Always Watching (36 page)

“
There hasn’t been time to
brief you, Joe.  Things are happening quickly with the
investigation into the Sherman matter.”

“
Not quickly enough. 
Dammit, Johnny.  It won’t matter if you find out that Sherman
made illegal contributions to Sanderfield’s campaign if I end up
impeached because you put personal issues ahead of business. 
And things haven’t been moving so swiftly in your investigation if
you had time to get married this afternoon.”

My jaw dropped, as did Johnny’s.  This
wasn’t about Sanderfield putting pressure on OSI because of an
investigation into his campaign funds.  It was something else
altogether.  My arms wrapped around my waist in a defensive
gesture, as if the voice on the phone might materialize into flesh
and blood in front of us and hurl more than angry words.  What
had Johnny done to incur such wrath?

“
I won’t apologize for
marrying her, Joe.”

“
Of course not. 
Clearly your judgment has been sorely lacking where this woman is
concerned from day one.  This is not like you at all,
Johnny.”

Me? 
Me
?  How could any
of this be related to… “Oh shit,” I whispered.  At least I
thought I did.

The pause in the room grew heavy, angrier,
uncomfortable.

“
Is she there right now,
Johnny?”

“
Uh, just arrived,
Joe.”

“
Well, Dr. Eriksson, we
meet at last.  I understand you’re no longer part of any law
enforcement agency, so I’m going to have to insist that you
leave.  Immediately.  Johnny, I swear if you tell her one
thing about any of our current –”

“
Sir,” I stepped closer to
the phone and tried to stop my knees from knocking.  Not an
easy task to perform at will.  “I don’t know what you think
Johnny did, but I can assure you –”

“
You
can assure me?” Collangelo thundered.  “Let me tell you
what your assurances mean, Dr. Eriksson.  They mean
nothing
.  Terrell
Sanderfield, a senator who happens to be a formidable opponent,
funded in large part by people who used to support me, has been
going over OSI’s activities for the past nine months looking for
irregularities.  Do you disagree that it was somewhat unusual
for the highest ranking law enforcement officer in this state to
travel in OSI’s private jet to upstate New York to visit your
incarcerated father, to fly you to Washington D.C. for unknown
reasons while you were investigating someone who is now
dead?”

That red-black haze I saw when feeling
particularly homicidal returned. 

“
Don’t even get me started
about his role in thwarting an official FBI investigation into his
new bride’s involvement in a homicide.  We got the man
reassigned to parts better left unknown because of
my
connections,
my
political clout that
got the job done!”

“
Enough!” Johnny
barked.  “Do you want to know why I went to see Helen’s
father?”

“
No,” I whispered. 
“Johnny don’t.”

“
Why we went to see David
Levine in Washington while we were investigating
Datello?”

“
Johnny, anything you
could tell me at this point wouldn’t mean jack shit.  I’m
sorry.  The damage is done.  The press is calling my
office for rebuttal to Sanderfield’s accusations.  Even if I
had the gospel truth right now, it wouldn’t undo the wreckage of my
career.  Even if I manage to get re-elected by some miracle,
there’s no way I’ll get funding for OSI beyond –”

“
What if OSI uncovers a
human trafficking ring operating right here in Darkwater
Bay?”  The question popped out of my mouth by necessity. 
My internal battle shifted from attack to defense.  Johnny
didn’t deserve this.  One thing Collangelo said made perfect
sense to me.  This
was
all my fault.

“
What
?” he hissed.

“
It’s the case OSI asked
me to help with.  It didn’t begin with suspicion of human
trafficking.  It was only after we found the woman most
directly responsible for the abduction of Danny Datello’s daughter
did we realize we’d scratched the surface of something much
bigger,” I said.

“
And this is why you’ve
been ignoring the situation I specifically asked you to
investigate, Johnny?”

“
Sir,” I said, “I’m afraid
that Johnny’s investigation overlapped with ours.” 

“
Hasn’t the press printed
this yet, Joe?” Johnny sneered.

“
Printed what exactly, and
what do you mean your cases have overlapped?  Dr. Eriksson,
explain yourself.”

“
We recovered the Datello
baby.  Melissa Sherman had her in Montgomery.”

“
Jesus,” he rasped. 
“And you couldn’t have picked up a telephone and called
me?”

“
That’s my fault too,” I
said.  “I apologize, governor.  And I take full
responsibility for why it appears that Johnny ignored a direct
order.”

“
Hmm,” he hummed with more
sarcasm that I imagined a noise could convey.  “And this is
where the wedding thing comes in, I take it.”

“
Not entirely,” I
said.  “Johnny’s been concerned about my health.”

“
This is exactly what I’m
talking about,” Collangelo fumed.  “Johnny, you cannot
continue to blur personal and professional lines.”

Our eyes met.  I nodded.

“
She’s pregnant,
Joe.”

“
I don’t mean to sound
insensitive, but that really doesn’t help matters much.”

“
I appreciate the
congratulations,” Johnny said.  “Pardon me that the health of
my wife and our baby matters a little more to me than your career,
Joe.  Not to mention, the dead child that washed up out of the
bay after being abducted in the Philippines.  And the woman,
the one who physically abducted the Datello infant, she claims that
your old friend Eugene Sherman
owned
her.  What does that tell
you, Joe?  Maybe we should be looking into what Sherman’s
contributions to your campaign actually bought.”

“
Johnny, you can’t
possibly believe that I’d be part of something so vile!”

“
Why not?  My
judgment is so poor after all.”

“
There is no way to
prevent the shit-storm this story is going to unleash,
Johnny.  Or do you deny doing any of the things Sanderfield
claims of which he has evidence that you did?”

