Bill Harvey Collection

by Peter O'Mahoney

  She lightly grabbed her dazed boss’ arm, and he looked up at her, understanding it was time to leave.

  “Bill.” Jonathon stood, softly calling out to his brother. “It’s good to see you again.”

  Harvey slowly dropped his head, nodding. When he lifted his head, he had a reflective smile.

  “You too, brother.”

  Chapter 9

  The car ride back to the office was one of complete silence.

  Not that there weren’t words to be spoken. There were many. But neither Harvey nor Kate could bring themselves to start the conversation.

  Penny Pearson, holding up the fort at the office, waiting patiently for the return of her boss, looked up as they walked in silently through the office door. Without a word, without a gesture, Harvey walked into his separate office, closed the door behind him, and reached for the bottle of whiskey on his shelf.

  “Should I even ask how it went?” Penny quietly asked Kate as she sat down behind her desk.

  Kate sighed. “It went well from a client point of view. We met the client, we discussed the case, we took him through what is going to happen next…”

  “But from a family point of view?”

  “Harvey barely even acknowledged that Jonathon was his brother. He was so nervous when he walked into that room, and then, bang! As soon as he stepped through the doors, the walls went back up. He didn’t even greet him with a handshake.”

  “Really? Should I go in and see him now? See if I can help?”

  “No.” Kate opened the police report on Jonathon’s arrest. “I’ll give him ten minutes to finish the glass of whiskey that I’m sure he has just poured for himself, and then I’ll pop my head in. It’s best to give him a few moments to process the information. He’s a quick thinker when it comes to work, but the opposite when it comes to emotions—it can take him days to process them.”

  “Like most men,” Penny quipped. “So, his brother has been charged with murder?”

  “That’s right.” Kate sighed again. “Not only had Harvey not seen his brother for twenty years, but he also didn’t know whose murder Jonathon was charged with. It wasn’t until we got into the room that Harvey opened the file about the arrest and saw the name of the deceased—Gerard West.”

  “The drunk that Harvey knew? The one that he was talking about yesterday?”

  “That’s right, the very one that he had a coffee with only two nights ago. Once Harvey read that name on the police report, he couldn’t even open his mouth anymore. He was stunned. There was way too much emotion for him.”

  “I’m sure the homeless drunk had it coming to him.” Penny ran a nail file over her nails. “His brother should be able to walk away from the murder, I say. He’s done the world a service getting rid of that drunk.”

  “Penny!” Kate snapped in surprise. “I thought we talked about this. No more of that. That sort of opinion doesn’t belong in this office. You have to leave that sort of opinion at the door. Especially now.”

  “But it’s true.” Like all good opinionated twenty-year-olds, Penny didn’t know when to stop. “If there were no drunks in the world, the world would be a much better place. We’d be able to walk down the streets without fear, less people would be homeless, there would be less assaults, less domestic violence; the list goes on and on. Drunks are the cause of so much pain in the world. The world would be so much better without them.”

  “Look at the big picture, Penny. Maybe drunks aren’t the problem. Maybe alcohol is the problem. Don’t just blame vulnerable people for the situation they’re in. The problem is so much bigger than that. It’s so much more than just a personal choice.”

  “The people are the problem,” she argued. “If it weren’t alcohol, then it would just be another drug. These people just take whatever is available to them. These people are the problem. Get rid of them all. All of them.”

  If she were anyone else, Kate would walk her out the door right now and tell her never to come back. Opinions like that didn’t belong in this office. They had no place in an office dedicated to justice.

  But Penny had an excuse for her loathing, a very good one, and Kate was willing to provide her some leniency for her past.

  “You really have to keep those opinions to yourself. You can’t work in this office with those sorts of opinions. If you keep it up, I’m going to have to fire you. I don’t want that, and Bill doesn’t want that, but we won’t have a choice if you continue to act like that. You need to keep your mouth shut.”

  Penny nodded, acknowledging that she had overstepped the mark again. “I’ll try, but some things just trigger my emotions. Sometimes, I can’t control what comes out of my mouth. I just get angry about it all and then I can’t stop. It’s just… I’ll keep trying.”

  “I understand all that, but if you want to stay here, if you want to be employed here, you have to leave those opinions at the door. You can’t bring those opinions into this office, especially not now while Bill is going through all this. His tolerance for that sort of attitude will be next to none.”

  “I’ll try my best.”

  Kate shook her head gently, staring at the girl who had been through so much. She knew Penny’s opinions came from a place of pain, from a well of agony and loss.

  But it was the intensity that shocked Kate.

  Penny’s words were laced with hurt, pain, and pure venom.

  And maybe, just maybe, enough hatred to kill.

  Chapter 10

  Knocking gently, Kate Spencer opened the office door without receiving a response. Lightly, she stepped into the room, cautious about approaching the man she cared so much for.

  Sitting in his large chair, Bill Harvey didn’t take his eyes off the view out the window. His eyes were locked into place, not staring at anything in particular, rather off into nothingness.

  This was his view, his own part of Downtown L.A., and it soothed his nerves to be a part of it.

