Sadie nodded, and he eased open the door. Just as he did, Amelia’s cries echoed from the house. The lights were dim, and Sadie peeked over Jake’s shoulder, terrified.
Jake drew his gun and inched inside. The front room of the studio was empty, but Sadie could hear Amelia’s voice.
“Please stop,” Amelia cried. “Don’t do this to me anymore. I told Jake—he’ll tell Sadie. They’ll help me now.”
Jake shoved the door open with his shoulder, and Sadie gasped when she spotted Dr. Tynsdale on the floor, unconscious.
God help them. It wasn’t Tynsdale who’d been drugging Amelia.
It was Ms. Lettie.
Ms. Lettie stood with a gun aimed at Amelia.
“She killed Dr. Tynsdale,” Amelia cried. “She’s trying to kill me, too, and make it look like I murdered him.”
At one time Jake wouldn’t have believed her, but she had seemed more lucid earlier, and she had led him straight to Sadie.
And now he knew the truth. His father had tortured her and killed her grandfather. And he was responsible for so many deaths.
“Put down the gun, Ms. Lettie,” Jake said calmly.
“No, I have to take care of her,” Ms. Lettie said, a crazed look in her eyes. “That’s my job. I’ve been doing it for years.”
“You’ve been keeping her drugged so she wouldn’t remember the truth about what happened at the sanitarium,” Sadie said. “You worked there. You helped Blackwood and those doctors, didn’t you?”
Ms. Lettie’s hand trembled. “You don’t understand. They were just following orders. We all were.”
Sadie glared at her. “Your orders involved torturing children.”
“It was an experiment,” Ms. Lettie said vehemently. “One that went all wrong, but we tried to help the ones who survived. That was the reason we admitted Amelia to the hospital, and I came to take care of her.”
Jake inched forward. “You took advantage of innocent children and families. Instead of helping them, you lied to them, used them, then drugged them to keep your evil experiments from being exposed.” Jake’s fingers tightened around his gun. “But it’s over, Ms. Lettie. Now put down that gun.”
Ms. Lettie gave Sadie an imploring look, then tried to run. Jake caught her as she vaulted for the door to escape, then flipped her around, knocked the gun from her hand, and laid it on the nightstand. Then he handcuffed her, just as he had his father.
A second later, he rushed to Dr. Tynsdale and checked his pulse. “He’s alive,” Jake said, then quickly called an ambulance.
Sadie ran to Amelia, dropped down on the bed, and hugged her. “It’s okay now, Sis. It’s all over.”
Amelia burst into tears. “I’ve been fighting the voices,” she said. “They tried to take me over, Sadie, but I’ve been fighting them.”
Sadie stroked Amelia’s hair, pushing it behind her ear. “Good for you, Amelia—keep fighting. Maybe without all those narcotics Ms. Lettie gave you, you can finally get well.”
Amelia held her so tightly that Sadie remembered when they were kids, holding on to each other when their grandmother died.
She didn’t know if her sister could overcome the trauma she’d suffered from the experiment or if she’d been permanently damaged. But she vowed to do everything possible this time to make sure she received the proper treatment.
Maybe there was a chance that Amelia could have a normal life.
Maybe they both could.
Even if she had to live hers without Jake.
Jake couldn’t bear to look at Sadie, not after his father had destroyed her family.
But questions nagged him. Ms. Lettie and his father had both implied there was someone bigger behind the experiments.
Maybe now that they’d been arrested, he or Ms. Lettie would fill in the details.
A siren wailed, lights flashing as the ambulance rolled down the drive. He met the paramedics at the door and ushered them over to the doctor. Tynsdale was unconscious, but hopefully he would make it.
If not, it would be another murder on his father’s head.
Ms. Lettie glared at him from the corner, where he’d handcuffed her to the door. It was almost unbelievable that the sweet lady they’d all trusted, the woman Sadie had considered family, had been a part of this deception.
He phoned Nick, asking him to meet him at the jail. Then he turned to Sadie and Amelia.
“Considering the circumstances, I’m going to suggest to the DA that she drop the charges against both of you.”
Sadie still looked pale from her earlier ordeal, but she squared her shoulders. “Thank you, Jake.”
“I’m just doing my job.” Still, emotions warred in his head. Sadie had taken care of her sister when she was young, and then run because she’d shot his father to protect Amelia.