Seeing Red(108)

To punctuate his hatred of the man as well as his new resolve, he floorboarded the accelerator. “We probably won’t be coming back to the motel, so we’ll make a quick stop there and get our things.”

“Where are we going?”

“Dallas.”

“Now?”

“You can nap on the way. I’ll drop you at your condo, then I’m going to pay a call on Mr. Thomas Wilcox.”

“By the time you get there, it’ll be …” She tried to estimate the time. “One o’clock in the morning.”

“All the better. He won’t be expecting me.”

“His estate is a fortress, Trapper. There’s a gate. He’ll never let you in. He’ll call the police.”

“No, he won’t. For the same reason I didn’t call them when he ambushed us in my office. I was curious to hear what he had to say. Tonight he’ll be more than curious, he’ll be itching to know if I’ve started negotiations with the feds on his behalf.”

“You said you wouldn’t until you had his balls in one hand—”

“Tonight I do.” He held up his fist.

“But you don’t have his insurance policy in the other.”

“No, but at least now I know what it is.”

“The pledge he has everyone sign.”

“Right. Just my knowing about it, plus the phone recording you made of our conversation, which he’s unaware of, plus Berkley Johnson’s video, which he’s unaware of, plus—”

“Everything Glenn told us.”

“That may come in useful later, but I won’t bring Glenn into it tonight. I won’t need to. Everything else we have adds up to a lot of leverage. But the real kicker? I’m betting that a small-town sheriff is chicken feed compared to the other power players who’ve signed Wilcox’s pledge. One or a cadre of them want him dead, and he knows they’re not squeamish about committing a murder here or there because they’ve already killed his daughter. Hammering that home will be my thumbscrews. He’ll start rethinking his terms and give me that goddamn list.”

“It may work.”

“I’ll make it work.”

“There’s only one glitch in your plan.”

“What?”

“You’re not going to drop me anywhere.”

“I wouldn’t drop you anywhere, Kerra. You’ll be safe inside your condo, especially after I threaten to emasculate the doorman if anybody except the people who live there are allowed in.”

“I’m going with you to see Wilcox.”

“Like hell you are. I don’t want you near him again. I didn’t want you near him in the first place, and that was before I knew that he knew that The Major carried you out of the Pegasus. You’re a danger he can’t afford.”

“So are you!”

“Yeah.” He jerked the car to a halt only a few feet from their motel room door. Reaching around to the small of his back, he drew his pistol, flourishing it. “But I’ve got a gun.”

She produced a cell phone. “I’ve got the recording.”

He snatched the phone from her hand. “Now I’ve got the phone.”

“But not the code.”

“It doesn’t have one.”

“It didn’t when you gave it to me.” She shot him a cheeky grin and pushed open the car door. “It won’t take me but a sec to get my stuff.”



“Dad?” Hank had been lying on the sofa but sat up when he heard Glenn’s tread on the stairs.

“That fourth step has always squeaked,” Glenn complained.

“What are you doing up? And in uniform?”

“Just got a call from Jenks. I’ve got to go meet him out at The Pit.”

“The Pit? All the way out there? Now?”

“Jenks thinks he’s found a missing person. What’s left of him.”

Hank got up, and, in stocking feet, followed his father into the kitchen, where Glenn went to the cupboard and retrieved his gun belt from the top shelf. “Surely somebody else can handle this,” Hank said.

“Surely somebody else can. But I want to. Until tomorrow, I’m still sheriff.” Glenn buckled on the belt, adjusted it to his hips, and took his hat from the hook near the door.

“Does Mom know you’re going?”

“I don’t ask her permission to perform my duties.” He looked at Hank sourly. “Give me at least a five-minute head start before you go tattle.”

“You shouldn’t go, and you certainly shouldn’t be driving. You drank a lot, you’re on medication, and in addition to what Trapper did to you—”

Glenn turned to face him and tapped the center of Hank’s chest for emphasis. “Listen to me, Hank. Trapper didn’t do anything to me. I did it all to myself.” He bobbed his head for emphasis, then put his hat on.

Hank watched through the screened door as his father climbed into his sheriff’s unit and backed down the drive. He didn’t turn on the light bar until he reached the road. Hank continued to watch until the flashing lights disappeared behind a rise.

As he returned to the living room, he took his cell phone from his pants pocket and placed a call. Jenks answered on the first ring.