Chapter 21 #2
Sighing, Chief Turner leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees, steepling his hands together. “I’m assuming your husband has filled you in on how you were found?”
Cleaning my throat, I nod. “Yes, he has.”
“Okay. Can you tell me a little about your and Courtney Ortega’s relationship?”
Looking at Sebastian, I turn my attention back to Chief Turner.
“Courtney and I were best friends when we were younger, right up until high school when I moved to live with my dad in Maine, and we lost touch. I saw her once or maybe twice when I first started at Kingsacre. She wasn’t particularly nice, but at that point it’d been years since we’d seen each other, so I just figured we didn’t really know each other anymore.
To be honest, even though I’ve been living on campus for the last couple of years, I sort of forgot about her.
Our world is odd. Everyone wants to know Sebastian, but they’re rarely interested in me as anything but a route to my husband, so we tend to keep our social circle pretty small. ”
“And Ms. Ortega wasn’t a part of your social circle?” Chief Turner asks.
“No,” I admit.
“It sounds obnoxious to say it, but although Courtney’s family has money, it’s really not on the same scale as our families. People of the same socioeconomic status tend to stick together,” Sebastian explains, sounding like an asshole, no matter how true what he’s saying is.
“Okay, so if you and Ms. Ortega aren’t friends anymore, why did you agree to meet her? Your husband said she’d texted you.”
“We actually bumped into each other on campus last week. She was at the table next to us when we went to get coffee. I don’t know why, but she’d been on my mind recently, so when she was right there, I thought it was a sign that we should reconnect. We invited her here for lunch with us.”
“And how did she act that day?”
I shrug. “She was fine. We laid out by the pool, we had lunch, the others came around, and we were talking about trying to set her up with one of our friends. But that was when she started making some strange comments.”
“Like what?”
“She asked if I had signed a prenup.”
“That’s a very personal question to ask someone you haven’t seen in years,” the female detective asks.
I nod. “It is, but it’s not the first time I’ve been asked. I’m not from money. My mom is an author, and my dad owns a fishing boat. The moment people find out that I don’t have a trust fund, they automatically assume I’m a gold digger,” I say with a wry smile.
“Is that what Ms. Ortega thought?”
“She asked if I was planning to divorce Sebastian and take him for half of everything he has.”
“Why would she ask that?” Detective Hollins questions.
“Honestly, I don’t know. Sebastian and I have been together since I came to Kingsacre, and we’re married. I know I live a beautiful and very privileged life, but if I had to give it all up and only got to keep my husband, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“Which is why we’ll never need a prenup,” Sebastian drawls, cupping my cheek with his palm and pressing a soft kiss to my lips.
“Tell me what happened the day you were kidnapped,” Chief Turner asks.
“She texted me and asked if we could meet. We were already planning to go to campus, so I agreed.”
“You didn’t think it was odd that she asked you to meet her in the parking structure?” Detective Hollins questions.
“I mean, it’s a little odd, but I guess I just figured she wanted to talk privately, and there isn’t really anywhere on campus that you can be truly alone,” I tell her.
“So, what happened when you got into the parking structure?”
“I remember walking down the ramp and finding her car. She got it as a gift for her sixteenth birthday from her parents. I remember thinking I was a little surprised that she was okay driving a four-year-old car, because her parents had always changed out their cars every couple of years when we were kids. After that I have a very vague feeling of pain, then nothing until I woke up in the hospital.”
“Can you think of any reason why Ms. Ortega would want to hurt you?” Chief Turner asks.
I shake my head. “Ever since Sebastian told me what happened, I’ve been racking my mind trying to understand why she’d do that, but I just don’t get it.” Real tears fill my eyes, and I quickly wipe them away.
Inhaling slowly, Chief Turner straightens.
“When Officer Moorhouse and I arrived at the warehouse, Ms. Ortega’s car appeared empty and was parked in the lot outside.
The warehouse door was ajar, and when we entered the property, we found Ms. Ortega in one of the three enclosed rooms. Officer Moorhouse and I had entered one of the other rooms first and ascertained that it was empty, and after I escorted Ms. Ortega outside, Officer Moorhouse entered the third room.
