A list of matching vehicles registered in the county popped up. He narrowed the search to Hertford. Twelve registrations were listed on the screen.
He scanned the list.
His gaze stopped by one. Lawrence Whitaker.
Could he be related to Ron Whitaker?
It was worth finding out.
***
Five minutes later, Joshua pulled up to a house not far from the police station.
There in the driveway was a black Explorer.
As Joshua walked toward the front door, he put his hand on the hood. Sure enough, the engine was still warm. Could that be because the vehicle had just been out, its owner wreaking havoc around town?
Slowly he approached the door. Situations like this could be tricky. On the surface, it didn’t seem dangerous, but in reality, Joshua could be encountering someone unstable or blinded by out-of-control emotions.
He rang the bell, and a woman answered a moment later. She was in her late thirties and had a cigarette hanging out the side of her mouth. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Lawrence Whitaker.”
“What do you want with him?” She practically spat the words out before launching into a nicotine-drenched cough.
“I just have a few questions for him. It’s official police business.”
She sneered. “Well, you’re in luck. He just walked in.”
Joshua heard a door slam at the back of the house. Reacting on instinct, he skirted the side of the property. Sure enough, Lawrence Whitaker was running toward a garage in the back.
Joshua propelled himself forward. In four strides, Joshua had tackled Lawrence Whitaker to the ground. He pulled the man’s hands behind him and took out some cuffs. The man was obviously a flight risk.
“I didn’t do it,” the man moaned.
Joshua pulled him to his feet, needing to look the man in the eyes before launching into his questions. He leaned him against an old picnic table. Anger sparked in the man’s eyes as he glowered at Joshua.
“You’ve got the wrong person. I didn’t do it,” he repeated.
“Didn’t do what?” Joshua asked.
Lawrence frowned. “Nothing. I didn’t do nothing. Whatever you’re here for.”
“Innocent men don’t run.”
Lawrence grunted but said nothing.
“I just want to talk,” Joshua continued.
The man sneered again. “You know who my dad is, right? He’ll be all over this.”
“He doesn’t have any authority in this town anymore.”
“He has more power than you think.”
Joshua didn’t doubt his words. “As I said earlier, I have a few questions for you.”
“About what?”
“About what you didn’t do.”
“I was here all night.”
Joshua nodded toward the man’s house. “The woman who answered the door said you’d just gotten home.”
The man grumbled under his breath. “What do you want from me?”
“Did you put a bottle bomb in Daleigh McDermott’s mailbox?”
Something flickered in the man’s gaze—a spark of satisfaction or pride. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Then you won’t mind me searching your house and garage?”
“You need a warrant.”
“I’m sure I can get one.” Joshua pulled the man off the table and led him toward his cruiser. “You can just wait right here while I make a call. But before I do, let me ask you this: Did your dad put you up to this?”
The man stiffened and put on brakes on the sidewalk. “Leave my dad out of this. He’s been through enough.”
Joshua had found the man’s soft spot and knew what kind of angle he needed to work in order to get some answers. “Maybe he’s been through too much. Maybe it’s broken him.”
“He’s the strongest man I know. Stronger than you’ll ever be.”
“I hope he can handle seeing his son in jail, then.” He opened the back of the cruiser and started to help Lawrence inside.
“Wait! I’ll talk. Just leave my dad alone.” Some of the stubborn pride left his gaze.
Joshua stared at the man, tired of playing his games. “Why’d you leave the bomb?”
“I just want the girl out of town. Is that too much to ask? I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Joshua was hoping the man would see it his way. “Did you burn down her house also?”
“Burn down her house?” His voice escalated in pitch. “What? No. Are you crazy? That’s, like, a serious, serious offense. What I did was more of a prank. I was just trying to send a message.”
“Someone could have gotten hurt.”
Lawrence shook his head, a little bit of reality seeming to hit him. Panic began to grow in his gaze. “But no one did.”
“I know your family has ruled this town for a long time, but that’s coming to an end, Lawrence. No one around here should be above the law.”
“Spoken like a true hoity-toity city boy.” The panic quickly disappeared and the man’s bravado returned.
“I’m taking you into the station.”
“I’ll be out in an hour. Just wait.”
CHAPTER 19
Charity thought she’d feel more anxiety as she and Joshua headed down the road toward the Outer Banks the next morning. But something about Joshua’s steady presence made her feel calm and ready to face the day—ready to face her past, for that matter.
The Outer Banks was a stretch of land—barrier islands, really—on North Carolina’s east coast. The Atlantic Ocean surrounded the area on one side and the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds on the other. In the summer, it was a thriving tourist destination. In the winter, it seemed more like a graveyard of empty rental houses.
“I thought I’d give you an update on the bottle bomb,” Joshua started.
Charity felt some of her familiar tension return. “Okay.”
“I arrested Lawrence Whitaker last night. We found the materials in his garage, and he confessed.”
“Lawrence? Andrea’s brother?” She shook her head. “Wow. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am.”
