Innocent Hostage by Vonnie Hughes Read Free Book Online Page B

have sorted that out.”
Moffat spoke with the carelessness of the misinformed. He’d obviously never suffered the trauma of struggling to deal with child access issues. Breck had no intention of airing his dirty linen for Moffat to pick over. He didn’t want anyone to know how scared he’d been to stir the pot, and most of all he didn’t want people to know how ill equipped he was to be a parent. He mumbled that Tania was a great mom apart from her habit of stiffing him.
“Didn’t you want the kid?” Moffat needled him.
Breck breathed in through his nose. “Yeah. I wanted him. What’s this got to do with Tania’s disappearance?”
“Just wondering if she pissed you off one time too many and you decided to take care of her once and for all.” Moffat took a careful step backwards.
Peters rolled his eyes.
Breck squeezed down on his hubris and forced himself not to rise to the bait. God, how he longed to leap up and deck Moffat. “Look, Moffat, there’s a couple of things you should know. Tania is given to disappearing. During our marriage she twice disappeared for a few days. The first time she took Kit with her. The second time she left him at home with me. Each time she came back behaving as if nothing had happened. She was a secretive woman but she was a good mom, so I let her call the shots. It seems she did the same thing to Marty. My son mentioned that a week before Marty had his little brainstorm, she left early in the morning, taking the other two kids with her. She came back the next day and even though Marty raved, she refused to say where she’d been. From what Kit told me, it generated a volcanic argument. Those two thrived on arguments.” Breck had no intention of explaining to Moffat about Tania’s little sideline, which was probably what had got her into trouble this time.
Moffat thought for a moment, which made a nice change. He should have thought before thumping on Breck’s door and instituting a search. And he should have thought before dragging Breck down to HQ.
“What exactly were you looking for at my apartment?” Breck asked. Would Moffat tell him?
“Signs to see if Tania had been there or was staying with you, that sort of thing,” Moffat answered, as if that should have been obvious.
Yeah. That sort of thing. Bloodstains. Signs of a struggle.
At least Moffat had one saving grace. He hadn’t tried to interrogate Kit at preschool without an adult in attendance. He’d seen Moffat eyeing Kit as if he was trying to work out how much Kit knew about his mother’s disappearance. Maybe Peters had restrained him. Breck grinned to himself. Anyway, the dragon fairy lady wouldn’t have let Moffat get within an inch of any of her children. Lord, that woman was amazing. She sure fired up when she was in a snit. Which reminded him. “It sounds as though Miss Rowland might know quite a lot about Tania. You could question her again,” he suggested evilly.
Moffat stiffened. “Not if I want to keep my balls,” he muttered.
Breck grinned again. He must buy Ms. Rowland a present.

Chapter Six
A week later, Kit and Breck had their timetable down to a fine art. But a teenage boy threw a spanner in the works. He got hold of his father’s new .223 and took it to show some of his mates how well he could shoot. When he realized the cops were on his tail, he holed up in bush land at the back of the local public school. A really dangerous situation.
Unit Four hadn’t yet had a new team leader appointed, so Breck was in command for the time being. He phoned Jace as he sped to the scene. She assured him that picking up Kit was no problem. That was one thing off his mind.
As soon as he arrived on the scene, he set up the points for his team. “The rifle’s got a Pecar varipower scope. Hardly a challenge at that range,” he muttered to Abe.
Abe grinned. “Be fair. When you were fourteen, you’d have thought you were the cat’s pajamas if you could get your hands on one of those.”
Breck snorted.