Page 59 of Chasing a Kidnapper

The manager checked her ID, then led them down the hall to a room full of safety deposit boxes. After a moment, he used a master key to open a box, pulling out a large box that was obviously extremely heavy.

West stepped forward when the manager nearly dropped it. “Maybe he stored bricks in here,” the man joked.

Peanut didn’t alert, sniffing around in the room with interest. Trisha found herself holding her breath as West used the key to open the box.

It was full of long bars of what appeared to be solid gold.

Gold? Was that what Edward Watley had tried to say?

She looked at West, who appeared just as shocked as she was.

They had one answer to the puzzle surrounding the danger to her and Gabriel.

But they still had plenty of unanswered questions. Like where had Bryan gotten the gold?

And did the gold belong to Edward Watley or was he just a hired gun for the rightful owner?

SIXTEEN

West had not expected to find ten solid gold bars in the safety deposit box. Truthfully, he’d thought there would just be a bunch of cash, or maybe even drugs.

But gold? The price of gold had been going back up again in the past few months. He was no expert, but there had to be close to five hundred thousand dollars’ worth of the precious metal in this safety deposit box.

He turned toward Trish, smiling at the happy grin on Gabriel’s face. He found himself reaching out to smooth a hand over the baby’s back, extremely thankful the little boy hadn’t been hurt. Then he focused on the issue at hand. With a quick glance, he made sure the manager was out of the room. “We searched for reported robberies but didn’t find anything. You would think someone who lost something with this high of a value would have reported the theft to the police.”

“Yeah, it makes me wonder if the owner of the gold didn’t want anyone to know he had it.” Her eyes widened. “Like he stole it first, and then Bryan grabbed it.”

“Exactly.” He nodded thoughtfully, then added, “We need to find the rightful owner.”

“Edward Watley must know something,” she offered, switching Gabriel to her other hip. “I still think it’s odd that he was wearing a bullet-resistant vest. He must have gotten it from a friend in law enforcement or the military.”

“Now that we know his name, we can dig into his known contacts.” He placed the lid back on the box and stepped back.

“I found his name on Renee Mills’s social media page as one of her friends, maybe even a boyfriend.” She scowled. “I’m sure he knew where Renee kept her car keys and helped himself.”

“Yeah, Renee Mills needs to be held accountable for not cooperating with this investigation.” He crossed over to poke his head through the door, gesturing for the bank manager. “Please replace the box. We’ll be back later.”

“Fine with me,” the bank manager agreed.

“Let’s get out of here.” He rested his hand on the small of her back. Gabriel started fussing again, so he reached for the boy, taking him from Trish’s arms. “Hey, you’re okay.”

Instantly Gabriel quieted, his wide eyes fixated on his face. West abruptly realized that the baby hadn’t been around men in the duration of his short life.

No father figure to look up to.

And why did he have the strange impulse to fulfill that role? The thought didn’t scare him as much as it should have as he followed Trisha outside. Peanut stayed in the heel position, occasionally looking up at him as if asking when she’d be going back to work.

A few steps from the SUV, Peanut abruptly alerted, moments before an older man with shock white hair beneath his Stetson stepped out from behind the vehicle. West froze when he saw the handgun pointed at him.

“I’ll take that key,” the man said gruffly. “The gold is mine.”

“Is it?” West wished he hadn’t taken Gabriel from Trish’s arms, or assumed the danger was over. Trisha was armed, as he was, but it was too late to pull a weapon.

“Yeah.” The old cowboy took a small step toward them, while staying behind the relative protection of the SUV. “Give me the key and escort me inside to get past that bank manager. Once I have the gold free and clear, no one will get hurt.”

West didn’t believe that for a second, but his options were limited. He shifted to hand Gabriel over to Trish who subtly moved away using the side of the SUV for safety, so he would have both of his hands free. Rushing the cowboy wasn’t really an option, but he needed to do something. “How did you find us?”

The old man barked out a laugh. “Gotta love technology. That idiot Bryan Little wouldn’t talk, but Watley did grab his phone. They have this new app now, called Find My Device. Have you heard of it?” The old man’s eyes gleamed. “Worked like a charm. Most of the time.”

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