“The bad news is that he’s already out on bail. He saw the judge this morning, and as I suspected might happen, the judge found favor with him. The amount he had to post was relatively low.”
“You think that amount has to do with Ron Whitaker’s influence in the town?”
“I know it does. It’s also stirred up some hard feelings between Ron and me. He seems to think I’m targeting him.”
“But you said Lawrence confessed?”
“I didn’t say any of this was logical. I think for so long no one messed with the Whitaker family. Ron feels like I’m intruding on his territory. I had to remind him that I’m not privy to small town politics. I err on the side of the law.”
“I bet he didn’t like that.”
Joshua chuckled. “That would be an understatement.”
“I hope you’re not stirring up trouble for yourself.”
“I can handle myself, Charity. Don’t worry about me.”
She had no doubt that Joshua could handle himself. But she hated thinking about him being in danger. She turned her thoughts back to the questions haunting her. “Do you think Lawrence is the one who burned down my house?”
“Lawrence was out of town when the fire was started. He was visiting his wife’s family down in Florida.”
Charity shivered. “I guess that’s a relief. Except that it means someone else is out there trying to scare me.”
“They’re trying to do more than that, Charity,” Joshua said. “Someone wanted that house to be your grave.”
She shivered again. “There’s something about me being in this town that’s toxic.”
Silence passed for a few minutes, and Charity knew she had to get her thoughts off what Joshua had just told her. Turning the new realizations over in her mind again and again was getting her nowhere; it only incre
ased her level of stress.
“So, how long have you been here in Hertford, Joshua?” Changing the subject seemed like the best idea.
“Only six months. Not very long.”
She leaned back in her seat. “You’re from Atlanta, right? Why’d you decide to pick up and move at all?” Like she had any right to ask that question.
“A lot of reasons. Divorce, mainly. My wife, her new husband, and my son were stationed in Elizabeth City. Against everyone’s advice, I decided to move here so I could still be close to my son.”
“That’s sweet.” She frowned. “But I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pried.” She’d expected a more outlandish reason, not something involving pain. She should have known better.
“You weren’t prying. Life has a lot of ugly parts that I’d love to ignore. The ugly parts make us real, right?”
“And the nice parts redeem us?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. I kind of like that idea. Aren’t we all a balance of our good and bad qualities?”
“You have bad attributes?”
“Unfortunately, I might have a few.” The corner of his lip curled.
“Why did everyone advise you not to move?”
“It gives my ex a lot of control, I suppose. I mean, I can’t follow her all over the country if she decides to move again. But I think I’m right where I’m supposed to be for the time being.”
“That makes sense.”
“How about you? Did you grow up in Hertford, or did you just live here as a teen?”
“I lived here until I graduated. Then I couldn’t get out quickly enough. It was just my mom and me . . . and a string of fill-in ‘dads.’ As I mentioned before, my real father died when I was a toddler. He and my grandmother were in a boating accident.”
“I’m sorry.”
Charity held back a frown. “According to my mom, he was a good-for-nothing jerk. Of course, according to my mom, most men fit that definition, so you have to consider the source.”
Charity wondered if he knew about her mom’s reputation. If he did, nothing on his face indicated it. He remained unemotional, his focus on the road and his presence calm and steady.
“Where’d you go when you left here, Charity?”
“Tennessee. I went to college in the eastern part of the state and loved it so much that I stayed.” Life had finally started to regain a certain sense of normalcy away from all the bad memories here. Away from her mother’s influence, the future had actually seemed brighter.
Charity had tried to get her mom help, unsuccessfully. She’d realized that unless her mom wanted to change, she wasn’t going to. It had been hard to swallow, but if Charity wanted to move on with her own life, she had to accept it.
“You love it there in Tennessee, but you came back here?” He stole a glance at her, but there was no judgment in his eyes. Only curiosity.
Her cheeks flushed. His question was a valid one. “It’s funny the things people will do to make peace with the past. Besides, I’m only here temporarily.”
Silence passed for a few minutes. Charity couldn’t help but think about how surreal it was to be here now. It was hard to believe that only a month ago, she thought she’d be in Tennessee for the rest of her life. She’d had no desire to leave.
Then she’d gotten that note. She knew it would haunt her for the rest of her life if she didn’t follow up. And she was tired of things haunting her. It was time to either make peace with her past and move on, or find some answers and finally have some closure.
“You think you’re ready to talk to your old teacher?” Joshua asked.
She drew in a deep breath. “Are you really ever ready to discover that someone you look up to isn’t the person you thought they were?”
“Probably not. Reality can be hard to face.”
“But so can living without answers,” she murmured.
“Well, I hope you get some closure.”
She stared at the road as the first view of the ocean came into sight. They were almost there. “Me, too,” she said. “Me, too.”
***
Joshua braked as tourists in swimsuits, loaded down with umbrellas and beach chairs, tried to cross the busy road that split the east and west sides of Nags Head. Beach season was in full swing, which meant the area was busy.
