Seeing Red(107)

“What did he say?”

“He claimed not to know what I was talking about. He hung up on me and hasn’t answered his phone to me since.”

Trapper thought on that, then asked Glenn if he and Wilcox had ever met face-to-face other than that first time.

“No. I hope I never have to look into those eyes again. Made me shiver.”

Trapper glanced at Kerra, then said to Glenn, “You may find him changed since the death of his daughter. What do you know about that?”

“Only that she died,” Glenn said. “Never knew the details, and I didn’t send flowers.”

Trapper pushed his chair back, pulled on his coat, and motioned for Kerra to do the same.

Glenn looked up at him with bleary-eyed apprehension. “What happens now?”

“You resign, Sheriff Addison.”

“Will I face criminal charges? Will I go to prison?”

“I don’t know. Won’t be up to me.”

“How much do you have on Wilcox?” he asked again. “What do you have? How incriminating is it?”

Trapper didn’t answer him.

“The reason I’m asking is …” Glenn wet his lips. “Maybe I could help you, John. We could work together. Partner.”

“Until tonight I thought we were.”

The brutal but truthful words seemed to crush him. His chest caved in. “Tomorrow, I’ll put together everything I can remember about Wilcox, everything I know. If I help you make your case, and you deliver Wilcox hogtied to the authorities, maybe they’ll let me plea out.”

There were tears in his eyes. He was all but begging, and Trapper wouldn’t be human if he weren’t affected by his mentor’s humility. “Whatever else happens, Glenn, you resign tomorrow. You’re not entitled to wear a badge a single day more.”

“What’ll I give as a reason?”

“Health. You had a close call today. It woke you up to priorities.”

Glenn nodded. “The other? My turning state’s evidence?”

Trapper kept his expression neutral. “I’ve got to deliver Wilcox first. I do …” He shrugged. “What they do to you or to anyone else who signed his fucking pledge won’t be up to me.”

“I love your dad,” Glenn said, his voice cracking. “I love you like a second son. I would never have let anybody harm either of you.”

Glenn waited to see if Trapper was going to say or do anything in response to that. But anything he said would come out laced with either anger, sarcasm, or heartbreak. He didn’t trust himself to speak at all.

“Well.” Glenn pushed himself out of his chair. “I’m going to bed. Tomorrow’s going to be an eventful day.” He took the bottle of whiskey with him as he shuffled out of the room.

Hank set his elbow on the table and rested his forehead in his palm. “So much for my tabernacle.”

Trapper took a step toward him and would have leveled the self-absorbed son of a bitch if Kerra hadn’t stepped between them.

“It’s time we left, Trapper,” she said.

Trapper looked down at Hank with contempt. “Couldn’t agree more.” He guided her through the mudroom and outside.





Chapter 31




Trapper had driven them in the maroon sedan, choosing it over Kerra’s car, which still had to be hot-wired.

From the Addisons’ back door, they walked to the car in silence, and neither of them spoke until several minutes later, when Trapper pulled into a gas station and Kerra remarked that it was closed.

“I’m not here to get gas.” He switched on the flashlight app of one of his several cell phones, got out, and searched the underside of the car. When he got back in, Kerra asked if he’d found anything.

“No, and I didn’t really expect to. When I mentioned the transmitter, Glenn’s puzzled reaction was genuine. I don’t believe he knew anything about it. Which means that somebody else put it there.”

“Jenks?”

“My money’s on him. But was he acting on his own authority or someone else’s?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Jesus, Kerra, I don’t know who or what to believe anymore. It’s tough to hear, much less accept, that Glenn has been in cahoots with Wilcox for years. No wonder he insisted I stay far removed from his investigation. He was afraid I would discover his collusion.”

“Is he framing Leslie Duncan?”

“I’m not sure about anything, but I’m inclined to say no to that, too. He owned up to doing much worse than planting evidence, so why not admit to that?”

He restarted the car and steered it back onto the highway. “I can’t believe I’m even talking about Glenn Addison in criminal terms.”

“You went there tonight knowing that at the very least he’d been disingenuous,” she said. “You started out by saying it wasn’t going to be fun.”

“I know, but it really, really sucked. I have a lifetime of good memories with that man. Tainted now. Gone. Because Glenn made a bargain with the devil. That breaks my heart. But—”

“But?”

“It also pisses me off,” he said in a lower, deadlier tone. “It’s time Wilcox was stopped from destroying lives. Especially mine.”