Ever Present Danger (40 page)

“Honey, you should come sit with us,” Elam said. “It might be a long time before Flint calls back.”

“That’s okay. I just feel better watching and waiting. I’m sure Kelsey and Brandon will understand.”

Elam gently massaged her shoulders. “I don’t know that I can handle losing that girl again. Nearly killed me the first time. I keep wishing I’d told her how glad I was that she came home. And what a great kid Montana is.”

Carolyn turned around, her eyes searching his. “You’re talking as if you never expect to see her again.”

“Now don’t go putting words in my mouth. I just regret I didn’t warm up to her faster, that’s all. I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching today. And I promised the Lord that when I see Ivy, I’m going to stop holding the past against her.”

Carolyn’s eyes welled. “I’m so glad, Elam. Ivy really needs you to accept her just as she is.”

“I realize that now. I think my biggest problem is that I’ve always blamed myself for Ivy walking away from her faith. I should’ve put my foot down the minute she came home wearing
Pete Barton’s ring. It was my job to protect her, and I feel as if I threw her to the wolves.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself. If you’ll remember right,
I’m
the one who insisted she was mature enough to handle a steady boyfriend.”

“But you left the final decision up to me. I didn’t want to jeopardize my relationship with you and Ivy, so I allowed her to get involved with Pete. That set her up for a conflict of values that I know that creep took full advantage of.”

“She was seventeen, Elam. She knew right from wrong.”

He nodded. “Maybe so. But she wasn’t strong enough to handle that kind of pressure. Just think how different her life might’ve been if she’d dated some nice kid from the youth group instead.”

“Well, we’ll never know. But Ivy desperately needs to know you love and accept her right now, regardless of her mistakes.”

Elam’s chin quivered, and he looked away. “I just want to tell her how much I love her. I want to be there for her.”

Carolyn noticed his eyes had narrowed and seemed intent on something outside. “What are you looking at?”

“A car just turned into the drive. Probably Flint coming to give us an update.” Elam moved closer to the window and watched as the vehicle moved closer and closer to the house. “Carolyn, that’s not Flint’s Explorer. It’s Bill’s van!”

Elam darted out the front door and down the porch steps, Carolyn close behind, and stood in the driveway, his neck craned, his gaze fixed on the van.

“Ivy’s driving,” Carolyn said. “I don’t even see Bill.”

“Me either.” Elam took off running toward the van.

Carolyn resisted the urge to follow him, hoping that Ivy would see his concern as an indicator his heart was softening.

Suddenly, the van came to a stop and the driver’s side door flung wide open. Ivy jumped out and ran wailing to her father’s arms.

Flint Carter stood next to his squad car with Nick Sanchez while the FBI SWAT team surrounded a log cabin, which was visible
through the pines about fifty yards down a gravel drive. Nick had just received word from the SWAT team that had gone to the other cabin that Bill and Ivy were not there, and it didn’t appear they had been.

“From the looks of the rubber on the pavement,” Nick said, “someone recently hightailed it out of here. Let’s hope we’re not too late.” Nick put his walkie-talkie to his ear. “This is Sanchez, over…Copy that, Eagle Scout. Are you saying Ziwicki appears to be alone?…Yeah, copy that. Go in and get him. Out.”

Nick looked over at Flint. “Ziwicki’s in there, all right—bent over at the kitchen sink pouring water into his eyes. No sign of the Griffith girl.”

Flint put his binoculars to his eyes and watched the SWAT team swarm the cabin and kick in the front door, and then heard shouts coming from inside. A minute later, a handcuffed Bill Ziwicki stumbled out the front door, his hair soaked and parts of his face looking red and blistered. His eyes appeared to be swollen shut. Two of Nick’s agents escorted him down the gravel drive and put him into the backseat of an FBI vehicle.

Nick went over and talked to the leader of the SWAT team and then came back and stood next to Flint.

“Did he say anything?” Flint said.

