Special Forces Father - By Mallory Kane Page 0,39
out what the kidnapper said, but I got tied up on a case.”
“He was angry that you answered. He had told me not to tell anybody. He said that if someone else answered this time I would never see—” her breath hitched “—never see Max again.”
“So did he let you talk to Max?”
“Yes, he did.” To her dismay, her eyes filled with tears just thinking about his little voice saying, Come get me, Mommy.
“Did Max seem to be okay?” Dawson’s voice turned gentle.
“I—I think so,” Kate stammered. “He wanted his favorite car, but he said they gave him a stuffed bear and a train. And I heard a woman’s voice in the background talking to him nicely. So I think he’s being cared for. He didn’t sound upset until—”
Just as she smelled the clean, fresh smell of soap and felt the brush of cotton terry cloth, Travis’s hand covered hers. He pulled the phone away from her ear and pressed Speaker. “Dawson, it’s Travis. You’re on speaker with Kate and me.”
“Hey, Trav. Kate was just telling me about how Max is doing. Kate, you were saying?”
“He was telling me about his toys when the man took the phone away from him,” Kate said. “That was when he started getting upset—” Her voice broke. “He started crying and yelling for me. Then the man told the woman to get the kid out of here.”
“I see. I think that sounds promising.”
“What did you find out?” Travis asked.
“Not much. But more than we had. I was right about the accent. Dusty has a program that compares speech patterns and pronunciation.
“The phone he used is a prepaid one and he bought it here, so I’ve sent the serial numbers to every phone store in the greater New Orleans area. Hopefully we’ll get a hit.”
“What about the car?”
“The numbers you got plus the distinctive graphics on the windshield hit. The sticker is a Chicago city sticker. Once we had that, we got the city clerk’s office to run the partial plate for us. The car’s registered to a Shirley Hixon. Lucas contacted his brother-in-law who’s a prosecutor in Chicago. He’ll get the woman checked out for us.”
“You didn’t tell him—” Kate started.
“Nope. Just told him I needed the info. We have a good arrangement,” Dawson said. “He doesn’t ask me any questions when I need a favor, and I don’t ask him any when he needs a favor.”
She sighed in relief.
* * *
“WHAT’S THAT noise in the background?” the man who’d hired Bentley Woods asked him. “Is somebody on TV strangling a cat?”
“Ha,” Bent said with a grimace. “That kid’s a spoiled little brat.”
“Well, you better make sure he stays healthy. I thought you said your wife was taking care of him.”
“My girlfriend.”
“So anyway, like I was saying, one of the Delancey brats confronted Myron yesterday. I was out of the office or he’d have gotten to me, too. He asked Myron about Dr. Chalmet’s kid, and mentioned the abduction.”
“That must be the guy that answered the phone. Probably the same guy that’s staying at her house.”
“Staying? There’s a Delancey staying at Dr. Chalmet’s house?”
“Who?”
“Delancey. Didn’t you hear what I just said? One of the Delanceys was nosing around, asking questions. And Stamps doesn’t think he was just helping his little brother Harte with the case. He said the guy was acting like it was personal—and he mentioned the little boy.”
“All I know is what you tell me,” Bent said with exaggerated patience. “What’s so special about these Delanceys?”
“You never heard of Con Delancey?”
“I have not. Who’s Con Delancey?”
“Only one of the biggest, richest politicians ever in Louisiana. Most of his grandkids are cops. We don’t need them snooping around in this.”
“How come if everybody knows these Delanceys so well, nobody knows who went to Stamps’s house?”
“I didn’t see him. Myron did. He recognized him as a Delancey, but he didn’t know which one.”
“Oh. So he doesn’t know and you don’t know. What the hell’s this got to do with me, anyhow? I’m doing the job you’re paying me for. I’m taking care of the kid and making sure the doctor does what she’s supposed to do.”
“I’ll compensate you for the additional work.”
Bent started to ask what additional work, but he knew what the man wanted him to do. And he liked the idea of more money. Besides, he’d already called a buddy of his in the Chicago P.D. to get them to run the Maryland license plate and see who the car was registered