by Paul O'Brien
Lenny opened the door and Luke was outside with his little brother in his arms. Both children looked scared and freezing.
“I played the song for him as long as I could in the car,” Luke said to his father.
“Come in,” Danno said to the young boys.
Luke waited for his father’s okay before moving. Lenny motioned him into the house with a flick of his head.
“I just didn’t want them making your house sticky,” Lenny said to Danno.
“Not at all,” Danno opened the door wider than Lenny had, and the two boys entered.
They were shaking, half from the cold and half from being left outside in the car as the night turned black. They weren’t sure where their father was and they weren’t sure when he was coming back. So Luke, seven years old, walked around the back of the house where he saw light.
“Does he stand?” Danno asked Luke of his little brother in his arms.
Luke was too scared to answer. He just gently placed his little brother standing beside him and helped his wobbly little body stand up straight.
“Answer the man,” Lenny said to Luke.
“He … falls a lot but he’s getting better,” Luke shyly said to Danno.
Danno took a fifty out of his pocket and gave it to Luke.
“Are they coming with us?” Danno asked.
“I’m here without Bree. Just a flying visit.”
“How about your mother?”
“She and my father are gone … ” Lenny didn’t want to bore Danno with the details. “She’s not there either. We’re just spending a night or two in her place and then heading back to Vegas.”
“Vegas?”
Lenny nodded as they walked through the hallway.
“Where are we going?” Lenny asked.
Six days after the murder.
New York.
This was not a job executed with precision. There were several sets of tire marks that wore a perfect pathway, one deeper than the other, to the mound of freshly turned soil.
It was messy and the work of amateurs. The longer serving members of the department could hardly believe their luck. The tip-off was perfect in its placement of the body. The snitch brought them right to the mark and they were carefully treading all around it, so as not to fuck anything up.
“Precision,” shouted one officer as they got out of their cars. “We do this one slowly and by the book.”
They began to survey the area and more than one of the cops commented on it being a beautiful place to be buried. On the side of Bear Mountain, in a clearing of the forest and the fog, and with the Hudson in view - if you had to be executed and buried – this was the place.
A couple of uniforms cordoned off the area while another pair got suited up for the dig. By looking at the sloppiness of the site they were expecting it to be a shallow grave and a short day.
“Right, take it slow,” came the order as the rain began to fall again.
With just the first shovelful of dirt they exposed a corner of black plastic. Just as it was described to them.
“Bingo.”
“Already?”
“Yep.”
Lenny took it easy in his father’s two seat Ambassador. On the way to Danno’s house he let the convertible top down to impress his boys and now he couldn’t get it back in place.
Danno sat in the passenger seat with Luke sitting awkwardly on his lap. James Henry was on the floor of the car between Danno’s feet, bawling loudly, tears streaming down his face.
“It’s okay,” Luke leaned down and whispered to his little brother.
“I think he shit himself,” Danno said of James Henry.
Lenny opened the trunk and took out his travel bag and removed a diaper and a towel from it. He also checked to make sure the money he found in his hotel room was still at the bottom of the bag.
Lenny was just waiting for the right time to give Danno back his money and ask him for his wife’s rings back. He couldn’t wait to show Danno how loyal he was to him by returning all of the money that was missing from the rucksack.
He also couldn’t wait to see Bree’s eyes when she came back from her parents. Lenny regretted nothing more than taking his wife’s rings and using them as collateral.
It was a worthless piece of shit move, and he knew it.
But the time just didn’t feel right. Lenny could see that there was a major change in Danno since Lenny left New York. He just didn’t know why. Because he was out of town, Lenny hadn’t heard about Annie’s death.
Danno and Lenny sat on the weather-worn bench at the foot of the cemetery. The two boys were charging around the grass in front of them, with bags of candy clasped in their hands. It was getting colder as the night wore on but sugar and horseplay staved off that reality for at least another while.
On the bench Lenny sat in shock as he listened to Danno talk about what had happened in Texas. Lenny had the bag containing Danno’s money resting between his feet.
“They only found her the next day when she didn’t answer her wakeup call. I went down there but they wouldn’t let me take her. Said they needed to wait for someone to sign off on something. After all of our time together and I had to wait for someone else’s permission to take her home.”
“Why?” Lenny asked as he genuinely tried to think of a reason why anyone would harm such a lady.
Danno didn’t hesitate to answer. “Because I tried to outthink everyone. I let her go to Texas. I let her get involved in this fucking business. And it … ”
Danno took out the envelope Nestor gave him. “And that’s what I have left.”
Lenny wanted to do something or say something more substantial, but he had no idea how to fill the pause. What could he say? What could anyone say? He watched his former boss and idol wither before his eyes.
Listening to Danno’s story of what happened to Annie reminded Lenny just how much he loved his own wife. And how much he missed her. He thought about how he’d love to stay but he just wanted to be wherever she was. New York, Nevada – it didn’t matter.
