Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Shock rendered Annie motionless as Dwayne stood, holding out his bloody hands. Blood spread across the cement floor underneath Dylan’s still body. Garish purple tinsel sparkled against his jacket, and one hand was wrapped around a Raven Hills High School pennant.
“It’s not what you think.” Dwayne’s eyes were wide underneath the brim of his cowboy hat. “He was like this when I got here. I was checking for a pulse.”
“Don’t move.” Tate stepped closer, his weapon held at the ready. His flashlight swept the ground before lifting to scan Dwayne’s clothing.
Dwayne kept his hands raised. “I was trying to help.”
Bud, positioned between them and Dwayne, growled. It was low and threatening, a clear warning that he was in protective mode and would do what was necessary to safeguard his master.
Annie’s flashlight beam trembled. It slid off Dylan’s body and rose to Dwayne’s face. The light carved him out of the darkness. Rainwater dripped from his hat brim. Deep grooves bracketed his mouth, drawing attention to his hooked nose.
His nose.
Those blue eyes.
Her breath stalled. The photographs she’d studied all night surfaced in her mind’s eye.
Marcus’s driver’s license, that clean-shaven face she couldn’t stop returning to…
Add twenty years. Add more silver to the hair, lines to the skin, sorrow to the eyes.
The answer slid into place like a lens snapping into focus.
That’s what had been nagging at her. The resemblance to Dwayne.
“Jeb.” The name left her lips in a whisper.
Dwayne went absolutely still. His gaze shot to hers. No confusion. No denial. Wind whistled through the open door, sending an icy shiver down her spine.
She jerked her weapon up. “Get facedown on the ground and keep your hands where I can see them.”
Dwayne didn’t move. Bud growled again, his dark eyes locked on Tate.
“Annie?” Tate didn’t look at her, but even in the darkness, she heard the tension in his question.
“He’s Jeb Morrison. Seth’s father.”
Tate’s sharp inhale echoed in the small space. His gun fixed on Dwayne. “You heard her. Down on the ground. Keep your hands where we can see them!”
Bud took a step forward, snapping, his teeth bared. Tate held his ground, but Annie feared the standoff would end badly if she didn’t intervene. Bud knew her and was far less likely to see her as a threat. She shifted to step in front of Tate, but before she could, Dwayne acted.
“Bud.” His quiet voice rumbled with authority. “Stand down. Sit.”
The dog’s haunches hit the cement floor, although a whine escaped him in protest. Dwayne stepped in front of his dog, his hands still raised, his eyes pleading with Annie. “Let me explain.”
Details registered in her cop’s mind. Dwayne’s hands had blood on them, but his clothing was clean, something that would be impossible after slitting a person’s throat.
No knife, either in his hands or on the ground.
She also recognized that he’d called Bud off when he didn’t have to.
Still, Annie wasn’t willing to extend him the benefit of the doubt.
He’d lied to her. Betrayal and uncertainty swirled like a hurricane inside her, so Annie retreated to her law enforcement training.
Safety required them to secure him before hearing anything he had to say.
She kept her weapon fixed on him. “Down on the ground, Dwayne. Now!”
Dwayne lowered himself to the ground, knees first, and then dropped facedown onto the floor. Tate glanced at Annie, and she nodded in silent acknowledgement that she’d cover him. He reached for the handcuffs attached to his belt.
“Annie, you know me.” Dwayne didn’t struggle as the cuffs snapped onto his wrists. “I didn’t do this! I swear I was just trying to help.”
Tate patted the older man down, removing a cell phone, wallet, and keys from his pockets. No weapons. No radio. He’d left it in the UTV cup holder. Annie had seen it there when she used the vehicle for cover.
Tate pulled Dwayne up until he was in a seated position. “Help how?”
“By stopping my son.” His pleading gaze found Annie’s again. “He’s lost and angry. He doesn’t know what he’s doing—”
“He’s killing people!” Anger came up so fast it startled her. Her hands trembled as she stared in disbelief at the man she’d considered a friend. “You knew who it was this whole time and never said a word.”
Tate placed a steadying hand on Annie’s arm. She sucked in a breath and reined in her temper. There would be a time to fall apart, but now wasn’t it. They needed information.
“Where is Marcus now?” Tate demanded.
“I don’t know.”
“Are you working with him?”
“God, no.” Again his attention fixed on Annie.
“I swear on Seth’s grave, I’m not helping Marcus.
I didn’t even suspect him until after Kayla died.
When you discovered her body, and I learned about the Raven Hills High pennant, I started to worry Marcus was involved.
But it wasn’t until he attacked you at the cabin and we learned about the text messages that I was sure.
Since then, I’ve been doing everything I can to find him.
To stop him. I thought I could convince him to turn himself in before anyone else got hurt. ”
Unwilling to take his word for it, Annie reached down and picked up Dwayne’s cell phone from the ground.
She used his face to unlock the device and scrolled through his messages.
Sure enough, he had sent a string of texts to Marcus.
First asking where he was, demanding to know if he was involved in Kayla’s death, and then begging him to meet so they could talk and put a stop to this.
