Baird screamed in horror, dropped the taser to the floor, and took his service revolver out of its holster. He had never planned to use it today, but, like everything else, that plan had gone to hell. If he was going to survive, he’d have to shoot his way out. He picked up the lamp that Julia had used on Amber and broke the front window. He now had a clear shot at the deputies and didn’t waste any time talking. Even left-handed, he was a decent shot, and he quickly took down one of the deputies. The sheriff and the other deputy ducked behind the car doors and returned fire.
George and Justin watched in shock as the situation erupted into chaos. They had seen Stein go down, and they weren’t sure of his condition. Without a second thought for his own safety, George leapt up and ran to Stein. Once there, he tore off his shirt and tried to staunch the flow of blood from Stein’s wound. Baird had stopped to reload and saw George make his move, but he didn’t consider him a threat, and instead, renewed his barrage against the sheriff. In the distance, he could hear sirens. Either an ambulance or more deputies. He wasn’t going to wait to find out.
During the initial attack, Jackson had reacted to the barrage of bullets by ducking below the couch. Now, with a slight lull in the shooting, he looked up to see Baird reloading. He also noticed that Joel wasn’t dead and was moving. Baird was preoccupied and not paying attention to either of the men. He let off a few more rounds and started to make his way to another window when Joel grabbed his leg. The action took Baird completely by surprise and sent him sprawling to the floor.
Jackson watched the spectacle and needed no further enticement. Emboldened by Joel’s bravery and fueled by his own anger and pent-up rage, Jackson flew over the couch like an Olympic hurdler and was on the detective before he realized what was happening. Jackson had always been a skilled fighter, and in any fair fight, he would easily subdue an opponent, but Baird was now one-handed and losing blood rapidly. He didn’t stand a chance. Baird feebly tried to protect his face with his one good arm, but it was useless. Blows came fast and furious as Jackson took out his anger on Baird’s face, and mercy was not going to be given. He wanted to make Baird suffer, and if he died in the process, well, Jackson just didn’t care.
After a few moments of silence, the sheriff started to sneak toward the house. He saw Baird go down, but he wasn’t sure why. It was possible he had been hit. After Julia had gone down, one of the deputies worked his way around to the back door. Cautiously, he entered at about the same time the sheriff had reached the front door. They both spotted Jackson pounding away on Baird’s face, then rushed together as one and pulled him off.
Baird was barely conscious when the paramedics arrived a few minutes later.
Chapter Thirty
“At last, God caught his eye.”
—Harry Secombe
The summers in Grand County were spectacular. Cool mornings gave way to warm, breezy afternoons. Many August afternoons would bring on dark skies, lit up with brilliant lightning storms. And as quickly as they would arrive, they were over. Grand County surely lived up to its name. Today’s weather would not disappoint.
The survivors would arrive for the reunion before the storm.
Two months to the day after all the carnage at his Grand Lake cabin, Jackson sat on his deck, waiting for the survivors and their families as he watched the clouds build up in the distance. He was still alone as he reflected on the events that had led to that fateful day. He knew all the facts. He just couldn’t make sense of it all. Therapy was helping but slowly. One day, he was a successful radio host and consumer champion with adoring fans. The next day, not so much. He marveled at how quickly it had happened, and how completely the Revengers had been able to destroy his career. Some talk show host had called it, “hero to zero”. But it had been worse than that. All because some idiot had decided to seek revenge after a perceived injustice.
Denver, at one time, had meant so much to him. Its beauty and people had been an integral part of his life. Now, they just looked and felt ugly. The therapist said that, with time and work, he would get over that feeling. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. There were still loose ends to tie up, forcing him to come to town to attend meetings and deal with affairs. But each visit was painful. No matter how short they were, the visits felt too long.
The radio station owners and management had tried to make amends to him, but he would have none of it. Offers to return to the station as the Consumer Champion were politely rebuked. As far as Jackson was concerned, they had shown him no loyalty during his ordeal, so he owed them none now. The callers, listeners, and fans were more dogged about trying to convince him to return, but he ignored them, as well. Even the journalists and radio talk show hosts who had judged him so harshly during the nightmare now tried to apologize. Jackson didn’t take their calls and refused to read or listen to their explanations. He had no desire to hear them try to justify their actions based on rumor and innuendo. They could never earn his respect again. They had all but tarred and feathered him, then chased him off the air, and now, they wanted absolution? “Forgive and forget,” he had heard it said. He would do neither.
Was fame that fleeting? Almost with nothing more than a flip of a coin, he went from hero to persona non grata. Even now that it was all over, and the true killers had been discovered, some people would not let go of their suspicions. Some people even spoke of a conspiracy to cover up a crime that reached all the way up to the mayor. Disillusioned and disheartened, Jackson was moving on. His radio show host days were done.
