“Yes, sir. That is correct.”

“You’re using that picture I provided?”

“Yes, we are, sir.”

“Have you looked at the security tapes from the ATMs?”

“Yes, sir. The girl had her hair stuffed inside a cap. None of the tapes revealed the presence of a baby, but she had a lot of clothes and boxes piled in the car, and it was impossible to view the far side of the backseat. There was a dog in the passenger side of the front seat.”

Yes, Gus thought. Kelly had said she took her dog with her. “Can you get a still of the dog?” he asked.

“We can try.”

“What about the hospitals in those two towns?” Gus asked. “The nurse here says the girl probably would have needed some stitches.”

“We thought of that. No one fitting her description and circumstances showed up at the emergency rooms in either city. We also checked with the family practitioners, obstetricians, and midwives in both towns, but the girl had not contacted any of them.”

“What about other towns?” Gus demanded.

“There aren’t any other towns in that area large enough to have a physician or a midwife.”

Gus looked at the map he had spread out in front of him. “Go on up into Kansas-to Ulysses, Garden City, Dodge City. To any town that has any sort of medical practitioner. And check at service stations, convenience stores, roadside diners. She has to buy gas and she has to eat. And if the baby is alive, she’ll need diapers and other baby stuff. And she would have had to stop and sleep by now. Check motels for any young woman who paid cash. This is the highest priority. You got that! Highest priority! I want that girl and her baby found.”

Gus slammed down the phone. The girl was outsmarting them.

He got up and kicked a wastebasket across the room. He started to throw a crystal decanter against the wall but decided instead to pour himself a glass of sherry. He downed it and poured another.

It was time for him to talk to Amanda.

Chapter Twenty-six

AMANDA HAD JUST stepped out of the tub and wrapped herself in a warm towel when Toby tapped on the door. “Your brother is on the phone,” he said. Then he stepped inside and, wearing a playful look, tried to pull the towel away.

She hit the side of his head with her fist and stormed out of the bathroom. He knew how upset she was about Montgomery. She was in mourning, for God’s sake. All the man could think about was sex.

“Gus, darling, why haven’t you returned my calls?” she asked, allowing her voice to sound a bit angry. It wasn’t like Gus to ignore her. “Are you still at the ranch? I thought you would be back home by now.”

“I am still at the ranch,” Gus said, his voice weary.

“Freda said the service for Montgomery went well, but I wanted to hear it from you,” Amanda said. “And we need to discuss a grave marker. Something in pink granite, I think. I still can’t believe that she’s gone and that I’m never going to see her again.” Amanda closed her eyes against the pain.

And the anger.

How could Montgomery have done this to her? Montgomery knew how much she and Gus depended on her. How much they cared for her. Who was going to look after Mother now? And the ranch?

“Are you sure she didn’t leave a note?” Amanda asked. “She owed us some explanation of why she would do such a thing. Or do you think she had a nervous breakdown?”

“Something like that,” Gus said. “She was very upset, Amanda. And she had reason to be. Jamie Long left the ranch.”

“Left the ranch!” Amanda cried out. “But why? Did she come back?”

“No. I have people out looking for her, but it’s been three days now since she left. We think she’s someplace in Kansas.”

“I don’t understand. Why would she be in Kansas?” Amanda demanded, her brow tightening with apprehension. “The baby is due in a couple of weeks. Surely she’ll return to the ranch to have the baby.”

“Amanda, Jamie Long has already had the baby. She had it by herself in a deserted farmhouse during a snowstorm.”

Amanda sank to the side of the bed and put her hand to her throat. “The baby is all right, isn’t he?”

“I have no idea.”

“How do you know she had a baby if you haven’t seen it?” Amanda rubbed her forehead. Her brother wasn’t making any sense. No sense at all. But he was frightening her. Really frightening her.

“There was graphic evidence of a recent birth at that house,” Gus said. “I seriously doubt if some other woman had traveled to Marshall County to have a baby on her own in the middle of a blizzard.”

“That terrible girl!” Amanda shrieked. “You have to find her! To find our baby!”

“I will,” Gus promised, “but it may take a while. I have been making some phone calls. I plan to arrange for a soon-to-be-born baby to use as a stand-in until we find Sonny’s baby.”

“No,” she screamed. “I don’t want another baby!”

“Amanda, I want you to take a deep breath and listen to me. Listen very carefully. What if your supposed due date comes and goes and there is no baby? Your followers will be expecting an announcement of his birth and a picture of you with a baby. They are waiting with bated breath for that picture, and I’m not even sure that Jamie Long’s baby is still alive. It was three weeks early, and the girl was alone when she had it. I saw that house, Amanda. There was a lot of blood, and it was bitterly cold.”

Amanda drew in her breath. “No,” she gasped. “I would know if the baby died. God would have told me.”

“That may very well be,” Gus said, “but until I find Sonny’s baby, we may need another one to use in its place.”

“No, Gus, no,” Amanda said, tears rolling down her face. “Please, I have to have Sonny’s baby. I have to. You know that. I don’t want Toby anymore. I just want you and our baby.”

“And you will have him,” Gus said, his voice breaking. “You have my solemn promise.”

Gus hung up the phone and drew in his breath, filling his lungs and heart and mind with resolve. He would keep his promise to his sister. He must. What good was all this power if he couldn’t give his sister the one thing that she wanted more than anything else?

He should have removed Jamie Long from the ranch long ago and put her in a more secure place. He knew as soon as he realized what Amanda was up to and that her plan was fraught with problems. His sister lived in a fairy-tale world of her own making. Gus had realized from the very beginning-even before he learned that Sonny’s semen had been used to impregnate the girl-that one of two things was probably going to happen. The girl would realize that she was a goose about to lay a golden egg and hold out for more money, or, for quite another set of reasons, the girl might decide that she wanted to keep the baby for herself. The minute he found out that she was carrying Sonny’s baby, he should have locked her up in a place far from the ranch. A place that she would never leave.

It was all his fault.

He rose from his chair and began to pace across the imposing bedchamber-with its high ceilings and massive fireplace-that had once been his larger-than-life grandfather’s. Back in his Grandfather Buck’s day, the room had contained massive furniture-a huge four-poster bed that stood four feet above the floor, oversized chairs, and tall chests whose top drawers Gus could not reach. Now the room held different furniture. Chairs he did not have to scramble into. A bed he didn’t need a stepping stool to climb into. But the furniture never looked as though it belonged in a room of such grand proportions.

He paused by the fireplace for a minute to warm his backside.

What if he couldn’t keep his promise to his sister? What if he never found the girl?

But that was ridiculous. She was clever, but it was only a matter of time until she made a mistake. There was a limit to how long she could elude the net he had thrown out there. Not without unlimited money. Not without help.