“If that’s the case, and it’s one of Wade’s followers, then there will definitely be more bodies.”
Seth stroked his chin. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news but given the interval between each one of these dead bodies, at least according to the coroner, chances are our killer already has his next victim and is halfway done with the job. Unless the killer is slowing down - and that’s not how it usually works - I don’t think we’re going to be able to stop this one.”
Sadly, he was right. They were already too late.
“Which brings us to this question,” Reed said. “Will he then be done? Does it even work like that?”
Or was this guy only getting started?
13
There was more back and forth, going over what little evidence they had, and strategizing what the next steps were. It was late when they finally ended their session, and Tanner invited Reed and Logan to stay at his home in Springwood. He and Maddie had recently built a new home, although her medical practice remained in the older, smaller house just down the street. Maddie’s retired father and his wife had moved back to Springwood last year and moved into the childhood home.
Maddie was - self-admittedly - not much of a cook, but Tanner loved to grill so they made some steaks with salad and baked potatoes. Their daughter Amanda was a little younger than Colt and Brianna, but had already decided that she wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps and be a doctor. Like most teenagers, she was fine with sitting down and eating dinner with a bunch of old fogies but afterward disappeared into her room.
“It’s finals week,” Maddie explained. “Although she’s a great student. I don’t think she needs to worry but applaud her dedication to making good grades.”
“Just like her mother,” Tanner said, admiration in his eyes for his wife even after all of these years. It did Logan’s heart good to see two people who were still incredibly in love despite all the twists and turns life had thrown at them. “Smart and beautiful.”
Maddie blushed and waved the men out of the kitchen. “You cooked so I’ll clean up. It’s only fair.”
There were some half-hearted protests but both Reed and Logan had been up since before dawn and were already yawning. Reed was staying in the guest room so he bid everyone goodnight and headed to bed. Logan was sleeping on the pull-out couch in the office but despite his exhausted body, his brain simply wouldn’t turn off. It was filled with a myriad of thoughts about the past and the present, all jumbled up and keeping him from sleeping. He thought some fresh air might clear his head so he quietly went out on the back patio, stretching out on one of the lounge chairs.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
Tanner stood in the doorway, two mugs of something steaming hot in his hands.
“I was trying not to wake anyone,” Logan said. “Shit, I’m sorry.”
Tanner laughed and pushed the door shut behind him, placing the two mugs on the table between the lounge chairs. “Relax, Maddie’s a doctor and can sleep through a bomb going off. Amanda is still up and probably playing around on her computer. She takes after me in not needing a lot of sleep. I brought out a couple of hot chocolates. Hot milk is supposed to make you tired. I would make you a whiskey but you know that I don’t drink, so we don’t have any booze in the house. I know it’s a little warm for hot chocolate but I think plain warm milk is gross.”
“I agree.” Logan reached for one of the mugs. It couldn’t hurt at this point. “I guess I am having a little trouble sleeping tonight. My brain won’t quiet down.”
“Do you want to tell me your troubles?” Tanner asked with a grin. “Sometimes it helps.”
There were few people in this world that Logan ever wanted to confide in. He wasn’t the type to talk about his feelings for the most part. But this was Tanner Marks… If he’d open up to anyone, it was this man. He had so much damn respect for him. Tanner wasn’t old enough to be Logan’s father or anything, but he would have made a terrific older brother.
“I’m not sure where to even begin. The case is a bitch, and I hate being here. Not here-here in your house, but Corville in general. Then Ava laid into me a few days ago, basically calling me an idiot. I wish I could argue with her but I can’t.”
“Ava is usually right.”
“I know. I’m not arguing with her. Well…I kind of did in the beginning but I see where she’s coming from. She made a good case and now I feel like a piece of shit. She says I’m not but I feel like one.”
“Once again, Ava is usually right. And for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re a piece of shit. Can you tell me why you think you are one? Because you usually don’t have issues with your self-esteem.”
As succinctly as he could, Logan explained Ava’s frustrations and how he was missing out on his kids’ childhoods, pulling away from them and her.
“She says that I’ve allowed Wade to live in my head rent-free all of these years later. She hoped it would get better but it’s only become worse.”
Tanner didn’t reply right away, and Logan didn’t say anything else either. He’d let his friend talk in his own time.
“I think that maybe you’ve allowed Bryson in your head all of these years because you still have an inkling of a thought that somehow you should have been able to ‘save’ him or ‘stop’ him without it all going to shit first. You think that somehow you should have known what he was, even though he was actively hiding it from everyone he knew. You need to give yourself some grace and let it go, my friend. You did your best. Hell, we all did our best. Bryson wanted chaos and that’s what he got. In the end, you put a stop to it. We all did our jobs. No one could ask any more of you than what you did.”
“We grew up together. I never saw any signs.”
Tanner chuckled and shook his head. “You think you should just be able to look at someone and know if they’re a killer or not? Shit, I’d love that sort of power but we’re only mere mortals. We can’t see inside someone’s brain like that. Sure, if a trained person is specifically looking for that information they can maybe figure it out, but the track record on that isn’t great. Wade Bryson was a master at projecting whatever image he wanted people to see. Like most sociopaths he’d learned to mimic proper emotions and reactions to society even if he didn’t actually feel them.”
