To Kill a President (26 page)

She looked shocked.  “Who are you?”

“Sorry again my name is David Lewis I’m a doctor at Parkland Hospital. I assure you I will not take up much of your time.  If you could just tell me what happened I would be very grateful.”

“Okay you had better come inside.”  She stepped back from the doorway and David went passed her into a narrow hallway.  She gestured for him to enter a small living room with two couches both of which were bright red.  “Would you like a coffee?”

“That would be lovely thank you Miss Odio.”

“Call me Silvia.” She replied with a smile.  When she returned with two cups of coffee, David took a sip and began.

“So Silvia as I was saying I am here with regards to President Kennedy’s upcoming visit to Dallas.  I was informed that you may have had some visitors recently regarding this?”

“Informed by whom?”

“A friend of a man named Lee Harvey Oswald, does that name ring a bell with you?”

“Well I met a man named Leon Oswald he and two other men came to visit me towards the end of September.”

“Why did they come to see you Silvia?”

“Because I am one of the founders of Junta Revolutionaria, they thought they may be able to help me.”

“Junta Revolutionaria?”  David enquired.

“It’s an Anti-Castro group.”

“If you don’t mind me asking Silvia, how did you come to be involved in that?”

Silvia grimaced.  “My father was involved in the attempts to overthrow the Batista regime.  He was close to Castro but disagreed with him on some fundamental issues.  Castro had him arrested.  My sister and I fled to Dallas and I helped to found the group.”

“That must have been very hard for you both.”  David commented he then sipped his coffee.

Silvia nodded and followed suit, once she had had finished she continued.  “It was.  That’s why they came to see me.  They wanted to help overthrow Castro.  There were three of them, Leopoldo and Angelo are both Cuban’s.  They told me they were members of Junta Revolutionaria but I’d never met them before.  The other man was introduced to me as Leon Oswald, they told me that he was willing to assassinate Castro.  But I told them I didn’t want to be a part of any plot to kill him.  Then they left.”

“What did Oswald say?”  David asked.

“Absolutely nothing, he was quiet he seemed quite uncomfortable.”

“And that was it?”

“Well the next day Leopoldo phoned my house.  He told me that Leon was unpredictable, that he was a former marine and an excellent marksman.  He said that Leon criticized Cuban’s for their lack of guts, that we should have killed Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs fiasco.”

“Jesus Christ.”  David muttered.

“So what is this all about?”

“Well Silvia I believe that your visitors may be planning to assassinate the President when he comes to Dallas.”

Silvia gasped loudly.  “I knew it!  But why would they come to me?”

“Well perhaps they wanted your help.”  David suggested.

Silvia considered this for a moment and then replied.  “How could I help them though?  I’m not an assassin, I’m not even anti-Kennedy.”

“Well they probably thought you were considering the Bay of Pigs.”

“But isn’t it strange that Leopoldo called me the following day just to say Leon was an excellent marksman and wanted Kennedy dead.  I mean why tell me that when I’d already said no to helping them?”

David thought before replying he took a sip of his coffee to buy him some time.  “Well perhaps they wanted you to believe it was Oswald that committed the assassination.  Maybe so you could testify against him?”

“But why would they give him up?”

“Possibly so they don’t get the blame.”  David replied.  “Do you have any way of contacting Leopoldo?”

“No I would never have wanted to.  So what are you going to do?  Have you gone to the police?”

“I’m afraid we have tried everything but we are having difficulty in getting anyone to take us seriously.  I guess President’s get a lot of death threats.  We are still going to do our best but it is just myself and three friends.  We aren’t holding out much hope.”

“I’ll help you in any way that I can.”  Silvia stated.

“I appreciate that Silvia.  Do you have a phone number I could have?”  She nodded and grabbed a pen and paper from beside the telephone at the end of the couch she was sat on.  She handed it to David with a smile.  “Thank you.  I will be in touch.”  David rose from the couch and Silvia showed him to the door.

Chapter 55

As Jane and Faraday took their seats at Jim Garrison’s bedside she could not believe how different he looked.  His hair had been slicked back on their previous meeting, it was now spiked up in every direction.  His eyes looked hollow and underneath them were black bags.  In short he looked terrible.

As he studied Jane it seemed to take him a minute to recognize her.  But when he did his eyes seemed to brighten slightly.

“How are you feeling Mr Garrison?”

He seemed to be upset by the question.  “I need to get out of here!  No one will listen to me!  Can you get me out?”

Faraday knew how he felt.  It hadn’t been all that long since he was locked up in a psychiatric ward.  It was Jane that responded.  “I’m sorry Jim I can’t.  I promise we will get Bobby to do what he can after this Kennedy thing has happened.  It’s not right you being locked up in here, did they even give you a trial?”

“No they wanted me silenced, discredited.  They didn’t even charge me with anything.  Some FBI agent came into the room when I was arrested and told me they were going to transfer me here.  He said I was confused and had lost grasp of reality.  My wife thinks I’m nuts.”

Faraday spoke for the first time.  “I know how you feel Jim.  I’ve been in one of these places too.  It is horrible.  No matter what you do they just think you’re crazy because you’re in here.”

Jim nodded.  “Who are you?”

“This is my fiancé James Faraday.”

“Are you from the future too?”

Faraday nodded.

“What happened to your eye?”

“They tried to shut me up too.”  Faraday stated.

“Bastards.  Can you stop them?”  Jim asked.

“We’re trying Jim but we are struggling.  We still don’t know who exactly is involved.  We know the mob and the CIA are in on it, but we don’t know names.  That’s why we’re here we thought you could tell us what happened with Guy Bannister?”

“I didn’t shoot anyone!”  He announced.

“I know that Jim, who did?”  Jane asked.

