Page 94 of The Fragile Ones

“Katie!” yelled McGaven from the back.

She ran to the back door, unlocked it and met with McGaven. “He’s running, he jumped from the front deck,” she said breathlessly.

They heard the sound of the truck revving its engine and screeching down the driveway.

“It’s Officer Mason,” she said, giving him the keys. “Go get him. I’ll see if the chief’s still alive.”

McGaven leaped down the stairs several at a time and ran across the street to Katie’s Jeep. Katie hurried back to the basement, her heart pounding. So many questions plagued her.

Chief Osborne was lying on the floor on his right side, still strapped to the chair. She could see he was bleeding heavily, his breathing ragged.

“Chief,” she said, and knelt at his side. Looking at his wounds, the two bullets had hit his shoulder and right rib area. “Can you hear me?”

He nodded, having trouble speaking.

Katie shed her jacket and frantically searched in the basement and adjoining bathroom for towels and anything to bandage him with.

Returning to the chief, she cut him loose from the chair with scissors she’d found, and pushed it out of the way. Then she cut off his sweatshirt to look at his wounds, before pressing the towels against the bleeding areas.

“Don’t hurt him…” he barely whispered.

“What?” she said leaning closer to him.

“Please…don’t hurt him.”

“Mason?” she said.

“He doesn’t know what he’s doing…he will never stop…”

“Chief, did he kill the Mayfield girls?”

He closed his eyes in pain.

“Are you saying he killed Tessa and Megan Mayfield?” she repeated.

He barely nodded.

“Have you been protecting him?”

He stared at her, but she took his response as a yes.

“Why?”

“He’s…he’s…”

“But the list of girls murdered and missing we found…” Katie managed to say as she tried to stop the bleeding.

He winced. “I had to…”

“Why, Chief?”

“He’s my…my son…” the chief managed to say.

Katie was shocked. “But…” Her mind reeled at how Mason was able to murder the girls, and how easily he’d moved around.

“We adopted him…he was eight…” The chief closed his eyes and his head flopped back. He managed, “There’s…another girl…she lives with her…grandmother…”

“What? Who? Chief, can you hear me? What little girl? Can you give me a name, when, where?” Katie heard him breathing with difficulty; most likely his lungs were filling up with blood as he floated in and out of consciousness.