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it was because he was sleeping with Hilary. It wasn’t. I’d already made plans to leave her. Nope, I ratted him out because there’s no place on any police force for common criminals.”
    “How hard was it to do something like that?” I asked.
    “I never lost any sleep,” he said.
    “Okay, so what about your ex? Did she… participate in your… abduction ?”
    “She was too smart to show her face once we arrived at their house. But she probably had a hand in this. Lucky for me, the second night I was there, Nolan drank too much and passed out. I’d been working on those zip tie restraints every chance I got and they finally gave. I took off. Would have been easier if I’d left in my own car, but Nolan had my keys, my phone and my wallet. I couldn’t risk waking him to get to them.”
    “Why didn’t you go straight to the police?” I said.
    “Are you forgetting I was a cop, too? I know from experience that going to the North Carolina police would put the focus on an ex-con’s assaulting me rather than on finding Finn. I’d be spending time doing paperwork and talking to one person after another. Nope. I need to find Finn. That’s my priority.”
    I was silent, trying to make sense of all he’d told me.
    “I know. I know,” Tom said. “I should have told you all this before, but I—I couldn’t. I kept it locked away, afraid to open that particular compartment in my brain. I left a kid with a woman I hated, left Finn in what I should have predicted would turn out to be a bad situation. How I wish I’d done things differently.”
    “You kept in touch with Finn. You cared. Now I’m wondering how I can help. Because this is awful,” I said. “Do you know if this Nolan Roth or Hilary went to the North Carolina police about Finn’s disappearance before Roth came after you?”
    “I doubt they’d do anything even remotely responsible. Plus, Finn’s of legal age. Thousands of people disappear every year, most often by choice. Cops always consider kids Finn’s age to be runaways rather than missing persons unless there’s absolute proof of foul play. I don’t like the attitude, but more often than not, it proves to be true.”
    Tom stroked Chablis gently. He seemed more like the Tom I knew now that he’d gotten some of this difficult story out—a man in control and ready to problem solve.
    These revelations were troubling, though, and I said, “This missing kid is not a priority to the police, and the people searching for him are… well, plain mean. Any chance Roth really cares about Finn and wants to find him?”
    “Not a chance in hell. I don’t know what my ex and Nolan are up to, but I intend to find out.”
    I gently touched his swollen cheek. “So Nolan came straight for you—and came hard,” I said.
    “Not because he cares about Finn, though. A lot of his actions were focused on revenge. But I’m wondering if Finn might have taken cash they’d stashed in the house. Missing money would have motivated them, for sure. Could have been serious money, too, since Nolan might still be working for his drug-dealing friends. See, he went to jail for stealing drugs from our busts and then selling them.”
    “Sounds like a terrible man.” My gaze traveled over his battered face. “He did all this to you?”
    “Yup. I’ll say this: The coward had to restrain me or he’d look worse than me right now.” He held out his hands to show me the angry red marks from the zip ties.
    “You’ve got to tell Mike Baca about this right away,” I said.
    Tom shook his head and was vehement when he said, “No. I’m handling this.”
    I could see he was getting upset again. I touched a bruise with the tip of my finger and said, “I know you want to deal with this on your own. I’ll help you. But first, there are a few things I have to tell you.”
    He pressed a hand against his right rib cage and grimaced. “Whoa. I’m feeling Nolan’s boot in my side all over again. Is something as wrong as your