Aftermath

by Terri Blackstock

  He stepped back and closed the door. He couldn’t go in there. Trying to decide what to do, Dustin started back up the dimly lit hall.

  “Dustin?”

  He turned around and saw Travis coming out of the room, taking off his mask. He was still wearing the paper gown over his clothes and the shoe coverings.

  “What are you doing here so late?”

  The sight of him rang like an alarm in Dustin’s ears. He restrained his urge to lunge at him. His breath was shallow as he stepped toward Travis. “We’re going outside,” he said. “We have to talk.”

  “Outside?” Travis swallowed and looked at his watch. “It’s midnight. Why do you want to go outside?”

  Dustin lowered his voice and stepped toward him. “Because if I deal with you right here, it might disturb the patients.”

  Travis’s eyes widened. “Okay, okay.”

  “Outside,” Dustin said again. “Now.”

  Travis started toward the door to a courtyard where patients went to smoke, even though it wasn’t officially allowed within a block of the hospital. No one was out here now. He opened the door for Dustin, and Dustin stepped out into the cool night.

  “What happened, Dustin? What’s going on?”

  The false innocence in Travis’s voice snapped the last restraints of Dustin’s rage. Every muscle in his body went rigid, and his hands closed into fists. “How could you do this to me?” he asked through his teeth.

  Travis’s eyes widened as though he was truly blindsided. “What are you talking about, Dustin?”

  Dustin lunged at him then and shoved him against the stone wall. “You set me up!” he said. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

  Travis pushed him off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m going back in to my wife.”

  When Travis reached for the door, Dustin swung, his fist smashing across Travis’s jaw. Travis came right back at him, his own knuckles cracking into Dustin’s cheekbone.

  Dustin felt no pain. His lips curled with his words. “I went to the storage unit. I saw the detonator caps. I found your diagram!”

  Now it was Travis’s rage that seemed to change the air. He took a step toward Dustin, and for a moment Dustin wondered if Travis felt trapped. Would he try to fight his way out?

  Instead, Travis’s expression morphed from that of a caged animal to that of an anguished child. “It’s not what you think,” he said through gritted teeth. “I never knew things were gonna turn out the way they did.”

  Dustin stood frozen. “People were murdered! Some of the survivors are in this hospital. Their families are suffering.”

  “I know about suffering,” Travis threw back. “I did it all for Crystal!”

  “For Crystal?” The words were so absurd, so out of context, that Dustin couldn’t process them. “Don’t put this on her. She doesn’t deserve that.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Travis asked. He raised his hand to cover his eyes as tears seized him. “I never meant for it to get so out of hand. Let me explain.”

  Explain? How could he explain this? Feeling like the wind had been kicked out of him, Dustin dropped into a chair a few feet away from Travis. “I’m listening,” he said.

  Travis went to the table and pulled out another chair. “Insurance wouldn’t cover Crystal’s treatment.”

  “What does that have to do with this?”

  Travis took a fortifying breath, as if trying to steady his voice. “A couple of weeks ago, a guy approached me. I don’t even know his name. He offered me enough money to cover all of Crystal’s treatment, if I’d find a way to get some explosives out of ChemEx.”

  Dustin gaped at him. “You can’t be that stupid.”

  “He said they were doing some mining on their own property.”

  “Mining? For what?”

  “I didn’t ask. I just thought it was harmless. It was easy money, and I needed it. You have to understand, Dustin. I was desperate. She was dying, and her medication wasn’t working, and we were at the end of the road except for this one experimental treatment. I really believed that if I had enough money, I could save her.”

  An airplane cut slowly across the sky overhead, and Dustin watched it, letting that explanation sink in. He got up, went to the balcony rail, and looked down at the parking lot. “Why didn’t you come to me? Why didn’t you once ask me for help? I would have given you a loan, or gone to the bank, sold my house. We had the credit line. You could have used it.”

  “It wasn’t enough. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, Dustin.”

  “I don’t care,” Dustin said, turning around. “You don’t finance medical treatment by selling bombs to terrorists. And you don’t point the police toward your friend!”

  “I know that now!” Travis cried, standing up and starting toward Dustin. “When I heard about the bombings, I realized how stupid I’d been. But it was too late.”

  “Did you put the explosives in my car?”

  “No.”

  “Did you tell your partners where I’d be and let them do it?”

  Travis covered his face again and sucked in a sharp sob, like a little boy who’d been caught in a shameful act. “I was scared, Dustin,” he said in a high-pitched voice. “I didn’t steal the explosives, but I got the guy into the facility and doctored the security video. I didn’t think the amount he took would be missed. But then it was on the news. ChemEx had reported the theft, and when they questioned us, I knew they might have me on the list of suspects. I couldn’t go to jail and let Crystal find out what I’d done. It would have killed her for sure.”

  “So you called and told the police it was me?”

  “No, they did that. I wasn’t going to let you go down for it. I just wanted a little more time.”

  Dustin could make no sense out of that. It didn’t fit any pattern he’d known about Travis. There had been no hint of bad blood in their friendship. Dustin rubbed his face and let out a loud groan. “This is insane. I don’t believe that you didn’t touch the bomb. I saw the diagram. You made the detonator for them.”

