Skeleton Key (25 page)

Erika was crying. Tears were streaming down her face. Clay went to her and held her while she tried to compose herself. “I was
married
to that monster. I’m so ashamed. I’m so sorry, Robbie. How could I ever have loved a man who could so easily hurt other people?” She wiped tears from her eyes, spreading mascara onto her reddened face, yet she still looked beautiful. “We can’t let Robbie get in trouble, Clay. I don’t care what we have to do; please don’t let him get in trouble. For seven years they’ve looked after me and Logan. And their daughter is Logan’s sister. Logan loves her. Anna is family. Robbie can’t go to prison for this.”

“
You’d better call your lawyer again,” Clay said. “She’ll know what to do better than I would. Is a mechanic going to find anything incriminating, Robbie?”

“
If he looks closely at all, he’ll see that the brakes were ruined, and he’ll know it was done by someone who knew what he was doing. Me, for instance.”

“
What does Stacy know about this?”

“
She doesn’t know what I did, and she doesn’t know what’s been happening in the investigation. All she knows is that I wasn’t home until just before the train wreck.”

“
She can’t be forced to testify against you. You need to go home and tell Stacy what you did. You need to wait there for the attorney. If Hopper shows before she gets there, don’t say a word. Do you understand? Robbie, look at me.” When Robbie looked into his eyes, Clay said, “Do not say a word to Chief Hopper.”

Just then Tanner and Anna came into the room. Erika rushed over and lovingly hugged Anna. She started crying again, then turned to Robbie. “Does she know?”

“
No, how could she understand?”

“
I would like Logan to know.”

“
When the time is right, let’s tell them both.”

***

Chief Hopper, accompanied by Officer Verne Gilbert, arrived at the Gomez residence a little after 7:00 p.m. He rang the doorbell. When the door opened, it was Andi Nickel who greeted him. Clay and Roberto had already filled her in on all the facts. Hopper was taken aback temporarily. “Hello, Ms. Nickel. I’m here to take Roberto Gomez in for questioning. Would you kindly step aside?”

“
On what grounds, Chief Hopper?”

“
He is to be questioned in regards to the deaths of Joseph Carrollton and Adrian Payne on Thursday, August 7, 2003.”

“
And what makes you believe Mr. Gomez has any information in relation to the deaths of those two men?”

“
Ms. Nickel, if he has nothing to fear, why would he hire you?”

“
Oh, he didn’t hire me. I’ve been employed as counsel by a third party.”

“
And may I ask who that might be?”

“
No, you may not. Or at least I will not be giving you that information. So, again, what makes you believe that Mr. Gomez has information pertaining to two deaths in 2003?”

“
We have reason to believe that he may be criminally involved. We are here simply to bring him in for questioning. May I come in now?”

Andi stepped aside. Sitting on their couch, simply watching television, were Roberto and Stacy Gomez. The three Gomez girls were coloring in coloring books on the carpeting in the middle of the room. “Excuse me, Robbie. We’re here to take you in for questioning. Would you mind coming with us?”

Roberto never said a word, just as Clay had told him. He simply grabbed a jacket, slipped on his shoes, kissed his girls and wife, and walked out with Andi Nickel and the two policemen. “He’ll be riding with me, Chief,” Andi informed Luke.

“
If you say so, Counselor,” Hopper replied.

In the car, Andi explained once again to Roberto to keep quiet. She said that she’d be taking the offensive, which is exactly what she did. Roberto had an alibi for the night of the train wreck. Hopper had no evidence otherwise. Hopper had an eyewitness—a ten-year-old from seven years before who said he
thought
he saw Roberto in Lansing. There were no other corroborating witnesses. There was some damage done to the brakes of the train, something Roberto was capable of doing, but again, there was no physical evidence or eyewitnesses placing him at the scene. When they got to the issue of any kind of motive, all Hopper mentioned was racist remarks and sexual harassment. He was unable to bring up the rape accusation that Clay had read from Roberto’s mind. Even if Hopper could persuade a judge to believe Clay read his mind, it would be inadmissible in court, much like a polygraph test would be. As the “interview” continued, Roberto never spoke a word, under the “advice” of his counselor. It took a very short time before Andi Nickel stated, “You barely have
circumstantial
evidence that Mr. Gomez was involved in any wrongdoing. Unless you have any further questions, I believe it would be appropriate for you to excuse us. You’ve taken up enough of our time.”

