Trumped Up Charges - By Joanna Wayne Page 0,54

by the hour.”

“Where are Hadley’s daughters?”

“Beats me. From what I hear, their mother is the most credible suspect. But you come in a close second, Adam. Can’t say that I blame you if you are guilty. Who wants to put up with another man’s kids?”

Adam struggled to stand. Quinton offered a hand. He ignored it.

Quinton smiled. “Since you came all the way out here, you might as well come inside, shoot the breeze, check out the closets and look under the beds.”

“And have you sic your attack dogs on me again?”

Quinton pulled a pistol from his waistband. “I’ll tell you what, Adam. Just to show you what a trusting guy I am, you carry the weapon. It’s loaded. I’ll show you the clip to prove it.”

He did and then he handed the gun to Adam. “The door’s unlocked. Stay as long as you like. Help yourself to a shot of whiskey to help dull the pain. But you’d best check every nook and cranny in the house while you’re in there. Show up again and I’ll kill you as an intruder.”

Quinton turned and walked away from the house leaving Adam alone with a pistol and a body that was so bruised he could barely move.

He staggered to the house and onto the porch. He knew he wouldn’t find the girls. But just maybe he’d find some sign that they’d been there. There might even be another video planted inside with directions for handling the exchange.

That was his best hope for anything good coming out of this venture into Quinton Larson’s world.

Two hours later, he went back to the kitchen and poured a double shot of whiskey into a glass. He downed it in one gulp. If there was any hint that Lila and Lacy had ever been inside this house, he hadn’t found it.

Yet he was more certain than ever that Quinton was behind the kidnapping. But if Quinton had realized that his chances of getting away with this were going down the toilet, he might have panicked and gotten rid of all evidence against him.

It would take a monster to kill two innocent children. Quinton fit that description to a tee.

But he wouldn’t give up hope yet. Nor could he go on like this. He took out his phone and called Meghan Lambert. If she had any pull with the FBI, now was the time to use it.

They needed every advantage possible on their side.

* * *

SHELTON LANE PULLED the fax from the machine. This is what he’d been waiting for. Now he dreaded reading it. Not that he had a choice. He was a cop. Evidence had to rule.

He read it through twice, making sure he’d absorbed every detail. The facts were there. Adam Dalton was the biological father of the twins.

The girls’ DNA had been easy to come by. It had been on the glass of water Hadley had taken to the kitchen during the night. Adam’s had been more difficult to get. He’d had to go all the way to the hospital in Germany where Adam had gone through two years of recovery and rehab.

Too many lies usually equaled guilt.

Ironically, he’d been almost sure that Hadley was behind the disappearance from day one. Doors locked. Windows locked. Alarm not set. Ransom letter sent before the abduction. Boyfriend who shows up from out of the blue. A rich mother.

He hadn’t seen Hadley as a child killer, but he had more trouble ruling out that she’d planned the kidnapping to get some of her mother’s money.

And then he’d met Quinton Larson. The more the scumbag had talked, the more convinced the detective was of his guilt. But it turned out his alibi was almost airtight for the time of the abduction. He’d been caught on the security camera going in his girlfriend’s apartment early evening and out the next morning at 9:22.

Lane looked up at a tapping on his door.

“Got a minute?” the police chief asked. “It’s important.”

“Then I’ve got a minute. And a fax.” He handed it to the chief.

The chief read it and tossed it back to Lane’s desk. “That goes right along with what I came in to discuss.”

“I thought it might.”

“The mayor got a call from the FBI. They’re requesting that they be invited in on the case.”

“And I take it he’s not too keen on that,” Lane said.

“No, and neither am I, not when we have as much credible evidence against Hadley O’Sullivan as we do. If they walk right in and make