“What the fuck do we know so far?” I demanded, going to Brutus.
Everyone circled my desk. Thankfully, none of my family had even tried to utter the wordscalm downto me. In my state, I’m not sure exactly how I would’ve reacted but it wouldn’t have been too friendly, I know that for sure.
“Daniel’s at the hospital. Still hasn’t woken up, but the blood sample we took from him shows he was injected with some type of anesthesia.”
I shook my head. “I don’t give afuckabout Daniel. Where the hell is my wife?” I demanded, pounding my desk, staring at Brutus.
He didn’t flinch. “We’re close to getting the footage from the library’s camera. Moira’s already told you Patience was there because she called her in. You believe she wasn’t involved in this?” His green eyes narrowed on me.
I’d had Moira brought to the house upon learning that Patience was last seen at the library. When Brutus spoke with her at the library, she’d said she called Patience in to help with a party because they were short staffed. I demanded he bring her to me, so I could look her in the eye to gauge whether she was telling the truth.
She was.
The background check I’d run on her and all the library staff months ago had come back clean. But the concern and the fear in her eyes told me if she had known something she would’ve spilled it. She’d said Patience had prepared to leave the library around twelve-thirty to make it to the children’s school and pick them up on time. Which was why she wasn’t concerned when she hadn’t seen Patience at the end of the party.
I ran a hand through my hair. “She’s telling the truth,” I answered Brutus. “She was attacked.” I stood up, staring Brutus in the eye. I felt the eyes of my brothers and my father land on me. I’d already informed Brutus of what happened to Patience while she was pregnant, back in Oakland. “I want the full police report. Any and all information.” I knew that was somehow connected to her disappearance. I could feel it.
“What do you mean she was attacked?” My father approached my desk, his brown eyes hard.
I glanced around at Carter and Joshua, both of whom had a cold look in their eyes.
“A few months after she moved to Oakland…she was eight months pregnant.”
“Fuck!”
“Shit!”
Joshua and Carter cursed in unison. The hard edge in my father’s eyes increased as I recounted the story that she’d told me. I’d had our security increased and been trying for weeks to get the police records on the attack.
“Police say a guy named Ramirez was the culprit. He was arrested for a number of other break-ins and rapes in the city at the time,” Brutus informed us.
“It wasn’t him.” I shook my head.
“How do you know?’ Carter stepped up, asking.
“Patience…” I paused, blowing out a breath, my heart squeezing in my chest as the vision of the terror in her eyes as she recounted the night of the attack, to me. “She tried to convince herself the police were right, but it rang hollow when she said it out loud. The fear in her eyes–” I had to stop talking again when a wave of anger rolled through my body, nearly choking me. “She didn’t believe it was Ramirez. We need those damn records now!”
“Office is sending them over. Just got word,” Brutus answered swiftly. Within a second his phone was buzzing, informing him that the records had been sent to his email.
I brought his email up on the flatscreen that hung across from my desk on the wall. The first document in the file showed an image of Rafael Ramirez. He was thirty-two years old, making him around twenty-six at the time of the attack. I shook my head. I knew it wasn’t him. Something in me was telling me this wasn’t the guy.
“He was never charged with the attack on Patience. Police say it’s because there wasn’t enough evidence in her case. She never got a look at the guy, there were no fingerprints, and the only DNA found at the scene was hers.”
My hands fisted at my sides as Brutus continued.DNA.Her blood at the scene. That’s what the police found.
“But he also had an alibi for that night. He claimed he was at a bar with friends the night of the attack. Two friends corroborated his story, along with the bartender. Police said because the bartender was also his cousin he’d lie for Ramirez.”
“It wasn’t him,” I stated firmly. We didn’t need to be looking at this piece of shit anymore. “Get him off my screen,” I demanded. “What else was at the scene?”
Brutus clicked on the other files he was sent until images of the crime scene appeared. A hush filled the room as we stared at the crumpled blankets and sheets on a queen-sized bed. Air flew from my lungs when I recognized the same floral sheets I’d spent many a night with Patience in, in her bedroom in her Williamsport apartment. The sheets were also stained with blood. There were also drops of blood evident on the hardwood floor. It was obvious there’d been a fight in that room. Patience had fought not only for her life, but for those of our unborn children.
“Take that down!” I heard Carter bark to Brutus before moving to stand in front of me, blocking my line of sight.
My eyes moved to meet his, then my father’s who stood to his left, and finally landing on Joshua’s darkened gaze, to Carter’s right. “I’m. Going. To. Fucking. Kill. Him,” I seethed through gritted teeth.
Carter nodded. “I know. We’ll be there to help. But we need to get her back first.”
“She’s a fighter,” Josh said. He nodded to the now blank screen that’d previously held those images that had me seeing red. “She fought to stay alive. She’ll do the same this time around. She knows you’ll find her,” he reassured.
