Chapter Twenty – Liam
CHAPTER TWENTY
Liam
I couldn’t get it out of my head that Chad had been in Chicago possibly the same time Mallory was kidnapped. But we still weren’t sure she was taken from Chicago and brought to Montana.
Something wasn’t adding up right. A had a gut feeling that whatever it was we were looking for, it was right in front of us.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Mallory softly said as she sat down next to me outside.
“I can’t get it out of my head he was in Chicago.”
“Do you think he was alone? Maybe Krista went with him.”
“I guess she could have, I should have asked.”
“He didn’t laugh like the guy who had taken me, nor did he talk like him. I really don’t think it was Chad, Liam.”
Rubbing at the back of my neck, I slowly shook my head. “It’s right in front of us, I can feel it, Mallory. We’re missing something.”
Turning, I grabbed my phone.
“What are you doing?” Mallory asked.
“Calling Randy.” My cousin answered almost immediately. “I need you at the house right now.”
“Is everything okay?” Randy asked. “Mallory?”
“She’s okay, but Randy, I can’t talk to you about this over the phone.”
“I’m on my way.”
I also sent a text to Billy and Bubba to come to the house. We needed to get our heads together and figure this shit out.
“I’m so sorry, Liam,” Mallory whispered as she wrapped her arms around her body.
When I looked at her, she had tears streaming down her face.
“I wish I could remember something about being taken. Anything.”
I reached a hand out to her. When she laced her fingers with mine, I pulled her close and wrapped my arms around her. She started crying harder.
Running my hand up and down her back, I said, “I know I should be relieved it’s not my brother, and I am. And we’ll figure this out, Mallory, I promise you.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I wanted all of this not to have happened. I wished I’d met Mallory some other way. I didn’t want to think someone I might know or have passed on the streets was capable of something so horrific.
When she finally stopped crying so hard, she drew back slowly. “Maybe I came to Montana to visit?”
I slowly shook my head. “I don’t know. But we’re going to find out.”
Billy and Bubba showed up not long after I sent the text to them. I told them about Chad’s visit and how he had been in Chicago most likely the same time as Mallory. Could Chad have been a part of Mallory’s kidnapping?
Mallory stood and started to pace. “I don’t think he’s involved. He didn’t even flinch when he saw me or I said my name. He honestly looked like he’d met me right then and there.”
“It might simply be a crazy coincidence, Liam, and that’s all,” Billy stated.
I nodded. “Maybe.”
Nearly an hour later, Randy walked into my living room. He took one look at everyone and frowned deeply. “Looks like we’ve been doing some sleuthing, gentlemen.”
There was another guy behind Randy, dressed in plain clothes as well. I looked to Mallory who reached for my hand. When I looked back at him, I frowned. I knew him from somewhere but couldn’t put my finger on it.
“This is Captain Jonathon Miller. He’s my boss, and he oversees the special investigations division,” Randy said as they both moved farther into the room. “When you mentioned Mallory wanting to file a report, I thought it would be best to have him here as well.”
We each stood and shook Captain Miller’s hand, with Mallory being the last to do so. She sat back down next to me.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” Randy asked as his gaze moved around the room. “You look like someone just told you Santa wasn’t real all over again.”
Captain Miller shot Randy a confused expression.
He shrugged. “For the longest time, when they were younger, Liam and Bubba refused to believe Santa wasn’t real.”
“I’m not sure if what I have to say is important or not,” I said, as Billy brought over two chairs from the dining room table.
“Do you mind if I record you?” Captain Miller asked, looking directly at Mallory.
“No,” Mallory and I both said at the same time.
I glanced at Randy. “I know you told him about the kidnapping, but did you tell him it was Mallory?”
“Yes, he knows everything I currently know.”
Captain Miller nodded, then focused on Mallory. “I wish you’d filed a report when it happened. There might’ve been crucial evidence that’s now lost.”
Mallory looked down at her hands. “I was scared, Captain Miller. No. I was terrified, and I wasn’t sure who I could trust.”
Miller’s eyes softened. “Please, call me Jonathon. Randy told me you believe your kidnapper, or perhaps a friend of his, works in our police department?”
Mallory nodded. “I’m not sure. He said he knew a lot of people and that the cops wouldn’t help me.”
I cleared my throat. “Chad came by today, and although it appears he’s never seen Mallory before, and she’s pretty positive he isn’t the man who took her, he was in Chicago at the time we think Mallory vanished.”
Randy sat up straighter and asked, “Chad? You think your brother might have had something to do with this?”
I shook my head. “No, but I don’t know. It’s just too coincidental that he was in Chicago and now he’s going back.”
Jonathon cleared his throat. “I think I can help with this.”
All eyes turned to the captain as I asked, “How so?”
He smiled. “I was with Chad, in Chicago, about a month ago. He had work to do there, and I was going for a job interview.”
“What?” Randy asked, clearly surprised. “You’re leaving Lewistown?”
“No, but I wanted to explore things, and for a little bit I thought maybe working in a larger city would be something I liked. I instantly hated it. But, besides my interview, I was pretty much with Chad the entire time. We stayed in the same hotel, went out to eat, partied a few times, your brother hooked up with a girl one night, and I hung out at the bar while they…”
Jonathon’s words trailed off.
“He cheated on his pregnant wife?” Mallory asked in a shocked voice.
With a shrug, Jonathon said, “I’ve been best friends with Chad for a long time, it didn’t surprise me.”
