Chapter 122: Chapter-122. (One Adult And One Child).
Dave’s Pov:
He glared at me like a cornered wolf. His voice came out harsh, spitting words like venom, "Dave f***ing Morris. You will be finished. Finished."
He kept repeating that statement again and again while he laughed like a maniac.
I clenched my jaw. Usually, I would have refrained from acting on my anger, but not this time, because in that moment, I would have exchanged anything and everything to do what I was gonna do.
Without giving any second thought, I headed in his direction and threw a punch at him, thinking of all this time of searching.
Of what he would have done to Elena. All the ugly thoughts combined into one fist.
The punch then landed on his jaw with a wet, ugly smack. The sound felt huge in the quiet wood. A hard clap that stole the air from both of us.
Dirt and leaves flew up. Josh’s head snapped to the side. For a second, I saw surprise on his face. Then something fiercer came, like a switch flipped in him.
He fought like an animal. His elbows jabbed as his legs thrashed. He tried to twist free. He wanted out. Maybe panic gave him wild strength.
We ended up entangled on the muddy ground as Josh was pinned to the ground. He still spat, cursed, and tried to bite.
Samantha kept him steady; on the other hand, Maximus held a knee on his shoulder so he could not roll.
For a moment, everything stood still.
The rustle of leaves, our breathing hard in our ears, the small crack of twigs.
My heart thundered as my knuckles were sore, and blood dripped from them. Not mine.
The taser was still in my hand as it pressed cold into my palm.
Up close, Josh looked worse than I expected. His lip was split, blood mixing with mud on his face.
He chuckled with a humorous laugh and kept laughing until he started to cough.
Maximus then took the chance and asked while he kept his voice steady, "Who sent you? Who put the bounty? And where is Elena?" he asked, loud enough that the trees carried it.
Josh’s laugh died into a hoarse rasp as he spat dirt. For a second, his eyes were clear, and then gone.
He pushed his head up, staring at us. "You think you’re better than all of us? You think you can fix anything with your so-called hard-earned money, right? Then find her using your money." He snarled, sounding impatient and cruel.
My hands shook as my grip tightened the taser. I wanted to hurt him again, to make him stop, to make him pay for every pain he caused us. To her.
Samantha’s hand tightened on my wrist, and, without looking, I knew she was telling me to breathe. She didn’t say it. She didn’t have to.
Samantha crouched and leaned close to Josh. Her voice was low but iron. "Cooperate," she told him. "Tell us what we need. Tell us everything, and you might get a lighter sentence. Lie, and you won’t like what comes next."
He looked at her like she had asked a favor. He laughed again, then his expression flickered. For a brief second, he seemed very small.
"Go spend all your cash hunting ghosts. You can buy anything but no life, do you?" He sneered, making blood run cold. The thought of her being de...No. It was impossible.
The moment I tried to calm myself, he spat out, " I killed her. I f***ing killed her, so go now. Bring her back from the dead." His maniacal laugh echoed through the dark silence.
The words hit like a physical blow. For a moment, the world narrowed to that single sentence. My lungs stopped working right. The taser in my hand felt suddenly heavier than any gun.
"No." It came out raw, small. I could not make it louder. "You cannot...You wouldn’t dare to?"
He smiled like a man at the edge of a cliff. "But I just did. Burned her to ashes. Left nothing. You are late. You always were, Morris." He laughed that same cracked laugh. "Say goodbye to your lovely wife."
My knees wanted to fold. Time seemed to slow and stretch and then snap back.
I lunged forward without thinking, but Maximus caught me by the shoulder and held me back like a grown boy pulled from a fire.
"SAMANTHA, GET A STATEMENT," Maximus barked into the earpiece, voice all business now. "Secure him. Do not let him speak to anyone else."
Samantha moved in close, her eyes hard but quick with pity. She cuffed him fast and clean.
Josh didn’t struggle much after that; he was more a coil of anger than a man with a plan. Still, his voice kept going, a wet thread of words.
"You were never going to get her back," he spat. "If she could not be mine, then she should have died...and guess what she did?" He again started to laugh out, making my anger surpass every imaginable limit.
Samantha crouched near his face, not soft, but controlled. Her voice was quiet but edged with steel. "Who sent you? Name them. Names now, or we assume you throw yourself on the mercy of the court, if you live long enough for one."
He turned his head toward her like he had been told something interesting. For a moment, his look was almost lucid. "You want names?" he asked.
"There are names. Big ones. Bank accounts. Codes. I could tell you everything...but what’s the point? Elena is gone...hahaha....she’s gone." His gaze met mine as his lips curved into an evil smug.
Before I could lose myself, Maximus leaned down, his face unreadable. "Enough riddles. Tell us where Elena is now. Tell us what you did."
Josh’s eyes flicked to me, and a small, animal smile crawled across his face. "You want the truth? Fine. She’s dead. I buried her in the old pit. You know the place by the river? I torched the car. I made sure."
Samantha’s jaw tightened, but she didn’t move. Maximus, however, frowned and looked over to Samantha, a look of suspicion, but I was too mad. At him. At myself for not finding her before.
At Grace and Nicole for hiding that note from me. I wanted to split his head into two; that’s when Maximus’ voice fell into my ear.
"Hold up," Maximus said, but this time he wasn’t talking to Josh; he was talking to us.
He kept his voice low and steady, but loud enough for Josh to hear.
"He’s trying to scare us. He’s telling a story that will make you feel something, not show facts. Jessica, pull every timestamp you can. Check anything that recorded movement around this place in the last three days."
We were at an abandoned property, but that didn’t mean it was totally dark or quiet.
Cameras can be anywhere. Old security feeds left on a server, motion sensors people forget about, traffic cams facing the road, and even drones we could launch.
Jessica worked with devices like that every day. Her calm voice answered over the line: "Pulling. Give me two minutes."
Josh only laughed, seeing us whispering, low and ugly, probably trying to trigger us. "It’s better if you believe the fact, Morris. It makes sleeping easier, you know."
I wanted to scream at Josh, pull him up, and force it out of him, where, how, why, but my hands went to my face instead. My fingers shook.
Samantha sat back on her heels and looked at me. Her helmet light caught the stain on my knuckles. "Dave," she said quietly, "listen to me. He’s trying to break you. That’s part of what he does. He says the worst thing possible, to watch you collapse."
I felt fury and sickness twist into one. "You saw the photo saw him inside that building," I said. "He...this was the place where she might have..." I could not even continue when she did.
"And that’s exactly why we must be practical here, not emotional," Maximus cut in.
He was practical, cold now in the way the job required. "If he says buried by the river, we check. If he says the car burned, we get a team to search. But first, we confirm timelines. We don’t act on a confession if it’s a gamble. He’s a liar."
Jessica’s voice came through the earpiece, "Pulling camera footage now."
Samantha leaned forward as she asked over the line, "Any exits?"
"Door logs show one exit at 03:12 am, two nights ago," Jessica replied.
Dave’s brow tightened. "Movement after that?"
"Yard movement at 03:15, but nothing headed toward the river, " she said.
Maximus cut in his low yet hard voice, "Thermal?"
"Thermal picked up body heat a few kilometers out at 03:20," Jessica answered. "Four minutes later, the heat left the area."
"How many?" Samantha asked, her voice clipped and sharp, as anticipation seared through me.
"Two. One adult and one child, " Jessica said.