STATE OF BETRAYAL: A Virgil Jones Mystery (Detective Virgil Jones Mystery Series Book 2) (27 page)

32

__________

T
he
medics didn’t want to risk Murton letting go of the artery so he held the wound
all the way to the hospital and right into emergency surgery. The doctor walked
up, placed his hand on top of Murton’s and said, “On three now, nice and slow.
You’re going to open your fingers and let me guide your hand back. Okay? Good.
Here we go. One, two, three…”

__________

Virgil called Sandy,
told her what happened and asked her to get Donatti’s wife, Pam, and their son,
Jonas to the hospital as quickly and safely as they could. He also told her he
was okay and that he loved her and after they hung up he went to check on
Becky.

__________

Sandy ran down to
the willow
tree where the governor and Cora were still speaking with each other. She gave
them both the short version of what had happened and the governor took it from
there.

Three minutes later, Pam Donatti
and her son, the governor, Cora, Rosencrantz, and Sandy piled into the limo and
made it to the hospital in less than twenty minutes, which will happen when you
don’t have to stop for a single red light. The twelve state police motorcycles cops
made sure of that.

__________

Becky would be okay.
She had two very large and swollen black eyes, a split lip and she’d lost two
of her bottom teeth, right in front. They had her sedated and when Virgil and Sandy
found him, Murton was right there by her side, listening to the doctor. “She’ll
recover completely,” the doc said. “The x-rays came back clean and the teeth
shouldn’t be a problem either. They can do things with implants now that are
absolutely amazing. Going to be sore for a few weeks though.” He made a few
notes on a clipboard, nodded to everyone and stepped out of the room. Two
seconds later he stepped back in and said something else to Murton. “From what
I hear that was pretty amazing…what you did to try to save that police
officer’s life. Not too many people would have done that. You should be proud.”

Virgil thought,
try to
?

Down the hall he heard a woman
scream. Sandy said, “Oh, no,” then ran from the room. Virgil looked across
Becky’s hospital bed and watched as Murton closed his eyes and put his head face-down
on the mattress.

__________

Indiana State Police
Major Crimes Unit Detective First Class Edward James Donatti was buried the
following Wednesday. It rained all day and when the service was complete, when
everyone had gone except Pam and Jonas, Sandy walked to the car to wait for
Virgil, who had moved around to the front of the tent. He sat down next to Pam.

“I did this,” she said. “I sent my
husband to his death.”

“You’ve done no such thing. He was
a brave and decent man who never backed down from anything or anyone.” Virgil
didn’t want to be harsh with her, but he did want her to hear the truth. “Don’t
disrespect his memory or the good he did by thinking otherwise.”

“I killed him.”

“That’s simply not true.”

“Virgil…I can’t talk to you right
now. Maybe not ever. Please go away. I’m sorry.”

Virgil didn’t know what to say. He started
to stand but Jonas came over and crawled into his lap. “It’s okay Mr. Virgil,”
he said. “My daddy loved you, so I do too.” Then he threw his arms around
Virgil’s neck and began to cry. When Virgil looked past Ed’s casket he saw
Sandy standing next to her car, her face buried in her hands.

The rain came harder still.

__________

It fell so fast
and the wind blew so hard that even though they were only a mile or so from
home, Virgil had to pull the car over to the side of the road. The clouds had
turned coal-black and the early afternoon sky was as dark as night. Lightning
flashed all around them and the thunder clapped so hard Virgil thought the
windshield might shatter. The wind gusts were so strong Sandy’s car rocked on
its springs. Visibility had been reduced to the point that they could barely
make out the front end of the vehicle. “Are we okay here?” Sandy said.

 “I think so. Storms like
this…they blow over pretty fast.” Just as he said that, the rain stopped and
the visibility improved. Not much, but enough that they could continue driving.
“See? No worries,” Virgil said as he reached for the gear lever.

“Tornado.” Sandy said.

“Nah. Just a strong summer—”

She pointed. “No, Virgil. Tornado!”

Virgil looked where she was pointing
and saw the funnel. It spun out of the cloud base less than half a mile away.
“Ah shit. Come on, out of the car.”

They scrambled out the driver’s
side door, crossed the road and lay down in a culvert that was barely big
enough to hold them both.

