Ties That Bind

Chapter 39

MADISON COULDN'T SLEEP LAST NIGHT. They had their man, no doubt about it, but he refused to cooperate unless he had a lawyer present. And, unfortunately, it was taking a bit of time for the Younges to round one up.

Ethan spent the night in holding. Despite being told they wanted to question him in regards to his mother's murder, his cool response was everything would work out. And it would work out all right. By the time this was over, the victims' families, including his own, would have closure. His calmness told her nothing more than he fulfilled what he purposed to do.

Heather's body had been released yesterday afternoon. She had placed a courtesy call to the Nguyens to let them know the details of the funeral arrangements. They were thankful as the adulterous Mr. Hampton hadn't relayed the information.

The thought of him not calling them about the death, but them discovering it in the paper, made her shake her head. Given her profession, maybe she should be desensitized to the utter disregard of life, but when it came to the disrespect of the living, she had a harder time.

She let them know she would be there if she could, but with the way the case was coming together, she didn't know if there would be time to fit it in. She didn't want to allow herself to get too pulled in to the victims' families. Her main objective for going to funerals was for the purpose of possibly finding a suspicious character, but she had her man now. She felt such elation with that thought.

"Detective Knight." She turned to face the sergeant. He continued. "Blake Golden's coming in the front door."

"What is he doing here?" He had been Layton's lawyer.

"I don't know, but you better find out."

Madison headed toward the front counter.

"My favorite detective," Blake Golden greeted her. He was wearing an overpriced tailored black suit with a red tie. Likely the splash of red was to represent his lack of compassion for the victims of the people he defended.

Part of her wished she could counter with an insincere comment, but her mind was blank. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm here to represent Ethan Younge."

That was the last thing she expected. She thought he was here to discuss Layton's harassment lawsuit. Instead, she was stuck dealing with his presence for a longer period of time.

"You seem to be speechless." He was fighting off a full-fledged smile.

"Why would I be?" She reached for the gold chain necklace she wore and squeezed it between her fingers. "Come this way."

She led him into interrogation room two. Now she had to find her partner and get Ethan pulled into the room. She couldn't wait any longer to get the chance to be able to say what she needed to, to ask the questions she needed answered.

It took her about fifteen minutes to get everything orchestrated. She attempted to calm herself with the reassurance it wouldn't be that much longer. She tried to hunt Terry down, but his cell was ringing straight to voice mail and no one had seen him for some time. She finally had him paged in the hope he was in the building.

Terry walked toward the room, a figurative wall erected that spoke volumes without an audible word. "All right, let's go."

"That's it? No explanation as to where you've been?"

"You my keeper now?" He brushed past her.

Ethan Younge came up behind them, escorted by an officer. He took a seat beside Blake Golden. Both men turned to each other and extended their hands for introduction.