Joe Bill McCandless regarded the lonely figure sitting
across from him at the Major Crimes bullpen. The blond Texan had been sitting
there for over an hour, fingering a closed folder, thinking.
He had been to see the Lieutenant earlier, showed her
some recorded message and discussed some more. Joanne had been furious. She slammed
the door of her office and started making phone calls. It hadn’t been pretty,
especially for whoever was on the other side of the line.
A few minutes later Annie Hartung came up and took the
recording to forensics.
Finally, things had quieted down. Sergeant Esteban Gutierrez,
Joe Bill’s partner, had gone to pick La Fiamma up at the hospital and take him
home. Everyone knew he wouldn’t stay there for long, it was not Joey’s way.
La Fiamma had finally arrived with the Mexican. He looked
tired, his face bruised, but basically all right. Esteban had given Joey a ride
home and waited for him to shower and change before driving him to the office.
He received a warm welcome, but his mind was obviously elsewhere. Throughout the
following minutes Lundy was extremely serious. McCandless guessed he had been
too worried about Joey the previous day, but when the Italian had arrived Lundy
hadn’t made any fuss.
That was weird.
Joanne had called Joe into her office shortly after he
arrived.
Everything had been way too quiet.
Way too quiet.
This couldn’t be good.
Esteban sat beside his partner and together they waited
for the bomb to explode.
oooo00000oooo
‘I kept everything inside and even though I tried,
it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time
when
I tried so hard…’
Joey exited the office, agitated and confused. Joanne
had filled him in on the FBI’s attempt to stain his name, yet again and he was
more than angry, he was scared. He now knew he had been watched for at least two
months and he hadn’t noticed. God knows what else those people were doing! What
if they sold that information to criminals? What if someone used it to hurt him
or his partner?
Joanne had assured Joey that Levon hadn’t been fooled
but he had to see that for himself.
“Lundy,” he reached his silent partner in a second. “We
need to talk!”
Lundy rose in silence and they both went to the conference
room and closed the door behind them.
McCandless put his feet up on his desk and muttered to
his partner, “Here comes the fireworks”
Esteban kept quiet.
oooo00000oooo
‘I tried so hard, And got so far
But
in the end
It doesn't even matter …’
The conference room was still, the sun came through the
windows making the place a little bit warmer than the bullpen. Levon sat on the
edge of the big table and watched his partner wince then sit slowly on a chair
before him.
“Well?” the Italian started.
“What happened?” Levon replied.
“You first!”
“No, you first!” Lundy shook his head in his trademark
no-nonsense face.
Joey sighed, it was useless to argue, he would surely
lose this one. “All right,” he finally started, “Someone blew up a cell phone
on me.”
“What?”
“Like you heard, cowboy.” Joey continued, “The son of
a bitch had a phone ringin’ on the hood of a car.”
“And you fell for it?”
Joey turned serious, “I’d be dead, Lundy!”
“Right.”
“It blew up just when I was goin’ for backup, knocked
me out; when I woke up, I was up on a roof and the man wanted to kill me. I got
loose, we fought, I won. End of story!”
“End of story?”
“Yeah, basically!”
“La Fiamma, you were unconscious when they got to you.
You were out like that for five hours! That’s not the END of the STORY. What the
hell did he do to you?”
“Calm down, Lundy!” Joey sat up. “I’m not joking. I must
have been hit harder than I thought, but it was the exploding phone, man, I swear!”
“I don’t think you’re tellin’ me all…”
“I am. Will you stop looking for trouble? I’m really
not in the mood!”
“La Fiamma, you were bleeding bad, and you were out for
an awful long time… You can’t tell me that you two were only chewin’ the fat!
What the hell did he do to you? Why didn’t he just kill you? What did he want?”
Now there was a question. Joey really didn’t want to
tell his partner how close the Texan had been to getting shot by a mobster madman
from a roof. It would only make him edgy and nervous, and he knew that he really
didn’t want to tell Lundy about that tape. That goddamned Scalia tape had been
the source of so much trouble -- and pain -- so many times! He wouldn’t endanger
his best friend with that knowledge.
What to say?
The truth was a good option.
“You will find it hard to believe, Lundy… but we were
really just talking.”
That was the truth.
