“No extenuating circumstances, no claims that it wasn’t really yours.”
Dan shakes his head, then rolls his eyes and says, “No,” out loud.
“And were you convicted of this offense?”
Dan is pretty sure that these guys have the court records that show his convictions, and they’re just testing him. He doesn’t really appreciate it, but this is their show. “Yes, I was.”
“And what was the sentence?”
“Probation, and I think community service and a fine.”
“You think?” Neil frowns at him.
“Dude, it was a long time ago. I know I did community service for a couple things, paid a couple fines. I can’t remember for sure what was for what.”
Bill says nothing, just pulls out the next sheet. It’s another arrest report, this one for aggravated assault. Dan looks it over, and then Bill says, “You probably remember the questions. Do you want to just answer them all at once?”
A part of Dan doesn’t want to, wants to make this as inconvenient for Bill and Neil as possible, but mostly he just wants to get it over with. “I plea bargained to regular assault. I think I did two months in juvie and some more probation.”
Bill nods. “This one is of concern to us because it seems to show a temper problem and a propensity to violence. If there’s anything more you could tell us about the circumstances, that would be very helpful.”
Dan doesn’t want to go back there, doesn’t want to think about the person he was then. “I used to have a pretty hot temper. I was an angry kid. The other guy had been pushing me around and calling me a fag for weeks, and one day I’d had enough, and I fought back.”
“And broke his jaw and a couple of ribs?”
Dan doesn’t really have anything to say to that. “Yeah.”
“Were you injured?”
“Some bruises, and I broke my hand.”
“You broke your hand by hitting him?”
“Yeah.” Dan doesn’t like where this is going, but he doesn’t really know what he can do to stop it.
“I’m trying to get a clearer picture—was the other boy larger or smaller than you?”
Dan shrugs. “I don’t know… about the same size, maybe a bit bigger. He was on the football team, so it’s not like I was picking on some little geek or something.”
Bill nods. “Okay.” He hands over the next report, and this is the one Dan’s been waiting for. “So, a single arrest seems to have led to several charges here… and we’re a bit concerned about these as well, so if you could run us through the situation again, that’d be great.”
Dan looks at the mug shot on this one. He still looks young, but he’s got a big bruise over one cheekbone, and his expression looks dead. He looks a lot closer to the ‘old and mean’ that he’d been shooting for in his first arrest photo. “I got in a fight with my stepfather, and it got physical. He called the cops, told me to get out. I left, but I took his car. Stupid, obviously. I went to a friend’s house and we got drunk and smashed a couple windows at the school. The cops caught us. We got arrested.” He glances down at the report. “My stepfather insisted that I get charged with the assault and car theft, and then obviously the cops weren’t pleased with the vandalism. And resisting arrest… I’d forgotten that one.”
Bill’s face is neutral. “And the outcome of that?”
“The outcome? Uh, plea bargain, I think. I ended up doing another eight months in juvie, then probation.”
“And you completed the probation?”
Dan hadn’t thought about that. “I guess not, no. I went back to the house for about five minutes to get some clothes, but then I left town. I was supposed to do some community service stuff, I think, and report to a social worker or somebody.” He shrugs. “But they sealed my records… theoretically, at least… so they must have forgiven the missed probation, right?”
Bill shrugs. “It seems like. So, this brings us to the end of our findings on your juvenile arrest record. Do you have anything you’d like to add or correct?”
“No, I don’t think so.” If that’s all they want, Dan is relieved. But then he glances over at the file and sees that there’s still quite a bit of paper in it…
Bill hands him several pages stapled together. “This is what we’ve come up with in regards to your whereabouts and activities from the present back to the time when you left the juvenile facility. Could you please look at it and see if there are any errors or omissions?”
Dan takes a few moments to shuffle through the sheets. “Jesus. You guys—how did you put all this together? I wouldn’t have been able to remember all this!”