“It was that bastard Ferrie!  He burst in and shot Jack and Guy!  He must have known what was going on, I have no idea how he found out but he shot Guy right in the throat.  Probably to shut him up.”

“Could the office have been bugged?”  Faraday asked.

“Probably that would make sense.  They must have known Guy was talking and decided to shut him up.  Is he still alive?”

“As far as I know.”  Jane replied.

“Mark my words it won’t be long.  They wanted him dead, Ferrie probably thought he’d done it.  Anyone that knows anything will be silenced, that’s why he shot Jack too.”

“Do you think they’ll come after you?”  Jane asked.

“No they’ve already silenced me.  Who would believe anything I say now?”

“Well after Friday they’ll believe you if we can’t stop them.”  Faraday answered.

“So what did you find out?”  Jane asked.

“Well quite a bit actually.”

“How did you get him to talk?” 

“I managed to procure some truth serum from a friend in the CIA.  They’ve been using it for years during interrogations.” 

“Who’s your friend?  Does he know about this?”

“He was there!  He was in his car across the street, I told him everything he was going to help us.  But then Ferrie killed Jack and shot Bannister.  I haven’t seen him since.”

“So who is he?”  Jane repeated.

“I don’t want to give you his name.  If they find out they’ll kill him too.  They won’t leave any loose ends.  You should both be careful, if they attacked you once they’ll finish the job if you keep going.”

“The thought had occurred to me.”  Faraday responded.

“And you’re both going to keep at this?”

“We have to.”  Jane answered, Faraday was silent.

“And you’re sure?”

“To be honest I think we are already in too deep.  I doubt it would make a difference if we stopped now.  They’d probably still come after us.”  Faraday stated.

“Very well.  As I said I found out quite a lot it’s hard to know where to begin.  I’ll start with Lee Harvey Oswald.  They’re setting him up to take the fall.  He’s a Naval Intelligence Officer and a CIA Agent he thinks he has infiltrated the plot to kill Kennedy and that the CIA are trying to stop it.  Bannister’s role was to ensure that Oswald looks like a lone nut.  That’s why they staged the fight in the street between Carlos Bringuier and Oswald.  It was so he would seem like a Castro fanatic this providing a motive.  That’s probably the only reason they brought him back from Russia.

They’ve been using this CIA agent Gerry Hemming...”

“That’s one of the guys that attacked me!”  Faraday stated.

“Well apparently they’ve been using him to leave a false trail for Oswald.  He visited Mexico City in September and using Oswald’s name tried to get a visa to visit both Cuba and Russia.  He and Oswald are also in possession of a fake selective service card under the name Alek James Hidell.  Gerry has used the name to order a rifle by mail order that they will plant at the School Book Depository.  Oswald was instructed to purchase a pistol by mail order and have it delivered to a PO Box under the Hidell name.  That way he is linked to the rifle that he never bought.  If the assassination is not stopped Oswald is to meet with his CIA handler Billy Beane at the Dallas Theatre.”

“That must be Derrick!  Sorry Jim please go on I didn’t mean to interrupt.”  Faraday said.

“Okay so from what Bannister told me the assassination seems to be a three way thing between the CIA, Mafia and Cuban exiles.  All of the men involved seem to have been involved in a CIA plot to kill Castro called Operation Mongoose.  Apparently the CIA and the Mafia were working on ways of killing Castro discretely by using Cuban exiles.”

“So you said you got the names of some people that were involved?”

“Yeah, I don’t know exactly what their roles are but from the CIA we have Howard Hunt.  From what I can tell he seems to be the one orchestrating the CIA involvement.  Like I said we have Gerry Hemming.  We also have Tosh Plumlee, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, William Harvey and Billy Beane.”

“Frank Sturgis, Howard Hunt and Bernard Barker were involved in Watergate as well.”  Faraday stated.

“Jesus this country is corrupt.”  Jane stated.

“What is Watergate?”  Jim asked again.

“It happens in the future it was a scandal involving Richard Nixon who was the President at the time.  Burglaries and bugging of the Democratic Party head quarters.  He ends up being the only President to ever resign from office.”

“I always knew that guy was corrupt.”  Jim replied.

“So did you find out what their roles are?”

“No I’m afraid not.  I know what David Ferrie’s role is.  He’s a getaway pilot.  Apparently the assassins are to make their way to Houston where he will meet them and get them away from Texas.”

“Is that everything?”  Jane asked.

“I know the position of the shooters.”

“Excellent!”  Jane said.  “Is it the grassy knoll?”

“No it’s the Dal-Tex building.  It’s on the opposite side of Houston Street from the School Book Depository.  Apparently a shooter on the second floor of this building would have a much clearer shot than a shooter from the School Book Depository as there are no trees blocking the shot.”

“Did he mention any other positions?”  Faraday asked.

“No that was it.”  Jim stated.

“Okay thanks Jim.  We had better head back to Dallas.”  Jim’s eyes showed the pain he felt at being left in the hospital, Faraday was first to take notice. 

“Don’t worry Jim we won’t leave you here.  As soon as we can we will start working on getting you home.  I promise.”

“Thank you.  If Kennedy is gunned down they will surely know I was telling the truth, they’ll have to let me go.”  Jim said hopefully.

“Well hopefully we can stop them and still get you out Jim.  We will see you next week at the latest okay?”  Jane added.

“Okay, good luck.”

Once Faraday and Jane had left the room Jim was left alone with his thoughts.  How could two kids and a crippled lawyer stop this assassination?  There’s no chance surely I’ll get out of here on Friday.  After a few moments Jim focused his attention on the view from his window.  The rain was pounding against the glass and the sky was as dark a shade of gray as he had ever seen it.  What he would give to be able to walk in the rain, instead of being locked up in this place.  His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door.  A nurse entered the room and told him.  “The doctor would like to see you now Jim.”