“Yeah? About what?” Levon’s voice betrayed a lot more
than just concern. Something was wrong.
“Nothing important! God, Lundy what the hell has you
so worked up?”
“I hate it when you don’t tell me stuff, La Fiamma, there’s
something else, I know you ain’t tellin’ me! What, you think I won’t understand?
That I’m too dumb to do that?”
Now, where had THAT come from?
“What is your problem, Lundy? I don’t get you!”
“You ain’t never have, have you?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothin’!”
Joey stared blankly at his friend’s face and for a moment
he thought he saw something… a flicker in the man’s eyes. Joey had seen it before.
It was hurt.
‘Oh, shit!’ Levon had bought whatever that FBI
guy had told him!
“Lundy,” Joe spoke quietly, “What did that guy show you
on that tape?”
“You, sayin’ some stuff!”
“Like what?”
“Take a wild guess!”
“I don’t know, Lundy, for cryin’ out loud! YOU heard
the damn thing, not me!”
“But you spoke it!”
“What did I speak, you think I read minds?”
“So, you don’t remember sayin’ I was a dumb brainless
Texan moron? That you hated every moment you spent with me?”
Joey’s face went blank. What did Levon just say? The
recording had been from yesterday! It had been that conversation on the roof!
Someone had known! ‘Oh my God, they were
listening in… and they didn’t do a damn thing! Conti was gonna kill me! And those
FBI people were just gonna sit there and do nothing!’
Nothing!
“Oh, shit!” Joey stood up, furious, his pallor accentuating
at the realization. They were going to let him die! “Oh, shit... I don’t believe
it!”
“You don’t believe it? La Fiamma, I didn’t believe it
either but…”
“Shut up, Lundy!” Joey closed his eyes and clenched his
teeth, his anger rising a notch with every passing moment. “You don’t know anything!”
“You shut up, La Fiamma!”
“I was conning the guy, you idiot! I needed him to think
I didn’t care about you!” Joey looked out the window, looking right at that same
rooftop across the street. Fear filled his heart.
“That’s NOT what I heard, La Fiamma!”
Joey clenched his teeth, tired of Levon’s attitude. “It’s
not always about YOU, Lundy, there was a lot more going on than that!” he yelled.
“Well, what?” Levon yelled right back, “You don’t tell
me anything! And I really didn’t hear anything else going on!”
“I don’t care what you heard!”
“That’s the problem!”
“You don’t know anything! You never listen!”
“Yeah, I got that clear enough!” Levon had stopped yelling.
“What is your problem? I said I didn’t mean it, can you
drop it now?” Under his anger he felt his headache come back with savage fierceness.
“Yeah... right!” Levon smiled, but there was an incredible
hidden sorrow in that sarcastic smile... “You always mean what you say, remember?”
Joey shook his head in frustration. “Damn it! Lundy!”
He was really furious now, why did Levon always have to think everything was about
him? Couldn’t he see what was going on? Why would he buy all that crap? Had five
years of friendship meant nothing? “Can’t you stop being such a stupid jerk for
just one minute?”
“I’m a jerk?” Levon’s anger rose another notch. “I thought
I was only stupid.”
“I didn’t mean it! Goddamn it! I told you that!” Joey
slammed his hand on the table. “I was only...”
“...conning the guy, yeah. You said that already!”
“But you don’t believe me.”
“I do, La Fiamma. But there’s such a thing as subconscious
talkin’ and that’s exactly what I heard from you!”
“What the hell are you saying?”
“It all had to come from somewhere, La Fiamma. You always
say that all lies come from some truth!”
Joey’s Italian accent was stronger than ever as he yelled.
“So I was telling that guy the truth? You know that for a fact! You’re a genius,
you know everything!”
“I didn’t hear no stutter, La Fiamma!”
“What?”
“You didn’t stutter, La Fiamma. You must have been tellin’
the truth!”
Joey stared at his friend in awe, speechless. He couldn’t
possibly mean what he had just said.
“No stutter… I reckon you were enjoyin’ it a lot too!”
Levon’s face was dark, but his eyes were bright with fury.
Joey’s own face was ashen. His head was about to explode,
and soon. He was breathless. “Is that what you believe?” he whispered.
“It’s right there on tape, La Fiamma!”