Thirty seconds later it was over.
They inched their way out of the culvert, stood up and brushed themselves off,
though the effort itself was futile. They were both covered in mud and bits of
debris. Sandy had a small cut on her forehead. “Here, hold still, you’re
bleeding a little bit,” Virgil said. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“What about the…the…”

She actually laughed at him. “The
baby? Boy, I’m going to have to get you a book. The baby,” she made little air
quotes when she said the word ‘baby,’ “is a little clump of cells that you
might be able to see with a microscope. The ‘baby’ is fine. So am I. Let’s go
home.”

Virgil looked behind her. “Hope you
don’t mind walking. Take a look at your car. That right there is exactly why
you never want to try to ride out a tornado in your vehicle.”

Sandy turned around and discovered
her car had been rolled about a hundred yards into the field on the opposite
side of the road. It was upside down, the windows were smashed out and the hood
was missing.

Sandy shook her head and said,
“Motherfucker.”

Virgil raised his eyebrows at her.
“What?” she said. “I’m a little hormonal.”

__________

No matter the
circumstances
of the past week, or even the past few hours, Virgil and Sandy had what could
only be described as a pleasant walk home. They held hands, talked about their
future and in many ways, Virgil thought, made peace with the damage and drama
that had found its way into their lives. He was mildly concerned that their
house may have been damaged by the tornado, but when they walked up the drive
and saw the house, they discovered it wasn’t too bad. Quite a few shingles had
been torn off…maybe as many as half. The porch swing had cracked one of the
front windows before being torn from its support. The gutters hung askew and
the downspouts were completely gone. But structurally the house seemed fine.
“Looks like I’ve got some projects for the weekend.”

“Maybe a few weekends,” Sandy said.

“Let’s check the back.” They walked
around the side of the house and when they got to the back corner Sandy saw it
before Virgil did. He heard her sharp intake of breath and when he followed her
gaze what he saw caused his knees to weaken. Virgil sat down on the wet grass,
his back against the side of the house and let his head hang down. Sandy sat
down next to him and neither one of them spoke. What was there to be said?

Mason’s willow tree had been
snapped in half about three feet above ground level.

__________

After a few minutes
Virgil gathered himself together and they walked down and looked at the tree.
He pulled a few of the feathery leaves from the branches and held them in his
hand before dropping them on the ground. Then he turned and began walking
toward the shed. He came back with a pair of work gloves, goggles, ear
protectors and his chainsaw.

“You don’t have to do this now,
Virgil.”

“Yeah, I think I do.”

“Don’t you want to change your
clothes first? You’ll ruin your suit.”

“A lot of things have been ruined
lately, Sandy. What’s one more?”

She stood on her toes and kissed
him hard on the lips. “You want to be alone?”

“If you don’t mind.”

She nodded, turned away and moved
toward the house.

“Sandy?”

She stopped and turned back. “This
was the best thing anyone ever did for me, when you guys planted this tree. The
absolute best.”

“I know, Baby. Do what you’ve got
to do.”

__________

Virgil had his back to
the fallen tree as he checked the condition of the saw. He made sure the gas
and bar oil tanks were full and that the throttle and choke were adjusted
properly. He set the saw in the grass and put on his goggles and work gloves. Just
before he pulled the starter cord, Virgil said, “Sorry, Dad.”

“Don’t be,” Mason said.

Virgil spun around and saw his
father sitting on the trunk of the tree, right next to where it had snapped. He
patted the trunk with his hand. “This was a good thing. Nothing will ever
change that. But things happen, Son. Life goes on.”

“Does it?”

“What a ridiculous question. Of
course it does.”

“You saved my life.”

“At the risk of sounding like a
broken record, I believe I told you that there are people in your life who are
going to need you, did I not?”

“Yeah, Dad, you did.”

“You should check the tension on
that chain.”

“I will.”

“I came here to tell you four
things, Virg. The first is this: I’m proud of you, Son. We all are. You got off
those pills and now we don’t have to worry about that anymore, do we?”

“No, you don’t.”

“Good. Here’s the second thing. Don’t
plant me any more trees. Plant one for the child you’re about to have.”

“I will.” The tears were beginning
to roll down Virgil’s cheeks and he couldn’t have stopped them if he wanted to.

“You said there was something else
you needed to know.”

“I don’t know what you mean,”
Virgil said.

“That first day we spoke. Right at
the end of our conversation, you said there was something else you needed to
know. What was it? I’ll answer you if I can.”

“I wanted to ask what it was that
you were trying to say to me when you passed. You were choking on your own blood
and I don’t know what you were trying to tell me.”

