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“I appreciate that,” Sutter said.
“Speak to you when you get here,” Derek said.
Sutter barely paused to throw his laptop and a change of clothes into a bag before he called an Uber for LaGuardia. Once he was on the way to the airport, he began making calls. The first call secured him a ticket on a flight he’d barely make but would have him in Montana in seven hours with only one stop. The second call was to Andy Marks, the company lawyer, who he hadn’t spoken to since last year’s Christmas party but who took his call even though it was a weekend and promised to have internal affairs breathing down the Hamilton police chief’s neck before Sutter even touched down. He called the police station and asked to speak to the police chief, only to be told he’d gone home for the day, which made Sutter growl with fury. He then fired enough questions about Saoirse’s well-being and medical care at the dispatcher to make the man stutter and promise he’d get the police chief to return Sutter’s call even out of hours.
Finally, as the lights of LaGuardia stained the horizon, he called his mother.
“Dearest, how are you settling in?” she asked.
“I was settling in well,” Sutter said coolly. “I went to baseball practice today and made it straight into an A-league team. And then I came home and found out what you’d been up to today.”
She scoffed quietly. “I stopped by the ranch on the way to L.A., Sut. Nothing untoward about that.”
“And then you stopped by Rawhide Ranch and threatened Saoirse before siccing the Hamilton police on her. She had a seizure, Mom. A seizure! And your buddy in the police department arrested her anyway. What did you tell him?”
“Dearest, don’t get yourself worked up. I didn’t want you involved in this when you already have so much on your plate with the move and starting at the company. I don’t want you distracted. I found some things missing at the house, some of my jewelry, so I went to ask your friend if she’d borrowed them. She tried to extort money from me, Sutter. A hundred thousand dollars. When I spoke to the police to report the theft, the police chief warned me she’s some kind of con woman. She’s beenusingyou, dear. I know you can’t see it. You’re so young and you have so little experience with women. I was just trying to protect you, the same way I always have. Everything I’ve done was for you—”
“Do. Not. Say. That. To. Me,” Sutter growled. “Don’t say anything like that to me ever again, Mom. I love you. I’ll always be your vengeance, but I will never forgive you for this. I’ll never forget how you hurt her. I’m going to get Saoirse and bring her home with me. I’ll see you on Christmas Day. Otherwise, I don’t want to see or hear from you.”
Her gasp rang in Sutter’s ear. “You don’t mean that. What’s she doing to you that she’s got your head so turned around?”
“Nothing that concerns you anymore, Mom. Goodbye. I’m blocking your number.”
“Sutter, wait—”
He hung up and blocked her number. He knew she’d call back, probably from the landline at the ranch, if she was still there. Or she’d have Gray or the twins call. There were things he’d need to say to them, boundaries he’d need to set.
But as the car drew up to the terminal, he put that all aside and focused on what he’d say to the Little he’d failed so badly.
Being sobleary he could barely stand up straight didn’t stop Sutter from going straight to the police station from the airport. It was after two in the morning when he arrived, but the lights were still shining inside the Hamilton Justice Center. Sutter thanked the taxi driver, who looked barely more awake than he was, and shouldered his bag as he strode into the building and up to the Police Department service window. There was no one manning the desk, but an older man in uniform appeared through a door at the back when Sutter pressed the white wall buzzer.
“I’m Sutter James, here to see Chief Stanley,” Sutter said curtly.
“Chief’ll be in at eight,” the officer said. “You can come back then or wait over there if you want.”
The officer nodded to a row of plastic chairs against the wall facing the window.
Sutter shook his head. “I’m sure you have an emergency contact number for Chief Stanley. You’d best call it.”
The officer grimaced. “Wait over there.”
Sutter took a seat on the hard plastic and pulled out his phone. He thumbed past notifications of text messages from his sisters and opened an email from the company lawyer, Andy Marks. Andy assured Sutter that a complaint had been lodged with the police commission in Hamilton.
Sutter tipped his head back against the wall, closed his eyes, and listened to the buzz of the overhead lights. Somewhere close by, Saoirse was being held. He hoped she was sleeping off the after-effects of the seizure. He prayed she wasn’t lying awake, scared and alone.
“Sutter James,Chief will see you now.”
Sutter startled awake at the sound of his name. A vicious cramp clenched his neck when he brought his head forward from where he’d dozed off leaning back against the wall. Rubbing at it, he picked up his bag and followed the officer who was pointing at a plain door by the reception window.
The door buzzed when Sutter approached and he pushed through it into an open-plan room separated into cubicles by half-walls. The cubicles were empty. At the back of the room were glassed-in offices, one of which proclaimed, “Chief of Police, Eric M. Stanley”.
Sutter checked his watch. Seven o’clock. He took grim satisfaction in getting the chief in early, even if only by an hour, as he walked into the man’s office.
The chief looked only slightly less tired than Sutter as he sat behind his desk. He hadn’t shaved and there were gray whiskers on his cheeks and chin. He sipped from a cup of bitter-smelling coffee as he nodded Sutter into one of the guest chairs of the same hard plastic as the ones out in the hallway.
“You’re Cordelia James’ boy, I understand?”
“Cordelia James is my mother,” Sutter confirmed.
