Page 67 of Captive Heart

This man had a wide face and cold, mean eyes. He was broad and paunchy, and he had the look of a stereotypical thug.

A shudder rippled down Micah's spine. This was the man who had Melody. He just knew it.

"So how does all this tie in then?" he asked impatiently.

Jason Scott resumed the account. "We have established that Thomas Sutton is the man that Melody referred to as 'Daddy'. This is supported by the fact that Melody told Detective Storer, herself, that the man she went to live with when she left foster care had initially introduced himself as Thomas. This also appears to be true in more than the sense of the Daddy/little relationship that Sutton pursued with Melody. A bit more digging through the records has turned up legal documents showing that he officially adopted her and named her as his next of kin."

"So where does Vinny Sutton come into this? Is he another family member?" Micah demanded.

Detective Scott huffed out a breath. "That's where things get a bit hazy," he admitted. "You see, Vinny Sutton doesn't officially exist."

"What do you mean?" interjected Logan. “If he doesn’t exist, how do you even know about him? The man was a lawyer to his core.

"What I mean is, we have anecdotal evidence that Vinny Sutton also aligned himself as Thomas' son, that he, too, adopted the man's surname, but we have no official records, no actual proof this is the case, although we are certain he habitually uses the name as his own."

"So where does this jerk live?" Micah wanted to know. "Why aren't we on our way there right now, instead of talking about it?"

"Because, unfortunately, that's where things get even more ambiguous," Andy Storer stated, shaking his close shaven head.

He put up another photo onto the screen, this time an expanded map of the local area with a large circle around it. "We have a number of possible addresses but nothing concrete," he explained. "We've been using this map to try to pinpoint the most plausible location Melody escaped from, given the details she gave us about how she came to be here and the landmarks she used along the way, to narrow down the list."

"Jesus," Micah exploded in frustration. "Can't the police just visit every damn address?"

"We could visit the addresses," Storer agreed. "But right now, we don't know for certain that it was Vinny Sutton who took her, and we can't go demanding access into random houses without justifiable cause."

"A vulnerable woman has been forcibly abducted!" Micah bellowed, fisting his hands into his long, wavy hair and pulling tight as he tried to maintain a modicum of control. "Surely, that's reason enough!" he claimed in disbelief.

"Except that he might not have anything to do with this," the disabled detective argued. "It might have been the guy she recognised from the club. In fact, there's more weight to that argument since he already tried to grab her once, and he was the one who saw her here."

Micah growled low in his throat and balled his hands into fists, his nails biting into his flesh as he fought to remain calm.

Jake came up next to him and patted him on the back reassuringly. "I know it's frustrating, man, but we'll crack this. Don't you worry."

Micah dragged in a shuddering breath, willing himself to keep a handle on his unravelling composure while his thoughts raced and he formulated the seeds of a plan in the back of his mind. Because, even if Andy Storer was right, and V or Vinny or whatever the heck his name was, wasn't the one who had taken her, the man would still be able to give them the identity of his old crony. And while the police might not be able to do so, Micah had absolutely no qualms whatsoever about finding a way to make the guy talk. It would be a little bit of payback for Melody.

He just needed to get hold of those addresses, because, once he had them, he could visit them himself and he'd know which was the right one from the description Melody had given on the day he found her.

He just needed to cool down, step back, and make himself a bit less prominent, so he could slip out as soon as the detectives revealed the information he needed.

Heading to the back of the room as if he were simply trying to walk off some of his frustrations, Micah paced slowly along the back wall near the door, his hands jammed in his pockets. When Andy started discussing locations and explaining how they'd used landmarks to narrow down the feasible distance which Melody might have covered, using information from Xavier about how fast she might have been able to walk, given her condition, Micah stopped behind his desk. It was opposite the bank of monitors everybody was scrutinising, so they all had their backs to him. As he placed his phone surreptitiously on the desktop, he tapped a couple of tabs to flick on the voice recorder app before he resumed his pacing.

Just a few more minutes, he told himself over and over as he willed himself to be patient… and he'd have all of the information he needed.

And then, Vinny Sutton was going to pay.

43

Melody had been drifting in and out of consciousness. Her brain was a bit fuzzy, but she was aware that she seemed to ache all over, especially her head.

She tried to move, to put a hand to her face, but she couldn't budge. When she squirmed around, it became apparent that her entire body was restrained… No, not restrained, she realised as a small amount of clarity trickled through her senses.

She opened her eyes tentatively, looking out through tiny slits at her surroundings. Swimming in front of her vision were thin blurry silver wires and the horrific reality hit her aching brain that she was, in fact, stuffed into the tiny cage that Master crammed her into when he was particularly displeased.

No, not Master! she thought, even though her mind was decidedly woolly. The brute was no longer her master, she had escaped.

But somehow, he’d managed to find her, to bring her back. The details were hazy, but she knew without a doubt that she had severed that link.

Melody closed her eyes as she tried to compose her thoughts and regain her strength, taking in every tiny bit of information that she could.

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