Beneath the Cracks (44 page)

"The bitch."

"I think you should stop referring to her
that way, Eddie, unless of course, you're prepared to muddle
through this on your own?"

"I ain't prepared for jack."

"Very well."

"If I'm flying so low I'm off their radar,"
Franchetta paused and frowned, "how the hell will you find
me?  How did you find me this time?  Nobody has this
phone number. 
Nobody
.  Christ, I'm already
screwed, aren't I?"

"Of course not.  Do you honestly think
that the bureau has any idea that I know what I know after all this
time I've been out of circulation?  I assure you, they do
not.  But, I can contact you even if you're in custody, Eddie,
though it would be my distinct preference to see that you continue
to evade capture."

"And that's the thing that just don't gibe,
Eriksson.  Seems to me like you got a vested interest in
seein' me rot right along with Sully.  It never was your MO to
let any of us slip through the cracks.  If lady justice didn't
get us, Eriksson would.  Isn't that the way it went?"

"Ordinarily yes," he said coldly.  "But
when Helen's future is at stake?  Well, Mr. Franchetta, even I
will make a deal with the devil to protect what belongs to me."

Eddie lit another cigarette and dragged
deeply.  "So, the feds scoop me up and you can still get word
to me, huh?"

"Yes, certainly."

"And how will I know this go-between is
really from you?"

"Because, Mr. Franchetta, Helen was not my
only connection in the FBI."

"You mean a fuckin' agent is gonna...will
help you get your kid outta hot water for a murder she
committed?"

"That's precisely what I'm telling
you.  When one of them tells you that he wishes to discuss the
merchandise, be prepared to receive my message.  Now, unless
I'm mistaken, you should probably be searching for another
convenient little hidey-hole where you can continue to evade. 
Yes?"

"Fuck," Franchetta muttered.

The deafening silence of a broken connection
gave the man pause, but not enough to reconsider the path they'd
taken, the incalculable risks, the potential for mistakes and
unforeseen players impacting the game.  He smiled. 

Orion's visit to Attica was unexpected, but
ultimately useful.  Hell, as paranoid as the Eriksson bitch
was, it might send her into hiding too, should she ever find out
what really happened.  Then again, Kim Jackson's ineffective
bullet would no doubt slow her down long enough for her to cause
more problems in Darkwater Bay.  And that was
precisely
the risk none of them were willing to take.  She'd done too
much already by completely exposing Jerry Lowe's incompetence, not
to mention his crimes.  There were much better uses for young
girls after all.

He picked up the phone and dialed
again. 

"Yes?"

"Good evening, sir.  Just wanted to let
you know that all is going according to plan with Franchetta. 
He offered a couple of interesting options for the Hamilton murder
that I thought you should be aware of sooner rather than
later."

The leather chair creaked softly. 
"Oh?"

"He could recant of course, claim that he
wasn't there, that he was bluffing."

"Not when the FBI thinks they have the
actual murder weapon.  Do we know if they do or not?  Did
Franchetta admit that he lied to your friend when you spoke
last?"

"He swears that he told me the truth, and
it's one hundred percent consistent with what he told me and
Seleeby when we met with him."

The chuckle was cold and calculated. 
"And he hasn't figured out that you were the one that Mark took
with him to make this little devil's deal to get Eriksson out of
Darkwater Bay, out of our hair?"

The man snorted softly.  "He thinks I'm
Wendell Eriksson, which is insulting enough, but no, he never heard
my voice at that time.  It'll be soon enough when my peers
find his ass and I tell him how we're going to proceed with all of
this."

"You mentioned other options beyond
recanting his eyewitness testimony.  What were they?"

"That Marcos ordered the hit, for one," with
a disdainful chuckle.  "Though it has merit.  Franchetta
is suggesting that he could've witnessed some other hitter in
Sully's service who did the job.  I'm looking at the file
right now, sir.  Seleeby didn't even look at anyone other than
Helen Eriksson for this. "

"Interesting.  So if this recently
discovered gun is the weapon, this other assassin might've kept it
to use as leverage with Eriksson when the bureau inevitably
considered her a suspect.  Plausible.  Is that
everything?"

