mean at least that… So you don’t have a calling, don’t you want a Mercedes? What the hell are you living for?”
I looked down at the table and took a shallow breath. “I guess I-” I looked at the two men across the table from me and stopped for a moment. “I guess I don’t know.” I said. “I mean maybe I’m still waiting to find purpose in my life. I’ve got my eyes open, you know? I’m looking for something I just don’t know what it is yet. I thought on nine-eleven that I found it. I never even thought about politics before that, but after nine-eleven I was ready to join the military, I really was. But the more I thought about it the more I realized it wouldn’t really help. What’s one more soldier really? And what is the military but another branch of the federal government, that den of thieves and snakes all out for themselves, ready to sell out America to the highest bidder. That’s why I’m not registered to vote. It’s all a big lie, the whole thing. The media props up these puppets on the right and left and make this huge show of letting you choose your puppet, but they’ll never show you who’s pulling the strings. I’m sorry, I know you work for the government, but it’s a cheap hustle in my book.”
Dennis smiled a little, but Mario sat expressionless. “I don’t work for the government anymore.” Dennis said. “Although I still maintain some privileges. The fact of the matter is Ben, a lot of people who work in government would agree with your assessment of it. There are a few of us who aren’t afraid to do the right thing, whether or not it’s authorized by the ACLU.”
“I know.” I said. “I saw the pictures from Abu Graib and Guantanamo. I can’t believe people are whining about that shit. It’s us or them and these fucking rug-munchers are surprised that we’re choosing us!” I laughed, but was not joined by the two men on the other side of the table. “If I had joined the military I think I would be one of those guys in the pictures, giving a big thumbs up to the pile of naked terrorists. I’d be the one on trial right now. Sometimes I feel like nobody around me can even see reality, even my girlfriend.”
“She doesn’t share your views?” Dennis asked.
“No, but we don’t really talk about it that much. If I’m listening to talk radio she wants to change it, you know? She wants to hear rock and roll.”
“You’ve lived together a long time.” Dennis said. “Didn’t you ever want to get married and start a family?”
“No.” I said. “Marriage seems like something we would do for all the people in our families, not for ourselves. Put on a big show for the aunts and uncles, ugh, who needs it? She feels the same way about it too. And kids? Fuck that -where’s the upside? You guys have kids?”
“I got a daughter.” Mario said. “Nineteen.”
“Okay, so maybe I’m just fucked up, but I really see having kids as a crap shoot. I mean pick a random person on the street and chances are I’m not going to like that person. I think having a kid is like that. I know most people think that the kid is going to have half your personality and half the woman’s, but I don’t think it works like that. I think the kid’s going to come out with their own unique personality, and the chances that the kid’s going to be some kind of dick are about equal the chances that any person you meet will be. In other words the chances are good that you’ll be forever yoked to some asshole. Who wants to take the risk?” The two of them seemed amused so I quit while I was ahead.
“Okay Ben, I think I can work with you.” Dennis said. “What do you think Mario?”
“He’s okay.” Mario said.
“We’ll take you along on a job or two and if you do okay we’ll make sure you’ve got some money coming in.” Dennis said. “Assuming you can work out your legal problems. It shouldn’t be hard for a person who knows national secrets, know what I mean?”
I told him I did.
When I got back to the apartment Jessie was sitting at the kitchen table having coffee. “I’m in.” I told her.
“What’d you have to do?” Jessie asked.
“Nothing,” I said, “they just asked me some questions.”
“That’s strange.” She said. “Pap thought they’d test you first. All they did was talk?”
“Yup.” I said. “Where is he?”
“He went to Lakeview after you texted him you were okay. He said we could stay as long as we wanted.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Jesus I’m tired.” I said. “That pullout bed was brutal.”
“It’s not a bed it’s a torture device.” She said.
“Let’s go home.”
“Are you sure? What about the cops?”
“What the hell, I doubt they’re keeping a twenty-four hour vigil at the house. We’ll just slip in the back, and get a couple good hours of sleep before you have to get to work.”