Hopper had no choice but to agree, so Andi escorted Roberto to her car and drove him back home. Luke Hopper was back to the drawing board. Although, he believed that Roberto Gomez had damaged the train’s brakes, it appeared that it would be difficult to get any kind of conviction. Second-degree murder? Manslaughter? Malicious destruction of property? There was still more to the story, so he wasn’t giving up yet.

***

Clay, Tanner, and Erika, though they actually weren’t in the mood to watch a basketball game, were in the stands at Durand High School watching the Railroaders play Perry High’s varsity team. Logan hadn’t played a single minute in the first game three days before, but that was after his father’s body had been discovered and he had missed school and practices. Erika was hopeful that he’d get in, and was excitedly hoping that Tanner actually did see Logan’s future baskets.

It was a close, low-scoring first half, with Perry taking the lead at halftime by a score of 21-18. Durand had six underclassmen on their roster, none of whom played particularly well, yet Logan, a senior, never got off the bench.

Perry extended their lead to 37-25 at the end of the third period and had cruised to a 54-32 lead with three and a half minutes to go in the game. Finally, Logan took off his warm-up jacket and entered the game. He looked up at his mother and gave what looked like a disappointed half-grin, but he was in and his three fans were anxious to see if Tanner actually did see the future. In the first two and a half minutes, Logan touched the ball, but he looked very tentative. He didn’t even look to the basket to score. But with fifty-five seconds on the clock, he found himself wide open in the corner in front of his team’s bench. He let fly a three-pointer, and he hit nothing but net. Perry’s player stepped on the baseline while inbounding the ball, so the turnover gave the ball right back to Durand. Logan stepped back over to the same corner and received a pass. He shot again and hit another three.

After a Perry player walked the ball back up the court, the team seemed content to run out the clock, but one of the reserves made a bad pass that led to an over-and-back violation. Durand had the ball one last time with nine seconds remaining. The point guard tried to rifle a pass under the basket, but it was deflected and rolled toward the sideline where Logan picked it up and shot another three-pointer from the corner as the buzzer sounded. Once again, the shot snapped the bottom of the net for his ninth point in fifty-five seconds—just as Tanner had seen. Durand lost 54-43, but Erika was jumping up and down and giving hugs like they had won. She was ecstatic. Joyous. Proud. She started laughing and high-fiving everyone within reaching distance.

To Clay, it was like watching Jessie at Tanner’s games, and Tanner sensed immediately how his father felt. He put his arm around his dad’s shoulders and said, “Mom’s up in Heaven watching, Dad. She loves you, so she’d want you to be happy. Zander is right, you know, as hard as that is to admit. It’s time for you to move on. Besides, how many men can say they were in love with two women the quality of
your
two?”

Clay had tears in his eyes. Tanner had said just the right thing. How come he was so special? Then he turned to Tanner. “Your mom raised you pretty well, I’ll have to admit. Thank you.”

Tanner hugged his dad. “God blessed me when he gave me both of you. Thank
you
.”

Before Clay went off to give his girlfriend a hug, he had one more thing to say. “It seems you were right about Logan. That’s awesome. Your powers keep growing. But do you know what that means?”

Now Tanner had tears in his eyes. “Yeah, it means Dan Duncan is gonna try to shoot you. Promise me, Dad, that you won’t let him hurt you.”

“
One thing I learned when your mother was murdered is that a person’s future is in God’s hands. I can only hope he’s taught me all these things in the past year and has given me renewed faith because he has a plan for my life. I don’t know what the future holds, but I promise to be careful.”

Clay and Tanner waited around with Erika for Logan to come out of the locker room. They said their congratulations and their goodbyes. Logan thanked them for coming, and Erika gave them both hugs. It had been quite a day.

