BOMAW Vol. 10-12 (183 page)

"Do you agree or disagree with me here?"

"Under the circumstances, I'm going to have to agree. That disturbs me, that he could do that to his mother, his parents. I just, I never knew or saw that side of him. I've never seen him angry, ever."

"You talk to her, you talk her out of any notion of maybe going back to him. Because he's not going to give up trying to get her back, I get a feeling he's all about how he looks. How it will look for her to leave him, divorce him. Son-of-a-bitch!"

Sylvia stood saying nothing to him on that, waiting for him to cool down, when he went quiet, she asked, "What about Christine, Shawn?"

"What about her?" He asked now sitting at the table, looking over the rest of the paper.

"You gonna forgive her, put this behind you?"

"Not until I'm good and goddamn ready." He responded flat out.

"That's not what the bible says, Shawn."

"Sylvia, I'll probably go to hell anyway, so don't worry about it." This said while turning a page, snapping the paper.

"I can't believe you said that."

"There's a lot of things about me I'm sure you can't believe, what's for dinner?"

"Tell me something, are you going through a jerk cycle? Because it would be nice to know in advance when I need to prepare myself for dealing with a jerk."

"I'll tell you what, the jerk can be found across the road in his office, call me when dinners done - I have my phone on me." He stood from the table and headed out the door.

Across the road, he contacted Paul now that he had a private moment to do so.

"Uh oh, you're contacting me means only one thing, you're after something, or someone, which?"

"Someone, and I'm paying this time, this is not a favor, too important for doing in your spare time, I need you to make time to do it."

"That's serious, okay, let me pull out my notepad, hang on."

Shawn could hear him shifting around at his desk, and a moment later he started. "Give me the premise."

"Okay, I need you to find someone who may be hiding behind a faked death."

"I can tell you now, this one won't be easy, but I'll give it my best. What details do you have, is it a man or woman?"

"Man, in his early forties, about my age. Black/Hispanic, bilingual. Speaks fluid Spanish. His name is Armundo Edgar Payne Sr. Born in New York city, raised in Chicago, has a black father, Puerto Rican mother."

"If he's hiding that's where he is, Puerto Rico, Cuba, or Mexico."

"Listen at you, how can you be certain?"

"Just a hunch, if - he's alive that is. What makes you think he is?"

"He was into some shady drug deals. Second hand info is that he took some drugs, so he had a dealer or dealers after him. I think he faked his death to get away with it."

"I see, and so, why are you worried about him? What's he to you?"

"He's nothing to me, but he's my wife's husband if he's still alive."

"Holy - fucking - shit! Holy - fucking - shit man! Shawn! You got to be kidding me!?"

"My hope, is that I'm all wrong, but I don't think so. I have a lot of information here, I need to read this off to you so I can put it all back. I had to go through my wife's files to find his birth certificate, his death certificate. I also have a few copies of pictures of him that I'm sending to you first thing in the morning. I found his mother's address in Chicago, her name is on his birth certificate of course, as well his father's."

"Can you just make copies of everything and send it with the pictures - and I hope you have recent pictures?"

"I can do that, sure. Yes, I have the last pictures he took, he's a bit on the heavy side."

"More than likely, not anymore. That would be the first thing to go if he's really hiding, the extra weight. Anyway, tell me things about him that can't be sent."

"He should be considered dangerous, sly, sneaky. If he's not dead himself, then he's capable of murder. Now, this is part two - we have to get a hold of the body that's in that coffin to test it, see if it's really him or not."

"Shawn, how the hell am I to do that?"

"Don't bullshit me Paul, I know what you can do. I know you help the police a lot, so you have connections; I'm paying, this is not a freebie. I don't care if I have to borrow money to see this through, I need to know if he's alive or not."

"If the body is not him, maybe he stole a cadaver?"

"That's possible, but I need that body tested to be sure, because my wife's brother is missing, I have an ugly suspicion, that's who the body is."

"The plot thickens! Shawn, what is it about you man? Why can't you ever get in place to live just an ordinary life? Now, you've chosen a woman to marry whose ex was a drug dealer, possibly faked his death, killed his brother-in-law and you're in the thick of it. What is it about you?"

