Fire and Justice_A Legal Thriller

by Peter O'Mahoney

  “I almost got out of it, you know? I almost escaped the depression; I was so close to getting back on my feet then. The guys at the Wells Community Center were so good – and I was almost there…” Gerard pauses, and his painful eyes look deep into the coffee that is placed in front of him. His face is full of confusion and loss. “But then the ex-wife started dating another man, and he was trying to be a father to my children, and it all fell apart again. Depression attacked me, and I couldn’t stop it. It consumed me. It beat me.”

  “When was the last time you saw your kids?”

  “Years ago.” He shakes his head, trying to dismiss the question. “They’d be adults now.”

  Bill Harvey knows the pain of watching someone slip away to nothing.

  When he was twenty-three, he watched his teenage brother, Jonathon Harvey, succumb to heroin addiction. At fifteen, Jonathon took a quick hit at a party, and he had a great night. He thought nothing of it. He thought he was in control. And at first, he was. It was only casual use, every Friday and Saturday night, but it quickly became everything to him. It quickly became all he could think about. The star high school quarterback became a shell of a man. He lost control, and he couldn’t stop his need for another high.

  For years, the Harvey family tried everything to help him, but nothing worked.

  Not the psychologists, not the counselors, not moving cities. Nothing worked.

  Twenty years ago, the last day they saw each other, Jonathon hit their dear mother, giving her a black eye. He needed more money for another hit, and she refused. After years of addiction, he lashed out.

  In a rage, Bill beat his younger brother into the ground and told him never to return to the family. Jonathon left, and they never heard another word from him.

  That remains Bill’s greatest heartache.

  To treat his pain, he turned to helping others, and he felt by assisting those in need, he was helping his brother. And by looking after Gerard, feeding him a coffee, he hopes that someone, somewhere, had done the same for Jonathon.

  “What was the last case you worked on, Bill?”

  “Ah, I just saw a sparkle in your eyes then. You asked about my case, and there was a sparkle.” Bill waves his finger in the air. “I guess we never lose it, do we? Even after all these years, the desire is still there. These cases are in our blood. This is what we do.”

  “It’s who we are.” Gerard tries to smile. His face scrunches at the corners, almost breaking his skin. It has been years since he tried to do that.

  “It’s a case of an innocent man.” Bill laughs.

  “They all are!” Gerard smiles easier this time, and his eyes sparkle again. “At least, that’s what they tell you. I have to know, as a defense attorney, do you always believe them?”

  “Of course not.” Bill chuckles. “But it’s clear who the evil ones are. I never have any doubt about the evil ones.”

  “Apparently, there’s an evil person out there running loose on the streets of Los Angeles. Somebody’s knocking off all the drunks around Downtown. That’s the rumor on the street. They say it’s six in the past twelve months. Could be more. It’s got people scared.”

  “That’s what I have heard, although you wouldn’t read much in the paper. Not much news coverage about that.”

  “That’s because people don’t care. Dead drunks don’t sell papers.”

  “The cops don’t have any evidence that the deaths are connected. It could all be a coincidence. It could all just be rumors and chance. We don’t know that it’s a serial killer.”

  “Six homeless men? All strangled? That’s not a coincidence. They’re just not looking hard enough.” Gerard muses out loud. “Must have been more to it.”

  “I should get my team to look into it. See if there is anything we can piece together and present to the cops.”

  “Speaking of your team, how’s your bookkeeper? What was her name? She was one hot woman.”

  “Nicole Cowan. Never married. She went through a mid-life crisis last year – she shaved her head and got three tattoos. I don’t know many bookkeepers that look like they could be part of a biker gang.” Bill smiles. “But you always had a thing for her, didn’t you?”

  “Absolutely. Sexy woman with a fiery streak. Just my type.”

  “I’ve just hired her niece to fill in for my secretary over the next month. A young girl named Penny Pearson. She’s early twenties, beautiful, fun – perfect for my office. She’s not serious like her aunt, but there are similarities. I just had dinner with her and the boyfriend, Caleb. Big guy. Strong. Former Marine who doesn’t smile much.”

  “Bad boy type, eh? Women love that.” Gerard winks as if he considers himself a bad boy. “Got a photo of them?”

  Bill pulls out his phone and presents a snapshot of the dinner. Penny, with her boundless enthusiasm, had insisted on a group photo, and despite Bill’s reluctance, she took one of the group and sent it to everyone. “That’s Penny at the front, next to Caleb. Nicole is—”

  “I know that guy.”

  “Who?”

  “That guy at the front. Caleb. He pushed me over just a few hours ago. I went to ask for a dollar, and he just pushed me down in front of everyone on the street, and then he just kept walking. I asked nicely and he retaliated with violence.”

  Bill sits back in his chair, putting his phone away. “He’s a former Marine. Seemed like a nice enough guy – you probably just caught him at a bad time.”

  “I’m not worried about it.” Gerard waves his hand. “Happens to me all the time. I don’t like it, but it’s just a part of life. People don’t treat us with much respect out here. They think that we don’t have feelings, and don’t feel rejected. But we feel rejection more than most. We have nothing, so people think we’re nothing.”

