Rohn Federbush - Sally Bianco 01 - The Legitimate Way (13 page)

“Good. Do it.”

“I’ll call you in the morning.”

“If you can’t get a hold of me, keep dialing until you talk to someone. Traveling is very tricky for alcoholics.”

Kansas City, Hyatt

First Wednesday in October

Two days later, Sally’s only contact with an AA member was a conversation with a con-man who insisted on visiting her. Well conversant with AA traditions, Sally never gave him her location and repeatedly asked for the telephone number of a woman. Whoever was running the city’s hotline needed to police the people answering their phones. When she failed to reach Grace Wednesday morning, she asked the concierge if he knew where an AA meeting was held. After her third call to three different people in the lobby, the manager showed up at her door. “Is there a problem?”

Sally wanted to explain how the room’s refrigerator full of tempting liquor should be cleaned out, but her pride refused. “No, no trouble. Thank you.”

Thursday her watch informed her five o’clock in the morning was time to rely on her own resources. She repeated the Serenity Prayer and picked up her AA book to remember how to best approach another Fourth Step confession. In Step Three she re-read, “No adult man or woman…should be in too much emotional dependence upon a parent.”    or friend or mate. Sally knew her grief which included Robert and Danny could cause her to stop loving, or to stop living fully. Renewed with God’s grace, she closed her book and faced the day.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Napping in her hotel room after another long drive from Harriett’s home, Sally felt completely exhausted by the four youngsters’ antics. She loved being with the children but her sixty-five years announced themselves in every aching joint and tired muscle in her body. She thought she might have gained ten pounds from Harriett’s cooking, too.

John called her hotel room. “We have the evidence. You sounded sleepy when you answered. Do you want to come down to the lobby? Sam’s here, too.”

“I’ll be right down.” Sally forgot to hang up the phone. She threw the handset on the bed as she strolled toward the door.

Rat poison was still traceable in the corpse of Ricco Cardonè’s second wife, Anna. John explained, “The coroner’s report says the symptoms mimicked a heart attack. Ricco didn’t ask for an autopsy, so his young wife was buried quickly without a fuss.”

“Thankfully, he didn’t think about cremation.” Sam re-gathered the documents.

Sally felt relieved, energetic even. “Did they wire the results to Judge Wilcox?”

“We did and I called Andrew. Judge Wilcox recused himself from the case. Judge Kevin Lovejoy will be the presiding judge. I think Sam and I should fly back tonight. Would you mind going back with Mary Jo and Sylvester?”

“No, no. We need to proceed as quickly as we can. Mary Jo deserves her freedom from her creepy husband’s threat.”

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Independence, Missou
ri

Sally thought Harriett would welcome the news, but, of course, the wound was re-opened.

“He did it,” was all Sally needed to say.

“Take the children outside.” Harriett turned her face to the wall in the kitchen.

“Come along.” Mary Jo directed the children. “We need to try out these kites while the sun is going down.”

Sylvester tried unsuccessfully to herd the children into the living room. “The winds always pick up as they chase the sun.”

“The winds chase the sun down?” Martin’s bright eyes of wonder kept him nailed to the floor in the kitchen.

Susan hefted him onto her young hip, “Would Aunt Mary Jo’s friend lie to you?”

Melvin held the outside door of the living room open for Sarah’s exit to the front lawn. “He’s telling a story, Martin. Stories don’t need to be true.”

When all was quiet in the house, Sally touched Harriett’s shoulder. “Sit a moment, Harriett.”

“I knew he killed her.” Harriett slumped into the nearest kitchen chair. “Anna was my maid-of-honor. Ricco always made eyes at her. When I divorced him for terrorizing me, she wouldn’t believe how evil he was. He never hit me, just yelled at me when I didn’t jump fast enough, or forgot to ask how high.”

“I’m sure Anna learned her mistake quickly enough.” Sally said, but needed to ask. “Why did she keep having his children?”

“I suspect some of them were the product of rapes.” Harriett’s face was wet with tears. “Hand me a dish towel.”

