Everyone Rejected the Crippled Girl — Until She Sat With a Hell’s Angel
Stone felt cold fury spreading through his chest. «That’s bullshit.»
«Of course it’s bullshit, but he’s got a fancy lawyer. Some hotshot from Denver who specializes in getting guilty people off on technicalities.»
«How did he afford a lawyer like that?»
«That’s the interesting part.» Brick’s jaw tightened. «Someone’s paying for it. Someone with deep pockets.»
«Who?»
«We don’t know yet, but Derek didn’t have two nickels to rub together before this. Now suddenly he’s got representation that costs more than most people make in a year.»
Stone’s mind was racing. «The insurance company.»
«What?»
«Think about it. Derek works for Western Life Insurance. He knows things. Secrets. Maybe he helped other people commit fraud. Maybe he’s got dirt on someone important. You think they’re paying his legal fees to keep him quiet?»
«It’s the only thing that makes sense.»
Brick nodded slowly. «That’s actually a good theory. I’ll have our guy dig into it.»
«How long do we have?»
«The hearing’s in three days. If the judge grants the motion to dismiss, he walks.»
«He walks?»
Stone’s hands curled into fists. «That’s not happening.»
«I know, but we need to be smart about this. We need ammunition.»
«What kind of ammunition?»
«More witnesses. More evidence. Something that proves Derek’s pattern of behavior didn’t start with Ember.»
Stone went still. «What are you saying?»
«I’m saying maybe this isn’t his first rodeo. Maybe there are other victims. Other kids. Other wives who died conveniently.»
«You think he’s done this before?»
«I think men like Derek don’t wake up one day and suddenly decide to torture a child. They build up to it. They practice. They get away with small things before they try big things.»
Stone thought about that. About Derek’s confidence. His smooth lies. His ability to fool police and social workers and everyone else who should have seen through him.
«He’s done it before,» Stone said. «He has to have.»
«Then we find proof. And we make sure that motion gets denied.»
«How much time do we have?»
«Three days.»
«Then we work fast.»
Brick nodded and headed back to his bike. Stone stood on the porch for a moment watching him go. Three days. Three days to find evidence that might not exist. Three days to stop a monster from walking free.
He went back inside. Ember was still on the counter, still stirring the batter, but her face had changed. The smile was gone. Worry had replaced it.
«Something’s wrong,» she said. «I can tell.»
Stone hesitated. «It’s nothing you need to worry about.»
«It’s about Derek, isn’t it?»
He couldn’t lie to her. Not after everything. «Yeah. It’s about Derek.»
«Is he getting out?»
«No. I won’t let that happen. But something’s wrong. His lawyer is trying to get the case thrown out, saying the evidence isn’t good enough.»
Ember’s face went pale. «But you saw. You saw my room. You saw the locks. You saw…»
«I know. And the judge will see it too. We just need to make sure our case is stronger than his lawyer’s tricks.»
«How?»
Stone looked at her. «Ember, I need to ask you something and I need you to be completely honest with me, okay? Do you know if Derek ever hurt anyone else before you? Another kid, maybe? Or your mom?»
Ember’s hand stopped stirring. «He never hit my mom. Not where I could see. But…»
«What?»
«Sometimes at night I heard them fighting. And the next day Mom would move different, like she was sore. And she’d wear long sleeves even when it was hot.»
Stone’s heart sank. «Did she ever say anything?»
«I asked her once why she was crying. She said she fell. She said Derek was helping her be more careful.» Ember’s voice dropped. «But I knew. I knew she didn’t fall. Just like I didn’t fall.»
«Did anyone else know? Any of her friends? Family?»
«Mom didn’t have friends. Derek said friends were distractions. He said she only needed him.» Ember paused. «But… there was a woman. She came to the house once when Derek was at work. She and Mom talked for a long time. Mom was crying.»
Stone leaned closer. «Do you remember her name?»
«Mom called her Sarah. She said Sarah was from before. Before Derek. Like an old friend. I think so.»
«She gave Mom her phone number. Told her to call if she ever needed help.»
