His Brother's Bride

“And even if he had fathered a child—if Leslie was his—why would discovering that cause him to disappear into thin air?”

“Can’t think of any good reason.”

Laurel rubbed her hand across her forehead and down over her eyes. “Maybe we’re completely on the wrong track here.”

“How so?”

“What if William Byrd just found that certificate—maybe sticking out from the bottom of a dresser drawer, or something? The rooms here are all furnished with antiques, a lot of them purchased during the past year. Could be somebody hid or lost that certificate years ago and Byrd just happened upon it.”

The idea might sound far-fetched, but Laurel had heard of things a lot more bizarre than that.

“That could explain why he’d just left it sitting out. He’d hardly think it was confidential if he’d found it stuck in a drawer,” Scott said slowly.

“Good point,” Laurel agreed. “So where does that leave us?”

“Well, since we don’t have an official case, or even know for certain that we have a missing person, I can’t really call Leslie Renwick and ask her if she knows why William Byrd might have a copy of her birth certificate. I guess for the time being, we assume that Byrd’s finding the certificate was a fluke.”

“So we’re back to square one.”

“We know he parked in town after he left Twin Oaks on Saturday,” Scott reminded her.

“Do you think he intended to go to the barbecue and just never made it?” She’d been so focused on that birth certificate, certain that whatever had caused Byrd to disappear had occurred at the bed-and-breakfast, that she hadn’t considered any other possibility.

“Everyone at Twin Oaks heard him say he’d be there...”

Laurel started to feel slightly sick.

“...so we have to consider the possibility that...”

“Someone abducted him right there in the middle of town while everyone was down at the barbecue,” she finished, seeming to have more control if she was the one to actually say the words rather than hear them.

“It could have happened without any outward sign of a struggle....”

“Especially if they took him in his own car.”

Scott’s sigh was so deep she could almost feel the weight of it. “I have some other news.”

She didn’t like the sound of his voice. “What?”

“I called that bed-and-breakfast in Vermont. Byrd had a reservation there for tonight and tomorrow night. He was scheduled to arrive this afternoon.”

“And he didn’t.”

“Nope.”

Okay, well, he hadn’t been back to Twin Oaks yet, either. That didn’t mean...

She wasn’t going to stop believing the older man was okay. “So what else have we got to go on?”

“What about the woman’s negligee?” Scott asked, his voice subdued.

Staring down at the floorboards directly in front of her, Laurel hesitated before answering. “He’s been alone a long time.” She hated to say it. “He could just have some alternative tastes.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t think of a better explanation at the moment.”

“If he’d had a woman here, someone would have noticed,” Laurel said. “Nothing gets past Keegan.” She hated where they were going with this but couldn’t find a more plausible route.

“And if he’d been planning to have a woman in, why wouldn’t he just say so?” Scott added. “He’d have to know that wasn’t something you could keep secret in a place like Twin Oaks. So what clues does this leave us with?” he asked, sounding like he needed a good night’s rest.