“Just that he wants a lawyer. And that Griffith bit him and threw something in his eyes and stole his van.”

Ivy Griffith sat between her parents at the kitchen table and recounted for her attorney, Brett Hewitt, the details of her relationship with Bill Ziwicki, beginning with the incident at Grinder’s until she confronted Bill with the photograph and got him to admit that he had shot Pete, Reg, and Denny—and why. She also told Brett how obsessed Bill was with her, how he had kidnapped her and held her against her will, and how she had managed to escape.

Brett made a tent with his fingers. “You’re innocent of any wrongdoing. I don’t see you being charged with anything.”

“I know,” Ivy said. “But there’s something else—something
I’ve needed to confess for a long, long time.”

Ivy held her father’s hand and told Brett what she had told her parents earlier: the truth about what had happened the afternoon Joe Hadley was killed. When she had finished, she exhaled a sigh of relief.
Thank You, Lord
.

“You can see why Carolyn and I called you,” Elam said. “This thing is complicated.”

Brett pursed his lips. “Not really. The murders are unrelated. Ziwicki shot the three guys because they trashed him and because he was obsessed with Ivy—certainly not to get even for Joe’s murder. So let’s get that straight from the get-go. Ziwicki’s going down for the shooting. I don’t want Ivy’s name even mentioned in the same sentence with that scumbag. She has no responsibility whatsoever.”

“But I do share some of the blame for Joe’s murder.” Ivy wiped the tears off her face. “I should’ve tried to stop it, and if I hadn’t been high, I probably would’ve. Everything happened so fast, and I was in shock when I agreed not to tell. But when I realized later how much trouble we were in, I was too scared of going to jail to say anything. Pete kept reminding me that I was an accessory and that telling the sheriff would make my parents hate me, and then I’d have no one…” Ivy let out a sob and then stifled it, aware that her father had put his arm around her.

“Ivy, listen to me,” Brett said. “I don’t want you telling the authorities you were partly responsible for Joe Hadley’s death.”

“But I was.”

“Technically, you had nothing to do with it.”

Ivy shook her head. “Mr. Hewitt, I promised God if I got away from Bill, I would tell the truth about Joe’s death—the whole truth. If I have to go to jail, then I will. But I’m not going to pretend I was innocent. Just think about what I put the Hadleys through because I didn’t speak up.”

Brett lifted his eyebrows and looked at Elam. “Maybe you and Carolyn can talk some sense into her.”

“I don’t think so. Ivy talked to us about this before we called
you. She wants to pay her debt to society. I think it’s up to her.”

“And I want whatever’s just,” Ivy said. “I owe the Hadleys that much.”

Brett threw up his hands and sat back in his chair. “It’s a little hard to defend you if you’re determined to be punished.”

Ivy looked up at her father. “The only thing I’m determined to do is never
ever
again let anybody talk me into compromising what I know is right.” Ivy looked over at Brett. “Not even you, Mr. Hewitt.”

Elam shrugged. “Like I said, it’s her call.”

Brett exhaled loudly, then seemed to be thinking. “All right. I’ll talk to the DA. Maybe we can arrive at some kind of plea agreement that will cleanse your conscience without making you pay for the murder you
didn’t
commit but feel inordinately responsible for. The statute of limitations has expired on your failure to report a felony, so that’s out. There’s no statute of limitations on murder, but you really aren’t guilty of murder. And there’s no one to corroborate your story, one way or the other. Maybe the DA will let you plea out to a Class A misdemeanor instead.” Brett pushed his glasses up higher on his nose. “Then again, I suppose we could waive the statute of limitations and plead you to the Failure to Report a Felony, even if it is too old to prosecute. But that’s probably going to get you jail time.”

“Well, that’s what I deserve,” Ivy said. “I’m not going to water down what I did just because I got away with it for ten years.”

Carolyn turned and looked out the window. “Looks like the cavalry’s arrived. I see three vehicles headed this way. One of them is Flint’s.”

