Summer felt the hot tears building and turned, staring outside, refusing to let Nate see her cry. “But if it was because of Dean’s contacts, then why wouldn’t John Scott have said anything. Why not send a message?”
“Because I don’t think you were supposed to be able to talk after he was through with you.” Nate gave her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. “But what about Gavin Stone? You can’t tell me he’s clean and not somehow using the courier business to his advantage?”
“You’ve checked him out.” Summer wiped the tears away and met Nate’s blue eyes. “I know you have. There’s no possible way you could just sit back and not stick your nose in it.”
“Maybe I have?”
“And you came up empty handed, right?”
Nate nodded.
Summer turned her attention to the outside world, but her eyes caught her reflection in the side mirror. She couldn’t believe the way she looked right now, all huddled in the corner of the front seat with shoulders drawn down and her face slack and sad. How could she face the world like this? How could she stand tall and fight back when she couldn’t even sit straight? Turning to Nate, she pushed back her shoulders and met him with a fixed gaze.
“Gavin Stone has changed. He’s not the same man he was eight years ago.”
“And what changed him? Eight years behind bars and three months on probation. Maybe he asked God for forgiveness?”
Summer shook her head.
“Once a criminal,” Nate said. “Always a criminal.”
“Remind me again why you never went through to become a judge.”
“I’ve seen too many kids make mistakes and they usually continue to make the same mistakes until they die from them. So, I guess we’ll have to ask John Scott who he’s working for. That is, as long as the boys do their job and keep him safe for us.”
Summer glanced at her watch and fidgeted in the seat. “We’d better hurry, Nate. We’re running out of time.”
“Don’t worry,” Nate said, flipping on the siren and speeding through a red light. “We’ll make it work.”
Chapter 7
The news of John Scott’s arrest last night, combined with Sabrina’s kidnapping this morning had the entire police parking lot full of reporters all hoping to get a quick sound bite for the lunch news, but Nate wanted no part of the circus so he bypassed the front entrance and rounded the building, pulling up at the back door of the service bay.
“They’re a bunch of vultures,” Nate said, pushing through the doorway and entering the back hall. “But we might need their help to get Sabrina back.”
“Not if we follow the kidnapper’s instructions.” Summer hurried to catch up. “He only wants one thing.”
Nate stopped and turned to her. “And how do you purpose we do that. Do you think Grimshaw will allow John Scott to walk out of here, because I think the detective will put up quite a stink if we try?”
“Then let’s not tell him.” Summer tried to smile, but couldn’t. “Let it be a surprise.”
“Yeah,” Nate rolled his eyes and continued walking. “The prisoner? Oh… I think he just stepped out for a cigarette. You know how we hate second hand smoke in the jail cells. Come on, Summer, even if you don’t ID him they’ll match his DNA to the case and—”
“I won’t allow it.” Summer shook her head. “I’ll say I lied about being raped. I’ll say I made the whole thing up. That I went with him willingly.”
“No, you’re not gonna ruin your name like that. I won’t allow it.”
“What the hell do I care? Let people think what they want. Let them think I was just screwing around and got caught in some kinky sex scandal.” Summer pulled Nate to a stop while they were still alone. “I don’t care what happens to me anymore. All I want is to get Sabrina back and hold her in my arms.”
Nate nodded. “Give me your cell phone. Someone’s gotta have a charger here.”
Summer pulled it from her purse and handed it to Nate. “I think there’s still one in my desk.”
When they reached the end of the hall, Nate tossed the phone to the nearest person and ordered them to retrieve the charger then headed toward the interrogation room where John Scott had been placed, for his own protection.
Chief Harold Dickson was standing guard outside the interrogation room, looking anxiously around at the sight of all the reporters gathered in the parking lot. He’d never been one to willingly step into the spotlight, and nearly always fumbled over his words whenever the cameras were rolling, and Summer knew the idea of addressing the public was eating away inside him.
“Summer,” Chief Dickson said, placing both hands on her shoulders. “I’m so sorry about what happened. I’ve got everyone on the case and I’ve put it out on the wire all across the area. I hope you don’t mind but I used the photo of Sabrina from your desk. We’ve clamped down the entire area and they’ve tightened the border. Don’t worry. They won’t get far.”
“Is…” Summer tipped her head to the room beside. “He, in there?”
The chief nodded. He looked worn out, like he’d aged ten years in a single morning. His normally slender physic had transformed over the last year, turning him into an unhealthy specimen. She could see it in his washed out grey eyes. There was something he was hiding. Some reason why he’d dropped so many pounds in such a short period of time. She felt a slight tremble in her shoulders but couldn’t decide if it was coming from the chief’s hands or her own body, so she shook off his touch and turned to the door.
“Summer,” Chief Dickson said. “Let’s not be rash about this. I know what you’ve been through and storming into that room in your condition to face him would be a bad thing.”
“My condition!” Summer screamed. “That fucker in there is the reason I have a fucking condition anyways! What does it matter if I go in there? What do you think I’ll do, go nuts and gouge his eyeballs out?”
