Regan’s scream of anguish could be heard throughout the inn.
Brandy, her hands and apron covered with flour, was the first to reach Jennifer’s room. With an arm around Regan’s heaving shoulders, she led her to sit on the bed, taking the note from her.
Brandy looked up at the people standing in the doorway. “Someone find Travis,” she commanded. “And tell him to get here immediately.”
As Regan stood, Brandy caught her arm. “Where are you going?”
“I have to see how much money I have in the safe,” she said, dazed. “I know it’s not enough. Do you think I can sell something in two days?”
“Regan, sit down and wait for Travis. He’ll know how to get the money. Maybe he even has some with him.”
Regan didn’t seem to be aware of what she was doing as she sat back down, clutching the ransom note and one of Jennifer’s shoes.
Travis burst into the room moments later, and at the sight of him she jumped up and ran to him.
“Someone has taken my daughter!” she cried. “Do you have some money? Can you get fifty thousand dollars? Surely you can get that much.”
“Here, let me see the note,” he said, one arm firmly around her. He read it and reread it several times before looking up at the room.
“Travis,” Regan said. “What do we have to do to get the money?”
“I don’t like this,” he said under his breath and turned to Brandy. “Have you been in the kitchen all morning?”
Brandy nodded.
“And you heard nothing? Did you see any strangers in the hall?” he asked, nodding toward the corridor that led to the kitchen and Regan’s office.
“No one. Nothing unusual.”
“Go find everyone on the staff and bring them here instantly,” he commanded Brandy.
“Travis, please, we need to start getting the money.”
Travis sat down on the bed and drew Regan between his knees. “Listen to me. There’s something wrong here. There are only two ways to enter your apartment, past Brandy in the kitchen or through the back door. Brandy and her cooks are always in that hall going from the kitchen to the pantry, and no one could have walked out with Jennifer without being seen. So that leaves the back door, which I know you always keep locked. It hasn’t been broken, so Jennifer must have opened it from the inside.”
“But she wouldn’t! She knows not to do that.”
“That’s my point. She’d only open it to someone she knew and trusted, someone she knew was a friend. And now my second point, who knows you can get fifty thousand dollars? No one in town knows me, and until yesterday I didn’t know you had any money. Fifty thousand means someone knows a great deal more than the average Scarlet Springs resident.”
“Farrell!” Regan gasped. “He knows better than I do how much money I have.”
At that moment Brandy returned with the staff members, all of them quiet, wide-eyed—and behind them was Farrell Batsford.
“Regan,” he said. “I just heard the awful news. Is there anything I can do?”
Travis brushed past him as he began to question the staff, asking if they’d seen anything at all unusual this morning, if they had seen Jennifer with anyone.
While they were thinking, remembering nothing, Travis grabbed a maid’s hand.
“What is this on your fingers? Where did it come from?”
Stepping back, the girl looked frightened. “It’s ink. It came off the sheets in number twelve.”
Expectantly, he turned to Regan.
“Margo’s room,” she said heavily.
Without another word, he left the apartment through the back door and headed for the stables, Regan running after him. He was tossing a saddle onto a horse when she caught him.