«Did your mom call her?»
Ember’s eyes filled with tears. «I don’t know. Mom got sick right after that. And then she died. And then everything got bad.»
Stone reached out and took her hand. «You did good, Ember. That’s really helpful. Really. Do you remember anything else about Sarah? What she looked like? Where she worked?»
«She was pretty. Brown hair. She wore a blue jacket with a name on it.» Ember squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember. «Providence. It said Providence something. Providence… I think it was a church or a hospital. I don’t remember.»
«That’s okay. That’s more than enough.»
Stone pulled out his phone and texted Brick. Need you to find someone. Sarah. Works at a place called Providence something. Maybe a hospital. Connected to Ember’s mother. Could be our key witness.
The response came thirty seconds later. On it.
Stone put his phone away. «Ember, I need you to know something.»
«What?»
«Whatever happens with this hearing… with Derek, with any of it… you’re safe. Here. With me. No matter what some judge decides, I’m not letting you go back to him. Even if I have to break every law in Colorado to make sure of it.»
Her lower lip trembled. «You’d do that for me?»
«Yeah, kid, I would.»
She slid off the counter and wrapped her arms around his waist. «I don’t want you to go to jail,» she whispered. «I don’t want to lose you too.»
Stone knelt down to her level. «You’re not going to lose me. And I’m not going to jail because we’re going to win this the right way. With evidence. With witnesses. With the truth.»
«What if the truth isn’t enough?»
«It will be. It has to be.»
She looked at him with those old, tired eyes. «Derek always said the truth didn’t matter. He said all that mattered was what you could make people believe.»
«Derek was wrong.»
«But what if he wasn’t? What if his lawyer makes the judge believe him?»
Stone took her face in his hands. «Then we’ll find another way. And another. And another. Until we win. Because that’s what we do, Ember. We don’t give up. Not ever.»
She stared at him for a long moment. Then she nodded. «Okay. Okay. I trust you.»
Three words. That’s all it took to break Stone’s heart and rebuild it at the same time.
«Good,» he said, his voice rough. «Now let’s make those pancakes before the batter goes bad.»
She almost smiled. «Can we put chocolate chips in them?»
«Kid, we can put whatever you want in them.»
This time she did smile. Small, fragile, but real. And Stone thought that maybe, just maybe, they were going to be okay.
His phone buzzed. A text from Brick.
Found her. Sarah Chen. Social worker at Providence Hospital. She filed a domestic violence report about Ember’s mother six months before she died. Report was buried. Never investigated.
Stone read it twice, then a third time. Who buried it?
Brick’s response came fast. Working on it. But Stone, you’re not going to like the answer.
Tell me anyway.
A pause. Then: The report was assigned to a CPS caseworker named Thomas Reed. Same guy who closed the investigation after the neighbor’s calls about Ember. Same guy who signed off on Derek’s home as safe.
Stone’s blood ran cold. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?
Yeah. Someone on the inside has been covering for Derek for at least a year, maybe longer. This goes deeper than we thought.
Stone looked at Ember, happily dropping chocolate chips into the pancake batter, counting them out loud. «Seven, eight, nine…»
She had no idea. No idea that the system meant to protect her had been working against her all along. No idea that Derek had help.
But Stone knew now. And he was going to burn it all down.
Stone found Sarah Chen at Providence Hospital the next morning. She was coming out of the staff entrance, coffee in one hand, phone in the other, when he stepped into her path.
«Sarah Chen?»
She stopped, looked up, took in the leather vest, the scars, the tattoos. Her face went pale. «Who are you?»
«My name is Stone. I need to talk to you about Lisa Manning.»
The coffee cup slipped from her hand. It hit the ground. Brown liquid splashed across the concrete. Sarah didn’t notice.
«How do you know that name?»
«Her daughter told me.»
«Ember?» Sarah’s voice cracked. «You know Ember? Is she okay? I’ve been trying to find her for months. After Lisa died, Derek shut everyone out. He moved her out of school, changed his number. I went to the house three times and he threatened to call the police if I came back.»
