Page 51 of Condor’s Vow

“My feeling is he isn’t our killer, but he knows who it is.”

“I agree.” Clay spun to look at Lyric. “Any idea on how to break him?”

“The wife. He still loves her.”

Clay nodded. “Let’s do it.”

He and Lyric walked back in and resumed the places they had before. He opened a folder and showed images of the crime scenes to Malone who visibly recoiled.

“These are the crime scenes of the people who were killed for supposedly not helping your family. My guess is that as your ex-wife was the one driving, she’s also on this killer’s list.”

Malone seemed to go white, sweat breaking out on his temples.

“Now, we can help her by putting her in protective custody, but you have to help us first.”

“If I do, you’ll protect her?”

“I can’t promise, but we’ll certainly try.”

Clay knew they had him when Malone met his eyes.

“It started in college. There were three of us. Me, Steph, and Patrick. We hung out together, roomed together eventually, and it worked. Patrick and I were both studying to be vets, and Steph was taking animal science. Then Steph and I got together, and things became weird. Patrick was jealous, said he felt left out. He moved out, but we remained friends, and things went back to normal.”

“Go on.”

“Steph and I got married and began trying for a family. It put a strain on us month after month when nothing happened. Eventually, we talked about tests, and we found out I have a low sperm count and what I do have aren’t any good. We were devastated, but we knew we wanted a family, so we decided on a sperm donor. Before we could use one though, Steph got pregnant. We thought it was a miracle. I was so happy and when it happened again, and we had our son, it was like our life was complete.”

“But it wasn’t a miracle, was it?” Clay leaned forward, knowing they had what they needed.

“No, Steph had been seeing Patrick behind my back, and the kids were his. He showed up one day and told me, and I could suddenly see what was in front of me. I couldn’t take it and walked away.”

“Did Stephanie stay with him?”

“No, she didn’t love him, but enjoyed the attention and knew he could give her what I couldn’t.”

“What’s his surname?”

“Wood. Patrick Wood. He owns Westlands Veterinary Clinic.”

Clay felt his blood go cold at the words. He stood, his chair tipping back and rushed from the room, leaving Lyric to finish up. Hitting dial, he tried calling Hattie and swore when it went to voicemail. He dialed again, and the same thing happened. He called the house which rang and rang.

He wrangled his mind from every awful scenario it was trying to force on him and tried to focus. Just because she knew him, didn’t mean he had her but in his gut, he knew that was a lie. He could feel it as if it was a knife in the heart.

He was about to call Martin when the phone in his hand rang, and he saw Martin’s name come up.

“Martin, where is Hattie?”

“He took her. I should have stopped him, but he took her.”

Clay felt the walls closing in around him and vaguely felt the eyes of his team on him as they moved in closer.

“Patrick Wood?”

“Yes, he ran over the dog and took her.”

“How long ago?” Clay walked up to Omega and pointed to his phone, knowing his friend would understand he wanted him to trace Hattie’s phone. He nodded silently and got to work.

“Maybe fifteen minutes. He knocked me out.”