The Key to Betrayal

by John Matthew Lee

  Liam O'Connor in

  "THE KEY TO BETRAYAL"

  John Matthew Lee

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  “Liam O'Connor in ‘The Key to Betrayal,’” by John Matthew Lee. ISBN 978-1-62137-843-3 (softcover), ISBN 978-1-62137-862-4 (eBook).

  Published 2016 by Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 9949, College Station, TX 77842, US. ©2016, John Matthew Lee.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of John Matthew Lee.

  Acknowledgments

  I wish to personally thank the following individuals for their contributions and support (without which, this book would never been written):

  My wife, Kelley, and our two sons, Kevin and Thomas

  My mother, Connie

  My sister, Grace

  Jerry

  Stella

  Michael

  Sandy, my longtime canine companion

  I appreciate each and everyone’s input in the writing of this book. You each gave me a piece of your time and helped me reach a longtime goal. I'm humbled, and will always be in your debt. Thank you all!

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1: Déjà Vu 1

  CHAPTER 2: Mama O 27

  CHAPTER 3: Duty, Honor, Family 43

  CHAPTER 4: Hank’s Place 53

  CHAPTER 5: Please Come to Boston 77

  CHAPTER 6: Seven Cigs for Sister Maria 109

  CHAPTER 7: Hanging by a Thread 133

  CHAPTER 8: Coffee, Cookies, and Chemistry 141

  CHAPTER 9: Shenanigans Pub 157

  CHAPTER 10: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words 179

  CHAPTER 11: Bad for Business 199

  CHAPTER 12: Resurrection of a Lonely Man 233

  CHAPTER 13: You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks! 249

  CHAPTER 14: Two Burger Sam 263

  Chapter 1

  DÉJA' VU

  “YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to talk with a lawyer and have him present with you while you're being questioned. If you cannot afford to hire an attorney, one will be appointed to represent you before and during questioning, if you desire. If you give up your right to remain silent, and later wish to stop answering questions, no further questions will be asked. Do you understand each of the rights I've explained to you...Mr. O’Connor? I need an answer,” says Lieutenant Tibedoe.

  Liam sits thinking, I must have read suspects their rights a thousand times, and yet never fully felt the importance of each right... how odd. It's unsettling to think how your life can change in a minute. Choices made by you, or for you, can change your life's path. Hours earlier, I sat in my condo watching old black and white movies. No longer seeing or feeling in color like in my youth. I see and feel in black and white, through foggy eyes. Where has the color gone? Everything's different now.

  “Mr. O’Connor. I need an answer,” says Detective Lieutenant Tibedoe.

  “I understand the rights you've read to me. Am I under arrest?” asks Liam.

  “Not at this time. We're just trying to figure out what the hell happened here,” says Lieutenant Tibedoe.

  “Me too! Me too, Lieutenant Ty-bow,” says Liam.

  “It's Tibedoe,” replies his partner, Detective Anthony Molina.

  Liam looks over and sees a slight smile from one of the uniformed officers in the condo.

  “Between the detectives, uniformed personnel, and crime scene technicians, you would have thought I was giving away pizza and beer,” says Liam with a slight grin.

  Liam looks outside and notices several of the neighbors standing, watching, and waiting to see or hear something that could carry them through their week. Something that would break their dull, daily routines.

  “Liam...Liam, will you talk to me?” asks Lieutenant Tibedoe.

  “Yes, I have nothing to hide. I too want to know what the hell is happening,” says Liam.

  “Let's start from the beginning,” says Lieutenant Tibedoe.

  “Yeah, that's always the best place to start,” says Liam in a tired and slight Bostonian accent.

  “Do you have some form of identification?” asks Tibedoe.

  Liam takes out his driver's license from Boston and puts it on the table. Lieutenant Tibedoe is called away from the dining room by a crime scene technician.

  “Your full name is Liam Matthew O’Connor, and you are currently 57 years old. Is that correct?” asks Detective Molina.