“I sure as fuck never thought he was a criminal mastermind.”
“Because he wasn’t,” Tanner replied immediately. “He wasn’t any smarter than most criminals. He just took more chances. What he was good at was convincing people. He was the consummate salesman, except that he was selling himself and not cars or timeshares.”
It was quiet again, only the sound of crickets and the rustling of the trees. Logan and Tanner drank their hot chocolate in companionable silence.
“As for you missing your kids’ childhoods, you need to give yourself some grace on that, too,” Tanner eventually said, breaking the silence. “Damn, kids are smart. Sit them down, apologize. Explain what happened. They’ll understand. When we know better, we do better. Until now you didn’t know you were doing it so you couldn’t fix it even if you’d wanted to. So now you know.”
“I don’t know if I deserve their forgiveness,” Logan confessed. “I’m not sure that I can forgive myself. I’ve been a bad father.”
“You haven’t. Is Ava talking about divorce? No. Do your kids hate you and act out? No. Are they knocking over liquor stores and stealing cars? No. You’ve been there for your children. You just haven’t been as emotionally available as you would have liked to be.”
“I’ve left the heavy lifting to Ava in the parenting department. I haven’t done my share.”
“Then pick up the slack now. Words are great but show it in your actions. They’ll see that you mean business. Yes, you stumbled and weren’t the best parent you were capable of being. That’s where the partnership comes in. Ava stepped up and the kids didn’t suffer. Now you have the opportunity to let her have some rest while you carry the load a bit. But you’re
not a terrible person. Was your mother perfect?”
“No,” Logan answered. He could only be honest about it.
“But you still love her, right? Parents don’t need to be perfect. Go home in the morning. Make peace with them and yourself. Ask for forgiveness humbly. Listen, I’ve seen you with your kids and you’re a good father, Logan. Hell, my kids have forgiven me for being a drunk when they were young. Now that’s forgiveness.”
Tanner made a good argument. Logan had already decided to make changes; adding in a sincere apology to the twins would be a good start.
Now there was just the pesky issue of this killer to clear up. He had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be as easy as getting a pep talk from Tanner.
Logan didn’t want any more dead bodies in Corville.
The problem with people is that they were so impatient. He’d sat at the red light and it had barely had a chance to turn green before people were honking behind him.
Everyone was in a hurry.
He wasn’t even sure that they were actually going anywhere.
He had patience. He’d practiced, and then practiced some more.
When it was done he could rest. But now? He had work to do.
He was going to finish the job. Soon.
And when that happened?
Logan Wright and his friends would be dead.
14
There hadn’t been any more dead bodies for a week.
For that, Ava was grateful. Logan was able to be at home and he was spending more time than ever with her and the children. He’d come back from his business trip determined to do better and be more emotionally present. He’d apologized to her privately and then to the twins at dinner one night. Both of the kids had accepted his apology but Brianna had seemed more subdued than her brother. The more sensitive one, she was going to need more than words to believe that her father had changed. She was going to want to see action and Logan was doing the hard work.
Eli was still in Corville with Drake investigating the drug cartel that had tried to kill Tanner and Maddie several years ago, but so far, he hadn’t turned up any connection. Jared was digging into Wade Bryson’s crazy followers - that they knew about - but so far hadn’t found anything to follow up.
It was as if six men were killed out of nowhere and now it was all done. Complete.
At this point, she wasn’t even sure that her theory about the initials carved into the bodies was correct. All the families were taking extra precautions but so far nothing out of the ordinary had happened. She was beginning to wonder if she’d imagined the entire investigation and the photos, too.
The only lead they had was the physical evidence that had been sent to the lab, and that could take weeks to get the results back. Even when they did, would the hair, fibers, and DNA be enough to catch someone?
Was the killer done now? Had he moved on to another location?
In her research into true crime, it wasn’t common for a serial to simply stop killing, especially once they’d acquired the taste for it. Usually, the time between murders sped up, not slowed down.
“Mom, can I ask you a question?”
Ava pulled herself out of her thoughts to pay attention to her daughter who had come into the kitchen to grab a drink but now wanted to chat.
Hell yes, I want to talk.
When a teenager wanted to talk to their parent, it was a big damn deal.
“Of course, is everything alright? Are you not feeling well?”
Brianna had a habit of letting anxiety about the unknown get to her, making her stomach ache and her head hurt. This had been a repeating pattern right before a vacation of any sort, plus a bunch of other situations. She hadn’t displayed the behavior recently so Ava had thought that Brianna might have outgrown it.
“I’m fine, Mom,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Does something always have to be wrong?”
No, it just often is.
“Fine, you’re great. Now what would you like to talk about?”
Ava sat down at the kitchen table but Brianna stayed standing, her gaze on the soda can in her hand.
“Who all is going to be there?”
There? Ava assumed her daughter was talking about their vacation.