Tanner had a Saturday night game but because his coach was at a clinic, there was no walk through in the morning, so he spent the night with his dad, and they were on their way to Sports Creek Raceway to find and talk to Lawrence Maloney, the driver of the stolen truck seven years earlier. They arrived at 11:45 a.m. and looked for a truck with Equine En Route, Inc. on the side, or one with license plates from Kentucky. There was nothing, but at 12:05, the truck they were looking for rolled in, drove up to the gate and guard shack, and stopped. A very tall, thin man stepped down from his cab and presented some paperwork. A guard reviewed the papers, had the man sign something, then opened the gate and waved the truck through. The gate closed and Clay was left wondering what to do.

“
Tell him to let you in,” suggested Tanner.

“
Just like that? What if I get the guy in trouble?”

“
You have a better idea?”

Because he didn’t, Clay drove to the gate and stopped. The guard stepped out of his shack and stood before Clay’s door. “Can I help you?”

Clay looked him in the eyes and said, “Yes, sir. I need to speak with Lawrence Maloney, so I’d appreciate it if you’d open that gate for us and let us in.”

The guard seemed unsure of himself, but he said, “You’ll have to sign in.”

“
No problem,” Clay replied. He signed the sheet and waited for the gate to open. When it did, he waved, smiled, and drove in. Mind control certainly had its advantages. Maloney was dropping his horses off at a paddock. There was a crew of men there waiting—presumably the owners. Maloney was clapping and rubbing his hands together to ward off some of the cold.

Clay parked, and he and Tanner walked up to the man. Clay spoke first. “Excuse me. Are you by chance Lawrence Maloney?”

“
I am. But everbody calls me Larry,” he said with a heavy Southern accent.

“
I’m Clay Thomas, and this is my son, Tanner.”

Larry shook hands. “What kin I do for y’all?”

“
Larry, we’ve been investigating the train wreck from August of 2003. Do you think we could ask you a few questions?”

“
I reckon so. It’s been a mighty long time. I might disremember some thangs, but if’n y’all wanna go inside, I was fixin’ to git some coffee afore I freeze to death.”

“
We might could do that,” Tanner smiled and joked in such a way that he wasn’t offensive at all.

“
A Yankee with a sense of humor. If’n there was more Gol-darned people who could laugh, it wouldn’t be so mighty aggervatin visitin’ these parts. Why’n tarnation caint people laugh more these days?”

“
I reckon we’re all a bit too serious, Larry. How ’bout we fetch a seat yonder?” Tanner smiled and pointed, and Larry smiled and headed right over. Clay marveled at his son’s personality.

Once they were seated, Clay explained that they were simply interested in what he remembered about that night.

“
I came outta the john, fixin’ to git a cuppa coffee, but the dad-burned rig was missin’ from the lot. Lord a’mercy, and nairy a person seen a thang. If’n someone drove a semi-truck from a dinky gas station, you’da thought someone would hafta seen it, but no, not in Du-rand.”

“
There was a police car there. Do you remember that?” Clay asked.

“
I looked pert’ near everwhere fer the guy, but he warnt nowhere to be found. I recollect callin’ my boss back home. Spent a few minutes tryin’ to figger out what to do next. Boss was havin’ a hissy—hootin’ an’ hollerin’. If’n there’s someone who kin kick up a ruckus, it’s my boss. Then I seen the no ’count cop joggin’ into the lot.”

“
He was running?”

“
Yes, sir. I headed outside agin. He was all outta breath and was fixin’ to git in his car and drive away. I hitched my breetches like I use’ta when I was a young’n, and stopped the man. Aggervatin’ little man didn’t much care ’bout my predicament, but, finally, he got to workin’ on a dad-burned police report. I was fixin’ to wring his thick neck when he got a call on his radio. A train’d smashed a semi-truck on some tracks purdy close by. We got in his car to see if’n it was my truck seeins how I happened to be missin’ one. My rig was on fire. Part of the train was toppled over. That no-count cop got out the car and left me there alone. Went down the tracks like he was lookin’ fer someone. Never came back. Warnt nothin’ I could do but watch.”