Page 56 of Crossing Lines

The EMT’s diagnosis had been spot-on, and luckily, Doc Gruber could operate right away. Sam stayed until Lucy was out of the operation and waking up.

“You did good, girl.” Sam petted her head, and Lucy’s tail swished. She looked up with glassy eyes.

“She’s going to need a while to recover. I want to keep her overnight, but you can pick her up tomorrow.”

Doc Gruber ushered Sam out of the examining room, and he reluctantly went back to the station.

“How’s Lucy?” Reese asked before he even got all the way through the door.

“Mew!” Major, who was sitting on the corner of Reese’s desk, mirrored the receptionist’s questioning look as his eyes darted to Lucy level as if looking for the dog. Did the cat miss Lucy, or was he glad Sam had shown up without her? Hard to tell.

“She’s going to be fine. Doc Gruber is keeping her overnight, and she’ll have to take it easy for a while afterwards.”

Sam contemplated petting the cat but then thought better of it. Major and Reese followed him into the squad room.

“Where’s Jo?” Sam hoped she hadn’t been hurt worse than she’d let on.

“I forced her to get checked out at the hospital. She should be back soon,” Wyatt said. “Did I hear you say Lucy was okay?”

“She’s fine. I’ll pick her up tomorrow.” Sam noticed Major skulking around the room, looking behind desks and cabinets. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say Major might miss Lucy.”

Jo rushed in. “Is Lucy okay?”

“Yes.” Sam turned to Jo. She looked a little pale and was rubbing her shoulder but otherwise seemed okay. “She broke her leg, but Doc says she’ll make a full recovery. How about you?”

“Fully recovered already.” Jo grimaced. “Except for the giant bruise and sore spot.” Jo pointed to the spot where the bullet had hit her.

“Good thing we wear vests,” Sam said. Everyone nodded, knowing that if Jo hadn’t been wearing a vest, she wouldn’t be standing there right now. In fact, she might not have even been alive.

“I popped in to check on Vicky while I was at the hospital.” Jo took a seat behind her desk. “She was awake and identified Bascomb as her abductor.”

“Bev Hatch got Bascomb to confess to everything pretty easily,” Wyatt said. He’d taken Bascomb to the sheriff’s office, which was where they held the dangerous criminals awaiting charges.

“Forensics is trying to match the hair found on Kirsten Stillwell to Bascomb and the photo of the tire tracks from the abduction site to the tires on his van.”

“He confessed to everything?” Jo frowned. “You mean to killing Kirsten and abducting Vicky?”

“And the girls that were murdered five years ago,” Wyatt said.

Jo’s brows shot up. “He did kill them? Did he mention an accomplice?”

“No, thankfully.”

Jo blew out a breath. “I was afraid of that. What Robert and Charles were saying at the cabin was a bit confusing, but clearly one of them was involved in the current murders. I was still holding out hope that Thorne was involved in the others, too, though.”

Wyatt shook his head. “’Fraid not. At least not from what I heard. Maybe Bev will get more out of him.”

“I hope he was involved.” Reese’s blue eyes shone with anger. “Otherwise, we’ll have to drop the murder charges, and the only thing holding him inside are the drug charges. He deserves to be in there for a long time, but without the murder charges, I think he’ll get out pretty quick.”

“Especially with a wrongful-arrest suit pending,” Jo said.

“Unfortunately, Robert confessed something to Bev, too,” Wyatt said. “He once idolized his uncle and was a witness to the murders five years ago. He said he followed him one night after golf to an old cabin and witnessed him burying one of the girls.”

“That’s sick. Are we sure he didn’t help out? Maybe he’s trying to pretend he only watched for a lesser sentence,” Jo said.

Wyatt shook his head. “Bascomb says he never saw Robert. He wasn’t involved. It was all Bascomb. He actually seemed rather proud of it at the end.”

Reese folded her arms over her chest. “Well, that stinks. Now Thorne will be out free. That drug charge isn’t enough to keep him in for long.”

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