  Bill doesn’t respond; his heart is broken by how society treats these people like dirt.

  These men and women need help, not hatred.

  They need a hand, not a fist.

  Over the next hour, the two men chat about a distant past, about how their lives took such dramatically different routes. All the while, Bill knows his life could be Gerard’s in a heartbeat. He knows that when you live so close to the edge, you’re only one step away from falling over it.

  After an hour, Bill gives Gerard the number of a charity organization, a place to stay for the night.

  “Hey Bill,” Gerard states as they begin to walk in different directions outside the diner. “Thanks.”

  “For what?”

  “This coffee. I think you saved my life.”

  Chapter 5

  “Good morning, Bill.” Penny smiles as she places three files on the desk. “Did you really read all these books? Or are they just for show? You know, to impress people?”

  Bill Harvey’s office is large and spacious, the walls surrounding him full of legal books on one wall, and psychology books on the other. It’s an imposing office, one full of importance. But it’s also a place where he can disappear amongst the written word, deep in his own thoughts, lost in a world of vast knowledge.

  “I’ve read them all.”

  “Was it fun?”

  Bill smiles, ready to dish out important life advice to his younger employee. “Life isn’t all about fun, Penny. Sometimes you have to work hard to achieve the right results. Sometimes, there are more important goals than fun. Justice is one of those things. I’d sacrifice it all for justice. Fun doesn’t even come into the equation.”

  “My life hasn’t been fun.” The sadness in her eyes is real, deep, emotive.

  Bill opens his hands. “I’m sorry, Penny. That’s not what I meant. I was making a reference to hard work.”

  She shrugs her shoulders, dismissing the apology. “I guess so. The thing is, being a temp worker, you sort of just fly in and out. You never really get a chance to make a difference. Any hard work that you do is forgotten about in a week’s time, and somebody else takes the credit for it. There is no real chance that you can change anyt
hing; nothing that you do really makes a difference to anyone.”

  “Maybe you should consider a more permanent job?”

  “I would, but there aren’t many out there. I don’t have a lot of talents, and after what happened… Well, I don’t really want to carry that baggage into a real job. I probably wouldn’t last very long at a real job anyway. If I opened my mouth, I’d be sacked within a week.”

  “You shouldn’t let your past define who you are, Penny. The past is the past.”

  “It does define me though. That sort of thing is hard to forget, and once most people find out who I am, well, it defines me to them as well. I guess being a temp means that I never have to reveal everything, which is comforting. No one has to know the truth.”

  Despite her healthy glow, there is an aching in Penny’s eyes, an emptiness in her heart.

  “Penny—”

  “Bill.” Kate Spencer, his friend and assistant, bursts into the office door, frantic.

  “Kate? I was just having a quiet discussion with Penny and—”

  “Bill, this is important. You have to hear this. Now.”

  He looks at his longtime friend with thinning eyes. She looks worried, almost as pale as a ghost. Very unlike the usually cool, calm and collected assistant he knows.

  “Excuse us, Penny.”

  Penny offers a brief smile and exits the office quietly, allowing Kate time to walk over to Bill’s desk. She doesn’t sit down; she has too much energy to stop.

  “What is it, Kate? The look on your face concerns me.”

  She stares at her boss for a few long moments, not sure of how to relay the information.

  “It’s your brother,” she finally whispers.

  “My brother?” His mouth drops open. “Jonathon?”

  “They’ve found him, Bill.” Kate looks up at the man she has adored for so long.

  “Found him? Where? Is he alive?”

  “He’s ok, but he’s asking for you.” Kate’s expression is emotionless. “He’s in prison, and he’s been charged with murder.”

  Chapter 6

  He has dreamt about this moment for too long, longer than he cares to imagine.

  He wanted this. He needed this. It is the closure that he so desperately requires. A part of his past that he has never been able to reconcile.

  His brother.

  Jonathon Fredrick Harvey.

  His little brother.

  Full of nerves, anticipation, and quite possibly love, Bill Harvey walks through the Metropolitan Detention Center, anxious to lay eyes on the man he hasn’t seen in twenty years.

  Bumping past so many people going in the other direction, he doesn’t even have time for apologies. Not even time to look twice.

  He wants to get into that meeting room. He has to.

  He has daydreamed about this moment many times over, again and again. All the possible scenarios. He thought that he might have gotten a call, or a letter even, to say that his brother had passed, and he would forever be laying flowers on his brother’s grave. Or he would meet him as a well-dressed man on the street, walking towards his job as an investor. He wouldn’t even say hello. Just a nod, an acknowledgment of a past life. Or perhaps he would walk into church one day to find Jonathon preaching to the masses, having found God and transformed his life.

  Not once did he dream the meeting would be like this.

  Not here.

  Though entirely probable, this scenario never crossed his mind. Even though it was the most likely scenario, he just didn’t want it to be true.

  Kate Spencer tries to keep up with her boss as he paces through security, past the line of people, to the front desk. Desperate. Eager. Impatient.

  Kate is there for as much emotional support as she is clerical support. When her boss stated that he would meet his brother alone, she didn’t argue. Instead, she just turned and followed him. He didn’t send her back.

