She managed a sad smile despite her tears. “Look how gently she passed. He took her out of her suffering. She’s well now.”
Travis looked down at her. His wife’s face was more relaxed and peaceful than she had looked in months. Those pain-wrought furrows were no longer etched between her eyebrows. The lines on her forehead had been erased.
He tried to imagine that she was waking up in heaven, realizing that the pain was gone, knowing that disease was no longer eating away at her body. She was free and light, and her darkness and sorrow had been lifted. There was only light and joy.
Please let it be true. Please don’t let it just be a wishful heart.
They wept together until the nurses and orderlies, with their sympathetic eyes and somber faces, came to take Crystal’s body away.
Travis couldn’t handle it. He slipped out of the room and through the exit door at the end of the hall and into the stairwell. He trotted down the staircases until he was on the first floor. Before he left the building, he checked through the vertical window. There was no one looking this way, so he stepped out and went to his truck.
He had expected that, by now, Dustin would have turned him in. Was it possible he hadn’t? The police hadn’t been to the hospital at all, as far as he could tell. Crystal hadn’t had to learn what he’d done. He broke into tears again as he drove, and he wanted to hug his boys and protect them from the news.
Instead, he drove in a different direction.
56
Taylor had raced back to Atlanta at eighty miles an hour, every instinct in her body telling her to get to the police station to tell them about the two men she’d seen in Gainesville and their connection to her video.
When she found Detective Borden in the office, she was stunned by his attitude. He came out to her looking irritated, as if he had too much to do to waste time with her again. “I have ten minutes,” he said.
“Ten minutes is enough. I have to show you something,” she said in a rush as he led her to an interview room.
As he closed the door to the room, he looked her over. “You’re sweating,” he said.
She ignored him and found the video on her phone. “I was following Dustin Webb today, and he went—”
“You what?” He was still standing, as if he wasn’t going to give her the benefit of a sit-down talk. “Why were you following him?”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is—”
“Yes, it does. You shouldn’t be following him.”
She sprang up. “Listen to me! He went to these apartments in Gainesville.”
“Gainesville?” Borden asked. “Did he talk to anyone?”
“No, he stayed in his car. But while I was watching him, these guys came out of the apartment he seemed to be watching. And I recognized two of them. Look, I have them on video from that day of the bombing. They were parked in front of me.”
He was paying closer attention now. He sat down, took the phone, and watched the video of the two guys trotting up the sidewalk and getting into the car.
“I don’t see anything unusual here,” he told her. “Some guys just coming to their car like you did and like everyone else parked on that street did.”
Was he dense? She was getting impatient. “No, you don’t get it. Why would Dustin Webb be waiting for them if they were just ‘some guys’? But if they were involved in the bombing—”
“Wait a minute.” He stood and opened the door, leaned outside, and said something to someone. Then he stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him. She could hear his muffled voice through the door.
Finally Borden and another man came back inside. “Thanks for coming in. We know who these men are. We’ll take it from here,” Borden said.
The other guy had his hands on his hips. “Don’t follow anyone else. You’re interfering with an investigation and putting yourself in needless danger.”
“Everybody’s in needless danger, because you let him out! I can’t eat and can’t sleep, and I can’t trust you to protect us, so I followed him. Somebody had to.”
The two detectives thought she was crazy. She could see that in their eyes.
“Did Webb talk to these men?” the second detective asked.
“No. They came out, and he left the parking lot before they did. They went opposite directions. At least, I’m pretty sure they did. I got distracted because I knew I recognized them, and I couldn’t think how. Then I remembered the video. You really know who they are?”
Borden leaned forward and spoke to her like a guard in a mental ward. “Taylor, you’re not on the police force. You’re interfering with an investigation. Now, if you don’t stop this, I’m going to have to arrest you.”
“If there’s another bombing while he’s running free, that’s on you. I’ll tell everybody that I tried to give you information and you wouldn’t listen.”
“We are listening,” Detective Borden said. “We’re working on the case, day and night. We have people following all of our viable leads. We know you have a stake in this. A lot of people do. But I’m telling you that you can walk out of here right now and go home, or we can arrest you for interfering with an investigation. You can’t do our job, but you might ruin what we’re working toward.”
She felt the courage seeping out of her. “Are you even going to check? Get their names, their backgrounds, see where they were that night? If they know Dustin Webb? Don’t you even want my video?”
“I’ve already air-dropped it to my phone.” He handed the phone back to her.
She stood straighter. “Please tell me who they are.”
“Thanks for coming in.”
“Wait. Are they involved with the bombings?”
Borden and the man went to the door, opened it, and motioned for her to walk out. “We’ll call you if we have any more questions.”
The ringing in her ears went up an octave. Her head felt like it had been struck by lightning. She grabbed her purse from the back of her chair and slipped the strap over her shoulder. She left the interview room and stormed out of the department.
Even though they knew who the men were, they still thought she was crazy. The truth was, she felt crazy. She was going off the deep end. It was the anger, the maddening regret, the crushing guilt. But all of that could be resolved if she could just see the people responsible for her friends’ deaths pay for what they’d done.
