When Frank continued, he again did it quickly. “Apparently, Jeremiah got away. He’d been attempting escapes frequently with zero success but he made it clear. He was in the woods. Brother, from what we can tell, he was in Harker’s Wood. What he saw there flipped him right the f**k out. So right the f**k out, he went back to the only thing he knew. He went back to her.”
Chace’s body went still as a statue and his mouth felt strange when it formed the words, “What did he see?”
“From what we can get from her, he saw a blonde woman givin’ a man a blowjob.”
Oh f**k, no.
Please God, no.
Chace closed his eyes and dropped his head.
“I think it was Misty, brother,” Frank whispered. “Enid didn’t see it, she wasn’t there. She just beat it out of him and what he told her he saw, she lost what was left of her marbles and got shot of him, thinkin’ he was makin’ that shit up or that he was the son of Satan or whatever. But I reckon, and the timeline jives, that he saw Misty and the man who murdered her. It flipped him, he went back to her because it was the only thing he knew, the only protection he had.”
It would jive, Chace knew it. Jeremiah was terrified when he was out on his own. Chace could see this fear coming from Enid, knowing his sister was still captive but he could see it was more. He’d seen Misty’s face get raped, probably sensed her terror, maybe saw the gun and possibly saw her murdered.
Fuck, he’d seen that shit.
Fuck, he still had to be holding onto that fear.
Fuck!
“He could be the key to finding who did Misty,” Frank told him quietly then finished, “And Newcomb.”
Chace opened his eyes and lifted his head. “Who knows this shit?” he rapped out.
“Uh, me, Jon, the biker and the video camera that caught my questioning.”
“You tell Cap. And you tell Jon to keep his trap shut and make sure Jon gets that message. He runs his mouth, I’ll lose my mind and the way I lose it he will not want. You make sure that biker thinks she’s just a lunatic and you don’t share that shit with anyone else.”
Frank was silent then, “They find out there was a witness –”
“Then Miah’s f**ked,” Chace finished for him.
“Shit, brother,” Frank murmured then, “But, Department’s clean.”
“Shit leaks, like it does whenever Jon runs his mouth. This gets to the wrong ears, that kid just went from enduring a goddamned nightmare to runnin’ scared the rest of his f**kin’ life.”
“Right,” Frank whispered.
“I’m callin’ his psychologist. Then I’m comin’ to the Station.”
“Right,” Frank repeated.
“You got shit to do,” Chace told him.
“Right,” Frank said again then he disconnected.
Chace drew in a breath. Then he drew in another one.
Then he walked downstairs to tell Faye he was going to swing by the Station and come back with treats from La-La Land for the women and kids.
* * * * *
“You cannot be serious,” Frank said to Dr. Carruthers, Miah’s psychologist who was standing with him, Chace and the Cap in Cap’s office.
“Deadly,” Dr. Carruthers returned immediately.
“He may have been the only eye witness we got to an unsolved murder, a murder committed by a man who, it’s highly likely, has killed two people on this patch,” Frank shot back.