Taylor Made Owens (23 page)

“What did you want to talk about, Kristen?” Judy asked.

“I wanted to say, I know you never liked Bobby, and I guess you were right. I’m sorry I doubted you. You were trying to help me, trying to be a friend, and I dismissed you time and time again.”

The one thing Kristen couldn’t figure out was why Judy was hell-bent on getting Robert out of the picture all along.
If I married Bobby, Dominic would be available for her
, she reasoned.
So why did she keep pushing for me to choose Dominic? Maybe early on, before she fell in love with Dominic, she was rooting for me to choose him. Later when she was in love, maybe …

It didn’t make sense. Still, it should be easy enough to determine if she loved him now.

“You didn’t believe what Owens said about me in the courtroom, did you?” said Judy.

“No, of course not. He was desperate; he would’ve said anything at the time. His lawyer would’ve pursued it if it were true. It didn’t make sense anyway. It would mean you and Dominic … No, you’re not his type.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, nothing bad. He said one time … never mind. It’s not important.”

“What did he say? Kristen, tell me,” Judy ordered.

“Don’t get upset, okay?” Kristen said. Judy nodded with nervous eyes. “He said he thought you were kind of cute, but … no, it’ll hurt your feelings.”

“Tell me!” Judy insisted.

“He said he couldn’t stand you. I’m sorry, Judy.”

Tears formed in Judy’s eyes. She turned away from Kristen in an effort to hide them. A few seconds later she turned and yelled, “You’re lying. He would never say that!”

“Why are you so upset, Judy? Bobby was right, wasn’t he?” Kristen challenged. “You do love Dominic! It’s obvious. How could you? You betrayed Jeremy, Bobby and me.” Judy said nothing as her tears flowed. “You set Bobby up. You put the jewels and the cocaine in his pocket, didn’t you? And Dominic put you up to it, didn’t he?”

Judy got up and walked toward the front door. Bill, getting anxious, switched cameras to view the front hall.

“Judy, admit it!” Kristen demanded as she followed.

Judy opened the front door and walked out, with Kristen following. Bill switched to the outside camera showing the front door, but it wasn’t working. It had been a few moments earlier, he knew. This alarmed the inspector.

As Kristen walked out, she was collared by a man who put a chokehold around her. While the assailant choked Kristen, Judy walked away.

With the villain finishing Kristen off, Bill smashed him on the skull with his revolver, sending him sprawling. Kristen awoke in her concerned father’s arms. “Are you okay, honey? I’m sorry I let him hurt you.”

“I’m all right, Daddy,” she squeaked. “Don’t let her get away.” Judy had just started her car and was peeling out. Bill looked at his daughter, worried about leaving her alone. “Get that witch. He’s out cold, Dad. I’ll be okay.”

He put handcuffs on the man, told Kristen to lock herself in the house, radioed for help, ran to his car, and took off after Judy. A brief car chase ensued that would have made a lousy movie scene. The inspector nudged her off the road and into a ditch not three miles from the Solano residence. He placed her under arrest.

At the police station, Judy wasn’t cooperating. She managed to get a hold of Dominic’s lawyer, who came to the station and shut off any effective inquisition.

“You’re in real trouble, Ms Gilmour,” the prosecutor informed her. “You’ve been charged with attempted murder, planting evidence, possession of cocaine—”

“You have no evidence—” Judy started to say until her lawyer cut in.

“We have nothing to say at this point,” he said. “May I have a moment with my client?” he asked the prosecutor, the same man who’d convicted Robert. He consented and left the room, going to the observation booth to join Bill. Whispering to Judy, the lawyer told her he’d been in touch with Dominic, and had his marching orders. “They have no evidence for any charge except the most serious one. It’ll be difficult to beat the attempted murder charge. The vagrant you hired is talking.”

“I’m not taking all the blame for this mess myself,” Judy warned with volume.

“Please, Ms Gilmour, keep your voice down,” cautioned the lawyer. “Mr. Solano has asked me to represent you to the best of my ability, and I will. You must agree not to implicate him, and I will minimize the time you have to serve.”

“Serve time?” Judy said. “Get me off or I’ll talk to the police!”

