The Adored (55 page)

Winston and Kish looked at Gideon; all three smiled broadly before Winston asked. “Want to talk about it, Gideon.”

“Actions speak louder than words,” was his reply.

The Saturday
New York Times
had the following story on the front page:

“Six arrested in insider trading scheme in Rocket Solar stock,” read the headline.

“In a joint investigation coordinated by the NYPD Cyber Crimes Unit and the SEC, police arrested six individuals on insider trading charges in the company, Rocket Solar. Arrested were the two founding brothers in the solar equipment manufacturing company, Thomas Barrett, the CEO, and Robert Barrett, the VP of Sales. Also arrested was a financial executive at Blackthorn Investments, Sidney Rogers, Managing Director of Equities Trading and a former Blackthorn Investments trader, Leonard Crane. Additionally, two associates of Mr. Crane, brothers Joshua and Saul Kaplan were being held on warrants for insider trading and wire fraud.

“NYPD Detective James Conroy, speaking for the task force assembled to curb insider trading, stated, ‘Today we have broken an insidious insider trading scheme conducted by the two brothers who started Rocket Solar. They sought to drive the price of Rocket Solar stock up with false orders from three Chinese companies that they knew would eventually be cancelled and cause the stock of the company to plunge. Sidney Rogers manipulated Blackthorn research reports to put out an incorrect “Buy” rating on the stock, which was rated a “Sell”, by Blackthorn analysts. He did this after having purchased several hundred thousand shares in his own account. Additional work is being done to identify other individuals inside Blackthorn who are suspected of insider trading. These arrests and this scheme are being announced at this time to prevent further losses for investors in Rocket Solar. The two associates of Mr. Crane profited by buying shares of the stock with insider information from Mr. Crane, which he and they used for personal gain.’”

At four fifty, in his full Naval dress uniform, into the church walked a ramrod straight Traynor Johnson. Taking his right arm was Silvana DeLuna and holding Silvana’s right hand was her daughter, Mare. Silvana spotted Santa Alba in the second row, on the left hand side of the aisle, and she nudged Tray. He got the hint and ushered Slivana and Mare in beside her friend. Santa picked up the child and kissed her and hugged Silvana. Tray proceeded to the altar where he was greeted by the groom and his fellow best men.

“Three down, three to go,” remarked Gideon.

Admiral Johnson, after getting the call from Tray while he was in the air in Sebastian’s plane, laid out dress uniforms for both of them. He proceeded to Westchester Airport and the Executive Jet’s hangar and picked up his son, Silvana and Mare. They returned to the Johnson house, changed, and now exactly one hour and ten minutes after the pickup, Admiral Johnson in his full dress uniform walked up the aisle after parking his car. He went into the second row with Silvana and Mare. Silvana introduced Admiral Johnson to Santa Alba who hugged the admiral.

“I love a man in uniform,” she said. The Admiral laughed; Tray had told him of her ability to express her warmth.

Sebastian Ball arrived, and one of the ushers pointed him to where Santa Alba was. He smiled his big smile and strode down the aisle. At the pew where she was seated, he greeted the Admiral, warmly welcomed Silvana who thanked him for providing his plane. He stepped over to Santa and was about to hug her when she pulled back.

“Keep going. I’m with Gideon,” she said icily.

“What,” he whispered, though loudly enough to turn heads. He was stung.

“You heard me.”

“What’s wrong, Santa?”

“What’s wrong? Try Mrs. Jane Lane.”

“What are you talking about?”

Santa stepped out of the pew to the far side of the church in an apse, and Sebastian followed. “I tried to reach you. You were coming home yesterday.”

“Yes, but I got detained.”

“With Mrs. Lane.”

“No. On business.”

“She was your business.”

“I had other business on the trip.”

“She called this morning.”

“Huh,” he said. The audible whispers and body language of the two were attracting attention.

“What do you mean she called?”

