Chapter 13
Half an hour after she got off the phone with Detective Kohl, Jillian and Nick parked and walked across the street to the police station.
As they approached the front door, she placed her hand on his arm.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you. Kohl asked for Travis’ medical records from his pediatrician. ”
“Did he say why?” Nick asked.
She swallowed the lump in her throat before saying, “He’d asked if Travis was diabetic. I assured him if he were I would have told them that right away because Travis couldn’t survive if he were insulin dependent. And it would have made his abduction that much more serious in our need to find him.”
“Did he explain why he wanted to know about diabetes?” Nick asked, his hands on her shoulders warming her.
“No. He just thanked me for my help and that it would assist with their investigation.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed in thought. “Was this before or after he told you they had the bike messengers in custody?”
“After, but he didn’t say they were in custody,” Jillian told him. “Only that they were questioning them and that there had been a break in the case.” She gave a weak smile and then she gasped. “You don’t think…surely they haven’t found a body?”
“Did he say they did?” Nick demanded and she watched dismay widen his eyes.
“N-no, but why all these q-questions?” she asked, unable to stop the stammer from entering her voice. She grabbed his arms to steady herself. “And why be so vague?”
“This is Kohl you were dealing with, not Simons,” Nick explained gently. “We haven’t worked with him. We only met him in that observation room while Simons interviewed Geneva. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to him not wanting to give too much away in his methods.”
She exhaled and slowly nodded. “Okay.”
“So, let’s find out what they know.” Nick reached out to open the door and she hurried inside.
The desk sergeant looked up as they approached. “Can I help you?”
“We’re here to see detectives Simons and Kohl,” Jillian said. “I’m Jillian Grant.”
“Right.” The man rose from his chair and handed them visitor badges. “They said you’d be coming. Come with me.”
Following a few steps behind him, the man led them through a locked door and down a corridor to another door which he opened. Simons and Kohl rose from a long table, their expressions unreadable and Jillian’s heart sank.
“You guys have company,” the sergeant called before he departed, closing the door behind him.
“Good to see you both again” Simons greeted. “But you really didn’t have to come down. These guys have given us a complete statement. They are up to their eyeballs in it even if they were duped into carrying out Travis’ abduction.”
“I know, but I want to talk to them,” Jillian insisted. “I’m Travis’ nanny. They took him on my watch. It was my responsibility to keep him safe. I won’t be satisfied until I hear their account of how Travis was doing the last time they saw him.”
“I get that,” Simons said. “But you can’t take on this burden as his caretaker. These guys were told Travis was being medically abused by his father who was withholding insulin from him.”
“But Travis isn’t a diabetic,” she said.
“Yeah, but these guys didn’t know that. The man who hired them gave them a patch to put on Travis –”
A cold sweat broke out over Jillian’s skin. “Oh, dear lord,” she whispered. “You’re not saying they gave him insulin, are you? That could kill him!”
“According to our suspects, Travis was very much alive when he was moved,” Simons said quickly.
“We suspect the patch contained a sedative that kept him sleeping the entire time they had him.” Simon paused for a moment.
“Before I let you go in there, I have to warn you they were vaping pot and were high as kites right before they found their boss murdered. They may still be a little high. They sure were when I was interrogating them.”
Jillian raised her chin and gave him the glare that always stopped Travis in his tracks. “Okay. But I still want to see them.”
“I’ll be with you,” Nick said.
“No. I want to do this alone,” Jillian said flatly. “Did they happen to mention if they knew anything about who tried to take me out?”
“That never came up in our conversation,” Simons said.
“But they were adamant that they were hired for one job and that was to extract Travis from the zoo. I don’t think they would know anything more about Delvecchio’s business as a private investigator.
Hell, he may not even have been hired to do more than extract the child. ”
Jillian took a deep breath allowing this all to register. “Then let me see them. Please.”
Simons nodded. “Follow me.” He led the way to the interrogation room and pushed open the door to show two young men sleeping on the table. He walked over and jerked it hard enough that it wobbled back and jolted them upright. “Wake up, guys!”
Their sour expressions suggested they didn’t appreciate the disturbance. “Dude, you have the worst bedside manner,” one of them whined.