"Paul, thank you for your concern, but let us get back to the reason for my call, shall we?"

"Okay, you left off that he's sneaky and possibly capable of killing, how was it that he died?"

Shawn went on to explain all that he knew from Dennis. He also told him about the jewelery, that he found this morning in Sylvia's jewelery box, having examined it all, no sign of melting, damage, nothing. When he was finished with everything that he knew, Paul had one question for him.

"If he's alive, if you're right, and I do find him - what are you gonna do Shawn? You're gonna turn him into the police right?"

"Look, name your price, find him, leave the rest to me."

"Shawn, promise me you will turn him over to the police."

"Paul - what I do, how I handle it, is my business!"

"Shawn - without me, you can't find him. You know it, I know it! Now, promise me, give me your word, that if I find him, you will turn him over to the police! I mean it man, or else, forget it."

"I can't believe you're fuckin' pulling this on me Paul!"

"Believe it! I know you! I found those other two guys for you, the ones involved in Jesse's death. The lead one died on the scene, but the other two made it out of there. I found them for you Shawn, and they disappeared."

"How the hell you know they disappeared?"

"Shawn, they showed up later that year as missing persons."

"Doesn't mean I had anything to do with it."

"You loved Jesse, I know that. Merriam told me how you begged her for the money to pay to find them. That your grief was eating you alive and you couldn't get pass his death. She told me about how bad you were back then, so I found them, more so for her, than you. They disappeared Shawn. I never said anything because she loved you so much. You brought her so much happiness, she adored you and she trusted you. And, I swore to her, that I wouldn't say a thing. She knew Shawn, she knew that you had something to do with their disappearance. That's the one and only I'm willing to take to my grave, because they were the lowest scum to walk the earth."

"I need you - to find him for me Paul." Shawn spoke as if he hadn't heard a word that he said.

"And then what Shawn? Over to the police right?"

Pissed off he hissed into the phone, "If he shows back up here, it's going to destroy my family! Do you hear me?! It will destroy my wife! It will destroy my daughter! Especially my daughter - and it will put us all, my son included, in the middle of one shitty situation!"

"That's why you have to turn him over to the pol-..."

"Fuck you Paul! Fuck you - he's a threat to my family - damn you!" He hung up on him, shot to his feet and slammed the phone into the wall.

With his hands on top of his head, his fingers interlaced, he paced around his office, feeling rigid, angry and frustrated. He knew it in his heart and soul that Armundo was alive. And if Paul wouldn't find him for him, there would be no way for him to. He thought about Deidre, her resources, her connections because of her money, and then immediately dropped the idea. If he couldn't find him, he was going to have to sit and wait for him to show up. If he ever showed up. There was also the matter of David, whom he believed now lie in that coffin. If he told Sylvia about her brother being missing, but withheld his theory on where he might be found, and they found out, she found out, that he knew, she would never forgive him - maybe. No, he had no choice in the matter - to divulge that, would mean telling her that Armundo might still be alive. He couldn't do that. He would leave it alone, and let Sheila, her mother, or her father tell her and just deal with it then. He thought about her hearing that, and what her reaction would be. It would stress her, she would start thinking about it and might not stop, and what if she put it together the way he did? The way Dennis did? He walked in circles, pacing from one room to the other of the studio, burdened by what he knew and how to deal with it. His wife had done all she could to avoid drama - and yet, here was more, serious drama. He couldn't do it, not now, while she was pregnant with his son. He would call Dennis back, ask him not to say anything, making the same request to Sheila and her parents. She didn't need to know - not right now anyway. For all he knew, he could be barking up the wrong tree entirely. Maybe David hopped a freight train to God knows where and Armundo Payne was laying dead, in the coffin he was buried in. For now, he had to let it go, it was making him mean, and act like a jerk with his wife, who hadn't a clue of what was going on with him - the shit going on in his head.

He took several deep cleansing breaths, made up his mind to live in today, and worry about tomorrow when it arrived. He walked out of his studio only to see Victor pulling up. He forced his eyes away from him, walking into the garage, and into the door there closing it behind him.