  “No, I didn’t make it. I just showed them how to.”

  Dustin looked back down at the parking lot, wishing he could dive over the railing and end it all. But he wouldn’t let Travis do that to him.

  Travis came up behind him. “This sounds horrible, I know. But you’re not in my shoes, Dustin. The guy said if they were caught, they would take me down with them. But I thought of a way to get the heat off me. When you were at the hospital, I remembered that you had a backup car key in your office desk drawer. I got it, then when you were here at the hospital, I called the guy and gave it to him, and told him to put some of the RDX in your trunk.”

  Dustin stared at him before speaking. “When I realized it must have been you, I told myself no, you would never do that. There had to be some good reason you had that diagram. But there isn’t! You did this to me!”

  “Just listen.” Travis sucked in a breath and went on. “They put the boxes in your car, and I think what happened is, the next day, they tipped off the police. Believe me, I never would have done this if I’d known they were going to commit a terrorist act. And I would have confessed before you had to take the heat.”

  “But I am taking the heat! I was arrested. They put me in jail! I’m being accused! And don’t give me that I think what happened stuff. You set it up. You probably did it yourself.”

  Travis sat back down and crumpled up. He looked different than Dustin had ever seen him. Cowardly, deceitful, stupid . . .

  But suddenly a thought occurred to Dustin. “Wait. You have this guy’s phone number?”

  Travis looked up. “It was a burner phone. I tried calling it again after the bombing, but it was turned off. I’m sure they’ve gotten rid of it, especially if they used it to call the police.”

  “Give me the number anyway.”

  Travis found the number in his Recent Calls and showed it to Dustin. Dustin put it in his phone. “Tr
avis, you’re the only one who can identify this person. You have to talk to the police.”

  “Not yet!” Travis said. “You have my word I will before you go back to jail.”

  “Your word means nothing!” Dustin bit out.

  “I just wanted a little more time,” he said again. He tipped his head to the side, his face a pitiful distortion of pain and weary acceptance. “She’s dying, Dustin. Don’t you see that I can’t leave her right now?” His lips trembled as he spoke. “Other than my wife, you’re the best friend I have in this whole world. Give me just a little more time and then I’ll turn myself in. It’ll all be over.”

  Dustin’s mouth twitched as he looked at the honest misery in his friend’s face. ‘‘Do you have any idea what you’re asking me? Just by knowing this I could be considered an accomplice.” Dustin realized how absurd that was. He was already being accused of a terrorist attack.

  “I’ve never asked you for anything before,” Travis said, taking Dustin’s shoulders, “and I know you have every right to turn me in right now, this second.”

  Dustin shoved him back. “Get your hands off me. You should have gone to the police yourself, the minute you knew there was a bombing.”

  Travis nodded grimly. “I realize that. I should have. But I didn’t. It was all about Crystal.”

  Dustin shook his head and turned away, tormenting, torturous thoughts flailing through his mind. “You have to help them find these guys.”

  “I will,” Travis said. “But she’s still bleeding, Dustin. She’s had four transfusions. She’s septic. The color is draining from her face, and every time she dozes off I think it’s for the last time.”

  As much contempt as Dustin had for Travis right now, he had that much love for Crystal and those two little boys. Travis was a hero to them, a knight in shining armor, always there to make things better. He didn’t want to turn her image of her husband into that of a monster who’d been complicit in so many deaths.

  “Please, Dustin. We’ve been friends for so many years.”

  “That’s what I was just thinking.” Not able to stomach the conversation any longer, Dustin left Travis there and took the stairs down to the first floor. Before getting in his car, Dustin opened the trunk, just to make sure it was empty. He looked in the back seat. Nothing.

  Fatigue and helplessness weighed him down as he drove back to the house.

  Pulling into the driveway, he saw that the light was on in the kitchen. Had she noticed he was gone? He closed the door quietly so he wouldn’t set off Dude’s barking if he was awake.

  Dread filled him as he walked slowly into the house.

  She was sitting on the couch in a circle of lamplight, wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. “Dustin?”

  He tried to lighten his voice. “What are you doing up so late?”

  “I heard your car when you left. Where did you go?”

  He cleared his throat. “To the hospital. I’m sorry I woke you up.”

  Her face changed when she saw the swelling bruise under his left eye. She stood up. “What happened to you?”

  “Nothing. Just—”

  “You went out in the middle of the night and look like you’ve been in a fight.”

  “I just wanted to check on Crystal.”

  She stepped toward him and touched the bruise. The tenderness almost made him lose the tenuous hold he had on his emotions. “I want to trust you, Dustin,” she whispered. “I need to trust you. What are you hiding from me?”

  Dustin let out a long rush of breath, then sank onto the couch and covered his face. “Sit down,” he said. “Put your lawyer hat on. We have to talk.”

  47

  “I knew something wasn’t right. I knew Travis was ducking the questions.” Jamie paced across the living room, her mind racing with the steps she would have to take. She had to stay calm. She had to think like an attorney, with strategy and caution.

