Burying Ben (34 page)

Then I call Vinnie Patcher at
h
i
s office. H
i
s secretary tells me he is taki
n
g leave for a f
a
m
ily e
m
ergency. I call him
at ho
m
e and he answers on the first ring.

“
W
hat do you want?”

“I want April to drop her co
m
plaint against
m
e. I doubt she knew to file the co
m
plaint without your help, so I w
a
nt you to tell her to drop it.”

“
W
hy would I do that
?
”

“Breaking up with Ben, lying about the b
a
by, threatening to give
it away, that’s what pushed him
over the edge. There were al
m
ost half a dozen witnesses who heard her brag about how cruel she was to hi
m
,
including a nun. I can see the headlines. Sacra
m
ento county D.A.’s sadistic daughter drives husband to suicide.”

“I don’t care what people think about
m
e.”

“Don’t yo
u
? You’re an
e
l
ected o
ff
i
cial. This
k
ind
of
publicity
will be like a gi
f
t from
heaven for whoever runs against you. I
m
ay not be able to prove you broke into
m
y house, but I saw you slap your wife across the face. So did the nun and all of April’s friends. The D.A. is supposed to enforce do
m
estic violence laws not break the
m
.”

“My wife was hysterical, I was trying to calm
her down. I told you before. Belle is e
m
otionally unstable. She’s thro
w
n herse
l
f down the stairs before. That’s why she li
m
ps.”

Chapter Thirty Five

“I want
m
y job back.” I am standing in front of
Baxter on that worn spot in the carpet,
m
y heart tra
m
polining in
m
y
chest. He looks up f
r
om
what he
’
s reading and jumps to his feet, alert, ready for battle.

“How did you get in here?
You’re
n
ot per
m
itted in the b
u
ilding.”

“Five
m
i
nutes. That’s all I want, five
m
i
nutes of your ti
m
e.”

His eyes dart around the roo
m
, looking for the secretary who deserted her post to go to the b
a
throo
m
, allowing
m
e to sneak i
n
to t
h
e inner
s
anctu
m
. She is still go
n
e. He takes off his watch, places it on the desk in
front of h
i
m
, and re
m
ains standing.

“Five
m
i
nutes,” he says, holding up the five fingers of his right hand, “not a second longer.”

“I’m
not responsible for Ben’s death,
not in any direct way. Neither is Eddie. Neither are you.”

I tell him
about April, her threats and her taunts.

“So he didn
’
t kill hi
m
self because of the job. That
’
s what I
’
ve been saying all along.”

“It
’
s not a
s
imple cause and effect rel
a
tionship. He never should have been a cop in the first
p
l
ace. He j
u
st wasn’t tou
g
h enough, he didn’t ha
v
e the sta
m
ina. He had a terrible childhood. His parents were drug addicts
with long cri
m
inal histories. He lied about them
to your backgrounder who appar
e
ntly didn’t dig very
hard. Imagine the pressure he was under. His
m
arriage was falli
n
g
apart and
h
e
m
ust have been li
v
ing in constant fear of being exposed as an i
m
po
s
ter. Getting
f
ired was the la
s
t straw.”

“He resigned, I didn
’
t fire hi
m
. How
m
any t
i
m
es do I have to tell you that?”

“If he hadn
’
t resigned, you would have had
to fire hi
m
. You didn
’
t have a choice. He couldn
’
t do the job. And that
’
s my point. You, Ben, Eddie,
m
e, we w
e
re all put in a terrible position. And the person who put us
there is Mark Edison. For one thing, Mark didn
’
t do Ben
’
s psych assess
m
ent hi
m
self. He let an unqualified psychological assistant do it. Secondly, Ben
was lying to everyone about his background. A
m
ore experienced psycholog
i
st would have picked that up during the assess
m
ent. Thirdly, and
this is the
w
orst of
it,
M
ark accepted
m
oney from Ben
’
s
m
o
t
her-in-law to say Ben was qualified.”

The blood in Baxter
’
s face drains down the veins in
h
i
s thick nec
k
. His forehead glea
m
s with yellowish sweat.

“Do you understand what I’m
saying?
Mark took a bribe to
m
anufacture test results and he signed his na
m
e to a report he
didn
’
t write. That
’
s healthcare fraud.
W
ho knows how
m
any other ti
m
es he’s done this? Eve
r
y suspect who’s been
arrested
in
this town is going to want to reopen his case
and look into the ba
c
kground of the arresting officer. Every person who ever filed a citize
n
’s co
m
plaint is going to do the sa
m
e. You can shoot the
m
essenger with the bad news or you can get out in front of
this and
m
ake it right.”

