mrs. Bourger on her cellphone."

"Then I'm afraid we'll need to speak to Aunt Catherine now," Darcy said.

"But Mr. William.."

Richard interrupted her. "Miss Farmer, I know you are doing your job and I respect that, but we will speak to our aunt now, even if it means our barging into her bedroom. I think it would be better for everyone, if we were to meet in the living room."

The housekeeper realized that no argument was going to dissuade them, and directing them towards the parlor, walked down another hall to summon her employer.

Ten minutes later, wearing a powder-blue, floor-length quilted satin dressing gown and matching mules, an anxious-looking Catherine Bourger walked into the room.

"What is it? Has something happened to my Anne?" she asked.

"Not as far as I know. We need, however, to know where she is," Darcy replied. "She left her apartment yesterday morning with several pieces of luggage. I believe that Georgiana is with her, and we need to find her, immediately."

Their aunt's attitude quickly changed from one of concern to irritation.

"This is not to be born!" she declared. "You invaded the privacy of my home, in such a loutish fashion, just because of your flighty sister?"

"When did you last speak to Anne?" Richard asked, attempting to remain calm.

"I don't recall and if I did, it would not be any concern of yours."

"She has taken some vacation time from DarMed. Do you know where she was planning to go?" Darcy asked.

"She is entitled to a holiday. She works very hard. The fact that neither you nor Malcolm appreciate her worth, is shameful."

"I'm not interested in debating Anne's skills with you at this particular moment. I need to find my sister, and I think she may be with Anne."

Catherine waved her hand in the air, dismissively. "Georgiana probably is shacking up or whatever they call it these days, with one of those talentless artists she shows."

Richard grabbed his cousin's arm, as he stepped forward ominously towards their aunt. "Do you know where your daughter is, Catherine?" he asked.

"No," she finally said, after glaring at her nephews.

"Will you let us know if you hear from her?" Richard asked.

She shrugged in a way that neither of them could interpret, then turned around and clomped out of the room. A moment later, Sally Farmer reappeared and walked them to the foyer. Then, to their surprise, she stepped out into the hall with them and closed the apartment door behind her.

"Do you think something has happened to Miss Georgiana?" she asked.

Farmer was not in the habit of speaking familiarly with her employers' relations but in the three years that she had worked for Mrs. Bourger, she had developed a healthy dislike for Anne Bourger. Fussy old ladies were her stock in trade, and she could easily handle the mother. But the daughter made her genuinely uneasy.

Miss Georgiana, however, was a sweet girl, who had been nothing but gracious to her in the few times that they had met.

"Unfortunately, that may be the case, Miss Farmer," Darcy replied. "We have not heard from her since Tuesday."

"Rest assured, I will do my best to monitor whether Miss Bourger calls her mother." Her face suddenly brightened. "In fact, I will see to it that Mrs. Bourger's cellphone has an unfortunate accident. That way, her daughter would need to call her on the house phone, which she never lowers herself to answer on her own."

Richard pulled a card and pen out of his jeans' pocket, and scribbled down a few numbers, then handed it to her. "You can reach one of us, at one of these numbers, at anytime."

The elevator door opened and Richard stepped into it. Darcy squeezed Sally Farmer's arm, then followed him into it.

South Greenwich Street

Unable to sleep on Sunday morning, Beth had decided to go down to the office that she maintained in her club's building. She had some business paperwork to attend to, including a long and likely boring analysis prepared by her attorney, concerning an enormous bill received from the New York City Water Board. It was for retroactive water charges related to a period before she had even purchased the property. The attorney had already assured her that she could not be held liable for the charges, but she felt obliged to read through the memo, since it would result in a large invoice from him, one which she would have to pay.

When she got to the premises, she was surprised to see that while the security system was active, the front gate was no longer locked. She let herself in and quietly punched in her security code to disengage the alarm. Then she punched in another code known only to herself and Callee, which cycled through the various motion detectors in the building, and reported on any activity. According to the system, there was someone in the video room. Next, she checked the password entered into the system before hers, and discovered that it belonged to one of the club's assistants, Meredith.