Joey stood up, his heart beating madly, his fists were
closed so tight he almost drew blood from his own hands, but he didn’t hit Lundy...
Not now... Later.
“Yeah, you’re right. I meant every word.”
Levon’s face betrayed his shock. He couldn’t believe
he’d heard that last declaration.
Joey walked past him and headed for the door. He stopped
and was about to speak without turning around, but thought better of it and just
walked out.
The door closed.
Levon’s heart silently drowned in rage.
oooo00000oooo
‘I had to fall, To lose it all
But
in the end
It doesn't even matter.’
Chapter 4 - ‘One Thing…’
“I don’t know why,” Levon whispered, driving in the dark.
He had started his fishing trip early… and alone… not looking forward to talking
things over with Joey until Monday. He hadn’t really believed what the FBI man
had brought on that tape, but the man’s last departing words had stuck to him
like glue, and wouldn’t let him be.
‘Where does a man get the fuel for all that animosity, Lundy? No matter what he says, he sure sounded like he meant it!’
That was it. The whole damn thing had come from that.
Levon knew Joey… He knew the subtle tone of his voice when he was pretending,
when he was lying. He had lived and almost died with that man for the past five
years, darn it! He knew him like the back of his hand!
Or did he?
Then, why did this upset him so much?
Why?
Joey didn’t sound like he was lying. Joey sounded strange
on that tape… Loud, decided, truthful… He didn’t sound like he was pretending.
He sounded like he meant it.
Didn’t he?
Levon rubbed his forehead and sighed, Joey’s last words
echoing in his head as well.
‘I meant every word.’
‘God, I hate this! I hate all of this! Why did this happen?’
He drove on, letting the radio occupy his mind for a
while. He didn’t want to accept the fact that behind the anger, behind all of
that frustration… he was hurt.
Deeply hurt.
Not as much by the things he heard on the tape, but by
Joey’s last statement, the one that had reached and ripped through his heart.
‘I meant every word’.
oooo00000oooo
Joey La Fiamma sat on the railing of a bridge, outside
the city, down east 47 highway, all alone. He watched the dark world unfold before
him under the moonlight, the quiet waters of the river below singing an endless
song. Calming waters. Distant waters.
Joey sat, drinking his beer, remembering a time when
his best friend had come to this very spot to rescue him from the icy hands of
death. The day he almost did a very stupid thing.
‘My God! It feels like a million years ago.’
Through the past five years he had adopted this spot
as his own, his quiet little corner of the world where he would go to think, to
remember, to forget… to drink some beer.
…To remind himself how a friend had come to his rescue
when all else seemed lost.
To remember the pain that brought him up here in the
first place, and then wipe it out clean and start over.
To forget.
Tonight he was here because he needed all of it: to remember,
to forget… to re-live.
“I don’t know why,” he whispered again. Another sip of
beer brought back the memory of that night… He had been so tired, so sad, so lost.
Levon had followed him up here and they had talked…
‘You ain’t Superman, La Fiamma…’
“Boy, were you right!” he shook his head in dismay.
He knew why he had been angry this time, why he had gotten
so furious. He knew he had a good reason for being mad -- and afraid! Those people
were supposed to be protecting, upholding the law. They were the good guys, for
God’s sake!
They were the FBI!
Still, they had been there, watching, listening… The
killer had a rifle pointed at Lundy’s head and they had done absolutely nothing!
Bastards!
‘What if Conti had killed me? What if he had taken that shot at Levon as
well? What if he had escaped afterwards?’
‘What if I hadn’t been able to stop him?’
‘What then?’
‘Shit!’
He took another sip of beer and watched the water, so
many feet below. It was a long fall from that bridge. The river itself was not
too deep, though. Hard to survive if you land on a rock right there in the water.
Hard to survive all right.
Why had Levon believed all that crap?
Why had he listened to it in the first place?
Joey had faith in their friendship; God! He was alive
because of it! Why did Lundy have to be so stubborn?
Why didn’t he have faith in Joey the way Joey had faith
in him?
Why had it hurt so much to see that?
No faith.
Why?
‘What the hell have I been doing wrong?’
‘Is it so hard to believe I was lying? If I had known he would be listening,
I wouldn’t have said so many things… Or maybe I would… but I would have let him
know…’
Why did he have to hear all that?