  There would have been no use.

  Kate knows the powerful man better than anyone – having been by his side for the last four years, riding the waves of ups and downs, the emotional highs and the distressing lows. She has picked him up when he lets the emotional wall crumble; when he lets the feelings from his past catch up to him. She has been there as he recovered from the death of his first wife, grew his law firm, his reputation, and his wealth.

  Now, there is no more avoiding the forgotten family, the past he tried to forget.

  Almost at the door now.

  Bill wants to hug Jonathon, hold him, tell him he’s sorry. Sorry for everything.

  Past the registrar.

  He wants to say that everything is ok. He forgives him. He has forgotten about the past. It’s done. Forgotten.

  Closer.

  Almost to the door.

  Approaching the meeting room, Kate takes her chance.

  “Bill.” She grabs the bottom of his sleeve.

  Cautiously, he turns.

  She hasn’t seen that look in his eyes before. The wall that is always there, the solid brick wall that surrounds his heart, has been bulldozed by the arrival of his long-lost brother.

  His eyes are desperate.

  Lost.

  “Bill,” she continues with a tender touch. “This might not be everything you want it to be. You have to be prepared that he might not be the person you remember or the person that you want him to be. It’s been twenty years since you last saw your brother. He will have changed.”

  “Of course he’s changed. It’s been two decades. We’ve all changed.”

  “What I mean is that he might not be the person that you remember. He will have…” She looks to the floor. “He will have lived his life. Changed a lot. Seen things that you and I haven’t seen. He isn’t the same person that you remember. This isn’t going to be easy.”

  “I know that, Kate,” he snaps. “I know he’s changed. I have no idea about the man on the other side of that door. No idea. I don’t know his favorite foods, I don’t know his friends, I don’t know his intelligence. I don’t know what he smells like, or what he looks like. I don’t even know if he still goes by the name Jonathon.” Bill’s fist clenches as it presses into the wall by the door. “But what I do know is that man is my brother. My blood. My family.”

  Kate nods, wanting nothing more than to protect her vulnerable hero. “Just… just be careful in there, Bill. Don’t get too carried away.”

  He looks at her, not around her, not past her, but at her.

  Directly at her.

  He leans in, planting a small, soft kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Kate.”

  Shocked at his rare show of emotion, she doesn’t respond.

  She can’t.

  With a deep breath, Bill Harvey leans in and holds the door handle.

  This is it.

  Their moment.

  His moment.

  The moment he sees his long-lost brother.

  The door creaks open.

  He steps in.

  “Jonathon.”

  Chapter 7

  One word.

  That’s all he could manage.

  After more than twenty years apart, two decades of not even a sound, after years of rehearsing what he would say, that’s all that came out of his mouth. That’s all that he could state.

  Jonathon Fredrick Harvey stands before his brother, the person that he’s missed the most, and can’t speak at all.

  During all the lost years, he has felt alone, adrift in the vast sea of addiction.

  Swimming against the tide.

  Struggling to keep afloat by himself.

  He thought he was a lone soul, and the world was his to fight.

  He didn’t have a family; they didn’t exist anymore. In his darkest hours, he abused them until they had enough.

  They kicked him out.

  Told him never to return.

  It was his fault, and he knew it. He hurt the people that he loved the most. He hurt the people that were trying to help him, the people that wanted the
best for him. He could see their pain, he could feel it.

  But he could do nothing to stop it. Addiction had him. It overtook everything that he did. He knew that the best place for him was away from his family, no matter how much that hurt.

  And for a Harvey man, pride is everything.

  He couldn’t go back.

  He couldn’t return to the people that he held dear. He knew that. He had pushed a long way past the boundaries and crossed paths he shouldn’t have crossed.

  He was isolated as he fought the endless addictions.

  Alone.

  For twenty years, he struggled. Fought. Wrestled. For twenty years, he did it all alone. For twenty years, he was all by himself.

  But in the end, when he had no other option, all it took was one phone call.

  All it took was to pick up the phone and dial the publicly listed number of his brother’s office.

  “I…” The words don’t come out.

  He draws a deep breath, neither of the men ready to move.

  Despite the advantage of youth, Jonathon Harvey looks the elder of the two men. His face is tanned and weathered, his short hair grayer, his body weak. Tall and thin, he looks malnourished.

  Twenty years of fighting a drug addiction can do that to a man.

  “All fine in here?” The officer at the door breaks the silence, ready to shut the door behind Bill.

  The cold voice of the man brings Bill back to reality, back to what he knows better than anything else in the world – work.

  He walks into the room and places his briefcase on the table, his face now expressionless.

  Cautiously, Kate steps in behind him. “We’re good,” she replies to the officer. “Thank you. You can shut the door now.”

  “I’m sorry, Bill,” Jonathon pleads with the man that he once adored.

  The words echo around the cold room, bouncing off the walls, allowing Bill time to process them.

  “We’re…” Bill’s eyes stay down, focused on the table. He can’t look at his brother. “We don’t have time for that now.” He closes his eyes, holding back salty tears, keeping the emotions at bay.