Brett looked at Ivy, his gaze penetrating. “I’m not going to try to talk you out of your conviction. But for now, let me answer any questions. I want to talk to the district attorney’s office before you give any statements to the authorities. I’ll meet you at the jail and make bond for you, and you won’t have to go beyond the booking room. If you’ll just do as I say, I’ll make sure you get to unburden yourself.”

Brandon Jones helped Kelsey clear the dinner table, then went in the living room and sat in front of the fire just as the phone rang. A few minutes later Kelsey came and sat next to him on the couch.

“That was Carolyn on the phone,” she said. “She wanted to thank us again for keeping Montana after school and to let us know that Bill Ziwicki confessed to the shooting and Ivy’s kidnapping.”

“The creep.”

“He’s a scary guy, all right. Carolyn also said Ivy’s out on bail in the Hadley case, but won’t let her attorney plea her out so she doesn’t get jail time.”

“Are you kidding? Why not?”

Kelsey tucked her hair behind her ear. “She really wants justice to be done—
and
she’s recommitted her life to Christ.”

Brandon smiled and threw back his head. “Amazing! Then your talk with her was totally a God thing. He really used you.”

Kelsey nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. “Pretty humbling.”

“If Ivy’s walking with the Lord again, I wonder why she’s hung up on paying for what she did.”

“Carolyn said this isn’t about guilt as much as Ivy’s accepting responsibility for having done nothing to stop Joe’s murder or to report it to the sheriff. Ivy wants the statute of limitations waived so she can be charged with failure to report a felony. She could get up to a year in jail.”

Brandon sighed. “What a mess. Don’t you wonder how people get themselves into such trouble?”

“After what you told me today, I’m surprised you have to ask.”

“Touché.” Brandon ran his thumb over the cross on his wedding band. “I’ve been thinking a lot about how risky it was to allow myself to be exposed to the stuff Buzz was into.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Do you think?”

“Jake tried to warn me when he first realized I was hanging out with Buzz. He said it’s easier to get sucked into the darkness than
to walk in the light. I didn’t know exactly what he meant at the time, but I do now.”

Kelsey put her arm around him. “I’m glad. I don’t ever want us to have another conversation like the one we had this morning.”

“Don’t worry. I learned my lesson. The best way to avoid getting pulled into something we know is wrong is never to cross the line.”

Kelsey poked him in the ribs. “Or do anything we’d be ashamed to tell our spouse.”

Ivy knocked on Montana’s door and then opened it. “May I come in?”

“Okay.”

Ivy went over and sat on the side of the bed next to him, her hands folded in her lap. “It’s been a very hard day, hasn’t it? How are you doing?”

Montana shrugged, his lower lip quivering.

“Can you tell me what’s bothering you the most?”

A tear trickled down Montana’s cheek. He looked up at her, his puppy eyes brimming with tears. “If you go to jail, will I be an orphan?”

Ivy pulled him into her arms and choked back her own tears. “Oh, sweetie, no. I’ll still be your mother. And you’ll still be the most important person in my life. And you can stay right here with your grandparents and go to school. You can play with Ian and have adventures with Sasha and go do things with Brandon and Kelsey.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“The judge will decide that. I know this is so hard for you, and I don’t blame you if you’re disappointed in me for keeping such an awful secret all those years. I’m certainly disappointed in myself. Mommy made a very bad decision that caused her to make lots of other bad decisions. You see, holding all that guilt inside caused me to get hooked on drugs to try to forget. And I couldn’t take care of you when I was high.”

Montana hugged her tighter. “That’s okay. God sent Gramma Lu.”

“Yes, He did. And she knew that the only way I would ever get over the guilt was to turn back to God. But I’d convinced myself that the wrong things I’d done were too bad to ever be forgiven. Of course, that’s not true. Gramma Lu knew that and convinced me to come back here and tell the truth so I could get right with God again.”