Gedeon’s gaze met Meiling’s across the room. This case suddenly jumped to priority number one. “How long has your daughter been missing?” he demanded. He wanted to ask why the man had fucked around for so long before calling him.
“Nearly a month now. I paid the ransom twice. Another demand just came in. Even if I pay it, they won’t give her to me.”
“How do you know she’s alive?” Gedeon asked, looking to Harold. Fredrick just kept shaking his head and moaning.
“We don’t. They haven’t given us proof of life. I kept telling Fredrick to wait before he paid them, that we needed to have them show us she was alive, but he was so distraught that they took her that he just paid the money.”
“If you want our help in getting your daughter back, Atwater, and finding these fuckers who took her, you’re going to have to do everything I say. Exactly what I say. You have a spy in this house. A traitor working with them. Someone is reporting to them. They can’t be aware you hired outside help. I want them to think you’re so distraught you can’t function. You’re going to be in bed, in your room, with only Harold looking after you. A doctor will come to oversee your care. Harold, you have to demand proof of life. Only you can talk to these fuckers. Atwater is too ill. Someone working here in the house will be insistent on looking in on him. You have to tell them it is the doctor’s orders that no one disturbs him. I’ll call Elijah and have him send a couple of men to help you guard Atwater’s room. You can’t be up around the clock.”
“But what about getting the money to Lilith’s kidnappers?” Fredrick asked. “They said if I didn’t bring it to them myself, they’ll kill her.”
“Didn’t they say that exact thing before?” Gedeon demanded.
Atwater nodded, slumping in his chair.
“That’s why you’re too sick to cope with anything. They’ve driven you beyond your ability to function. Your mental health is in a terrible state. You will be living in your room, keeping it dark and staying away from the windows where they might catch a glimpse of you. You aren’t eating. Harold will sneak food in to you. The doctor is giving you intravenous treatments in order to keep up your fluids and strength.”
Atwater nodded. “How is this going to help?”
“If you’re convincing enough, whoever the spy is will have to report to their boss. He or she will lead us up the chain to the one who has your daughter. We take your daughter back. In the meantime, we take a look at the books and see if we can do the tracing for you. There’s always a trail, even if it’s a faint one. You’re the key to getting your daughter back, Atwater.”
It was necessary to give the man a significant role so he felt he was helping to get his child back. Gedeon wanted to get the bastards who had taken a child from her safe haven and not returned her. All he knew was, she had better be alive.
“Where was Lilith last seen and with whom?” Meiling asked.
“She went to the park with her nanny, Minny Tangra. Minny walked with her to the little playhouse and two men came out of nowhere, both wearing masks. One hit Minny hard, knocking her to the ground. The other took Lilith. They ran with her to a waiting dark-colored BMW.”
“Do you suspect Tangra as being part of the conspiracy to kidnap your daughter?” Gedeon asked.
Atwater shook his head. “No. Minny was hit so hard she had a major concussion. For a couple of days, we were afraid she wouldn’t come out of it. She still has some issues from the injury.”
Gedeon nodded, not impressed or sympathetic. That wasn’t his job. “We’ll need her address. We need an up-to-date list of everyone who has worked here in the past four years. That includes anyone working on the grounds. If they’re single; who they’re dating, if you have the information. We’ll need to know who your daughter’s doctor is and her dentist. Who takes her there and why she didn’t have bodyguards that day. Where were they?” He made the last a question, looking between Harold and Atwater.
“As a rule, I don’t use them,” Atwater admitted. “I stopped after I got married. My wife didn’t like the idea of having them. I got out of the habit, other than having Harold with me.” He lifted his pain-filled, very guilty gaze to Gedeon’s. “It was arrogance. I have a reputation among the other families. It never occurred to me anyone would dare to kidnap my daughter.”
Gedeon bit back a curse and turned away from the man. Every pakhan he knew had bodyguards. The heads of the Italian families had bodyguards. It was arrogance beyond anything he’d heard of to think Atwater wouldn’t take a hit at some point. It hadn’t been him but a child who had suffered. Gedeon might come back and slit his throat if that child had been sold into a trafficking ring.