Curious, she thought to herself. The tape functions were handled by Amy, with Callee as her backup person. She walked upstairs quietly and stopped at the door of the video room.

Meredith was running the tape of George Wickham and Georgiana Darcy on the computer screen. It was just at the end. Beth was about to speak, when she saw the other woman call up and click on the delete function.

"What the hell are you doing, Meredith?" Beth shouted, as she moved quickly to the computer console. The other woman turned and then looked at her in a panic.

"I asked you, what are you doing here at this hour and what are you doing with that tape?"

"Well, Amy asked me..that is..she asked.."

Beth cut her off. "Don't give me any bullshit. Amy knows you have no video experience. What are you doing?"

Meredith thought quickly and came up with what she thought was a plausible excuse. She put a sheepish look on her face. "Oh, I had nothing to do this morning, so I decided to come down and look at some of the vids. You know, I find that guy George to be kind of hot."

Beth stared at her, wondering if she should bother calling the woman out on her lie. From everything that she had observed, Meredith was not in the least interested in men, a fact completely irrelevant to her job, since employees were not allowed to date club clients. She decided that it wasn't worth it at that moment.

"Wait for me in the lounge, Meredith."

When she was sure that the other woman had gone downstairs, she quickly signed into the administrative panel and checked the log. Meredith had deleted four files, and Beth suddenly had an uneasy feeling about whom the other three involved. She jotted down the tape numbers onto a piece of paper. Her system, of course, had multiple backups, including a set at her apartment, so the woman had been on a fool's errand. The question was who had sent her downtown to do the dirty work.

She knew, however, that Meredith lived from paycheck to paycheck, so rather than confront her right then and there, she decided to have her return later in the week. By then, like it or not, she assumed that Mary would have acquired more information on George Wickham.

As soon as she reached the lounge, she told Meredith that she was terminated. She walked her to the locker room and watched her gather up her stuff, and then walked her back to the entrance.

"Stop in on Thursday night, for your last check."

"But Beth, what am I going to do? All I was doing.."

"All you were doing was invading our clients' privacy, a direct violation of your employment contract. You're out of here."

After Meredith left, Beth canceled all of her access codes and called the security company to confirm that the changes were authorized and permanent. Then, realizing that she would not be able to concentrate on any of her office work, she tossed the attorney's memo into her bag, locked the place up and then headed home.

~.~

At Darcy's town house, he and Richard were wracking their considerable brains as to what to do next. Richard had called Patrice Rondeau and asked her to see if she could get any information on Anne's cellphone activity, from her existing contacts within the NYPD.

They briefly considered calling their contacts at the FBI, but decided that it would be a waste of time: conspiracy theorists not withstanding, the FBI would not act in such a case, without justification for a search warrant. Anne however was not answering the number that they had for her, so it was very possible that she was using a different phone.

Darcy had called the CIO of DarMed and asked that a report be run, of all phone calls that had gone through the company system, to and from Anne's office line, along with backup copies of her emails. One of Richard's staff was en route to the office, to take possession of the material as soon as it was prepared, to bring it down to them. Patrice Rondeau was expected at the house later in the afternoon; her investigator's software would facilitate tracing Anne's phone calls.

At about noontime, finally overcome by a lack of sleep and anxiety, Darcy fell asleep on his study's sofa. Richard remained at the desk, making notes of everything and anything that he could recall having happened over the last several weeks, both at DarMed and in their personal lives, hoping to discover a nexus. He briefly considered pouring himself a shot of Jim Beam but then decided that the afternoon was likely to be a long one, and that the liquor would only serve to lessen his energy.

Gardenia Island

Anne Bourger watched with some amusement as George Wickham explained to Lydia Bennet what her role in her first feature film would be. Lydia's reaction quickly went from disbelief to denial. Although she had been aware that the 'film' soon to be in production was an adult video, she had not considered that she would be doing anything other than the types of activities in which she already engaged. She found Wickham to be very handsome, and for her, the notion of her becoming a porn star made for a very good joke.

"You want me to have sex with another girl? You're out of your fucking mind. I thought I was coming out here to get it on with you, George."

