Page 84 of The Attercop

“Mother did that,” Tyler replied. “She has her sources. She told me where to go.”

Charlie nodded. “Well, we almost didn’t figure it out, but you madeonebig mistake—you dropped a single page of his file on the floor.”

Tyler tensed up.

Click-click-click-click.

Charlie continued. “And that led us to checking the computer and discovering that you had downloaded his session recordings.”

“But you didn’t knowwhohad taken them, did you?” Tyler snapped back.

“No,” Charlie returned. “Not at first, but you got careless at Bar-None when you beat up Angel. You left him for dead, but he didn’t die. And the CCTV cameras outside caught your image…or at least an image of you in disguise. And later, Angel was able to confirm that the man in the picture was the person who had beaten him.”

Tyler scowled. “I was so close to the two of you in the bar and you never suspected me. It was too public to take either of you down, but I had a score to settle with Angel. Sorry to hear he’s still alive. I guess I didn’t kick hard enough.”

Charlie sat up in his chair. He looked calmly at Declan, then back to Tyler. “But why did you break into our place, and Gwen’s?”

“I wanted to make you feel vulnerable before I lured Declan in. And he was so compliant.”

Click-click-click-click.

“I’m getting bored,” Tyler whined. “Let’s get this show on the road.” He moved toward Declan.

“Just one more thing,” Charlie said. “I need to know—why go to the trouble of luring Declan one place, then move him to another?”

“Well, it made him harder to find, didn’t it? In case someone got wise.”

“Well, wedidget wise,” Charlie shouted. “But actually, it wasn’tyourmistakes that are going to get you caught. It was yoursisterwho was careless.”

Tyler paused for a moment. “What do you mean?”

Charlie continued. “We found a small piece of the isoflurane bottle where you abducted Declan. It linked us to Julie, who’d let it slip that she worked for a vet.”

“He’s the one that fuckin’ dropped it!” Julie said, pointing to Tyler.

Charlie pressed on. “Look at how she’s blaming you, Tyler. If anybody was responsible for me figuring this out, it was Julie. And the thing that was most damning was her phone records. I was able to track them and there were two numbers she called most, andyouwere one of them.”

Good for you, Declan thought.

Julie yelled, “I destroyed that phone the night I was keeping you busy so Tyler could kidnap Declan.”

“The phone records still stand,” Charlie continued. “And, by the way, Tyler, if you’re going to be involved in big crime, perhaps you should get an unlisted number. We used your phone listing to track down where you live. We’ve been to your apartment. We found the luggage. We found the disguises. We found pictures of Declan everywhere. Even if you kill us both, the police are going to arrest you.”

Tyler thrashed about in a rage. “Julie, you bitch. How could you be so stupid?”

“What’s more,” Charlie added, “the second number on Julie’s records went to your mother’s phone. She was smart enough to havehersunlisted, but she still has voicemail. And I can identify the voice. Jasmine is going to be arrested as well.”

Click-click-click-click.

Tyler’s eyes had gone dead.

Declan finally spoke. “You might as well give up, Tyler. If you kill us both, the police are going to catch you anyway. If you let us go now, your sentence will be lighter.”

“I don’t care,” he screamed. “I’m putting an end to this.”

Tyler raised the knife above Declan and began to slash downward. A loud sound filled the air. The knife clattered to the floor and Tyler shouted out in pain.

Gary Sawchuck raced through the door, followed closely by Sam, along with four other officers.