Dying to Tell (45 page)

Rage, grief, anger, and a deep sadness engulfed Jake. The two people he’d loved most had lied to him, had kept secrets from him for years.

But he could not condone what his father had done.

Or let him continue killing to cover it up.

He yanked his phone from his belt and punched in Nick’s number.

“I’m in the parking lot now,” Nick said.

Jake told him where to come, and within minutes, Nick descended the stairs. When he saw his father lying on the floor, Nick stared at him with shock and disgust.

“It looks like you were right about our father,” Jake said, his voice low, calm, nothing like he felt inside. “He’s a cold-hearted bastard.”

His father glared at him. “You’ll regret this, Jake.”

Jake shook his head. “No, you will.”

Nick walked over and yanked him up.

“I’m bleeding,” his father said. “Come on, Nick, Jake. You’re my sons.”

“You died a long time ago,” Nick said.

Jake glanced at Sadie, and emotions bombarded him. She looked small, pale, trapped. At the thought that his father had tied her down and was going to kill her so ruthlessly, fury rose inside him.

He strode to her and began unfastening her bindings, but he couldn’t look at her face. Hurt at her secrecy still welled inside him, yet shame filled him at what his father had done to her family. He’d watched her sister being tortured, destroying her life, killing her grandfather.

How could she ever forgive him—how could she get past that?

Sirens wailed outside as he helped her to sit up. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, although she swayed slightly, and her eyes looked weak.

“Sadie?”

“I’m fine,” Sadie said. “I just want out of this place.” She leaned on him for support. “How did you find me?”

“Your sister,” Jake said, still unable to believe the turn of events. “She came to the studio. It was almost as if she knew you were in trouble.”

“Where is she now?”

“With Ms. Lettie.”

Sadie’s nails dug into his arms, her voice panicked. “I think Dr. Tynsdale may have been drugging her all this time to keep her from talking.”

Jake walked over and jerked his father’s arm. “Was Tynsdale working with you?”

His father stared at him with cold eyes. “I want a lawyer.”

Dammit.

“Jake, what if he tries to kill Amelia?”

“We’ll stop him,” Jake said.

“Go on,” Nick said in a lethally calm tone. “I’ll take care of him.”

Jake nodded, then took Sadie’s arm and headed toward the stairs.

Sadie held on to Jake as they hurried up the stairs, then down the hall to the outside door. Her legs felt rubbery as they walked to his car, but she had to make them work. She had to get to her sister.

She sank into the seat, her vision blurring. What if Dr. Tynsdale had found Amelia? Ms. Lettie was there, too. Would he hurt her?

Jake’s cell phone buzzed, and he clicked to connect. “Waterstone?”

Sadie clutched at the door handle as he pressed the accelerator, sped away from the sanitarium, and careened around the mountain.

“Amelia, yes, I know where she is, I’m on my way. Meet me there.”

“What’s going on?” Sadie asked as he hung up.

“Waterstone got a call about a break-in at the high school earlier. Your sister was hiding out there, and she cold-cocked him. That’s when she came to the studio and told me where you might be.”

Nervous laughter bubbled in Sadie’s throat. “Amelia told you where to find me?”

Jake nodded. “She sounded amazingly lucid, for what she’s been through.”

“The time she’s been out of the hospital without her medication must be good for her.”

Jake punched the doctor’s number. It rang several times, then Jake shook his head. “No answer.”

“Give me the phone, and I’ll try the studio. Maybe Ms. Lettie will answer.”

Jake handed it to her and she called her home number. It rang five times, then rolled to voice mail.

“Amelia, Ms. Lettie, we’re on our way,” Sadie said. “Be careful. Don’t trust Dr. Tynsdale.”

As she ended the call, her nerves screamed that Amelia was in danger.

Sleet pelted them as Jake wound down the mountain, and he swung onto the road to her old home. The fact that it was gone along with her grandfather sent another wave of sorrow and loss through her.

But it intensified her need to save the only family she had left.

The car bumped over the potholes and ridges, skidding twice on the black ice, but finally they made it to the guesthouse. The ashes of the farmhouse looked wet and sad as Jake parked. Dr.
Tynsdale’s car was parked to the side, Ms. Lettie’s station wagon by the house.

Sadie flung open the door and staggered up to the front, but Jake caught her arm before she entered. “Wait—if Tynsdale was helping my father, we have to be careful.”

Sadie nodded, and he eased open the door. Just as he did, Amelia’s cries echoed from the house. The lights were dim, and Sadie peeked over Jake’s shoulder, terrified.

Jake drew his gun and inched inside. The front room of the studio was empty, but Sadie could hear Amelia’s voice.

“Please stop,” Amelia cried. “Don’t do this to me anymore. I told Jake—he’ll tell Sadie. They’ll help me now.”

