“Good question,” Nancy said. “And how am I going to find him without alerting his uncle?”
“Doesn’t he live with his uncle above the gallery?” George asked. “We could wait for him outside.”
“We are going to a wedding rehearsal,” Bess reminded her cousin.
George shut her eyes. “Joanne added me to the wedding procession. Bess is supposed to carry wildflowers, and I’m supposed to carry a set of gongs or something.”
“Bells,” Bess corrected her. “You’re carrying a set of Japanese bells.”
Nancy grinned. “Thanks for the answer to my question. I’ll wait for Jimmy near the gallery and pray I don’t run into Mr. Mai.”
• • •
Shortly after Keith picked up Bess and George for the wedding rehearsal, Nancy parked her car a few blocks from the Fe T’sui Gallery. She looked at her watch. It was almost three. She had no idea where Jimmy Thieu might be on a Saturday afternoon. She hoped he was somewhere nearby. What she needed was a spot from which she could safely observe the gallery.
A sidewalk café diagonally across from the gallery seemed to be the perfect place—if Mr. Mai didn’t spot her first. Nancy sat down at one of the outdoor tables and ordered an iced tea. Then she opened a newspaper in front of her face and began the waiting game. The air had gotten cooler, she noticed, and the fog hadn’t lifted. She peered over the top of the paper. The fog completely covered the bay.
Nancy didn’t have long to wait. About fifteen minutes after she sat down, she saw Jimmy’s slight figure in the distance, walking up from the bay. Nancy paid for her tea and made her way down the hill, careful to keep to the side of the street. She didn’t want Jimmy to see her until the last minute. She was sure he would run if he did.
She was about forty yards away from the boy when he spotted her. He immediately turned back toward the water.
“Jimmy, please wait!” Nancy called out. “I need to talk to you.”
He ignored her.
“Amy was kidnapped!” Nancy shouted at his back.
The boy stopped and slowly turned to face her. “What?”
“She was kidnapped by a man who drives a dark red car,” Nancy said, walking slowly toward the boy. “She’s home now and all right, but if you know who he is, I need your help.”
Jimmy’s dark eyes were unreadable. At last he said, “This isn’t a good place to talk. Meet me in an hour by the cove in Tennessee Valley.”
Nancy remembered passing the sign for the beach earlier that week. “All right,” she said, hoping she could trust him. “One hour.”
• • •
Tennessee Valley, Nancy mused as she pulled into the parking lot for the beach. What an odd name for a place in northern California. A sign at the head of the trail explained that the valley was named after a ship, the Tennessee, that had gone down just offshore in 1853. Nancy shivered as she read the description. The day was rapidly getting cooler, and the fog seemed even thicker than before.
Nancy pulled her jacket tightly around her and set off down the trail that led to the beach. A rider on horseback passed her, the muffled sound of the horse’s hooves making her aware of just how quiet it was. It’s a good thing I arrived early, Nancy thought to herself. This trail must be well over a mile long. She wondered if Jimmy was already waiting for her.
The trail wound downhill to the ocean. Nancy noticed that as she got closer to the water, the fog thickened. By the time she reached the small cove, she could barely see ten feet in front of her. This feels too much like the first time I met Jimmy, she thought, remembering the chase through the redwoods.
And then a shadow slipped out from behind the rocks at the edge of the beach, and Jimmy Thieu was standing before her. “What happened to Amy?” he asked at once.
Nancy told him, finishing with a question of her own. “Do you know the man in the dark red car?”
The boy shrugged. “I know he’s the one who broke into Amy’s house and stole the trunk,” he answered matter-of-factly.
“Because the jade tiger was hidden inside it?”
“I’m not sure,” Jimmy said. “All I know is he brought the trunk to my uncle. He must have sold it to him.”
“What else can you tell me?” Nancy asked.
Jimmy picked up a stone and threw it into the water. The beach was now so fogged in that Nancy couldn’t even see the ocean.
“He’s big and blond,” Jimmy said. “Over six feet tall. His name is Malcolm Elgar, and the first time he got in touch with my uncle, he called from Thailand. I know because I took the phone call.”
This was more information than Nancy had expected to get from the boy.
Jimmy’s next words took her by surprise. “Is he after you?”
“It sounds that way,” Nancy said truthfully. “I think he kidnapped Amy as a warning to me to drop the case.”
“Then you’re crazy if you don’t drop it,” Jimmy said. “I don’t know much about Elgar except that he’s dangerous. You only have to be around him about two seconds to pick up on that.” He shook his head angrily, and the silver earring glimmered in the dull light. “If you care about Amy, then don’t mess with Malcolm Elgar.”
“If you care about Amy, why didn’t you tell her any of this?” Nancy asked. “Why didn’t you warn her?”
The boy’s eyes flashed with anger. “I tried. That’s why I went up there the night of the storm. But she wasn’t home. And every time I tried to call, her father answered the phone.”
Nancy sighed with exasperation. “You couldn’t have forced yourself to talk to Terry?”
“No,” Jimmy said.
“Why—” But before she could finish her sentence, the boy ran off into the fog. “Jimmy!” she called. “Jimmy! Wait!”
There was no answer. He was gone. Great, Nancy thought as a light drizzle began to fall. It’s going to be a lot of fun trying to find the car in this. She wished she’d brought a flashlight.
