Page 46 of The Sinner's Son
“Because you’re not an investigator,” Sawyer said. “You have good instincts but don’t quite know what to do with them yet.”
“Fair point.” A frown formed as he scrolled. “I use their food delivery feature way too much.” Royce bit back a snarly response, but only because Sawyer stepped on his foot. “Ah. Here it is. I requested the ride at two ten on Thursday morning.” Alec’s frown deepened into a scowl. “I only got charged for half of the quoted amount, but why?” Alec tapped the screen once more and flinched before jerking his gaze up to meet Royce’s. “It’s marked as a no-show.”
“No-show?” Royce and Sawyer asked.
“It means the driver showed up, but the rider wasn’t there.” Alec stared at his phone again as if it would somehow provide additional details to explain what had happened. “But…” He looked utterly lost and sounded terrified. If this was a performance, Alec deserved a best-actor award. He sat there motionless, barely blinking. With each passing second, Alec’s expression grew more blank as a catatonic fog closed in. Fuck! They couldn’t afford for Alec to shut down.
“Hey!” Royce banged his fist against the table loud enough to make Sawyer jump with Alec. “Stay with me. Checking out helps no one, especially not Dane. He needs us now.”
Alec nodded vigorously. “You’re right.”
“Does your vacation rental have external security cameras?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Alec said. “I’ll consent to a search. The house, my car, my computers and equipment. Everything. I’ll take a lie detector test. Whatever you need.” Alec looked back and forth between them. “I am not my father. I didn’t hurt Dane.”
Royce held his gaze for several seconds as a war waged inside him.I am not my father.How many times had Royce uttered something similar over the years? And how hard had he fought to prove it? But he couldn’t let his daddy issues influence his judgment, especially with so much riding on his objectivity. Royce’s instincts had never failed him, and he prayed they wouldn’t start.
“Please believe me,” Alec urged.
“I do.” But before Royce could say more, he received a series of texts from Jason.
Jaybird: 911
Jaybird: we have dane’s laptop
Jaybird: we know what happened to him
Jaybird: be there in two minutes
Jaybird: this is cayden
Jaybird: jay is driving and wants you to know he isn’t texting
Jaybird: he also wants to know if you’re decent
Jaybird: something about the beastie boys
Royce set his phone down with a scowl. “Why do these kids send a text per thought? No capitalization. No punctuation. They think something, and they text and text.” Damn, he sounded old. Once his irritation passed, the rest of the information filtered in. “Jason and Cayden have located Dane’s laptop, and they found something important. They’ll be here any minute.”
Sawyer pushed back and stood up. “I’ll meet them out front.” His hand brushed over Royce’s shoulders as he passed. The touch felt like comfort and praise.
“Who are Jason and Cayden?” Alec asked.
“Jason is my nephew and Dane’s friend. Cayden is Dane’s brother.”
“The cadet,” Alec said. “No wonder he’s bringing the information to you.”
“Dane’s family had a hard time getting the police to take his disappearance seriously, so they asked me to intervene. Well, Jason had on their behalf. There is a detective investigating Dane’s disappearance now, so I’m not sure why they are coming to me.” Unless their method of obtaining the information was something they didn’t want to tell O’Donnell. Royce barely bit back the groan when the sound of animated voices reached his ears. “Scooby and Shaggy are here.” He turned in his seat to watch Jason and Cayden approach. Both guys froze when they noticed Alec sitting at the table.
“What’s he doing here?” Jason asked, tightening his grip on the laptop as if he thought Alec would try to snatch it away.
Cayden pointed at Alec. “He knows what happened to my brother.”
Alec held up his hands as if the younger guys were making a citizen’s arrest. “I swear I don’t know what happened to Dane after he left my house. That’s why I’m here.”
“Says the serial killer’s son,” Jason spat.
“Everyone, take a deep breath and settle down,” Sawyer said. “We all want the same thing.”