This refrain continued in several different variations, until Anne stepped into the fray. "Listen, you little twat," she said. "You'll do exactly what you are told to do. It may have not yet occurred to your pea-sized brain, but there's no way off of this island without us, unless you think that you can swim the mile from here to the mainland. So shut your trap and strip, right now."

When Lydia remained frozen in place, Anne looked at Wickham. He walked up to her, and grasping the plunging neckline of her flimsy top, quickly ripped the garment in two. Then he grabbed hold of her bra and yanked it so hard towards him, that the front plastic clasp gave way, allowing her well-endowed chest to spill out. He took a hold of her nipples with each hand and quickly twisted them. After she yelped, he did it again and then leaned towards her.

"If I have to cut those jeans off with a knife, there's no telling what else I may cut off in the process. Take them off, now."

Lydia finally did as she was told and soon stood naked in front of them, except for the remains of her bra.

Anne pointed to a coffee table, near the sofa where she was sitting. "Stretch out on that, on your back, and spread your legs. Pretend that you're at your gynecologist's office. My little worm will show you how it's done." She looked at the corner of the room, where she had ordered Maya to stand until called, like a child being punished. "Get over here, Maya-maggot. You have some teaching to do."

The young woman, who was also naked, scurried over to the table and knelt in front of Lydia. Anne nudged her sharply with her foot. "Make sure you look and sound like you're enjoying it, so Lydia will know how to perform, when it's her turn."

Wickham walked closer to the table, enjoying the sight. A bulging erection was clearly visible through his jeans.

"Perhaps Lydia would like a preview of you as well, George. It might make her realize she'd rather be fucking another girl."

The man did not need anymore encouragement. His pants and briefs off, he gestured something to Anne. "If you don't mind."

"Be my guest," Anne replied.

A few moments later, the sounds coming from the Asian woman were not play-acting, as Wickham pushed himself into her rear passage.

"See, little Lydia. Be careful what you wish for." With that, Anne sat back in her chair and pleasured herself, while she watched the scene in front of her. She ardently hoped that whomever Wickham had recruited as his male stars, would be at least half as entertaining as this twit.

~.~

When the bell chimed at Darcy's townhouse in the early evening, it woke both he and Richard up, Richard having dozed off while sitting in the desk chair. Voices could soon be heard emanating from the entrance foyer. Expecting either Patrice or one of Richard's subordinates, they were both confused when instead, it turned out to be Charles Bingley stepping through the doorway of the study.

Darcy sat up and raked his hands through his hair. "Charles. I'm always pleased to see you, but why are you here? Did we have an engagement that I overlooked."

Bingley looked uncharacteristically uneasy. "No, we didn't have an engagement. I'm here as an ambassador of sorts, I guess. Half of the Bennet family and an Assistant District Attorney are downstairs. They want to see you, but thought that you might refuse to do so. So they sent me upstairs first."

"Which Bennets are here?" Darcy asked, with a wary look on his face.

"Jane, Beth, and Mary, whom you have not yet met. She's an NYPD detective, married to a New York City ADA."

Darcy glanced at his cousin, who just shrugged his shoulders. He looked back at Bingley. "Okay, send them up. Under the circumstances, I doubt that even they could make things any worse."

A minute later, Bingley returned, accompanied by the four others. Darcy was surprised to see his frequent running companion among them. "Reg, what's your involvement here?" he asked.

The group had already decided that, given what had previously gone on between the various parties, and his positive personal connection with Darcy, that Reg should initially explain why they were there.

"This is my wife, Mary Bennet," Reg replied, gesturing to his spouse. "She's a detective over at the 13th Precinct. Last week, after hearing about your concerns over your sister, Jane asked her to nose around a little, to see if anything turned up.

"She made a few phone calls about this George Wickham. That's what we're here to talk about. I assume that your sister is still missing?"

When Reg was finished, Darcy glanced at Jane Bennet in surprise and then at Beth Bennet, who did not meet his eyes.

"We have not heard a word from Georgiana since Charles' party on Tuesday." He quickly introduced Richard to both Mary and Reg. "However, we've uncovered some additional information just yesterday, which leads us to believe that she may have been taken somewhere, likely against her will, by Wickham and a troubled relative of ours."

