“You tortured her.” Lance wanted to find that brand and hear it sizzle in Derek’s skin. The man deserved to feel the pain he’d inflicted on Chelsea.
“I taught her,” Derek interrupted. “There’s a difference. A blend of positive and negative reinforcement to show her that being submissive to a man would make her happy.”
Lance had nothing left to say. There was no point. A man that far gone, that demented, could never be turned around.
Sirens floated on the cold air.
Now it was over.
Chapter Forty-Four
Thirty minutes later, Morgan stood in front of Chelsea and Tim’s house. She wrapped her arms around her waist. Her initial nausea after the showdown with Derek had faded. Adrenaline had deserted her, leaving her limbs shaky and weak.
Derek’s revelations had not been a complete surprise. But she was too spent to fully process what he’d told them. Lance thought his story was bullshit. Morgan didn’t know what to believe.
“Morgan!” Stella’s voice pierced the busy scene.
Morgan braced herself for her sister’s fury.
Stella weaved her way through a foursome of patrol officers and sheriff’s deputies. Both departments had responded to the 911 call.
Stopping in front of Morgan, Stella propped her hands on her hips. “What the hell were you doing?”
Morgan hugged her body against the night chill. She’d ditched Chelsea’s robe in the house so she could move faster. “What did you want me to do? Call you and tell you we had a hunch that Derek Pagano was Chelsea’s kidnapper, and we were planning to camp in their house until he showed up for her?”
“Yes!”
Morgan shook her head. “We didn’t know when or if he’d come. It could have been days from now.”
It hadn’t taken much to convince Tim and Chelsea they were at risk. Chelsea had jumped at the chance to get out of her house. The family had packed a few bags. Sharp had whisked them off to the hotel where her parents were registered and stayed to watch over them.
“You should have told me,” Stella huffed. “At least I would have had a patrol car in the area.”
“What if he didn’t come tonight? Or tomorrow night? Would the SFPD have continued to babysit us?” But Morgan had expected him to come quickly, before any evidence surfaced to make the sheriff doubt the Burns brothers had kidnapped Chelsea.
Stella glared. “I could have done it off duty.”
“So, no. The SFPD wouldn’t have babysat us for a hunch.” Though Morgan knew she probably should have called her sister.
Morgan and Lance had agreed to give her plan three nights. As it turned out, they’d needed only one.
Lance came out of the house, where he’d been walking the responding officer through the events of the evening. He held a gauze pad over the cut on his eyebrow.
Morgan reached up and lifted the corner of the gauze. “You need a couple of stitches.”
“Probably.” He shrugged.
Morgan took his arm. “I’ll drive you.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she shook her head and shot him a look. Morgan wanted to give her sister some time to cool off. She steered Lance toward the Jeep and held out her hand for the keys.
“I can drive,” he protested.
“Seriously? You’ll get blood all over your vehicle.”
He handed her the keys and cursed under his breath as he stared over her shoulder. “It’s the sheriff. Quick. Get in. We can pretend we didn’t see him.”
“Kruger! Dane!” Sheriff King’s voice boomed over all the other law enforcement activity.
Morgan turned to face King. “Can I help you, Sheriff?”
The sheriff’s face was red enough that she thought he might need to go to the ER. He led Lance and Morgan away from the other officers.
King folded his arms over his chest. “I sent a car to Derek Pagano’s address, but there was no driveway or mailbox. We found a back entrance to the property. Derek has an old cabin back in the woods. The deputy took a walk around the property looking for Derek. Behind the cabin, he found a rusty old shipping container. Someone had busted a hole right through the roof.”
“That’s where Chelsea was kept,” Morgan said.
“Forensics will have to do its thing, but I think it’s reasonable to theorize that Derek kidnapped Chelsea. I’ll be heading over there when I’m finished here. I’ll let you know what we discover.” The sheriff coughed into his fist and looked away. “Thank you for your help. If you two hadn’t been so persistent, tonight would have turned out very different for Chelsea and her family.”
“You’re welcome,” Morgan said. “Keeping the Clark family safe was our only goal. You’re going to pick up Elliot too, right? He gave his brother an alibi for the night Chelsea went missing. He also left Derek’s name off the list of Speed Net employees.”
“I already sent a deputy to his house,” the sheriff confirmed.
“Now that I think about our first visit there, we saw Derek by chance,” Morgan said. “It was their mother, Barbara, who pointed Derek out to us. If she hadn’t done that, we would never have known that Derek worked at Speed Net.”
Morgan shivered. Lance put an arm around her shoulders.
“I’ll need you both in my office tomorrow to sign formal statements.” With a nod, the sheriff backed away.
Morgan drove Lance to the hospital and walked him to the ER waiting room.
“Would you mind if I snuck upstairs to see my grandfather?” she asked.
“Or course not, but it’s one a.m. Do you think you can get in?”
“They have a twenty-four-hour visitation policy for critical patients.” She rose on her toes and kissed him on the mouth. “Later, we’ll process what happened tonight. Right now, I’m just very, very happy that we’re both in one piece, and that Chelsea, Tim, and their kids are safe.”
“Go check on Grandpa.” Lance gestured toward the four people sitting in the waiting room. “I’m going to be here for a while.”
Morgan made her way to the ICU ward. She stopped in the hallway and glanced through the doorway. A monitor beeped in a low, steady rhythm. A nurse stood next to the bed, checking the machines and recording information on a clipboard. She spotted Morgan and crossed the room to join her in the corridor.
“He’s doing really well,” the nurse said. “We’re moving him to a regular floor in the morning. And he’s awake. Go on in.”
“Thank you.” Morgan went into the room.
Grandpa opened his eyes and smiled at her. His hand slipped out from under the white blanket. His fingers curled in a beckoning gesture.
“Hey.” Morgan took his hand, her chest tightening with gratitude and relief.
“I told you I wasn’t dead yet.” Grandpa’s skin was pale, and his focus appeared fuzzy. “You need to have faith.”
“You’re right.” She squeezed his fingers. “Are you in pain?”
“A little, but don’t worry. The nurses are taking good care of me,” he said. “Did you solve your case?”
“We did.” Morgan gave him a condensed rundown of the last two days.
“Atta girl.” He gave her hand a weak shake. “I knew you’d figure it out. It’s in your genes.” His eyelids drooped.