Jake shoved the door open with his shoulder, and Sadie gasped when she spotted Dr. Tynsdale on the floor, unconscious.

God help them. It wasn’t Tynsdale who’d been drugging Amelia.

It was Ms. Lettie.

Ms. Lettie stood with a gun aimed at Amelia.

“She killed Dr. Tynsdale,” Amelia cried. “She’s trying to kill me, too, and make it look like I murdered him.”

At one time Jake wouldn’t have believed her, but she had seemed more lucid earlier, and she had led him straight to Sadie.

And now he knew the truth. His father had tortured her and killed her grandfather. And he was responsible for so many deaths.

“Put down the gun, Ms. Lettie,” Jake said calmly.

“No, I have to take care of her,” Ms. Lettie said, a crazed look in her eyes. “That’s my job. I’ve been doing it for years.”

“You’ve been keeping her drugged so she wouldn’t remember the truth about what happened at the sanitarium,” Sadie said.
“You worked there. You helped Blackwood and those doctors, didn’t you?”

Ms. Lettie’s hand trembled. “You don’t understand. They were just following orders. We
all
were.”

Sadie glared at her. “Your orders involved torturing children.”

“It was an experiment,” Ms. Lettie said vehemently. “One that went all wrong, but we tried to help the ones who survived. That was the reason we admitted Amelia to the hospital, and I came to take care of her.”

Jake inched forward. “You took advantage of innocent children and families. Instead of helping them, you lied to them, used them, then drugged them to keep your evil experiments from being exposed.” Jake’s fingers tightened around his gun. “But it’s over, Ms. Lettie. Now put down that gun.”

Ms. Lettie gave Sadie an imploring look, then tried to run. Jake caught her as she vaulted for the door to escape, then flipped her around, knocked the gun from her hand, and laid it on the nightstand. Then he handcuffed her, just as he had his father.

A second later, he rushed to Dr. Tynsdale and checked his pulse. “He’s alive,” Jake said, then quickly called an ambulance.

Sadie ran to Amelia, dropped down on the bed, and hugged her. “It’s okay now, Sis. It’s all over.”

Amelia burst into tears. “I’ve been fighting the voices,” she said. “They tried to take me over, Sadie, but I’ve been fighting them.”

Sadie stroked Amelia’s hair, pushing it behind her ear. “Good for you, Amelia—keep fighting. Maybe without all those narcotics Ms. Lettie gave you, you can finally get well.”

Amelia held her so tightly that Sadie remembered when they were kids, holding on to each other when their grandmother died.

She didn’t know if her sister could overcome the trauma she’d suffered from the experiment or if she’d been permanently
damaged. But she vowed to do everything possible this time to make sure she received the proper treatment.

Maybe there was a chance that Amelia could have a normal life.

Maybe they both could.

Even if she had to live hers without Jake.

Jake couldn’t bear to look at Sadie, not after his father had destroyed her family.

But questions nagged him. Ms. Lettie and his father had both implied there was someone bigger behind the experiments.

Maybe now that they’d been arrested, he or Ms. Lettie would fill in the details.

A siren wailed, lights flashing as the ambulance rolled down the drive. He met the paramedics at the door and ushered them over to the doctor. Tynsdale was unconscious, but hopefully he would make it.

If not, it would be another murder on his father’s head.

Ms. Lettie glared at him from the corner, where he’d handcuffed her to the door. It was almost unbelievable that the sweet lady they’d all trusted, the woman Sadie had considered family, had been a part of this deception.

He phoned Nick, asking him to meet him at the jail. Then he turned to Sadie and Amelia.

“Considering the circumstances, I’m going to suggest to the DA that she drop the charges against both of you.”

Sadie still looked pale from her earlier ordeal, but she squared her shoulders. “Thank you, Jake.”

“I’m just doing my job.” Still, emotions warred in his head. Sadie had taken care of her sister when she was young, and then run because she’d shot his father to protect Amelia.

If she’d confided the truth back then, what would he have done?

Would he have believed her?

Even knowing the truth now, it was hard to forgive her for leaving him in the dark.

The medics loaded Tynsdale and carried the stretcher out to the ambulance. Ms. Lettie made a low sound in her throat, as if she just realized the depth of the trouble she was in.

Jake took one last look at Sadie and her sister, then had to look away. Maybe he could forgive her for betraying him; after all, she’d acted in self-defense.

But shame filled him. How could she forget the pain and loss his father had caused her and her family?

She couldn’t. It would always stand between them.

He had to finish the case—question his father and find out who else was involved in the experiment.

He unfastened Ms. Lettie from the door and hauled her to the squad car.

He had a daughter at home he needed to take care of. She was his life.

And he had done his job. Sadie knew the truth about her grandfather’s death, and she and Amelia were safe now.

But he and Sadie were over.