THIRTY
I got about an hour and a half of sleep before Borgano kicked the back door in. At the time I didn’t know what it was, and I got up in a hurry and called out for Jessie. I heard no reply so I headed toward the noise and met Borgano and two uniformed cops pointing their guns at me in the hall. Borgano commanded me to get down on my stomach. He was on top of me in an instant with his knees on my back. He got one of my wrists and squeezed it so hard he seemed to be trying to break it. “Get his other hand! Get his other hand!” He shouted at one of the cops, who quickly complied. I was handcuffed, and they patted me down even though I was in a T-shirt and boxer shorts. They hauled me to my feet and marched me into the kitchen where a female officer was waiting with Jessie. I wished I could’ve gotten another ten minutes of sleep.
“Ben Perkins you are under arrest for harboring a fugitive.” Borgano said. “Give him his rights Lawrence, I’ll get him some pants.”
“You coulda knocked.” I said. “You didn’t have to kick the door in.”
“It’s more fun that way.” Borgano said.
Lawrence told me about my rights and then he and the other cop helped me put my pants on. My boxers were bunched up in the process and I had no way to fix them. I told Jessie to call Thomas Delaney the Third as I was walked out of my house and put in the back of a cruiser.
When we got to the station, they put me in the same room I’d been in before, in the chair with the thin cushion and the metal rod. They’d taken the cuffs off at least, and I was able to straighten out my shorts. I sat in there alone for a minute before I got up and switched chairs with the one opposite, which was a wooden armchair and altogether more comfortable.
Borgano came in and ordered me back to the other chair. He did it coolly, with no hint that it bothered him. “You know this is bullshit, right?” I said. “I mean it’s just wrong. I didn’t help David. I lost my job over this, and it’s just pure bullshit.”
“Okay,” he said, “maybe it’s a mistake. I’ve made mistakes before. We can clear this whole thing up right now. Were you going in and out of the Relna house while they were gone?”
“Yeah, to water their plants.” I said. “Phil Relna is a friend of mine.”
“We’re going to check on that Ben,” he said, “I have a call in to Phil Relna. And in the meantime we’re supposed to believe that your other friend, the one wanted for homicide, just happened to choose that same house as his hideout?”
“No,” I said, “the key to the place was under a pot, and some kids from Lakeview must’ve seen where it was hidden when I went in there to water the plants. They’d been using the place to smoke their dope. Ask Niti Ravhandies. We practically caught them red handed.”
“So the dope-fiends let him in?”
“That’d be my guess.” I said.
“He told us he got in through a window. We did find a window broken -with glass on the outside. Seems like the kind of thing that a person would do if he were trying to divert suspicion from a helpful friend.” He said.
“Right, I’m sure David didn’t want to get the dope-fiends in trouble.”
He smiled. “Then there’s the matter of a phone call made from your phone to the Relna place on the night of the bru-ha-ha down in Everett. Ar
e you in the habit of calling plants?”
“No.” I said. “Obviously I don’t call plants. That’s a little silly, I mean, I assume that was some kind of joke-”
“Why did you make that call?”
“Oh, I don’t remember. I can’t think why I would’ve called the Relna place that night.” I said. “I mean there was so much going on, what with the murder and everything. I’m sure you’d rather hear about that, right? That’s a much more serious crime than harboring a fugitive isn’t it? It was a group of vigilantes trying to disrupt a drug smuggling ring. I have plenty of proof.”
“I asked about a phone call.” He said, keeping a forced coolness to his voice.
“If you’re not interested, I’m sure the judge will be.” I said. “And the press. I’ll make sure they all know to come to my arraignment hearing. Unless this is some kind of mistake.”
“You are a very stupid young man.” He said.
“I’m thirty.” I said.
He went to the door and opened it, and made a signal to a cop who came in and pulled me out of the chair by my arm. He led me from the little room down a hall, past three empty holding cells to one with five guys in it. He unlocked the door and pushed me in among them. There were a couple of Hispanic teenagers in the corner, sitting on a metal bench, an old black guy sleeping with his head against the cinderblock wall, and two gangster types, one black and one white, who were staring at me.