Why did he have to believe it?
How come there was no faith?
“How come you have no faith in me, Lundy?” he asked to
the night sky.
‘Yeah.. I meant every word. But I wasn’t talking about you, you idiot.
I could never say those things about you for real…’
‘I meant every word to keep you alive!’
He took another sip of beer and closed his tired eyes.
oooo00000oooo
“La Fiamma, we have a problem!” Joe Bill McCandless walked
up to Joey’s desk with a somber look on his face. He was angry and concerned for
his friends, and Joey’s bruised face and banged up appearance didn’t help at all.
“What’s up?” Joey asked tiredly. He had been filling
paperwork on Angelo Conti for the better part of the day.
Joe Bill didn’t answer, he just signaled Joey to follow
him into Joanne’s office, Esteban Gutierrez and Grant Peyton, Houston’s new District
Attorney were there. The atmosphere was gloomy.
“What’s up?” Joey asked again.
D.A. Peyton answered for everyone, “Mr. Conti’s employers
have sent down a lawyer for him.”
“And?”
“We have trouble.”
Joey sat on the nearest chair; he really wasn’t in the
mood for guessing games, “Meaning?” he exercised his remaining patience.
“It’s Jessica Lewis, from New York.” He declared.
Like that had to mean anything?
“Peyton…” Joey started, exasperated.
“Mr. Conti makes very convincing excuses,” Joanne stepped
in before Joey said something stupid, “He blames you for everything.”
“And they believe him?…”
“Of course not!” Joanne interrupted again, “But Jessica
Lewis is famous for winning these kind of cases. She’s a pro, she has been to
dozens of trials. Never lost one! She’s a bad enemy, La Fiamma. She’s an expensive
commodity…”
“And, it’s the Mob…” Joey finished, leaning back and
voicing everyone’s thoughts. He rubbed his eyes, tiredly.
He should have seen this coming.
Esteban put in his two cents, stating the obvious, “That
trial is gonna be hell!”
“You think?” was Joey’s sarcastic remark.
“We need to work with you, La Fiamma, go through every
detail of what happened that afternoon.”
“Everything’s fuzzy.” Joey kept his eyes closed.
Joanne frowned, suddenly noticing the dark circles under
her friend’s eyes. “You shouldn’t even be here, La Fiamma! You should be at home,
resting.”
“Yeah... I should.” He admitted. “So? What are we going
to do?” he closed his eyes. Boy, he was tired!
Joanne sighed. She really didn’t know what. It was tough
enough to have Joey and Levon fighting. she could see how much this had affected
both of them. And now this! What Joey needed was a break, and to have his partner
back. He was going to need all the help he could get.
“You need to remember everything that happened,” she
said, “from the moment you saw that cell phone on that hood. The only chance we’ll
have against this guy will be a straightforward recount of the truth. No mistakes,
just the truth.”
“Damn it!” Joey muttered, “Why does everything have to
be so complicated?”
“It would be different if we had an eye witness,” Peyton
interjected, “someone besides you, I mean.”
“Yeah!” Joe Bill said, “I sure wish I’d been there for
you, Joe.”
“Me too”, echoed Esteban, “Only if I had that imbecil wouldn’t have seen it comin’. I
would’ve grabbed him by the huevos and
prepared an omelette.”
Joey chuckled at the thought, he had his eyes still closed
so the images came rather easy.
“I wish we had hard proof.” Joanne sighed again, feeling
suddenly defeated.
La
Fiamma sat still for a moment. A light had lit inside his mind, but he was unsure
of what to do. The source for the solution could flee the moment he opened his
mouth. He finally sat up straight and grabbed a pen lying on the desk. He quickly
wrote something on a piece of paper and signaled everyone to keep quiet.
The words on the paper were simple: ‘We HAVE proof. Big Brother was listening!’
Grant
Peyton was about to say something but Joanne put one of her hands over his mouth
and stopped him just in time. He shook her head and motioned him to follow her.
She spoke calmly out loud, as if nothing had happened.
“Go back to work gentlemen, we have a lot to do tomorrow. La Fiamma, you should
go home!”
“Yeah!” he smiled, “I should.”
They grabbed more pens and paper and began working out
a plan.
oooo00000oooo
“Freeze!
