“We’ll sort it all out later,” Trapper said. “Is an ambulance on the way?”
Jenks nodded, but his attention was still on The Major. “Your friend Glenn Addison is in custody. I called him out to The Pit like Hank said, but for his own safety. I turned him over to arresting agents who were waiting there for us. Same as I did with Petey Moss. Sheriff Addison is fine. Cooperating fully. He specifically asked me to tell you that he loves you. Nothing ever changed that.”
The Major asked, “Does he know about Hank?”
“Not yet, and I dread him having to be told. The sheriff’s a good man. He might have cheated on an election or two, but he performed his duties well.”
“Thanks for delivering his message.”
Jenks gave The Major a reassuring pat on the shoulder then hurried away to brief and issue orders to arriving officers.
The Major looked at Trapper. “You saw my name on Wilcox’s list?”
“He made sure I did.”
“And you still handed it over to the FBI?”
“I had to. I didn’t want to. I struggled with it, but—”
“But being you, you had to.”
“I did, yeah.”
The Major smiled shakily. “I’m proud of you for it.” He took a rattling breath. “I hoped all this would go away without you ever knowing.”
“Well, it didn’t go away. And I do know. I know everything except the nature of your pact with Wilcox. Was it connected to that lucrative book and movie deal?”
“No.”
Trapper bent his head low and blinked tears out of his eyes. “Just tell me…please tell me that you didn’t bomb the Pegasus Hotel.”
The Major fumbled for his hand and grasped it. “No, John. No. Is that what you thought?”
“It’s what I feared. I’ve been through hell fearing it. When I started investigating the bombing, realized the three who took the blame were under orders from somebody else, I thought that maybe you were one of them, too, but had been lucky enough to get out.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because, except for Wilcox, you benefited from that goddamn disaster more than anybody. You built a career off it.”
“Fate. Right place, right time. That’s all it was.”
“Then why’d you strike a bargain with Wilcox?”
“I swear on your mother’s soul that I never had any dealings with him until three years ago when you started making headway on your investigation into him.”
“Oh, Jesus,” Trapper groaned, “I don’t want to hear this.”
“You did nothing wrong. You were doing your job. You’re only to blame for being very good at it and being persistent. Wilcox reeled me in, told me I must, must, discredit you, dismiss your conspiracy theory, denounce you and anything you alleged.”
“Or what? What could he do? Cancel your hero status?”
“Kill Marianne.”
Trapper flinched.
“It’s worse,” The Major said. “He assured me that all the evidence would point to you.”
Trapper looked across at Kerra, saw her horror, and said, “I’ve seen the names on his list. He could have made it happen.” Going back to his father, he asked, “Why her? Why not just pop me?”
“Because he didn’t know what you had on him, how much you’d uncovered and shared with your superiors. If you were killed, he was afraid of what you might be leaving behind for future analysis. But my denunciation of you would go a long way, he said. He told me to discredit you, or else. Even if you were acquitted for your fiancée’s murder—”
“My reputation, my life, would have been destroyed. They were destroyed.”
“I’m sorry, John. I took what I believed to be my only choice.”
“Marianne knew nothing about it, did she?”
“No.”
“That’s a mercy,” Kerra said softly.
“Here I’ve been thinking I was protecting you from Wilcox,” Trapper said to The Major. “You were protecting me. The son of a bitch pitted us against each other.”
Although his strength was waning, The Major squeezed Trapper’s hand tighter. “It pained me when you said that this—I, Wilcox, the Pegasus—was your life.”
“Aw, I was just spouting off.”
“No. You weren’t. In countless ways, what happened that day took over all our lives. Debra’s. Mine. Yours.”
Trapper, made uncomfortable by his father’s remorse, turned and looked out the open front door. The ambulance was speeding through the gate, but Trapper willed it to go even faster. The Major was laboring for each breath, his complexion had gone gray, his lips bluish.
“I missed the spotlight,” he was saying to Kerra, even as he gasped for air.
“You were good in it.” She sniffed back tears and placed her hand on his shoulder.
“That’s why I wanted…the interview.” He seemed impatient with his increasing shortness of breath. It was obvious he wanted to say more. “My ego put your life at risk, and I’m more sorry for that than I can say.”
“No apology necessary.”
His eyes misted. “Vanity is my downfall. John knows. Fame is seductive and addictive,” he said, struggling. “I went all in. Too often at John’s expense.”
“Look, I’m okay. All right?” Trapper said. Blood was frothing in the corner of The Major’s lips. Trapper blotted it with his own shirtsleeve. “The ambulance is here. Stop talking. Save your breath.”
The Major feebly raised a hand to touch Trapper’s face. “You never gave up.”
“That’s my downfall. I’m pigheaded.”
“In a good way, John. A good way.”
Trapper’s throat had become too tight to speak. The paramedics had come inside and were trying to push him out of their way, but The Major maintained a surprisingly strong grip on his hand. “John, please don’t share Debra’s diary. Not for my sake, but hers. Bury it with me.”
Trapper wiped his nose on his cuff and smiled. “You don’t have to worry about that, Dad. Mom didn’t keep a diary.”
Major Franklin Trapper was pronounced dead on arrival at the county hospital. For the second time in a week, the facility became the eye of a media storm.
Kerra was called upon to do three live stand-ups, the last of which was for the network evening news.
In his solemn baritone, the anchorman said, “A nation has lost an American icon. But you knew The Major personally. What are your thoughts right now, Kerra?”
“Although our time together was brief, I will feel the loss forever. If not for Major Trapper, my life would have ended twenty-five years ago.” Tears threatened, but she swallowed hard and managed to hold it together.
“You were with him just before he died.”
“I followed the ambulance from his house. He died en route to the hospital.”
“We understand that The Major’s passing is linked to the tragic murder-suicide that occurred earlier today in the home of prominent Dallas businessman Thomas Wilcox and the arrest of an area clergyman. Can you elaborate on that?”
“Only to say that the FBI has begun conducting a thorough investigation into Mr. Wilcox and Reverend Addison.”