Free Her Stolen Son by Rita Herron Page B

she’d seen it before.
    â€œDo you recognize it?” Colt asked.
    She shook her head and watched silently as he opened the bag and the stacks of hundred dollar bills appeared. Shock settled over her. “I can’t believe this was Parker’s, that he hid it up here.”
    Anger bubbled inside her, and she paced to the attic window and stared out. Clouds were brewing in the sky, threatening a storm, making the sky look as dismal and gray as she felt inside.
    A muscle ticked in Colt’s jaw. “Had he brought cash home before like this?”
    â€œNo, at least not that I know of.”
    â€œIf he was deep undercover,” Colt said, “he could have planned to use it for a payoff, then bust the drug dealer. But he was killed before he could retrieve it.”
    That was the scenario she wanted to believe, but suspicions nagged at her, just as she was sure they were Colt. “I’m beginning to wonder what else I didn’t know about my husband.”
    She stared at a squirrel skittering up a tree in theyard, the tree where Parker and Petey had built his tree house, and her stomach churned.
    â€œThe last few weeks Parker acted differently. I was worried that being undercover had changed him. He seemed moody, distant, secretive, and I…thought…” She let the words trail off.
    â€œThought what, Serena?
    She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “That he might be doing drugs himself.”
    Colt grimaced. “Sometimes an undercover cop is forced to do things he wouldn’t normally do just to fit the role.”
    She shrugged. “His undercover job was driving a wedge between us. When he was here, which wasn’t often, we argued a lot. I even…suspected him of having an affair.”
    â€œWhat made you suspect another woman?”
    â€œCryptic calls at all hours of the night. Hang up calls when I answered.” She scrubbed at a smudge on the window. “Twice I smelled perfume on his clothes. And once I grabbed his cell phone when a call came in and saw a woman’s name. Dasha.”
    â€œDid you confront him?”
    â€œHe said it was somebody he worked with.”
    â€œThe woman could have been part of the undercover job,” Colt said. “Let me show you something else.”
    â€œGod, what now?”
    He gave her a sympathetic look. “Let’s go downstairs.”
    She fought the sense of trepidation overpowering her.If Petey was missing because Parker had done something illegal, she would never forgive him.
    Colt set his computer on the kitchen table, booted it up and opened a file. “Look at this photograph. This is the Lyle Rice you met?”
    She nodded.
    He clicked a few keys and various images of the man in different disguises appeared. “These are his aliases, at least the ones we’ve uncovered so far,” Colt explained. “He had passports in several names, as well.”
    Serena watched the transformations, some subtle, some more extreme, in morbid fascination. “I can’t believe this. He’s a con artist.”
    Colt nodded. “He was arrested for fraud and spent five years in jail. Guess who the arresting officer was?”
    The truth dawned on Serena, making her pulse pound. “Parker.” She leaned closer to read the details of the arrest. “So Lyle Rice had a vendetta against Parker?”
    Colt nodded. “It proves motive. And if he knew about that cash, maybe he cozied up to you in order to find it.”
    â€œThen someone murdered him,” Serena concluded.
    â€œYou said the man who killed Parker is in prison. I’d like to pay him a visit and see what he can tell us. Maybe he has a connection to Rice. Could be Rice had a partner who killed him.”
    â€œSo Rice’s partner framed me to get me out of the way so he could look for the cash.” She massaged her temple. “But why kidnap Petey?”
    Colt shrugged. “Maybe he’s going