“
Nope,” Johnny said. 
“Yeah, I went to see Helen’s father.  I personally paid for
that trip, Joe.”

“
You took OSI’s
jet.”

“
I did.  Which I paid
for out of funds from the business I own.  He’s got a flight
manifest.  Period.  As for why Helen and I went to
Washington, well it was to put the pieces together using
her
contacts in the
bureau that linked Datello with his assassin Mitch Southerby. 
It was in fact, official OSI business, and it would’ve come out in
court if Sherman’s pal Alfred Preston hadn’t murdered Datello
before he could be tried in court.”

“
There’s still the matter
of this agent that was investigating Dr. Eriksson. 
Sanderfield’s allegations against OSI don’t exactly match what you
told me at the time, Johnny.”

“
You want to hear what
really happened with that issue, governor?  How about if I
have the FBI call you personally to explain it,” I said.  “In
the meantime, like it or not, we’re pushing forward with an
investigation that truly matters.”

I turned on my heel and stormed out of
Johnny’s office.  Thirty seconds later, I was crouched in the
corner of the handicapped stall in the women’s bathroom, ready to
choke on the bile of my deception.  Angry tears burned like
lava on my cheeks. 

How could Johnny be so stupid?  Did he
think that no one would ever question what he’d done to protect
me?

It was where my anger
toward him transformed into self-loathing.  It
was
all my fault. 
If I hadn’t let him get close in the first place, none of this
would’ve happened.  He wouldn’t have exercised poor
judgment.  He wouldn’t have pulled strings to get my
overzealous former colleague Mark Seleeby off my back.  He
wouldn’t have uncovered where my father lives or talked to
him. 

God forbid that Sanderfield find out what
else Johnny did to protect me while he was in New York.

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and
dialed the old familiar number.

“
Hello?”

“
David, it’s
me.”

“
Uh-oh.”

“
Yeah,” I said.  “I’m
sorry I only call when the world falls apart.  Some friend I
am, huh?”  I tried to mask the sniffle, heard David’s chair
creak at his recognition of the sound.

“
You’re crying.  Talk
to me.”

Where to begin?

“
Johnny and I got married
today.”

“
Helen, that’s
wonderful!  Congratulations!  Why the tears?”

“
I’m pregnant.”

Silence.

“
I think it’s partly
hormones.”

“
Helen, are you happy
about it?”

“
I’m not unhappy. 
I’m fucking miserable.”

“
Oh dear,” David
soothed.  “What can I do to help?”

“
I’m not miserable about
the baby.”  I filled him in on Johnny’s problems because he
was too stupid to know better than to fall in love with the train
wreck that is me.  This time, I didn’t omit my suspicions
about the human trafficking ring.

“
Well,” David said at the
end of my rushed tale, “you should’ve called us the second you
suspected that this thing was bigger than one abducted
infant.  Preston should’ve called when this Filipina girl
washed up in Darkwater Bay.”

“
I suppose I’m going to
have the FBI lurking in my shadow again over his death.”

David chuckled softly.  “That’s the one
thing you don’t have to worry about, Helen.  Your former
colleagues at Downey Division were pretty adamant that Preston
basically executed a man in custody.”

“
Really?”

“
Tony Briscoe was
downright livid that anyone even questioned your
actions.”

“
You’re kidding.  He
hates me, David.”

“
From what I heard, his
account was nothing less than the solid blue wall, Helen.  And
of course, the medical examiner’s report proved beyond a shadow of
a doubt that Preston shouldn’t have died from his wounds. 
That doesn’t however, exonerate you.”

“
It doesn’t?”

“
We should’ve been
the
first
call
you made about his allegation that this kidnapper was an unwitting
victim of Danny Datello.”

“
I don’t want the city
crawling with agents.  It’ll spook these people and we’ll
never catch them.”

“
Sadly, your logic makes a
lot of sense,” he said.  “So I suspect that the most helpful
thing I can do for you right now is call the governor and explain
to him that Mark Seleeby needed to be spanked for harassing you
when it was clear to everyone else that you had absolutely nothing
to do with Rick’s death.  After that, I’m hopping on a plane
and coming out there to help you sort through this other
mess.”

“
David, I wish you
wouldn’t do that.”

“
Which part?”

“
Johnny needs to close
this case on his own.”

“
But he isn’t doing it
alone.  He’s got you.  And you’ve got me.  I won’t
take no for an answer, Helen.  Think of it this way.  If
this Senator Sanderfield is or was on the Sherman payroll, and he’s
already gunning for OSI, my presence takes some of the heat off
Johnny for her arrest.  I could be some good leverage with the
attorney too.  Let’s not forget that even a single event of
kidnapping is a federal offense.  We don’t have to tip our
hand about the full investigation because the bureau is
involved.”

I dragged my lower lip between my teeth.

“
Helen?”

“
How soon can you get
here?”

“
I’ll call Collangelo from
the plane and let you know what time I land and how effective I was
at soothing ruffled political feathers.  Can you pick me up at
the airport later?”

“
Yes.”

“
Good enough.  Let me
get on the phone and make the arrangements.”

“
David, you’re staying
with us while you’re here.”

“
Deal,” his grin wrapped
around me like a warm hug.  “Hang in there, sweetheart. 
The cavalry is on the way.”

I disconnected the call and unwound a giant
wad of toilet paper from the dispenser.  The blast from my
nose bounced off the ceiling.  Elephant trumpet. 

The bathroom door squeaked.

“
Helen?”

Johnny
.

“
Give me a few
minutes.”

“
Are you all
right?”

“
I’m fine.  I called
David Levine.”

Footsteps clacked across the tile floor and
entered my field of vision.  A light thump landed against the
stall door, presumably Johnny’s forehead.