Chapter 9 Mitch
MITCH
Mitch paced back and forth across the hospital waiting room, his phone pressed to his ear as he listened to Marcus give him an update on the search for Clara Stark. Or Clara Whittaker, as they now knew her to be.
“We’ve checked her house,” Marcus was saying. “She’s not there. But it looks like she wasn’t planning to leave, as all her things are still there, but no signs of her.”
“Keep looking,” Mitch said. “She can’t have gotten far. The island’s only so big.”
“Glory’s working on tracking her through security cameras around town,” Marcus continued. “And we’ve got people watching the ferry terminal and the airport. If she tries to leave Nantucket, we’ll know.”
“Good,” Mitch said. “Call me the second you have anything.”
He hung up and resumed his pacing. Lori was sitting in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs nearby, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, watching him.
“Any news?” she asked.
“Not yet,” Mitch said. “But we’ll find her. She’s got nowhere to run.”
They’d been at the hospital for over an hour now. Ryan had been rushed into surgery the moment they’d arrived, his torn stitches needing to be repaired. Tessa had been taken to an examination room, where doctors were checking her over and treating her for dehydration and shock.
And Mitch was stuck in this waiting room, unable to do anything except pace, make phone calls, and wait for news.
He hated waiting.
His phone rang again, and he looked at the screen. Trent. He answered immediately.
“Trent. What’ve you got?”
“I found him,” Trent said without preamble. “Ray Deloitte. He is a former Army Ranger who served with the Seventy-Fifth Ranger Regiment. Deployed to Afghanistan three times. One of only two survivors from his unit’s last deployment.”
Mitch felt his chest tighten. “Go on.”
“He came back with severe PTSD,” Trent continued. “His sister, Heather Deloitte, was working as a personal assistant for Mrs. Lane at the time. Heather discovered what the Lanes were doing to Sally Lane and tried to help. They took her out for it.”
“Took her out how?” Mitch asked, his voice hard.
“She’s in a psychiatric hospital now,” Trent said. “Been in a coma for six months. Brain damage. The Lanes made it look like Ray did it to her. Used that guilt to control him, force him to do their dirty work.”
Mitch closed his eyes. A man who’d served his country, who’d lost nearly everyone in his unit, who’d come home broken. And then they’d used his love for his sister to turn him into a weapon.
“There’s more,” Trent said. “Ray refused to keep doing their dirty work. That’s when Clara Whittaker stepped in. She threatened to finish what the Lanes started. Threatened to kill Heather if Ray didn’t cooperate.”
“So he had no choice,” Mitch said quietly.
“No choice at all,” Trent agreed. “Mitch, this guy’s a victim too. What Clara and the Lanes did to him, what they’re still doing to him through his sister, it’s cruel. But he still has to answer for his part in the kidnappings. For what he did.”
“I know,” Mitch said. The man had still kidnapped three people. He had still held them captive. Had still terrorized them, even if he’d apologized while doing it. The law didn’t care about coercion when it came to violent crimes. Ray would have to face justice for what he’d done.
But Mitch could also understand why he’d done it. Could understand the impossible position Clara had put him in. Your sister’s life or your freedom. Your soul or her safety. What choice was that?
“I’ll tell Tessa,” Trent was saying. “She needs to know about Ray’s situation. About Heather.”
“No,” Mitch said firmly. “I’ll do it.”
There was a pause on the other end. “You sure? She’s not going to take it well. Tessa’s got a soft spot for people who’ve been backed into corners. She’s going to want to help him.”
“I know,” Mitch said. “But this is my case. My jurisdiction. I should be the one to tell her.”
“Thank you,” Trent said, and there was genuine gratitude in his voice. “I appreciate you taking that on. My sister can be intense when she thinks someone’s been wronged.”
Mitch smiled despite the heaviness of the situation. “Well, I think I can already safely say I know who Ray’s attorney will be.”
Trent actually laughed at that. “At least the man will have the best there is to defend him. If anyone can argue coercion and duress successfully, it’s Tessa.”
“There’s something else you should know,” Trent continued, his voice turning serious again.
“I’ve already arranged for Ray’s sister, Heather, to be transferred to a different facility.
Somewhere safe, where the Lanes and the Whittakers can’t get to her.
And I’ve made sure she’ll have the best medical care available.
Top neurologists, the best rehabilitation therapists, everything she needs. ”
Mitch felt his throat tighten. “That’s good of you, Trent. Really good.”
“It’s the least I can do,” Trent said. “The man saved my sister’s life by leaving her that phone and those supplies. I’m not going to forget that.”
