Page 86 of Jon's Helter Skelter Cold Case

“Of course you are. You’re my daughter. Where are you, Tye?We’ll come get you right now.”

“I…” She cast about, then looked at me askance. “I have no idea where I am.”

“Put it on speaker,” I encouraged her.

She promptly did so, leaving the phone in the palm of her hand.

“Hi, Mrs. Evans.”

“Donovan Havili, I could kiss you for finding my little girl.”

“I don’t think Jon would mind too much.” I laughed. “She really is okay. We’re dead center of Atlanta, at the abandoned old Prison Farm. I’ll text you the address in a minute. If you’d like, you can join us down here at the hotel we’re in. It’s a long drive for you guys, after all.”

“Sounds marvelous, let’s do that. Tye, what can I bring you?”

“My family, to start. But please, Mama, bring me fresh clothes? I’m deathly sick of everything here. And I’m dying to have my phone back.”

“We didn’t get rid of a single thing of yours, don’t worry. We’ll pack up and be gone within an hour. Donovan, you shoot me the address for the hotel, and I’ll make arrangements to have a room there. And let’s all have breakfast together in the morning.”

“Yes, ma’am. That sounds wonderful. If you want, you can keep talking to Tye for a while. I’ve got to check in with Jon.”

“I don’t want to get off the phone just yet. Tye, let me tell you all that happened while you were gone.”

“Yes, please! And tell me Dwayne’s okay. I know our bond tearing apart like that had to hurt.”

“Oh, baby, that’s sadly not even the worst of it.”

“Oh, Dwayne’s calling! Hold on, I’m adding him to the call.”

I wasn’t surprised Dwayne was calling. I was sure he’d felt the bond snap back into place, what that meant, and called meimmediately. Fortunately, he got to speak to the person he really wanted. The thought made me grin.

I walked away and let them talk. Tylesia had been in an information blackout for months. Just wait until she learned all that had happened to her brother. Her anger would turn apocalyptic after, I had no doubt. She might try to kill Chad herself, and who could blame her? He must have been quite graphic in his description of how much her brother suffered with their bond ‘broken,’ although why he’d done that, I did not know. It certainly didn’t help his case.

I trotted over to Jon, who turned to welcome me with a smile. He was proud of himself, as he should be, because he had unraveled one hell of a cold case. This one was going into the history books for sure.

“Tye talking to parents?” Jon guessed.

“Yup, her mom and Dwayne. They’re going to come down here and fetch her home again.”

“I do not blame them. I’d do the same.” Jon nodded, satisfied. “We did good here, babe.”

“We did super good. You going into interrogation tonight?”

“Yeah. I’m too curious to not get some answers, and I want this all on record before leaving.”

“Fair enough. Let’s hear what the asshole has to say for himself.”

Jon grimaced while looking around. “Whatever it is, he’s not going to be able to justifythis.”

I snorted. “No. No, that he will not.”

30

The FBI did not slack off when they had their suspect in custody. A female agent escorted Tylesia into the women’s locker room so she could get a shower, borrow some clothes, and basically wash off the stink of captivity. They had to get her statement, of course, and run her through a basic eval and checkup before they could let her go home. Tylesia was all for writing out her statement and eagerly went where directed.

Me? Well, I got to go to ye old faithful interrogation room. Marc took point, sitting next to me at the interrogation table, with Chad sitting across from me.

The room was a standard ten by ten with commercial carpet and white walls, nothing in it but a table and chairs. Chad slouched there, eyes on the Formica top, a listless air to him. He looked apathetic on the surface, but his lines told a different story. The deep ultramarine blue of grief hung upon him like a dark cloud, all mixed in with the hot red of anger and the emerald green of fear.

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