Still haunted by Tina’s death, Jackson had visions of her scarred face, and the fear in her eyes as he pushed her out the back door to what he thought, at the time, was safety. He relived that day over and over again, trying to imagine a different outcome. He couldn’t have known that while he was inside fighting with the detective, Tina was outside, bleeding out. It seemed that Julia, blind with rage, had decided to stab Tina one last time before charging the police with guns blazing. He wondered, if he had kept Tina on the floor after Amber attacked Baird, whether she would be alive today. His guilt told him he had precipitated her death. Insomnia would make sure he played that scene over and over again for years. His therapist had suggested drugs to help ease the pain, but Jackson felt that he deserved the punishment. Nightmares were graphic and brutal reminders of his mistakes—imagined or otherwise—and he felt it would be wrong to dull them.
Surprisingly, not everything had ended badly that day. By some miracle, both Joel and Amber had survived their wounds. Joel had lost a lot of blood and was just barely holding on by the time the paramedics stabilized him. Amber had also lost a lot of blood from the blow to her head, as well as a tooth, which doctors found embedded in the detective’s arm.
A bond had formed between Jackson, Joel, and Amber after the tragedy. Whereas Jackson and Joel would carry the reminders of that day with them, Amber seemed undaunted. She seemed to recover well, and although she was a little reticent about making new friends, she still seemed happy to be alive, and, of course, always waiting for the next walk and the next game of fetch.
Stein too was fortunate that day. Had it not been for George’s bravery, he would have died. George took his heroics in stride. He hadn’t really thought he was in much danger, and he said that anyone else would have done the same in that situation. Justin had, in fact, proven that to be correct. When he saw George risk his life to help Detective Stein, he decided to try to help the wounded deputy.
Julia wasn’t as fortunate as the deputies and Stein. One of the rounds from the sheriff had hit her in the heart, and she’d died instantly.
Detective Chris Baird, the inspiration and mastermind of the Revengers’crime spree, would have preferred to have died that day. The paramedics arrived in time to save his life, but not his hand, and not before Jackson had permanently disfigured his face. Over the next few weeks, Baird would require numerous operations to reconstruct his face. And although it wasn’t the face he was used to seeing in the mirror, it would have to suf
fice for him to stand trial.
During his recuperation, Baird agreed to tell his story to Justin McGraw. The court allowed it as long as Justin agreed not to publish anything until after the trial. Baird met with Justin on a daily basis, and although talking through a wired jaw was difficult, he seemed anxious to do so. When he finally went to trial, he plead guilty to multiple counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
True to his word, Stein provided Justin with information that would eventually help him write a best-selling book. Justin had always dreamed of being a best-selling author but had never really believed it would happen. And although he would have preferred to write a literary masterpiece, he was more than happy to accept the accolades that came from writing a true-crime book. The novel would have to come later. “You take what you can get,” he told his friends.
As the final details of the case were revealed to the public, it also became known that Justin was writing the definitive story behind the Revengers. That fact did not go unnoticed by all the major publishers and movie producers. More than one offered him lucrative deals. Before he had inked the last page, he’d accepted a large advance that included publishing and movie rights. The advance and promise of more to come was all he needed to turn in his resignation at the newspaper.
But the book wasn’t just about the Revengers’ murder spree. During his research, Justin had looked into the past of each victim and discovered that Thad, the mayor, and the police chief were all early investors in Lane Stevens’ Ponzi scheme. Unfortunately for them, Justin uncovered the fact that they weren’t just unwitting victims of Stevens’ shady deals. They were also participants. Each of them was funneling clients to Stevens in exchange for guaranteed returns. Kickbacks, in other words. When the Revengers first struck, the three conspired about ways to protect their involvement with Stevens. When other murders started to occur, they thought they had dodged a bullet. It was assumed that the focus of the investigation would be on the Revengers, and that any deals that Stevens was involved with might get ignored. But Justin was a wild card no one had foreseen. Thad never imagined that Justin could or would be so thorough. He assumed assigning Justin to the story would ensure their safety. Once they realized what he had discovered, Thad and Justin’s sister tried to persuade him not to write the book, or at least to leave out any details about the Ponzi scheme that might implicate Thad or his buddies. Justin wasn’t persuaded. Even threats of lawsuits were useless. Justin’s publisher assured Justin that he was on solid footing, but even so, any legal fees would be borne by the publisher.
Justin not only exposed them; he relished exposing them and did it brilliantly. The prospect of being disowned by his sister was the icing on the cake. As he worked on the book, he also published a number of articles in a rival newspaper about the case. It was enough to get the DA interested. All of them were soon indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges and agreed to plead guilty for lesser sentences. Their careers in business and politics in Denver were over.
Stein recovered completely from his wounds and returned to work. He received a commendation for his efforts in solving the case.
George, after much cajoling from the radio station, and moral support from Jackson, agreed to step in and take over the reins as Denver’s Consumer Champion. He filled the role capably; some even said, “brilliantly”. The show’s ratings climbed each week until they had reached the level they were under Jackson. Steve remained on as George’s right-hand man, and they were soon able to find suitable research assistants to fill out the team. George’s style was a tad more subdued than Jackson’s, but the audience loved him just the same. Fear over losing Jackson was quickly extinguished when Jay and the station owners saw the advertisers flocking back.