He turned off the main drag and a few minutes later pulled up to a small sound-side cottage. He stopped short of parking in front of the house and instead took a minute to observe their destination.
A man was outside, dragging a water hose across a crusty, sandy lawn. That was definitely Austin Johansson.
The man looked like an older version of his yearbook photos. He was tall, looked like the kind of guy who worked out, and had a head full of brown hair.
“That’s Mr. Johansson,” Charity said, her gaze fixated on the man. “This is weird.”
“You sure you’re ready for this?”
She nodded. “Definitely. No more fears.”
“Fears aren’t always bad, you know. Sometimes they keep us safe.”
“Other times they hold us back and take control of our lives.”
“I can’t argue with that.” Joshua could see an underlying strength in her, and he was glad she was finally realizing just how strong she was. “Let’s go, then.”
They climbed out of his truck and started down the sandy road toward the small house. Just as they reached the driveway, a toddler burst from the front door, a ball in his chubby hands.
Austin started toward the boy with a smile, but the action faltered when he spotted Joshua and Charity. Recognition washed across his features.
“Charity White? It’s been years.” He swung the boy onto his hip before approaching them, almost appearing mesmerized. “You look . . . you look great.”
“Austin?” A petite blonde stepped outside onto the porch, put her hands on her hips, and stared at the unfolding scene. She looked a lot like Charity, Joshua noted.
“It’s okay, Heidi. Just a minute.” Austin kept his gaze on Charity. “Did something happen? Is everything okay?”
Joshua stepped forward. “I’m Officer Joshua Haven from the Hertford Police Department. I was hoping to ask you a few questions.”
Austin’s surprise turned to what looked like alarm. “Of course. Whatever you need. Let’s go sit on the back deck. The breeze is better back there. Heidi, you have Gavin?”
The woman nodded, but her body still looked tense and uptight. Her gaze had hardly left them since she stepped outside.
They sat on a screened-in patio, and Austin pulled some water bottles from a small refrigerator in the corner. Joshua left his on the table beside him.
“We’re considering reopening the case on the abduction of Andrea Whitaker,” Joshua started, getting right to business. “I was hoping to ask you a few questions.”
Austin straightened, and his eyes took on a new light. “Is there a new lead?”
“Potentially.” Joshua shifted. “Mr. Johan—”
“Please, call me Austin.”
“Austin, I understand that you were questioned in her disappearance. You were one of the last people to see her.”
He nodded. “That’s right. As Charity has probably told you, Andrea and Charity were two of the last stragglers to leave after play practice that day. They stayed around and helped me straighten up.”
“Later you were found with Andrea’s wallet?” Joshua asked, carefully watching Austin’s expression.
His gaze darkened a moment. “That’s correct. But it’s only because she left it at school.”
“Andrea didn’t like carrying a purse, so she always kept her wallet in her back pocket,” Charity confirmed. “She could have taken it out for practice. The scene in My Fair Lady we were rehearsing that day had a lot of dancing and moving. She probably didn’t want it to fall out.”
Austin nodded adamantly. “That’s right. I found it on the piano behind the stage and took it into the office to lock it up for the night. I stuck it in a d
rawer because I didn’t want anyone to take it.”
“Do I understand correctly that you were a suspect at one time?”
The light faded from his eyes. “Not officially, even though that chief tried to intimidate me many times. I was never arrested or taken in for official questioning—that’s probably why you couldn’t find anything in your files. Which was a good thing because I’m innocent.”
“Is the wallet the only thing that tied you to the crime?” Joshua asked.
“It didn’t even tie me to the crime!” His voice rose. “It just proved that Andrea had been at play practice. I had no reason to follow her and Charity afterward.”
“But I understood there were some emails.”
His cheeks reddened. “It wasn’t a big deal. I just tried to encourage some of my students. There was nothing inappropriate about what I wrote.”
“Why’d you stop emailing me, Mr. Johansson?” Charity asked.
“I got married, and it didn’t seem appropriate anymore.”
“But it did seem appropriate to email them when they were in high school?” Joshua clarified.
The flush on his cheeks deepened. “I was a little young and naïve back then. I thought I could change the world, and I thought the way to do that was by getting personal with my students.”
“But there were professional boundaries in place?” Joshua asked.
“Of course! My heart was good, but my actions just needed a little refining. Looking back, I would have done things differently.”
“Did you ever have any theories about what happened to Andrea?” Joshua asked, taking a sip of water.
He leaned back, obviously a little more comfortable now that the attention was off him. “At first, I thought it was just a random stranger. I mean, I couldn’t imagine anyone in town doing something like that.”
“But did you change your mind?”
He leaned closer as if there might be someone close by who’d eavesdrop. “Between us, I started to suspect her brother.”
“Andrea’s brother?” Joshua asked, surprise coursing through him.
Austin nodded. “That’s right. I just thought Lawrence was behaving strangely. I always thought he behaved strange around her. Honestly, I had the impression he was jealous, like there was some Cain and Abel stuff going on.”
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