They made the necessary calls and worked on the internet. Over an hour slipped past. Kenzie poured herself another cup of coffee just as her cell phone rang. Her pulse took a leap. Thinking it was the kidnappers, she glanced at Reese, who moved up beside her.
“Hello.” Her hands shook as she held the phone so he could hear.
“It’s Shirley,” the blackjack dealer said in a gruff voice. “Is this Kenzie?”
“It’s Kenzie. Hi, Shirley. Did you...did you find him?”
“No way to know if it’s your boy, but one of the cleaning gals has a boyfriend who works room service. Said he’s been bringing kiddie meals to room 1806. It’s a suite on the eighteenth floor. Said he could hear cartoons playing on the TV in the bedroom.”
Kenzie’s pulse speeded.
“Doesn’t mean it’s him,” Shirley warned. “But the boyfriend said there were two guys in the room and neither of them looked much like a daddy.”
“Thank you, Shirley, thank you so much. I really appreciate your help.”
“Be good if you kept my name out of it.”
“I will, I promise.”
Reese phoned Hawk. “We got a lead on the boy. There’s a chance they’ve got him stashed in the casino hotel.”
“A suite on the eighteenth floor,” Kenzie added in the background. “We have to go find out.”
Reese put the phone on speaker.
“Take it easy,” Hawk said. “You can’t just go storming in with no idea what you’re facing. We need intel. We need to be certain the boy’s actually in the room and if he is, who’s in there with him. If he’s there, we need a plan to get him out.”
Kenzie’s worried glance flashed to Reese. She wanted to rush back to the hotel, pound on the door of the suite, and demand the men let Griff go. But they needed to be prepared or something could go wrong and Griff would be in terrible danger.
“Hawk’s right, honey,” Reese said. “We have to be prepared.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“I need to find Bolt,” Hawk said. “But your son comes first. I’ll head over to the hotel and keep an eye on the room until you get there. What’s the number?”
“It’s 1806,” Reese said.
“Arm yourselves and meet me there.”
THIRTY-ONE
Reese was anxious to get back to the casino, but before they left the room, he called Chase.
“Two things,” Reese said. “Hawk was right. Haines’s killer is a mob hit man named Jeremy Bolt. But maybe you know that already.”
“Hawk called, brought me up to speed. What’s the second thing?”
“We may have found the boy. It’s far from certain, but it’s possible they’ve stashed him in a suite in the Pot-of-Gold casino.”
“DeMarco’s club?”
“That’s right.”
“Which means he’s got a small army at his disposal. What’s your plan?”
“We’re working on it. We need more information. Once we confirm Griff’s there, we can move forward.”
“I’m coming to Shreveport. Four of us are better than three.”