«She’s with me.»
«With you? Why? What happened?»
Stone didn’t have time to sugarcoat it. «Derek’s been abusing her. Starving her. Locking her in a closet. He took out a life insurance policy. He was planning to kill her.»
Sarah’s hand went to her mouth. «Oh God. Oh God, I knew it. I knew something was wrong. I filed a report six months before Lisa died. I told them exactly what was happening.»
«I know. The report was buried.»
«What?»
«A CPS caseworker named Thomas Reed. He made it disappear.»
Sarah’s eyes went wide. «Reed? That’s impossible. He’s the one who…» She stopped. Her face changed. «He’s the one who told me the investigation was closed. He said Lisa recanted. Said she made the whole thing up. I didn’t believe him, but what could I do? The case was closed.»
«Lisa never recanted, did she?»
«No. I talked to her the day before Reed said she did. She was terrified. She was making plans to leave. She had a bag packed under her bed.»
Stone felt his jaw tighten. «What happened?»
«Two days later, she was in the hospital. Some kind of accident. Derek said she fell down the stairs, but I saw her, Stone. I saw the bruises. They weren’t from falling.»
«Did you tell anyone?»
«I told Reed. I demanded he reopen the case. He said there was no evidence. Said Lisa was clumsy. Said I was being hysterical. And then Lisa got sick. The cancer diagnosis came out of nowhere. Stage four. She was dead in three months.»
Stone’s mind was racing. «That’s fast. Too fast.»
«I’m a social worker, not a doctor, but I’ve seen a lot of cases. Cancer doesn’t usually work that way. Not unless it’s been growing for a long time. Lisa had a physical six months before she died. Nothing showed up.»
«You think he did something?»
It wasn’t a question. Sarah’s eyes filled with tears.
«I don’t know. I can’t prove anything. But the timing… Lisa starts making plans to leave. Suddenly she falls down the stairs. Suddenly she has cancer. Suddenly she’s dead and Derek has full custody of her daughter. And a $300,000 life insurance policy.»
Sarah went still. «Derek took out policies on both of them. Lisa and Ember.»
«Lisa’s paid out after she died. Ember’s is still active.»
«Oh my God.»
«Yeah.»
Sarah was trembling now. «I tried to save her. I tried to save them both, but nobody listened. Nobody believed me.»
«And now… now we have another chance.»
She looked up at him. «What do you mean?»
«Derek’s lawyer is trying to get the case dismissed. Claims the evidence was obtained illegally. The hearing is in two days.»
«Two days?»
«I need you to testify. About the report you filed. About what Lisa told you. About Reed burying the case. All of it.»
Sarah’s face went white. «Stone, I could lose my job. If I accuse a CPS caseworker of covering up abuse, I’ll never work in social services again.»
«If you don’t, Derek walks. And the next kid he gets his hands on won’t be as lucky as Ember.»
She flinched. «That’s not fair.»
«None of this is fair. A six-year-old girl lost her mother, lost her leg, and spent eight months being tortured by a man who was supposed to protect her. Fair went out the window a long time ago.»
Sarah closed her eyes. «You don’t understand. I have a family. I have kids of my own.»
«If I lose my job…»
«If you don’t testify, you lose something worse.»
«What?»
«Yourself. The person you were when you filed that report. The person who saw something wrong and tried to stop it. That person doesn’t walk away because it’s hard.»
Sarah was quiet for a long moment. Then she opened her eyes. «Where do I need to be?»
Stone handed her a card. «County courthouse. 9 a.m. Day after tomorrow. Ask for ADA Martinez. She’s handling the prosecution.»
«Martinez. Okay.» Sarah took the card with shaking hands. «Stone?»
«Yeah.»
«Take care of her. Ember. She deserves better than what she got.»
«I know. That’s what I’m trying to give her.»
He turned to leave.
«Stone.»
He stopped.
«There’s something else. Something I didn’t put in the report.»
He turned back. «What?»
