“It’s very simple,” Rafael called out. “Just tell her to meet you and Andrew Lassiter at First Landing State Park. Plans have changed. Come immediately.”
Jason stared at the recorder, feeling incredibly helpless. Either way, he was going to die. Did he have enough guts not to go along with the cover-up?
Kelly answered the question for him. Without warning, she kicked again and rolled away from Johansen. She tried to stand but with her ankles taped fell back on her side. Rafael reached out and grabbed her, pulling her back toward him. “Feisty,” he said, waving the blade in front of her face. “It’s a shame to ruin such a pretty face.”
He flicked the knife toward her just as Jason heard the blast of a gun and watched Rafael’s arm jerk backward, away from Kelly, the knife flying from his hand. The shot distracted Tony, and Jason lurched into him, head-butting the big man and forcing him backward.
Another series of shots rang out, three of them, so close together they sounded almost like one explosion. The bullets ripped into Rafael, and he collapsed backward in a heap.
From behind Jason, a fraction of a second later, another series of bullets flew, exploding into the head and chest of Tony. He was dead before he hit the floor.
As quickly as it had started, it was over.
Jason hardly dared breathe. “Are there any more?” Melissa Davids shouted from the entrance to Jason’s left.
“I think we’re done,” Case McAllister said, limping up from behind Jason. He grabbed the flashlight and, along with Melissa, did a quick search of the theater, guns drawn as they went from row to row like a couple of trained detectives.
When they finished, Case came down to help Jason, who had buckled to the floor.
“You all right?” Case asked.
“Not really.”
Melissa knelt next to Kelly, using Johansen’s knife to cut the duct tape from around Kelly’s ankles. Next, with the gentleness of a mother, Melissa peeled off the duct tape holding Kelly’s gag.
“Thank God,” Kelly said, her face a mixture of relief and tears. She leaned into Melissa Davids, her hands still cuffed behind her back. Melissa held her for a moment.
Jason watched the women as Case searched through the pockets of the dead men for the handcuff keys.
“I’m not sure how much we were planning on charging for those GPS options on our guns,” Case said over his shoulder. “But whatever it was, we oughta double it.”
A few minutes later, after Case had unlocked the handcuffs, the SWAT team burst through the theater doors. “Hands on your heads! Freeze!”
“That’s it. Now take two steps back away from your guns.”
“Glad you guys could join the party,” Melissa Davids said.
93
The medical staff at Virginia Beach General treated Jason like royalty. Though Jason was still in shock from the pain and trauma, he realized that in the big scheme of things he was miraculously unhurt. He had dislocated his shoulder and suffered a serious concussion from the blow to his head. He now had a big bald spot where they had shaved his head for the stitches, though they had since covered the wound with gauze and a bandage.
His first visitor was Bella Harper.
“Look at you,” she said. “I leave you alone for one hour, and you just about get yourself killed. You look terrible.”
“Thanks,” Jason mumbled. He motioned with his hand for Bella to keep her voice down. “I’ve got a splitting headache.”
Bella shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m just so glad you’re okay,” she said, choking up. The bravado hadn’t lasted long. It looked like she wanted to give Jason a hug but didn’t dare touch him for fear she might hurt him. Instead, she squeezed his hand.
“From the minute we figured out you were missing, I started praying for you,” Bella said.
“Thanks.”
Bella gave him the rundown about the search. She had discovered Jason and Kelly were missing when she tried to call the lawyers with news about the shadow jury’s verdict. After fifteen minutes of unanswered calls, Melissa Davids had called her company and obtained the information for the GPS unit in Jason’s gun.
“When she found out the location, she and Mr. McAllister were on their way before they even called 911,” Bella said. “I don’t think Ms. Davids trusts the cops.”
Jason thanked Bella for everything she had done. He was tired and hurting and just wanted to sleep. Unfortunately, all the nurses were determined to keep him awake for another twelve hours because of the concussion.
“Don’t you want to know about the verdict?” asked Bella.
From the tone of Bella’s voice, it was hard to tell whether they had won or not. Maybe it was the painkillers, or the trauma he had just seen Kelly endure, or the horror of seeing Andrew Lassiter shot right in front of him. For whatever reason, the verdict didn’t seem to matter as much anymore. He would certainly take no great solace in a defense verdict. As hard as it had been to watch Andrew and the others die, he couldn’t imagine what Blake Crawford must have gone through watching the tape of Rachel being shot.
“They gave the plaintiff a million dollars,” Bella said.
Jason closed his eyes and absorbed the news. Was it justice? In his drug-induced state, it was hard to tell.
“I’m kidding,” Bella said, grinning. “It was a unanimous defense verdict.”
Jason’s first thought was that he wanted to kill his assistant. There were some things you didn’t joke about. But the drugs had made a pacifist out of him.
“Very funny, Bella,” he said as sharply as possible, though his voice didn’t have much edge to it. “How did Blake Crawford take it?”
“That’s it?” Bella asked. “I just told you we won the biggest case of your career, and you don’t even smile?”
“I don’t know,” Jason said. He was too drugged to be anything but honest. “It doesn’t really feel like anybody won.”
“I know what you mean,” Bella admitted. The two were silent for a moment, as if they were honoring the memory of Rachel Crawford.
“In answer to your question,” Bella said, her tone reflective, “Blake Crawford wasn’t there. But Reverend Starling was, and he was incredible. He thanked every one of the jurors and then called Kelly and Blake. Kelly, of course, didn’t answer. You want to know what Blake said-according to the reverend?”
Jason shrugged.
“He told the reverend to congratulate you and thank you for setting up a fair process for resolving the case. He said he had to accept the jury verdict as God’s will.”
Jason thought about that for a moment. “Amazing,” he said.
“My thoughts exactly,” Bella said.
94
The fallout from the Crawford case was swift and severe.
Matt Corey and James Noble were dismissed from the Atlanta police force pending the outcome of an internal investigation. Given the fact that ten years had passed since the altered accident report and the difficulties of proving that Jason was actually driving, few expected Jason or his dad to be charged with a crime. Matt Corey, on