“As in, on the phone.”

“And?”

“And she left a message. A quite loving message.”

Ball looked at Santa said nothing further. She walked back to her seat. He proceeded to the altar with his brothers.

“Four down, two to go,” Gideon said.

When Santa called Gideon at 4:45 a.m., she was in tears. He was getting no sleep at all after his earlier visit to the jail to see Parker. Santa told Gideon about the phone call from Jane Lane and asked if he could come over.

Gideon kept a small mansion on the water by the Riverside Yacht club in Greenwich. It was a five-minute drive from his home to Ball Hall. Since Santa intended to take as much of her clothing and personal affects as possible, in this her second move in two weeks, Gideon drove the Escalade. When he was let through the main gates at Ball Hall, he proceeded to Sebastian’s living quarters, which were in a separate Mediterranean style villa on the property.

Santa was waiting and together by 6:30 a.m. they had the SUV packed with her things. She hugged him and thanked him. When they finished moving everything into one of his guest bedrooms, she took Gideon’s hand.

“But this is not where I intend to sleep. Show me your bedroom.”

“Santa, while that would be quite lovely for almost any man on the planet, you do know I’m gay?” he asked with a half-smile.

“So what. You’re wonderful.”

“Now that we both are aware of that, let me introduce you to Adam,” who emerged as if on cue from Gideon’s bedroom in light blue silk pajamas.

Santa paused, smiled broadly, and said, “Will you at least take me to Winston’s wedding?”

“Adam?” Gideon asked.

“Sure, I didn’t know any of them anyway,” and Adam said to Gideon, “but you owe me.”

Gideon put his hand around the back of Adam’s neck and pulled him to him, kissing him on the lips.

Santa cringed.

At four fifty-five the limo with Winston Trout’s bride-to-be pulled up. Emily Albright sat in the limo with her father for a moment. Just then Valerie McGuire Samson arrived with Edward Wheelwright, who was trailed by Mark Wheelwright carrying his grandson.

Valerie went to the darkened limo windows and knocked. She waited as one of the rear tinted window was lowered.

“Am I allowed to peek in?” Valerie said peering in, and there in the rear seat was a most gorgeous Miss Emily Albright.

“You are, but he isn’t,” Emily laughed.

“Turn away, you beast,” Valerie said laughing and gave Eddie a gentle shove. Turning back to Emily she said, “You are going to take his breath away; you are so beautiful.” She reached in and touched the side of Emily’s cheek. “See you inside.”

As they entered, the Wheelwrights were ushered to the front, to the third row, just behind Santa and Silvana. The ladies all smooched, and Edward walked to the altar. All of the best men were dressed identically but for Tray and except Parker Barnes, who hadn’t arrived yet and it was four fifty-nine.

“Five down and one to go,” Gideon said.

After Gideon had seen Parker at 3 a.m., he made several calls and was assured he would be able to get Parker out by 9 a.m. no matter what. At eight forty-five as he prepared to go back to Stamford Police, he got a call from Lieutenant Vito Boriello stating that Mr. Barnes was being released. He was arrested in error and that Stamford Police Chief John Brennan would like to speak with him. They set a time of 10:30 a.m. for Chief Brennan to call. And at 10:30 a.m. Chief Brennan proceeded to tell Gideon it was all a terrible mistake by the NYPD. Parker was to have been merely interviewed. “However,” the chief said, “thank God Parker was here. He saved lives by helping take down the criminals who murdered innocent Stamford police officers.”

That statement would appear in a special afternoon addition of the
Stamford Advocate
, under the byline of Mike Slade. It was the lead story on all Connecticut and New York radio and TV stations throughout the day Saturday.

The News at Noon segment of one of the New York stations had in full color, now in civilian clothes, Parker Barnes and CJ Strong at a Stamford Police Headquarters news conference, with captions beneath them that read, “Local heroes save police lives, stop murderous criminals.” The story later spread to multiple channels throughout the day, on all the major networks as well as local cable stations. Pictures of DeLuna and scenes of carnage kept playing as the two heroes talked.

