Shattered (LOST #3)(87)

“It will be Murphy,” Gabe finished.

She nodded.

Wade took the paper from Gabe. “He’s not vanishing.”

He already had vanished! Slipped out of a maximum security prison and gone—

“He stayed in jail for eleven years.” Wade’s eyes burned with gold fire. “He got out now for one reason.”

Gabe’s brow furrowed. “Sarah went up there because she wanted him to tell her who the perp is. Sarah thought Murphy knew the guy’s identity.”

“And the bastard did know,” Wade said. “But he wasn’t going to let Sarah be threatened. The perp had gone after the one person Murphy cares about. So now Murphy is out—”

Victoria backed up a step. Murphy Jacobs terrified her. “You think he’s coming here?” No, that wasn’t possible. New Orleans was too far away from his prison. He’d have to get transportation. Not a plane, no way would he risk that kind of exposure. But he could hitchhike. And, hell, so many big rigs traveled down to the Crescent City. If he’d gotten a ride from one of those drivers . . .

He could already be in the city.

“I think he’s coming to protect Sarah. I think he’s going to kill whoever tried to hurt her. Because that’s what Murphy does best . . .”

Kill.

Gabe already had his phone out. “We have to call Sarah. Now.”

“HE’S NOT DEAD,” Sarah repeated. Jax’s words kept replaying in her head. He’d told her those words for a reason.

Eddie Guthrie was dead. She knew that. Victoria had gone down to the police station and confirmed the guy’s cause of death. The three cops were dead—they’d been loaded into the body bags and driven away from Jax’s burning house.

Brent West was still in the hospital.

Who isn’t dead?

“How many people has Jax killed?” It was a question that she had to ask.

Emma’s mouth dropped open in shock. “What? Look, right now isn’t the time—”

“Jax isn’t a murderer,” Carlos said, throwing back his shoulders “No matter what you might think. Why the guy was so crazy about you I don’t—”

“Mitch Fontaine.”

Carlos clamped his lips together.

“You knew about him, didn’t you, Carlos?”

Carlos looked away.

Emma was staring at Sarah in confusion. “He . . . he killed—?”

“He’s not dead,” Sarah repeated Jax’s words. Jax wouldn’t have said that unless he thought she’d make the connection to the killer. But there was only one man Jax had confessed to killing. The man who’d beat him and Charlene. She lunged for Carlos and grabbed him again.

“Stop doing that!” he snapped.

“What did Mitch look like?”

Carlos glared.

“Do not push me!” Sarah yelled at him. “I don’t have time for that crap. Jax needs me, and I’ll be damned if I let him down.” She shook the guy. So what if he was a foot taller and probably seventy pounds heavier? She was going to make him talk. “Did you ever see a picture of Mitch? Did you—”

“Blond, like Jax. About his size.” His words were grudging. “Darker eyes . . . saw a picture just once. Jax burned that shit after that.”

“Mitch Fontaine,” Sarah whispered. She fumbled and had her phone out again. She—

The phone rang. She nearly dropped it. Her fingers swiped across the screen. “Hello?” Sarah answered, voice scared and tense.

“Sarah!” Gabe’s voice was just as tense. “You need to come into the station. Right now. Come in.”

“No, no, Gabe, listen.” She started walking around that little room. “I’ve got a lead that I need you to follow. A guy named Mitch Fontaine. He was Jax’s—” Hell, she didn’t know how to explain this. “Stepfather. He disappeared years ago, but I think . . . I think he’s in New Orleans. I think he has Jax and—”

“And I think your father is in town, Sarah!”

Once again, the phone nearly slipped from her fingers.

“He busted out after you left. The guards took him to the infirmary . . .”

Because he’d pushed Jax into attacking him. Choking him.

“He was cuffed, but he managed to get a key from the guards . . .”

When they’d swarmed him and pulled Jax away. It had just been a pile of bodies for a moment. They’d all been so close. It would have been incredibly easy to take the key from a guard then.

“He killed a guard and vanished. Murphy is out, Sarah. You need to get back here. We need—”

“I need to find Jax.” He was the only thing that could matter right then. “Please, Gabe, just send me everything the cops have on Mitch Fontaine. Send me everything that LOST has. I need it now.”

“Sarah . . .”

“My father isn’t going to hurt me.”

“You put a gun to his head,” he reminded her.

She didn’t need the reminder. “I need to know about Mitch Fontaine.”

A pause, then . . . “Give me five minutes.”

She hung up the phone. Emma and Carlos were both watching her. Sarah put her hand to her temple. Rubbed. Tried to figure out just what this perp would do. “You wouldn’t go back to the riverfront . . . you already had a victim there. This is your endgame, so you’d want to go to a place where you felt like you had the most control. A place that you’d been using . . . this whole time.”