“Now what?” he asked.
“Go to my contacts. It’s a short list on this burner phone. Text Ry and Ruby and let them know I have you and Marj. Tell them Tal has Daphne as well. I’m not sure if he texted them.”
Colin nodded and began pecking at my phone.
And still I held on to Marj.
“I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” I said echoing myself. “Never again.”
I expected her spitfire personality to emerge and fight my words. But she didn’t. She just leaned into me. She was no longer bawling, only a sniffle now and then.
We stood, and even though clothing separated us, I felt like we were one body. Like we’d always be one body.
Ryan and Ruby found us, and though I spoke to them, told them what had occurred, it didn’t seem like me talking. The real me was glued to Marjorie.
Time moved slowly, and it seemed like hours before the police and ambulance showed up. Ruby took the lead with the police, and the paramedics brought the woman inside the unit out on a stretcher.
“Is she alive?” I heard Colin ask.
“She’ll be okay,” one of the medics said. “We got here in time. The other guy just has a flesh wound on his lower leg.”
Colin said nothing more. At least he wouldn’t be responsible for taking a life, though he’d certainly had good reason to attack. I selfishly wished I’d been the one to slit the woman’s throat. I’d have liked to kill with my bare hands everyone involved with Marj’s disappearance.
The police didn’t make Marj and Colin tell their stories yet. Instead, they drove us all to the hospital where Talon had taken his mother.
After the doctors had given Marjorie and Colin a clean bill of health, the police took them into a secluded room to tell their stories.
I still didn’t know everything that had gone on.
I sat next to Talon in the waiting area. “How’s Daphne?”
“Physically, she’s fine. They didn’t do anything to her. Apparently she walked right out of Newhaven with someone she thought was my father.”
“I thought whoever signed her out used Joe’s name.”
“He did. He wouldn’t use my father’s name. Everyone knows he’s dead. Did you get any information out of Marj?”
I shook my head. “I just held her. Didn’t want to let her go.”
He nodded.
Ruby had been let in with the officers doing the questioning as a courtesy because she was an ex-cop, and Ryan had gone somewhere. I wasn’t sure where. To get food maybe. It was the middle of the night. I’d wanted to call Jade so Marj and Colin would have an attorney, but Marj and Talon both nixed that idea.
“Who do you suppose is behind this?” Talon asked. “It couldn’t be Ted Morse. He’s Colin’s father.”
“I’m not sure that makes a difference,” I said. “I guess Marj didn’t get a chance to tell you what Colin told her r
ight before she was taken.”
Of course she hadn’t. She’d been taken while she was on the phone with Joe and me.
“What’s that?”
“Colin thinks his father actually sold him to my father.” I couldn’t hold back a shudder. Every time I let myself think about what my father had been capable of, I reacted physically. I couldn’t help it.
“What?” Talon said.
“You heard me. I don’t know what kind of proof Colin has. I’m sure he’ll share it with us once he gets over this most recent setback. This must have been horrible for him, being taken again. At least it doesn’t look like he was tortured this time.”