Danno turned to Lenny with a crazed look in his eye. “Curt left me a message before … but I don’t know what he meant,” Danno said with utter confusion. “It wasn’t light. The money was right, wasn’t it?”
Danno could see his sudden intensity was making Lenny nervous. He stopped himself.
“Wasn’t it, Lenny?” Danno asked calmly.
Lenny stuttered out a response. “What?”
“On the message, he said that the money was light.”
Danno knew the rucksack came from Lenny’s place. Lenny Long, he thought, the one person in the business who wouldn’t fuck him over.
Lenny managed to muster up a slight shake of his head. “That’s not true. The money was right.”
If Danno had looked around he would have seen clearly that Lenny was lying. As all the pieces started to form in front of Lenny’s face he could feel his stomach churn. The horror of what happened, and his place in it, began to make him feel dizzy and disorientated.
“Well then she was a stupid fucking bitch,” Danno said out of nowhere.
Lenny nervously stood up and Danno immediately reined himself back in.
“The kids … I’m sorry,” Danno said.
“No, no. It’s cool,” Lenny replied.
Lenny could see Danno pour over all the details in his head.
“I just don’t know what the fuck happened,” Danno said.
“I need to be out there,” Nestor said.
“Why?” the captain asked. “What’s your fascination with this man?”
The were both sitting now. The room was filled with Captain Miller’s smoke. Nestor was now more openly anxious about what was happening outside the building. He didn’t know what was going on.
“Why do you need to be out there?” Miller asked again.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been working for this collar?”
“And still you let him go last night?”
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“I need him outside. For now.”
The captain laughed. “And why would that be?”
Nestor was too hot. He slid off his jacket and placed it on the back of his seat. It also gave him time to think. To try and say the right thing.
“Because he’s making mistakes,” Nestor said. “You know this is like a fucking equinox or something, captain, right? These men don’t surface that often. And we havethe boss running around out there with no one to rein him back in.”
“What are you saying, detective?” Miller took another long pull from his cigarette and tapped the ash onto the floor.
Nestor knew that stonewalling was wasting his time. He needed to get going. He needed to get a position on Danno.
“I’ve been following Danno Garland on and off for a while,” Nestor said.
“And?”
“And nothing. I have nothing. I was shaking the bushes to see what was going to fall out. That’s all.”
“And his lawyer? Troy Bartlett?”
Nestor paused a second. He didn’t want to have to say any more. But he had to. “I have him. I’ve been shifting him around for the last few days.”
Captain Miller nodded with a knowing smile. “Why?”
“Because I was trying to isolate Danno. Disorientate him. Anytime we pick up one of his guys for anything, this fucking guy, Bartlett swoops into the picture and has them released within a couple of hours. Danno isn’t as strong without someone like him in his ear.”
“Why all the running around?” the captain asked.
“Why?”
“Yeah, why?”
Nestor wondered just how much an old hand like Captain Miller could handle. How much truth he really wanted to hear. He decided to find out.
“Because I don’t know you,” Nestor began. “But we both know why you were placed here. We both know what the last guy in your position was. We know what most of the guys who work here are. Dirty. Dirty fucking cops.”
“And you’re not?”
Nestor shook his head and meant it. “I want to get this bastard. And I want to nail him on something that’s going to stick. He has an office on West 42nd that’s full of evidence that I’m fucking sure can pull them all down.”
“Who are you getting that from?”
It was Nestor’s turn to laugh. “His own fucking lawyer.”
The desk officer knocked on the door again, only this time he didn’t wait to be invited in.
“Sir, they’ve found the grave. Just like the tip-off said.”
Nestor instinctively stood up.
“Sit,” Miller said.
Nestor picked up his chair and slammed it legs first off the ground. He then sat down again like an angry, petulant child. He knew his case was being pulled from him and there was nothing he could do about it.
“They’re waiting on your order, sir,” the waiting officer said.
Miller was quiet in his seat. The order seemed straightforward, but nothing was forthcoming from the captain.
The cops on the scene were waiting for Captain Miller to swoop into the crime scene and get his picture taken and take the credit for the investigation. That’s what all the other captains would do. But Miller wasn’t moving.
“Sir?” the waiting officer said.
“Let me go and get Garland,” Nestor pleaded.
Miller could feel the eyeballs on him. Waiting. Waiting for him to make the call.
“Captain?” Nestor asked again.
He had no choice.
“Tell them to proceed,” Miller said.
The officer moved quickly away from the room.
Nestor was quietly livid. “He’s going to pay his way out of this again.”
Captain Miller flicked his cigarette at Nestor. “The only fucking one who looks dirty in all of this is you.”
Danno apprehensively approached his wife’s grave. He walked like a man who was sure she might in someway reject him.