Bill smiles, and it looks genuine. “We are really pretty good at our jobs. And because of your unique position of access to the family—living on the property, working with Miss Kaminski unsupervised—we were especially thorough.”
“Yeah, I guess!” He flips through the pages, a chronology of addresses, employers, even friends and lovers. He feels like his life has been laid out for everyone to see. It’s a bit intimidating, and he supposes that’s what Bill and Neil were shooting for. He looks up. “Like I said, I can’t remember everything, but, yeah, this looks about right.”
“There are several gaps in there, times when we weren’t able to find an address for you, or any employment. Especially in the earlier years. Would you be able to fill in the blanks on any of those?”
Dan looks down at the sheet. This is like a twisted version of looking at an old photo album. Instead of making him remember good times and loved ones, he’s looking at a record of the worst years of his life. His fingers unconsciously go to the first entry, seeking comfort from his most recent address: the apartment above the barn in Kentucky. They have Justin’s name there, too, and two dates beside it. Dan immediately recognizes the day of the accident and the day of his death. Then Neil shifts in his seat, and Dan drags his eyes back to the older pages, looking for the gaps.
“I think for most of them I was moving around, or, you know, couch surfing, staying in shelters… if it was warm I’d camp out sometimes.”
Bill nods. “And during those stretches with no recorded employment—how were you finding enough money to live?” His tone is carefully neutral, but Dan knows what he’s asking.
“I never lived off crime. I… I dunno, I probably shoplifted a few things.” Dan is going to say that he’d never actually taken money for sex but that he’d been happy to take meals and a place to stay from people that he’d slept with, but he decides that’s more information than Bill needs. If he asks specifically, Dan won’t lie. “It doesn’t really cost that much to stay alive if you don’t mind eating at soup kitchens every now and then.”
Bill nods, and pulls out another page and passes it over. “This is a statement we took from Mr. Hugh Winters. In it he claims that you lived with him for a period of about three months, from December of 1997 to early March of the next year. He claims that you were verbally and physically abusive toward him, and that when you left you stole several valuable works of art. We’d like your response to these accusations.”
Dan wants to respond pretty damn strongly, but he forces himself to calm down and read the statement. When he’s done, he takes a moment to collect his thoughts, and then looks up. “Did you notice the dates there? He doesn’t mention it in his ‘statement’, but I think you can figure out why a thirty-year-old closet-case would take in a seventeen-year-old street kid. And that was in LA, so the age of consent was eighteen. So if there was abuse, it wasn’t me doing it. And the reason I left is because I found out he’d been taking pictures of me.” Dan doesn’t want to say what kind of pictures they were, and doesn’t really think he has to. “When I was sleeping and with hidden cameras. So when I left, I erased his hard drive and took the prints. That’s about all I have to say about him.” Dan had started off calm, but he knows his voice was a bit strained by the end, and when he looks down at the paper in his hands, it’s visibly shaking. He carefully sets the page down o
n the table and puts his hands in his lap, then forces himself to look Bill in the face. Bill just nods and maybe even looks a little sorry.
“Okay. Uh, there’s one more area that we need to cover.” He pulls out the remaining pages from the folder, but doesn’t pass them over as he had with the others. “Before we get started, I’d just like to ask… your father, Richard Wheeler, and your sister, Krista Wheeler—when’s the last time you saw them?”
Dan doesn’t try to hide his surprise at the question. “Uh… since before I left Texas. Dick left when I was fourteen, and then… I haven’t seen Krista since I left, when I was seventeen.”
Neil jumps in now. “There’s been no contact whatsoever since then? No phone calls, e-mails, Christmas cards—nothing?” He sounds skeptical.
Dan just shakes his head. “I wouldn’t know how to start trying to find them, and I don’t know why I’d want to, at least for Dick. Krista… I don’t know, I’ve just never looked for her. I thought about it, but… she wasn’t exactly sorry to see me go, when I left. And I guess she hasn’t been looking for me, ’cause you can find me on Google.” He grins a little ruefully at Bill. “But I guess you probably already know that.”