“Dude, this isn’t a bed, it’s a table,” Simons mocked. “Sit up and listen. This is Jillian, Travis McGinty’s nanny. She’s been taking care of him since he was two years old. And for your information, he wasn’t diabetic.”
“What?” the other one cried. “Are you saying Carlton lied to us?”
“Afraid so,” Simons said and turned to her. “Jillian, this is Slick and Wizard our bike messengers. I’ll be right outside the door if you need me.” And with that he stepped outside of the room, closing the door behind him.
Jillian took the chair across the table from them. “I understand you didn’t mean Travis any harm, even if you have worried me and his father terribly.”
“We were–” Wizard started to speak, but she held up her hand to stop him.
“I don’t want to hear your excuses,” she said. “You were lied to and believed you were helping Travis. But now you’ve left him in the hands of God only knows who now that the man who hired you has been murdered.”
“We’re sorry,” Slick said.
Jillian waved away his apology. “If you are truly sorry then you’ll tell me where Travis is,” she said.
“We don’t know,” Wizard said. “Honest.”
“Do you know who hired Delvecchio?” she asked.
“Not really,” Wizard said. “We kinda assumed it was his mother, but maybe we were wrong there too. We’ve been wrong about everything else.”
“Travis’ mother can’t have him,” Jillian said, softly. “The courts took away her rights.” She pushed away the thought that Geneva would take matters into her own hands after all these years.
“Why are you here instead of his father then?” Slick asked, frowning. “If he’s not a bad dad, then where is he?”
“He’s on the other side of the world, trying to get back here,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t know where Travis is?”
“No, we don’t know,” Wizard said. “He was sleeping the last time we saw him in a really nice bed with a comforter. We’re pretty sure he’s been moved from that location because Carlton…Mr. Delvecchio… said he was going to clean things up after we left.”
“And you didn’t talk to him after that?” she asked.
They both shook their heads.
“We tried,” Slick said. “But he wasn’t in his office when we went to see him and when we came back last night, we found him dead.”
“We never meant Travis any harm,” Wizard said, getting his statement out this time without her stopping him. “We really thought were doing something good, helping Carlton get him away from an abusive father.”
“It’s obvious that you love him,” Slick said. “Like a mother would.”
Jillian nodded, digging in her purse for a tissue to wipe her eyes. “I do, like he was my own. His mother was unable to care for him when I was hired as a nanny. I’ve seen him grow from an infant to a boy.”
“We’re sorry we worried you,” Wizard said.
Pushing back from the table, Jillian stood. “Anyone can be led astray without knowing it, but you will have to take responsibility for your actions.”
“If we aren’t killed,” Slick mumbled.
“What?” she asked.
“Detective Simons said we might be killed like Delvecchio for what we know,” Slick explained.
“I’m sure the police will keep you safe,” she said, and went to the door, and finding it was locked, rapped sharply on it.
Simons opened it and let her out. “Did you get what you wanted?”
“Yes,” she said. “Keep them safe. They shouldn’t end up like Delvecchio.”
Kohl met them before they reached the bull pen. “You won’t believe who owns the real-estate property those two said they took Travis to after leaving the zoo.”
“Try me,” Simons asked.
“Robert and Judy Reyes. The real-estate agency is listed as Jamieson Realty, but they own it,” Kohl said. “What do you want to bet they have him at another agency listed house?”
“How’d you find this out?” Simons asked.
“Nick called a pal of his who ran the Reyes’ financials,” Kohl explained as they walked back to the bull pen and their desks.
“Swede,” Jillian said. “He’s a computer genius and can find out anything, anywhere.”
“Yeah, that’s him,” Kohl said, excitement lifting his voice. “Swede also found a new property that the Reyes purchased several months back located in Richmond West. It’s only twenty-one miles from downtown Miami.”
Simons rubbed his forefinger and thumb back and forth at his chin. “Richmond West is a family friendly neighborhood. My sister lives out there with her family. She told me they liked it because of the sense of community and safety she felt as soon as they moved in.”
“Perfect place to hide a kid then,” Kohl said. With other children around it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a kid to scream or yell.”
“Right,” Simons said. “Get a search warrant for the property address ‘cause we’re heading for the Keys.”