"Dr. Darcy, is this the relative whom you mean?" Beth finally spoke, in a soft voice.

When Darcy looked at her, he saw that she was holding out a piece of paper to him. He took it from her, looked at it, and then without comment, handed it to Richard.

"Yes, that's our cousin, Anne Bourger. What is this from?" he asked, with no emotion in his voice.

"It's a still shot from a video taken at my club. She's been there a few times. I happened to go downtown early this morning, and found an employee, who had no authority to do so, deleting videos from our system. When I checked which ones she was interested in, they all included this woman."

Her voice faltered for a moment, before she added, "she also erased one which involved only George Wickham and a woman whom I later learned at Charles' party was your sister. That's why we are here."

With that, Beth stopped talking and everyone in the room waited for Darcy to explode.

Chapter 15

(Author's Note: I am taking some liberties with NYPD procedures in this chapter.)

For a moment, Darcy did not speak. Then he said something which none of them immediately understood.

"You're all wet."

"Excuse me, Will?" Bingley finally said, after five seconds of silence had passed.

"Is it raining out? All of you are wet."

"It's been pouring for the last few hours," Reg replied. "A large front has moved in. They say it might be stalled here for several days."

Darcy nodded, his attention already elsewhere. "I suppose we should hear what you have learned. We can use the dining parlor. I'll ask Dee to put up some coffee." Without further comment, he walked out of the room. A few moments later, everyone else followed in his wake.

~.~

The group had just seated themselves around the table when a harried looking attorney from Richard's staff, by the name of Ryan Noles, rushed into the room.

"I'm sorry that it took so long to get this done," he apologized, as he opened a large briefcase and pulled out several DVD cases. "It turned out that Anne had monkeyed around with her email virtual disk and added extra security walls to it," he explained. "It took them awhile to figure out what she had done."

"Were they able to bypass it?" Richard asked.

"Yes. She doesn't have ultimate administrative control, so once they worked it out, they were able to access them. They also recovered some of her Internet browsing history. The phone logs, of course, were all available."

"Are those on those DVDs?" Mary spoke up.

Noles looked at Richard, who nodded. "You can leave those here. In the meanwhile, Ryan, perhaps you can start reading through the emails. You can do that in the study upstairs, if you don't mind. I can get you started."

"Sure."

The two of them left the room.

"What type of Internet access do you have, Dr. Darcy?" Mary asked.

"Wi-Fi. You can access it in here, if you want."

Mary removed a laptop from the case which she had brought with her and soon had it running. She slipped one of the DVDs into a tray and then began typing quickly. Meanwhile, Reg opened his briefcase and removed a form, which he slid over to Darcy.

"Will, can you sign this? It gives the NY District Attorney's Office your authorization to check these DarMed files against their database of known offenders and persons of interest. We can also run the numbers through the local phone carrier."

Darcy had picked up the pen and was about to sign, when he paused and looked up at Reg. "Known offenders?" he asked.

"Dr. Darcy, we can generally access land-line phone records from phone companies on our own, without a search warrant," Mary replied. "It will be faster to use the disks. Since these are your own internal records, we require your authorization or the order of a Grand Jury. While the files are being compared, we can tell you what we've learned. If your cousin is connected to something this Wickham is up to, there is a chance, even if it is remote, that something will pop out. And if it does, we may be able to request a search warrant for access to other records for one or both of them, such as cellphone records."

"It's one of the few things that I'm good for," Reg observed, hoping to slightly lift the pall hanging over the room.

"Indeed," Mary muttered as she quickly typed at her keyboard.

Darcy smiled weakly. "Okay." He signed the form and pushed it across the table, just as Richard rejoined them. "Now, I would appreciate hearing what you've found out," Darcy said.

Gardenia Island

A cellphone rang just as George Wickham and Anne were finishing dinner. Fishing a device out of his pocket, Wickham looked at the display before turning the phone off.

"Who was that?" Anne asked.

Wickham tossed the phone on the table. "It's Sleeping Beauty's cell. Yet another frantic call from her devoted brother, Will Darcy."

A second later, another phone in his pocket began to ring. He grimaced after he answered it.