“Hi.” I said to them. They did not respond. There was no room on the metal bench, so I leaned against the wall and rubbed my head. My hair was sticking straight up in the middle from bed, and I realized I probably looked crazy. I smiled a bit, not feeling so vulnerable anymore. I figured if anyone messed with me, I could just bark at them.
My stay in the big house was brief. Half an hour or a little more before a guard came in and told me to follow him. We walked past the empty cells again and this time went into the main station area that was open to the public. I saw Jessie standing next to an overweight, balding man who I took to be the lawyer, Delaney. “You’re free to go.” The cop said. “The charges have been suspended for now.”
“Thanks.” I said. I walked past him toward Jessie, but she wasn’t looking at me, she was looking at the cop.
“Hey!” She shouted, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “What about our back door? You fucking cops can’t just kick in our door for no reason. You think our landlord’s gonna pay for that? It’s gonna cost us at least a hundred bucks.”
Delaney looked alarmed and put a hand on her arm. “Ms. Stewart, please.” He said.
I caught her eye and mouthed for her to shut up through clenched teeth. She sighed heavily. I turned to the cop who seemed mildly annoyed. “We all make mistakes.” I said. “I’m not really worried about the door.” Someone was moving toward us on the right and I looked over to see Borgano coming at me. He had been close enough to hear everything.
“We’re not done with you.” He said. “Just ‘cause we’re not holding you at the moment doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. This isn’t over.” He was right in my face.
Thomas Delaney the Third took over the situation as only a lawyer could. He put himself between Borgano and me. “My client is grateful that the charges against him have been suspended. The charges against him are the product of a simple misunderstanding, and I’m sure they’ll be dropped in short order. Thank you detective, we’ll be getting out of your hair now.” He turned and nodded to the door, and we followed him out. When we were on the sidewalk he laughed a little. “Ms. Stewart, I admire your pluck, but it’s not generally advisable to yell at the police.”
“They didn’t have to kick our door in.” She said. “They coulda knocked.”
He nodded sympathetically, and turned to me. “Contrary to what the detective said, this is over. They won’t be bothering you anymore. Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.” We began to walk.
“There’s a video you should see.” I said. “It could help with the David Telano case.”
“I have it already. John Marchin brought me a copy this morning. I plan on entering it as evidence as soon as possible.” Sensing Jessie’s confusion, he continued: “The evidence will be sealed in the interest of national security, and the only person who’ll ever see it will be the judge. So far David has only actually been charged with the murder of Becky Pierson and the attempted murder of Junior Pierson, and that’s all he will be charged with. I’ve discovered that the detectives working this case believe that Junior Pierson committed the Porgett and Divos murders -David is no longer a suspect in those. We can get the case against David thrown out on sealed exculpatory evidence. It doesn’t even matter if the evidence is strong or not, because no one will ever see it, and believe me, that judge doesn’t want to open up a can of federally sanctioned worms in his courtroom.”
“That’s great.” I said. We arrived at our car and I turned and faced him. “And thanks for getting me out of there.”
“Oh, I didn’t do that.” He said. “When we got here they’d already suspended the charges. They might’ve kept you there for another few hours, just to prove a point, but they weren’t going to charge you.”
I told him thanks anyway and shook his hand. We got into our car and headed to the PFPFP. Jessie was late, but we were laughing and talking about how our luck was finally changing.
When I got home John was waiting for me. He had picked up my phone from Reyes. “The panic button is the star key.” He told me. “The phone doesn’t even have to be on for it to work. It’s a direct line to her phone, so if she gets the panic signal, she’ll activate the GPS and find you wherever you are. She wanted me to remind you to only use it if your life was in danger.”
We were sitting in the living room and John stretched out a bit on the couch. “I think we have to talk about the end-game in this thing.” He said. “I’d like you and Jess to get passports, just in case. If you can get some proof that Junior and his thugs are trafficking in children, you have to be able to disappear after you get it out there. You can stay with my sister in Winnipeg for a while if you have to. Reyes knows that they wont let you get close without having something they can use against you, and she’s prepared to give you cover, but it’s not unlimited. We should have two escape plans, one if you have to run from the Air-Bridge, and one from if you have to run from the cops.”