“I wasn’t choking on the blood,
Son. I was choking on the words. That’s why I never said them. I didn’t want to
seem selfish.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I had a hold of your hand
and I knew my body was dying. I wanted to ask you not to leave me even though I
knew I was about to leave you. What kind of man does that make me? Who does
that?”

Virgil smiled through his tears.
“Humans, I guess.”

Mason smiled back.

“What’s the fourth thing?” Virgil
said.

“You have to ask?”

“No…but I do want to hear it just
one more time, even if I never hear it again.”

“Never say never,” Mason said as he
stood from the trunk and waded out into the pond.

“What are you doing?” Virgil said.

“I’m going for a swim. See you
around, Son.” And then he said it. “Dad loves you.”

Virgil closed his eyes. “Dad loves
you too.”

When he opened his eyes and looked
at the water, his father was gone.

Virgil wiped the tears from his
eyes and fired up the saw.

__________

He cut the main part
of the tree away from the three-foot high stump and then began to trim the
branches back. Three of the branches were particularly long and straight and he
set those aside without cutting them down to size. He spent the next hour
cutting the rest of the tree and stacking the wood. When he was finished he
moved to put the saw away, but then, as an afterthought he pulled the starter
cord and fired it back up. He cut four vertical strips from the stump to turn
it into a thick square post. Then he made two vertical cuts from the top down,
equal distance from the center. Then four horizontal cuts, then finally two
more vertical cuts from the bottom section down to the ground. When he was
finished, he was left with a flawed, yet somehow completely perfect cross. He
carried the saw back to the shed, grabbed his hammer and a chisel and went back
down to the tree. He carved the name ‘Mason’ on the front of the cross and
Jones on the side that faced the water.

After a few minutes he walked up to
the house, got undressed and threw his suit in the trash.

Ed Donatti. Dead.

Jesus.

33

__________

O
ver
a week had passed since Donatti died. Becky was on the mend and Virgil and
Murton worked the bar with Delroy and Robert, thankful to get back to the
business and regularity of their lives. It was Saturday afternoon, well before
the evening rush and Virgil was sitting alone at the bar when Nichole Pope
walked in and sat down next to him. They stared at each other in the bar mirror
for a few moments. “You want to know something?” Virgil said.

“Sure.”

“I’m questioning whether I should
laugh or scream.”

“Maybe the answer is somewhere in
the middle.”

Virgil took a sip of juice. “You’ve
got brass, I’ll give you that.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you
mean.”

“You’re here, aren’t you?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“What are you going to do with all
the money?”

“Who says I have any money?”

“I do.”

“And you’re the final say, are
you?”

When Virgil didn’t answer, she
reached into her purse and pulled out a thumb drive and set it on the bar.
“This is every scrap of evidence we ever gathered on Bradley Pearson. There’s
some interesting stuff on Pate in there as well. Do whatever you want with it.”

“There’s nothing to do. They’re all
dead.”

“Then burn it, crush it, or erase
it. I don’t really care.”

They sat quietly for a few moments.
“Let’s say I believe you, that you don’t have the money, even though I don’t.
What do you get out of all of this?”

She thought about the question. “I
get my life back. So does Nicky.”

“At what cost?”

“I’ll be able to sleep at night,
Jonesy, I assure you.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“Spare me the philosophical
psycho-babble. Everyone got what they deserved.”

“I think you lost more than your
father that day, Nichole. I think you lost your soul.”

“Mmm, you may be right. Perhaps
that gives us something in common.”

“I don’t think so. The problem with
people like you is that you always think that no one else suffers, no one else
has problems or fears or loss or heartache in their life. But here’s the thing,
Nichole: everyone does. I know I sure as hell do. Even after everything I’ve
been through, everything I’ve done that’s ever hurt anyone, I know I’ve turned
out okay.”

She leaned in close and whispered
in his ear. “Have you, Jonesy? Have you really?”

Virgil pulled away from her as if
he’d been slapped. “Get out, Nichole. I better not ever see you again.”

“Or what? You’ll take another Pope
off the board?”

“I shot him to save someone’s
life.”

“And that turned out just swell,
didn’t it?”

“I’ve got a dead cop who had a wife
and a young son. Now that boy will never get to know his father, a man who was
as good and kind and as decent of a man the likes of which I don’t believe
you’ll ever know or recognize if you did.”

