“Did your mother know?” I felt like I’d swallowed a pound of sand.
“I never asked her but I’m sure she did. The way she looked at him at dinner when he showed up late or when he left for business trips. She knew what was expected of her when she married him because of the business, not because she loved him. But she loved the social status.” Bran sighed. “The perils of being a successful businessman. Everyone wants something and they’re willing to trade anything for it.”
“Molly Callendar wanted nothing.” I stepped into the danger zone. “She denied knowing your father.”
“In the biblical sense,” Bran joked. I heard the pain under the humor.
“Brayton was willing to take the fall. He must owe your father big-time.” I wanted to shift the conversation away from the infidelity, the elephant in the room threatening to crush the life out of us.
“Enough to claim a baby that wasn’t his? I guess.” Bran poked at the gauze. “Major favor.”
“Whoever killed Molly Callendar and kidnapped Liam had a reason.” I took two cans of soda out of the fridge. “Right now the police are focusing on Brayton and the people who might have grudges against him.”
“That’s logical.” He took one can from me and pressed it against the bandaged side of his hand. “My father might not even be involved with this.” Bran sounded optimistic. “It might be as it seems—a pissed-off business associate out to get him.”
“Or not.” I hated to bring pain but it was my job. “But yes, that’s where the cops are going to be focusing their attention,” I opened my drink. “We can’t write off an attack on Molly Callendar directly either. I heard her parents talk about Ian Hamilton, an ex-boyfriend. Could be he got ticked off when Molly took up with David Brayton and went to her one last time to get her to stay in town or something along those lines. He loses his temper and kills her, takes Liam and runs.”
Bran nodded. “Sounds plausible.”
“The cops are going to be hunting him down and checking him out. It’s basic procedure,” I added.
“So he’s covered. Where do you want to hunt?”
I smiled at his phrasing despite the circumstances. “Our first priority is to find Liam. The police don’t know your father’s involved at all. Let them run down the Brayton and Callendar trail—we’ll take the one less traveled.”
Bran took a deep gulp of soda. “Who knows the baby is my father’s?”
“At last count Molly Callendar, David Brayton and myself. Now you and Jess. I don’t think Molly’s parents knew. They’d be the first to toss your father under the bus and rightfully so. I got the impression she never told them who the father was, likely because it was part of the deal. Take the cash and go away but never speak of who the father is again.”
“Or let people assume it was David Brayton.” Bran drained his soda can in a pair of gulps. “The cops are missing a whole set of possible suspects.” He gave me an odd look. “You scented Liam was related to me. Could you pick up the smell of the guy who took him? I know the CSI people have gone all over the room and tore it to bits but you’re a Felis, you could pick up on something they’ve missed.”
I drew in a deep breath over clenched teeth. “I might be able to pull him out but I can’t track him outside of the room. I’m not that good.”
“It’s something. I have to do something, I can’t sit here and watch everyone look for him.” Bran slurred his words a fraction. Most people wouldn’t have caught it but I did. His temper was rising again and he was eager for a fight.
“Let’s go back to the hotel.” His fists waved in the air. “I don’t care if there’s cops there or not. Fuck my father; it’s time he stopped trying to run people’s lives. And I sure as hell want to have a talk with him about this damned file. I will not have him threaten you or your family.” The fire dimmed into smoking embers. “We need to find the baby first.”
I covered his hands with my own, hoping my touch would help calm him down. “We’re going to find Liam. Every Felis in the city is going to be looking out for a newborn with red hair. The cops have their system, we have ours.” A note of pride crept into my voice. “And ours is better.”
“I need to talk to my father.” The strength in his voice startled me. “I need to find out what he has to do with this, if anything.” His eyes met mine, soft and teary. “I need to know if he had her killed.”
“I know—but not yet. Liam’s the priority here. After that, your father.”
He gave a weary sigh and nodded. “We need to find the baby and fast.” Bran rubbed his nose. “Be honest—what do you think his odds are?”
I squeezed the bandaged hands. “If someone wanted him dead he’d be dead already. Whoever kidnapped him knows he’s only valuable if kept alive.” I paused for a second before going to the dark side. “It all depends on how much knowledge the kidnapper has about babies. If Liam gets sick this could turn from a kidnapping into a homicide real quick.”
“Let’s go.” Bran moved toward the door, first stopping at the foot of the stairs. “Hey.”
I watched Jazz slink down the steps, eying him cautiously.
He chuckled and put out one hand, palm-up. She nuzzled against the gauze and licked his fingers with a mother’s urgency.
“Sorry, sweetie,” he murmured. “Sometimes I’ve got a worse temper than your big sister.”
“Sometimes?” I pointed at the kindling near the couch. “I’m not cleaning that mess up.”
The hotel lobby was filled with lines of people checking out, nattering among themselves to see what they could pick up on the gossip train about the dead woman. Bad news spread fast and despite the hotel’s best efforts I knew the AMBER Alert had spread fast and furiously through every medium, spreading the social media butter as thick as possible.
Unfortunately that meant more than a handful of present visitors wanted to get as far as possible from the murder scene even if it’d been on a different floor. The hotel’s reputation paled next to a missing child alert.
The desk clerk shuffled pages back and forth as the computer printer coughed out page after page. Harried and overwhelmed he barked into a phone for help while simultaneously handing back a credit card, accepting a handful of hotel keycards and wearing a forced smile.
Molly Callendar had cost them a pretty penny.
“The damned door’s going to be locked this time.” I studied the red-faced hotel clerk. “We’ll need a cardkey to get in.”
Bran held up a finger, halting my speech. He pointed at a housekeeping cart down one of the hallways.
“I know they keep their keys on them, hooked to the uniform,” I replied, a bit of annoyance in my voice. “We can’t strip them down and take the keys.”
“Of course not.” Bran gave me a broad smile, his public smile. “What do you usually do in a case like this?”
I stifled a growl. He’d gone from delectably hot to annoying in point-two seconds. “I’m not used to breaking into crime scenes. Before you came along I worked divorce cases, runaway kids, that sort of stuff.” I gestured at the cart. “I don’t do this sort of thing.”
“Of course not.” Bran kept smiling. “What room was it again?”
“Two hundred twenty-two.”
“Go wait up by the room. I’ll be along shortly.” He rubbed his hands together like a child about to steal candy out of his mother’s purse. “Stay out of sight, please.”