Page 25 of The Sinner’s Son (Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood #2)
“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.”
“Do we?” Jason narrowed his eyes and cocked his head to the side. “You’re willing to consider this a coincidence, Uncle Ro? Andrew Bishop killed the sex workers he hired, and now his son just happened to be Dane’s last client before he disappeared. Come on. You’re smarter than that.”
Alec recoiled like someone had struck him. “Client? I don’t know what you’re talking about? I didn’t. We didn’t.” Alec swallowed hard. “I mean, we did , but not like that. He…I…”
“We’re getting nowhere fast,” Sawyer said, pushing the water bottle closer to Alec. “Take a drink and gather yourself.”
Alec nodded and complied, downing the rest of the water.
Royce grabbed another bottle from the minifridge under the bar.
He slid it to him, and they waited as Alec drank more.
He took a deep breath and tried again. “I met Dane at a bar. We hit it off, and I asked him back to my place. We hooked up, but there was no exchange of money. I ordered food, and we hung out and talked a lot. Watched a movie. And um, you know…hooked up again. I wanted him to stay the night, but he said he had to work in a few hours. I asked if I could see him again. Dane told me he had a lot of family obligations and wasn’t sure he could spare the time.
I offered to drive him home, but he refused.
Seemed a little jumpy about it. He said he’d order a ride, but I did it for him.
It felt like the gentlemanly thing to do, especially since I hoped to see him again.
” Wide eyes scanned the patio, searching desperately for someone to believe him.
Jason was the first to speak. “This sounds like bullshit to me.”
“I believe him,” Royce said.
“What?” Jason shouted. “Why?”
“Jay,” Cayden said softly. “I think you’re wrong about him, and Dane’s messages to T prove it.”
“Let’s hear about the evidence you found on Dane’s laptop,” urged Sawyer, the ever-present voice of reason.
“And maybe we talk about how you discovered the laptop and accessed the information,” Royce said, pinning Cayden with a harsh look. “Illegally obtained evidence can’t be used to arrest or prosecute a suspect. You’ll learn a lot more about that in the Explorer Academy.”
“I told you I had a lead on where Dane might stay when he wasn’t at home,” Jason said. “I followed that hunch and found gold.” He tapped the laptop. “I’ll refer to Dane’s friend as T because that’s how he’s listed in Dane’s contacts. He wants to stay anonymous.”
“But he’ll do the right thing and come forward if he needs to,” Cayden added hastily.
“T met us an hour ago to give us the stuff Dane had left at his house,” Jason said. “Cayden figured out Dane’s passwords, and we read through his WhatsApp messages.”
Cayden’s ears turned bright pink, and he lowered his gaze.
Royce suspected there was more to the story, but he decided to pursue the information they found instead of lingering on how they’d obtained it. He’d circle back to that later. “What did you find?”
“Dane messaged T that he’d gotten stood up by his date.
They were supposed to meet at a bar, but the guy was a no-show.
Dane was disappointed since he needed the money.
About thirty minutes lapsed, and Dane reached out again to tell T that he’s going home with that hot podcast guy who’s in town.
When T responded that the guy could probably afford to pay double, Dane told him that the hookup was just for him.
” Cayden opened the laptop and clicked on an app.
“T continued to check in with Dane over the next few hours, but Dane only responded periodically. He assured T that he was safe and enjoying his night.” Cayden lifted his head and stared at Alec for a few moments before continuing.
“Dane said he wished the date could be the start of something real. They bantered back and forth briefly about Pretty Woman. T called Dane Vivian. Then Dane got silent for a few more hours. His last message came at two ten on Thursday morning. Dane told T that Edward had ordered him a car, and he’d be on his way soon. ”
“Who is Edward?” Royce asked.
“That’s the name of Richard Gere’s character in the movie,” Sawyer said. “How have you not watched Pretty Woman ?”
Shrugging, Royce said, “I saw it years ago. Probably once. Nothing blew up in it, so it’s not my kind of movie.”
Jason pointed at Alec and said, “Why is Dane calling him Edward if he didn’t pay for sex?”
“Whether money exchanged hands is irrelevant,” Royce told his nephew. “Alec has a record of the ride he ordered for Dane. His account history also shows that the driver left without a passenger.”
“You didn’t make sure he got in the car?” Jason asked.
“Dane wasn’t a toddler,” Cayden argued. “And it was after two in the morning.”
“Why didn’t T raise an alarm when Cayden didn’t show up?” Sawyer asked.
“He assumed Dane changed his mind and stayed with Edward,” Cayden said. “Something must’ve happened to him before the driver arrived.”
“The ETA on the driver’s arrival was five minutes when we kissed goodbye on my porch,” Alec said. “Dane headed down the driveway, and I went back inside to take a shower. The main bedroom is at the back of the house, so I didn’t see what happened.”