Bill smiles. “Yes, we did check there. It’s a shame you don’t have a Facebook—they’re often very useful for us.”
“You seem to have done all right without it.”
Neil is a bit impatient with the chatter, and shoots Bill a look. Bill goes back to the folder. “Well, we looked them up, and… we have some concerns about what we found.” He hands the report over to Dan now, and he flips it open. The first page takes his breath away. It’s a series of mug shots. The first one is of Dan’s father, looking older and meaner than Dan remembers; the second is of a woman he has to squint at to recognize as his sister, although the name she’s being booked under is Krista Russert; and the third is of a man Dan doesn’t recognize, with the name Scott Russert beneath him. Dan supposes he’s looking at his brother-in-law.
He looks up and sees the two men watching him, then turns the page and looks at the report inside. It’s pretty scary reading. There’s a summary of the lives of all three of them, showing how they’d gotten in trouble on their own, and then how Krista and Scott had joined up, and then a mysterious appearance by Dan’s father. The story closes with all three of them wanted in connection with a series of armed robberies. Apparently they’re still at large.
Dan wonders what happened to his little sister. They’d never been close, exactly, but she and he had banded together sometimes against their stepfather, had been allies if not friends. He wonders if all this would have happened if he’d been a little stronger, if he’d been able to pull himself out of his own anger and misery and found a way to help her out. He remembers Justin had suggested that they look her up, but that he had said he didn’t want to. He hadn’t wanted anything from the difficult past to touch his perfect present. He checks the dates with some trepidation, but is relieved to find that Krista had started getting in trouble shortly after he’d left. By the time he had been in a place to really help her, she had already been well down the road to trouble. Still, he should have done something….
He remembers his audience and looks up. They’re still watching him closely. He’s not sure what the appropriate response to this information would be, so he just goes for honesty. “Shit. I had no idea.”
Bill nods. “The part we’re most concerned about is… if you turn to”—he reaches over and leafs through the stack of papers in front of Dan—“this page, it shows a list of known associates of Scott Russert.” Dan looks at the list of names, and then back up at Bill, and shrugs. “You may not recognize them, but a lot of law enforcement officers would. These people are members of organized crime families, in Texas, Nevada, and right here in California.” He purses his lips. “These are the sorts of people who could actually have the resources and intelligence to plan a successful kidnapping attempt on Ms. Kaminski, or to be a threat to the Kaminski interests in a variety of other ways.”
Dan feels a little sick. He might know that he has nothing to do with his family, but how can he prove it, especially to two people who are paid to be suspicious? He wonders if he’s about to lose his perfect job just because his family is fucked up.
He feels tired, again. He looks up at Bill. “What can I say? I mean… I haven’t seen either one of them in more than a decade. If they got in touch with me… I don’t know. Krista’s my sister, I’d try to help her, but in a ‘turn yourself in, and we’ll get you a good lawyer’ way, not… I would never do anything to risk Tat’s safety.”
Bill nods. “I realize that it’s a difficult situation.” He pauses, as if being careful of his words. “Because of the nature of the work you’re doing, we consider it necessary for you to have the highest level of security clearance. For that level of clearance, family is considered as a possible challenge to a person’s loyalty, and in this case, your family is of serious concern.” He smiles a little at Dan. “On a personal level, I believe you that you have had no contact with your family members, and I sympathize with your situation. I think it’s admirable that you’ve been able to overcome some difficult beginnings and create a new life for yourself.”
Dan steels himself. “But….”
“But we will have to review this situation very carefully, in consultation with our managers and our full security team. I can’t say for sure what their recommendation to Mr. Kaminski will be, but… it would be very unusual for a person with that family background to be employed in an environment that requires such a high level of security.” He sighs. “We’ll be contacting Mr. Kaminski immediately, and advising him that our concerns are still not fully resolved. We may be able to find temporary measures that will satisfy the need for security while still allowing you to continue with your employment, but….”
Neil takes over. “When are you scheduled to work next?”
