‘My wife always wanted kids and we’d never been able to have any, and we’d been cleared as fosters before her cancer came back, so . . . I thought having someone to mother would make her happy. But she didn’t like Wyatt. She was afraid of him from the beginning. And then her cancer came back.’ He shook his head with a sigh. ‘I needed to take care of him. I guess I needed the control because nothing I’d done could save my wife.’
‘Why was your wife afraid of Wyatt?’ Trip asked.
‘She said he was mean and cruel and . . .’ He drew a deep breath and shuddered it out. ‘I thought it was her sickness talking. I smoothed it over and I kept Wyatt. Now, looking back, I wonder what he did to her.’
Adam stared. ‘What are you talking about? When was Wyatt mean and cruel?’
Another sigh. ‘You remember Mrs Hanson’s cat?’
Adam nodded warily. He did, but only because of the way it died. ‘It was poisoned.’ He felt sick. ‘You’re saying Wyatt did it?’
‘I didn’t think so at the time, but a few years later it happened to the neighbor’s cat too. I searched Wyatt’s room and found a box of rat poison.’
Adam drew a long breath, stunned. ‘You didn’t tell anyone?’
‘No. I took him to a counselor at church. Wyatt seemed better, so we stopped.’ Dale rubbed his forehead fitfully. ‘Do you remember the day you two went to the state championships and you lost?’
‘Of course.’
‘You remember what else you lost that day?’
Adam nodded slowly. ‘My baseball glove. My lucky one.’ It had been a horrible day. He’d felt so helpless, angry that someone would steal something that wasn’t worth that much to anyone but him. ‘Are you saying that Wyatt took it?’
‘Found it under his bed. I threw it away.’
Adam shook his head. ‘Why? Why would he do that?’
‘It threw you off your game.’
‘But we all lost! Even Wyatt.’
‘But he looked better than you did that day. Of course, the next year he’d graduated and you played without him. You won. MVP.’
Adam rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. How had he not known? How?
‘Who is Butch, exactly?’ Isenberg asked, bringing them back on topic. ‘And how does he connect to your son?’
‘I like helping kids. Like you, Adam. I knew your life at home wasn’t great. So I tried to step up. It was the same for Butch. I met him through Wyatt, actually. Butch had been in a fire. A bad one. Left his face so badly scarred that it was really hard to look at him.’
‘You took him into your home?’ Trip asked.
‘No. Wyatt took him into his. This was before he married Rita and the kids came along. You and him had parted ways on the force by then. He’d gone on to Narcotics and one day pulled Butch out of a burning meth house. Butch was, I don’t know, maybe sixteen at the time? He spent a lot of time in the hospital after that and Wyatt visited him, almost every day. I did too. He loved baseball. His limbs weren’t burned too badly, so we played ball when he got out. Kid had attached himself to Wyatt like a limpet. Wyatt ended up getting him a job in my brother’s garage.’
Garage, Adam thought dully. Nash had followed Wyatt to a garage owned by a shell corporation.
‘Your half-brother, Michael Barber?’ Isenberg asked and Dale looked startled.
‘Yeah. Why?’ But when no one said anything his face fell. ‘Mike’s involved too?’
‘We think so,’ Isenberg said. ‘What’s the relationship between Mike and your son?’
He shook his head. ‘I wish there’d been none. Dammit, you don’t know how many times I’ve wished I’d put my foot down and kicked that sorry sonofabitch out of my home. Out of Wyatt’s life. But . . . he was my family, so I didn’t. He was always getting into trouble. And I was always getting him out. Risking myself for him.’
‘Did you use your authority as a police officer to do so?’ Isenberg asked.
Dale shrugged. ‘God help me, I did. I thought I was doing the right thing.’
No, Adam thought sadly. He’d known all along he was doing the wrong thing. He’d done it anyway. But challenging an old man’s moral compass wasn’t going to help anyone now. ‘Mike owns a garage and a used car dealership?’ he asked instead.
