Chapter 9
Dale barged into the sheriff’s office already angry. His wife was in tow, but she was more fearful than anything. He was the one doing all of the screaming and shouting, and threatening to go over everyone’s head. Willow saw the frustration in Tommy”s eyes before he opened his office door to confront Dale, and that didn’t go well at all.
“Tommy, I want my kid found and I want him home now!”
Dale didn’t see Willow sitting in Tommy”s office right away, but when he did, just as he and Willow thought, Dale lost his mind on her. Willow didn’t take much offense to the things he said because she already felt guilty enough. Had she kept Richy away like he said to… Mark might not have been able to get to him.
“This is your fault!” Dale barked at her. “You did this! If you had stayed away from my son and kept him out of your scamming business, none of this would be happening right now! I want her arrested, Tommy. Right now!”
“Dale, calm down,” Tommy said. “I can’t arrest her. She did nothing wrong here.”
“She was hanging out with my son. An underaged boy! What the hell do you mean she did nothing wrong! She let him sleep over at her house, for crying out loud! How do we know she didn”t do something to him or set this whole thing up with her husband!”
Willow understood Dale’s anger completely, but she would have never done anything out of the way to Richy. She especially wouldn’t have ever pawned him off to Mark or Charlie. Ever. She cared for Richy, probably more than Dale did. And he was Richy’s father.
“Where’s my son!?” he snapped at her. “I know you know where he is! You better spit it out, girlie, or so help me God.”
The more he yelled at Willow, the more timid she became. She felt terrible inside. The guilt ate her up from top to bottom. She wanted to run off to her car and cry, but she stood her ground and held her own against him. Of course, Tommy was there to defend her and try to deescalate the situation, but her feelings were severely hurt.
“Dale, please,” Tommy said. “You need to calm down. Agitating things won’t help the situation. Right now, we all need to stay level headed so that we can work together to find out where Richy is and bring him home. All right? I know you’re upset and I know this is scary, but we have to keep calm. Nothing good happens when we’re all fired up.”
The last thing Dale wanted to be told was to calm down. It seemed the more Tommy told him to relax, the angrier he got. Richy’s mom still hadn’t said a single word or asked a single question. She was too afraid to speak because Dale was there controlling the entire department. Willow felt terrible for her too—not only because her son was missing, but because she had no dog in the fight.
It took Tommy nearly an hour to get Dale quiet. He practically had to force him to go home for the day and stay inside until there was more information. Willow stayed behind at the station because she was the one Mark was in contact with. Lord knows she wanted to go out on a hunt for Richy, but she had no idea where to start looking.
“I’m gonna get a search crew together by tonight,” Tommy said. “Maybe if we can get the dogs out there and some folks from the town looking around, it’ll push Mark out of hiding. I have people on the way to that old bar where you met Charlene to snoop around in that area. If we don’t find something out by tonight, I”ll have to call in some heavy hitters.”
His plan sounded fair for what it was worth. Mark, Charlene, and Charlie were all great at hiding, so Willow didn”t know how much good it would do. But it was a start. It was better than sitting around waiting for Mark to come out on his own.
“Ok,” she said. “That sounds fine. I tried to call Mark again but got no answer. I guess I”ll wait around until he calls back?”
“Yeah,” Tommy sighed. “That’d be a good idea.”
Willow kept thinking about how angry Dale was and how scared Richy sounded when she spoke to him on the phone. She couldn”t get his voice out of her head. Please, help me. His words haunted her all day. They ate at her soul and made her gut wrench in turmoil. She silently prayed and prayed that he was okay and Mark hadn’t done anything to hurt him. The more Willow thought about it, the more worried she got.
Tommy saw how worried she was. He knew she was terrified of anything happening to Richy. So was he, but he stood strong for her. And Richy’s parents.
“Hey,” he said. “We’re gonna find him, all right. If it’s the last thing I do, we’re gonna find Richy. And he’s a strong kid. He’ll know how to take care of himself until we do.”
“Yeah.” Willow sighed and laid down on the couch in his office. “I know he’s a strong kid. I just feel so bad. So guilty. Like this is all my fault, you know? If only I had told him to mind his father’s orders, he might be here right now. Mark would never even know who he was.”
“This isn’t your fault. You hear me?” Tommy glared at her with a stern look. “No one could have known this would happen. All you’ve done was try to help that boy. And yeah, Dale is my friend, but that’s a hell of a lot more than what he’s done for him.”