“I don
’
t believe you. You
’
d say anything to
get your contract back. It
’
s not going to happen, not on
m
y watch.“

“I’m
reporting fraud and
m
i
sconduct that is a direct threat to the public interest. In case you don’t know, I’m
protected by the whistle
blower law. Any retaliation, loss of inco
m
e, or da
m
age to my professional reputat
i
on is your responsibility.” By now I
’
ve got the law co
mm
itted to
m
e
mory.

“You’re a contractor, the whistle
blower law doesn’t apply to you.”

“Maybe so, but by the ti
m
e a court decides whether or not to hear
m
y case, I will have blown my little whistle all o
v
er town. I don’t want to do this, but I will if you force
m
e.”

A
s
m
all
m
uscle in his chin
m
oves up and down, tightening the corners of his mouth.

“I’m
giving you an option,” I say. “You’re a victi
m. Y
ou
t
rusted Mark, just like I did.
W
ork with
m
e on this. If you fight
m
e, we’ll both lose.”

He bends over and looks at his watch. “I need ti
m
e to think ab
o
ut this
.
”

“I don’t have any ti
m
e. Mark lied, knowingly, purposively. He put Ben in a treacherous situation,
pl
aced your o
f
ficers in
je
o
pardy, put t
h
e depart
m
ent’s reputati
o
n on the line and put you at risk for a slew
of lawsuits.” A
m
uscle beneath his left eye twitches once, then twice. “You and I
m
ade
m
i
stakes, so did Eddie, none of us are without bla
m
e, but for God’s sake, we didn’t do it intentionally.
W
e
certainly didn’t do it for
m
oney. Can’t you see the difference
?
”

“So what you
’
re saying is that if I g
i
ve you back your contract, you
’
ll drop this? And if I don’t, you
’
ll go to the press?”

“I ju
s
t want the chance to
m
ake things right again.”

“That
’
s black
m
ail.” He scoops his
w
atch off the desk, slips it over his wrist and snaps the clasp closed. “And extortion. You
’
re
lucky I don
’
t arrest you on the spot. If you co
m
e back into this
b
uilding again,
I will.
Am
I
m
aking
m
yself cle
ar
?
”

“You can
’
t do that. It
’
s a public building.”

“Try
m
e,” he says.

I go back to my office. Gary’s working downstairs, although he’s not particularly friendly these days. I
m
i
ght as well enjoy the sun
s
et of my career among
the trappings of
m
y profession – books, diplo
m
as and
l
eather furniture that still s
m
ells like the inside of a new car.

There is a soft knock at my door. I
get up from
my chair as the door opens slowly. The lovely Melinda stands in the
door
w
ay, her sto
m
ach rounding with new life. She is ethereally beautiful as though created from
a
m
edieval wall tapestry, long, slender ar
m
s and legs, glossy light brown hair that
sheets down to her shoulders.
T
here are s
m
all drops of sweat on her forehead and upper lip. She leans with one hand against the door fr
a
m
e. The other holds a canvas tote bag.

“I’m
not so good at stairs these days,” she says. She is breathing hard. “May I co
m
e in? I
n
eed to
s
it d
o
wn.”

She goes im
m
ed
i
ately to the c
o
uch, settling
heavily into
the low seat. I
o
ffer her a glass of water which s
h
e accepts. She pulls a ti
s
s
u
e from
the holder, folds it carefully and puts the glass down on
top of
it. She is wearing a
m
ater
n
ity
d
re
s
s with long flowing slee
v
es, rose c
o
l
o
red with purple and green accents. She lifts her
h
air and blots the
back of her neck with a
n
other
tiss
u
e, finding little
pieces
of b
u
siness to fill the ti
m
e wh
i
le she figures out how to start w
h
atever she’s come here to say. I hadn’t noticed before that her eyes are so green or
that she is so truly
b
eautiful. I never stood a chance.

“I wanted to talk to you
earlier, but I was afraid. God, this is so uncomfortable. I really don’t know what to say. I want to apo
l
ogize and then I don’t.
I didn’t intend for Mark and me to fall in love, but I don’t want
to take back what happened. I just wish we hadn’t caused you so
m
u
ch suffering.”