“What? When you’re going back?”
“No. The ‘if you want to go back at all’ part?”
Taking a huge bite out of his pizza, Cash stuck his finger in the air, motioning for her to wait while he chewed his food; Hannah sat and waited for him to swallow. Pissed, she eyed his pizza as if she’d throw it in the trash if he dared to take another bite.
“I’m waiting,” Hannah blurted out.
“What was the question?”
“You ass! Why would you say that?”
“Oh yeah, that.” Setting the pizza on the plate, he fidgeted with his napkin. “Because you couldn’t get the answers that you were hoping to find, about your mom telling you he was dead, and you’ll never get them because no one seems to really know.”
“Well, I know what he said and she said, but I just don’t know if I buy it.”
“Why?” asked Lindsey coyly. “Is it truly so hard to believe that your mom couldn’t stand the thought of you, a little girl, visiting her dad in prison? She panicked and told the first lie: officials said you weren’t allowed to visit him. After fighting with Hank over the phone, she got scared and told the second lie: he’d died in prison. Which, as you know, became problematic due to the letters. Dead men can’t write.”
Hannah sat silently. This was not the way she had expected to spend her day.
“What point are you trying to make, Lindsey?” Hannah asked.
Lindsey glanced at Cash. He nodded, indicating she should proceed with whatever she had on her mind.
“Just that maybe there wasn’t a great big conspiracy. No cover-up. It was a lie, yes, but told with good intentions that got way out of hand and ruined lives, multiple lives, including yours, Hank’s, and your mom’s.”
Hannah knew all of that was not only possible but was likely. She understood that most moms wouldn’t want to take their kid to prison for visitation. What she couldn’t wrap her head around was that her mom ruined everyone’s lives while walking away from hers.
“Damn! Y’all know how to ruin a paint party. Feel like I need a shot of whatever’s in there right now to lighten the mood.”
Cash jumped up and pulled a beer out of the fridge.
“Want me to crack open a cold one?”
Managing a smile, Hannah shook her head. “Put it back; Kathy will know.”
“You know there’s an upside to this situation, I mean other than finally meeting your dad, which is great… though I’m not sure that I’m ready for it.” He grinned. “Just kidding!”
Hannah stared right through him but never said a word.
“The upside to all of this is that even though you don’t accept the things we’ve just discussed and you learn to live with the fact that you may never know why your mom chose to do what she did, you can take comfort in knowing that she regretted all of it. That she saved the letters that ultimately reunited you and your dad, and that she did everything in her power, literally, during her last moments on this earth, to put this situation right before she died.”
Reaching across the table, he grabbed her hands and held them in his. Trying to hide her face, she’d allowed her hair to fall down and cover it.
“Look at me. Babe, please look at me.”
Slowly her hand swept the hair from her face and pushed it behind her ears. Looking Cash in the eyes, while Lindsey looked on, he finished what he was trying to say.
“She gave you back your dad. Right, wrong, or indifferent, you now have the man you’ve always called Captain only a few hours away. She tried her best to fix it. You can honor your dad, if you choose, by mending and rebuilding the relationship that was robbed from you both.”
“Sometimes your delivery sucks!” Hannah playfully stared down Lindsey and smiled at Cash. “But I’m lucky to have you both, and I’m going do it, rebuild my relationship with him, whether he likes it or not!”
Sighing, Hannah wondered if her opinion of her dad would have changed had she known he was locked up. Cash was probably right; let the reason go and focus on the future and not on the past. They had to plan their next visit to Folsom. If that meant she sat in the waiting room because he refused to see her, then so be it. They had a lot of making up to do, and she was determined to see it through!!
Chapter 42
Hank
I do not dare allow myself to dream such things!
If it happened—I wouldn’t need anything else for the rest of my life.
~ Hank Gunner ~
The meeting was brief. Nigel could barely contain his excitement, and Hank could hardly take it all in. After all this time and losing hope of any possibility of a life other than what he had behind those prison walls, Hank finally had someone on the outside looking out for him. Rapid-fire questions were thrown at Nigel, and one by one he answered every one of them.
“I don’t even know a James Stoddard.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Nigel responded. “He worked night shift.”
“What exactly does this mean… I mean, really mean?” Hank asked. “What are the odds of me getting out of here now?”
Nigel threw his pen down on top of the yellow legal pad that he had placed in front of him. Leaning toward the glass panel, he spoke to Hank through the red phone he held in his hand. Hank waited patiently on the other end of the receiver.
“Well, it should go like this since we’ve already filed the appeal. Once we get the date, the judge will listen to our appeal based on the testimony of the witnesses that we’ve collected, but primarily the sworn affidavits of James and Lewis. We’ll also present the recorded sessions and video. Michael, the attorney I work for, will ask the judge to overturn the original conviction because you’re innocent of the actual charges. He’s being guided by his buddy who’s a criminal lawyer.”
Hank was listening intently, though the expression on his face never changed.
“We’ll ask that the judge release you based on time already served, effective immediately.”
Hank’s eyes lit up.
“Immediately.” Stammering. Searching for the right words, Hank didn’t dare get ahead of himself.
