“What I want to know,” Jake Rosenthal broke into the silence that followed Siobhan’s reading in which each member of the crew was digesting and assessing the words from their own perspective, “is what the fuck,” the vulgarity coming from the polished man was a revelation, a glimpse at the man whose fingers had held so tightly to the story that was his last connection to his wife, “is what this insanity is. Was someone stalking my wife? Did they build some perverse fantasy around her? Did they kidnap her?”
“The details,” Dan started slowly, careful to gauge the man’s response to the question, “are they valid?”
Jake nodded. “Yes. I wasn’t aware of my wife’s pain and if I had known…” He stopped for a moment, his mouth tightening before he breathed in control, “The details are right. That is a story about my wife.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Siobhan asked, her gentle tone the one she soothed scared children. This man, Jake, was not a child but he was definitely, beneath the urbane and controlled surface, scared.
“I was at a meeting that ran late. Diana and I had plans for a social function, some thousand a plate fundraiser,” his hand wave dismissed this as just a daily occurrence which it likely was in his level of society. “I came in expecting Diana to be waiting for me in the rotunda. That’s usually where she’d be if I was late and we had plans. She didn’t like to be the cause of delay.” A soft look entered his eyes and then he frowned. “But she wasn’t there. And on the table in the center of the rotunda this thing,” he gestured at the papers Siobhan still held like they were a poisonous snake, “was propped up, like I was meant to find it as soon as I entered.”
He brushed his chestnut hair back from his forehead with a hand that was just a little unsteady. “I called the butler, George, but he hadn’t seen Diana for close to an hour. Neither had the scully or Mrs. Birch, our head of house. Or the cook or the gardeners, she liked to sit in the garden for long periods of time under that tree mentioned in the story. I placed calls. I got Raina involved, which was its own challenge,” the roll of his eyes said just how much of one but also spoke of a certain wry affection for his wife’s best friend. “And then I waited…”
“For the ransom demand.” Ivan finished.
“Yes. Exactly.” Jake nodded. “You understand. In my circles things like this are spoken of in whispers. Talk of someone whose daughter disappeared and then returned a few days later and the wife no longer had her emeralds. Or a husband would take overlong to return from a business trip and their summer cottage would be sold. It’s always a possibility.”
He propped his elbow on the arm of the chair, pressed his knuckles to his mouth, and looked sightlessly at the wall behind Siobhan. After a short time in which the crew held their silence in respect and Patti’s assessing gaze ping ponged between him and the other members of the group, he focused again.
“Find my wife. I will pay you.”
Dan leaned in, offering his hand across the table. “Mr. Rosenthal we don’t need money to do the right thing.”
“Although the wrong thing will cost you,” Kim quipped quietly to Prairie who muffled her giggle with a hand.
Enter The Woods 