Chapter 49
It wasn”t over yet. Melody wasn”t sure if she’d expected it to be or not, but the following day, bleary eyed and slightly subdued, she was met with the news that the authorities still hadn”t managed to trace all of the men Vinny Sutton had finally given them names for.
Guthrie was one of them.
Now Melody had to wonder just how much of a threat these people were to her. Hopefully, they”d be long gone, taking off somewhere far away while they hoped to escape detection.
The only positive thing was that no charges were going to be pursued against Micah for his actions the previous day.
Melody was truly thankful for that. She wouldn”t have been able to live with herself if he”d been prosecuted for coming to her rescue.
There was still worse news to come. Andy Storer grilled her once again, this time on everything she could recall about the argument that had taken place between Vinny and Thomas on the day she”d been abducted.
Not that there was much to tell, as she explained over and over, because Daddy had locked her in her room.
”Okay, that will be enough,” the detective finally sighed. ”What you”ve told us corroborates with what we found at Thomas Sutton”s house.”
”What do you mean?” Micah asked. He’d insisted on sitting with her, unwilling to let her face this alone, and Melody was more than grateful for his support.
”How can there be any evidence left after all this time? We already know it”s been several years since all of this took place.”
Detective Storer cleared his throat and looked away for a moment. Then, facing them again with a sigh, he said, ”I”m sorry to have to tell you this, but we believe we have found the decomposed body of Thomas Sutton at the house you were taken from, Melody.”
Melody let out a shocked sob. ”What do you mean?” she whispered shakily, reaching blindly for Micah”s hand.
Andy rubbed his hand over his shaved head. ”We went out first thing this morning to question Mr. Sutton, but there was no reply. What we did notice was the gardens were seriously overgrown and there seemed to be a glut of post piled up from what we could make out through the side window, bearing in mind that it’s semi-opaque glass, so we couldn”t get a very good view.”
Shaking his head, he continued. ”However, it was enough for us to decide to take a look around the property. Detective Scott checked the windows and saw evidence of a struggle. Toppled furniture, broken objects, and from that we decided there was probable cause to execute a forced entry into the property. When we got inside, we found a corpse which the coroner has agreed is between approximately two and five years old. He has confirmed the body is that of a male, believed to be between sixty-five and seventy-five years of age. Luckily, the teeth are intact, and we’re expecting hard confirmation from his dental records very shortly.”
A tear slipped down Melody”s face, and Micah put his arm around her in comfort.
”So, V did hurt him, just like I thought,” she sniffled.
”We believe Thomas Sutton was alive at the time of your abduction, from the position of his body and the blood smears that were evident. But Vinny Sutton certainly dealt the killing blow and Thomas died from his injuries before he could call for help. As soon as we have positive confirmation, we will be charging Vinny Sutton with either murder or manslaughter, depending on the results of the autopsy.”
Melody curled into Micah”s shoulder and cried. ”He didn”t deserve that,” she said as she wept, gripping the front of Micah”s shirt. ”He was a good man.”
Detective Storer shuffled up the papers from the table in front of him and put them into a file. ”We believe Vinny discovered that Thomas had legally adopted you and lost his temper, attacking Thomas and kidnapping you in retaliation. That was the catalyst for his systematic abuse of you.”
Andy stowed the files and reversed his wheelchair. It beeped a ”backing up” signal that seemed incongruous within the quiet room.
”It”s really only a formality. We have little doubt that the body is that of Thomas Sutton, and since you are legally his next of kin, you are the sole beneficiary of a significant estate. You are set to be a very wealthy woman, Melody.”
With that final bombshell, the dwarf detective with the larger-than-life personality drove his wheelchair away.