  “Are you coping ok?” Kate asked as she sat down opposite him.

  “Of course,” he lied, taking his eyes off the view. It was his automatic response to that question; he wouldn’t ever dare answer it any other way.

  “I didn’t know about Gerard West. If I knew, I wouldn’t have let you walk into that room. I’m sorry, Bill. And I’m sorry that you had to find out like that. I should have read the file first; I should have been prepared. It was a terrible way to find out. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault, Kate.” His chair swiveled back around to the head of the desk, and he placed his empty whiskey glass on the edge. “I thought Gerard had a chance. I thought he had hit rock bottom, and with the right people around him, I thought he had a chance to rebuild his life. I thought he could have put it all back together and gone on to better things, whatever that may have looked like for him. He looked like he was ready to do that. He was ready to build his life again. I saw that in his eyes.”

  “There’s nothing else you could have done. You should be proud of yourself, Bill. You gave him a little bit of light before the end.”

  Feeling reflective after the morning drenched in emotion, he leaned forward, head down, opening up more than he had in a long time. “I always felt like that could be me. I always felt like if one more thing went wrong, one more moment of disaster, that could have been me on the street. I could have been Gerard. And if I was faced with the same things that Gerard faced, if I went through that level of hatred, then I don’t think I would have handled it any better than Gerard. In fact, I probably would have been worse. I would have been worse than him.”

  “You’ve seen a lot in your life. You’ve lived through a lot of pain, and you’ve seen a lot of death. More than most, Bill. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Everyone has their limits. Everyone has a breaking point.”

  “I could be one of those men.” His fist clenched as it rested on the table. “I could be sleeping on the streets each night, trying to dull all that pain with alcohol. Trying to forget about the world and sleep
ing rough. Living day-to-day. Drowning out the world full of emotions. I could be one of those men.”

  “I would help you if you were. I would be there beside you. You will always have my support.”

  His tight fist released and he ran his hand along the edge of the desk, keeping his eyes away from Kate. “Thank you, Kate. That means the world to me.”

  A small wave of pleasure washed through Kate, happy that she had hit him with a touch of feeling. Finally, she felt like she was getting through to him.

  She had watched him at his best and comforted him at his worst, but she knew that this situation was going to hit him the hardest.

  “I’ll cancel my flights. I can’t leave you here like this while I’m on holidays. I—”

  “No, Kate. You need that holiday. You haven’t taken one in two years. I can’t have you here. I won’t have it. And your son would never forgive me. He’s been looking forward to that trip for a year. Eight-year-olds aren’t that forgiving when you cancel a Disney World trip.”

  “Bill, I have to be here for you. I can’t have you collapsing without me. This is—”

  “No.” Harvey was firm.

  She stared at him for a long moment. She had learned that a one-word answer from her boss meant business.

  There was no arguing when he was so blunt.

  “Bill—” she pushed.

  “No.”

  Again, just the one-word answer.

  Firm. Direct. Decisive.

  “Then let me cancel one week. I’ll cancel the second week. We were just going to be driving the coast road down to Miami and back to Tampa anyway. We’re hitting all the theme parks in Orlando during the first week and Connor didn’t really want to do the drive. All he is looking forward to is the theme parks. I’ll be gone for only one week. You can’t argue with that.”

  Harvey raised his eyes from the table to meet hers.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “Kate—” he tried to protest.

  “Bill, there has never been a harder time in this office and I’m leaving you with an inexperienced, highly emotional assistant. I can’t do that for two weeks. She might blow up during that time. One week. That’s all I’ll take off. You can’t say no to that.”

  He raised his hands in surrender. “If you must, but that has to be your choice.”

  “It’s my choice.” She checked that the door was closed before leaning forward. “Do you think you’ll be fine with Penny for one week? I can sack her and see if I can get someone else? It would be hard with this sort of short notice, but we could try.”

  “It shouldn’t be a problem. She just has to learn that she has to keep her emotions in check. And in case you haven’t noticed, my patience isn’t the best. She’ll know when she has overstepped the mark.”

  “You’re right there.” Kate laughed. “She should be fine. Just don’t mention her past.”

  Harvey nodded in agreement. “She had it hard. You and I could never imagine what that must have been like. We could never know. We should go easy on her.”

  “Her past doesn’t excuse some of her opinions though. She should learn to keep that sort of thing to herself, even if that is what she is thinking. She has to learn to hold her tongue. I will talk to her again and give her one final warning. If she does it again, she has to go.”

  “You’re right, but I understand her anger. She has every right to be angry.”

  “Other than the outbursts, she’s a great girl. She works hard, and she’s picked up most of the processes already. She’s the sort of person that if you show her a process once, then she’ll remember it for next time. I’ll ask her to keep her opinions in check, and if she does that, then she should be a great help while I’m gone.”

  “No one will ever replace you, Kate.”

  “Well.” She shrugged with a grin. “I am pretty special.”

  With a smile, he walked over to his small bar, hidden at the end of the bookshelf, and nodded to the whiskey, offering Kate one. She shook her head, but he refilled his drink regardless.

