Colton Christmas Protector (The Coltons of Texas #12)(60)
Chapter 16
The next morning, after going to the drive-through window of his favorite coffee shop for a cup of dark roast, Reid drove back to the area in downtown Dallas where he’d spotted Moira and Aaron the night before. He parked his car in the pay lot just down the street, but with a clear line of sight, from the building in question. He leaned his seat back, getting comfortable, prepared to wait. He’d been on many stakeouts in his days with the police department, but none as important to him as this one. Was Eldridge holed up in this run-down part of Dallas? If so, had he come willingly or—
A loud rapping on his window yanked Reid from his musings. A heavyset balding man, huddling against the brisk December gloom in a heavy, hooded coat, stared in the driver’s-side window.
Reid cracked open the window. “There a problem?”
“You gotta pay if you’re stayin’. Five dollars for the first 30 minutes and three for each additional hour.” Even from his distance, Reid could smell the cigarettes on the guy’s breath.
“Right.” He dug in his wallet and extracted three twenties. He lowered the window some more and handed them to the attendant. “That should cover me for a while.”
The attendant looked at the bills and grunted. “That it will.” He started to walk away, then turned back toward Reid. “You all right? When I walked up, you looked...” He hesitated as if looking for the right word.
Reid gave him a halfhearted grin. “I’m fine.” Before the attendant could walk more than a step, Reid called to him, “Can I ask ya something?” He earned a shrug in response. “What do you know about an older guy who lives in the building over there with the green awning? He’d have moved in about June? Skinny guy, short for a man. Midseventies.”
The attendant twisted his mouth as he thought and gave another shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe...”
Sighing, Reid pulled a couple more bills from his wallet. “Think harder. He might have been with another older gentleman or a petite woman with straight gray hair. Or getting in or out of a dark blue Mercedes?”
The attendant’s face brightened. “Now you’re speakin’ my language. Cars I notice.” He rubbed his face with a gloved hand. “Let’s see...I remember a blue Mercedes coming around here a couple times maybe...” He gave Reid a speculative glance. “Maybe even on a regular schedule, but...that info will cost ya another couple Jacksons.”
Reid scowled darkly at the extortionist but peeled two more twenties from his wallet. “How regular? What schedule?”
With a smug grin, the parking attendant shoved the bills in his pants pocket. “If they stick to routine, the Mercedes should be around to drop off the old guy in about an hour.”
“Drop him off? When did they leave? Where do they go?”
“How the hell should I know where they go? I’m here working the lot. But they leave about nine a.m. every Wednesday and come back around eleven thirty. The old lady sometimes helps the shorter man you mentioned to walk inside. The Mercedes will circle the block and come back to pick her up.” The attendant reached in his coat pocket and pulled out a crumpled pack of cigarettes and tapped one out. “Why are you asking about the guy? You a cop?”
Reid gave the attendant a noncommittal shrug like he’d received. “Something like that. Thanks for the info.”
He rolled up his window, signaling an end to the conversation, and the guy shuffled back to his tiny booth.
Reid checked his watch. Returning in about an hour, huh? So the butler and his wife had been making daytime runs each week, as well. Interesting.
He lifted his cup of coffee and took a sip. He had nothing but time. Before he left downtown today, he’d find Eldridge and get some answers.
*
After feeding the new kitten and Nicholas their respective breakfasts, Penelope took her son down to the boat dock for a change of scenery. The kitten, which Penelope had dubbed Lucky, had warmed up to his rescuers the night before after recovering from his trip to the lake house and gobbling a large bowl of canned food. And Reid, for all his fussing about the cat, seemed a little smitten with Lucky that morning. Until Lucky had used Reid’s leg as a ladder to climb up to the counter where Reid was making scrambled eggs.
Pen chuckled to herself remembering the look of amusement on Reid’s face as the orange fuzz ball, tiny claws extended, clambered up his jeans. And his grunt of pain as those tiny claws dug into his skin when Lucky reached the thinner material of Reid’s T-shirt.
Once at the floating pier, Nicholas spent his time gathering rocks on the shore and bringing them out to the dock to fling into the water with glee. The kid had a room full of toys Reid had bought him, but he was happiest throwing rocks. Boys!
Penelope cast a gaze around at the peaceful setting. Reid had such a lovely setup here at the lake house. The quiet inlet, the surrounding woods, the tranquil water. Although the hardwood trees had dropped their leaves, the barren branches still had a serene sort of beauty. But even the calm of the water couldn’t take the edge off her nerves as she waited to hear back from Reid’s excursion today. Would he find his father? Was her father somehow involved with Eldridge’s disappearance? It wouldn’t surprise her. And, damn it, what did that say about how wide the gulf between them had grown?
Spotting the white egret that frequented the water’s edge, perched on a fallen log across the cove, she squatted next to Nicholas and pointed to the bird. “Look, sweetie. See the bird?”