Page 12 of Liberating Mallory

Susan gasped loudly and looked over at the sheriff for confirmation. She deflated into the cushions of the seat when he nodded his head at her questioning look. Looking back at the small group, looking defeated at what she’d just learned.

“I never knew that. He kept telling me that he missed her so much and that he couldn’t function without her. He just didn’t understand why he wasn’t good enough for her. What did I do?” Susan asked, tears forming in her eyes.

Pratt got up from her seat, waddled over to where Susan was sitting and squatted down the best that she could. Placing her hand on Susan’s hand, “It’s nothing you did, Mrs. Hart. You did what any normal mom would have done. You saw a young man who led you to believe he was in love with your daughter and desperately wanted things to work out. He played you and your husband. That’s on him, not you.”

“I told him where she was when she lived in Jacksonville, NC and when she had moved to San Diego. She moved and wouldn’t give me her new address. Made us talk to her through emails or send her things to the base.” Susan started sobbing into her husband’s chest.

“She didn’t cut contact with you though.” Sgt. Brocard reminded the mother. “She only did what she did to protect herself because she knew Kevin was playing you and your husband. You wanted your daughter home, safe and sound, and she wanted to be a Marine. She never hated you nor was she angry with you. She never spoke ill of you. Mallory loves you both tremendously. Help us find Mallory. Talk to us about her visits home. Things she did, who she would go to see. How often did Kevin come around or call while she was here? Anything, no matter how small can help us find her.”

“You don’t think he would hurt our daughter, do you?” Charles asked, rubbing his wife’s back, comforting her.

“I’m sorry, I can’t lie to you, but yes, I do think he would. He’s angry because she rejected him. She left him for the Marine Corps and has a new man in her life. I know no parent wants to hear this, but after being kidnapped by Greenly, Mallory had a hard time reconnecting with Kevin. He wanted to go to the next step, kept pushing for them to have sex and she couldn’t due to nightmares from the kidnapping. Even after she met Opie, it was a while before they were even intimate. Opie knew about the kidnapping and what some of her fears were. He helped her overcome them with the training she went through, even working out with her, camping with her, showing her how to survive in the woods or anywhere, really. That’s how their bond grew. Opie isn’t the only one who trained her. Her teammates knew what happened and rallied around her when her insomnia kicked in. Her teammates are her brothers.” Pratt told the three, making sure to keep her mother’s attention.

“From what we were able to gather from Greenly, Kevin complained to him about that. Blamed Greenly for what happened between them. Yet, Kevin went in to visit him several times and put money on his books.” Sgt. Brocard added on to Pratt’s statement.

“Do you know anything about his roommate?” Abbott asked the parents.

“Roommate?” The sheriff asked, confusion in his voice.

“What roommate?” Susan asked, confused, looking between her husband and the sheriff.

Pratt and Sgt. Brocard looked over at Carter for assistance on what information to provide. Carter looked at the women and nodded, indicating he would take over from there.

“Intelligence has Kevin living with a man named Jenkins. Jenkins has a shady past which we are still digging into. Jenkins is connected to a man named Hussien. Hussien has terrorist ties.”

“Son of a bitch!” The sheriff exploded, running his hands over his face. “Explains a few things now. I just put it down as a concerned ex who was still trying to get his girl back.”

“What do you mean?” Abbott asked, leaning forward.

“Kevin showed up at the accident site, offering to help with the search. Claimed Susan told him about the accident and that Mallory was missing. I thought it was odd, I never told Susan where the accident was. I just figured Charlie had told them.”

Susan looked over at the sheriff, shock on her face. “I just told him that she was in an accident. At the time, I didn’t know she was missing or even where the accident was.”

Pratt and Sgt. Brocard looked at each other after hearing the news of Kevin showing up at the accident site. Sgt. Brocard pulled her phone out and called one of the teammates at the accident site, stepping out of the house.

8

Raso hung up her phone and looked over at Cortez, “Let the rest of the team know to be careful. Turns out Kevin was here at the crime scene with a friend, possibly Jenkins. They had the sheriff thinking that the mother told them where the accident was. The mother only told him that Mallory was in an accident, not where since no one had told her where the site was.”

“Fuck! Has anyone seen him since then?” Cortez asked, scanning the area where the others were looking around.

“Nope. That’s a little telling to me if you want to know the truth.” Raso quipped as she watched the group gather around the two women.

“What’s wrong?” Diesel asked, looking between her two teammates.

“Sarge just called. Everyone needs to be on the look-out for anything out of the ordinary.” Cortez relayed everything that was just found out to the rest of the group.

“Son-of-a-bitch! He did this!” Opie ground out through clenched teeth.

“We know, Opie. We’re going to nail him. We just have to find the proof.” Raso advised Opie and the rest of the group.

“Going to be kind of hard with that if they were here.” Jordyn said, being the voice of reason. “They could have been here looking to make sure nothing ties them to the accident.”

“True. But Mallory is trained in ways these two were not. She would have left something behind they wouldn’t have thought twice about, yet we would. Span out. Taz, you’re with Knight. Jordyn, you’re with Opie. You four have the most training when it comes to looking at stuff like this, due to military training, or whatever you are, Jordyn. Diesel and I will stay here and look around the truck to see if we can’t spot something. We’ll also be looking at the truck since they considered this an accident. The tow truck couldn’t get here until this afternoon for whatever reason, so luck is on our side.”

The group separated, Jordyn and Opie heading towards the wooded forest area that had a hillside going up towards the mountain top. Cortez and Knight followed Jordyn and Opie but took off in the area across from where the truck was found. Raso and Diesel stuck with Mallory’s truck and the surrounding area around it.

Neither woman spoke for a while, looking at their surroundings, checking for anything that seemed out of place while they walked. Both women in the zone knowing how important this was, a life was desperately on the line.

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