"He could always confess, turn state's
against Sully and cut a sweetheart deal.  Do you need time to
consider or do you have another idea?"

"Orion's visit to Attica disturbs me," he
said with a sigh of resignation.  "You know it'll be used
against someone down the road."

"Likely.  Would you appreciate that
fact coming to light sooner?  I can make it happen."

"What I'd like is for this woman to
fail.  Even once would suffice."

"Sir, she could suffer complications from
that gunshot wound easily enough."

"That won't happen, not with Orion playing
personal bodyguard.  Dammit.  I thought those two would
end up hating each other."

"She'll probably run if she finds out what
Orion did, going to Attica to see Wendell Eriksson."

"That would be optimal, but unfeasible, at
least for the next few months."

"She could get out of that contract with
Downey Division, sir, and you know it."

"Curse Jackson for his faulty aim."

"I had the same thought," he muttered.

"We'll have to sit tight and see what
happens.  Maybe Franchetta stays off the grid.  Maybe
Eriksson leaves Darkwater Bay in complete ignorance and we deal
with her as originally planned.  Only time will tell, my
friend.  In the meantime, we wait.  We watch.  We
keep our eyes and ears open, but most important; we carry on
business as usual."

"And what about Datello?  Do we let her
go after him?"

"As you know, it neither hurts nor helps us
either way on that point.  Let's hold off for the time being,
see how things shake out back east before we commit to action in
Darkwater Bay.  But in the meantime, perhaps you ought to
consider talking to the real Wendell Eriksson.  Who
knows?  Maybe he'll tell you why Johnny Orion went to visit
him."

They both knew it wasn't likely. 
Eriksson would never cooperate with the feds.  Still, when the
boss gave an order, his men followed it.

Chapter 39

Johnny leaned against the wall and crossed
arms and ankles. 

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Don't be glib.  You know exactly what
I'm talking about!"  Sweet Jesus, why was he so calm?  My
heart leapt into the back of my throat.  I was certain that
the fist shaped organ must be visibly hammering away in my
neck.  "Where were you last week, Johnny?"

"I'm not having this conversation with you
while you're pissed off and irrational, Doc."  He pushed away
from the wall and disappeared into my bedroom. 

Rage thrummed through me, providing a much
needed infusion of adrenalin that propelled me out of the chair
without an ounce of difficulty.  I stormed after him.  "I
am not irrational and pissed off.  I deserve a goddamned
answer, Johnny!  Who sent the request to the FBI for my
personnel file, specifically the process by which I was vetted for
employment?"

Johnny was in the formerly empty small
walk-in closet.  His fingers sifted through suits too numerous
to count. 

"Get your stuff and get out of my
house!  Who told you that you could move in here anyway?"

"I believe you consented, Helen, when I held
you in the hospital and promised that I wasn't going to leave
you.  Have you forgotten already?"

"And if I insist?"

He shrugged.  "You still need
help."

"I'd rather hire it!"

"Why?  Because I love you enough to get
answers that were never going to come from you?"

My eyes burned with the effort it took to
hold back the tears.  "Why couldn't you just leave it
alone?"

"Because this is eating you alive,
Helen.  I told you long ago.  I know you."

The anger so quick to burn transformed to
panic just as quickly.  I started to hyperventilate. 

"Doc…"

"
Don't
call me that!"

He stepped close.  "I love you."

"And I have the right to remain silent,
right?  Anything I say can and will be used against me –"

"Stop it.  I want you to talk to me
because I love you, not because I want to arrest you."

"You don't mean that.  This is your
job.  You're one of the good guys."

"Thanks, I think," he muttered. 
"Somehow I get the feeling you didn't mean that in a complimentary
way."

I dashed away the few tears that escaped the
floodgate with my right hand.  "What did you do, Johnny?"

"You had a problem.  I took care of
it."

"Jesus," I rasped.  "Are you really
that stupid?  Do you believe I'm that stupid?"