Willow needed some fresh air. There was so much going on in her head that day, she thought she would vomit if she sat in that office another minute. Tommy wanted her to stay there; he even ordered food, but Willow needed space.
“I’m gonna go to my car for a moment,” she said. “I feel like I can’t breathe in here.”
In the back of her mind, she wondered if he thought she wanted to step out because she had a hand in Richy being kidnapped. Willow thought it was her fault for sure, but she had nothing to do with the actual kidnapping.
Her suspicion of everyone was at an all-time high that day. She felt like everyone had their eyes and fingers pointed at her even more. She couldn’t take it. The pressure of everything surrounding her almost made her pass out. She had to step outside and take a moment to breathe. But the minute she did, the Tallahassee detectives were right there in her face.
“Mrs. Shorts, we need to ask you a few more questions.” The lead detective, Detective Ryan, had that stern look on his face again. “It turns out, there’s more money than we initially thought there was. Most of it still hasn’t been accounted for. Do you know anything about that?”
Willow’s head started to spin. She had learned about the money Charlie was hiding from Charlene, but she didn”t know where it was. It looked terrible on her part since they’d already found an account with her name on it.
“No,” she stammered. “I don’t know anything about any money. I told you that the first thirty times you asked.”
“Mrs. Short,” he huffed. “You need to be real careful and honest right about now. The more information we uncover, the worse it looks for you. I mean, at each corner we turn, there’s something new. Mark. Charlene. Now there’s more money. It doesn’t look good for you.”
Willow could hardly catch her breath. The questions, the implications, the badgering… it was all too much for her. On top of that, Richy was missing and Mark was unreachable.
“Are you sure you don’t know where that money is? If we find out you’ve been helping your husband hide all this time, we won’t be able to save you from life in prison. You need to think about your own future here. Not what your husband wants.”
For some reason, that triggered her to the point of no return. She couldn’t believe he actually thought she was helping Charlie; that she was worried about saving Charlie more than she was herself. Willow couldn’t have cared less about Charlie. She was worried about Richy. Nothing more.
“Are you serious right now?” she scoffed. “There’s a kid missing, my life is in shambles, and you actually think I”m worried about saving Charlie?”
She folded her arms across her chest and planted her foot so sternly on the ground like a mother who was scorning her child for something he did wrong.
“The last person on my mind right now is Charlie. He may be my husband on paper, but he sure as hell isn”t someone I care for. Not anymore. You know who I do care for, Detective? The fifteen-year-old boy who’s been kidnapped because you two can’t do your job! You’re focused on the wrong one here. There’s a murderous madman on the loose and he’s taken someone dear to me because he wants the same thing you two want. Hm? Is that what it is? You two want the money for yourselves? Is that why you haven’t arrested, or can’t seem to find anyone?”
Both detectives stood there with their mouths open. They were speechless while Willow was still ranting and raging about how terrible they were at their jobs. She ranted on for so long that Tommy rushed outside when he heard the commotion.
“What’s going on out here?” he asked. “Willow, are you okay?”
The detectives quickly addressed him, Willow guessed to keep the noise down and deescalate the situation. By then though, she was already so annoyed and frustrated with everything, she continued to yell her concerns and insults.
“Look, if you don’t calm her down, we’re gonna have to take her into custody.” Detective Paul finally uttered a word.
“Custody?” Tommy frowned. “You two have no jurisdiction here. This is my case too. I’m the sheriff inside these county lines and she’s been a suspect of mine as well.”
Willow almost turned on Tommy too, but changed her tune when she saw that he was only trying to save her from being thrown into the back of their squad car.
“I’ll take care of this, detectives,” he said. “Right now, we have a real situation on our hands. One of our locals, a boy named Richy, has been kidnapped by someone I think we all know is a very dangerous man. If we find him, we’ll probably find that money you all are looking for.”
“Mark doesn”t know where the money is either,” Willow chimed in. “That’s why he broke into my cottage. It’s why he kidnapped Richy. Both him and Charlene are looking for the same thing and I think these two are as well. How do I even know they’re real detectives?”
Even Tommy looked at them strangely. When they left, they both questioned the detectives’ intentions even more. Neither of them said another word about it, but the thought was certainly still prominent in their minds.
“Heard anything from Mark yet?” Tommy asked.
“No. Not yet. I think he’s trying to give me a heart attack.”
“Well, come inside,” he sighed. “We want to stay away from those guys as much as we can. They know they can go over my head to take you in because they’re much higher ranked than I am. Maybe they’re just up to something. Whatever that is.”