At 5 p.m. Parker Barnes arrived at the church in a long stretch limo accompanied by the same attractive Oriental woman who had been at Tray’s going away party. Exiting the limo after Parker was a beaming Jonathan and Mrs. Barnes. Following the Barnes out of the limo were Curtis Strong and his mother, Louise. Strong had quickly been released under his mother’s supervision until the following Monday when he would be exonerated.

At that same moment, Emily Albright was exiting her limo on her father’s arm.

Parker held up going into the church until Mr. Albright gave him an indication that he should go first.

As the six members of the Barnes and Strong families started down the aisle, a clamor began. The six were smiling broadly, looking at each other. Slowly, from the back of the church people began standing and clapping. The bride was not yet in the church.

As the party of six reached the middle pews, more people rose joining those in the rear, clapping; even some cheering accompanied the clamor. News had spread fast. By midday, the whole city of Stamford, surrounding Greenwich, Fairfield county and all of the metropolitan New York area had been made aware of the daring attempt at a jail break in Stamford, of the heavy loss of life of the officers and the two men who were now in their midst. Parker Barnes and Curtis Strong Jr., who between them killed three of the seven murderous drug dealers and most likely saved countless other officers lives, were heroes.

The Barnes and Strongs entered the pew with Val Samson’s family. Mark Wheelwright and Jonathan Barnes shook hands.

“Congratulations,” Wheelwright offered.

“Congratulations, yourself, Grandpa,” Jonathan Barnes said with a broad smile.

Parker started his walk to the altar, turned and went back to the pew. He had lent Curtis a suit, since they were similar in size, although Curtis’ muscles were straining the seams of the suit coat.

“I want you to come up on the altar with us,” Parker said to Curtis.

Strong pulled back. “No, you go ahead with your friends.”

“I’m not going up there with my brothers if you don’t come,” Parker said while standing in the aisle. “Curtis, in my life no one has been more of a brother to me than you. I just never knew it until today.” Then Parker leaned forward, hugged CJ, and gave him a tug out into the aisle.

As the two brothers walked to greet their other siblings, the congregation stayed on their feet.

The six brothers at the altar stepped forward to greet Parker. And by bringing Curtis forward, they understood they had been joined by a new brother, whom they also greeted warmly. They knew a partial reason for his inclusion in their family, but they would never understand fully what Curtis Strong had done for Parker Barnes.

At one minute past five, Emily Albright entered the rear of St. Mary’s church with every pew full and every person standing and clapping.

Emily was quite delighted with this reception and glowed as she arrived at the altar to meet her groom, Winston. With Winston’s now seven brothers for best men and Emily’s four maids of honor, her sisters, her real sisters, they were married.

Chapter Postscript:

Once the wedding was over, Stamford Police were waiting with a warrant for Parker Barnes arrest since police got a tip from a woman with a Latin accent that he had smuggled drugs into the US on his yacht. Police checked and found a package of cocaine exactly where the woman said it was. They also found traces of cocaine under other panels on the boat. The one package matched the packaging and quality of that previously seized from Chunk DeLuna.

The following Monday, Jonathan Barnes dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for US Senate.

Kish Moira is engaged to Binky Patel, the tall Indian girl in the white dress seen at Tray Johnson’s going away party and accompanying him to Winston’s wedding. She is Kish’s cousin. Gideon Bridge calls her the Kishing cousin.

Five months later Edward Wheelwright and Valerie McGuire Samson were married, which followed by one month Valerie’s divorce from David Samson.

Seven months later Gideon Bridge was elected as President of the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic order of lay people engaged in doing good works. Three months after that, Gideon was married to Adam Llyenthal. Santa Alba was the bride’s maid. Five of Gideon’s six brothers were his best men.