  Dustin was wrecked. She had never seen him so disheartened, though she’d seen him deal with injustice before.

  “I have to call the police, the DA.”

  “Now? In the middle of the night?”

  “Yes,” she said. “We don’t have a choice. If we drag our feet, you’re complicit.” She sat down next to him on the couch and touched his back. “I know this is hard for you. But you haven’t done anything wrong. If you keep this information from the police, then you will have broken the law.”

  “I know. We have to tell them. But Crystal . . . I just keep trying to imagine how it will play out. Will they go straight to the hospital to arrest him? Will she see them put handcuffs on him? Will the shock of it all push her over the edge?”

  “Dustin, is there any possibility that Crystal isn’t as close to death as we think? That Travis could be using her for cover?”

  “No. I’ve talked to the nursing staff and her mother. She’s in critical condition. They’ve put her in a laminar air-flow room. She’s bleeding and septic.”

  “Okay, then we have to deal with that. But the fact is, Travis put her in this position, not you. He caused this.”

  He rubbed his eyes. “It’s not about him anymore. It’s about my friendship with her.”

  “Do you think if Crystal knew what was going on, that she would expect you to take the heat?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, if she did, then she’s not your friend.” She went to the counter where her phone was charging and unplugged it. “I’m calling them now, Dustin. We’re going to set up an interview.”

  He nodded. “I’m ready.”

  It was one in the morning when Jamie called the DA. “I’m so sorry for waking you up, Louis, but my client has new information about the theft at ChemEx and possibly the bombing at Trudeau Hall.”

  She waited as the DA got Detective Borden on the call with them, then she told them what Dustin had told her.

  They were going to be up all night.

  Dustin went into his bedroom as Jamie talked on the phone. A sense of deep, impending doom weighed him down. This was pretty quickly shaping up to be one of the worst nights of his life.

  If only she could delay his interview with the DA and the detective until later in the morning, just to buy Crystal a little more time.

  The thought shocked him. What was he doing? Was he hoping Crystal would die sooner so she wouldn’t have to see what a monstrous thing her husband had done? Or was he simply rooting for her to live, in which case she would have to see it all play out?

  He opened his computer, trying to think past this phone call and the interview he would be forced to sit through, in which he would have to tell the police that his best friend was involved in all those deaths. But who else was involved, besides Travis? Who would have paid Travis for his help in stealing explosives? Who would have blown up the Ed Loran rally?

  He created a spreadsheet on his computer, with three columns headed Personal Enemies, International Terrorists Targeting an American Crowd, and Political Presidential Rivals.

  He almost deleted the third one, since Loran didn’t seem to be enough of a threat to the other candidates to make him into a target of assassination. Still, he couldn’t rule it out. Loran was a Libertarian. Either political party could want him out of the presidential race, so the bombing could just as likely have been carried out by Democrats as by Republicans. He wrote both in that column, then tried to think of special interest groups that might have a beef with Loran. None of them seemed so passionate that they’d kill him.

  He moved to the “Personal” column, trying to remember what little he knew about Loran’s background. He had been CEO of Cell Three Therapeutics, a biotech company that manufactured pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.

  Could it be a rival company that wanted to retaliate for something? A disgruntled employee? A union group? An environmental group?

  He moved to the “Terrorist” column and typed in “ISIS.” They were the ones responsible for most of the foreign terrorist attacks in the US, and they didn�
�t need a specific reason, other than a crowd. But ISIS usually took credit when they successfully carried out an attack. It also didn’t fit their usual MO. ISIS terrorists often died in their own terrorist attacks. Whoever this was had gotten away before the bomb was detonated.

  He heard Jamie’s low voice in the kitchen trying to work out a time for the interview.

  Dustin moved on. What about the guy who had approached Travis? He should have asked Travis more questions. How had the guy contacted him? Where had he met him? How had the money been exchanged?

  Jamie got off the phone and came to his bedroom door. “Okay, that’s done.”

  He closed his computer and followed her to the living room. “Are they going to arrest him?”

  “Not yet. They’re going to call me back with a time for your interview.”

  “Is it going to be soon—like tonight—or in the morning?”

  “I’m guessing soon,” Jamie said.

  “What about Avery?”

  “If they want us to come in, I’ll have to drop her by my mom’s.” She put on a pot of coffee. “How do you feel?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess I’m glad that they know, so I’m not an accomplice. But I don’t look forward to the questioning. I wish I knew more.”

  “I was thinking. Before they swarm your office with a search warrant, maybe you could get some information from your security video there. You have cameras inside and out, don’t you?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “If the guy who approached Travis met him there, wouldn’t it be on video?”

  Dustin opened his computer. “Might be. Travis didn’t tell me anything about where he met him.”

  He navigated to the app that showed GreyWebb’s security system. The first camera view that came up looked down on the main room. He and Travis had worked so hard to build this, but now everything had changed. How could any of their work continue? One of them was going to prison, and even if by some miracle it didn’t turn out that way, their friendship wouldn’t survive this.