He’d never been this close. When she was being buried Danno stood way back at the trees. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Not without holding some form of apology. Not without some kind of justice for her.
He was taken aback by the starkness of witnessing his own wife’s grave. It was too early to be anything other than a mound of dirt waiting for a headstone. But she was under there. He could see her in his head. Haunting him. Questioning him. Reaching out for him when she was on the floor and the last gasps of life were leaving her body.
Where was he?
Back in the cemetery parking lot, Lenny was in the car with his boys. Little James Henry was asleep in the dark on the passenger seat. He had Danno’s coat over him and the tape of Bree singing playing softly in the background.
Luke sat on his father’s lap and rested his head on his chest. He enjoyed the time alone with Lenny. It didn’t happen often. Lenny was telling him a story with his lips but his mind was churning over the scenario that he was a part of.
“And then the giant walked across the ring and punched me right in the face. His hand was the size of a typewriter. And I went down like a ton of bricks in the cage.”
A movement in the sideview mirror caught Lenny’s attention. He noticed a cop flanking the car. And then another behind him. Lenny put his finger to his lips as he covered his son’s mouth with his hand.
“Open,” one cop whispered as he shone his flashlight through the window.
Lenny quickly rolled down his window. The cop studied the occupants of the car. Two children, and a man who looked nothing like the man they were looking for.
“Move along. Now,” he said to Lenny.
“Okay,” Lenny said as he quickly started his car. He counted ten more cops stooped over and walking carefully past his car. They all stopped at the gates of the cemetery.
At the crime scene, the rainwater was beginning to pool in various pockets of the plastic. Two white-suited officers were ready to expose the body just as soon as the photographer was ready and the word was given.
In the station, the captain and Nestor waited as the desk officer walked back and forth outside their open door with a large, grey, brick-like walkie-talkie in his hand.
“They’re ready sir,” the officer informed his captain. “We also have a team waiting to arrest Garland.”
Captain Miller gave the tense, silent order with a nod of his head.
“I don’t know what to do,” Danno said at Annie’s grave. “I want to follow you but I don’t have the balls to do it. I want to kill the man who put you here but I can’t. I fucking can’t do anything to make this better and it’s tearing me all up.”
Danno finally began to mourn. His tears rolled down his face and his body began to shiver violently as he took in the reality of life without her.
Danno fell, one weak knee at a time, into the dirt and sobbed uncontrollably. “You’ve left me behind, Annie. There’s nothing here for me anymore. I don’t care about the money, or the business. I was just trying to show you that I’m a man. That I could get you everything that I thought a woman like you should have. I took over for you. I kept imagining you thinking of him. Comparing me and what I didn’t have. I did your thinking for you. And it ended up poisoning me. The wondering and the guessing. I took over the business for you. So you’d love me more back. So you’d stop looking outside what we had to make yourself happy. I wish I talked to you more. I should have stepped in and told you, you were my wife and that I thought the world of you. I should have handled you better. And laughed with you more. I did you wrong when you were here with me. And I couldn’t even make it right when you were gone. But I’m getting my due now. Here, on my own. I can understand you now. And it’s too late.”
Danno’s tears turned to anger. “If I could make him feel something like this … if I could just get my fucking hands on him.”
Danno roared with frustration and fury.
“Are we ready?” called a voice from the crime scene grave site. “We have enough exposed to lift the plastic.”
“Captain says go,” shouted the officer on radio duty.
The freshly turned soil was now piled atop itself beside the newly excavated grave, and the black plastic sheet was exposed enough to lift it fully.
The photographer was shielded from the rain. “Ready,” he said.
“Do it,” the field detective said as he looked around to make sure everything was set.
The line of cops at the cemetery walls moved in quietly and quickly through the gate. They took up a new, covert position just inside the cemetery walls and waited for their next order.
“Well?” Captain Miller asked impatiently from the interview room.
“No word sir,” the desk officer replied.
Just as the officer spoke, his walkie talkie crackled and a voice came through from the crime scene. “It’s empty. Repeat, the hole is empty. There’s nothing in there.”
“It’s empty?” Nestor asked. “Is that what they said?”
Miller stood. “Call them back. Do not approach Danno Garland.”
Nestor smashed his chair against the wall. Miller stormed out of the office and cursed his way to his office upstairs.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ricky pulled up outside his apartment and quickly got out of his car. He was shaken, panicked and fumbling around with his keys. He didn’t know what was happening or what Tanner Blackwell had told the cops.
“Ricky?” Nestor called as he crossed the street.
Ricky stopped suddenly, and instinctively contemplated running.
“You got a minute, man?” Nestor asked.
Ricky slowly turned. He looked around for other cops but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. He didn’t even know if Nestor was a cop. But he had a strong feeling that he was.
“Can I come up?” Nestor asked as he came closer.
“Who are you?”
Nestor confirmed Ricky’s suspicion about him by pulling out his badge and flashing it.
