Dumb. Ass.
“You’re lucky she didn’t castrate you.” Seth shook his head, his rage cooling as his brain and body processed the end of the threat. Travis was even luckier that Seth hadn’t shot him. He spent many more hours at the range than his wife. “Why did you kill Amber Lynn?”
“Whoa.” Travis’s eyes widened. “I didn’t kill anybody.”
“What the hell is going on, Travis?” Seth still wanted to beat the snot out of this sniveling coward who had threatened his family.
Fear crossed his face. “He’s gonna kill me. You guys got to promise me you won’t let him kill me.”
“Who?” Seth asked. “We can’t protect you if we don’t know who’s after you.”
Travis looked around and lowered his voice. “Bob Fletcher.”
Seth knew Bob was dirty. “Why is Bob going to kill you?”
Sirens announced the paramedics’ arrival. Seth stepped back to let them in. “If you want protection, you’d better talk fast.”
“I was out back at Fletcher’s the other night taking a piss on the way to my car when I saw Bob carrying a girl out the back door. She was either dead or unconscious. Couldn’t tell which. Bob dumped her in the back of his SUV. Thinking he’d pay me to keep quiet, I recorded it on my phone. I need money. My new job doesn’t pay much.”
“So you tried to blackmail Bob?” Seth asked.
“Well, first I backed up the video on a flash drive in case Bob searched me. I wanted to hide it good, so I put it in Amber’s purse. At least I thought it was her purse.” Travis swallowed. “Then I went to Bob that night and told him he had to pay me five thousand dollars or I was taking the video to the cops.” He looked pained. “Except instead of paying me, he beat the hell out of me.” Travis lifted his hand with the broken finger. “He used a hammer on my hand and made me tell him where I hid the flash drive.”
Seth knew the answer before he had the question out. “What night was this?”
“Tuesday,” Travis said.
The night Amber Lynn had been killed. Bob must have followed Amber Lynn and Bruce from the bar. Did he ram their van with his vehicle, then snatch Amber?
“Later that night Bob calls,” Travis continued. “He said the flash drive wasn’t in Amber Lynn’s purse and I’d better get it or he was going to use that hammer on the rest of me.”
“Did Bob say he killed Amber Lynn?” Seth asked.
Travis shook his head. “Not exactly. But he said she didn’t have the flash drive and it wasn’t in her purse or at her apartment. I figured . . .” His voice trailed off and he looked away.
“So you got her killed,” Seth said. Amber Lynn had died because of Travis’s sheer stupidity. Bob must have followed the van, run it off the road, and taken her. The passenger side of the vehicle hadn’t been as heavily damaged. She could have climbed out of the vehicle to go for help.
“Yeah.” Travis almost looked guilty, but his gaze turned thoughtful. “It took me a while to figure out what happened. When I was at her apartment, I must have put the flash drive in the diaper bag instead of the purse. They were both black and sitting next to each other on the floor. I guess I wasn’t paying close enough attention.”
“Did you break into our house, Travis?”
He nodded. “I was looking for the diaper bag or I thought maybe someone took the drive out and hid it somewhere else. But I didn’t find it.”
“Where did you get the dirt bike?”
“I stole it,” Travis admitted.
Seth’s blood chilled. Debra had taken the kids to her house. If she hadn’t, gun-waving Travis would have shown up when she was alone in the house with four kids.
Stevie arrived, then another Solitude cop, and a single county deputy who happened to be driving through town.
Leaving Travis in Zane’s charge, Seth ran to the Jeep. Carly was sitting on the ground with both kids in her arms. Seth lifted Brianna and held her close.
He kissed her head. “Are you all right?”
Brianna nodded, sniffling. “I just wanted to see Santa.”
“I know, sweetie. I know.” Seth hugged her close. “You were a brave girl today.”
“I don’t want to be brave anymore, Daddy.” Brianna curled against him.
“I don’t blame you, baby. Not one bit.” He set her back down on Carly’s lap. “I have to go catch one more bad guy, okay?”
“You get him, Daddy.” Brianna rested her head on Carly’s shoulder. “Then I won’t have to be scared anymore.”
Seth would stop Bob no matter what he had to do.
The ambulance arrived and Travis was loaded in. Seth asked the deputy to follow the ambulance and stay at the hospital with Travis. Then Seth took the diaper bag from Carly’s Jeep and searched it. In an interior zippered compartment, he found a silver flash drive.