So as young men, still not old enough to drink an alcoholic beverage, when our country called on us to serve we did so without hesitation or question because it was what our fathers and their fathers before them did, all in the ultimate quest for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Except along the way, when you’re humping an eighty pound pack across the desert sand in one-hundred-twenty degree heat you might begin to question the history and reason of war, and maybe, if you are lucky enough to make it back home you might decide that it was all for a cause greater than you are capable of understanding. Then one day the sins of the fathers are passed on to their sons and middle eastern men with nothing more than box cutters fly airliners into buildings and no one’s life is ever the same again, and like it or not, if you want to sleep at night, you have to admit to yourself that in some way large or small, you are a participant in a game that never ends, the rules ever changing.
I opened the first envelope and saw that it contained a copy of a birth certificate for a female named Sidney Wells, Jr., born in May of 1987. I double checked the spelling of the first name, then the sex of the child. It was either a mistake, or the parents had opted to use the male spelling of the name Sidney for their daughter. The mother’s name was listed as Sara Wells. The line for the father’s name was blank. I had no idea what any of it meant. I put the birth certificate aside and opened the other envelope.
What I saw made me squint and blink back the sting from my eyes. It was as if I still stood in the heat of the desert over twenty years ago as an arid wind filled the corners of my eyes with grains of sand from a place I can not seem to cleanse from my soul.
The envelope contained two items. One was a picture of my mother as she lay in her hospital bed. She was propped up by pillows and blankets arranged just so to hold her upright, her lack of strength and fatigue evident in the photograph, even though she was smiling. The side effects from the steroids her oncologists had prescribed had taken a toll on her body, her face puffy and swollen, but the light in her eyes remained strong even as she lay on her deathbed. What gave me pause, though, and caused my hand to tremble beyond my control was the man who sat on the edge of the bed next to her, one arm around her shoulders, the other holding her hand in his. The man next to my mother was Murton Wheeler.
Somewhere in the depths of my consciousness I heard Rosencrantz say my name. When I turned to look at him I saw his lips move, but the sounds I heard were muted, like he was talking to me under water. My throat was dry and when I tried to swallow it felt like I no longer knew how. “It’s personal, Rosie,” I managed to say. “Would you excuse me, please?” I looked at the photograph again, and I didn’t hear his response, but in the periphery of my vision I saw him leave the room and pull the door shut behind him.
I sat down at one of the small cubicles and lay the photograph on the table before me. I can not say for certain how long I stared at it, but eventually I unfolded the pages that were in the envelope as well and began to read. The letter was from my mother, in her own hand, and it was addressed to me, dated less than a week before she died. It read,
My dear Virgil,
This is a fine picture of Murton and me, isn’t it? I thought you might like to keep it. When you and Murton became friends it was a friendship that changed our family for the better. After his own mother died, I watched you boys play and grow together over the years and I began to think of you as brothers, and myself as a substitute for the mother he never had the opportunity to know or love.
Murton was a fine child and from what I gather, he has turned into a fine man as well. I believe it’s time to let the past go, Virgil. You have chosen to punish Murton for what happened, but I thank him. I thank him for asking you to stop that horrible night in the desert. I thank him for wandering off and getting lost in the dark. But mostly, I thank him for keeping you alive while your body bled from the inside. It’s time for you to forgive yourself and Murton for what happened over there, and quite frankly, I think you should thank him too. I have.
I hope throughout the years my love for you was as evident as it could be. I hope you’re lucky enough to eventually find someone to share your life with. Don’t be afraid of marriage. There is a woman out there waiting for you and all you have to do is be open enough to recognize it when she finds you. Have children if you can, and someday when they’re grown and gone and you find yourself older and in the twilight of your life, find this letter and read it again. My hope is it will offer you an understanding not previously possible. I consider it an honor to be able to live on through you and I’m proud to say I am your mother. I love you Virgil, my sweet darling boy.
Love,
Mom
P.S. Don’t forget to duck if someone shoots at you. Ha ha.
Later that night I worked behind the bar with Delroy, but the truth was, the events of the last two days had left me in a fog and I was mostly in the way. Jamaican people on the whole are some of the most patient, kind and forgiving individuals I have ever met, but everyone has their limits. Finally, after I had made a half dozen drinks in a row the wrong way, or more specifically, when he could take no more, Delroy pulled me aside and asked what was wrong. I told him about my case, from when I first heard of Franklin Dugan’s murder, to speaking briefly with an old high school flame and her peculiar and mercurial husband, my encounter with Sandy, seeing Murton, and most of all, the letter and photograph that allowed my mother to speak to me from the grave as if the elements of time, space, and mortality held no sway in her existence even though she had passed over a year ago.