  “That's right,” says Liam.

  “It shows that you lived in Brighton, Massachusetts, as of three years ago when you last renewed your license. Is that right?”

  “Yes.”

  Liam notices a grouping of officers in his bedroom, along with Tibedoe, going from bedroom to bedroom.

  “Is Sandy okay?” Liam asks.

  He gets no response, so he starts to stand and walk toward the office when Molina says, “Hey, what are you doing? Sit down... sit down, you're not free to get up and wander around. You need to stay put!”

  Lieutenant Tibedoe calls Molina to the bedroom. Detective Molina tells a uniformed female officer to stand by Liam and to not let him move from the table. As Molina walks away, Liam yells out,

  “What the hell is going on? You guys act like this is your first homicide or something.”

  Officer Youngblood turns to Liam and says, “Sir, we've only had two homicides over the past six years that I know of. Now we have two dead bodies in one night. I'm not sure what the chief is going to think of this.”

  “Is Sandy okay?” Liam yells out. “I need to check on Sandy.”

  Officer Youngblood asks if Sandy is Liam's wife. Liam doesn't answer.

  “I'm going to check on her,” says Liam.

  Officer Youngblood tells Liam, “I'll see what's taking the lieutenant so long.”

  She walks to the bedroom and slowly enters. A short time later, she sticks her head out and says, “Is Sandy your dog?”

  “Yeah, she's my seven-year-old, sixty-five pound boxer,” says Liam.

  Officer Youngblood says, “She's fine, she's sleeping on your couch with her bone.”

  Detective Molina and Lieutenant Tibedoe return to the kitchen bar counter, along with Officer Youngblood and several other uniformed police officers.

  “Liam?” asks Tibedoe. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a cop?”

  “I'm retired now,” says Liam. “I retired eight months ago from the Boston Police Department after serving thirty-three years on the force.”

  “That explains it, Tee,” says Molina.

  “Explains what?” asks Liam.

  “It explains why we have two dead men on the floor of your office, both shot twice in the head and chest, and you're not even the least bit nervous,” says Detective Molina.

  “Hey, Skippy,” replies Liam, “I'm nervous, and somewhat confused, but this is not my first time being involved in a shooting where people have died.”

  Lieutenant Tibedoe looks at Liam and says,

  “It looks like, from the photos on the wall, you were a detective at one time.”

  “That's right,” says Liam. “I worked fifteen years as a patrol officer and sergeant, mostly in South Boston. My last twenty years I worked in the Detectives Bureau, retiring out as a homicide lieutenant. I'm sure you saw a few pictures in there. You see now, Skippy,”
he says, looking at Detective Molina, “not my first rodeo.”

  “Got it,” replies Detective Molina. “I also saw a wall covered with high school football team pictures.”

  “I had a life away from work sometimes. I coached football for my alma mater, Brighton High School, for some twenty years after I finished playing at Boston College,” says Liam.

  Lieutenant Tibedoe notices there are several pictures of the same two ladies that looked to be mother and daughter, both having long, flowing red hair and green eyes. Lieutenant Tibedoe asks,

  “Is this your wife?”

  pointing to a picture on the wall. Liam gets up from the table, walks over to Tibedoe and looks at the picture, takes a deep breath and says,

  “That's my daughter and wife. That picture was taken in front of Fenway Park.”

  Tibedoe asks, “Where's your wife and daughter now?”

  “Are you divorced?” asks Molina.

  Liam replies, “Is this part of the investigation?” looking at both Molina and Tibedoe.

  “I live here alone,” says Liam.

  “Look, detectives! I would really like to go down memory lane with the two of you, but are these the questions you want to ask me? I think not.”

  Detective Molina, Lieutenant Tibedoe, and Liam walk back to the table and sit down. Liam sees that Officer Youngblood has walked out of his office and has Sandy by her collar.