But these men she’d just talked to couldn’t be trusted to make them pay. She would still have to do it herself.
57
Dustin was back at the Airbnb with Jamie when Wendy called. When he saw her name on his phone, his stomach sank. He touched Accept and said, “Wendy, hey.”
The stopped-up hollowness in Wendy’s voice was apparent the moment she spoke. “Hey, sweetie. Has Travis called you yet?”
He put it on speakerphone so Jamie could hear. “No, I haven’t talked to him today.”
She let out a hard sigh. “Crystal left us.”
Though he’d expected the news, it came like a sledgehammer in the center of his heart. He covered his mouth and tried to speak, but words wouldn’t come.
Jamie already had tears in her eyes. “Wendy, this is Jamie. How are you doing?”
“I’m okay,” she said, though Dustin knew she wasn’t.
Dustin found his voice. “How is Travis?”
She didn’t answer for a moment, then said, “I don’t know where he is.”
Jamie sucked in a breath. “What? He’s not there?”
“No. He was here with her when she passed, but while they were moving her, he just left. I know he’s upset.”
Dustin looked at Jamie. She was already reaching for her phone.
“Did he say where he was going?”
“No. I thought he’d be here with me. Calling people and taking care of things. I guess he just shut down.”
Dustin tried to comfort her the best he could, but when he got off the phone, he heard Jamie talking to the police. He sat there a
moment, his face in his hands. She was gone, his sweet friend who had meant so much in his life. He hated it for Travis, for the boys, for all of them. But where had Travis gone?
Travis had vowed to turn himself in the moment she died. Maybe he was headed to the police station. Maybe he just hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell Wendy what he had done.
Jamie got off the phone and looked down at him. “He didn’t go to turn himself in.”
Dustin wiped his face. “Has he had enough time? Maybe he’s on his way.”
“Why weren’t the police at the hospital, waiting to arrest him? How could they just let him walk away?”
Dustin got up. “He could still do the right thing.”
“He’s not going to do the right thing, Dustin!” she cried. “You think he’s this honorable person who puts his family first, and he’s not. He committed an awful crime that led to a heinous mass murder. You really think he’s going to walk in there and say, ‘Hey, I’m your guy’? He’s not going to!”
Dustin just stared into space.
“Dustin, I know you care a lot about him, and I know you’re upset about Crystal, too. But what he did to you was unconscionable. I’m sorry if I don’t believe his wife’s death is going to give him a sudden surge of integrity.”
Dustin stood up. His body felt heavier as he moved. “I’ll go find him.”
“You won’t find him. He’s probably left town.”
He shook his head. “He wouldn’t do that.” Dustin started to the door with one clear purpose in mind. “He’ll turn himself in.”
He hurried out to his car. He had to find Travis before this whole thing got worse. As angry as he was at his friend, he had to save him from himself.
58
It was disturbing how little things changed after someone died. As Dustin searched for Travis, the sun still shone and birds still sang. The breeze still whispered through the leaves. People still ate and went to work, appointments were kept, and the nurses and doctors on the fourth floor probably went on with business as usual.
But Crystal was gone.
A strange emptiness yawned inside Dustin, as if some vital part of himself were missing. His friendship with Crystal had been the first real friendship he’d had with a woman after Jamie.
Dustin looked for Travis at home, but his truck wasn’t there. The babysitter’s car was still in the driveway.
He headed to the office, praying he would find him there. He wouldn’t be able to get in, but maybe he could intercept him. But there were no cars in the GreyWebb parking lot. He pulled in and sat there a moment, trying to think. Where else would he go? Would he jump on a plane and skip town? No, not without his boys.
Maybe he went to the funeral home to take care of Crystal’s arrangements before he turned himself in. He checked his GPS for the funeral home Travis would probably choose and headed there.
Travis’s truck wasn’t there, but he could have switched his truck for Crystal’s car to throw off anyone looking for him. But her car wasn’t there either. Dustin got out and went to the door, but it was locked. Closed.
He got back into his car and tried to think. His phone chimed, and he looked at the message. It was from Wendy.
Try the lake.
The lake was one of Travis’s favorite places, the place where the two of them had often fished before the boys were born, the place where his children loved to play.
As he drove south, he thought of last night, when he and Travis had come to blows. His friend had betrayed him. He was still betraying him. He had set him up and stood by while Dustin sat in jail. He had lied until he was caught. Then he lied again.
Still, Dustin hadn’t given up on him. The last few weeks couldn’t be allowed to define their years-long friendship. Travis had been under so much stress, searching desperately for a way to save the mother of his twins. What would Dustin have done if he’d been in the same position?
He didn’t think he would have facilitated the theft of explosives that could be used for a terrorist attack.
Travis didn’t have the same value system that Dustin had. Though he’d seen the changes in Dustin, he hadn’t joined him on his faith journey. He didn’t have the Spirit’s nudging when he came to forks in the road. He didn’t have the Bible’s guidance. He didn’t feel the need to ask what God would want from him.
