Chapter 49
Wes and Max bounded onto the scene. The agents were quietly taking David away in an unmarked car. Handcuffed and withdrawn, he stared out the window as they drove off.
“What the heck is going on?” Wes asked.
“He’s just been arrested,” Brynn answered. “He was behind the tractor accident and the ransom ware. He wanted those chips, and he threatened us with a gun.”
“A gun?” Wes’s voice leveled up a notch. “Are you okay?”
Brynn nodded. “We’re both okay, but it could have gone really bad. Thank God the FBI agents were here.”
“Did they take the gun?” Max asked.
“I’m not sure,” Brynn replied.
“The last time I saw it, it was in the barn,” Becky said.
Wes and Max raced to the barn. Becky looked at Brynn and shrugged. Then it dawned on Brynn: the reason Wes was so interested in the gun. Was it the gun he’d been accused of buying and killing Donny Iser with? Was David Reese the killer of Donny as well? Brynn’s heart raced.
Wes exited the barn holding the gun. An agent came up beside him and took it from him, examined it, and smiled at Wes. Suddenly Wes’s expression changed. Relief washed over him.
He walked over to Brynn. “That’s the gun they thought I killed Donny with. David Rees had it. I never imagined him a killer.”
“None of us imagined you one, either,” Brynn said, and wrapped her arms around him. He dropped his head on her shoulder and stood there for several moments. When he lifted his head, he wiped away tears. “It’s over,” he said. “It’s over.”
Rita, the agent, walked over to them and asked if they wanted to go inside to talk.
“Of course,” Brynn said, hoping she would straighten out the mess in her head. What had David Reese been thinking? What was his ultimate goal—other than money, of course? Why would he have killed that young man? And why did he try to frame Josh for killing the other one? And why was he trying to frame Wes? So many questions. Brynn wanted them all answered, but she knew some of them might never be. Human behavior was often unexplainable, unfortunately.
After they situated themselves in the living room, each with a glass of water or iced tea, Rita cleared her throat. “Do you have any questions?”
“Where do we start?” Becky said after a few moments.
“I can tell you a few things you probably are unaware of and we can move forward from there,” Rita said. “We’ve been watching Reese for quite some time. But not for cyber issues, per se, for porn issues. He runs several underground porn sites, using underage teenagers.”
Chelsea!
“He befriends them, gives them gifts, good drugs, and then drugs them, uses them in these flicks.”
“That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard,” Becky said.
Wes and Max sat with their mouths open.
Brynn’s head was spinning. So the flick they found of Chelsea? She was drugged. She must have been trying to keep it quiet. So David Reese had her under his thumb. And Roy must have been aware of it.
“One young girl came to us, confessed in a way, and reported the circumstances. She was afraid for her life. He’d threatened her to keep her mouth shut or he’d tell her family, everybody she knew, and so on. She suspected he’d killed young men who she had an interest in.”
“Was this Chelsea?” Wes asked.
“I’m not at liberty to tell you that. But he’s ruined many young women’s lives. This girl is bringing him down.”
Brynn hoped it was Chelsea. It would redeem her in Brynn’s mind. After all the nonsense with the collar. Wait. If it was Chelsea, were her parents in on it? Is that why they behaved the way they did? She hoped so.
“Those chips were valuable to him because they link him to cybercrime and he’s going down.” Rita looked at Wes. “That gun, however, links him to the murder of Donny Iser. We don’t have a confession. But I’m certain it won’t matter. His crimes are so deep, he’ll be in prison a long time.”
“I hope so,” Brynn said. “This has all been too much. Why was he trying to frame Wes, of all people?”
“He’s also a member of the KKK.”
“What!?” Brynn’s heart couldn’t take much more. “Do you mean there’s a chapter around here?”
She nodded. “It was disbanded several years ago. He’s been trying to start it up again.”
“Whoa,” Wes said, eyes wide.
“After this incident, I don’t think they will be a problem,” the agent said, smiling reassuringly. She drew in a breath. “David had an obsession with Chelsea. He was trying to off all of her boyfriends, who he thought were his competition.”
“Why did they hide the chips in Jewel’s collar?” Becky asked.
“We have no idea, but maybe we’ll find out, eventually.” She drew in air. “I know this has been rough on you. But we figured he’d act quickly, and he did. Allowing us to watch your place was helpful. Thank you for complying and for keeping it quiet. It wouldn’t have worked otherwise.”
Brynn warmed. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have all the answers right this minute. She had the most important one: Wes would be completely exonerated, and he’d be free to live his life. She blinked away a tear. “Thank God,” she said.
Becky reached over and held her hand. “It’s going to be okay.”
Wes glanced at Brynn and quickly looked away. So young, any display of emotion embarrassed him. She smiled. “You’re a free man, Wes.” Tears now were streaming down her face. The agent handed her tissues.
“Well, good. We’ve got a lot of work to do around here,” he said with a hint of cracking of his voice, as his father’s arm went around his shoulders.