“The usual gang. Reed and Kaylee, of course. Tanner and Maddie. Seth and Pres—“
“No,” Brianna exclaimed. “I know they’ll be there. Who else?”
Ah, she was asking about Bennett. For the last few years Brianna had shown more than a passing interest in Seth and Presley’s oldest son. In Ava’s opinion, Bennett was too old for Brianna. He’d be starting university in the fall, and while a fine young man, her daughter needed to fish in her own pond - as in high school - for the time being.
Ava was also pretty certain that Bennett had a girlfriend, or at least did last time she’d talked to Presley. With Seth’s good looks and Presley’s charm, he could have just about any girl he wanted. Luckily, he also had a good head on his shoulders and was quite mature for his age.
“Uh, well, let’s see…Josh and Samantha will be there. Amanda will be there. Cherish and Hope. Lizzie and Nate. Tyler. And Ben, Lulu, and Chase, of course.”
Brianna didn’t raise her gaze, instead staring at her feet.
“Ben will be there? Are you sure?”
“Yes, I talked to Presley last week. She said that all three of the kids will be there. Why do you ask?”
Ava kept her tone casual as if she didn’t care about the answer.
“I just wondered.”
“Are you worried about having to deal with so many people at once? You don’t have to take part in everything if you don’t want to.”
Brianna shrugged. “No, it’s fine.”
But she still didn’t look Ava in the eye.
Do I dare?
“Ben’s going to college in the fall. Seth and Presley are really proud of him. He did really well on his SAT.”
Her daughter finally looked up, her expression stormy. Sadly, that wasn’t unusual these days.
“Ben is so full of himself all the time. He’s so stuck up. He thinks he’s better than everyone else.”
“Really? I haven’t seen that from him. Was it something he did or said?”
Brianna was staring at her toes again, her feet shifting uncomfortably. “You can just tell. He’s always telling some story from school or talking about going to college. That’s all he talked about at New Year’s.”
“I would imagine he’s excited.”
“Well…it got boring.”
“There will be lots of other people to hang out with. Lulu will be there and you like her. Lizzie and Amanda, too.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“I think we’re all going to have a good time. Are you looking forward to the trip?”
“Yes, but I’ll miss my friends.”
And just like that, Brianna exited the kitchen, leaving Ava sitting at the table and pondering teenage relationships.
She’d had crushes at that age and boy, had they been painful and rough. Brianna would weather this one as well but that didn’t mean that Ava didn’t feel for her. She wished that she could save her from heartbreak but that wasn’t something that she could do. She had to sit on the sidelines and watch, knowing that this was probably only going to end one way.
With tears.
Tears with a teenage girl weren’t uncommon but these were going to be extra bitter ones. Ben was a fine young man but he had zero interest in a fifteen-year-old girl. He was probably already thinking about the college girls he was going to meet in three months. Brianna wasn’t even on his radar. Thank goodness.
Her daughter was going to have to learn that two and a half years was a lifetime at her age. Sometime in the future it wouldn’t be a big deal at all. But today? It was a huge chasm of experience.
Ava wouldn’t go back to being fifteen for all the money in the world.
Logan was perusing his closet, pondering what to pack and what to leave. They were flying
out in the morning for Florida and he’d spent the better part of the last two days making sure the kids were packed and ready, and just generally taking care of any last-minute preparations. He’d promised Ava that he was going to take care of it all, and he would if it killed him.
And it just might.
He now had a much better appreciation for all that Ava did when he wasn’t around, corralling their two children who were both master procrastinators. If he hadn’t intervened, Colt would have packed five pairs of underwear, no socks, one pair of shorts, and a various assortment of t-shirts. No toothbrush, no deodorant, and no shoes except the flip flops on his feet.
Brianna, on the other hand, would have packed her entire closet and bathroom vanity, completely convinced that she was going to need her prom dress and sparkly heels, plus every shade of lipstick she owned.
Both of them, of course, wouldn’t have left their phones behind. Those electronic devices were practically cemented to their palms.
Now that the kids were done, he had to get himself ready. Luckily, he could pack in minutes. His wardrobe had always been simple and rather utilitarian if you didn’t count the fancy suit that Ava had convinced him to buy for when he made public appearances.
Shit, I never thought I’d ever be someone who did anything like a public appearance.
He wasn’t going to need that suit on this trip, however. Shorts, jeans, and one pair of khakis should cover whatever might come up. He grabbed a few t-shirts and a couple of golf shirts, along with one button down. He had a feeling the ladies might want to go to a nicer restaurant that didn’t allow shorts, although Evan and Josie assured them that Florida was extremely casual. They wore their shorts and tees pretty much everywhere.
He was stuffing socks and underwear into his bag when his phone buzzed. He grabbed it from the side table and slid his thumb across the screen to accept the call.
It was Eli, and he didn’t waste time with hellos or banter.
“We’ve got someone,” the other man stated. “He was pulled over for driving under the influence. His vehicle was searched and we found items that definitely belong to the victims. We’ve been waiting for him to sober up and we’re just about to question him. I can video you in if you want to participate.”
Forgiven Justice (Cowboy Justice Association Book 14) Page 10