“Do you think he’ll do that? Let me out right then and there based on the time I’ve already been in here?”
Nodding, Nigel tried to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t imagine any more time robbed from Hank’s life or how much time one man was supposed to give for something he hadn’t done.
“I can’t promise you this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the state wasn’t obligated to pay back some kind of retribution on your behalf for the mistake they made.”
“Like a reimbursement, monetary payoff, to make up for the time that they robbed from me?” Snickering, though he didn’t think it was funny, Hank nodded. “I lost my life. My wife. And being there for my kid.”
“You did,” Nigel answered. “But you have the opportunity to grab a second chance; it’s not perfect by any means, but Hannah’s there, and she wants to get to know you, build that relationship again.”
Hank nodded. She was the only reason he wasn’t angry. After all the years he’d spent in prison, giving up on getting out and living a normal life, now handed a second chance and an opportunity to rebuild his life with his daughter almost seemed too good to be true! Daring not to believe it at first, he quizzed Nigel over and over again, until he finally thought that Nigel and Michael might actually have a shot at getting him out.
“I wish we could say we were doing you a favor, Hank, but we’re not. Just trying to right a wrong, that’s all, and I’m sorry it wasn’t done sooner. Nate will be happy, and at least now you can spend time with Hannah.”
“Yeah, I can, can’t I?”
Nigel packed up his things and stood up to leave.
“Hey, Nigel.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank Nate for me.” Hank smiled, his first genuine smile in years. “Until I meet him in person and thank him myself, which I will, thank him for giving me a shot at a real life again.” Figh
ting through his tears, his gruff voice breaking up, he stopped Nigel in his tracks one more time. “And thank you for everything. Coming here. Sitting with me. Listening, and for this, a chance to mend things with Hannah. Ah! Speaking of Hannah.”
“Yes.”
“I need you to do me a favor.”
“Sure. Anything.” Nigel spoke into the phone softly, as if afraid someone would overhear their conversation, even though he knew they were being recorded.
“What do you need?’
Chapter 43
Sit Tight
One second, please.
It will change your life.
~ Nigel ~
Kathy and Hannah had just finished supper when a gentle tap on the door interrupted their evening.
“You expecting anyone?” Kathy asked.
Hannah shook her head.
“Cash is at work, and Lindsey is studying for a chemistry test.”
Throwing a tea towel across her shoulder, Kathy walked toward the front door. Putting the safety chain across first, which made Hannah smile because she always forgot to do that, she unlocked the deadbolt and cracked it open. Standing in front of the door was a tall, slender, dark-haired, good-looking, familiar-looking man wearing a pair of black-framed glasses. Familiar, yet she couldn’t put a name to the face. Peering at the gentleman, she waited for him to speak, but when he failed to answer within the first few seconds, she talked to him.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes. Kathy?”
The stranger knowing her name startled her.
“Um. Who are you?”
The man held out his hand, placing it between the cracked doorframe and Kathy. Hannah appeared behind her aunt, listening to the interaction between the two, phone in hand in case she needed to call the police.
“I’m Nigel, Nathan’s brother and Sandy’s brother-in-law. Sandy and Nathan used to be best friends with Gloria and Hank, years ago. I think I met you over at Sandy’s and Nathan’s, my brother’s, a long time ago.” He hesitated. “Sorry for your loss, Kathy.”
Kathy stood in the hallway stunned. That’s why the man looked familiar. She suddenly felt as if she were looking at a ghost; the man was the double of his brother, but she hadn’t thought about Nathan in years.
“Is Hannah here and, if so, may I speak to her?”
Kathy started to close the door to remove the chain. Nigel put his hand on the door, thinking she was closing it to end their conversation.
“I have a message from Hank.”
Realizing he thought she was shutting him out, Kathy quickly opened the door.
“Nigel, yes, I remember you. Please, come in.”
Hannah stepped out from behind her aunt. As Nigel walked past Kathy, he stopped and stared at the beautiful blond-haired, blue-eyed teen. Sticking out his hand, only to instinctively grab her in his arms as soon as her hand touched his, he held her as tightly as he possibly could.
“You must be Hannah! Oh my God! You must be Hank’s little girl!! How you’ve grown.” After a couple of seconds, he loosened his grip.
Hannah didn’t exactly hug him back, but she didn’t pull away, either. Kathy, in shock, watched them both.
“This hug is from Hank. This is for Hank. And this is a hug for both of you from me!”
Finally, he released her and stepped back to take a good, long hard look at her. His eyes had glossed over, and his face had lit up. Beaming was the best way to describe him. Kathy broke the awkward silence that followed.
“Please, come on in. May I get you something? A drink maybe?”
“Yes. Please, that would be nice. Water, please. And thank you!”
Hannah led him to the sitting room, where they sat down. Kathy returned with a tall glass of water. Nigel took a sip. He placed the glass on the coffee table in front of him and glanced around the room.
“It’s a little unorganized because I’m still moving in, but usually it’s spotless,” Hannah stated as she watched him search the pictures for familiar faces.