They said their goodbyes and hung up. Mitch stood there for a moment, processing everything he’d just learned. Ray Deloitte. A decorated soldier turned victim turned criminal. A man who’d been forced to choose between his sister’s life and his own freedom.
Mitch understood that choice. He would’ve made the same one if it had been one of his sons or Piper in that hospital bed.
“Uh, Mitch,” Lori’s voice cut through his thoughts.
He turned to look at her, and his body immediately went on alert. She was staring past him, her eyes wide, her posture tense. “We have company,” she said quietly.
Mitch spun around, his hand automatically moving toward where his weapon would be if he were on duty.
And there, walking toward them across the waiting room, was a giant of a man.
He had to be at least six-foot-seven, maybe six-eight, with shoulders so broad he looked like he could bench press a car.
He moved with the careful, controlled gait of someone who was used to navigating a world built for smaller people.
Mitch was six-foot-three, and this man towered over him.
The giant held up his hands, palms out, in a gesture of surrender. “I don’t want any trouble,” he said, and his voice was rough, gravelly, like it had been damaged somehow.
Mitch’s eyes caught on the tattoo on the man’s forearm. The Ranger scroll. The star. The lightning bolt. Second Battalion, Seventy-Fifth Ranger Regiment.
And the scarring around it. Burns, maybe. Or shrapnel damage.
This was Ray Deloitte.
Mitch straightened, positioning himself slightly in front of Lori. “You’re the one who kidnapped Tessa, Ryan, and Dr. Simons,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“Believe me, sir,” Ray said respectfully, and Mitch could hear the shame in his voice, “I never wanted to do that.” His jaw clenched, the muscles jumping under his skin.
“I wasn’t going to kill Mrs. Sally Lane either.
I was going to make it look like I did, and then Elias was going to take her into hiding.
As he did for Judge Whittaker’s wife after Chief Ware saved the woman’s life. ”
“Oh,” Mitch said, surprise flickering through him. He hadn’t known that was what happened. Hadn’t known Elias had been involved in protecting the judge’s wife. “What was Elias Dane doing here on Nantucket?”
“I’ll get to that,” Ray told him, glancing over his shoulder nervously. “But I don’t have much time.”
He looked back at Mitch, and there was genuine fear in his eyes.
“Things went horribly wrong when Mrs. Sally Lane’s ex-husband, Bradley, turned up at the hunting cabin.
I went after both of them because I knew the backup arrangement.
If I didn’t do the job, Clayton Whittaker, Clara’s older brother, would. ”
“He was going to kill a man in cold blood?” Lori’s eyes widened with horror.
“Yes, ma’am,” Ray nodded. “Clayton is a mean person with no soul.” He shuddered, and Mitch saw genuine revulsion cross his face. “If there ever was pure evil, it was that man and his father, the judge.”
“And his sister, it seems,” Lori added quietly.
Ray nodded in agreement. “I got to Mrs. Sally Lane’s ex-husband too late.
Clayton had already killed Bradley. I was about to go after Clayton so I could get Sally safely out of there when I encountered Elias.
He listened to me, heard my whole story, then told me to get out of the woods and go straight to Barstow Security’s head office.
He said if I didn’t, he’d hunt me down himself, and the consequences would be dire.
” Ray’s lips twitched in what might’ve been a smile.
“I believed him. Elias Dane is not a man you want to cross.”
“It seems you never turned yourself in,” Lori pointed out.
“Actually, I did,” Ray told them. “I went straight to Barstow like Elias said. But not long after Judge Whittaker took his own life in prison, I was broken out of their custody by the Lanes.”
“Whoa,” Mitch said, his mind racing. “Wait. I thought Judge Whittaker was killed in prison. That’s what the reports said.”
“No, that’s the story the Lanes spun,” Ray said, his voice bitter.
“The judge couldn’t live the rest of his life in prison.
He’d put a lot of the people who were in jail in there.
So he hung himself in his cell. But the Lanes wanted people to think he’d been murdered.
They can’t have a suicide mar their name. ”
“Wait,” Mitch said, his brows drawing together as he tried to piece everything together. “How are the Lanes and the Whittakers connected? I didn’t realize they were.”
“Bradley Lane’s mother is Judge Whittaker’s younger sister,” Ray said.
Mitch’s eyebrows shot up, and he heard Lori hiss in shock beside him.
“So you’re telling me,” Lori said slowly, her voice choked, “that Clayton Whittaker killed his own cousin in cold blood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ray confirmed. “I told you the man had no soul.”