"Hi Dom. I thought you guys would have been here by now," he said.

"What are you, a fucking moron?" said the man at the other end of the call. His name was Dominic Santini. "It's pouring fucking cats and dogs out there. Mr. C. decided that he wanted to check things out for himself, and he ain't about to come out in this fucking weather."

Anne saw Wickham pale. "What made him decide that?" he asked.

"Well, when he realized that the girl involved was from some fucking super rich family, he wanted to make sure there was no problem."

"She's over twenty-one and consented," Wickham replied. "Her cousin is here. She can attest to that."

Anne frowned at the reference to herself and gestured at Wickham to get off of the phone. He shook his head: there was no way that he was hanging up on Santini.

"Mr. C., he don't care about no attesting shit. He wants to see things for himself. And besides, those two fucking mules you found as your male co-stars, they showed up here late and stoned, with a fucking attitude." He laughed harshly. "So, he don't want to use them. We're gonna replace them. The one named Vinny’s gonna be busy with his dentist, anyway."

"But the longer we're here, the more expensive it will be," Wickham said. "I'm not even sure whether the Garissons will let us extend our arrangements."

Santini laughed. "Bullshit walks but money talks. And it's Mr. C's money, not yours. Not for nothing, you should be kissing his feet for giving you another fucking chance."

"When do you expect to get here?" Wickham asked.

"When we do. Mr. C. gets sea-sick easy, and he won't go up in one of those freaking whirlybirds, smart man that he is. So when the weather clears up, we'll be there," Santini replied. "And if you know what's good for your ass, dis better be worth Mr. C's time."

"Yes. Okay. It will be."

Wickham disconnected the phone and took a large swallow from a glass of wine.

"I assume that was one of your partners," Anne said, clearly annoyed. "Is there a problem?"

"No, they're just delayed by the weather."

"Well, I hope they get here soon. I want this to be coordinated with Ralph's stuff."

Wickham just nodded in response.

"I'm going upstairs," Anne said. She glanced over at the young woman standing in a corner of the room. "Forget about Maya tonight. I've got plans for her." As an afterthought she added, "I suppose I shouldn't be too annoyed with your friends, since after all, they did find her for me."

Her remark notwithstanding, Anne left the room wondering whether getting this involved with Wickham had been a smart move. As Wickham went in search of Lydia, he was thinking much the same thing about Anne Bourger.

Gramercy Park West

Mary Bennet finished describing the path that her cursory investigation had taken on Friday, telling Darcy and Richard about what she had learned of George Wickham's run-ins with both the Organized Crime and SVU units. Richard's comment summed up their reaction succinctly. "It's a shame that the Coluccis didn't manage to deal with him before Georgiana met him. I can't believe that any New York bank actually made a significant loan to him."

"He can be very convincing," Beth said quietly, causing everyone in the room to turn and look at her. "Plus, I suspect he had a connection to the bank through his step-brother."

"Perhaps you should pick up the story from this point, Beth," Mary suggested.

Beth nodded. "I had learned about some of what Mary had uncovered yesterday, while Jane and I were driving home from a family dinner. After discovering what my employee had done this morning, I knew that something strange was obviously going on. So, I stopped at Mary's on my way home to tell her about Meredith deleting the tapes, which also included ones of your cousin, who had first been brought to my club by Wickham."

"At that point, I decided to try to track down Jo Perez, the SVU detective who had dealt with George Wickham in the past, today, instead of waiting until tomorrow," Mary continued. "As luck would have it, she was working on Sunday and was at her desk. She sent me her notes on the interviews that she had with him, and some other information that she had discovered at the time.

"She had reached out to one of her informants then, who had nosed around a bit, and reported back to her that this Wickham was obsessed with becoming a big-time 'cutting edge' porn producer. He had convinced Victor Colucci, head of the crime family of the same name, to back some grandiose movie that he was planning awhile ago. It fell through for some reason, which led to his problem with the mob, since he had spent their money with no return."

Mary paused, to take a sip of coffee. She glanced at her husband, who nodded encouragingly.

