Mason pulled his son to his chest. “It’s over,” he said quietly in the boy’s ear. “He’s already gone. They can’t save him. He won’t come back.”

Jake let out a shuddering sob and collapsed into his father.

27

Someone knocked at the hospital door and then pushed it open. Mason hopped up and tugged at the wrinkled shirt he’d worn all night, trying to sleep in the uncomfortable hospital chair.

ASAC Duncan peeked around the door and met Mason’s gaze. “All right if I come in?”

Ava’s boss was more than welcome because Mason wanted some answers. The agent practically tiptoed into the room, eyeing Ava sleeping in the bed. “How is she?”

“Good. They got her out of surgery at about midnight. She was awake in recovery for a while, but she slept all night long. No telling how doped up she is.”

“Her surgery went fine?” Duncan asked.

Mason suspected he’d already had a full report from the surgeon himself. “Yes, her upper arm will be setting off metal detectors for the rest of her life, but she should recover nearly all range of use.” Over time. And after lots of therapy.

“That’s good.” The two men stood in silence, watching the sleeping agent.

“We went through Kent Jopek’s apartment overnight,” Duncan stated.

Mason’s listening skills shot to optimum. “And?”

Duncan shook his head. “He practically had a shrine to you.”

“What?” Mason tasted bile in the back of his mouth. He eyed the plastic bowl on the table next to Ava’s bed.

“He had a binder with every newspaper article you’ve ever been mentioned in. Printouts from the Internet and all his legal documents from his civil case and the inquiry into the shooting.”

Dizziness swamped Mason. He sat down and rubbed his face.

“He had Jake’s school schedule, and we found receipts for his plane tickets to North Carolina. A memory card full of pictures of Jake on campus, Henley at her bus stop, your home, and you on the job in various places. He also had a homemade kit for transferring fingerprints. I assume the ones we found in the kit will be yours. I don’t think you’ll be on leave much longer.”

Holy shit. “He told me he killed Josie.”

Duncan went on. “The stolen minivan was in his garage, and his Chevy sedan was in the Safeway parking lot.”

“I can’t believe this,” Mason muttered.

“Besides you and Jake, he also had a ton of photos of Wyatt everywhere in the house. There was even a bedroom done up for a young boy. Kent lived in this place for three years, so Wyatt obviously never slept there. I’m wondering if it’s a replica of his old room. It looks like Henley was kept in a small locked room down in his basement. We found some food, water, and bedding. Even some books.”

Mason blew out a thankful breath. He’d imagined the girl had been kept in a much worse location.

“Sanford was there when Henley and her parents were reunited at the emergency room. He said there wasn’t a dry eye in the hospital. All the nurses and cops included. Henley was just dehydrated from her ordeal. They didn’t even keep her overnight.” Duncan’s expression turned grim. “And she wasn’t sexually abused or abused at all. Everything checked out fine with her.”

“Thank God. That could have gone so many different ways.”

Duncan nodded. “Amen to that. Oh, and I’m supposed to tell you that the woman from Search and Rescue took your dog to her home until you can pick it up.”

“Bingo,” said Mason, remembering Henley’s name for the dog. “I don’t know if it’s really my dog. I think it belongs with Henley,” he said slowly, realizing he’d become quite attached to the furry black mutt.

“I don’t think that’s an option,” Duncan said. “Sanford told me that Henley’s mom started sneezing up a fit at the emergency room because the girl was covered in dog hair. The nurses were about to inject her with an antihistamine,” he said with a smile. “Looks like you’ll have your dog back.”

Mason bit back a smile. Bingo had earned a place of honor in his home. He’d even buy him the expensive dog food.

“Jake says there’s still law enforcement at the Fairbankses’.” Mason had been at the Safeway store for several hours after the shooting and then had gone straight to the hospital to sit in the waiting room while Ava had surgery. Now it was nearly 8 A.M.

“Yes, we still have a team in the house, and they’ll stay there until all the chaos settles down. Probably a day or two.”

Jake had texted him a few times last night, asking for Ava updates. Mason hadn’t liked how impersonal the texts felt. He planned to get a phone that could do that video-calling thing. That way when he wanted to see his son, he could. And Mason would always know who was on the other end of the line.

“We also discovered that Kent had closed out his bank accounts. He also left a couple of farewell letters to his exes.”

The man had been suicidal.

“I think we got real lucky that he didn’t take anyone else down with him,” said Duncan. “I believe that was his original plan. He was either going to take you or Jake out and then take his own life.”

“He said he wanted to see his son,” Mason stated. His brain whirled. How close had he and Jake come to death yesterday?

“Ava did a good job talking him down.” Duncan looked at the woman sleeping in the bed.