Disclaimer: The A-Team world belongs to Mr Stephen J Cannell (RIP)
[Recap from Part 1 – Warning: contains Spoilers!: Face is kidnapped by Colonel Thomas Radcliffe, an associate with Mafia connections, who worked with his father, AJ Bancroft on several assignments. Radcliffe is anxious to get his hands on Bancroft's diary, and blackmails Face into acquiring it from General Stockwell. A dangerous game then ensues, as Face is used as a pawn between The Mob and General Stockwell. Radcliffe's accomplice, Italian hitman, Vincent Luciano, is the son of one of the fathers who was fleeced by AJ and ends up having his own personal vendetta against Face. Keeping him on his side until he exacts his revenge, it is Murdock who thinks he has found out the real truth about what happened to Face's mom.]
Chapter 1: Cover story
[Timeline: January 1987]
[Warning: Text in italics are extracts from conversations that took place in Part 1, which contain strong language.]
Sitting up in bed, Murdock rubbed his temples at the side of his head, partly out of frustration and partly out of exhaustion. He hadn't slept or eaten properly since he had found out from Mobster, Vincent Luciano, a couple of weeks ago, that Face's mom had died from a drugs' overdose back in 1955.
Christmas had come and gone and Face was beginning to recover from his injuries inflicted by Luciano. Despite almost being killed at the hands of the crazed Italian, the Lieutenant was in fairly high spirits. This was due to the fact that before exacting his revenge, Luciano had given Face a photograph of his momma as a form of blackmail, giving him hope that she was still alive.
It didn't help that Face kept flashing the darned thing around proudly at any given opportunity. Jeez, it was all Murdock could do to stop himself from ripping it up into a million pieces. He immediately felt guilty as he remembered how excited his buddy was to show it to him.
"Luciano gave it to me. I'm not sure how he got it, but he seemed to know things about her, Murdock.He said that when AJ ran out on us, half the Mob was looking for him. When they couldn't find him, they came after me and mom. I think that's why she left me at the orphanage. She didn't abandon me – she was trying to protect me!"
In his bedridden state, Face had asked Murdock to follow up the lead. So Murdock had visited Luciano in the security facility, where he had been taken after he had tried to kill the Lieutenant. The revelations that he had uncovered had chilled the pilot to the bone.
He shut his eyes tight as if trying to block the memory out, but to no avail. His unnerving conversation with Luciano constantly invaded his thoughts without warning. He had a very different version of events about Face's mom to the one he had previously told Face. Murdock cringed as he remembered the sarcastic revulsion in the slimeball's voice.
"Well, she'd know all about family honour! Boy, the things she did to protect her little boy held no bounds!"
"What do you mean? I thought you told Peck his mother kept half the Mob from their doorstep."
"I only gave Peck the fairytale version. Oh yeah, she was smart and one hell of a looker! She moved constantly around and changed her name so she couldn't be tracked down. But towards the end she was nothing more than a dirty whore, who got her kicks from shooting up whenever she got the chance."
Murdock's stomach flipped over again as Luciano's words exploded around his head. He hadn't wanted to believe what he was saying, but Luciano delivered an even bigger blow with his next revelation.
"Did Peck ever wonder where I got that picture from? My father pulled it out of her grasp when he found her lying dead from a heroin overdose. According to Pops, Peck wasn't with her when they found her body. For all I know, she could still be rotting away in that stinking, dirty grovel she lived in!"
The Captain shuddered, involuntarily. After everything that his buddy had been through over the last few weeks, he didn't have the heart to tell him the truth about his mom. I mean, how exactly do you tell someone you have come to love like a brother, that his mom had probably ended up as a drug addict and prostitute when she died? In his fragile state – high on painkillers and half beaten up by that cockroach, Luciano – there was no telling what he might have done.
The words had stuck in his throat as he had lied to protect the vulnerable conman. After all, at least part of what the Italian mobster had said had been true.
"She's everything Luciano said she was Faceman. She was smart, beautiful and completely devoted to her son."
"Does he know what happened to her?"
"I'm sorry, buddy. She had to keep moving around and changing her name. Chances are she'll never be found now. I'm so sorry, muchacho."
"Thanks, Murdock – I knew I could rely on you."
Murdock slumped back down on his bed again. It was bad enough that he hadn't told Face that AJ Bancroft was his father. Now he was lying to him about his mom being alive. As the words of Face and Luciano mingled together in his mind, a fusion of disharmony, guilt and turmoil overwhelmed him.
For the sake of his own insanity and out of respect for Face, he knew he would have to put things right, one way or another.