Shawn walked into the house, found Sylvia in the room with the girls talking, "The worm that turned, is here."

Crystal sighed, knowing it was more than likely the best she would hear out of him concerning Victor. She stood from the bed, to wake the boys up.

They all heard a knock at the front door. Shawn looked at Sylvia, "I know you don't want me to get that?"

She stood and passed him going to the door. Shawn looked at Angela, "You're not allowed to have anything to do with males until I'm dead and gone, you got me?"

Angela made a face, "Ach! I don't think so, dad, you'll probably live to be a hundred!"

Shawn turned in the doorway, sticking his ear out to hear what Sylvia was saying at the door to Victor.

"Hi Sylvia, I came to see Crystal, my boys, if it's alright?"

"Sure it is Victor, but ah, you mind waiting on the porch? Shawn is not feeling very sociable right now."

"No problem; but, you mind coming out, so I can talk to you, tell you my side?"

Sylvia felt a rush of air hit her and through her peripheral, saw her husband, standing hidden behind the door, glaring at her, shaking his head, no!

"I already know what happened, Crystal has told me."

"But you didn't hear from me, my side of it."

"Victor, we've already spoken once, you and I - there's no need for you to tell me your side, trust me, I've heard all of it."

"So you're on his side now? Shawn's? You knew me before you knew him, why are you letting him come into your life, your home and take control? I mean, who is he?"

Before she could say a word, Shawn stepped around the door, "Her fuckin' husband! The man of this goddamn house! You don't fuckin' like it? You can see your boys someplace else! Second, you don't talk down to my wife, as if she lacks mental discernment and judgment - who the fuck are you to question her?!"

Shaking is head, Victor backed off down the stairs walking towards his car, not willing to get into a battle with Shawn. "Shawn, I could have handled that."

He walked off towards the basement, shaking his head, muttering, "God - give me strength. I see dead people."

Crystal had been standing back, eyes wide, holding Darren in her arms, who was yawning from his nap, Isaac doing the same.

Sylvia stood back, "He's waiting by the car, you already heard why."

She nodded and walked out with her boys in hand.

Victor looked at them, smiled, "Hey boys, how you doing? Just wake up from a nap?"

"Yeah." Isaac answered.

Victor picked him up, holding him, "What you been doing? You have fun in California?"

"Yeah."

"Well what'd you do there?"

"Have lots of fun, learn to swim 'cause Darren drownded, Ben save him, an' teach us how to swim."

"What?!" He looked up from Isaac to Crystal, "Darren almost drowned? Where were you?"

"He snuck out of the house, climbed up on the lawn chair and went over the safety guard and fell in the pool-..."

"Ben save him, he jumpded into the water, he swim really really fast an' he got'em, an' he breatheded in his mouth an' saved him." Isaac cut her off to report. For once, Crystal wished he didn't talk so well, but he wasn't through yet.

"Ben gon' be my daddy - you can be Darren daddy."

Crystal closed her eyes, she couldn't believe he said that, of all the things to say, when she opened them, Victor's eyes were shooting daggers at her, his face red as a beet. "Is that right, Ben's gonna be your daddy huh? Is that what mama told you?"

"No, mama say you my daddy. She say Ben can't be my daddy, but he gone be." Isaac insisted, and could care less that he was telling this to his father.

"Isaac why do you want Ben to be your daddy? I'm your daddy, didn't you miss me?"

He made a face, puckering up his lips, hesitant and then shook his head, "Nope."

Victor stood listening to him, his eyes went up to Crystal, "You do this on purpose? Turn my own son against me?"

Crystal's mouth fell open, "Excuse me? How do you figure that?"

"You keep that Ben away from my sons. You are messing around with him, aren't you?"

"No I am not! I told you that!"

"Then what is my son talking about?"

"Victor, work on a better relationship with your sons, and stop blaming other people for the lack thereof."

"If you hadn't taken them off to California, this wouldn't have happened, not to mention, almost drowning my other son!"

Crystal stood a moment staring at him, quiet, "You see what we do Victor? This is what we do. We argue, all the time, can't you see we're both better off?"