Page 37 of Outlaw Ridge: Jesse
Jesse pressed a kiss to her temple, hoping she’d stay in his arms a little longer, but Lauren pulled back. He could see her trying to steel herself up. Trying to keep it together. And she managed it all right.
“We need to do that APB,” she muttered. “I’ll take care of that if you’ll start searching for anything on Derrick Martin.”
Jesse didn’t hesitate. He sat with his laptop and typed “Derrick Martin” into the search engine of the police databases. Soon, a series of prison records filled the screen. The records listed several charges, including the conviction for the abduction of a twenty-year-old woman. According to the files, Derrick had spent fifteen years in a prison outside of Austin for that crime and was released two months ago on parole.
Jesse compared the most recent mugshot with the mockup that Griff had sent them. The match was exact.
He leaned back in his chair, processing the new information. If Derrick had been in jail for all but the last year since Lauren’s abduction, that explained why he hadn’t come after Lauren or Belinda. The timeline fit—Reggie, now going by Derrick Martin, had been out of the picture for nearly the entire time.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” Lauren asked, yanking him out of his thoughts.
And they had been damn deep thoughts since he hadn’t noticed that she’d finished her call and was now staring at him.
“Yeah,” he had to admit. “It’s him.”
Lauren stood, her movement a little uncertain as if the floor beneath her was wobbling, but she went to him and looked at the photo that was still on the screen.
“He has a scar on his head,” she pointed out, motioning to the side of Reggie’s head. “Probably from where Belinda hit him with that rock.”
Yeah, that was Jesse’s guess, and he could do some guessing on the rest of that, too. Reggie had perhaps been unconscious, or faking that anyway, when Belinda had put him in that crevice. Sometime later, he’d gotten out and managed to get someplace where he’d gotten a fake ID or else stolen someone’s identity.
But that led Jesse to another question.
“Reggie had a record,” he reminded Lauren. “He was in the system. Why didn’t his prints pop when he was arrested in Austin so the cops there would have known he was Reggie and not Derrick.”
Jesse stopped and waved that off. “Because his record was when he was a juvie.” He did some checking and got verification. “And his records were sealed. Fuck,” he muttered.
“What?” Lauren was quick to ask.
It took Jesse a moment to get his jaw unclenched so he could speak. “The records were sealed at the request of County Sheriff Tim Reardon.”
Chapter Fourteen
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Lauren’s heart pounded as she and Jesse strode into the bullpen, the evidence still on the screen of his laptop that he was carrying. The air felt charged, every step toward Reardon heavy with the confrontation that was about to take place.
And there would be a confrontation because Lauren wanted answers.
Reardon was still in the middle of giving his statement when Jesse stepped forward, his tone low and firm.
“We know you requested that Reggie’s juvenile record be sealed,” Jesse said, holding up the laptop that clearly displayed the record. “Explain that.”
Reardon’s eyes narrowed as he glanced at the screen. “I did it for all the troubled kids I mentored,” he snapped. “It means nothing—just a standard procedure to give them a second chance.”
Lauren’s stomach churned. She felt a mix of raw anger and disgust rise within her. Before she could voice the accusation, Belinda’s gaze fell on the photo that was also displayed on Jesse’s screen. In an instant, her face went white and she gasped—a sound that sliced through the tension. Lauren watched in shock as Belinda’s eyes locked onto the aged image.
Recognition, horror, and pain flashed across her features.
“No,” she muttered. “No, no, no,” she repeated before Belinda bolted from the bullpen, her footsteps echoing as she ran out of the police station.
Reardon’s expression went even colder, even darker, and he barked, “Belinda, come back here!” Before anyone could stop him, he raced out after her.
Jemma muttered some profanity under her breath and went out after them. Not alone, though, as Griff headed out with her.
Lauren did her own round of silent cursing, and she got hit with a fresh round of anger over Reardon’s action. But there was also fresh concern for Belinda, too. It wasn’t a good idea for the woman to be out there because she’d been right. Reggie could come after her.
Lauren exchanged a glance with Jesse, whose jaw was set and eyes full of some anger and frustration as well. Once they were sure Belinda was safe and Reardon was held accountable for anything illegal he might have done, they would get to the bottom of every lie.