” Pausing, he swallows thickly, like he’s bracing himself.
“I don’t understand,” I say slowly.
“Mrs. Lockwood, the third room contained some concerning items.”
“Concerning how?” Sebastian asks.
Clearing his throat, Chief Turner looks from me to Sebastian and then back again, uncomfortably. “It appears that the room had been set up with the intention of torturing, then potentially murdering you.”
Even though I know exactly what was in that room, I still feel the color drain from my face. “What?”
“Along with a cage, tools, and medical equipment, there was also more bottles of the same brand of Rohypnol that was used to drug you—”
“Courtney,” I interrupt him. “Courtney planned to kill me?” I choke out.
“Unfortunately, I’m not sure we’ll ever find out exactly what her plan was. We found her DNA on the cage, as well as some of the other items in the room, and her fingerprints inside some latex gloves that she’d attempted to dispose of at the scene.”
“Why?” I gasp. “Why would she do this?”
“At this point, Ms. Ortega is maintaining that she had no idea that you were in the trunk of her car. She says that she had never been to the warehouse before and that she was lured there by Tom Underhill, who was of course in our custody at the time. After seizing her cell phone, we found communication between her and Mr. Underhill spanning several months. We believe that she targeted Mr. Underhill after she discovered he worked for you. Judging by the messages we’ve discovered, she convinced him that he should take incriminating pictures of you and then use them to blackmail you.
It seems once she had the pictures and videos, her behavior escalated, and she decided to orchestrate a meeting between you and her, with the intention of integrating herself into your life.
After doing a deep dive into her laptop, browsing history, and online presence, we found several concerning things that lead us to believe that she was unhealthily obsessed with you and Mr. Lockwood and has been since she was in her teens.
Her obsessive behavior only escalated once she spent the afternoon at your home, which is when her thoughts seem to have become violent.
The threatening messages we found on Mr. Underhill’s cell phone and laptop we’ve confirmed were sent by her.
We also found messages sent after she drugged you and put you in her trunk.
She informed Mr. Underhill that she had abducted you and planned to take you to the warehouse and asked him to meet her there. ”
“But she’s denying that?” Sebastian asks.
“She is.”
“Oh my god, she needs help not to be in a cell, clearly she’s not well,” I say, laying it on a bit thick.
“That’s a very generous reaction to finding out she planned to kill you,” Detective Hollins says.
“She was my friend. We were friends,” I gasp as fresh tears roll down my cheeks.
Turning me in his arms, Sebastian presses my face into his chest. “What happens now?” he asks.
“Ms. Ortega has been transferred to a facility to be assessed by a team of medical professionals who will decide if she’s well enough to stand trial.
While I’m not a medical professional, my belief is that she isn’t.
In cases such as these, when a person is deemed not mentally stable enough to participate in a trial, the criminal proceedings are paused, and that person is committed to a psychiatric facility for treatment until they can be deemed fit. ”
“Do her parents know?” I ask, pulling out of Sebastian’s hold just enough to turn my head.
“Yes. Her parents have been informed, and when I met with them, they said that her behavior had become increasingly erratic in the last eight months and that because of that, they stopped all financial support for their daughter. They haven’t spoken to her in over four months and appeared genuinely shocked to discovered that she had been arrested for kidnapping, blackmail, and attempted murder.
They have been fully supportive of her move to a secure medical facility and mentioned that they would be petitioning the court for a conservatorship so they could act in her best interest and decide to enforce involuntary psychiatric treatment if and when she is rehabilitated back into society. ”
“What hospital is she at?” I ask.
“Her parents asked the judge for her to be placed in a facility out of state,” Chief Turner says.
“So, what happens now?” Sammy asks, speaking for the first time.
“It may take weeks or possibly months for the doctors to evaluate her. Once they’ve completed their findings, she’ll either stay as a patient in that facility or be moved to one more suited to her needs. If she is deemed mentally stable, then she’ll be arraigned and a bail hearing will be set.”
“She could get bail?” I gasp.
“Given the severity of her crimes, it’s very unlikely any judge would grant her bail. Instead, she would be incarcerated while she awaited her trial. But until we get the results of the evaluation, this is all very much up in the air.”
