“Cecilia is the CEO and major stockholder of Hamilton Lending,” he continued. “I’m guessing that either William was disowned—or he disowned them.”
Frowning, Laurel felt some of the pieces fall into place. “But now that William’s father is dead, William isn’t content to see his family fortune go to a gold digger, so he set up this meeting with Cecilia to do something about getting back his birthright.”
“I was thinking along the same lines.”
She wasn’t surprised to find that, once again, she and Scott were on the same track. “So where does the Renwick birth certificate come in? Unless maybe Leslie was adopted. Is there a way to tell?”
“Not always, but yes, she was.”
Laurel grinned at him. “Another favor?”
He nodded.
“There’s more. According to the records of the hospital named on the birth certificate, there was a Cecilia Arnett listed as a patient that day.”
“Leslie is Cecilia’s? But that doesn’t make sense. She was married. Why would she have a baby so far from home and give it away?”
He was standing so close she could feel his body heat. Touch him if she wanted to.
“How much you want to bet Cecilia had an affair or two along the way, found herself pregnant, went away to have the baby and gave it up for adoption?”
“William found out about the baby and is using the knowledge to blackmail Cecilia into giving him an interest in the company.”
“Exactly.”
She frowned and then continued. “But why are they both missing?”
“That’s where I got stumped, too,” Scott said, holding open the front door for her.
“So what do we do next?”
“Drive to Worcester, pay a visit to Leslie Renwick and see if she can shed any light on things.”
“But what if she doesn’t know Cecilia? What if she doesn’t even know she’s adopted? We can’t just go barging in there....”
With a warm finger against her lips, Scott silenced her. “We won’t let on to a thing,” he assured her. “There are ways of asking questions without giving up any information.”
Laurel’s lips were still tingling from the touch of his finger when he closed the door behind them.
* * *
SCOTT HAD A SHORT meeting with Maureen and Clint while Laurel was upstairs getting her things.
He filled them in on his progress with Cecilia Hamilton, giving, in deference to Maureen’s former profession, more information than he usually did at this stage of a case, even one that was still unofficial. He told them that he and Laurel were going to make the three-hour drive to Worcester to pay Leslie Renwick a visit.
“Have you found any evidence of recent meetings between William and Cecilia?” Maureen asked, frowning. They were in the gathering room, standing by the registration desk, and she was tapping a pencil monotonously against the top of the computer.
Scott shook his head. “So far, it looks as though they just met for the first time in at least thirty years on Saturday at the café. There’s nothing my sources have found so far. A single phone call a couple of weeks ago, but that appears to be all.”
Clint reached over and gently removed the pencil from his sister’s fingers. “News of Byrd’s disappearance hit the New Ashford paper,” he said. “We’ve already had one cancellation. Good news is it leaves a room open for Laurel.”
Scott had just heard about the article that morning. Apparently it had run in yesterday’s paper. The source appeared to be one of the guests who’d been staying at Twin Oaks the same time as Byrd. Though the police said there was no official investigation, no reason to suspect foul play, Scott still expected the story to be on the news all over this part of the state by evening.
Maureen’s face was pinched, her ponytail not as neat as it had been the previous times Scott had met her. “I’m thinking of canceling this week’s reservations,” she said.
“I don’t think that’s necessary.” Scott looked from one to the other.
“If either William or Cecilia was planning to blackmail the other, it doesn’t make sense that they’d both disappear,” Maureen said. “It seems more likely that something befell the two of them that had absolutely nothing to do with their reason for meeting. That something could be Carl Nevil.”