“You think it’s a suicide mission John?”
“No, not quite.” He said. “I think you’ve just got to be smart. You’ve got at least a fifty-fifty shot.”
“That’s comforting.” I said. “You think it’s worth it?”
“This thing has been going on since the eighties,” he said, “god only knows how many children they’ve stuffed down the black hole. That’s not even accounting for the misery they’ve caused with the heroin. I wish to hell I could do what you’re doing, I really do. I admire you for this Ben, I always told Jess I thought you were a good egg.”
“I’m not even really sure what it is I have to do though.”
“All you need to do is get one good piece of evidence. Gretchen has Amanda Porgett’s research, so if you get some cell phone video of children being put on a plane for example, that should be enough. We can put it together with Gretchen’s info and hand it over to some friendly media outlet and you and Jess can disappear until the bastards are in jail. Just don’t do anything to make yourself an unreliable witness.”
“If he offers me money, I’m going to take it.” I said. “I got bills.”
“Oh, that reminds me.” John said, pulling an envelope from his coat pocket. “Your last paycheck from the GSA.”
“Thanks.” I said. “It’s weird to think that I won’t be going back to Lakeview. I kinda got used to the place.”
“Don’t be so sure.” John said. “It hasn’t been made public yet but Junior Pierson is being ejected from Lakeview. The council met and discussed it, and it was decided that everything that’s happened in Lakeview th
is month was his fault, and that under the town charter they could be deemed undesirable tenants and ejected.”
“His father was one of the founding members.” I said. “He practically built the place.”
“It doesn’t matter.” John said. “The rules apply to everyone. There was hemming and hawing about how he’d just lost his wife, but ultimately they had to do what was best for the community.”
“He owns the biggest house in town.” I said. “What’s going to happen to it?”
“He has to sell it.” John said.
“What did you tell the council?” I asked
“I just spelled everything out for them, how Freddie, David Telano, and Junior were all working together, and how none of this would’ve happened if the Junior hadn’t been there. The Council agreed.”
“He owns the Guardian Security Agency.” I said. “What about that?”
“Oh he still owns it.” John said. “But the GSA’s contract with Lakeview has been cancelled.”
I smiled. “I suppose they’re looking for another security company to take its place.”
“Yes as a matter of fact they are, and it just so happens that a new one has recently been formed. We haven’t even filed articles of incorporation yet, and we’ve already secured a very lucrative contract.” He said. “You and I are successful entrepreneurs now, which I’d say calls for a celebration.”
We had some beers and kicked around a few names for our company, but nothing was sticking. He left when I went to pick up Jess. She spent the evening making calls to potential weed connections with no luck. We fell asleep on the couch watching TV, and I woke up after one and roused Jessie and told her to come to bed. It took a long time for me to fall back to sleep.
It was barely five in the morning when the house-phone woke me up. I had to lean over Jessie to reach the receiver. “Hello?”
“Ben?”
“Who’s this?”
“Be ready to go in twenty minutes. We’ll be around to pick you up.” I heard a click before I could ask where we were going.
THIRTY-ONE
Mario and Dennis arrived about a half-hour later in Mario’s black Ford Excursion. I decided to bring my gun even though Jessie was against the idea. I figured it would go with my true-believer persona so I stuck it in the waistband of my pants, in back. They pulled up out front and honked. I put on a black button-up shirt over a gray T-shirt and gave Jessie a kiss. “Don’t go.” She said. “Just tell them you’re sick, or your mom’s in the hospital or something.”
“Nah, I’m fine.” I said. “I’ll be careful.”
“I’m going to call Reyes and tell her what’s up.” She said. “That way we can follow your GPS signal.”
“Don’t call her.” I said. “I’m okay Jess, don’t worry about me.” It made me feel less nervous to comfort her.
I