“That’s where I know you from,” I stated. “You were Chad’s best man at his wedding.”
Jonathon smiled. “That was me, indeed.”
Mallory leaned forward and stared at Jonathon, causing him to clear his throat. “Even if I told him what he was doing was wrong, he wouldn’t listen to me. Chad’s always been about…Chad.”
“I can confirm that,” I added.
“So, if Jonathon was with Chad the whole time…” Billy stated.
“Did you fly back together?” I asked.
Jonathon nodded. “Listen, Liam, I get it, you want to find this guy, but you’re looking in the wrong direction. Let’s get Mallory’s statement down so that Randy and I can start a formal investigation on this.”
Nodding, I said, “Right. You’re absolutely right.”
Mallory went over the story again so that Randy and Jonathon could take it down as an official statement.
“Do you think you would know who he was if you saw him?” Jonathon asked. “We could have some rather sketchy people come in for a line up.”
Randy looked at his boss with a confused expression.
Shrugging, Mallory said, “I’m not sure. It was dark in the basement, and truth be told, I used to close my eyes and pray he’d just go away. I think one time he did have something over his face, but it might have been a scarf or something.”
Jonathon nodded. “Anything at all that you remember that you might be able to identify him.”
Mallory cleared her throat. “The man who held me captive had this laugh…I couldn’t forget that laugh if I tried.
It’s haunted my nightmares since the day I escaped.
” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, slowly letting it out before she focused back on Jonathon and Randy.
“If I hear that laugh, I know it will be him.”
Pushing his fingers through his hair, Jonathon said, “The problem is, I can’t arrest someone because you think he’s the guy because of the way he laughs.”
Mallory looked down at her hands. “I’m sorry I’m not more helpful.”
I squeezed her hand. “It’s okay, Mallory. You’re trying.”
“What about searching some of the ranches around this one?” Billy asked.
Randy shook his head. “We would need probable cause for a warrant. And to be honest, I’m afraid hearing someone’s laugh isn’t going to get us that warrant. I’m sorry, Mallory.”
Mallory sniffled and softly said, “I understand.”
I stood and started to pace. “I don’t need a warrant to search.”
“No,” Randy said, standing. “The last thing we need is for you to stumble upon a crime scene and risk tampering with evidence.”
“What are we supposed to do, Randy? We’re nowhere closer to finding this guy than we were a couple days ago.”
Randy turned to Jonathon. “We need to check rental cars. If Mallory was kidnapped in Chicago, the only way to get her to Montana is to drive her.”
Jonathon pulled out a small notebook and wrote something down. “I’ll get on that as soon as I get back to the station.”
Glancing back to Mallory, Jonathon asked, “Mallory, do you remember anything at all before waking up in the basement?”
She slowly shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t remember anything.”
He smiled kindly. “It’s okay. I’ll check with all the rental companies in the Chicago area. And also Great Falls, Billings, and Bozeman,” Jonathon said. “If he rented a car in Chicago, those would be the closest places to return it.”
Jonathon looked at Mallory. “Okay. Mallory, may I suggest something that might help with your memory?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Do you have anything from your past that you found when you went back to Illinois?”
“We found a storage room that was filled with things like pictures and books and some antique furniture,” Mallory replied.
I added, “I paid to have it all packed up and shipped here. It should be arriving any day now.”
Jonathon stood. “Good. I want you to comb through everything. Any tiny little thing could trigger the repressed memories.”
“What about hypnosis?” Billy asked.
Randy shook his head. “It’s too controversial and often discredited in a criminal investigation. If we try to use it to get Mallory to remember what happened, a good defense lawyer can say it’s invalid or false unless there’s physical proof to back it up.”
Billy shook his head. “I’m just saying for the poor woman to get her memory back. Not for the case.”
Jonathon added, “The best we can hope for is that she can regain her memory on her own. Hopefully, something will trigger it…but Mallory, there’s a chance you might not remember anything at all.”
Letting out a long sigh, she slowly shook her head. “At this point, I’m not sure I want to remember what happened.”
I squeezed her hand.
She smiled sadly at me and said, “Maybe the personal items will help spark something.”
Jonathon and Randy started to speak with one another, and I turned to Mallory. “Are you okay? Do you want to rest or anything?”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. I am glad the suspicion was taken off of your brother.”
“Yeah, me too. I hated even thinking it, but I had to.”
After everyone left, Mallory made her way into the kitchen and started pulling things out to bake. It hadn’t taken me long to figure out that was her way of handling stress or anxiety. I grabbed a beer, and Piper and I went to the backyard.
There was someone out there, someone willing to keep a woman locked up and then hurt her, possibly even kill her.
The idea that I knew them, or could have passed them on the street caused a shiver to run over my entire body.
There was a monster on the loose and we had no freaking idea who in the hell it was.
Feeling Mallory before she even said anything, I turned to see her standing there, a look of concern on her face.
“Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It’s just the idea that this person is out there. They may have already taken another person and we have no idea who it is.”
A crease formed between her brows. “Do you think I made a mistake in filing the police report so late?”
Letting out a long breath, I stared back out over the mountains. “I don’t honestly know, Mallory. I understand why you didn’t want to. I think I just feel helpless. Like I want to do something, but I don’t know what to do.”
She blew out her breath. “I’m scared, Liam.”
Standing, I drew her body against mine. “There is one thing I know for sure, Mallory, whoever did this to you will never touch you again—or I’ll kill him with my bare hands.”