"I don't know what to think, Helen. 
You won't trust me enough to tell me the truth."

"You already know it!" I screamed at
him.  The tears were coming faster than I could wipe them away
with one hand.  Why had he done such a stupid thing?  No
one saw what I did to Rick.  David was right about that –
Eddie Franchetta would've been such an impeachable witness, no
prosecutor would've acted on his testimony alone.

Johnny cupped my chin and lifted it. 
"No, Helen.  I don't know what you did.  I know what I
think
happened.  I certainly know what Rick did to
you.  And I have to tell you, I wasn't particularly impressed
with the vetting process the bureau used when they hired you."

My chest felt like it was being squeezed in
a vice…until Johnny's words sunk in a little bit. 
I
certainly know what Rick did to you
. 

But how much did he know?

"What do you mean you know what he did to
me, you don't approve of the vetting process?  What makes you
qualified to judge –"

"It took me all of six hours to find out
that Rick Hamilton's birth mother was Danny Datello's aunt on the
paternal side of the family.  The bureau didn't even discover
that he was adopted by the people who I'm sure you believed were
his parents too."

My mind started racing.  "How did you
find out?"

Johnny shrugged.  "When your ex was
fourteen years old, his adoptive parents applied for a new social
security number for him in California.  The old one was issued
shortly after he was born.  I found it.  Did he tell you
he actually lived in Darkwater Bay when he was born?"

I could work with this.  Maybe. 
How much did Johnny know about Rick's murder?  I turned around
and left the closet.  He'd follow.  Johnny wasn't going
to walk away from me, of that much I was beyond convinced. 
All that remained to be seen was how much of a lie he was willing
to believe.

His hand fell on my right shoulder. 
"Can we sit down and have a rational conversation now?"

Rational.  It hardly described my state
of mind.  Johnny had committed a stupid, rash act, one likely
prompted by my relentless friend Mark Seleeby.  A secret is
only assured to be a secret if only one person knows the
truth.  Dangerous territory stretched out before me. 
Another lie?  A better lie…and then run like hell.  It
could be the answer.

I struggled onto the sofa in the living
room.  Running at all would be difficult in my current state
of handicap.

"Helen," Johnny squatted in front of me,
"please talk to me.  I'm not judging you.  Hell, I broke
the law in a major way, just so you could have a little piece of
mind.  What did Rick Hamilton do to you the night he
died?"

Think, dammit!  Find out what he
knows about the murder
.

First order of business was to stop fighting
the tears.  My throat ached so much from the effort that it
actually felt cathartic to just let go.  The desired effect
was achieved.  Johnny sat beside me and gently pulled me
against his side.

"Oh, honey.  Don't you know how much it
kills me to see this tearing you up this way?  You've got to
get it off your chest."

"I – I met with him that night," I sobbed,
all the while reminding myself that there
were
no witnesses
to the crime.  I could say what I wanted and it couldn't be
proved or disproved.  The only facts married to my words were
those contained in the report of Rick's death.  I closed my
eyes and relived the moment.

Rick, in that tiny clearing, taunting me
with the truth after I refused to help protect him from
Marcos.  Somebody embezzled the tycoon's money, and Rick knew
Sully suspected him.  After all, the legal fees were starting
to mount.  Some guy from Marcos' crew was following him. 
He was certain of it.

I on the other hand, smelled bullshit when
it was under my nose.  If Sully was having Rick followed, the
bureau would've known about it.  He'd have been scooped up in
a heartbeat and offered another deal.  That hadn't
happened.

Light kisses rained down on my head. 
"Tell me what happened, Helen."

"He wanted me to help him by destroying the
evidence the FBI had against him."

"I see.  You refused of course."

"Yes.  I – there was no way I was
lifting a finger to help him, Johnny."

"Did you argue?  Did he threaten
you?"

Ah, Johnny, thank you.
  "Yes…"
slowly, and then, "he told me that he'd make sure I went down with
him if I wouldn't help.  He said he'd tell the FBI that I knew
who he was all along."  A little bit of truth leeched into my
story.