Chapter 13

MY FIRST impression of John Travis was a pair of legs—a pair of legs encased in ragged, worn jeans, sticking out from under the sink. Clinking sounds and muttering resounded from the small, dank space. Cursing, mostly. I cleared my throat after one heartfelt “motherfucker” blistered the air.

“Mr. Travis?”

The sounds immediately stopped, and the legs stilled. “Who wants to know?”

“SSA Christiansen. And this is Detective McKenna.”

He scooted out from under the sink and his knees creaked a bit on the way up as he stood. He grabbed a rag from the countertop, wiped his hands, and eyed our credentials warily. “What can I do for you gentlemen?”

“We wanted to talk to you about your daughter, Amy Greene?”

His wary expression hardened. “Look, I agreed to speak to you, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I don’t know if that girl was my daughter or not. She was after me to take one of those home DNA tests, but I was still making up my mind.”

“But you were involved with her mother, Dinah Greene? At some point?”

“Sure I was. But that was a long time ago.” He tossed the rag on the countertop and crossed his arms. “I moved on. We went our separate ways. Didn’t know anything about a baby until this girl pops up.”

“How many times did she come to see you?”

“Three or four. After the fourth time, I told her it probably wasn’t a good idea for her to keep coming around.” He looked at me confidentially. “I have a family, you know.”

I didn’t look Danny’s way, but I could almost feel his smug satisfaction about digging up family that should’ve remained buried. I cleared my throat. “I don’t suppose she mentioned these meetings to her mother?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Look, I’m not really sure what you’re expecting to find here. The kid shows up after god knows how many years, telling me I’m her father and all that. What am I supposed to do?” He gave me a bewildered look. “I have a family.”

Second time he’d used that term. He still didn’t seem to realize that she was part of that family. I looked at his jovial countenance and felt more betrayed than ever. It was like finding Santa’s workshop and busting in on him fucking Rudolph.

Something in my expression must have clued him to my disgust, and he tried a different tack. “I gave her money. Okay? Gave her money to use for school or for college or whatever.”

That certainly explained all the extra cash she’d been squirreling away. “Real big of you. Two grand? That ought to get her at least three minutes of tuition.”

“Try five grand,” he snapped. “I’ve given her at least that much.”

“Let me just shine up your Father of the Year award.”

“Fuck you. Okay? My thing with Dinah was a long time ago. In the past. A time when we drank a lot and argued even more. The bad old days. I have a new life that doesn’t include any of that mess. And like it or not, Amy is part of that past.”

“Don’t you just hate it when kids won’t go away? It’s like you gave them life or something.”

He stepped toward me, clearly out of patience. Danny growled, a low, menacing sound that made everyone freeze in their tracks. When he spoke, his voice was quiet and lethal and sent a chill down even my spine. “I wouldn’t.”

I could take care of myself. Travis might be bigger and taller, but with my training, I knew I could probably drop him with little trouble. None of that stopped my neck from warming. I couldn’t look at Danny and tried not to show exactly how touched I was. That no matter what we said, he had my back.

Travis stared at me. His jaw worked as he bunched his fists by his sides. He appeared like he wanted to punch me in the face. I just looked at him implacably. “You were saying?”

He glared but didn’t move an inch. “If anyone did something to her, it was that guy she brought with her. Looked kind of rough around the edges. Brick? Brian?”

“Brock?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Last time she came to see me, I had to take her to the emergency room, she was so beat up. He’s the one you should be hassling.” When my expression cooled even further, he threw up his hands. “Fine. Suit yourself. I agreed to talk to you guys of my own free will, but I’ve gotta make a living. You want to find Amy, maybe you should talk to someone who knew her a little better than I did.”

Like the mailman? A friendly cashier? Anyone she would’ve come in contact with would’ve known her better than that man. I bit back any acerbic comments. They really wouldn’t be helpful and would be just for my own satisfaction. Besides, if we had to talk to Travis again, I wanted it to be voluntarily, not by court order.

I nodded curtly as he dropped back under the sink. “We’ll do that.”

It had been five years. It was time to find out whether Brock still had an alibi.

“HE’S NOT here.”

I raised an eyebrow at the short, portly woman giving me attitude on her porch. She wore a bathrobe and curlers in the middle of the day, which was a tad strange. “Do you know when he’ll be back?”

“No, I don’t.” She squinted, her pale blue eyes suspicious and irritated at the same time. “Haven’t seen Brock in over a year. And before you ask, I don’t know where he went, and he didn’t have anything to do with that girl disappearing.”

I couldn’t help but feel a little deflated, even though her response was what I expected. Clearly someone had overnighted her a copy of Stock Answers for Suspicious People. “Do you know where he works? Any little detail would be helpful—”

“No, I don’t.”

Well, that took care of that. I pulled out my card and held it out with a winning smile. “If you hear from him, will you—”

The door slammed in my face. I was lucky it didn’t catch my fingers. My winning smile obviously needed work.

I sighed, tucked my card in the doorjamb, headed back to the car, and slid in to find Danny thumbing through his phone. He glanced up. “You get anything?”

“His mother said he took off over a year ago. Hasn’t seen him since.”

“You believe her?”

I made an impatient sound. “I’m assuming that’s rhetorical. We should have someone stake out the place. Sooner or later she’s going to contact him. If nothing else to tell him that the police are asking about him.”

“We’ll get someone out here.” Danny started up the car. “I just talked to Chevy. She has records of Brock getting paychecks from a local McDonald’s.”

“Nice.” I wasn’t the least bit surprised Brock’s mother had lied to my face. “Hiding from the police? That’s a double check mark for him on our ‘persons of interest’ list.”

“I still like Amy’s mom for this.”

“Why? Because she let her cat lick the coffee spoon?” I chuckled. “No, that’s just why you say no to coffee in random strangers’ houses. Besides, there are better suspects to be had. Brock pretty much abused her during their entire relationship.”

At least that’s what I took “he just got so angry” to mean. I tilted my head thoughtfully. “Maybe we should check out some hospitals and clinics and see if they ever saw them.”

“If that’s the case, it would probably be something in the surrounding counties. To avoid detection.”

“I’ll have Chevy send us a list. We can split it up with the rest of the team.” I sent him a look. “Also I’d like to file a complaint that I am hungry, and as a human being, I require sustenance.”

He shook his head at me but looked amused. “Duly noted.” I tolerated that little half smile on his sexy, stubbly, perfectly square jaw for a few more moments, and then I finally had to call him on it.

“What?” I asked as I pressed Send on my phone. It made a swooshing sound as my notes whisked off to Chevy’s email.

“It’s just… hard being with you.”

Wow. I tried my best not to take offense as I slipped my phone back in my pocket. “You really don’t pull any punches, do you?”

“That’s not what I meant. It’s just that being with you reminds me of… being with you. We were good together sometimes.”

Damn, Danny was no Lord Byron, but he certainly knew his way around words. Determined to ignore the suspicious lump in my throat, I tried to lighten the mood. “Most of those times involved me on my knees or on my back, Irish.”

He dissolved into a fit of laughter, and I watched him with a faint smile. I wanted to make him laugh all the time and see that mischievous glint in those usually serious eyes. It was then that I realized he was right.

It was hard being with him too.