“Let me see dat picture, you,” he said. When I handed him the picture he studied it for a long time before he spoke. “My mother’s name was Hazel,” he said. “She stood ‘bout five feet tall, her, no more of dat, mon. She work her whole life, mostly laundry for the rich people live in the hills high above the road dat look out over the bay water. One day Robert and me went wid her to carry the buckets. We were both only fourteen. When dat truck swerved to miss the goats in the road it headed right toward us. She shoved Robert and me into the ditch but dat truck, mon, it struck her dead. She land right next to us, she did. I never forget it. I never had a picture of my mother, no. No letter, either. But I’ll tell you this, if I did, I do what it say to do, mon.” Then he did something that surprised me. He handed me the picture then put both his hands on my face and kissed me on the cheek. “Your mother, she don’t live here,” he said as he tapped his finger at the side of my head. “She don’t live in no picture, either.” Then he placed his palm flat upon my chest over my beating heart and said, “She live in here, just like your grandfather do. Go home now. There’s nothing here for you. Not tonight, no.”
How did you ever become so wise, Delroy?
Bottom line? If you find yourself in need, seek out the advice of a Jamaican bartender.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The next morning on my way to work, with little forethought, I turned into the entrance of the cemetery where my mother is buried and wound my way around the perimeter road and parked my truck on the service pathway next to her burial plot. A black Crown Victoria sat on the road a few yards ahead of me, its parking lights on, its engine idling. I got out of my truck and walked with my head down until I was almost abreast of my mom’s gravesite. What I saw when I got there stopped me in my tracks.
Murton Wheeler stood by the grave, a single flower clutched in his right hand. I walked up behind him, but before I could speak he placed the flower on top of her tombstone, his back still toward me and said, “I always loved your mom, Jonesy. You know that, don’t you? She was the mom I never had. Remember how she cried when we got back from sand land? She hugged me like I was her own then kissed me on both cheeks and once on the lips, just like she did with you.”
I walked up next to where he stood and looked him in the eye. “I remember her crying even harder when you disappeared,” I said. “You broke her heart, Murt.”
A morning wind blew hard across the burial
ground and the flower Murt had placed atop her tombstone fell off the back. He retrieved it, this time placing it on the ground in front of her marker and used his fingers to half bury the stem in the ground to hold it in place. When he stood, he looked at me and said, “There are things you don’t know, Jonesy. Sometimes things go a certain way and you end up someplace you never knew existed, and you see things that are hard to forget.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Murton?
“I’m talking about trying to figure some things out, that’s all.” He turned a full circle and looked across the cemetery as he did so. “Did you know I was here the day you buried your mom? You didn’t, did you? I can tell by the look on your face. I wanted to talk to you then, but I knew how that would probably turn out.”
“Maybe not,” I said, but even as I said the words I thought he was probably right. “Who were those men looking for you last night at the bar? Why did you leave?”
“You talked to Pate at his church, didn’t you?” he said. “I know you did because I saw you there.”
I was just about to ask him why he was there when the corner of my mother’s tombstone seemed to fragment, the granite exploding outward at the same time a distant gunshot echoed through the trees. Murton pushed me to the ground and I landed face first in the grass. By the time I cleared my eyes of dirt and debris, Murt was running toward the Crown Vic parked ahead of my truck. I started to run after him, but when he climbed in the driver’s side door and drove off I stopped and watched him go. There were no other shots fired, and the shooter, was nowhere in sight.
The damage to my mother’s tombstone was minimal. In fact, given the nature of the design, you probably would not notice the chipped piece missing from the corner unless you were specifically looking for it. A casual glance would reveal what looked like nothing more than a clean spot, as if someone had started to clean away a year’s worth of grime then given up. Nevertheless, I would have to file a report of the gunshot, both with my department and with the city. I stopped at the cemetery office building before I left the grounds, more as a courtesy than anything else and informed the lone worker of the incident. When I showed him my badge and informed him of the incident that just took place, he seemed utterly underwhelmed by the entire situation.
“Did you happen to notice a black Crown Victoria enter the grounds before I arrived?”
“I didn’t see you arrive, so I don’t know if it was before or after,” he said.
“I think perhaps you’ve misinterpreted my question,” I said. “I’m not asking if you saw the car before or after, I’m asking if you saw it at all.”
He rolled his eyes at me the way young people often do when forced to participate in a conversation they want no part of. “There’s a form you can fill out if you want to report any type of vandalism to a grave site,” he said. “But the cemetery is only responsible for the grounds. Any damage to the marker is your own responsibility. It says so in your contract. I saw the Crown Vic a few minutes ago when it left. If they’re friends of yours the next time you see them you might want to mention the speed limit around here is five miles per hour. But you’re a cop right? I guess you’d know that already.”
I looked at him without saying anything, and after a few seconds of silence he asked me if I wanted the form or not. I told him no, but I signed the guestbook as evidence of my being here, wrote the date and time next to my name, then handed the young man my card. “Have a nice day,” I said, then walked out the door.
When I walked into my office there was a note on my desk from my boss, Cora, with instructions to see her when I got in. I tossed my jacket on the chair and walked toward the door, but my desk phone rang so I walked back over and picked up the receiver. It was Bradley Pearson, the Governor’s aid. “Do you mind explaining to me what in the hell is going on over there?”
