The Mayor of Lexington Avenue jt-1

by James Sheehan

  “Jack, could you come here for a second?” Her voice came from the private bathroom adjacent to her room. That door was also open, but he couldn’t see inside from where he was standing.

  “Sure, what is it?” he answered, walking into the bathroom. Pat was standing by the already running shower in her birthday suit. Jack immediately had all his questions about her body answered. Her stomach was flat, her breasts firm-she looked fabulous. He didn’t know what to say. Pat did the talking.

  “I’m awful sweaty. When I step in this shower, could you just wash my back? I can’t get to it myself.”

  “Sure,” he replied, taking a step forward.

  She looked at him. “Jack!” she exclaimed.

  “What?” Oh, no-did I do something wrong at this crucial moment?

  “If you’re going to wash my back in the shower, you need to take your clothes off!”

  “Oh. Yeah right. Give me just a second.”

  For some strange reason, he retreated to the bedroom as he started pulling off his shirt, as if modesty prevented him from removing his clothes in front of her. He still had his shorts on when he realized how ridiculous he was being and started to move back towards the bathroom. Now he was in a hurry-experience told him that time was of the essence in these matters. He was taking a couple of jogging steps trying to hop out of his shorts, which were now down around his ankles, when he fell face forward on the bedroom floor with a loud thud. Pat came running into the room to see what had happened. When she saw Jack on the floor, his shorts still around his ankles, she burst out laughing.

  Jack felt so ridiculous, he started laughing himself. There they were-Pat, buck-naked, standing at the bathroom door, and Jack lying on the floor in a kind of fetal position, shaking with laughter as he tried to slip his shorts all the way off.

  “This is a very unusual style of foreplay, Jack. But it certainly is amusing.”

  Jack was laughing so hard now he couldn’t speak. He almost lost the ability to breathe as well when Pat stretched her right arm out and leaned against the bathroom door. The bedroom was dark but the light was on in the bathroom, silhouetting her figure in the doorway like the sculpture of an ancient Greek goddess. Jack’s mouth went dry.

  He washed her back and her front. He kissed every inch of her body and when he was done, she took him to bed. They made slow, sweet, passionate love. Later, Jack just lay there in her arms. He’d never felt like this before-in the arms of someone who knew him better than he knew himself, who had told him in no uncertain terms by her actions that she loved him. These were arms he knew would never let him go.

  Thirty

  Jack picked Nancy up at her home in his pickup truck early on Thursday morning for their trip to Raiford. It was a long drive and they were scheduled to be there that afternoon. She looked very lawyerly dressed in a navy blue pantsuit.

  “Where’s the Cadillac?” she asked. “I thought we were traveling in style.”

  “The Cadillac stayed in Miami,” Jack said. “Along with the style.”

  He’d had to do some maneuvering to get Nancy a pass to see Rudy. When he’d called the prison the afternoon before, his request had been forwarded directly to the warden himself.

  “We’re already doing you a favor, Mr. Tobin, by giving you a private room. We can’t make it a party,” the warden told him.

  Jack had a real distaste for government bureaucrats who reveled in throwing their weight around, but he also knew how to press the right buttons to deflate them.

  “I was talking to Bob Richards the other day about my appointment to the state attorney’s position in Cobb County-that’s coming up in a couple of months-and we discussed mutual cooperation among agencies. That’s becoming a problem and Bob wants me to head up a task force to identify the issues. . ” It was typical government double-speak but something the warden caught on to right away.

  “You say there’s only two of you?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I think we can accommodate your needs just fine.”

  “Thank you, warden.”

  “My pleasure.”

  Nancy was overwhelmed that Jack had invited her on the trip, but she didn’t want him to know. She wanted to impress upon him that she was qualified to be his assistant. She had stayed up half the night reading Tracey James’s files. She now knew parts of the case as well as or better than Jack.

  “I have a list of questions to ask Rudy,” she told him when they were on the highway heading north to the prison.

  “I’ll look at them when we get there,” Jack told her. “But I’m really not concerned about the facts of the case when I visit Rudy. I’ve got a few things I need to ask him-such as, what did he and Tracey James discuss when she came to visit him? Other than that, it’s just a visit.”

  “Why am I here, then?”

  “You’re working on Rudy’s case so you need to meet him. When you’re representing people, Nancy, there has to be an emotional connection. This is your opportunity. Give your notes to me. Let me worry about the substance. You just concentrate on getting to know Rudy.”

  Four hours later, they arrived at Raiford Prison. As promised, the warden had made all the necessary arrangements so that their journey from building to building, and guard to guard, was even easier than Jack’s last visit. Still, Jack could tell from the expression on Nancy’s face that she was freaked out when the first set of steel bars clanged open and then shut behind her. She was now in prison. The sounds, the smells were not something she had anticipated. Jack put his arm around her shoulder as they walked along, just to assure her that she was safe-or, at least, as safe as he was.

  They were escorted to the same room where Jack had met Rudy the last time. They sat in two of the bolted chairs and waited for him to arrive.

