Page 96 of Winter Vows

“Yes?”

“When you get back, we need to talk.”

“About?”

“We’ll discuss it when you get here,” she said. “Face-to-face.”

So, he thought, staring at the phone after they’d hung up, she was going to share her secret, after all. He couldn’t help wondering if it was worth dropping everything to go straight home to hear.

Then again, maybe he could get through with these calls in record time and be back in Los Pinõs before daybreak. His spirits brightened at the prospect. He figured the reasons forthatdidn’t bear close examination.

“Daddy, I want to play outside,” Bobby pleaded for the tenth time in as many minutes.

“No,” Paul said, clinging to his patience by a thread.

“I don’t like it in here. It smells funny.”

The room did have the musty smell of smoke and old furniture that had absorbed the scents of too many guests. Paul doubted it had had a good cleaning in months, if not years. Normally he wouldn’t have set foot in a dive like this, but he figured the police would be looking for him in the big, fancy hotels he tended to favor. Besides, he’d discovered that there were a lot of small, out-of-the-way motels in Texas where a man could buy silence. He only needed a few more days. By then, he was pretty sure Kelsey would agree to anything he asked.

“Why can’t we go out?” Bobby asked.

“Because I said so,” Paul snapped. “Watch TV.”

“No,” Bobby said with a stubborn tilt to his chin. “It’s all fuzzy. Want to play catch.”

“Not now.”

“When?”

“Later.”

“When is later?”

Paul sighed. This was harder than he’d anticipated. Entertaining a three-year-old was timeconsuming work. He’d forgotten that. It wasn’t like he didn’t have other things on his mind, either.

“Look, son, I’ll get you some books next time I go out. You can look at the pictures, okay?”

“I likemybooks. Call Mommy. She knows which books I like.”

“We are not calling your mother.”

“Why?” Bobby’s eyes filled with tears. “I miss Mommy. Why can’t she come with us?”

“Because she’s a very busy doctor and this is just a guy trip. You and me, buddy. Okay?”

Bobby heaved a sigh, then curled into a ball on the bed, looking miserable. Paul regarded him with real regret and heaved a sigh of his own.

Then he reached for the bottle containing his last few pills.

Seven

He must have made a hundred phone calls, all without picking up so much as a whiff of Paul James and Bobby, Dylan thought, slamming the motel phone down in disgust. He was wasting time. He might as well head back to Los Pinõs, which he’d wanted to do the night before. Kelsey finally appeared to be in a talkative mood. Maybe he’d get something out of a heart-to-heart with her. He could be there in a few hours, longer if he stopped to check the guest registers of any motels he passed along the way.

He punched in the number for the Los Pinõs sheriff’s office and got Becky on the line. “Any news?”

“Nothing,” she said, sounding as exhausted as he felt.

“There’s nothing here, either. I’m coming back. Let Justin know, okay?”

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