“I’m sorry. I’m trying to soak in visuals to take back to Hank. He’s missed so much of your life, as you know.”
Unsure what the visit was about, Kathy asked if there was something that Hank had sent him around to pick up of Gloria’s.
“Did Hank want a photo or memento of Gloria? Is that why you’re here?”
Nigel picked up his water and slammed the whole thing down. Setting the glass back on the table, feeling Hannah and Kathy’s eyes on him, he figured it was time to start talking.
“First, again, condolences on your loss.”
“Thank you,” Kathy and Hannah said in unison.
“I’m really not sure where to start here, so if it’s okay with you, I’m going to start from the beginning, and once I’ve concluded the story, all the way up to where we are right now, I’ll answer any questions that you may have… does that sound reasonable to you?”
Unsure of what they were about to hear, Hannah and Kathy nodded. Nigel started from as far back as he could remember; even to the day he dropped by the house, and Kathy had been there visiting at the same time. Hannah was only three or four years old. Kathy couldn’t help but smile as she recalled the day clearly as well.
“You have changed!” She laughed.
“You really haven’t,” Nigel responded.
They went over the strike, the shooting, Nathan’s death, the funeral, and how devastated Sandy was when Gloria lost Hank as well.
“Technically, that day, Gloria lost her husband, too.”
Kathy grabbed Hannah’s hand and held it tightly in hers. Nigel continued. He told them about Nate’s project and Sandy asking Nigel to help him find out every single thing, good or bad, about his dad.
“He never knew him. Gone before he was born. The project became an obsession between us, my nephew and me, but once we got to Nathan’s death, I thought we’d wrap it up.”
“But you didn’t?” Hannah quizzed him.
“No. Because we couldn’t.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“We talked to so many people surrounding the night that Nathan died, the fight after his funeral at the Shamrock, and everything that led to the cover-up story. The cover-up story is or was, I should say, the big story we uncovered, which involves Hank.”
Hannah pulled her hand out of Kathy’s and sat on the edge of the couch. Her blue eyes, now huge, fixated on Nigel, as she listened to every single word that he said.
“There was a cover-up involving my dad?”
As carefully as he could, Nigel retold the story. Tom O’Halloron, the toast, Hank’s despair, the fight barreling into the street and then winding up on the bridge. The people who had gathered around Hank and Tom, forming a circle around them as they fought, pushing them from person to person, cheering them on and encouraging the fight. He told them about the top rail being damaged, and finally, he told them about James Stoddard being the person who pushed Tom and Hank off his body as they fought with such a force that they fell into the broken railing, and both toppled over the bridge and into the water below.
“What?” Kathy managed, trying to process what she had just heard.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Hannah asked. “Are you saying that you know another man, this James guy, I think you said, who was the person who pushed both of them over the bridge?”
Nigel nodded his head. “But there’s more.”
“How could there possibly be any more?” Stunned, Hannah waited.
“Oh but there is… “Nigel raised his empty glass. “May I?”
“Of course.” Kathy jumped up, grabbed the glass, and refilled it.
“There were multiple witnesses, false witnesses, on site, who were Tom’s friends or friends of people in high places. In other words, enemies of Hank; Hank was respected by his co-workers, peers, and representatives of the ILWU, and Tom’s people wanted their man in Hank’s role to control all sides.”
“How?” Hannah aske
d.
“Hank was fair. Their rep wouldn’t be fair, if you know what I mean. Anyway, they needed to seal Hank’s fate with a couple more witnesses. Have Hank take the fall for Tom’s death.”
Horrified, Kathy asked how.
“They took the one person who could rat them out; the guy who really did it, Stoddard, who accidentally pushed the men over the bridge, and Lewis, his buddy who was standing next to him at the time. In short, they kidnapped them, terrorized them, and if that wasn’t bad enough to drive their point home and to show that they meant business and Hank must take the fall, they held guns to their heads and threatened to kill them. After what they’d been through, there was no reason not to believe they wouldn’t be killed.”
Stunned, Hannah and Kathy sat speechlessly. He’d been innocent for all those years.
“I need to see him,” Hannah insisted. “Kathy, will you take me?”
Nigel raised his hands. “And that’s why I’m here; there’s more. You can’t go see him.”
A pin could have dropped, and you could’ve heard it. Silence filled the room for the first time since Nigel had arrived.
“We’re appealing this case, and we believe we’ve got a good, no excellent, chance of getting your dad released immediately. Or once it’s overturned.”
“That’s great!” Hannah’s face lit up. “Even more reason I need to see him. He probably needs something. Clean shirt? Shoes? I don’t know. Something?”
“He doesn’t want you to go.”
Feeling as if her heart just got stomped on, again, she couldn’t hide the disappointment she felt. It hurt Nigel to see the look on her face and immediately he realized what she was thinking.
“It’s not what you think!”
“You don’t know what I think.”
“Okay. Hannah, it’s not because he doesn’t want to see you or want your support.”
She was listening.
“It’s because he believes Gloria, your mom, was right… and he’s sorry he fought her on that—prison isn’t for kids or teens.”
Captain Fin Page 29