Summer drew a deep breath and glanced around, noticing every eye in the station was frozen on her as flashes from the cameras outside lit up the front glass doors. Great, she could see the front page now. Distraught officer freaks out in cop shop.
She felt Chief Dickson pull her close, turning her so her back was to the crowd outside. “I don’t know what you’re capable of doing right now, so I’d prefer you come with me into the next room and we’ll take a look at his mug shots and you can see him through the one way mirror.”
Summer glanced over her shoulder at the crowd of reporters waiting behind the police line like caged lions at the zoo.
“This John Scott fits your description and also the artist’s sketch. Detective Grimshaw apprehended him in a small warehouse in the west end of Windsor. He was modifying a shipment of merchandise to allow drugs to be hidden inside. Although the merchandise isn’t the same as the stuff we confiscated six months ago, crammed with meth, we think he was working with the same dealers.”
“So he is working for someone?”
“That’s what it looks like.” Chief Dickson opened the door to the adjoining room. “But he’s not talking anymore.”
Summer gave Nate a questioning look. “Anymore?”
“When Grimshaw brought him in, John Scott mentioned that he was interested in cutting a deal. He wouldn’t confess or specify what kind of deal until he had a lawyer present, but still he was willing to name names.”
“Let me guess, now that the other inmate tried to kill him, he’s not talking anymore?”
Chief Dickson nodded.
Summer kept her eyes trained on her feet as they entered the small room. “What was the other guy brought in for?”
“Assault and battery. Beat the crap out of a convenience store clerk claiming he’d short changed him.” Chief Dickson closed the door behind. “Then the guy hung around the neighbourhood for the cops to pick him up. At first it seemed like a lucky break, but now it looks like he was trying to get arrested.”
Summer raised her eyes and glanced at the man sitting slouched behind the table.
“Like someone hired him to keep an eye on our boy and make sure he doesn’t squeal?”
“Looks that way. We’ve run the other prisoner through the computer and he’s clean. This is his first offence. No link to organized crime. Not even a speeding ticket on his record.”
“Has he said why he attacked John Scott?” Nate asked, placing an arm around Summer’s shoulder.
“Said John Scott told him what he’d done to Summer. Said he remembered Summer’s story and it’d just set him off.” Chief Dickson picked a picture from the small counter and stared at John Scott’s mug shot. “We checked the tapes in the cell, but never heard John Scott speak.”
Summer continued to stare at John Scott. “Could he have whispered it too softly that the machine didn’t catch it?”
“Anything’s possible.” Chief Dickson dropped the mug shot and leaned against the wall. “But you know as well as I do what kind of sounds that machine picks up.”
The man sitting inside the next room didn’t look capable of harming anyone right now. He sat slouched down in the chair with his head hung low. Summer glared at his eyes, but they were nothing more than slits in his swollen face. The beating the other inmate had given him was pretty bad. Bad enough to make IDing him almost impossible. There were similarities between this man and the man who’d been lying possum beside the van, covered with blood, but Summer knew even if she wanted to ID him right now, she couldn’t be a hundred percent sure that this was the same man.
She knew if she wanted to be sure, she’d have to wait until the swelling and bruises disappeared before she could send this man away to jail, but with Sabrina’s life teetering in her grasp, even if Summer could pick John Scott from a crowd, she didn’t think she would.
“His face is so battered and I only saw him briefly at the site of the crash and even then his face was covered with blood.” Summer glanced at the mug shot on the counter and felt a gut wrenching pain rip through her stomach. She doubled over, grabbing for the steel counter as she went. Those eyes. She’d seen those eyes haunting her nights for the last five months. How could she forget them? They were the last thing she’d seen that night before the drugs kicked in and her mind and life swirled out of control.
Chief Dickson ran his hands through the tiny fringe of white hair on the sides of his scalp. “I thought you might have a better chance of recognizing him from that photo—back when he had all his teeth.”
Summer drew a deep breath and slowly looked up at Chief Dickson. His shallow cheeks had turned flush and the tiny vein running up his forehead, beneath the translucent aged skin was pulsating right now. She and the chief had become very close over the years and Summer knew it was because she was the only woman on the force. When he needed someone to talk to about his wife’s fight with cancer, well he certainly wouldn’t have turned to the men. Their answers always involved the same thing, drinking.
Summer knew those talks had lessened the pain of losing his wife and at the same time given the chief a peek at her innermost thoughts and dreams. So when John Scott had taken her away, she knew Chief Dickson was doing everything humanly possible to get her back.
“I know this is hard for you, Summer, but take a minute before you tell me if you can identify this man.”
Summer felt Nate’s arms lifting her back to her feet. The pain in her stomach lessened knowing that he was standing beside her. Knowing that he would accept either of her decisions without consequences.
Chief Dickson flipped the photo over and touched her shoulder. “I read the ransom note myself. I know what we as police officers are supposed to do in a situation like this, but I also know what is truly at stake here. If you look me in the eye and tell me that’s not the man who tortured you that night, then I’ll turn him loose right now. But if you can’t, then I’ll have no choice but to demand a DNA sample be taken and run against the samples in the file. Either way, this decision is yours to make.”
Nate pulled her closer, shielding her from the one way mirror. “Chief, give us a few minutes, okay?”
