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“So the math works out. He could be your kid?”
“Yeah.” I shook my head. “But why wouldn’t she tell me? Hit me up for child support? She would’ve needed the money to raise him, so why not use the one play she had to ensure she’d have money every fucking month?” With one more look at the closed office door, I frowned. “That doesn’t matter right now. I’ll figure it out, but what does matter is that he doesn’t know shit about who has Jane, and he was the only lead we had.”
He jerked up his chin and reached for the doorknob. “Maybe he knows more than he thinks he does. Keep questioning him.”
I tilted my head. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m calling Luke. We got that call an hour ago. If I don’t let the police know, especially since Luke’s something of a friend to this club, and something happens to her, we’ve burned a bridge with them.”
I nodded because that made sense. Clubs didn’t often have friends on the police force, but ours did. We’d maintained that because we didn’t run any illegal businesses, but we’re also up front with them.
For the most part.
I pushed the door open and noticed Ritz leaning against the desk, but he was questioning Leo. They both glanced at me, but Leo immediately dropped his head. This kid hates me. He thinks I abandoned him. His life was probably shit, and he blames me for not being there to help out his mom, but I don’t even know if he’s mine. The timing works out, but Cindy liked men, and I wasn’t the only one she was sleeping with when that happened. I would never tell Leo that, though.
“You probably know more than you think you know,” Ritz said, and Leo lifted his eyes to meet Ritz’s stare. “How did the guy on the phone sound?”
“Older. He also had a really raspy voice, like maybe he smoked a lot.”
“That’s good.” Ritz encouraged him to continue. “Do you have a number for him?”
“No.” He dug his phone from his pocket, but it was just a burner. “It always came in unknown, and I can’t search it on this piece of shit.”
He was right. Burners were used for exactly this reason. Nothing could be traced.
“He probably switched them out every time anyway,” I added.
Bull grunted. “He’s good. Covers his tracks well. Already knew that, though, considering he’s probably military.”
Leo’s head snapped back. “How did you know that?”
“Just guessed by the way he does shit,” Bull answered.
“Why do you seem surprised that we know?”
Leo glanced back and forth between us. “Because when I asked him if he was, he said no, but he used all kinds of words and phrases that sounded like the shit I read in your file. Why would he hide that?”
“Because he was covering his ass. He knew if we found and questioned you, and you knew he was in the military, it would give us more clues as to who he is.”
“Wow, I was an easy fucking target, wasn’t I?” Leo asked sarcastically.
“Anyone who lost someone they love is a target for a fucker like this,” I said. “You lost your mom, wanted to find family, and he figured that out.” He watched me while I spoke, so I continued. “We need to figure out how he knew your story and who told him you were asking around. That’s how we’re going to figure out who he is and where he has Jane.”
“You find out who left that review?” Ritz asked.
“I messaged the guy online, told him I was thinking about having work done on my car, and he told me about your shop. Then he gave me a couple of other guys’ names he knew who you did shit for, and I messaged them, but no one answered.”
“Wouldn’t take long in this town for people to start talking.” Bull grunted. “What’s the name of the guy who left the review?”
“John Smith.”
Bull looked at me. “You remember that name?”
I thought back to the custom paint jobs I did, but that name wasn’t one I knew. “Nope.”
Ritz ran his fingers through his hair. “Of course not. Just another fucking dead end.”
“Sounds like it’s fake anyway.” Bull said exactly what I was thinking. “We need to get Kyle to dig into it.”
