Gone by Mallory Kane Page B

of the situation. But something in the other man’s manner made him feel as though he weren’t as in control as he’d like to be.
    “You’ve spent a good deal of time searching in police databases within the past few days, as well as having others searching on your behalf.”
    “How—?” Joe bit his tongue.
    “How do I know?” Delancey replied. “Because I’ve spent some time searching for you.”
    “Searching for me?”
    “That’s right.” The detective shrugged. “Call it curiosity. When I first saw your birth certificate, I pretended it didn’t bother me that my grandfather had fathered a son that was almost the same age as me. Our birthdays are about a month apart. But I finally had to admit I wanted to know more about you. So I looked up information about you in our database. That’s where I read about your child’s abduction. Then I found that you actually have access to our database.”
    “Through my job,” Joe said.
    Delancey nodded. “So I had one of our computer techs trace what you’ve looked at, and found out that within the past few days you’d accessed records of four people with the first name Howard in and around Killian. You almost immediately zeroed in on Howard Lelievre. I backtracked from his records and found that his disability check goes to Rhoda Sumner. Turns out that her records were flagged, because a dispatcher in Baton Rouge had run a license plate that turned out to be hers.”
    Joe looked at his watch. “That’s fascinating, Detective, but could you get to the point? Are you here to arrest me for unauthorized use of protected information? I’m an attorney and as I told you, I’m authorized through the NCMEC to access those types of records.”
    “Not planning to arrest you,” Detective Delancey said. “I think I know why you’ve been looking up everything you can find on Howard and Rhoda. A little digging told me that she has a child that appears to be around two years old.”
    Joe felt his face drain of color, but he did his best to maintain a neutral expression.
    “You think Rhoda’s child is your son, don’t you?”
    There it was. The thing Joe had dreaded since Marcie had given him Rhoda’s license plate number. He should have predicted that the person who caught him poking around in the police database for information would be a Delancey. He wiped his face wearily. “I don’t think. I know.”
    “That’s what the phone call is, isn’t it? It’s Howard and Rhoda. They want money.”
    Joe didn’t answer. He studied Ethan for a long time. It wasn’t hard to convince himself that there was a resemblance between the two of them. Did his connection with the Delanceys go more than skin-deep? He paced back and forth for a moment, as Ethan stood quietly, watching him.
    Finally he decided he had no choice but to confirm what the man already knew. He didn’t have a clue what Delancey would do with the information, but it would be difficult for him to make the situation any worse.
    “He’s going to call this morning. Probably in a few minutes. But, Detective, he’ll hurt my son if he knows we’ve gone to the police. He told Marcie he’d cut off one of Joshua’s fingers and send it to her. I can’t take that chance. I can’t involve the police in any way.” He stopped. “I don’t know if you can possibly understand—”
    Delancey nodded. “Let me explain something quickly. My brother Travis came back to New Orleans recently and found out in a single day that he had a son and that his son had been abducted. My brothers and cousins worked together with Travis to bring his son home safely.” He gave Joe a small smile. “You have some things to learn about the Delanceys. We’re a very large and very close family. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for a brother or a cousin or...an uncle.”
    The way he said uncle hit Joe square in the solar plexus. For the first time, it occurred to him that in terms of genealogy, he was Ethan’s uncle. An odd