“So, I have to just wait, worrying?” I question.
“You don’t need us here while she’s evaluated, do you?” Sebastian questions.
“No. If I do need to ask you anything, I’m sure that could be done over the phone,” Chief Turner says.
“Then I think it best my wife and I take some time away. Hopefully the doctor’s assessment is done quickly, so we can try to move on with our life without this hanging over our heads,” Sebastian states sternly.
“Maybe we should all get some time away,” Evan says, placing a hand on Sammy’s swollen stomach. “A babymoon sounds better than worrying about someone trying to kill my little sister.”
And just like that, Courtney Ortega is forgotten, and we move on to planning a vacation.
“Are you serious?” I ask, blinking as I spin in a circle, seeing an almost three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the sea.
“Completely serious,” Sebastian says.
“You bought an island?”
“Yes.”
“And no one knows where we are?”
“No one.”
“And there’s no staff?”
“No.”
“No internet?”
“No.”
“No cell service?”
“No. There’s nothing but the beach, the sea, and a house full of a month’s worth of pre-prepared meals for us.”
“How will we know if Sammy goes into labor? I promised I’d be there with her, just in case Evan loses his shit.”
“Evan’s got the number to the satellite phone I bought with us. If Sammy shows signs of going into labor, or there are any other problems, he’ll call us.”
“I can’t believe you brought an island.” I laugh. “Why did you buy an island?”
“Do you want an answer you’ll like, or the real answer?” he asks.
“How mad is the real answer going to make me?”
His shrug is infuriating.
Huffing, I roll my eyes. “Fine, the real answer.”
“I brought this so if you tried to leave me, I could bring you here and never let you go.”
“So, this place was supposed to be my new cage after blackmail and coercion stopped working?” I ask dryly.
“Pretty much,” he says completely unrepentantly.
I know I should be mad, but I just don’t seem to be able to stop myself, and a soft giggle falls from my lips. “You’re a complete psycho; you know that, don’t you?”
“Only for you,” he says, closing the distance between us and slowly starting to strip me of my clothes.
“What are you doing?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“This island only has a couple of rules.”
“Oh, really. What kind of rules?”
“First, no clothes are allowed here.”
“No clothes,” I drawl, letting him push my panties down my thighs, then drag my shirt up and over my head, leaving me completely naked as he removes his own clothes.
“And the second rule?”
“We might have come here as two people, but we won’t be leaving without a third.”
My mind blanks as I try to figure out what he means. Then it dawns on me. “So this is really baby-making island?”
“Yep. You’re going to be naked and full of my cum all day, every day, until I put my baby in you.”
“We only have a month, and it could take months or longer for me to get pregnant.”
His tongue dips out, and he licks his lips, his eyes cautious. “I had Dr. Harris give us both fertility drugs,” he confesses.
“What? When?”
“Before the trunk.”
“How?”
“I drugged you.”
Closing my eyes, I suck in a deep breath.
“I won’t do it again. I’ll never do it again.” His skin has paled, and for the first time since I met Sebastian, he looks genuinely remorseful.
“Are you…are you actually sorry?” I question, my brow furrowed in confusion.
“More sorry than you’ll ever know,” he says, dropping to his knees in the sand and burying his face against my stomach. “I could have lost you, Starling.”
“I’m fine,” I assure him, the way I’ve been assuring him since I woke up in the hospital.
“My world starts and stops with you, Little Bird. If anything had happened to you, I’d stop existing.”
Exhaling, I lower myself to my knees, cupping his cheeks and forcing his anguished eyes upward. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he says.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re fine,” he repeats.
“I’m not okay with you drugging me to get your own way.”
“Your body is mine,” he says, a hint of a smile curling at the corners of his lips.
“But my autonomy isn’t.”
“I swear, on our babies’ lives, that I will never do it again,” he promises, the first solemn promise he’s ever made to me that wasn’t about his love for me or never allowing me to leave him.
“If I tell you I’m too mad at you to stay here with you, will you let me leave?” I ask.
“No,” he says honestly.
I smile again. “It’s a really good thing I love your psycho.”
“I’m a very, very lucky man.”
“Yes, you are. Now let’s go make a baby.”