Sally complied. “Did you try to talk to Anna after Ricco attacked her?”

“Yeah, but he could act like a repentant angel, whenever he had a mind to.”

“She thought he loved her?”

“Worse,” Harriett re-wiped tears away. “I’m sure she loved Ricco.”

“How did you get custody of the children?” Sally asked.

“Ricco brought them over one day after the funeral with hardly any clothes, no toys.” Harriett stood and went to the stove to stir a pot of savory soup. “I never saw him again. I don’t remember him saying more than three words to me, not even, ‘Take care of them.’”

“Did the state help?”

“No, but my church helps out when I ask.”

“We need to put the children in your hands.”

“No. Mary Jo has asked to adopt them. I know she loves them and she says I will always be at their side. They need a younger mother.”

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Airplane to Detroit

Second Friday in October

John and Sam had returned to Ann Arbor earlier than Sally. On their plane to Detroit, Sylvester sat between Sally and Mary Jo. Sally asked for the aisle seat for the same reason most elderly people do. Bladders do not appreciate pressure changes. Mary Jo snuggled into the window seat. Once they were airborne, canceling out the possibility Mary Jo might jump ship, Sylvester kissed her hand. “Will you marry me? I would love to have a ready-made family to work for.”

Mary Jo looked across Sylvester’s big chest to Sally. Sally shrugged her shoulders. Sylvester was a nice young man, but Mary Jo might want to sample single life.

Mary Jo whispered, “Sylvester, do you think you love me?”

“I know I do. And Mrs. Bianco will testify I would never lay a hand in anger on you, or the children.”

Sally nodded. Her ready tongue could think of nothing to say. Where was wisdom when she needed her?

“I know you’re a decent man. But, my divorce isn’t final. You’re willing to adopt Ricco’s children?”

“You are a woman with foresight. You’ve gone through hell through no fault of your own. I see how those kids love you. I want to be around you the rest of my life.” Sylvester’s voice was rising with the panic of perceived rejection. “I’m surprised how I feel around those kids. I think I could make a difference in their lives. Love them; teach them how to live right.” Sylvester took a breath.

“I accept,” Mary Jo said. Sylvester broke down and cried, right there on the plane. Sally didn’t think the boy possessed such a soft or generous heart. She patted Sylvester’s big shoulder, as she watched the stewardess approach. Mary Jo was stroking Sylvester’s hand, repeating in a soothing voice, “It’s okay to cry. I love you. It’s okay to cry.”

The stewardess stopped at their row of seats. “Anything the matter here?”

Sylvester straightened up his emotions. “Sorry, no thank you. This lady just agreed to marry me.”

“Oh.” The flight attendant left them in peace. “Tears of joy.”

“Call your mother,” Sally said. “She’ll want to know.”

“I don’t want you to think the story I’m going to tell you influenced me, Mary Jo; but I can’t very well share it with Mother.” Sylvester breathed deeply, as if he were submerging into a deep, black sea. “My sergeant told me a story which happened back in the seventies. This woman they rescued from her husband refused to prosecute. She was all beat up, bloodied from head to foot. Of course, back then the district attorney didn’t proceed, because wife-abuse wasn’t considered a crime against the state. Anyway, the woman, I think her name was Rose, insisted on going back to her horse farm. Apparently, the property was willed to her by her father. The very next night, she called 911.”

Sally leaned over to see how Mary Jo was taking the news. Mary Jo was shaking her head in the negative mode, expecting the worse.

Sylvester corrected the misinterpretation. “Rose didn’t have a mark on her, but we called the ambulance to save her husband.” Sally hooted. Sylvester shook his head at her. “Rose tied the guy to the bed by sewing the sheets to the mattress after he went to sleep…drunk and repentant, according to her. Then she got a baseball bat and beat the poor sucker.”

“Did he die?” Mary Jo asked.

“No. She didn’t hit him in the head. She didn’t want to kill him. She wanted to make him suffer. But he went into shock. He was barely breathing. She broke both his legs, his arms, and three ribs.”

“Mercy,” Mary Jo said.