  “Hey, where are you taking her?” asks Liam.

  “Relax,” Tibedoe says.

  “I'm just taking her outside until all the processing is finished,” says Officer Youngblood.

  “Her leash is on the hook by the back door,” says Liam, looking surprised.

  “What's the matter?” Molina asks.

  “That's only the second person, other than myself, who’s been able to get close enough to walk that dog.”

  Tibedoe asks, “What brought you to Port Saint Lucie, Florida? Long way from Boston.”

  “My mother,” says Liam. “My mother moved down here several years ago, after my father passed. She wanted to get away from the winters of Boston. At eighty-three, she lives in an assisted living community near the Wanamaker Club. If something was to happen to her...I'm all that's left of the family. My brother, James, was killed in '71 in Vietnam.”

  “Do you work, or just enjoy the retired life?” asks Lieutenant Tibedoe.

  Liam looks around his home, watching the crime scene technicians and the coroner's personnel loading up and removing a body from the bedroom.

  “Enjoying retirement? This is bullshit! I left Boston to help simplify my life. I work, if you can really call it that, at the Wanamaker in the golf shop as a starter, a few hours a week...really, it lets me keep a routine. Dave lets me play golf for free.”

  “When did you start working at the Wanamaker?” asks Tibedoe.

  “I started about six months ago, but Dave, the golf pro, will have the exact date of the start of my employment. Something tells me the two dead guys weren’t disgruntled golfers, Tibedoe,” says Liam.

  “We don't have a clue who they are at this point. Do you?”

  “No, I don't recall seeing those faces. But there were so many cases for so long, I can't be sure,” says Liam. Detective Molina leaves the table and works his way back to the bedroom, out of sight of Lieutenant Tibedoe and Liam.

  “Liam, tell me what you did today, up until the time of the shooting,” says Tibedoe.

  “Okay, okay. I was scheduled to open at the club this morning, which means I got to the Wanamaker about five a.m. and opened up, and worked the counter till about noon. It was early in the afternoon when I got off work, and then I had lunch at the club before I came home.”

  “Is this one of those private high-dollar golf courses?” asks Lieutenant Tibedoe.

  “You don't play golf, do you, Ty-Bow?” asks Liam.

  “No, basketball is my game,” replies Tibedoe.

  “This is a public course, open to all classes. Even you could play, if you had balls... and clubs, of course,” says Liam. He thinks, of all the luck, I get a new detective who I have little in common with. I hate basketball. I'm probably the only white Irish Catholic Boston native who’s never played hockey or basketball.

  “What time did you get home?” asks Tibedoe.

  “It was about two in the afternoon when I got back to the condo and checked on Sandy. I took her for a walk around the complex for about forty minutes or so, and then we headed back just before four. I remember that because Boston College was playing USC on ESPN, and I wanted to see the game,” says Liam.

  “Did you see anybody on your walk or during the day that was suspicious to you?” asks Tibedoe.

  “No. It was just a regular Saturday afternoon,” says Liam.

  “Liam, what happened then?” asks Tibedoe.

  “I watched the game till around seven-thirty or so when it ended. I began to watch an old war movie when I fell asleep. I guess around nine o'clock. I awoke hearing the rain outside, just after eleven. I took the dog out and let her do her thing, while I stayed on the back covered patio.”

  “Did you see anything, anybody, any suspicious vehicle that didn't belong?” asks Tibedoe.

  “No,” replies Liam. He thinks, have I lost those skills that came so easy to me at one point in my life? Oh Lord, not now... don't do this to me now. Shit.

  “Tibedoe, you must have a good memory. I haven't seen you write down shit since you read me my rights,” says Liam.

  “Got it covered,” says Tibedoe, pointing to a digital recorder he had placed on a cabinet near the table. Liam looks at the recorder and at Tibedoe, and briefly smiles, like a proud father.

  “I haven't been able to sleep through the night for probably twenty-plus years.” says Liam.