“I make my own schedule. I was planning to go down maybe this evening or for sure tomorrow morning.”
Neil shakes his head. “We won’t be able to have this sorted out by this evening. We’ll contact Mr. Kaminski and advise him that you won’t be able to work today, and that we’ve asked you not to return to the barn until further notice.” He glances over at Bill. “We’re also a little concerned about your living arrangements. This house is within the security cordon of the family property, so there aren’t many barriers between it and the main house. Given the situation… I’m sorry, but we’re either going to have to ask you to leave the property now, and we’ll put you up in a hotel until this is dealt with, or we’re going to have to put our security team on a heightened alert, which will likely be alarming and upsetting to Miss Kaminski.”
“Are you… are you kidding me?” Dan turns to Bill. “Is this for real? I have to move out, or else I’m the sort of person who enjoys scaring a little girl? I’ve—” He realizes that he’s practically yelling, and tries to calm down a little. “I’ve been working with Tat for a couple weeks now with no problems. I shared a room with her brother for the last two nights, for fuck’s sake! If I wanted to hurt the family, I’ve already had plenty of chances.”
Neil’s jaw works a little. “There were some regrettable oversights in the security screening for this enterprise, and we are working very hard to determine why they occurred and to find ways to make sure they don’t ever re-occur. At this point, I can tell you that if we had insisted on completing a full security check before you came onto the property we would have recommended strongly against your employment, at least in this capacity. As it is, your two weeks of service work in your favor, but are hardly enough to override the other concerns.”
Dan shakes his head. “This is so fucked up.”
Neil isn’t giving him a lot of space. “If you’d like, we can give you a few minutes to decide how you’d like to proceed.”
“A few—” Dan breaks off in disgust. “Yeah, sure, give me a few minutes. That’ll take care of everything.�
� He glances over at Bill, who’s looking a little helpless. Dan goes back to the front hall and grabs his bags from the trip, then goes back through the kitchen, ignoring the two men, and heads into the laundry room. He takes the garment bag that carries his show clothes and hangs it next to the washer, then takes the duffel and upends it, scattering his dirty clothes all over the floor. There are some clean clothes folded and piled on top of the dryer, and Dan stuffs them into the duffel. A couple pairs of jeans, a few T-shirts, socks and underwear. He’s ready to go. He just has no idea where he’s going to.
Chapter 35
NEIL AND Bill watch wordlessly as Dan angrily stuffs his clothes into the duffel bag and grabs his toiletry kit from where he’d left it on the stairs. He starts toward the front door, then stops sharply and turns into the living room. He opens the door of the entertainment unit and pulls out a nearly full bottle of Wild Turkey, and stuffs it in his bag. Neil and Bill are watching this, too, of course, and he glares at them defiantly as he walks by them and out the door. He doesn’t wait for them to catch up, just sets his bag in the bed of the truck and climbs behind the wheel. He starts the truck and backs it up to turn around, and is about to pull away when Bill appears beside him and taps on the glass of the window. Dan thinks about just peeling out, ignoring him completely, but he controls the impulse and rolls down the window instead.
“If you want to follow us into town, we can get you set up at a hotel and—” And Dan’s had enough. He rolls up the window as he’s pulling out of the driveway. He’s not following anyone anywhere.
He gets a couple miles down the road when he starts to feel a bit stupid. The situation is fucked up, there’s no doubt about that, but maybe he’s being a bit of a baby about things. This is always his problem. He either over thinks or doesn’t think at all. Either all brain or all heart, never a balance of the two. Then he thinks about losing the job he’d moved out here for, losing access to Justin’s horses, all because of the stupid behavior of two people he has nothing to do with. He decides he’s right to be completely pissed off. That doesn’t mean that he’s got to be stupid about it, though. Why pay for his own hotel when he could be billing Kaminski? It’s not like his soon-to-be-ex-employer can’t afford it.
Dreamspinner Press Year Four Greatest Hits Page 63
