“That’s the best news I’ve had in weeks,” Jacob said.
“Have you had breakfast yet?” Dylan asked.
“Yes, I’ve been fed and bathed, and feel like a baby just waiting to be burped.”
Dylan grinned. “It would take a pretty big person to put you over their shoulder.” Then he brushed Jacob’s hair away from his forehead and sat down beside him. “When I was little, I thought you were a superhero.”
Jacob’s eyes widened. “Did you really? Why?”
Dylan shrugged. “You were so tall, and all muscled up. And you looked like a version of Superman to me. You had black hair and blue eyes, and that strong, sharp cut to your jaw. You looked invincible, even before I knew what that meant.”
Jacob gave his son’s hand a squeeze. “And yet I wasn’t any kind of a superhero. Just a man who made mistakes, and lived life, and has three of the best sons a man could lay claim to.”
“Well, the other two are unraveling all kinds of stuff, and all of us have been thrown back into the past, whether we like it or not. You’ve never talked about any of it, but we’re grown now, and I’m curious. What do you remember about the day of the robbery?”
Jacob frowned. “Not a lot… Mostly because I didn’t know about any robbery until we heard it on the morning news the next day. And I didn’t associate your mother with any of it, so it wasn’t a remarkable event to me until after the fall. The FBI interrogated me as a possible accomplice until they finally accepted that Brenda’s affair and association with Brandt would not have included me in their plans.”
“Lord, Dad. That must have been horrible.”
“It was,” Jacob said. “But you boys were the most important. You were devastated that she was gone and didn’t understand why. Asher was the only one old enough to realize what a slur she’d left on our name.”
“So, what, if anything, do you remember about that day?”
“Well, it was Gunner’s seventh birthday. She told me she was going to Amarillo to pick up presents and groceries and a birthday cake. She was gone all morning and well past noon before I saw her drive up. I didn’t think any more about it, because as soon as she unloaded groceries, she took off to school to pick you all up. The evening was normal. I popped in long enough to watch Gunner open presents and eat a piece of his cake, told him happy birthday, and went back to the bar. Your mom cleaned up supper stuff and put you all to bed.”
“She didn’t seem weird in any way when you went to bed?”
“I remember she told me about Gunner losing a tooth, and all the bleeding and crying. And that she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy to please excuse Gunner for swallowing his tooth. Then she put a dollar under his pillow later andtook away the note. I told her she was a good mother. I don’t remember anything after that.”
“And that’s it?”
Jacob shrugged. “The next morning, we heard the news report about the robbery, and that the wounded gang member ratted everyone out. I suppose she knew then that her days were numbered. She took you boys to school, then came home. She was in the house when the Feds showed up. She was just sitting on the sofa, like she’d been waiting for them. Told me she was sorry as they led her out in handcuffs. Nobody knew she’d already swallowed most of a full prescription of anti-depression meds. And you know the rest.”
“Not really. I guess I blocked out every good thing I would have remembered about her, and as you know, Gunner believed that she killed herself because she didn’t love him. He’s a grown-ass man and still holds that grudge against her.”
“I know, but I have faith that one day he’s going to find a woman who will heal every broken piece of him. Like you did. And like Ash did.”
A few minutes later, a nurse came in and interrupted the visit. “Mr. Kingston, we’re going to go for a little walk down the hall and back. It’s time to start building up your strength.”
Dylan stood. “Then I’ll take myself out of the way of good works. I’ll be back this afternoon, Dad. Is there anything you want? Maybe something to read?”
“My reading glasses are at home. I’m okay,” he said.
“Okay then. See you later.”
He heard the nurse talking to Jacob as he was walking out.
“Your son looks a lot like you,” she said.
“I have three sons. They all wound up with a double dose of my DNA.”
Dylan thought about that all the way to the elevator. They’d made him proud, and now they had to keep him alive.
* * *
Asher typed up yet another report on the Brandt brothers and included multiple photos of them that Dylan had taken, and sent it to Reddick at the Briscoe County Sheriff’s office, along with the opinion that picking them up at this point for interrogation would go nowhere until they had actual proof and a motive for doing it, then hit Send.
He was still reading through FBI files when Gunner sat down at the table and opened his laptop. “The info came back on the owner of that white Mustang. It belongs to a man named Carl Lee Sherman, presently a resident of a Texas prison. It was reported stolen after his incarceration. And here’s the connection. He was a resident of Fort Worth, as was Everett Brandt. That’s how they came to be driving that car. They stole it!” Then he frowned. “But we don’t want them picked up for car theft.”