  They heard him long before he walked through the door-steel clanging, chains rattling, his shuffling feet contrasting with the heavy steps of the guards. Two guards entered the room first, followed by Rudy, then two more guards. They must increase security as the execution gets closer, Jack surmised. He stole a glance at Nancy, who was rigid in her chair. He patted her on the arm.

  She just looked straight ahead like a seasick angler while Rudy was maneuvered into one of the chairs across from them. Jack knew she would have instantly felt better if she’d seen the smile lighting up Rudy’s face.

  “Hey, Jack, how are you?” he said with the ease of a man who didn’t have a care in the world. “And who is this nice lady?” He looked right at Nancy and she finally brought her eyes to meet his. And, in that moment, she felt the fear lift from her. He was a beautiful man, there was no doubt about that-and that smile, and those eyes that danced. She was smitten, but it was something deeper than that, something she had never felt before.

  “I’m Nancy,” she heard herself say.

  “Pleased to meet you, Nancy. I’m Rudy.” He held out his cuffed hands and she shook them. “Did Jack rope you into this?”

  “No. Well, yes and no. He brought me over from Miami.” She felt like an idiot, not knowing what to say.

  “So you came from the big firm? How do you like Bass Creek?”

  “Oh, I’ve been to Bass Creek before, fishing with my dad. I really like it.”

  “You like to fish? I love the water, that’s-that was my favorite thing. I used to go out in this little boat I had, but I usually didn’t fish. I just liked being out there, floating around, watching all the birds and the animals along the shore-I even liked the gators. That was my world, a world that Jack’s trying to keep me from getting back to.” He smiled and looked at Jack. “Isn’t that right, Jack?”

  Jack smiled back. “I guess so, Rudy.”

  Nancy was mystified. “I don’t understand. I thought we were trying to get you back there?”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry, you are, in one sort of way. But I’ve got my heart set on going back in a different way. I’d like to go back there as a bird-like an osprey, soaring over my kingdom.”

  “You
mean you don’t want to get off death row,” she said, almost in a whisper.

  He leaned in, like it was just the two of them there. “I can’t say that-Jack’s here. And now you’re here, and I know there’s a reason for that. I’m just not sure it’s about saving me. Maybe, somehow, there’s another purpose. Something we don’t see yet. But if it is to save me,” he said, and she could almost feel his eyes seeing right into her heart, “then I want to live. And find out what I’m supposed to do with the rest of my life. But if it’s my time to go, I know where I’m going and who I’m going to see when I get there.”

  He’d been smiling the whole time. Nancy didn’t know what to say. It was as if this was the first conversation she’d ever had with anyone.

  “Who are you going to see when you get there?” she asked, her voice still quiet.

  “My mom and dad. They’re waiting for me,” he said, a twinkle in his eye, his smile even bigger. She had a sudden urge to reach across the table and hug him. Here in this cold, dreary prison, she was talking to a convicted murderer she had just met-and she knew this was the man she had been waiting for all her life.

  “How do you know? How can you be so sure?” she asked, not out of any disbelief in what he was saying, but with a genuine curiosity.

  “When you’re by yourself all day and you know what’s probably going to happen to you soon,” and Nancy dropped her eyes for just a moment before looking up again into his face, “if you let yourself, you can feel and see things you wouldn’t normally see. What I feel and what I see in my mind makes me sure.”

  “I never thought about it like that,” she replied. She wasn’t afraid at all now to be honest and say what she was thinking. “But I guess if I was about to die, I’d like to know that somebody was waiting for me on the other side.”

  “I’ll be on the other side. I’ll be one of your special people.”

  She didn’t know what to say. It was almost too much, and she slipped back into the role she had prepared for. “But we’re here to save you, Rudy.”

  “I know, I know-but there’s a reason you’re here whether you save me or not, I just know it. There’s a reason we’re meeting. However it goes for me, you are now one of my special people.”

  “And you’re one of mine,” she said, softening again, and reaching again for his manacled hands.

  Later, on the drive home, she and Jack talked about the visit.

  “I’m sorry, Jack. I’m sorry I talked so much.”

  “Don’t be sorry. That’s why I brought you with me.”

  “But you had things to talk about and I took up your time. And I was saying the stupidest things-I don’t know where they were coming from.”

  “You were just responding to Rudy, and Rudy comes from a different place-a place where few people ever go.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Because that’s what I was thinking. It’s like he sees things nobody else sees.”

  “Yeah,” Jack replied. “And they say he’s slow. Maybe we should all be so slow. We might see things a little clearer. Besides, I had enough time with Rudy to get any questions I had answered. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn anything new. We still have no issues to appeal.”

  “I’ll find what you’re looking for, Jack. I’ll go through our files tonight with a fine-tooth comb. If there’s something we’re missing, I’ll find it.”

  Jack just nodded. He knew now why Pat had insisted on Nancy coming. Pat had known instinctively that the visit would inspire Nancy. And she also knew that he needed the help-an extra set of eyes.

  They drove in silence for a while. Jack could tell that Nancy was still going over in her mind the events of that afternoon, trying to make sense of it.

  “He just spent the last ten years of his life in jail and he seems happy as a clam.”

  Jack just nodded in agreement. He knew there was more to come.

