by Poppy Flynn
A well-built man with dark copper coloured hair and strikingly clear, green eyes nodded and raised his hand in salute, while Detective Storer brought up some information on the largest central wall screen.
"Jason did a lot of the work on this, so I'll let him talk you through it."
"Good afternoon, everyone," Detective Scott acknowledged them all, getting a rumble of subdued greetings in return.
"I'll get straight down to business. Andy asked me to help out with this because I'm attached to the records department and he knew I'd be…understanding of the lifestyle involved." He looked around the many faces in the room, looking them all in the eye, gaining more than a few nods of appreciation.
"Now, the most pertinent piece of data we've been able to deduce from our records so far, from the information that Melody was able to give us initially, is that Sutton, the surname she uses, is not actually her birth name. When we brought up records from the group children's home, where she spent her last few years, the name we derived was Melody Fox."
There was a murmur of confusion around the room. It was Logan, typical lawyer, who asked for clarification. "Have you come up with an explanation for the name change?"
"We've been working on that," Jason confirmed. "Our investigations have led us to two further Suttons who are of interest to our investigation. The first is a Thomas Sutton…"
Andy tapped a button on his keypad and an image of an older man with grey hair, a weathered face, and a bit of a stoop filled the screen.
Detective Scott continued. "The second man is Vinny Sutton…" There was a buzz of chatter in the room and Micah moved closer to Andy and demanded, "Is this the 'V' we've been looking for? Is this the guy who took her? Jesus, don't tell me she's married to him or something!" A lead weight dropped into Micah's stomach. Surely, Melody would have mentioned if the two of them had been married. He stared at Andy Storer in desperation, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.
"We don't believe that to be the case," he reassured, tapping at some more buttons on the keyboard until another photo flashed up on the screen.
This man had a wide face and cold, mean eyes. He was broad and paunchy, and he had the look of a stereotypical thug. A shudder rippled down Micah's spine. This was the man who had Melody; he just knew it.
"So how does all this tie in, then?" he asked impatiently.
Jason Scott resumed the account. "We have established that Thomas Sutton is the man that Melody referred to as 'Daddy'. This is supported by the fact that Melody told Detective Storer, herself, that the man she went to live with when she left foster care had initially introduced himself as Thomas. This also appears to be true in more than the sense of the Daddy/little relationship that Sutton pursued with Melody. A bit more digging through the records has turned up legal documents showing that he officially adopted her and named her as his next of kin."
"So where does Vinny Sutton come into this? Is he another family member?" Micah demanded.
Detective Scott huffed out a breath. "That's where things get a bit hazy," he admitted. "You see, Vinny Sutton doesn't officially exist."
"What do you mean?" interjected Logan. The man was a lawyer to his core.
"What I mean is we have anecdotal evidence that Vinny Sutton also aligned himself as Thomas' son, that he, too, adopted the man's surname, but we have no official records, no actual proof that this is the case, although we are certain that he habitually uses the name as his own."
"So where does this jerk live?" Micah wanted to know. "Why aren't we on our way there right now, instead of talking about it?"
"Because, unfortunately, that's where things get even more ambiguous," Andy Storer stated, shaking his close shaven head.
He put up another photo onto the screen, this time an expanded map of the local area with a large circle around it. "We have a number of possible addresses but nothing concrete," he explained. "We've been using this map to try to pinpoint the most plausible location Melody escaped from, given the details she gave us about how she came to be here and the landmarks she used along the way, to try to narrow down the list."
"Jesus," Micah exploded in frustration. "Can't the police just visit every damn address?"
"We could visit the addresses," Storer agreed. "But right now, we don't know for certain that it was Vinny Sutton who took her, and we can't go demanding access into random houses without justifiable cause."
"She'd been forcibly abducted!" Micah bellowed, fisting his hands into his long, wavy hair and pulling tight to try to maintain a modicum of control. "Surely, that's reason enough!" he claimed in disbelief.
"Except that he might not have anything to do with this," the disabled detective argued. "It might have been the guy she recognised from the club. In fact, there's more weight to that argument since he already tried to grab her once, and he was the one who saw her here."
Micah growled low in his throat and balled his hands into fists, his nails biting into his flesh as he tried to remain calm.
Jake came up next to him and patted him on the back reassuringly. "I know it's frustrating, man, but we'll crack this. Don't you worry."
Micah dragged in a shuddering breath, willing himself to keep a handle on his unravelling composure while his thoughts raced and he formulated the seeds of a plan in the back of his mind. Because, even if Andy Storer was right, and V or Vinny or whatever the heck his name was, wasn't the one who had taken her, the man would still be able to give them the identity of his old crony, and while the police might not be able to do so, Micah had absolutely no qualms whatsoever about finding a way to make the guy talk. It would be a little bit of payback for Melody. He just needed to get hold of those addresses, because, once he had them, he could visit them all himself and he'd know which was the right one from the description Melody had given on the day he found her. All he needed to do now was cool down, step back, and make himself a bit less prominent, so he could slip out as soon as the detectives revealed the information he needed.