HPD!”
The
lonely van up the far corner of the avenue rocked as five police officers entered
quickly. The man inside the vehicle hadn’t heard them coming, he hadn’t heard
anything but the heated discussion up on the seventh floor of the building across
the street, between Joanne Beaumont and Joe La Fiamma. They were talking about
his involvement with the crime families. La Fiamma was about to spill the beans!
He was about to make his mistake!
Right!
Ferguson
realized only a moment too late that he had been deceived.
Damn you, La Fiamma!
Agent
Mike Ferguson was cuffed, read his rights and led inside the Reisner Houston Police
Department building. There, he was thrown into a very uncomfortable holding cell
on the seventh floor. You know the ones.
They
had accused Ferguson of invasion of privacy and aiding and abetting by withholding
evidence needed for a case. Grant Peyton had seen to it that the charges stuck,
at least long enough for them to get hold of the tapes.
Upon
extensive search of the surveillance vehicle, Joe Bill and Esteban found many
recordings. One of them was definitely to be used as proof for the Conti case.
Definitely.
oooo00000oooo
<<“Stop!” >> Angelo’s recorded
voice trembled with anger, <<“Don’t
move or I’ll shoot!”>>
<<“Really?”>> Joey didn’t know
just how weary and pained his own voice had come out, he remembered feeling very
bad, and angry, but he hadn’t paid much attention at how he sounded. ‘No
wonder the guy didn’t buy anything I said!’
<<“Shoot”>> Joanne jumped at this statement.
She turned to her friend in shock. “What did you just say?”
<<“What?”>> Angelo’s startled voice echoed
her thoughts.
<<“I said SHOOT!”>> Joey quietly
nodded at the recorder on the table, rubbing his tired eyes again. It HAD been
as bad as he thought… worse perhaps.
Angelo was really mad now, <<“You stupid bastard!” >>
Sounds of struggle. A few moments later there was a big
thud, then after a few more muffled sounds the sound of three shots.
“My God, Joe!” Joanne hissed. “What the hell were you
thinking?”
Joey didn’t answer right away. He knew they would eventually
come around to ask about the damn Scalia tape and he had no idea what he would
say. He should have foreseen this. Of course Conti had been asking for that tape
up there, and those demands would’ve been recorded as well! But Joey had been
so focused on putting the guy in jail, that little detail had totally slipped
his mind… until now.
McCandless was as astonished as his boss, “You told him
to shoot, La Fiamma?”
“Yeah!” Joey muttered.
“You told him to shoot at Lundy?” Joe Bill returned in
turn.
‘What?
Oh, God! No! They thought…’ But… that’s exactly how it sounded like! They hadn’t
been up there to see it!
“Of course not, you idiot!” he snapped. “He had turned
the rifle on me by then!”
“Oh!”
“So you told him to shoot you?” Gutierrez interjected.
“I knew he wouldn’t. He still needed me,” he trailed
off, trying to come up with a way out. He could find none.
“He wanted the tape,” Esteban finished for him.
Joey kept quiet.
Joanne stood up and walked around the conference table
to get closer to Joey. She grabbed his chin and lifted the bowed head, forcing
him to look her in the eye. Joey didn’t refuse her warm touch. He was very tired.
His eyes pleaded what he didn’t want to voice.
After a few moments Joanne whispered, “It’s okay.” She
said seriously, “That issue’s closed… cerrado!”
He closed his eyes and released the breath he was holding.
God, he loved this woman!
She spoke of it no more, and neither did the other two
cops. Some things were easily understood, especially among friends.
A few moments later Esteban cleared his throat. “That
recording…” he paused, pointing at the small machine on the table, “is not what
Levon heard.”
“What?” That
took Joey by surprise.
“The recording Annie showed us was different.”
“But he said…”
“He changed it. Ferguson changed it. The whole threat
to Lundy’s life was edited out. The words were all out of order and it sounded
nothing like what we just heard!”
Joey couldn’t speak, his head hurt too much. He just
groaned and shook his head.
Joanne took a turn to explain further, “Levon never knew
he had a rifle to his head. He never knew what happened up there; what you were
trying to do! The recording we heard was
very different.”
The Italian put his arms on the table and lay his tired
head on them, hiding his eyes from the light. This was getting worse and worse…
“Damn it!” he cursed quietly.
