Page 88 of Jon's Helter Skelter Cold Case

“Yeah, it was pretty obvious the evidence was all fake. You were keeping up with the trial?”

“I had Google alerts for it. Just in case. By that point, I was really losing hope. Tye still wouldn’t talk to me.” Chad’s grief came surging back, burying his anger for a moment. “No matter how much attention I paid her, no matter what I said or did, she just spewed hate. I didn’t deserve the hate. I took really good care of her.”

The delulu was strong with this one. It was actually alarming how deluded he was, how hardcore he believed what he was saying. Marc caught onto it too, and he shot me a look likeIs this guy nuts?

Yes, but no. He was absolutely off his rocker, no question, but he knew what he had done. There was no excusing his actions.

I had to establish that in this interview. It was half the reason why I’d wanted to sit in on this. That and my desire to wrap it all up.

“Chad. You do realize that kidnapping her was the wrong thing to do?”

He nodded, still heartbroken. “At the time, it seemed like the only option. I knew she’d be mad, but I was so sure she’d forgive me, too.”

It was hard, but I didn’t roll my eyes. “You also realize you should have released her right away and set the record straight?”

“I…couldn’t.” Chad’s tears started back up, and he was almost pleading with us. “I needed more time. I just…I just needed more time. Don’t you see? She would have forgiven me.”

Marc had apparently had enough. “Sir. Do you not realize who Jonathan Bane is?”

“He’s…a psychic. I know that. A Reader, I think?”

“Do you understand what that means?”

Chad shook his head uncertainly. “I know he can tell truth from lies.”

“I can do far more than that.” Time for a dose of reality. I wanted him to be fully aware of how badly he’d screwed up as he rotted in prison for the next fifty years. “I can read everything about you. How you’re originally from eastern Tennessee and the golden child of your aged parents. How obsessed you are with Tylesia even now. You rejected being a licensed psychic because you didn’t want to work for the government and your parents were outraged. You cut contact with them because of it.”

Chad went abruptly still. “No one…no one knows that.”

I tapped the corner of my eye with the tip of my finger. “I can see it all. Understand this, Chad. Tylesia wasn’t ever going to forgive you. She might have been indifferent to you before, but she hates your guts now. If we handed her a weapon and carte blanche, she’d murder you with a smile. No amount of time would overcome that.”

“You’re…you’re lying.” His face drained to a corpse-grey color. “Please tell me you’re lying.”

“You took an anchor from her psychic,” I responded quietly. “There’s an amazing love there. A loyalty and fierce protectiveness that can’t ever be erased, which is really why you wanted her so badly. Because you wanted her to beyouranchor.”

Man looked ready to pass out. “Did she tell you that?”

“She didn’t need to. I can see it all in a glance.”

“I just…I just needed her. I needed her so much more than he did.”

Ah, and the truth finally came out. His obsession with her, his conviction of how much he needed her—it all made sense now. I’d shake my head at his stupidity, but I was too angry on behalf of the entire Evans family. I really wanted to take a clue bat and smack him a few times instead.

Chad’s head dropped. “And now I’ll never see her again.”

“Count yourself lucky,” Marc advised. “I think she’d murder you if she ever saw you again. Jon, anything else?”

“Naw, I have nothing else to ask him.”

I stood and left the room, leaving Chad behind. I’d definitely see him again in a courtroom setting. I’d have to testify to make sure this man was put behind bars. Did it make me a bad person if I was looking forward to it?

I checked my own lines. Naw, I was good.

Marc had more things to wrap up, so I left him to it. He didn’t need me for the rest of this. I met up with people in the hallway. Donovan put his phone away in his pocket as I came out. Gonzalez looked absolutely done. Just done.

“I cannot believe one man’s obsession caused all of this. So much unnecessary pain, time, money—all because he was set on having something he couldn’t. I really hate humanity some days.” Gonzalez glanced past us toward the closed door. “At least this will be an open-and-shut case.”

“Oh, for sure,” I agreed. “Too much evidence and witness testimony for him to skate around this. If he doesn’t get life, I’ll be surprised.”

---