“Ms Gilmour, understand this,” he whispered forcefully. “You tried to have someone murdered. You were caught red-handed. They have the person who attempted the murder, and the person he tried to murder pointing the finger at you. This had nothing to do with Mr. Solano.”

“It had everything to do with him. I did everything for us.” She waved to the one-way glass, asking the prosecutor to return.

“Ms Gilmour, I strongly advise against—”

“Shut up, ass!” she said. She knew now that Dominic planned to abandon her. As the prosecutor entered, followed by Bill, Judy claimed, “Dominic Solano put me up to it. He called me and asked me to put that stuff in Owens’s pockets.”

“Ms Gilmour!” the disgruntled lawyer roared.

“Keep quiet, sir. She has elected to speak to us,” said the prosecutor.

Judy continued, “He could tell Kristen still loved that asshole, even after she caught him with the prostitute Dominic hired, and wanted him out of the way. I didn’t want to do it. With Owens in jail, Kristen would be free to marry Dominic. Dominic told me he loved me, and it would all work out between us.

“‘How?’ I asked. ‘Just let her marry Owens, and I can marry you.’

“He said, ‘Trust me. It’s obvious Kristen is going to back out of the engagement, which is fine because I love you,’ he told me, ‘but I just can’t stand the thought that Owens will end up with her. I know you hate the thought of them being happy, too. Do this and both of them will be miserable. You’ll do this for me if you love me. I swear to you we’ll be together.’

“So I did it, hoping I could trust Dominic to keep his word. I called Owens to tell him Kristen wanted to see him.

“He didn’t trust me, of course, but I said I was doing it for Kristen, not him. Since the bum didn’t have a car, I even drove him to see her, again telling him I was doing it for Kristen. He put his jacket in between the seats. When his head was turned, I put the stuff into his jacket pocket. He just walked up to the house with his jacket folded over his arm.”

The prosecutor looked at Bill and shook his head. They had sent an innocent man to jail, they knew. “Did Solano put you up to murdering Miss Taylor?” he asked Judy.

“No. I know he lied to me. He lies to everyone. He has no intention of giving up Kristen for me. That’s why she had to go. Can I plea bargain or something to get off?”

“I’m afraid you won’t get away scot-free with attempted murder,” the prosecutor told her. “If you will agree to testify against Mr. Solano, we’ll drop the charges against you for framing Mr. Owens.”

“Not good enough!” Judy proclaimed.

But the prosecutor refused to compromise more. Ultimately, Judy was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Dominic was charged with various offences relating to the frame-up and cocaine possession. Kristen broke off the engagement as soon as Dominic had been charged. For those who may have been rooting for him, take heart, for his expensive lawyers got him off without his serving a minute of time behind bars.

W
e’ve been perpetrating atrocities on each other for so long, it’s a wonder they retain the power to appall us. The depths to which man can descend seem beyond belief. Yet, in responding to the outrages, man also demonstrates the heights to which he can ascend, sacrificing his own life if necessary to protect the innocent and defenseless. That is even harder to believe, for the perpetrators usually have something to gain personally through the violence—power or wealth—whereas those who fight against them have everything to lose personally. What could be more worthy of our respect?

W
hen Kristen and her father solved the case, she had to get in to see Robert to tell him the good news and to try to repair their damaged relationship. In the interim—wouldn’t you know it?—something had happened to change everything.

Robert received a visit from that special recruiter for the American Army he had met a few months earlier, a Major Lalonde. He remained an ideal candidate for the elite forces: a genius, a superb athlete, and no living relatives to mourn should he come home in a box or two. But now their offer was cogent.

“The judge has given me the green light to offer you a deal to get you out of here. I made the case that since you’re American, we could take you off his hands and save the Canadian taxpayer a lot of money. I gave him assurances you would be closely supervised and punished for any transgressions, and that we would give you the discipline you so badly need. He said he would leave the decision up to you; join us or go to prison.”

“How long would I have to join for?” asked the forlorn young man.

“Six years, plus two more in the reserves.”

“That’s too long. I can still maybe be a baseball player. I don’t want to give up that possibility. I doubt my sentence would be more than two years.”

“It could be much longer. Are you willing to take that risk? And, with a record, major league baseball is out. You couldn’t freely cross the border.”

“I’m a dual citizen. Neither country can keep me out.”

