“I’ll tell her.”

“I’m also calling because I heard from the investigator who’s looking for Scotty’s father. He thinks he might’ve found him.”

Nick walked into his bedroom and closed the door. “Where is he?”

“In New Jersey. Working on the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore.”

“How do you know it’s him?”

“I don’t have all the details yet, but my investigator is good. If he wasn’t sure it was him, he wouldn’t have called me.”

“What’s the next step?”

“I fly up there to talk to him.”

“Shouldn’t I do that?”

“Definitely not. I want to see if we can get around telling him who you are. Let me get a sense of what we’re dealing with and see if I can get him to sign away his rights without bringing you into it.”

“How soon will you go?”

“I’m trying to clear my schedule for the day after tomorrow.”

Nick sat on the bed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Why am I totally panicking right now?”

“Don’t panic. I’ll do my best to get this sewed up quickly for you.”

“You know what we were talking about when you called? He asked if it’s okay to call me Dad.” Nick’s voice broke. “This can’t go bad, Andy. It just can’t.”

“It’s not going to. You’ve got Scotty’s age on your side. He’s able to say what he wants, and it’s obvious to me and everyone who knows you all that he’s exactly where he wants to be.”

“Able to say to who?”

“A judge, but I don’t see it coming to that. I’m much more concerned about the father wanting money from you.”

“I’ll give it to him. Whatever he wants.”

Andy’s low chuckle echoed through the phone. “Nick, seriously. If you happen to meet the guy, don’t say that, okay?”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“What about Scotty?”

“What about him?”

“Will you tell him we’ve located his biological father?”

“I haven’t given that a thought. I was hoping you wouldn’t find him.”

“You probably ought to think about it. If it’s him, and we’re almost entirely sure it is, Scotty has a right to know we’ve located him.”

“I’ll talk to Sam. We’ll figure out what to do.”

“Good enough.”

“Andy... No matter what, we can’t lose him. It would kill Sam.”

“Not to mention what it would do to you.”

“Not to mention.”

“We’ll get it taken care of. Try not to worry.”

“Right... Will do.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

“Thanks, Andy.” Nick ended the call and sat perfectly still for several minutes as an array of troubling thoughts rendered him incapable of moving or thinking about anything other than what could go wrong. A knock on the door snapped him out of the stupor. “Yeah.”

The door opened and Scotty stuck his head in. “About that dinner...”

Nick forced himself to put his worries aside so he could focus on the boy who meant the world to him. “What do you feel like?”

“Spaghetti?”

“You always say that.”

“I always like that.”

“You got it. Come help me.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah sure. Why?”

“Your hair is standing up straight. It does that when you’re worried about something and run your fingers through it.”

“Is that right?” Nick hooked his arm around Scotty’s neck and messed up his hair. “There. Now we match.” He walked toward the stairs, bringing Scotty with him.

Scotty’s belly laugh went a long way toward assuaging Nick’s worries. But they stayed with him while they made dinner together. How would he ever tell Sam about this?

Chapter Thirteen

“I can’t believe I’m actually going to this guy’s house voluntarily,” Sam said as they approached the building where Lieutenant Stahl lived.

Malone followed her up the stairs. “Me either.”

“Has anyone talked to him since he got out?”

“Not that I know of. Ever since he attacked you, everyone has kept their distance. Cops don’t rub elbows with felons if they want to continue to be cops.”

“To be fair, he’s not a convicted felon. Yet.”

“True. Only a matter of time, though.”

“So how are we approaching this?” Sam asked.

“We’re establishing his whereabouts on the thirty-first.”

“What do we say when he asks why we want to know?”

“He’ll know why we want to know. He’s heard by now that Gonzo’s baby mama was murdered. If I know him at all, and I know him way better than I ever wanted to, he’s enjoying the speculation pointing to Gonzo.”

“How does a career cop get to a place where he’s gleeful to see one of his brothers being falsely accused of murder?”

“He gets there when his career doesn’t go as planned,” Malone said, “and he gets to watch others who started long after him reach heights he never could’ve dreamed of. He starts to get bitter, and the bitterness festers.”

On the third floor, they rapped on his door and waited.

“Open up, Stahl.” Malone knocked again. When there was no answer, Malone looked behind them, scanning the parking lot below. “He couldn’t have gone far. The terms of his bail made it so he can’t leave the area.”

“Is anyone checking on him?”

“Nope. You know how bail works. They only check on him if he misses a court date.” Malone looked down at her. “You want to wait awhile?”

Sam checked her watch. It was already almost seven. She’d been at it for thirteen hours and was running low on gas. “Let’s see if we can find Peter and then I’ll call it a day.”

Malone followed her to the Capitol Hill neighborhood where she lived and unfortunately, Peter did too. The captain parked behind her on Seventh Street. Sam’s stomach hurt at the thought of seeing her ex-husband, but if it helped Gonzo, she’d do it willingly. She’d eliminate Peter as a suspect and go home to her wonderful second husband. Thinking of Nick and Scotty waiting for her at home helped to propel Sam up another flight of stairs with Malone right behind her.

“I got this,” he said, nodding for her to stand off to the side. Before she could protest or tell him he didn’t need to mollycoddle her, he was pounding on the door. “Police, open up.”

The door across the hall opened and a woman looked out at them. “There’s no one there. He moved and the new people haven’t moved in yet.”

“Do you know where he went?” Sam asked with a growing sense of unease.

“No idea. We weren’t friends. I just knew him to say hello to. Seemed like a nice enough guy. What’d he do?”

So many things, Sam thought. Too many to count, beginning with his failure to give her some critical messages from Nick while pretending to be her friend.

“We just wanted to talk to him,” Malone said. “Does the super live on the property?”

She shook her head. “I can get you his number.”

“That’d be great,” Malone said. While she went to get the number, Malone glanced at Sam. “We’ll find him. Don’t worry.”

They should’ve been visiting him in prison where he belonged for attempting to kill her and Nick with crude bombs attached to their cars.

The neighbor returned with the number and handed the piece of paper to Malone. “Thanks very much for your help.”

“Is he in trouble?”

“Not that we know of,” Malone said, “but he has been in the past.”

“Wow, I never would’ve guessed that. He seemed so...normal.”

“I thought so too,” Sam said, pleased to know she wasn’t the only one who’d been taken in by his false charm. “Thanks again for the help.”

“I’ll get on this tonight,” Malone said. “I’ll find him.”

“Thanks. I’m sure he hasn’t gone far. He won’t be able to stalk me if he’s not close by.”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“I guess it was when I came by to see if he was dicking with me after the wedding by sending the threatening cards.”

“That was almost a year ago.”

“Time flies when you’re finally happily married.”

“Didn’t Nick have a guy on him?”

“For a while, but he called him off when I told him he was wasting his money.” Back at her car, she turned to the captain. “It makes me nervous that we don’t know where either of them are. I’m picturing them in a bunker together trying to figure out ways to ruin my life and the lives of everyone I care about while Ramsey delivers Chinese food to them.”