"Jo was intrigued enough with what I told her about Wickham and Beth's...club.." Here, she paused again briefly, her disapproval of her sister clear in her voice. "So, she decided to reach out to her informer again. To our mutual surprise, she got a hold of him by phone pretty quickly."

"And?" Darcy asked.

Mary looked him straight in the eye. "He made some calls and found out that Wickham was back in business again, once again with Colucci family backing. Before coming over here, I spoke to my squad commander, and he agreed that given the Colucci connection, to put in a priority request for the LUDs for Wickham's home phone number. We also opened a missing person's file on Ms. Darcy."

"LUDs?" Darcy asked.

"Those are details of local calls made from and to a given phone number. The police can request the name and number information from phone companies, without a warrant," Richard informed him. At that moment, his own cellphone rang. "Damn. It's Warrington," he muttered to his cousin. "I routed that number to my cellphone, if he called on the weekend." He got up and walked out of the room.

"Maybe we should take a break," Darcy said. "I asked Dee to make some sandwiches. If anyone needs the bathroom, there's one at the end of the hall." He then rose and left the room as well.

When he returned several minutes later, he was with Dee Reynolds, who went to an alcove at one end of the room, which apparently contained a dumbwaiter. Only Beth was in the room, the two couples having stepped out. She glanced at Darcy briefly, then looked away. He busied himself with helping Dee put food out on a sideboard.

As everyone but Richard returned, they spent a few minutes helping themselves to some refreshments. Charles Bingley at that point excused himself and left for home, Jane having suggested to him that he did not need to hear the next part of the discussion. When the rest had assembled again at the table, Darcy asked Beth what she could tell them about George Wickham. She had expected the question.

"George Wickham is the brother-in-law of Andrea Lawrence, who was my advisor at Columbia and remains a close friend. He is her husband Mark's step-brother, not a blood relation. Mark's mother died when he was fairly young. His father eventually remarried; his second wife already had a son of her own, George, who is several years younger than Mark. The marriage did not last that long but the sons stayed connected.

"The family is from Rhode Island; Mark went to college in Boston, where he and my advisor met and married. George went to the Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied architecture. He eventually relocated to New York, where he was introduced to me by Dr. Lawrence."

She stopped talking at that point.

"What else?" Darcy asked.

Beth appeared to be ill at ease. "Dr. Lawrence referred him to me strictly in connection with my club. Other than his visits there and what I've already told you, I do not really know anything else about him. The number we have on file for him is no longer in service. I don't even know where he lives."

Darcy regarded her without comment for such a long time, that Beth had to will herself not to squirm. She could well imagine what he was thinking.

"What about our cousin?" he finally asked.

"George brought her to TSB about five months ago. She introduced herself as Darla Barringer. She's been to the club several times, sometimes as a participant, sometimes as a voyeur, if you will. Some participants permit others to watch their scenes. All of our activities are taped, by participant consent.

"The tapes that Meredith deleted, were the three where Darla was a participant. The last one was from about a month ago. Her co-participant stopped the scene, since Darla - Anne - had gone beyond the agreed upon rules. One of my staff had some words with her. She has not been back since then."

"And my sister?" Darcy's emotions were still unreadable.

"She came to the club for the first time and only time last Saturday, with George. She introduced herself as Gina Dare."

Right at that moment, Ryan Noles appeared once again at the entry to the dining room. "Mr. Darcy, Richard wants you to join him in the study."

~.~

After Darcy left, the group sat in silence for several minutes, until Mary Bennet's laptop sounded a tone. Mary pulled it towards her; she quickly scanned the screen and then sat back, appearing to be quite startled.

"What is it, Mare?" Reg asked, noting her reaction.

"Relatively speaking, Ms. Bourger receives a low volume of calls and makes even fewer," Mary said. "However, one of the incoming calls got a hit on the Known Offender list."

Mary looked over at her husband. "It lasted twenty seconds, much too long for a wrong number. It was from a cellphone number associated at the time with the Colucci family. It was made six weeks ago."

"Holy shit," Reg blurted out, before he could stop himself. Then his wife's laptop beeped again.

Before anyone else could react, Jane stood up. "Beth, I need to speak to you about something. Since Mary is already set up here, maybe we could find ourselves another room; the house appears to have enough of them."