Jackson stood on his deck, beer in hand, watching the genesis of a storm brewing on the horizon as he waited for his guests to arrive. The reunion of the survivors was to be the first group gathering since the shootout. Jackson’s therapist suggested that it would be a good time to heal some wounds and rekindle the friendships born of surviving a tragedy together. He was still having trouble dealing with feelings of guilt over the loss of Tina, and his inability to protect her. He had replayed the weeks leading up to her death and couldn’t help but think there had been some sign, some warning of what was coming that he should have seen. Or that, if he had just listened to her and taken time off, gotten out of town, she would be alive now.
He also wondered if he was really to blame for the suicide of Ray Baird. Had he deserved to be punished? The reality was that Ray Baird wasn’t just some poor victim of an overzealous consumer protector. He was truly a sleazy businessman with no attention to quality or detail. His work sucked, generating complaint after complaint. He didn’t deserve suicide, but he also should never have been in business for himself.
At the time, Jackson may have known that, but today he had no recollection of the man or his business history. His therapist tried to help Jackson deal with the guilt, but it was “a slow process”, she said. He hadn’t pushed Ray Baird over a cliff, and he’d had no control over how Ray Baird had dealt with failure any more than he had controlled who the Revengers chose as their victims. She assured him that he wasn’t wrong to expose con men and reminded him about all the people he had aided in recovering money and solving problems.
Healing was easier said than done. She said it would “take time”. And, of course, more sessions. Well, he had plenty of time, now that he had ended his career in radio.
Joel and his wife, Joan, were the first to arrive, hand-in-hand and followed by Amber, who was bounding about, looking for squirrels. They joined him on the deck, drinks in hand, when George and Tanya pulled up with Justin in the backseat. When Jake Stein and his wife, Kate, drove up a few minutes later, the invited guests were all there.
Jackson served everyone a drink and proposed a toast. Nothing too elaborate, but Jackson wasn’t one for long speeches since leaving the radio show. “To new beginnings, good friends, and good luck.” He held up his beer. “Salud.”
They clinked their drinks together with smiles and well wishes to each other, then drank enthusiastically.
“Don’t put your drinks down just yet,” said George. “I have one more toast.” His smile reached from ear to ear. “Or, actually, some news to share.” He paused.
“Well, are you going to wait ‘til our drinks get warm?” teased Justin. “Spill it.”
George nodded, still sporting a huge grin. “I asked Tanya to marry me, and, to my great surprise and joy, she accepted. We are getting married.”
The gathering erupted with a chorus of congratulations and some good-natured teasing directed at George. The standard joke was that Tanya was too good for him, but being the saint that she was, it was understandable that she would accept. Another round of drinks flowed.
George pulled Jackson aside. “You know that the station owners are still trying to make things right with you, right? They like me, but I can tell they want you back.”
“It’s your show now, George,” replied Jackson.
“Thanks, Bob, and I’m having a good time, but it’s your show and always has been. I’m just keeping the seat warm for you. Jay said the owners are sorry they didn’t stand behind you before. Big mistake.”
“It felt like it at the time, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what happened. The truth is, I’m done with the show. You’re doing a great job, and you should stick with it.”
“The reality is, they think they will make more money with you. It’s ironic, but I think they would like me to be more controversial. But that’s just not me.”
“George, you’re doing fine. Truly. I’ll be fine, and there is no one better suited to taking over the show than you.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come back?”
“I am, and I appreciate your support, but I’m done.” He took a long draw of beer. “Time for me to move on.” He patted George on the back. Still not sure George believed him, he added,
“Really, George. I’m good with it. Let’s rejoin the others.” And at that moment, Jackson actually believed he had made the right decision to retire from radio.
The storm was coming closer, and the group moved inside. Predictably, the group had avoided discussing the Revengers. It had all been said by the media. The press had discussed it ad nauseum, with everyone chiming in on why the case took so long to solve, along with a myriad of conspiracy theories.
Stein had taken his share of heat during the investigation, but in the end, he felt somewhat vindicated. Only somewhat, however; he still thought he could have done more. Why hadn’t he suspected Baird sooner? In hindsight, the puzzle pieces looked obvious, he’d just needed to put them together. He couldn’t escape the thought that if he had put them together sooner, the outcome would have been different.
He also wondered how in the hell he’d let Julia get the drop on him. Thankfully, George’s quick action helped save his life so that he could have these misgivings. No matter what his therapist said, he held himself responsible for Tina’s death, but Jackson would hear none of it. He had already accepted the blame for that, and as far as he was concerned, Stein had acted professionally and moved as quickly as he could. Were it not for Stein, Jackson and Joel would have also died that day, along with Tina. And the Revengers would have gone free.
The two men shook hands in appreciation and returned to the group.
Jackson held up his beer. “I don’t think we ever drank a toast to the new and improved Consumer Champion.”
They all clicked their drinks together with a chorus of “congratulations” and “good luck” wishes, then drank a hearty toast to George.
Thunder struck in the distance as the storm moved closer. A few minutes later, the wind picked up and howled through the trees. The sky grew dark.
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