Without another word Chief Dickson left the room, leaving Summer to tremble in Nate’s arms. Although his arms were strong, she wished that Dean were here to hold her right now. She’d thought about this day, the day they’d catch her attacker and how she’d want to face him and give him a taste of his own medicine, but never, never had she imagined that things would be so twisted as they were right now. If only Dean were here. His opinion would mean everything. After all, he was in this predicament as much as she was.
“Nate.” Summer stepped back and held her hands out, watching as they trembled. “I recognize those eyes. I know it’s him. He’s the reason my hands are like this. He’s the reason I can’t stop shaking.”
Nate nodded. His eyes were narrow slits and his jaw muscles were vibrating as he glanced into the next room at the catatonic bastard sitting at the desk. Summer knew what was going through his mind right now, and if Sabrina wasn’t missing, she’d be more than happy to escort him inside that room and watch him unload his fury on John Scott, but regrettably she couldn’t.
“He’s working for the same person as the kidnapper,” Summer said. “He knows where to find the guy pulling the strings. If we can get that name, then we’ll have a bargaining chip.”
Nate flexed his clenched fists, then re-clenched them. “Five minutes alone with him and I’ll have that name. You keep the chief busy and I’ll go in there.”
“Thanks, Nate.” Summer took his fist in her hands and pried it open. “But I can’t let you risk your job.”
“Then how the hell do you plan to get that name?”
Summer stepped behind Nate, edging toward the door. “I’m going in there.”
“Like hell! That’s just what he wants.”
“I have no choice. Look at me. I’m a mess. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again. The only hope I have is to face my fears and that means John Scott. If he ends up walking out of here, I may never get a chance to tell him what a piece of shit he really is.”
“I can’t.” Nate placed a hand on the door. “I just can’t let you go in there by yourself. What if he tries something? What if he hurts you again?”
“He’s chained to the desk. How much of a threat can he be?” Summer closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. She held it for ten seconds then let it go. “Do I have to remind you, I am a cop? I know how to handle shit like him.”
The look in Nate’s eyes told her everything. As much as she wanted to see the same silly smirk on his face and the cocked left eyebrow that he regularly gave her whenever she’d proved him wrong and pulled the impossible from her ass, it wasn’t there today. He knew she wouldn’t be able to pull this one off and it hurt because she knew he was right.
Nate removed his hand from the door and reached for the handle. “I’m coming in with you.”
“No!”
“Yes, I am! And if you don’t like it then you can shove it up your ass.”
Summer stopped with her hand on the door handle, staring into Nate’s hardened face. She felt the anger building inside and realized that her body felt stronger right now then it had in a long time. A smirk crept onto her face and she reached up and patted Nate’s cheek.
“You’re just trying to piss me off.”
“Is it working?”
Summer nodded and pulled the door open. The chief was standing on the other side of the hall, anxiously waiting for them to exit the room. He took a step toward them but stopped when Summer turned suddenly and opened the interrogation room door.
“Summer, you can’t—”
“It’s okay, Chief. I’ll keep an eye on her.” Nate followed her inside and softly closed the door behind. “I’ll be right over here if you need me. If he so much as whispers an obscene word to you, I’ll close those puffy eyes for good.”
Summer walked slowly across the room toward the table. The strength that Nate had instilled in her was fading fast and the nervous spasms were threatening to rupture throu
gh her control and send her into a jittering mess. She glanced over at the one way mirror and even though she couldn’t see him, she knew Chief Dickson was standing behind the mirror watching her reaction.
How could this one man have caused so much pain and suffering? Summer swallowed her fear and prayed that her voice wouldn’t give out. “Who are you working for?”
John Scott never moved. He sat there with a bored look on his face, like this was nothing more than an inconvenience. A second later his slitted eyes slowly rose until he was staring directly into Summer’s. It was hard to read him with his swollen face like that. She couldn’t be sure if he was trying to play it cool and tuff, or if it just hurt too much to move his lips.
“Where’s your partner at? Where’s he taken my daughter?”
There was a slight change in his expression. His eyes seemed to be taking in her whole face, contemplating who she was and who her daughter might be.
“I know that you and the kidnapper work for the same person. I heard him talking to your boss.”
“You’re that cop.” A half smile crossed his swollen lips. “Officer Demure. I remember you now. I’ve heard all the stories of how you finally got what was coming to you.”
“Don’t play innocent. You know exactly what you did to me. I know it was you!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Last night I’m busy minding my own business, working to make some cash when all of a sudden this cop busts in and drags me down here, then to top it off they put this crazy fucker in my cell and let him pound the shit out of me. When I get out of here, I’m suing. I’m suing that guard who left his station and let that crazy fucker try to kill me.”
Summer felt her chest twitch and crossed her arms to quiet the rumble. “You deserve to die. It’s bad enough what you did to me, but you left me for dead. You left me to rot in that cold damp ditch, but you underestimated me.”
“Woman, you’re almost as crazy as that fucker in my cell. I don’t know what you guys are trying to pull, but you have no evidence. Nothing to hold me on.”
Taken - Before her very Eyes Page 7