Beth got to her feet and followed Jane out into the hall. They walked towards the front of the house and into what appeared to be its formal parlor. Beth dropped wearily down onto a sofa upholstered with dark green damask silk. She watched as her sister closed the door and then began to pace around the room.

"You'll wear out his expensive Persian rug," Beth eventually said. "Just come out with it, Jane."

Jane finally took a seat on a nearby ottoman and stared at her sister.

"Elizabeth, it seems irrefutable that your Wickham is not just a narcissistic liar but someone who is potentially dangerous. You told me earlier that you were very disturbed by what happened at your club between him and Will's sister, although you were not specific about exactly what happened. Now it appears that their cousin is in touch with the same hoodlums as Wickham. Do you think that it is possible that Georgiana is being forced into something against her will, possibly pornography, if what Mary learned is correct?"

"It's hard to know for certain without knowing more about her, but yes, it's possible. It's also possible that she is a woman who likes being humiliated."

"If you think there is any chance that the answer is 'yes', you need to call the Lawrences and find out if they know where he is. Frankly, I can't imagine that she would have referred him to you if she knew about his...his aspirations."

"Alleged aspirations."

"Elizabeth."

Beth put her hands up. "I know. I know. But don't you realize how much this entire situation calls my judgment, among other things, into question? And I'm not suggesting that it shouldn't be, but still, it is not easy."

~.~

In Darcy's study, he and Richard were discussing a hitherto unread email that Noles had found in Anne's in-box. It had been sent to her by the Tulsa Post, a newspaper covering the Tulsa, Oklahoma area; it had arrived after she had taken her unanticipated vacation. It appeared to be the type of email response which was sometimes generated when one filled out a form on a web page, requesting information. It was also obviously much delayed.

Please be advised that the information that you requested on 2_27_08, is not available in our computerized database. Copies of the Tulsa Post for the period 11_2002 to 4_2003 are available only in hard copy. Copies may be purchased at the rate of 10 cents per page by completing.....

"Tulsa," Darcy said. "What could Anne possibly have been wanted with five year old newspapers from Oklahoma?"

Richard and Darcy were still staring at the computer screen when Mary Bennet and her husband walked into the room.

"Will, Mary may have found a few things of significance," the prosecutor announced.

"While you were downstairs earlier, Mr. Fitzwilliam, you got a phone call," Mary said. "Before you left the room, I thought you said that it was from someone named Warrington. You sounded displeased. Was that the case?"

"Yes," Richard said. "Why?"

"Is this the number?" She handed him a piece of paper.

Richard pulled out his cellphone and checked. "Yes. That's it." He looked up at Mary in surprise. "This number was in her records?" he asked, incredulous.

"A call from that number came into her office a little over a month ago, and only lasted a few seconds," Mary said. "Would he have a reason to be calling Ms. Bourger?" Mary asked.

"No, not involved with her job," Richard replied. He hesitated for a moment. "Detective, we have not made you aware of an additional problem that we are having at Dar-Med, involving a threatened lawsuit which we believe to be an extortion attempt," Richard said. "Ralph Warrington is the attorney representing the other party."

Mary nodded, as if completely unsurprised by that news. "Your cousin also received a twenty second call several weeks ago, from a cellphone number which had previously been identified as being associated with the Colucci family."

"The Colucci family!? The fucking mob!?" Darcy was close to shouting. "What in God's name is going on here!?"

"What do you think that these short calls mean?" Richard asked, ignoring his cousin's outburst. "A highly unlikely coincidence of wrong numbers?"

Mary shook her head. "The Colucci call was too long for a wrong number. As to the Warrington call, based on the circumstances that you just described, I think it's much more likely that he was intending to call her. She probably immediately hung up, in order to contact him in some other way. We don't catch criminals just because we're good: it helps that they're often stupid. Is this extortion attempt something recent?"

"Yes, within the last month. We actually met with the FBI on this past Friday, because of some of the facts involved," Richard said. "It's a product liability case which alleges that we caused the death of a patient was implanted with a device that we never sent to market, fraudulently labeled as an approved device."

