Colin maintained a carefully neutral expression. "Wow! The kid was found by Mike's cabin? What a small world. I hadn't realized. But then, they didn't get specific in the segment I saw."
"They're appealing to the public for help."
"Good idea."
Paddy peered at him more closely. "That doesn't mean anything to you?"
"Why would it?"
"The boy insisted the person who hurt him lived in Rocklin."
Colin shrugged. "Maybe he does."
His father lowered his voice. "Colin, I'm here because I'm afraid you had something to do with the disappearance of that boy."
The adrenaline pumping through him allowed Colin to react with the proper amount of indignation. "You think I'd beat up a child?"
He'd expected Paddy to get defensive in return. As much as his father had changed over the years, he still had a temper when sufficiently provoked. But he didn't react with anger. His voice had a pleading quality to it. "I don't want to think that," he said. "To be honest, I can't imagine a worse scenario, but the man who hurt him insisted on being called Master. As soon as I heard that, I felt like I'd been shot."
"Are you serious? God, will you give me a break?" Colin managed a laugh. "Maybe I made Courtney call me Master when we were young, but I was just playing around. That doesn't make me the son of a bitch who hurt this kid."
"Playing around? She didn't think it was any fun."
"It was normal brother-sister stuff."
His father didn't comment.
"Come on!" Colin said. "I'm not the only one who's ever used the word. What about domination freaks? It could be anyone. How would I even have come into contact with this boy?"
He knew before he'd finished speaking that he'd said too much. The answer was obvious, and his father spit it out immediately.
"He went missing from my neighborhood."
The regret in his father's body language made Colin's knees go weak.
On some level, Paddy knew. He didn't want to face it, probably because he didn't want to shoulder any responsibility for what his son had become. He'd been so proud of Colin, especially since Colin had graduated from law school.
But, in his heart of hearts, Paddy knew. And the truth made him sick.
Colin jutted out his chin. "I didn't do it."
"You have a connection to where he was taken and where he was found. And..."
"And what?" Colin snapped, going on the attack. "You believe Mom, don't you! You believe I have a cruel streak."
"I'm not sure what to believe."
"Even if I wanted to kidnap somebody's kid, how would I do it with Tiffany around? Whoever it was kept that kid for what, two months?"
A tear caught in Paddy's eyelashes. Colin had never seen his father cry before. He didn't know what to do, what more he could say, but he couldn't let the encounter end like this or his father would go to the police.
"What?" he snapped.
"They didn't say how long Master had the kid," Paddy replied.
Shit! He'd done another line of coke after Tiffany had left and wasn't thinking clearly, wasn't handling this well. His father was growing more convinced of the truth. How was he going to get out of this?
Sweat soaked the underarms of Colin's T-shirt, made the cotton stick to his back. "They did in the segment I saw."
He'd forced enough calm into his voice and manner that a flicker of hope returned to his father's eyes. "They did?"
"Yes! How would I know that otherwise?"
"But what about the girl who's gone missing? They showed her mother. She looked exactly like your neighbor."
Son of a bitch! How had he recognized Zoe? Paddy and Sheryl hardly ever came over. But Colin and Tiffany had lived next door to Lucassi and Zoe for nine months. It was certainly conceivable that they'd bumped into each other at some point.
Should he say the person on TV wasn't his neighbor? That was what he wanted to say. But it would be far too easy to disprove. And then he'd be in the untenable position of being caught in a lie.
Raking his fingers through his hair, he clicked his tongue. "Right.
That happened earlier this week. Can you believe it? Someone snagged the kid from her own backyard. Zoe was just here, by the way, helping me organize a big search for tomorrow. The other lawyers at the firm and some of the support staff are going out with us."
"Why do you need to look for her?" his father asked.
Colin's muscles ached from the tension. "Because she could be in danger. You just told me yourself--someone took her."
"Was that someone you, Colin?"
"No!" Colin wasn't willing to give up yet. He could lie his way out of this just as he had out of every scrape in the past. His mother was the only one who could see through him when he made shit up. She'd tried to beat the devil out of him, but that'd just heightened his desire to hurt and maim. "I know it seems like quite a coincidence. But it wasn't me. If I'm not at work, I'm with Tiffany. I could never get enough time alone to snatch one kid, never mind two."
"I thought of that," Paddy said. "The whole ride over here, I told myself I had to be crazy to be feeling such fear. It couldn't be you. Not my son. For the sake of holding my marriage together, my family together, maybe I let your mother get a bit too harsh when you were little. I feel bad about that. But Tina's been out of the picture for a long time, Colin. You could've gotten some help. I offered, more than once, to pay for a therapist, but you always insisted you were fine. You pointed to your grades in school, your law-school diploma, your happy marriage, your lovely home. And I figured anyone who could achieve all that had to be fine. But we both know how Tiffany worships you. She'd slit her own wrists if you told her to."
With anyone else, Tiffany's presence in his daily life would provide a foolproof alibi. But this was his father; Paddy had had a front-row seat to the way they interacted.
"You're underestimating Tiffany," he said. "She'd never go along with kidnapping and...and attempted murder!"
His father wanted to believe him. That was why he'd come over, to convince himself that his suspicions were unfounded. "You're sure it's her I've underestimated?"
Colin grabbed his arm. "Are you kidding me? You're just like Mom.
Full of false accusations. Always thinking the worst."
His father didn't like being compared to Tina. Rocking back, he searched Colin's face. "You didn't hurt those kids? Tell me the truth, Colin. I can't help you if I don't know the truth."