Page 82 of Winter Vows

He got on the phone and called a contact who could trace any credit-card activity. He woke the man out of a sound sleep, but by dawn he had a callback. Paul James wasn’t using his credit cards, at least not so far. His last charge had been made a week ago, in Miami. He’d bought three new suits on sale at an upscale department store.

“Anything?” Justin asked, coming in and dropping wearily into the chair opposite Dylan. He looked as bad as Dylan felt.

Dylan shook his head. “Nothing. The credit-card trace was a bust, though I have to wonder why a man who planned on kidnapping his son would go out and buy three expensive new suits.”

“Maybe he figured his next shopping trip would be a long time coming,” Justin suggested.

“Or the sale was just too good to pass up,” Dylan said lightly.

Justin’s expression turned thoughtful. “Almost sounds like a man who doesn’t intend to be gone all that long, doesn’t it?”

“He can’t be planning to take his son back to Miami,” Dylan protested. “He’d go straight to jail for violating the custody agreement.”

“Right. So, either he is just trying to scare Kelsey, or he wants something from her, or we’re dealing with a nutcase who has no intention of taking his son anywhere except away from his mother.”

“To punish her,” Dylan said, following Justin’s logic with a sick feeling in his gut. “I hope to heaven you’re wrong about that.”

“So do I,” Justin said. “So do I.”

“Kelsey, you have to get some sleep,” Lizzy said at dawn.

“I can’t. As long as I don’t know where Bobby is, I can’t sleep. What if he calls again?”

“I’ll wake you,” Lizzy promised.

“No. I don’t know how Paul will react if someone else answers the phone. He might hang up. He might get angry and hurt Bobby.”

“I just don’t see him hurting Bobby,” Lizzy countered. “That hasn’t been his pattern, Kelsey. It’s the one thing I don’t think you need to worry about.”

“I can’t help it. He sounded so edgy before. If he’s been out of pills for a couple of days, he’s probably in withdrawal. People do crazy things when they’re coming down, things they otherwise might not do. Even the fact that he took Bobby in the first place is out of character. Paul never broke a law in his life until he got hooked on the painkillers. I never even saw him jaywalk. Heck, he’d dash two blocks just so his parking meter wouldn’t run out. On the rare occasions when he got a parking ticket, he paid it the same day. Now he’s violating a court order. That’s the pills at work.”

Already jittery from nerves and lack of sleep, she jumped when the phone rang. She snatched it up. “Bobby? Is that you?”

“Sorry,” Dylan said. “It’s just me. I wanted to check in.”

“Oh,” she said, sighing heavily. “Anything happening over there?”

“Nothing.”

“Did you get any sleep?”

“Not a wink.”

“Kelsey, you’re not going to do Bobby any good if you collapse. If you don’t want to go to bed, at least nap on the sofa for a bit.”

“I can’t,” she said simply. “Have you found anything?”

“Not yet, but I will,” he said with reassuring confidence. “You just hang tight. Is Lizzy still there?”

“Yes.”

“Let me talk to her a second, okay?”

Kelsey handed the phone to Lizzy, then listened openly to her end of the conversation. Lizzy’s gaze settled on her and she nodded several times, murmuring agreement to whatever Dylan said. Kelsey figured she was the primary topic of conversation.

“I’ll try,” Lizzy promised before hanging up. “I suppose you’re to try to get me to get some sleep,” Kelsey said.

“He has a point. I was saying the very same thing before he called.”

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