“I did.” Patel sobbed. “I didn’t mean too, believe me! I think her neck broke.”
“Is that why you tried to stage the hanging?”
“Yes,” the man admitted, wiping tears from his face. “I knew that she always loved that place. I didn’t want to kill her, please believe me. I just wanted her to be mine. I wanted her to love me like she loved her.”
Morgan had heard enough. He looked back over his shoulder to the officer in the corner of the room. The man nodded.
“Where’s he going?” Patel asked as the officer left the room. “Where’s he going?”
“This conversation is just for us.” Morgan sat unmoved in his chair. “You’re going to tell me who you hired to kill me and my team.”
Morgan watched as confusion replaced the fear and guilt that had been etched into Patel’s face. “What are you talking about?” he managed.
“You hired shooters to take out my team and stop us finding Sophie. Who are they?”
“I have no idea!” Patel cried.
With disappointment Morgan realized that he believed him. “You didn’t hire anyone to come after us?”
“No!” Patel begged. “I’m a hedge fund manager, not a gangster! I wouldn’t even know where to find those people!”
Morgan swore under his breath. Then who would?
And why?
Chapter 47
POLICE CONSTABLE SHARON Lewis looked at the sticky pool of blood on the kitchen floor.
“It’s Knight’s,” Cook told her, pointing out the broken pieces of porcelain that lay close by. “Can you imagine getting hit with that?”
“I took a frying pan to the head once.”
Cook looked at her with surprise.
“My dad,” Lewis explained.
“Is that why you became an officer?” Cook guessed.
“You should have been a shrink,” Lewis smirked sarcastically. “If you play the punchbag enough times, it’s a nice feeling to be the fist. I don’t tell people that, though. Most of the blokes already assume that any woman in uniform has daddy issues.”
Having been an army officer, Jane Cook knew something about that. “I was lucky—I didn’t have any issues with my dad.”
“Then what made you join?”
“I grew up on a farm and my dad taught me to love the outdoors. As I got older I wanted to see more of the world. My family didn’t have the money to fund that kind of thing ourselves, so I joined the army.”
“And you liked it?”
“Loved it. You?”
“It’s my life,” Lewis admitted. “I don’t know what I’ll do when I leave.”
“I thought the same,” Cook confided. “But now I have new teammates and new challenges. It’s all I want.”
“And the boss, too,” Lewis needled.
“It’s not like that.”