Sarah’s voice dropped. «A week before Lisa fell down the stairs, she called me. Late at night. She was crying. She said Derek had been acting strange. Spending a lot of time in the garage, buying things off the internet and hiding them.»
«What kind of things?»
«She didn’t know, but she found a receipt for something called… I can’t remember exactly. Thallium something.»
Stone’s blood ran cold. «Thallium sulfate?»
«Maybe. Why? What is that?»
Stone didn’t answer. He was already pulling out his phone. Thallium sulfate. A poison. Odorless, tasteless, nearly undetectable. It caused symptoms that looked like cancer: hair loss, nausea, organ failure.
Lisa Manning hadn’t died of cancer. She’d been murdered. And Stone was going to prove it.
He called Brick. «I need a favor.»
«Name it.»
«Lisa Manning, Ember’s mother. She died eight months ago. Officially, it was cancer, but I think Derek poisoned her.»
Silence on the other end. Then: «What do you need?»
«Medical records. Toxicology reports, if there are any. And find out if the body was cremated or buried.»
«You thinking exhumation?»
«I’m thinking we need to know what actually killed her.»
«That’s going to take time. And lawyers. And a judge willing to sign off on digging up a corpse. We have two days, Stone.»
«Two days, Brick. That’s all we have. If we don’t find something solid, Derek walks, and Ember goes back to a system that’s already failed her twice.»
Another pause. «I’ll make some calls. But Stone, you need to prepare yourself. We might not find anything.»
«I know. And even if we do, it might not be enough.»
«It has to be.»
He hung up. Then he drove back to his house.
Ember was waiting on the porch. Tommy was with her, watching her draw pictures with some crayons one of the brother’s wives had dropped off. When Stone pulled up, she jumped off the swing and hobbled toward him on her crutches.
«You were gone a long time.»
«I know. I’m sorry.»
«Did you find her? The woman named Sarah?»
Stone hesitated. «Yeah, I found her.»
«Is she going to help?»
«Yeah, she’s going to help.»
Ember’s face lit up. «So Derek is going to stay in jail?»
«That’s the plan.»
«Promise?»
Stone knelt down to her level. «Ember, I need to ask you something, and I need you to tell me the truth, even if it’s hard. Okay?»
«Okay.»
«Before your mom got sick, was she acting normal or was something wrong?»
Ember’s face clouded. «She was tired all the time. She said it was stress, but she kept getting more tired, and her hair started falling out.»
«Did she see a doctor?»
«Derek wouldn’t let her. He said doctors were too expensive. He said she just needed rest. But she didn’t get better. No, she got worse. And then one day, she couldn’t get out of bed. Derek finally took her to the hospital. They said it was cancer. They said she should have come sooner.»
Stone felt sick. «Ember, did Derek ever give your mom anything? Drinks? Food? Medicine?»
She thought about it. «He made her tea every night. He said it would help her sleep. Mom said it tasted funny, but Derek got mad when she didn’t drink it.»
«How long did he make her tea?»
«I don’t know. A few months. It started after she packed the bag under the bed.»
Stone’s hands curled into fists. A few months. That was long enough. Long enough to slowly poison someone. Long enough to make it look like a natural illness. Long enough to kill a woman while pretending to care for her.
«Ember, you just helped a lot.»
«I did?»
«Yeah. More than you know.»
He stood up and looked at Tommy. «Stay with her. I have calls to make.»
«What’s going on?»
«I think Derek murdered Ember’s mother. And I’m going to prove it.»
Tommy’s face went hard. «What do you need?»
«Time. And a miracle.»
He went inside and called ADA Martinez. She answered on the second ring.
«Mr. McKenna, I was just about to call you. I have new information.»
«So do I, and mine isn’t good.» Stone’s stomach dropped. «What happened?»
«Derek’s lawyer filed a motion this morning. He’s claiming you assaulted his client at the diner, pushed him, threatened him. He wants you charged with battery.»
«That’s ridiculous. There are witnesses. The other customers.»
«Some of them are willing to testify that you put your hands on him.»