‘I didn’t know about the car dealership, but that’d be right up his alley. He’s a sleazy SOB, but he’s always been good with engines and gadgets.’
Trip stilled. ‘What kind of gadgets?’
‘Appliances, motors, anything you could take apart and put back together.’
‘Like clocks and timers and triggers activated by cell phones?’ Trip asked.
The bomb. Adam had almost forgotten about it.
Dale closed his eyes. ‘You’re talking about the device that was strapped to that young man on Saturday at the restaurant.’
‘I am,’ Trip said. ‘Does Mike know explosives?’
‘Yes. He used to work road construction, blasting tunnels through mountains. He had his certification in ordnance management. My God. Did he kill that boy?’
‘We don’t know,’ Isenberg said. ‘He tried to kill three federal agents and a psychologist, and to abduct a young girl last night, though.’
Dale looked like he’d be sick. Adam brought him a trash can, but he shook his head. ‘Not necessary,’ he said. ‘I . . . don’t know what to think. Is Wyatt involved in this?’
‘We think so,’ Isenberg said. ‘But we can’t find him. Do you know where he is?’
‘No. He doesn’t visit me anymore. But there was a pageant at Ariel’s school this morning. I saw it on Facebook. He always goes to her school things.’
‘Who’s Ariel?’ Trip asked.
‘My granddaughter. She goes to the Gruber Academy. She’s seven years old.’
Watching Isenberg text that information to Dispatch, Adam frowned at a sudden thought. ‘They have a little boy too,’ he said, ‘Wyatt and Rita, I mean. About two now? They call him Mikey, don’t they?’
Dale’s mouth twisted. ‘Wyatt’s way of saying “fuck you” to his old man.’
‘Why?’ Isenberg said.
‘Because I heard a rumor that the meth house he pulled Butch out of was Wyatt’s. I didn’t want to believe it, but I asked him. He denied it, but I was never sure. I did know that Butch had been working with meth and shouldn’t have been around my grandchildren. So I told Rita and she got upset. Told Butch he couldn’t be around the kids. That was two years ago and Wyatt hasn’t forgiven me. He cut me off from the kids. Named his son after his uncle and not me. I have to sneak around to see my own grandchildren. I can only see Ariel at school, and only because I’ve made friends with the custodian and he lets me watch her on the playground. And that was only while I could drive myself. I haven’t seen either of them in over a year.’
‘Did you tell anyone else about the rumor you’d heard about Wyatt and meth?’ Isenberg asked, no sign of compassion on her face.
Which was as it should be, Adam thought. He’d always seen Dale Hanson as a father figure, a truly good man. But he hadn’t seen him for what he really was – a man who twisted events and truths to make himself feel better about his world.
But that’s not me. The thought – and its accompanying relief – hit him squarely in the chest. He wasn’t his father and he wasn’t Dale Hanson. He was far from perfect, but he’d made himself into a man he could at least look at in the mirror.
A man that Meredith trusted.
Dale was looking to Adam expectantly. ‘I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell on my own son.’
Adam had no compassion for him either. ‘Even if your own son was making poison that killed other people’s sons?’
Dale’s face hardened. ‘I thought you’d understand.’
‘I don’t. I don’t understand any of it. I don’t understand how you could know your brother stole a rifle from your cruiser and not report it – and him.’
Dale flinched, taken aback. ‘What?’
‘That’s actually why we brought you in,’ Isenberg said. ‘The rifle stolen from your cruiser thirty years ago has resurfaced. It was found in the SUV that a man matching your half-brother’s description was driving. It’s been used in two homicides, including Butch’s. Why didn’t you tell someone thirty years ago that you believed your half-brother had stolen it? That was a felony offense.’
‘He’s my brother,’ Dale said, as if daring anyone to call him on it. ‘My family.’
‘And a killer,’ Adam said, losing his patience. ‘And if he’s not, then Wyatt is. Which it sounds like you suspected already.’