His Brother's Bride

He’d only spoken with Maureen’s old boss once, but the man remembered him immediately.

“I have an entire sheet of numbers in the Nevil file,” Quigg told Scott when he explained his reason for calling. “You want to hang on while I check, or have me call you back?”

“I’ll hang on.”

“Wasn’t Arnett’s prison friend from New York?” Laurel asked in the pause that followed.

Though he wasn’t the least bit surprised she’d put things together so quickly, Scott was impressed. “Yeah,” he said, watching a woman park a pickup truck in a compact space.

He wished he could discuss his real concern about the Nevils with Laurel. And then was almost glad that he couldn’t. Visions of William and Cecilia in the hands of either Nevil—even indirectly—were making him tense. He’d hate to think what it would do to her.

He glanced over at her, and she turned at the same time. “So you think there’s a connection.”

Their eyes met. And held.

Scott looked away first. “I’m just checking all bases.”

He hated to lie to her again, even by omission.

Quigg came back on the line. “I’ve got a match.”

Scott froze. It wasn’t the answer he’d been prepared to hear. His lungs growing tighter by the second, he listened.

“It’s the number of a woman Owen Nevil—Carl’s brother—knows out on Long Island.”

He’d hoped he was wrong.

“She’s listed?” He could feel Laurel looking at him and braced himself for the conversation with her that was going to follow his phone call.

“No. Owen’s been staying with the woman on and off since his release from prison. Several months ago she came to us asking for protection for her kid. She’s got some rich uncle and Nevil wanted her to do a con job on the old guy to the tune of more than a million bucks. The jerk threatened to hurt her daughter if the woman didn’t do as he asked. She begged us to take her kid someplace safe.”

“Let me guess,” Scott said, rubbing a taut hand across his forehead. “She wasn’t willing to testify, right?”

“You got it.”

“But you helped her get free of him. Watched out for her after she kicked him out.”

“Yep.”

“And then she let him move back in.”

“You ever think about working for NYPD?” Quigg asked.

“Nope. Never...”

The day just kept getting better and better—and it was only morning.

* * *

“THERE’S A CONNECTION, isn’t there?” Laurel broke the silence that fell after he ended the call. Though her seat belt was buckled, she’d slumped down so that her head barely rose above the dash. As though she were trying to hide from the truth.

“On the night that William and Cecilia disappeared, Dennis called a number where the brother of his prison friend was staying. Doesn’t necessarily mean there’s any connection between them and the disappearance of William and Cecilia.”

“And Leslie.”

“Right.” Scott started the car, planning to do their daily drive-bys. He pulled onto the highway to head out to Dennis’s place first. Leslie’s was closer to town and he wanted to try to time their visit with Katy so that her daughters were down for their nap.

“The brother of Carl Nevil?”