Page 45 of Stand By You
“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.
