Seeing Red(128)

“Guess what? Entertainment Tonight has called. The network has temporarily suspended the clause in your contract that prohibits you from—”

“This isn’t entertainment, Gracie,” she said and made to go around her.

“The View wants you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be busy tomorrow.”

“Okay, I’ll put them off. Maybe one day next week?”

“Until further notice, don’t commit me to anything.”

“Kerra, be smart here. Capitalize on this.” She wagged her index finger at her. “I know you’re holding back a lot of juicy stuff. If you never reported another story, you could make a career off this one.”

The words were so painfully close to the ones Trapper had said to The Major, she recoiled. “That’s the last thing I would want to do. Now, you must excuse me. Deputy Jenks has asked to talk to me.”

He was waiting in the hospital lobby, in uniform, continuing the pretense that he was a high-ranking deputy sheriff and not a federal agent. He drew her aside, out of anyone else’s earshot. He gestured toward her biceps. “I hope I didn’t squeeze your arm too tight.”

“When we were back there, why didn’t you tell me you were an FBI agent?”

“Sorry, but you had to be convincingly frightened. I wanted Hank’s confession to the Wilcox girl’s murder before I arrested him.”

“Trapper was told this morning that the FBI had a man working from the inside.”

“Two of us, actually,” Jenks said. “For the past couple of years.”

“Is your partner also in the sheriff’s office?”

Jenks smiled politely but didn’t answer.

Abashed, she said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked, even though anything we say is off the record. You have my word.”

“I believe you.”

“Can I ask what put Glenn Addison on the FBI’s radar to start with?”

“More people listened to Trapper than he was aware of,” Jenks said. “Based on what he’d brought to light, we started sniffing out Wilcox, and things began to stink, especially when surveillance picked up the close contact he maintained with a sheriff, who happened to be The Major’s good friend.

“Because of Trapper’s kinship with The Major,” he continued, “the higher-ups weren’t sure he could remain objective if he were told about it. They sent us up here, but kept Trapper out of the loop.”

“They shouldn’t have.”

“I tend to agree, but the decision was made by people above my pay grade. I was investigating the sheriff. Floored me when Hank approached me with a ‘recruitment’ pitch. He had some grandiose ideas.”

“About?”

“Getting Wilcox’s list and blackmailing people, monied people, into supporting his ministry and building him into a TV megastar. Motivational superman. The person with all the answers.”

“God’s mouthpiece.”

“Essentially. This tabernacle was only the first step. He studied how Wilcox operated, saw how effectively he manipulated by instilling paranoia, and mimicked it.”

“What happened today?”

“He called and told me he was going to drive The Major home from the hospital, needed me to go with him, and dispose of the body later. I could tell he was becoming more and more unhinged, that things were coming to a head fast, so I notified the cavalry and told them to stand by, then met him here in the parking lot. When I climbed into the van, I didn’t expect you, just like Sunday night.”

“Which was full of surprises.”

“Tell me. Initially Hank told me to go alone. I was going to warn The Major of what was going on, advise him to leave town for a few days, give me and the bureau time to figure out if we had enough on Hank to make an arrest for Tiffany Wilcox’s murder and make it stick.

“But Petey was sprung on me at the last minute. Hank thought he should go along as backup. Without blowing my cover, I didn’t have time to warn The Major, except to make a lot of noise as we approached the house. I hit him in the head just to get him down, thinking I’d apologize later, and in the meantime, deal with Petey.”

“Petey was trigger-happy.”

“Till my dying day, I’ll blame myself for not realizing what he was going to do.”

By the look on his face, Kerra knew that to be true. “Petey was the one who asked how do you like being dead.”

“Yes. Then the light went out in the bathroom. I had to choose between saving the person inside it or tending to The Major, and, honestly, I thought he was already dead.”

“Thanks for not shooting me.”

“I blasted everything I could but you. Hank wasn’t happy we’d missed you and The Major. Once you were released from the hospital, Hank sent me to try again.”

She listened, appalled as he told her about hiding in the closet of her motel room. “I couldn’t let your producer discover me, or I’d have had to blow my cover.”

“What if I’d returned to my room and discovered you there?”

“That’s actually what I was hoping for. I intended to tell you who I was and what I was doing, and ask if you wouldn’t mind cooperating with your government by vanishing for a couple days and letting Hank think you were keeping Petey company in The Pit.” He chuckled. “Trapper saved me the trouble by kidnapping you.”