He headed to the back of the room as if he were simply trying to walk off some of his frustrations. Micah paced slowly along the back wall near the door, his hands jammed in his pockets. When Andy started discussing locations and explaining how they'd used landmarks to narrow down the feasible distance which Melody might have covered, using information from Xavier about how fast she might have been able to walk, given her condition, Micah stopped behind his desk. It was opposite the bank of monitors everybody was scrutinising, so they all had their backs to him. As he placed his phone surreptitiously on the desktop, he tapped a couple of tabs to flick on the voice recorder app before he resumed his pacing.
Just a few more minutes, he told himself over and over as he willed himself to be patient, and he'd have all of the information he needed.
Chapter 14
Melody had been drifting in and out of consciousness. Her brain was a bit fuzzy, but she was still aware of the fact that she seemed to ache all over, especially her head. She tried to move, to put a hand to her face, but she couldn't budge. When she squirmed around, it became apparent that her entire body was restrained…no, not restrained, she realised with a small amount of clarity trickling through her senses.
She opened her eyes tentatively, looking out through tiny slits at her surroundings. Swimming in front of her vision were thin blurry silver wires and the horrific reality hit her aching brain that she was, in fact, stuffed into the tiny cage that Master crammed her into when he was particularly displeased.
No, not Master! she thought, even though her mind was decidedly woolly. He was no longer her master. She had escaped, but somehow, he had managed to find her, to bring her back. The details were hazy, but she knew without a doubt that she had severed that link.
Melody closed her eyes as she tried to compose her thoughts and regain her strength, taking in every tiny bit of information that she could.
She was naked again; that was the first thing she realised. A tear formed in the corner of her eye. Why was that so
much more humiliating than the vicious beating she knew V would deliver?
There was a crack of light still coming through the boarded slats, so it wasn't night time yet, but it was muted, so either the weather had broken, or it was getting later in the day. Did it really matter, either way?
Micah. The name wound its way through her consciousness. Of course! Micah had saved her. Beautiful, gentle Micah. Would he have realised that she was gone yet? Would he even realise what had happened, or would he just think she'd taken off again?
No, her things were still there. He would know that she hadn't left willingly, and he would have alerted the police…for all the good that might do her. To her knowledge, they had no way of knowing where she was, had come no closer to making sense of any of the information she had given them over the past few weeks.
Melody tried hard to keep tears of despair from falling. They would give her away, and she knew from harsh experience that V wouldn't bother with her while she was unconscious. He liked tormenting her too much; he'd want to watch her suffer and hear her scream. Playing dead was her best ploy to keep him away until she got her wits about her.
She almost laughed out loud at the irony of her thoughts. It was only staving off the inevitable, she knew; he'd surely kill her this time and take as much time as he could to make her suffer along the way.
But if she was going down, then she'd at least like to start out fighting and not as weak as a newborn kitten.
Micah raced down the stairs to his car. Although it would have been quicker, he avoided taking the lift, since that was more likely to be noticed as the security system would automatically kick in if there was motion detected. Even though the monitors were in use while the two detectives scoured the recorded footage for clues, they were being scrutinised too closely for him to risk somebody noticing.
He had managed to record five addresses, two of which had tentatively been ruled out because they were outside the area which was deemed possible for Melody to have walked from, based on the timescales she had given them. One of them was also believed to be the address where she had lived with Thomas Sutton, the man she had called Daddy. The others were all within a fairly close radius.
Xavier hadn't believed that Melody could have covered more than two miles an hour at the very most, given her condition, and likely less than that, since she'd been suffering frostbite, malnutrition, and exhaustion. Only two of the addresses corresponded with any kind of watercourse, which she'd told them she'd had to detour, and the first one of those was only a couple of miles away, so he was going to start there.
Micah jumped in his car and quickly drove out of the car park, pulling up just out of sight of the club in order to input the addresses and get his satnav to formulate the quickest route for him to get to all three of them. He took off, driving in the direction of the first stop before the device had even finished its triangulation. He wasn't wasting any time, and he wasn't waiting around for the others to realise he'd gone.
Every hour Melody spent with that thug, was an hour too many, and every hour that passed decreased the likelihood of finding her safe. She'd already been gone too long.
A scarce ten minutes later, Micah pulled up outside the first property.
It wasn't this one; he knew that already.
Or at least, this wasn't the property she had escaped from. It was in a busy street with children playing and neighbours chatting away to each other over the fences. The question was what did he do now? Did he stop and ask around, or did he move on to the next address?
The clang of a heavy metal pole against the bars of the cage caused Melody to start despite her best efforts to keep quiet.
"Ah, so you are awake," said a familiar, malevolent voice. He heaved the bar against the sides and the top of the cage a few more times, but Melody closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, resolutely refusing to be intimidated by the cowardly bully, despite the noise that clamoured around her aching head.