“Hello, Bradley,” I said. “I’m not sure I understand the nature of your question.”
“Then let me see if I can help you with that,” he said. “The Governor does not appreciate agents from the FBI questioning him in a public setting about a case that you’re supposed to be handling for him.”
Pearson had a way of making something sound completely different than what it actually was. I was charged with leading the investigation into Dugan’s murder on behalf of the state, but Pearson’s choice of words and the manner in which he spoke suggested I was, at the very least, doing a personal favor for the Governor, and at most, covering something up for him and his office. “Let me see if I can clear something up for you, Bradley. I work for the State of Indiana. I am not, repeat, not handling anything for the Governor. The agent you’re talking about is named Gibson, right? He rolled on a bomb threat that turned up bust yesterday and tried to tell me I was interfering with a Federal investigation. If he went crying to the Governor that’s your problem, not mine. Anything else?”
“Yeah, Jonesy, there is something else. Who the fuck is Murton Wheeler?”
I hung the phone up gently and walked over to Cora’s office. It was only ten thirty in the morning.
When I walked into Cora’s office she had Bradley Pearson on speaker, and he was shouting into the phone about how I had just hung up on him. Cora let him go on for a few minutes and waved me into one of the chairs in front of her desk as she did. When his rant got old and repetitive, Cora interrupted him and said, “Listen to me you pathetic little piss pot, the Governor and I go back further than you and he ever will. Much further. In fact, I knew him when you were still in diapers, so hear me when I say this. If you ever call up one of my people and question their tactics, loyalties, or methods of operation again, I will personally see to it that the next political position you hold will be cleaning out the congressional toilets. If you don’t think I’ve got the juice to pull it off then pick up the phone and call me back.” Then for the second time in less than five minutes someone hung up on Bradley Pearson.
If you have a boss like Cora LaRue, going to work in the morning is not too difficult at all.
She puffed out her cheeks, then said, “So Jones man, lay it out for me, will you? Where are we? I can take care of Pearson, but sooner or later the Governor himself is going to come calling.”
So I did. I told her of my boyhood relationship with Murton, how we played together, how my mother raised us, how we fought together in the war, our falling out, his visit to the bar and my mother’s grave site, my interviews with Amanda and Samuel Pate, and my talk with Amy Frechette. Thirty minutes later, after I had finished, she asked the most basic of questions. “So what now?”
“I hate to say it,” I said.
“Well, at least we’re on the same page then. Boyhood friends or not, Jonesy, you’ve got to follow this wherever it leads you. Get warrants for Wheeler. One to search his residence and one for his arrest.”
“You asked me to look into Pate, Cora. I’ve had one brief conversation with him. For reasons I can’t readily explain, they’ve invited me Saturday to a gathering at their church. I think I might go and see what I can see. It’s probably a waste of time.”
“Maybe, maybe not. You know how these things work. Get the warrants cut on Wheeler anyway.”
“I just don’t think Murton is involved in the way it seems like he might be.”
“It’s not a request, Jonesy. Get it done.”
I wanted to argue, but she was right, and I think we both knew it.
Sorry, Mom, I thought.
I filled out the appropriate forms for the warrants, walked them over to the prosecutor’s office, then spent the better part of the day with Sandy reviewing the case notes that had been put together on the murders of Franklin Dugan, Barney Burns, Rhonda Rhodes, and Elle Richardson. But I had a difficult time concentrating as my thoughts bounced back and forth between my growing feelings for Sandy, and my sudden rekindled loyalty to my lifelong friend, Murton Wheeler, whom I felt I was about to betray. I picked up the phone and called Cora in her office. “Got a second?”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“I’ll be right there,” I said, then I hung up and told Sandy I’d be back in a few minutes.
I walked into her office and sat down in front of her desk. “This morning you asked me to get warrants for Murton Wheeler. On the surface I think that’s sound procedure, but there’s something else at play here.”
She was tapping her pen against the blotter on her desk. “Like what?”
“Murton Wheeler worked for Pate. His girlfriend, Amy Frechette, is now one of the Pastors of Grace Community Church. Pate borrowed over five million dollars from Dugan’s bank to buy an all but condemned building. Amy Frechette says she doesn’t know where Wheeler is. The two goons who followed him into the bar the other night also work for Pate. You read my report on the shots fired at the cemetery?”
“Yeah?”
“Who do you think was doing the shooting?”
“My guess would be the two who tried to brace you about Wheeler at the bar. Pate’s guys,” she said. She tapped the pen harder and faster on her blotter.
“Mine too.” I looked at the pen and the little ink marks it made on the desk pad. “Would you mind not doing that, please?” I said.
She lowered her chin and raised her eyebrows at me. I looked down for a moment, then raised my hands, my palms toward her as an apology. “So if Wheeler, who works or worked for Pate is responsible for the murder of Franklin Dugan, why would he seek me out at the bar? When I saw him at the cemetery he hadn’t followed me, he was already there.”
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