Stolen Kiss (Erotic Thriller)

Chapter 23

Richie placed the phone call to Detective Mulloy for the tenth time today. He'd been hounding the police constantly for updates on the investigation and Raiden's whereabouts.

In the meantime, he'd been in touch with his lawyer in regards to legally adopting Raiden as soon as he's found. He refused to believe that he would never see Raiden again, alive or otherwise. The thought of that made his stomach churn. He had to hold onto his faith that he would see him again and soon.

He'd woken this morning with a monster headache, curled up on the sofa in the Shoe Inn with his head in Jon's lap. Richie lay still as he took stock of what had happened yesterday and he felt his heartbreak all over again.

Sometime after he'd fallen asleep, Jon must have linked their hands as they used to do as he felt a familiar warmth around his fingers.

Jon shifted in his sleep and let out a soft moan that sounded suspiciously like his name. Richie snorted softly at the insistent growth coming from behind his head as he lay there. He smiled and squeezed Jon's fingers.

He was about to roll over and relieve Jon of his predicament when he heard his phone from somewhere behind him, the vibrations tickling his lower back. He sat up quickly causing his head to spin and his stomach to lurch as he searched for his phone.

"Hello?" he said.

Jon woke beside him and stretched, blinking at the morning light streaming through the windows.

"Mr. Sambora? This is Detective Mulloy returning your calls. I'm sorry I couldn't call sooner but we've been busy this morning piecing events together."

"Do you have any news on Raiden? Did the pictures help?" Richie asked, standing and pacing in the small pub. Jon reached for his cigarettes and lit two, handing one to Richie on his way past.

"We don't know where Raiden is yet, no. But we're following a lead at the moment. Following the crash investigation, they found the brake lines were cut in Ms. Brockman's car."

"Can you hold a moment, I'm just going to put you on speaker." Richie pressed the appropriate button on the screen then said, "Okay, Detective, you're on speaker. Jon is here too."

Detective Mulloy continued with the findings. "There's been a team at the Bryan residence too investigating the fire and we have reason to believe Lexi was conspiring with her husband. Charred remains of photos with Raiden and Natalie were found in the fireplace along with a fake driver's license, psychiatrist evaluation, and vehicle manual. Mrs. Bryan's thumbprint was on the photos."

"Fucking bitch!" Richie swore. "Always thought there was something not quite right with her."

"Detective," Jon spoke, his morning voice husky from sleep, "Were you able to tell if the child was alive in those photos?"

"Unfortunately no. The photo is too distorted. Our forensics team is working to try and enhance the photos. They also found a partial fingerprint on the break line. It's smudged and doesn't match Mrs. Bryan. We're waiting on Mr. Bryan's passport application to compare his fingerprint to the partial."

"Thank you, Detective," Richie responded, "I'll be in touch if we think of anything else."

"Hold on a moment," the detective requested. Richie and Jon listened and could hear him speaking to someone in the background. "When? To Kennedy? Have them pick her up. Who did she call? Okay...Call the airport and stall the plane. Do not let her leave...Mr. Sambora, you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here, we both are," Richie said.

"Do you know a Jenna Hatfield? I'm going to send you a photo. One moment please," Mulloy said.