“We know it was you who broke into our secret files. We could charge you with espionage.”

“I don’t respond well to threats. You have nothing on me.”

“Are you sure of that? We’ve been watching you since you hacked into our computer system, Mr. Owens. We know what you were planning with the bank.” Robert returned a look of shock. “An undercover police officer gave you the lead and the computer. We had it rigged so we could follow everything you were doing. You were close last October. Why did you stop?”

“My girlfr … former girlfriend stopped me.”

“And why did you stop last week?”

“My parents and little sister stopped me.”

“They’re dead.”

“Yeah, spooky, eh?”

“I won’t pretend to understand that. Anyway, had you gone through with it, you’d be facing a decade in prison. I’m sure the judge wouldn’t have considered our offer for such a serious crime. It was all a ruse. The bank allowed us to set up the sting. Still, it was very impressive work, Mr. Owens, and we want you. This is a great offer, son. I’d take it if I were you.”

“Would I be doing computer work? Because I don’t like sitting at a computer all day.”

“You’d be a soldier first, and a computer expert second. You ever hear of Delta Force?” Robert nodded. “Finding top-notch soldiers for Delta squadrons is a full-time job—my full-time job. There are a few easy-to-meet entrance criteria, like fifty months as a soldier, minimum age of twenty-two, and minimum rank of staff sergeant, but they just get you in the door. Then you have to pass an incredibly arduous selection course. So few men do that we sometimes have to relax our selection criteria to get the types of expertise we need to combat some of the newer terrorist threats that face our nation.

“Let me put it this way: if there’s another computer genius who’s also a top-notch athlete in the country, I haven’t heard of him. We’re desperately short of talents like yours, and we’ll go to great lengths to find them, like take a chance on a young delinquent. You’d have to prove yourself as a regular soldier for a year, then pass the selection course. If you do, we’d make you a staff sergeant far before you’ve earned your stripes and make you the youngest Delta operator ever.”

“How often do these soldiers go into battle?”

“Often, and assignments can get dangerous. These are front-line soldiers who take on critical missions when needed. You can really make a difference doing this. Delta Force is the best in the world.”

“Is there no option for less time? Maybe three years?”

“No. Training alone is six months; more if we select you for further training in certain languages or other military specialties.”

“Can I think about it … never mind. Where do I sign?”

And just like that, Robert is in the American Army. Imagine Kristen’s shock and dismay upon being clobbered with this bombshell when she went to greet Robert with the news of his impending release. More crying and self-recrimination ensued, but let us gloss over that. Though we may skip atop the Sea of Maudlin from time to time in the telling of this tale, may we never get inundated. Had she got to him in time, made up with him and married him, our story would come to a premature end (because everyone knows when people get married they live happily ever after), robbing us of the thrills, horrors, and delights that follow. Well, then, we course along.

Kristen tried to find out where he was, but, as one can well imagine, this business is cloaked in secrecy. Her father managed to learn that Robert had joined the U.S. Army.

“He’s been tagged for some kind of elite fighting outfit called Delta Force,” he told Kristen. “But my friend would tell me nothing more, except to say that they obsess about secrecy, so I should stop asking.”

On October 2
^nd
, the day appointed for Kristen’s wedding, Robert sat on his bed, jaded after a grueling nineteen-hour day in basic training. He ruminated about the finality of the event and, oddly, because he felt only indignation for her at that time, he began to weep. Robert was in a state of disbelief.

How could she marry that bastard? How could she betray me? I should be playing baseball now, but look at me sitting on a crappy bed in the goddamn army!
He shuddered with fury.
She’s with him now in bed on her wedding night. Christ, I can’t stand it!

On October 2
^nd
, the date of their first kiss, and the day she’d set for marrying Dominic, Kristen, too, reflected sadly on their ruined relationship.
Does he believe I’m married to that criminal now? What must he think of me?
Time and tears had purged her pain and anger over his cheating, although she still cringed when she recollected the lurid scene. Now dominating her emotions was an insufferable regret: regret that her testimony was pivotal in his conviction, and ten times worse, regret over having rejected his proposal. Had she accepted his hand, not only would he be free, they’d be together. Forever! Never had heaven or earth witnessed such a costly error, she thought.