Joanne rubbed his back in a tender caress. She knew how
strong Levon and Joe’s friendship was, and she knew how deep this blow had been,
for both of them.
“He never believed it, Joey, not really,” she said softly.
“I know,” he admitted, his weak voice betraying him as
he spoke.
“It was something else.”
“I know,” he repeated.
She nodded, signaling McCandless and Gutierrez outside.
The last thing they heard before they closed the door was Joey’s sorrowful voice
from the table. “I have to go find him.”
oooo00000oooo
‘In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was
part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm
surprised it got so (far)...’
Levon Lundy stood by the wide river. The cold breeze
caressed his cheeks and made him think twice about staying out there much longer.
It was still early afternoon, but the weather was getting worse by the hour.
Dry lightning flared across the sky. A moment later,
thunder followed.
This wasn’t fishing weather!
The fish were probably looking for shelter right now.
‘I knew it! I shoulda checked the weather channel yesterday before comin’...
Damn it to hell!’
The breeze turned into freezing wind for the second time
since that morning. Levon shivered slightly and tried to relax. He realized he
didn’t really care that much about the cold; he’d been through worse... It was
actually kind of peaceful watching Mother Nature create some mayhem for a change.
Of course the rain was always a bit of a problem, and lightning and thunder came
almost at the same time now. It was going to be a hell of a storm.
But who cared?
As he stood on the wooden bridge, he adjusted the strap
of his light backpack and then stuck his hands inside his jacket pockets, his
mind was traveling, leaving him… In a few seconds it was miles away.
Back in Houston.
What had he been thinking?
Damned if he knew!
Last night had been cold and dark, and the stormy weather
had made the morning hike even more uninviting. Still, Levon hadn’t slept much,
he had gotten up early and eaten breakfast quietly. He had spent the whole morning
and early afternoon drinking beer, trying to fish a little, walking around, hiking
a bit... But all the time, his mind had kept replaying the last two days over
and over again.
Lightning flashed again.
It had been hard.
But he had seen the light.
Roaring thunder followed.
‘What the hell was I thinking?’
‘Why did I react that way?’
‘Why did I let that goddamned FBI jerk draw me into his game?’
‘God, I was so stupid!’
He shook his head and berated himself for all of it.
He knew he had been looking for trouble yesterday, back at the conference room.
He had been asking for that fight ever since La Fiamma walked into the bullpen.
But now that he thought it over, he realized it wasn’t Joe he was mad at… It was
that man, the son of a bitch from the FBI; the man who had come forward uninvited
to disrupt their lives.
Looking for trouble.
Doing things to hurt them.
He should have taken into account the reason behind it
all, the man’s reason.
He wanted to start a fight between the two friends, and
he had succeeded.
The son of a bitch!
‘Wait ‘till I get my hands on ya, you overdressed, stuffed up, dirty vermin.
I’ll show ya how we deal with the likes of you in Houston, Texas! Just ya wait!!’
Levon was angry. He was angrier than he had been in a
very long time.
‘Bastard!’
‘And now... how will I ever patch things up with La Fiamma?’
Did he even want to?
Was it really worth it, after all the stuff that had
been laid out on the open?
What was it that Joey had said?
‘I meant every word.’
“Did you, really, La Fiamma?”
Levon couldn’t explain why Joey had chosen that moment
to say that. The Italian wasn’t really the subtle type, nor was he known to sugar
coat things. It could have been the heat of the argument but then again, maybe
he’d really meant it! Maybe he’d always thought that way about Lundy.
“I deserve it,” he muttered to himself, “I acted like
an ass. Maybe he’s got all the rights to call me stupid ‘cause sometimes I am.
I really am!”
The wind picked up, it picked up quite a lot. Thunder
and lightning sounded really close now. Levon stood up straight, wondering if
he should get back to the cabin. Mother nature itself answered that question for
him, but it was too late.
Behind him, a bolt of lightning crashed into a tree.
He thought he’d gone deaf from the sound. A few moments
later he thought he’d go crazy... from the pain.
Then, there was only cold, and darkness.
oooo00000oooo
‘Things aren't the way they
were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew
me back then
But it all comes back to me (in the end)...’
Back to the Texan Dungeon