Nichole laughed, but Virgil wasn’t
having it. What’s so fucking funny?”

“You’d rather have me as a friend, Jonesy.
I guarantee it. It’s all on the thumb drive. Things you can’t imagine.”

This time it was Virgil who leaned
in close and whispered. “Fuck you.”

They both let a moment pass before
Nichole said, “And what about James Pope?”

“What about him?”

“He was my father, you miserable
prick.”

When Virgil refused to acknowledge
her insult, she stood and turned to walk out of the bar. He grabbed her arm and
yanked her back onto the stool. “Wait here.” Virgil went upstairs to the office
and came back with a copy of the picture of her and Pearson outside the mini
mart.

“So what? It’s a picture of two
people sharing a moment. It proves absolutely nothing.”

“You’re right. But it’s not about
proof, and that’s the part you don’t understand. Bradley Pearson was a snake.
He manipulated, maneuvered and used people to get whatever he wanted, whenever
he wanted it. But as far as I know, he never killed anyone, Nichole.”

“Neither have I. Too bad you can’t
say the same thing.” She stood from the stool again and walked away. After a
few steps she stopped and looked over her shoulder. “And it’s not Nichole
anymore, Jonesy. Thanks to you, all the Pope’s are gone.”

Virgil thought she was going to say
something else, but she never did. Instead, she simply walked out the door and
in every way imaginable, Virgil considered that a blessing.

__________

Nicky Pope—who
would
for the rest of his natural born life be known as Brian
Addison—sat in a chaise lounge on the beach, his sister, Nichole Pope,
a.k.a. Chloe Addison, sat next to him. “It was a hell of a risk,” he told her,
sort of pissed. “The longest two days of my life.”

“There was some risk, there’s no
question there. But a lot of people are dead and even though we’ve covered our
bases, I still felt like it was something that had to be done. If not, I kind
of had the feeling we’d be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our
lives…or worse, we wouldn’t be looking at all and that’s when they get you,
Bro, when you’re sitting in your chair watching the waves break and sipping a
margarita. You’ll have four or five federal agents walk up and say something
like, “Excuse me, sir, is your name Nicholas Pope?”

Ah, that’s TV drama,” Brian said.

“Maybe…or maybe not. But I can tell
you this: We’re golden now.”

He turned in his chair and looked
past his sister. “Speaking of gold, here comes the money.”

__________

Ron Miles parked
his car, reached into the box and pulled out the plastic statue of the Virgin
Mary.
What a joke
, he thought. It was one thing to return evidentiary
property to their rightful owners, but quite another when the property was a
cheap plastic statue that wasn’t worth the cost of the gas it took to drive it
over.

He grabbed the statue from the
front passenger seat, got out of his car, walked up to Mrs. Ibarra’s apartment
and just for the hell of it gave the door a good old fashioned cop knock. When
no one answered a few minutes later, he knocked again. After the third time,
the door just to the right of Ibarra’s opened and an elderly Mexican man with a
cane in one hand and a bottle of Dos Equis in the other opened his door. “Señor?”

Miles showed him his badge and
said, “My name is Ron Miles. I’m a detective with the Indiana Major Crimes
Unit.”

“Si?” the man said.

Ron heard himself say, “Si,” and
winced a little.

“You are looking for Señora
Ibarra?”

“Yes. Do you know where I can find
her? I have some of her property that I’d like to return to her.”

The man smiled and did a little
wiggle. “You have not heard?”

“Heard what?”

Señora Ibarra. She has won the
lottery. The big drawing. She had the ticket, Señor. The one worth mucho
dineros. She is rich and I tell you this: she is gone.”

And Ron thought,
Son of a bitch.

__________

Ibarra carried the
money
in a laptop bag that held no actual money, just a laptop that had
access to the money.

“Everything go okay?” Brian asked.

“Oh yes, Nicky. Everything go
exactly like you say it would.”

Nicky waved a finger at her. “It’s
Brian now, Mrs. Ibarra. You’ve got to remember that.”

“Si, Brian. I will remember. All of
the funds were transferred. All three-hundred-million dollars worth.” She
handed him the laptop and Brian punched the keys.

“I told you I’d do it, didn’t I?”

“Si, but I never quite believed
you. Where is our gay little Wu?”

Brian pointed out to the water.
“He’s out there, snorkeling with Linda. Why does everyone think Wu is gay?”

“Hmm, I am not sure. I do not like
the way he looks at my feet...”