Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
“This is Dr. Mangan. If he stops the interview, it’s done,” Gideon said. “No arguments. We found her barely alive. She insisted on trying to help you, or I would have forbidden this interview until she was better.”
“Who are you to her?” Detective Morgan Wilson asked. He had been introduced by Larrsen as the man in charge.
“Her fiancé,” Gideon said without a qualm.
Rory’s fingers curled in his hand, but she didn’t otherwise react to his blatant statement.
Wilson nodded. “I’m so sorry this happened to you, Ms. Chappel. We’re very thankful that your fiancé found you when he did.”
“How exactly were you able to do that?” Detective Abbott asked.
Gideon was prepared for the question. Mack and he had discussed how best that would be answered. “Often, when she got off work, we would walk together to the Koi Garden and sit on the patio and talk. I knew she was going to walk Lydia home first, but I didn’t like the idea of them walking alone, so I was on my way with one of my teammates to meet up with her. We got there just as she was being pulled into a vehicle, and the car took off. There was no license plate that either of us could see—”
“You called in the description of the car?” Larrsen interrupted.
“No,” Mack said, his voice calm. “At the time, we were too busy running down every lead we could to find her. We were afraid if it got out that we even had that much, they might kill her.”
“We’re fast runners. Very fast,” Gideon continued his explanation, “but the car was able to disappear. That meant it didn’t get to the freeway or any of the main streets. She had to be somewhere in the harbor. We hunted every place they could have taken her.”
Larrsen inched a little closer to the bed. “Rory, honey, are you up for a few questions?”
Her gaze jumped to his face. Her fingers clenched tighter inside Gideon’s hand, but she nodded.
“Did you see their faces?”
She shook her head. Her lips trembled just for a moment, and it was all Gideon could do not to order the detectives out.
Red, you don’t have to do this yet. In a couple of days, you’ll be stronger.
Her gaze drifted over his face lovingly. It would have been impossible not to feel that emotion, let alone see it.
“Did you recognize their voices?”
She shook her head and then frowned. She held up four fingers. “One stayed silent. Angry. Felt his energy before. Knew him.” She began coughing and turned her face away from the detectives.
Paul pushed between them, palms hovering above her lungs. She needs to remain quiet. I need to work on her again, Gideon.
They’ll have to come back, Rory, Gideon decreed.
She shook her head, tears forming. “Have to tell them.”
“Doc says it’s dangerous for you to keep going. It’s not worth your life.”
“Book.” She gasped the word. It came out a wheeze.
Larrsen hitched forward. “Rory, what do you mean by that?”
Gideon lifted his head and gave him the piercing stare of a raptor before it attacked its prey. That was all the warning he was giving the man.
“Back off now,” Mack interpreted, just in case the detective didn’t get it.
Have to tell them, Gideon. She coughed again. There were flecks of blood on her lips.
“We have to terminate this interview now, gentlemen,” Paul said. “Rory. You cannot say another word.”
“Tell me then, Red,” Gideon ordered. “Don’t speak.”
He didn’t give a damn what he was giving away to civilians. She wasn’t going to kill herself to give them information.
“Gideon,” Mack cautioned. Classified.
“She has to tell them something she thinks is important, Mack,” Gideon said.
“What you’re asking me to allow you to do is out of the question.”
“Then we’re at an impasse, because she can’t talk.”
“Give us a few minutes, gentlemen,” Mack said. “This has become a military matter.”
Detective Wilson started to follow Marc Lands out, but he turned back to them. “Detective Ramsey was not only a colleague but a good friend. He was an outstanding policeman who served in the military with distinction and then in the department. I will disclose to those of you in this room, as we’re obviously putting you in a bad position, that he was investigating other policemen. We’re walking a very fine line here, unable to trust too many of our own. It is very possible he was killed by someone he knew.”
Gideon could see and hear that it was extremely difficult—even painful—for Wilson to admit that truth to them. He did so because he was aware that Rory might have valuable information for them and that Gideon might be able to convey it to them through a method that was unacceptable to his commanding officer. He was giving them something huge in return.
Mack’s phone vibrated, and he pulled it out and glanced down. “The ladies are secure, just in case any of you were worried.”