Page 27 of Rufus

For most of the past seventeen years she must have assumed her mother was dead.

But the evidence Linus had presented to Rufus now implied her mother had simply packed her things and gone to live in the Cayman Islands under another name. That the house her mother already owned there and the thirty-year-old bank account in another name meant it had always been the older woman’s intention to do exactly that.

“Who makes the payments into the account?” he demanded to know, angry on Molly’s behalf.

Linus shrugged. “It’s never the same name, and the accounts the money transfers from are all closed down within hours of the payment going into Serena’s account. But,” he added purposefully, “several days before the payment is made, Serena always leaves the islands to fly somewhere else in the world. Usually the US or somewhere in Europe, but she never goes to the same location twice.”

Rufus frowned at the screen again, still trying to make sense of all Linus was telling him. “Is it possible she might be an assassin, and these payments were for her hit having been successful?” Incredible as it seemed, Sarah’s behavior definitely had all the hallmarks of that being the case.

“I believe she offers some sort of service that she’s paid a lot of money for, yes,” Linus confirmed cagily. “When she was younger, it could have been because she was the mistress of a wealthy man or men. But she’s in her fifties now, and the payments have gone up, not down, so I very much doubt that’s the explanation.”

Rufus nodded grimly. “I agree. Blackmail, maybe, for information that’s become more valuable rather than less as time passes?”

“Maybe.” Linus shrugged. “I’m going to look into that more deeply now. I just thought you should be aware of what I already have.”

“Definitely,” Rufus agreed.

Whatever the reason was behind Sarah/Serena’s behavior, it was too smoothly orchestrated, professionally so, to be the work of the single mother Sarah Harper had given every appearance of being for the first ten years of Molly’s life.

Rufus tapped his fist on the desk before standing. “I need to arrange to go to the Cayman Islands and confront Sarah/Serena.” He would do whatever he had to do to give Molly the answers, and closure, she needed and deserved.

“That’s the thing,” Linus said slowly. “It’s also the main reason I contacted you so early this morning.”

“Well?” Rufus prompted sharply when his cousin hesitated.

Linus released a noisy breath. “Flight records show that Serena Jenkins flew into London two days ago, and so far, I haven’t been able to find any record of where she went after getting in a taxi outside the airport.”

CHAPTER NINE

The second open day at the animal shelter was even busier than the first, Molly noted with satisfaction as she let yet another family go through to the viewing pens at the back of the building. The children were all having an especially good time with the smaller animals.

It was a little after eleven o’clock in the morning, and Molly hadn’t phoned Rufus, as he’d requested, when she woke up. But neither had he called her, and he had to know that she was up and would have opened the animal shelter to visitors at ten o’clock this morning.

So far this weekend, Molly had received offers for the adoption of all the dogs and cats in their care, even the hamster, and she had the names of numerous people to contact when the kittens were old enough to leave their mother. By the end of today, they would have doubled or tripled those offers of adoption. Mia would have to vet and approve the successful family, of course, before any of the animals could be released. But Molly was confident that all the adoptions would be approved for them to go to one family or another.

There had also been numerous donations to the shelter, both cash and checks, which would help to keep the shelter open for several months without the assistance of Darius Kingston or Rufus Wynter.

As Molly had expected, there had been numerous people interested in adopting Angus, the friendly West Highland terrier, as he followed her about during the morning. Molly had dutifully taken their names and telephone numbers but warned them that she believed Angus already had a home.

With Rufus, not Molly.

Because Molly wouldn’t have a permanent home she could take the little dog to after this weekend.

She had already packed most of her belongings before coming down to open the shelter for the day. Not that she had much. She never accumulated anything that wasn’t essential, only the things she needed and could carry in the large rucksack on her back when she decided to move on.

Always when, never if.

She was?—

“Hello, Molly.”

Molly’s back straightened at the sound of the female voice, a voice she instantly recognized but couldn’t believe she was hearing. For that reason, her head remained tilted downward as she looked at the ledger listing the names and telephone numbers of the visitors they’d had so far today.

She had to be hearing things!

She’d been under a lot of strain the past twenty-four hours. Even more so now, with her impending departure moving ever nearer.

When the voice didn’t speak again Molly slowly lifted her head, only to immediately startle back in her chair as she took in the appearance of a woman standing beside the open door into the reception area.

---