  “Do you think he really doesn’t want to live?”

  “I’ve thought about that myself a lot. And I’ve come to the conclusion that Rudy is the true definition of the eternal optimist. That’s the way his father was when he was a kid. Rudy is facing death so he’s putting a positive spin on it. That’s not to say he doesn’t see things that we don’t or that he doesn’t believe what he says, because he does. But if we save him, he’ll be just as positive about that.”

  “What do you think he meant when he said we might be involved for another reason we don’t yet know about?”

  “I have no idea. It’s hard enough to try and understand a human being facing death with a smile. I can’t comprehend any more than that.”

  They stopped at a greasy spoon for a burger and ate in silence. When they finally got back on the road it was dark.

  “I felt something between me and Rudy,” Nancy said as Jack exited off the highway a few miles from Bass Creek.

  “I saw that,” Jack said, looking over at her. “There was definitely something going on between you two.”

  “I’d love to go out on the river to some of his favorite spots. The way he described it, it sounds like heaven.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s the way he sees it too.”

  Nancy sighed. “We definitely have things in common. It’s just my luck to meet the man of my dreams on death row.” Jack just smiled.

  Thirty-one

  Nancy called him at seven the next morning. He had just finished his sit-ups and was going through his daily stretching routine when the phone rang.

  “Jack, it’s me, Nancy.” As if he didn’t recognize her voice. She sounded awfully excited. “Jack, I’m at the office and I think I found what you’re looking for.”

  “Don’t tell me over the phone. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  “Who was that?” Pat asked. She was still in bed, lying next to the spot Jack had so recently vacated.

  “It was Nancy. She found something.” He was already moving toward the bathroom as he was talking. He brushed his teeth in the shower, didn’t bother to shave, dressed in a flash, kissed Pat goodbye, and headed for the office.

  Nancy looked like something the cat dragged in. She was still dressed in the same pantsuit from the day before, although the jacket was off and slung haphazardly on a chair in Jack’s office and her white blouse was wrinkled and stained with office-brewed coffee. There were dark circles under her eyes. He could tell she was bone-weary but very excited.

  “What did you find?”

  “Take a look at this.” She handed him a thin manila file. He opened it and saw several pages that appeared to be the results of chemical lab analyses. There were blood and urine test results and toxicology reports. It took him a moment to realize what he was reading. Then it came to him in a flash.

  “That’s it! That’s what I knew in the back of my head was missing-the lab analyses in the coroner’s report. Where was it?”

  “It was one of those little files in the back of one of the boxes that apparently none of us ever got to when we went through the stuff the first time.” Jack remembered. He had read the investigative reports thoroughly but had ignored the thin files at the bottom of the second box. He was just too tired to read them and assumed they were unimportant.

  “Now take a look at this.” She handed him a second thin manila file. He opened it and started to read a two-page police report dated on the same day as the murder about a suspected rape of Lucy Ochoa! His heart started to race. He could feel the blood coursing through his veins at breakneck speed as he tried to slow his eyes down and read the report-and then the lab results again. A picture started to emerge-a very sinister picture.

  “Do you know what this means?” he said.

  “I think so,” she said, watching his eyes dart across the pages. “Although it’s taken me most of the night to figure out what you figured out in a couple of minutes.”

  “Take me through it,” Jack said, hoping to calm himself while he listened to her explanation.

  “
Apparently, they found semen inside Lucy Ochoa the night she was murdered. The blood type from the semen was AB. That was different from the blood type on the carpet, Rudy’s blood. So they started a separate rape file. I’m not exactly sure why. I think they were up to no good but I’m not exactly sure how it worked.”

  “You’re right so far. Here’s the rest. The blood and the semen created a big problem. It put two people in the house. So they-the prosecutor and the police-decided to eliminate the problem by creating two crimes. By having a separate rape investigation, they didn’t have to produce that file for the defense in the murder case. And also, since it was a criminal investigation, the documents weren’t public records, so nobody-including the press-could get at them.

  “The press usually gets at least some of their information through a public records request. The state attorney knew that.”

  “Why did we get the rape file?”

  “We made a public records request for all documents relating to Lucy Ochoa or Rudy Kelly. The criminal investigation of the rape case-an investigation that, in fact, never existed-ended years ago. Once the investigation was over, those documents became available. Apparently, nobody has made a public records request since the original murder investigation ended.”

  “I think I get it,” Nancy said. She was following but it was tricky, and this was all new to her. There was one other thought she had to get out before she lost it. “What about the coroner’s toxicology report? Wouldn’t the defense have seen that? And wouldn’t that show the semen and the different blood type?”

  “It would if the defense had seen it. Note that the toxicology report is titled: ‘Addendum to Coroner’s Report.’ I’ll bet the coroner was in on this little scam. He didn’t issue his toxicology report with his initial report. It wasn’t forwarded to the defense, and the idiot who was representing Rudy never thought to request it later. And nobody picked up on the discrepancy in the appeals.”

  “What about Rudy’s blood analysis? Wouldn’t that have been part of the coroner’s report?” Nancy asked. She felt a little stupid but she was still putting it all together.