“Not at the time, no,” he conceded.
“Then why the hell would you suspect him now? He’s locked up in a secure facility.”
“We suspect he may have an accomplice,” he said.
“An accomplice?” she repeated. “Chief, you are trying my patience.”
“When was the last time you saw your father?”
“I haven’t seen or spoken to him in twenty years,” she answered tightly.
“Now that’s not exactly true, is it?” Walcott’s mouth curved and he pulled a piece of paper from the manila folder in front of him.
“What’s that?” Olivia’s stomach rolled with nausea.
“A copy of the visitors’ log for Morley Ridge State Psychiatric Facility.”
Olivia clamped her lips shut and stared at the man in front of her, her expression unreadable.
“Your name appears on that list on the twenty-seventh of October.” His eyes flared at the idea of having caught her in a lie. “That was the day you arrived back in Mercy, was it not?”
“Time’s up, Chief.” She moved to stand, but he held out his hand to stop her.
“We’re done when I say we’re done, Ms. West. Now sit back down.”
“I don’t think so, and I’m not prepared to answer any more questions without my lawyer present.”
“I thought you said you had nothing to hide.” Walcott’s expression was a little too smug for her liking.
There was absolutely no point in trying to defend herself to this man. He was looking at her for murder, and nothing she said was going to convince him otherwise. “I’m done trying to reason with you, Chief Walcott. You want answers? I suggest you take a trip out to Morley Ridge and ask my father yourself.”
Hi brow quirked. “I would if he was there.”
“What?” She swallowed hard. Her stomach dropped and her heart began to beat erratically. “What do you mean he’s not there? Where have they moved him to?”
“He wasn’t transferred.” He carefully watched her reaction. “He escaped yesterday morning.”
“You’re lying,” she whispered, her mouth dry.
His smile was cold as he flipped open the laptop and tapped a few keys before spinning it around to face her. Every muscle in Olivia’s body froze when, against her will, her eyes fell upon the face of the one man she had tried so hard to forget.
She was obviously looking through the lens of a security camera. Her father was sitting in a room, not unlike the one she was in now, except he was chained to his seat and wore a very unflattering but clean orange jumpsuit. He looked just the same as she remembered, and an intense jolt of grief seared through her. How was it possible to both hate and love someone at the same time?
In that moment, she didn’t see a murderer. She saw the father she had adored as a child. He’d barely aged at all, except for the graying hair at his temples. Charles Connell had always been a handsome man, and although it shouldn’t have been possible, he was now even better looking.
She continued to watch but when another man entered his room, her breath involuntarily caught in her throat. She recognized the man with the young-looking face and white hair. It was the man she had seen outside the pub the night Adam was abducted, the same man she was now sure had been following her around town.
“What is it?” the chief demanded, no doubt noting her shocked expression, but she continued to ignore him, her attention firmly fixed on the scene unfolding on the screen before her.
She watched in horror as the two men stood and walked straight out of the door. The security feed switched and picked them up on the cameras mounted in the corridor, then the main entrance. There were bodies everywhere, slumped to the ground. The men strolled out the front door before getting into an expensive car and driving off.
Her father had escaped, and he’d had someone watching her. Her heart beat wildly in her chest and her lungs constricted. She couldn’t breathe. A buzzing began in her ears and then became a roar as she stumbled to her feet, her vision graying at the edges.
“I need to get out of here,” she whispered harshly.
In her haste, she tripped and fell against Deputy Hanson. The chief simply sat and watched her with a cool detachment.
“I need to get out of here,” she repeated and struggled to pull herself free of the tight grip Deputy Hanson had on her arms.