“Violence begets violence,” Sylvester said.

“Amen.” Sally remembered being kicked off the women’s shelter volunteer list for advocating such behavior.

“She plea-bargained for imprisonment for the mentally ill.”

Sally matched Sylvester’s story. “When I worked for the shelter in
Jackson, before they asked me to leave, they invited the district attorney to explain the movie about the woman in Marshall. Remember ‘The Burning Bed,’ the movie with Farrah Fawcett? The attorney mentioned a case which preceded the Marshall one and involved a husband in Jackson. Seems this degenerate guy found a crowbar to smash an eighty-year-old neighbor lady’s legs for chatting with his wife. Then he went after his wife. Both women survived as paraplegics. The dumb judge sentenced the guy man with the words, “I hope the time in jail doesn’t ruin your life.”

“At least the state changed the law,” Mary Jo said.

“Now if we could just change the men.” Sylvester squirmed in his seat.

Sally thought, for the first time, Mary Jo made the right decision in accepting Sylvester’s proposal. The children would benefit from gentle fathering and faithful mothering. Hopefully, any remembrance of their biological father’s actions against their mother and their pets would be left to the realm of dwindling nightmares.

Her AA sponsor’s third-step words from the morning’s successful telephone call haunted Sally. Was she “a far cry from permanent sobriety and a contented, useful life?”

Were her plans of starting a detective agency with John and Sam part of the Lord’s will for her? In a world of real inequalities, could she help balance the scales? Would John want to stick around
Ann Arbor long enough to establish the business? Maybe they would eventually drive back to Illinois for his dog Ginger and an engagement bash. The next few days would be filled with Ricco’s trial for murdering Anna. Time enough to delve into John’s idea of their future together.

John might not be surprised. He knew she enjoyed searching for the truth. What sorts of cases should they work on? Most people were not as lucky as Robert Koelz in attracting a host of dedicated friends. Helping Robert clear his name would have felt more satisfying if Robert was alive to enjoy it. John’s cool logic and her intuitional bent could add significantly to the Tedler Brothers agency.

She would give all the love she was capable of to John, who saw her through the difficult time of losing her best friend. Great men seldom pass by in life and she knew Robert would approve of John.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Washtenaw County Court House, Ann Arbor,

Fourth Monday in October

Jimmy Walker, the district attorney, asked the Tedler Brother’s agency to investigate the backgrounds of the list of potential jurors. Sally was thankful she could follow the proceedings closely. Sam, John and she sat at the prosecutor’s table with Jimmy. The thirty file folders stacked alphabetically on the table were the result of two weeks’ worth of background checks. Andrew Sites and Judge Wilcox were also advisors to the DA.

The courtroom assigned for the trial was a small, rectangular paneled room. The prospective jurors were seated in the audience section. Judge Lovejoy’s high bench with the witness docket attached was on the right side of the room. Windows behind the judge faced the empty tiered jury box. In the arrangement the judge did not face the lawyers’ tables. The intimidating set up re-emphasized the power positions of the judge and the jury over the rights of the accused.

Ricco and his young attorney occupied the chairs behind the defense’s table.

As the prospective jurors’ names were called, they proceeded one by one to the jury box where the lawyers took a crack at their eligibility as one of twelve citizens capable of fair and impartial discernment of Ricco’s innocence or guilt.

The first, an older man dressed for a day at the office, but with an orange sweater instead of a suit coat, answered the prosecutor’s question clearly enough. “No one in my family has had cause to be arrested.” He hesitated and then added, “My brother’s wife is a lawyer in Milwaukee.”

Jimmy nodded his head. “Acceptable.” The defense attorney agreed.

Judge Lovejoy excused an overweight, possibly pregnant young woman because she admitted, “My brother-in-law is serving time in Milan.”

Thoughts of the imperfect genetic structure of a child with criminals in its lineage who was about to grace the world with its tainted soul worried Sally for a few moments. She prayed the mother’s love would cancel out any other negative input. Then, the secretary of the city clerk’s
office was excused because most of the lawyers and judges recognized her.