  Molina asks, “You mean you have to piss several times a night?”

  Liam looks at Detective Molina and says, “You know, Molina, you're kind of a dick, but I guess you can't help that. Incompetence will cause a person to speak before they think sometimes!”

  Tibedoe smiles and says, “What happened next, O’Connor?”

  Liam says, “I have bouts of insomnia, and I awoke about two or so in the morning and began to watch a movie. I was watching a movie when Sandy got out of the chair. We were in the office, not in my bedroom, so I got up and noticed it was still raining out, with flashes of lightning. I thought the dog got spooked, so I called her back to the office. I noticed she started to growl. That’s when I retrieved my gun from the cabinet in the office. Sandy doesn't usually growl unless someone's outside. I got my gun, and at about the same time I heard the slider door to my bedroom being opened. I looked to see where Sandy was, when the next thing I knew, I heard subjects inside the bedroom and saw them walk toward the hallway. I was in a kneeling position in the office. The TV was on and the volume was down low.”

  “Did you hear either of the subjects say anything as they entered through your bedroom slider door?” asks Tibedoe.

  “No, I wasn't sure how many subjects there were at that time. I remember thinking it took them a little time to get from my bedroom to the hallway. The first subject entered the office and scanned the room as the second subject followed. Both subjects had semi-auto handguns in their hands, and as the first subject continued to scan the office, he saw me. That’s when I fired two rounds at the first intruder, and two rounds at the second.”

  Tibedoe asks, “Did the second subject point his gun at you?”

  “I remember he had the gun in his right hand, but I don't recall where he had it pointed at the time I fired,” says Liam.

  “Liam, that accounts for four rounds fired, total. But we know you fired eight,” says Tibedoe.

  “That's right,” replies Liam. “I fired again, until they stopped moving. I guess old habits are hard to let go. I fired two shots toward the subject to my left, sweeping back to the first subject. I fired two more rounds into his head, or so I thought.”

  Tibedoe asks, “What do you mean?”
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  “I wasn't sure how many times I hit the subjects, only that I must have hit them both, because they stopped moving. I moved from my position to theirs and removed the guns from their hands. I scanned the condo for additional subjects and looked outside to see if I saw anyone leaving from the parking lot area, but I only saw lights coming on in the complex,” says Liam.

  “What did you do then?” asks Tibedoe.

  “I found my cell phone and called 911, and told the dispatcher that I’d shot two armed subjects who had just broken into my condo.”

  Tibedoe asks, “Did you do anything else before the first officer arrived?”

  “No, I just waited and noticed more and more of the neighbors' lights come on, and then heard sirens approaching. I looked outside and saw my neighbors looking toward my place... and that's it,” says Liam.

  “That's it? That's it, you didn't do anything else?” asks Tibedoe.

  “No,” replies Liam.

  Liam thinks to himself, there is no need for him to know that I checked both of the subjects for any signs of life, hoping to ask questions, but both were dead with bullet holes to their faces and foreheads. Chuck, the Boston Police Rangemaster, would have been proud. He continued checking the pockets of the subjects and found only one had anything on him. He had an envelope containing ten hundred-dollar bills and a small piece of paper with Liam's address on it. Neither subject had a wallet, identification, or keys... nothing. Liam also did a quick examination of the bodies as he continued to hear sirens and saw more and more lights come on in the neighboring condos. He saw that both subjects were white, well dressed, and had several tattoos on their arms. Some were military in significance, and others were not. Liam knew his investigating time was running out. He removed a second cell phone from his office and took several photos of both subjects, just prior to the first officer arriving on scene. He then placed the cell phone in the attic above the hallway crawl space.

  Liam examined the subjects' weapons and noticed both carried semi-auto Glocks with laser sights, and the serial numbers from both guns had been removed.

  “Okay, Liam, is there anything else you want to tell us?” asks Lieutenant Tibedoe.