  Once the drink was poured, his mind turned back to what he knew best.

  “Someone is killing those men, Kate. A serial killer in L.A., preying on the defenseless. Gerard is the eighth homeless man found killed in that area in the last twelve months. These men seem to be wandering out of Skid Row and into the hands of a killer.”

  “You don’t know that it’s a serial killer. I’m sure that homeless people die all the time. There is nothing that connects the murders yet, other than the location and the way they were killed. I’m sure the police department has looked into the chances of it being a serial killer. And they haven’t said anything, so I’m sure that it’s all just a giant coincidence.”

  “Perhaps. But we do know that someone killed Gerard. My friend Gerard West. My friend that was once close to me,” Harvey responded firmly. “And that person may be my brother.”

  The breath caught in Kate’s throat. She hadn’t thought of the possibility that Jonathon may be guilty. “You don’t know that. He also might be innocent.”

  “What if he isn’t? What if he’s the serial killer? What if he’s the one that is knocking off homeless guys? If I get him off, what happens when he just goes out and kills again? That’s on me. That becomes my responsibility. And what if I fall apart, and then see him on the street?” He sat back down. “That could be me, Kate. That could be me on the street. I can’t let that killer walk free. Not in this case. Not after what happened to Gerard.”

  “You don’t know anything about this case. You haven’t even looked at the evidence. People get wrongly arrested all the time, you know that. You’ve seen it. Give your brother a chance. Read all the evidence, talk to him, and then make up your own mind. Trust your instincts, Bill. They’re not often wrong.”

  He looked away, blinking back the tears that threaten to fill his eyes.

  The worlds of family and work had come smashing together. He wanted so badly to see his brother again, but he didn’t expect this. He didn’t expect to want to walk away the second he saw him.

  Gently, quietly, he responded, “I don’t know if I can do it.”

  “He’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars if you don’t help him. No doubt about it. He’ll get some hopeless court assigned lawyer who isn’t even interested in helping him. Is that what you want, without ever finding out the truth?” Kate pleaded with him. “If you ever wanted to help your brother, the time is now. Give him a chance.”

  Avoiding eye contact, Harvey didn’t respond.

  He knew she was right.

  She usually was.

  “You have to go back there and talk to him. Without you, they’ll tear him apart. He’ll go to prison for the rest of his life. Without you, he hasn’t got a chance. Is that what you want?”

  “I’m too emotionally involved. I’m not the right person for this case. I’m—”

  “Yes, you are the right person for this case. You’ve wanted this for a long time. You’ve wanted your chance to talk to your brother again, and you weren’t sure whether that dream would ever come true. All that guilt that you felt, all that pain, won’t go away unless you confront it. You have to go back there and talk to him.”

  Harvey took a long sip of the whiskey, the liquor warming his chest, raising his body temperature.

  “Maybe you’re right,” he conceded.

  “Of course, I’m right,” Kate responded. “So when are you going back?”

  “Not yet.” Harvey looked reflectively at the glass of whiskey. “But soon.”

  Chapter 11

  Still under the slight buzz of whiskey, Bill Harvey walked back through the Metropolitan Detention Center, this time at a slower pace, and without Kate chasing him.

  With the benefit of time, he had had the chance to research the case, in particular, his brother’s history. Going under the name Jonathon Fredrick, he was arrested twice in Florida for drug offenses and once in New York for assault.

  N
ot a good start.

  Over the years, Harvey looked for any trace of Jonathon, the odd Google search, a look through the pages of deceased persons, a search through the name databases here and there. Jonathon Harvey never returned any results, and now he understood why.

  It appeared that his brother had flipped from state to state, even country to country, never settling in one place for a long time. Arizona, Texas, Montana, Utah, Mexico, Panama—it appeared that he was quite fond of traveling, or at least, escaping.

  With a deep breath, Harvey’s hand rested on the door to the meeting room where he stood only hours ago.

  Slowly, he clicked the door open.

  “Bill?” Waiting patiently behind the desk, Jonathon stood to greet his older brother for the second time.

  “For this morning, I just want to say—”

  “No.” His voice was gruff. “I won’t hear that.”

  “I know this is hard, but I have something to say, and you have to listen to it.”

  Harvey closed his eyes, knowing that if he avoided it now, he was only going to have to face the conversation further down the track.

  This was not something he could keep avoiding.

  “Go on.” Cautiously, he placed his briefcase on the small desk and sat down on the cold metal chair, keeping his eyes focused on the table.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Harvey waited for something more, but nothing else came. “Is that it?”

  “I’m sorry about so many things. I’m sorry about what I did, I’m sorry how I treated you and the family, I’m sorry that I didn’t call you earlier, and I’m sorry that we had to meet like this. So yes, ‘I’m sorry’ just about covers it all.”

  Harvey didn’t expect that.

  He expected a great long speech about past sins, about life, love, and mistakes.

  But Jonathon was also a Harvey man, and thus he was taught that emotions were to be avoided at all costs.