Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,4
She wasn’t afraid of him—well, not exactly—but she didn’t doubt he was a dangerous man.
“I don’t know everything. Just what’s gone on since she filed for financial assistance and I was assigned her case three years ago. And what I know as her friend.”
“What about Bridger?”
“I was able to get a copy of the police report. They looked into finding him. Came up with nothing.”
“Why not?”
“The police think the name Troy Bridger is an alias.”
Ben leaned back in his chair. “You’re kidding me, right? You’re telling me the cops don’t have a damned thing on the guy who may have abducted my son?”
“They don’t know who he really is, and they don’t know where he’s gone. They know his address before he left town because Laura knew where he moved after they broke up. I was able to give them the information. Laura also told me he worked as a crane operator for a big construction company, but the police talked to his supervisor and he said Troy quit a couple of weeks ago.”
“What about fingerprints? There had to be some in his apartment.”
“They didn’t find a match. I’m sorry. I wish I knew more, but I don’t.”
“Why are you so sure Bridger has Sam?”
“Troy drove a beat-up Chevy pickup. Sam’s foster parents said he came to the house to see Sam a couple of times. I talked to the neighbors. One of them saw his truck in the area the day Sam went missing.”
“You got a plate number?”
“No.”
“Have the cops got a BOLO out on the guy?”
“Yes. They’re looking for him as a person of interest, but so far they haven’t found any trace or him or Sam.”
Tension rippled across those wide shoulders. “So there’s nothing under Bridger’s name, no driver’s license, no registration, no plate number. Nothing.”
“The police say his driver’s license was a forgery. There’s no real proof Troy Bridger ever existed.”
Ben raked a hand through his thick black hair. His now-cold coffee sat nearly untouched in front of him. “You think this guy Bridger took him, but the police and Sam’s foster parents think he ran away. Why would he do that?”
She wished she didn’t have to tell him. She wished it weren’t true. “Sam was wildly unhappy in the Roberson house. I promised him he wouldn’t have to stay there forever. I tried very hard to get custody myself, but the judge thought Sam would be better off with a couple. I told Sam I was going to keep trying. If that didn’t work, I’d make sure he got moved to a family he liked.”
“But Sam didn’t want to wait,” Ben guessed.
“That’s right.” Just thinking about the betrayal she had seen in Sam’s eyes made her heart hurt. “He threatened to run away a couple of times, but I don’t think he really would have. He was just so impatient. You know how kids can be—or maybe you don’t remember.”
He cast her a glance. “You don’t think I can remember that far back?”
She smiled. “I know you’re only thirty-three. I just meant some people kind of block out their childhood.”
“Well, I remember mine way too well.”
She mulled that over, knew from Laura that he’d had a tough, lonely childhood. “Sam was unhappy. I think that’s the reason he left with Troy. Troy had known his mother. That was the connection. And Troy has this dog. Pepper. A black Labrador retriever. Sam’s crazy about that dog.”
“I want to see those files, but we need to get on the road. In a missing-child case, time is crucial. You should have called me the day he disappeared. Hell, you should have called me two years ago when Laura told you my name.”
Her chin inched up. She didn’t know Ben Slocum, only what Laura had told her about him and what she’d been able to dig up on the internet. “Maybe I should have. I guess that remains to be seen.”
His jaw went hard. He looked as though he was fighting to stay in control. He released a slow breath. “I keep a bag packed. Old habit. I’ll grab it and we’re out of here. It’ll take a little longer to get through airport security, since I’m traveling with a weapon.”
“A weapon? You’re taking a gun?”
“We don’t know what we’re dealing with here. I’m not going empty-handed.”
She didn’t know how she felt about that. He was ex-military, though. If anyone ought to know how to use a weapon, she supposed it would be Ben.