The texts wavered from angry to concerned to desperate and back again.
None of them had been answered.
She handed the phone to Tate. Someone had provided Marcus with information about the reunion—the dates, participants, and their phone numbers. That same person had been feeding Marcus information about their movements. If it wasn’t Dwayne, then it was someone else. “Who is Marcus working with?”
“I don’t know.”
She didn’t believe him. “You must have some idea. The reunion gave him an opportunity, but Marcus has been thinking about this for a long time. He questioned both Caleb and Evan about what happened at the bonfire.”
“I knew he was digging into what happened, but that was years back. I thought he just needed answers.”
“Other than Evan and Caleb, who did he speak with?”
“I don’t know.” Dwayne’s expression was a mix of frustration and regret. “Marcus stopped telling me things a long time ago.”
“Marcus told his neighbors that he was coming to visit you.”
“He lied.” Dwayne looked away. “We barely have a relationship, and haven’t been close since I went to prison.”
A pinprick of sympathy punctured her anger. “Why didn’t you come forward and tell us the truth when you figured out Marcus was involved?”
“Because I was scared for my son. I thought…” He shook his head. “Stupidly, I thought I could fix things. Contain it somehow.”
“You wanted to keep him out of prison?”
“No.” His jaw tightened. “If Marcus murdered Kayla, then he needs to face punishment for that, but…” Dwayne struggled for a moment as if to find the right words.
“Maybe it’s hard for you both to understand, but I’ve been in that darkness.
I drank myself into a different person, and I made decisions that changed everything.
I killed someone, and I’ve had to carry that pain with me every day since.
Marcus…he’s more than this…he…this isn’t the person God wants him to be. ”
Annie could hardly disagree with that. Still, in her mind, killing a person while driving drunk and murdering someone in cold blood were vastly different. Dwayne and Marcus weren’t as similar as he wanted to believe.
Dwayne’s shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry, Annie. I should’ve come forward and told you what I know, but…I guess deep down, I didn’t want to admit to myself what was happening.”
Compassion swept through her, diluting the pulsing heat of her anger.
Dwayne had made serious mistakes, no doubt, but he’d done so with the mindset of a desperate father.
Reaching out, begging for his son to grasp the lifeline he was extending.
Annie didn’t know what it was like to have a child, but she knew God’s love.
He also reached out to His children when they were lost, begging them to come toward Him so He could ease their pain and soothe their troubled hearts.
Tate crossed his arms. “You expect me to believe you just happened to be living in Oakwood and working for Annie when all of this went down?”
“That was another reason I didn’t come forward.
I wasn’t sure you’d believe me.” He sighed.
“Oakwood is the only happy home I can remember. The time I spent here with my grandparents was a bright spot in my childhood. My ex-wife lived here with Seth because I’d deeded her some property I’d inherited before going to prison.
She intended to sell it and move on, but fell in love with the town.
After getting out of prison and finishing parole, I wanted to be close to them, even if only to attend their graves.
So I changed my name and moved back. I was fortunate to get a job at Haven Ranch. I found peace here.”
Annie knew the rest of the story. She’d bought the ranch and Dwayne stayed on as her property manager. “Marcus couldn’t have been happy to find out you were working for me.”
“No, he wasn’t, but I never dreamed he would do this. He wants revenge for what happened to Seth.” Dwayne’s voice went flat. “He’s never accepted that it was an accident.”
Tate crouched to look Dwayne in the eye. “Where is Marcus hiding?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try again. You assured us no one was squatting in any of the buildings, but Marcus has to be staying somewhere on the property. So where is he?”
“I swear I don’t know. I’ve checked every inch of the property, and there’s no sign of him.
I suspect he’s on the move, constantly rotating between buildings so I can’t pin him down.
He might even be staying on the Kellerman property next door.
Marcus is trained to operate under the radar.
He knows how to move undetected in enemy territory. ”
The crack of a branch outside sent Annie’s heart rate skittering. She moved to the door, her weapon at the ready, and peered into the night. Nothing moved that she could see. Still, the hairs on her arms rose.
Bud joined her, his nose raised. His ears were at attention, his fur ruffled, but he didn’t growl. Another branch broke, then something crashed to the forest floor. The sleet picked up its pace.
She glanced back at Tate. “We should get back to the main lodge.”
They were too exposed out here. She craved the safety of the main lodge. Dylan’s murder weighed heavy on her heart, but there was nothing she could do for him now, and the sooner they were back with the group, the better. They could question Dwayne more there.
Tate hauled Dwayne to his feet, but didn’t move him toward the door. Instead, he paused, as if something had just occurred to him. “What did Marcus take from the pantry in the mess hall? He didn’t break in to grab canned food and some beef jerky. He needed something. What was it?”
Dwayne’s brow crinkled. “I’m not sure. I went back after you left to search the space, and I think some bottles of industrial cleaning solution and solvent were missing.”
Annie shivered in the cold. “Why would he need that?”
Tate met her gaze across the distance between them, his expression horrified. “So he could build a bomb.”