Chapter 66

Back at the precinct, Detective Kellogg ground her teeth together. Hard. Anything to stop herself lunging across the table to beat the shit out of the suspect. Her partner was standing behind Fabian, and from the look on his face his thoughts were paralleling hers. Hardly surprising, given that the guy had just listened to the evidence against him, then shrugged.

“Hey, she likes it rough. What can I say?”

“You………” The male detective cut off his intended next words - which would’ve been ‘sick perverted motherfucker’ - instead finishing “……didn’t ‘have rough sex’ with Ms Kelsall. You beat her, you held her down and you raped and sodomised her. By my reckoning you’re looking at seventeen years.”

“You have to prove it.” Nick sneered, and at the look on her partner’s face, Kellogg raised a hand.

“Interview suspended at thirteen eleven.” She pushed her chair back and headed for the door, her partner following.

They left the room, leaving a uniformed cop watching over Fabian, and they retreated to the ‘viewing’ area of the hallway, looking in at Fabian as he sat, apparently relaxed and unperturbed in the interview room.

“Sorry.” Kellogg muttered. “I figured we could both use a time out from that asshole.”

“Before one of us beat him to death?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” She smiled. “How’d you come up with seventeen?”

“I was thinking about it on the drive back. If we can prove all of it, and get convictions, he’s looking at extortion, rape, assault, serious sexual assault - for the……y’know - and I figure kidnapping, too, since he kept her in the room against her will.” He shrugged. “Max sentence for each………seventeen years.”

“Maybe more.” Kellogg reached a decision that had been preying on her since this all started. “One of my friends, her younger sister Kirsten used to be a Soulmate……and I think I know now why she quit. If I can get her to make a complaint…….”

“Do it.”

“I’ll go see her. How much longer can we hold him without charging him?”

“Maybe twelve hours, max.”

“Okay. I’m on it. I’ll let you know if she agrees to make a statement.”

“Cool. Meantime I’ll get the animal put back in his cage.”

On her way to see the young girl, Kellogg called Richie on the number he’d given her, making arrangements for him to come in and give a full, formal statement about the attack, then she started trying to figure out how to broach the subject. That difficult decision took up the remainder of the drive.

Next day, when Richie obligingly came to the precinct early in the morning - well, early by his standards, strolling in through the doors just before ten o’clock, Kellogg took his statement quickly and efficiently. When that was done, though, she walked him to the door, quietly telling him that she had, after much persuasion, managed to get another of Fabian’s victims to make a statement. A statement which was pretty damning. Richie looked at her.

“Was that what you meant with that note you gave Billie? When you said he’d done it before?”

“Yeah. She’d never outright said what happened, but she loved being a Soulmate, so when she quit……I knew something must’ve happened. Didn’t know who, though, until all this happened.”

“He’s a sick puppy, that’s for sure.”

“That he is. And unfortunately we can’t put him to sleep here - not in this state. But, I think, the way everything’s stacking up against him, his best bet would be to plead guilty and hope for a lesser sentence.”

“But he will do time?”

“Oh, definitely.”

“Good.” ‘Cause between me and Jon, we know a lot of people……surely we can do something to make his jail stay as……painful as possible? Looking at the Detective again, Richie knew she had a damned good idea what he was thinking, and he shrugged. “I’m from Joisey, darlin’.” He said by way of explanation.


Sitting in his living room, Jon moodily flipped channels. Yep. Every channel seemed to make at least passing mention of his recently released statement announcing that Jay was his son. Hell, even CNN covered it! He’d not made their radar since…….well, since the apparent international crisis of him cutting his hair!

“It’s done now.” He muttered to the empty room. He was alone here, Dot and the kids down in Jersey for a few days. Basically long enough for him to find a new place. Or just move back to Jersey. Didn’t make sense - now the kids were nicely settled into their schools - to yet again uproot them and take them back to Jersey. So to make the whole ‘no harm, no foul’ divorce work, one of them had to move out. Apparently that ‘one’ was him.

Hell, at least in Jersey he’d not have to contend with the constant paparazzi and reporters. Reporters especially right now. Which was part of why Dot and the kids had left town for a bit. The kids didn’t deserve it. None of them did. And that included Jay.

At that thought, Jon laid down the glass of wine he’d just picked up, grabbing his phone instead. Scrolling through, he found Jay’s home number and dialled. After a few rings, a breathless Jay answered.

“Hello?”

“Hi Jay. It’s……Jon.”

“Jon. Hey. How you doin’?........Stoppit!” The last word clearly wasn’t directed at him, and Jon winced. Nice timing, Bongiovi.

“Sorry, Jay. Didn’t mean to interrupt…..just wondered how your mom’s doing?”

“She’s good. They might let her out next week.”

“Really? That’s great!” Jon smiled ruefully. “I’ll let you get back to…..Kadie.”

“Thanks, bo…….uh, Jon. I’ll let mom know you called.”

“Thanks, Jay. I’ll give Rich a call, let him know.”

“Nah, s’okay - he was going up there tonight anyway. He’s been visiting her most days, I think.”

“He has?” Oh and doesn’t that make me feel like a shit? That I’ve not been back. “He never said.”

“I think…….” The words faded to a yelp, and Jon could only imagine what Kadie was up to. “I think he feels kinda responsible, still. Because he ‘let her go’. I’ve tried to tell him, but……”

“Yeah, he’s almost as stubborn as a Bongiovi.” Jon chuckled. “And that includes you, before you give me any smartass answers!”

There was a heavy silence on the line before Jay replied.

“I guess it does.”