"Who is the plaintiff?" Reg asked.

"Ah. There's the rub," Richard said. "The paperwork which we have received to date indicates only the name of the deceased, not the plaintiff. And because no suit has yet to actually be filed, we have no legal right to even request the patient's medical records."

"Is it a local case?"

"No, Providence, Rhode Island."

Richard began explaining the complicated details of the P-11 situation to Reg and Mary.

Only half-listening to him, Darcy stood behind Noles and watched as the young attorney scrolled through additional emails. Then he suddenly turned around and stepped towards the two law enforcement officers. "You think that he is trying to involve Georgiana in a porn film?" he asked. The flat tone of his voice belied the fact that he thought that he was about to vomit.

"I won't lie to you, Will," Reg said. "From what Mary has learned, it's definitely a possibility."

~.~

Beth was sitting by herself in the front parlor when its door swung open and Darcy walked into the room. He sat down heavily into an armchair across from her and then stared at the floor without speaking. She watched him until she could not bear it any longer.

"Dr. Darcy, I want you to know that.."

Darcy held up his hand to her and she stopped speaking. "I suppose that you know that my cousin Anne received a call from the same mobsters that this Wickham appears to be involved with?" he asked.

"Yes. I was in the room when Mary discovered that."

"Both your sister and brother-in-law believe that they may be planning to involve my sister in a porn film. Dr. Bennet, I implore you, I beg you to call your friend and find out where he is."

"Dr. Darcy, I regret to say that I cannot. She.."

Darcy jumped to his feet, looking every bit as menacing as he had when he had accosted her at The Second Birth.

"What on earth is wrong with you? You are part of the healing professions! Have you no compassionate bone in your body?"

When Beth next spoke, he could barely hear her. But her response struck him as no weapon could.

"I called Andrea Lawrence a half hour ago. They have no other phone number for Wickham. They have not spoken to him for weeks. She has no idea where he is."

~.~

Monday 1AM

Beth Bennet had been asleep for a quarter hour when her phone began to ring. She reached over to her nightstand and grabbed the handset, then muttered a drowsy hello.

"Beth, it's Jane. Did I wake you?"

"It's okay. What is it?" Beth asked.

"Oh, sorry. I would have waited until tomorrow but Cathy just called me. Lydia hasn't come home and Mom is getting frantic about it."

Beth pulled herself into a sitting position and turned on a nearby lamp.

"This is Lydia we are talking about," she said. "She's probably having too good of a time wherever she is to return home, or even to call."

"I had the same reaction, but then I learned that Dad was going to take her car shopping in the morning. There's no way that she'd miss that, for any reason."

Beth frowned. Lydia had been obsessing about buying a car for what felt like a decade now but which was probably closer to a year, as she saved for the down payment. She had to agree with Jane: Lydia was unlikely to forget that date. "Where was she supposed to have gone?" she asked.

"Cathy said she was going into Manhattan but she thought that she was planning to head out of town for a few days with some new guy. Beyond that, she knew nothing else."

~.~

Hours later, Darcy lay in his bed staring into the darkness. He had failed his Georgiana once, as he learned from reading her computer diary. Now it seemed that he had failed her again, with tragic consequences. For the first time in years, he had no idea what to do next.

When the phone on his nightstand suddenly rang, it jolted him out of his stupor. He grabbed the cell and barked a terse greeting.

"Is this Darcy?" an accented female voice softly asked.

"Yes. Who is this?"

"You want help your sister?"

"Who the hell is this? What do you know about Georgiana?" Darcy demanded.

"I am Maya. You come for your sister? You take me too?"

"Where is my sister? Tell me!"

The voice on the other end of the call began to break up. Darcy was unable to understand most of what the woman was saying. Before the line went dead, he thought however that he heard her say island. He hit the call-back button on the phone; it rang several times before going to voice mail.

This is Georgie. Leave a message and I'll call you back.

Not the least concerned about the hour, Darcy jumped out of bed and grabbed a stack of business cards from his bureau. He soon found one given to him by Reg Jackson. A minute later, he was using the conference function on his phone to call both Reg and his cousin Richard.