The reverberation of the metal resounding off of the concrete floor signalled that he had thrown the baton aside. A more familiar sound hissed through the air and a distinctive thwack slashed onto the ground beside her as V reverted to the use of his favourite tool of correction. This time, she couldn't help but flinch, a motion that didn't go unnoticed, and the sound of malicious laughter echoed off of the basement walls.
"So…" His footsteps sounded eerily loud as he walked deceptively slowly around the area where the cage stood in the middle of the room. "You thought you could escape me, did you?"
A whistle spilt the air mere seconds before the vicious quirt in is hand slashed across the outside of the cage. It provided little protection to her bare skin. Wedged as she was inside the tiny enclosure so that her flesh pressed flush against the bars, the weight she had gained ensured that she had even less space than she'd had before and provided an ample target for the brute's wrath.
White hot slices of pain seared across her any place that he could reach, her shoulders and back, her buttocks, thighs, and the tops of her arms as he thrashed her pitilessly, never pulling a single one of his strokes.
Melody screwed her eyes tight shut and bit her lip so hard, she felt the metallic tang of blood on her tongue, but she wasn't going to give him the pleasure of hearing and knowing her misery until she could no longer hold it back. He really was a coward, she thought hazily. His aim was clearly to ensure she was suitably subdued before he freed her from the confinement for his final torment.
V paused while he caught his breath. He wasn't the fine specimen of a man that Micah was; he was unfit and out of shape and, thankfully, tired easily, despite having his irrational rage to spur him along.
"You should know better than to think you could outmanoeuvre me," he spat as he sucked in breath and shook out his whip hand.
Melody tuned him out and retreated inside her mind. It was a trick she had perfected long ago, to hide inside the recesses of her mind and move to a different place within herself. A place which did much to mitigate the physical effects of pain, a place where no one else could reach.
It used to be a cold place, empty but for her own pitiful anguish screaming to be silent as she internalised her pain and hid it from her tormentor. But she kept a secret there now, and it warmed her to her soul. Recently, it had been filled with so many wondrous things, and those things became her armour, her refuge, her protection, her sanctuary.
Now, all those secret places within her were filled with wonder and fulfilment, pleasure and happiness and, of course, the greatest among all of them was love.
Melody crept so far inside her mind that she didn't acknowledge the loud hammering on the door upstairs; in fact, she barely heard it. Neither did she pay any heed to V as he threw down the weapon with a curse, causing it to clatter against the side of her enclosure.
"Damn Guthrie," V muttered under his breath. "His timing stinks, as usual, except where running into you was concerned." He cackled as he stomped up the stairs, "I might just let him at you as a reward."
Melody quieted her mind in resignation and let the beauty of the past few weeks be the balm to all her hurts.
She was ready to leave this life now. Funny how such a short space of time, just mere weeks, could change a person's perspective so completely. But she knew she could never live like this again. She had only one regret, and that was that she had never told Micah that she loved him. He was a single shining star, a brightness within the gloom of her life, and for a little while, she had known what it was to love; she had known joy and rapture and she had felt cherished. And that was enough.
She could die happy; she just wished she'd been able to tell him.
She'd been hobbled by the thought that he wouldn't accept her feelings, that he'd tell her they were false, just a reaction built from gratitude, but in a moment of clarity, she realised it didn't matter, that love was something freely given without expectation of it being returned.
But she was ready to die now.
She could acc
ept it; Micah had given her that, at least. By showing her the best there was in life, she knew that she could finally face death.
She was just sad that Micah would never know just how deeply he had touched her, how he had given her the strength to finally let go, clutching that little oasis of wonder and perfection to her heart, so that she could fly free in spirit rather than be chained to a life of misery.
"I love you, Micah," she whispered out loud so that she could say the words, hear them told, just once.
Micah pulled up on the roadside next to the ominous eight-foot-tall wooden slatted fence and knew he was in the right place. Everything about the location gelled with the place that Melody had described. The real shocker was that it was barely five miles away from the club. From the details Melody had given, it was likely that a lot of the time she spent escaping this place had led her around in a wide arc.
The road was semi-rural, on the outskirts of the city, with homes set generous distances apart. Enough to ensure complete privacy although, if anything, the huge privacy fence probably called more attention to the property. Not that many people would happen into this secluded little corner accidentally, unless they were lost, and they sure as hell wouldn't approach this place if they were, so he supposed it served its purpose.
Another highly suspicious detail was the fact that the reinforced gate had a house type key lock fitted to it. Who did that?
The fence was substantial, not your usual property border, and a quick check told Micah that its wide ridge was topped with imbedded glass shards to prevent anyone from climbing it. Serious overkill in leafy suburbia, it automatically made a person wonder what someone was hiding behind it.
Remembering what Melody had said about escaping through the hedge at the rear of the property, Micah searched for a way to get back there. He was rewarded only one hundred yards away by a wide grass covered track and sprinted up it to see what he could find.