Page 100 of Beyond the Spotlight Discreet Version
Bob glances at Larson before answering.
“We’ve identified the man taken into custody as Kyle Scarsdale, Adeline’s biological father.”
Kyle? No fucking way. We’d never met, but Annalee showed me pictures of him. The Kyle I remember had short red hair and was bigger. The man I saw sitting in the back of the cop car was thin, sickly, almost. As if he’s been wasting away in prison for the past five years.
My eyes dart to Addy, but all her attention is on cartoons dancing across the TV screen.
“He showed up and threatened to take your daughter. He implied he was going to hold her for ransom. He wasn’t working alone. Another man, his younger brother Carl, lured Henry away by acting suspicious near the school’s entrance. Henry chased after him and caught up to him. The two started fighting. Kyle disguised himself as a parent and approached Sarah while Henry was distracted. He stabbed her in the side and shoved her into some bushes near the gate, and she hit her head on the fence, leaving a cut just above her eyebrow. She was unconscious for a few minutes. That allowed him to get to Savvy and Adeline. Melanie was about to follow Henry to assist with the suspicious person, but that’s when they noticed Kyle. They started moving in, but we’re cautious. Didn’t want to spook him in case he had a weapon.”
“He was supposed to be serving a ten-year prison sentence,” I growl. “Why the fuck wasn’t I informed about his release?”
My lawyers were supposed to have been notified.
“He got out two months ago on good behavior and overcrowding. As for your lawyers not being notified,” Bob shrugs. “His release may not have been entered into the system properly to prompt a notification. Or there’s a backlog and notifications are going out late. Who knows? But the good news is he’s confessing everything. Maybe he believes that’ll get him points when he’s on trial for aggravated assault, attempted kidnapping, and child endangerment charges. Anyway, he said earlier this year he read an article in an entertainment magazine—one from a stack the inmates get once a month. It was the article about your return to acting. It had a picture of your sister, Annalee, and then another picture of you and Adeline on the cover. He read about how you’ve been taking care of her since Annalee’s death.”
“I remember the article.” Now I regret providing them with the damn pictures. “I assume he was pissed off about me calling him a lowlife twat?”
Bob nods with a smirk. “He had his younger brother track you down while he was in lockup.”
“How?” I seethe. “The media couldn’t even find where I lived or where Adeline went to school. How did that bastard manage to?”
“Pure luck. Carl was busted four years ago for running an underground gambling ring. He served a couple of years in jail and was released last year. Carl returned to his gambling ways and one of the men at the illegal casino he frequents, Sean, is a paparazzo. Carl started asking Sean questions, claiming he wanted to make money as a paparazzo. Sean sent him a list of celebrity hotspots and connected Carl with tipsters; people known to share celebrity sightings, planned or not. The day Lana Young-Andrews and Miss Monroe visited the Statue of Liberty, Carl was notified. He recognized the name. He knew Lana was connected to you, so he made his way to Battery Park, getting there just in time for Lana and Savannah to return and hop on the subway. He followed them to Adeline’s preschool and then to the Brooklyn Bridge.
“Wait… Kyle’s brother was the man we thought was stalking Lana?” Savannah asks.
The detective takes out his phone, taps a few times, then turns it around to show her. Savannah covers her mouth with her hand.
“That’s him.” She swallows hard. “But the man at the carousel was Kyle?”
Bob nods. “When Kyle got out, he already had his plan in place. He was going to kidnap Adeline because he didn’t want to go through the trouble of finding a job and struggle to make money as a felon. He promised to share the ransom money with Carl if he helped. We believe they wanted to kidnap Adeline that day at the carousel.”
“And we never saw him after either,” Melanie says, pissed.
“He got spooked by Sarah and Henry and all the people in the park that day,” Bob adds. “He realized he’d need to do it somewhere less public.”
“And he’s a dumbass too,” I say. “All the times he watched us, watched Savannah and Adeline, he didn’t notice the extra bodyguards I hired.”
Bob shrugs.
“Did he really think he could pull this off?” Savannah asks.
“Desperation makes people do dumb things,” Bob says and sighs.
Savannah sniffles and I take her hand. “I can’t believe he did all this for money. He didn’t even care about trying to be in Addy’s life again?”
“Daddy?” Adeline says, her voice small and quiet.
“Oh, Poppy. Were you listening?”
She nods.
“You must be so confused right now.”
“Why did that man want to hurt me and Savvy?”
I pause, thinking carefully before answering. “You see, sweetheart, that man is your biological father. I told you your mother was my sister, right? Well, she thought she loved that man and together they made you. But he left before you were born and when your mom died, he wasn’t around to take custody of you, so I did.”
She shakes her head. “That man is not my dad.Youare.”