But maybe Dustin was just looking for ways to let his friend off the hook. Travis had done something that couldn’t be excused. If he was trying to hide from the authorities, or if he was considering taking his own life . . . then Travis wasn’t the man Dustin thought him to be. Still, Dustin needed to find him.
He had no idea if he was searching to save Travis, or himself.
It took Dustin forty minutes to reach the lake, where Travis had brought him and Jamie mere days ago. When he reached the clearing where they always parked their cars, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. There was Travis’s truck. But Travis was nowhere to be seen.
Dustin walked through the playground to the water’s edge. He didn’t see Travis in either direction. The blinding sun cut across the water, making it hard to see to his right, where Travis usually fished.
Birds sang in the trees overhead, and the wind whipped the leaves, as if there might be rain coming. A few clouds moved across the sky. Dustin started up the hill, walking along the bank toward a curve up ahead that he couldn’t see beyond.
The heat was sweltering, and the humidity was oppressive. He wiped his forehead, then his hand swept under his eye, where the bruise from last night was still tender.
He went around the tip of the peninsula, heading toward a spot where the water was deep and usually full of fish.
Then he saw him. Travis was sitting on the ground, his arms hugging his knees and his face tucked into his arms. Dustin slowly walked toward him without saying a word.
Travis heard his footsteps and looked up, his eyes wet, red, and swollen. Seeing Dustin, his face twisted in even more anguish, and he choked out a sob.
Dustin sat down on the grass beside him. For a long time, he let Travis weep. When Travis seemed to be spent, Dustin spoke.
“Do you remember that day we brought Crystal with us to fish out here? Remember how excited she was when she caught her first fish?”
Travis wiped his eyes. “Yeah. She almost fell in the water, jumping up and down.”
“Remember she wanted her picture taken with it? It must have been four inches long, but you would have thought it was a monster bass.”
“Yeah. Then when I told her she’d have to clean it, she threw it back in.”
They laughed, a soft sound of relief and surrender, but the laughter died on a sad note.
“I wish I’d brought her out here again before we checked her into the hospital this time,” Travis said. “Time just moves so fast.”
Dustin tore a blade of grass out of the ground.
“All that stupid stuff I did was for nothing. No matter how much money they paid me, it couldn’t keep her alive.” His wounded eyes met Dustin’s. “But every day with her was precious.”
“I know it was.” Dustin got up and stood looking out at the water. “God gave you the time with her. I don’t know how it happened.” He turned back to him. “I did go to the police. I had to tell them what I knew, otherwise I would have been an accomplice.”
Travis’s jaw popped, as if he didn’t know how to take Dustin exposing him. Dustin felt a surge of guilt, even though he knew it was irrational. He picked up a rock, tossed it into the water, watched it plop. The water rippled in concentric circles, which faded and disappeared. They were still for a moment, and Dustin wondered if Travis was blaming him for not covering for him. Dustin kept his eyes fixed on the water, his spirits as low as the rock that had sunk to the lake’s murky floor. “I didn’t want any of this for you,” he said.
Travis wiped his face and nodded. “I know.”
“But if you don’t turn yourself in and confess, they’re going to think you had somethi
ng to do with planting the bomb and targeting the people who were killed. If there’s another bomb . . .”
“But my kids . . .” He shook his head. “It’s so unfair to them.”
“You chose it, Travis!” Dustin said. “Yes, it’s unfair. It’s horrible for them. Losing their mom and now their dad.” Anger climbed into his throat, and he set his hands on his hips and took a few steps away, then turned back. “Why couldn’t you look down the road and see what this whole thing would cause? The implications for the twins? For me? For yourself?”
“All I could see down the road was losing Crystal.”
“So tell me. Are you just going to sit out here? Are you still not going to do the right thing, even now? Are you going to let me go down for this?”
“I just want to bury her.”
Something deep in Dustin’s chest snapped as he realized Travis was asking for another few days. “They’re not going to give you that. They’re going to arrest you.”
“I won’t let them find me.”
Dustin gaped at him. “You’re being stupid again, Travis. What’s wrong with you? Even if you manage to hide from them until the funeral, they’ll arrest you there, in front of everyone—the kids, Wendy, everybody. You don’t get to call the shots here! How would you even hide? You’ll be a wanted man.”
“I know that,” Travis said. “What do you think has been going through my mind?”
Dustin stood looking at him, that debilitating disappointment in his friend rising up in his heart again. Travis was about to make the wrong choice, once again.
“Those men,” Dustin said. “I know who they are now. Samuel Bates and his two brothers. They had a vendetta against Ed Loran because of toxic waste that his company caused. It killed their little sister, both parents. They sued, but lost the suit.” Dustin pulled his phone out and showed him the picture of Samuel Bates. “This is the guy, right?”
Travis stood and looked at it. “Yeah, that’s him.”
“The police know about him. I told them. If you turn yourself in now and cooperate, you’ll probably just be charged with theft. If you wait and more people die, then you’ll be charged with multiple counts of murder. Can you really live with that? What if more people die?”
Aftermath Page 20