My Father and Other Strangers

Hey, pleased to meet you! Name's Lee Fusco, over from LA to sort out the old man's stuff. Hope it won't take long - the M&A team need my advice next week, I'm a lawyer working for a tech company in Silicon Valley. Actually you might be able to help; I think maybe I didn't know Dad as well as I thought.

I guess it started at Shaw's funeral. Wait! I should explain who Shaw is… was. Actually that's all part of it – I don't know who she was, what she was even. Yeah, well, ok, I'll slow down, say what's in my head and lay it all out. Ask questions if you need to.

I was maybe 15 or 16 when Shaw came into my life. My parents had split up a few years earlier and I shuttled between them, seeing Dad every couple of weeks. My father was Lionel Fusco, an NYPD cop. Maybe he and Shaw had known each other before but they never said. Anyway she appeared on the scene; I thought she was maybe Dad's girl, which I didn't like the sound of, but they seemed more like colleagues than anything – co-workers, you know? They used to joke that she could do stuff that cops couldn't, so she wasn't a cop, was she?

She saved my life once. I got kidnapped by some bad guys to put pressure on Dad, and Shaw came in and wasted those guys like it was the most natural thing in the world. She told me later that she had the choice to save me or Dad and Dad said to save me. That made me choke up, I tell you. Dad said she used to be a Marine and then did "other stuff" (whatever that means) hence her ability with weapons. She was usually pretty gruff and off-hand but after that I didn't mind her so much.

Anyway there was a period when I couldn't stay with Dad, my mother got quite annoyed with him but when he came to see me I noticed that he was really cautious when leaving the house – looking around and checking the area, that sort of thing. When I grew up I realised that some really heavy stuff must have been going on and Dad was involved and a target for someone.

Then everything went back to normal and Shaw seemed to be around a lot more. I went to college, got a job, and then married but I saw her at Dad's place off and on. Bear in mind I'm talking about 20 – 25 years here, maybe more; that's how long I've known her but I don't actually know a damn thing about her!

Dad retired but they still met up. I think they spent the odd night together but Dad said once she wasn't the marrying kind, I think he was a bit sad about that. Anyway she got sick – some sort of cancer – and Dad looked after her the last few months, moved her into his place and nursed her like they were married all along.

We were the only people at her funeral, kinda sad huh? She was buried in a small family plot in the cemetery but I noticed that the names were all different – Reese, Groves, Finch, Bear. Turns out that Bear was a damn dog! Didn't think you could bury pets with people but anyway. Reese and Groves died the same year, about when things got back to normal like I said before, then Bear and Finch a while later. Dad said they were Shaw's family and gave me a hard look when I mentioned the different names. To be honest I had other things to worry about and if Shaw wanted to be buried there, why not?

That was a few years ago and I think Dad missed her more than he let on, maybe that's why he wanted to be buried in that "family plot". He said he was the "last one" which I didn't, and still don't, understand. He passed away a few weeks ago and I came back for the funeral. There were lots of people there, which was good – a lot of retired cops especially but also unexpected people. The tech billionaire Logan Pierce showed up which threw me as he backs some of our competitors, he's semi-retired but still active in the tech world, but he said Dad had helped him out a few times. I never knew my father mixed in that kind of circle; wonder if he needs a lawyer. There was also an old American lady who came all the way from Italy called Mrs. Finch who I assumed was the widow of the guy in the other grave. She and Pierce too funnily enough, stood at the graveside for a while and talked in low tones. I was busy with all the other people so never got to speak to her. Someone said Pierce sent her back to Italy in his private jet.

Turned out from talking to those old cops afterwards that Lionel Fusco was a bit of a legend in the NYPD. A couple of them swore that they'd seen him solve cases without ever leaving his desk – he'd make some calls, wait, get some calls back, and then say that so-and-so is the perp for such-and-such a reason. Then he'd get an email with stuff in it – documents, photos, that kind of thing – to back it up and convince the captain to get a warrant.

Anyway I've been sorting through Dad's stuff the last few days and I'm finding things that I'm not sure about. It looks like he burnt a lot of documents just before he went into hospital but there's still quite a bit around. They are all very cryptic and I'm slowly ploughing through them. One weird thing that I never really noticed before is that "Lionel Fusco" is very difficult to find information about. These days, of course, everything is on the web and search engines can find anything. All old records have been digitised too so you should be able to go back years. You can't with Dad, not easily – it's like he never existed. Shaw's the same and so are the other names on those headstones. It's actually like they've been redacted from the internet – you know, the sort of thing they did years ago when paper documentation was used, they'd put big black lines through names and things they didn't want people to know about.

I've got the uneasy feeling that I should do what Dad was doing and burn it all. I know I'm a lawyer and everything but sometimes it's better not to know the truth.

Hello, what's this? Jesus Christ! It's a photo with names on the back. Ok, this is very lucky. Here's Dad with Reese, Finch, and Root – I wonder if that's Groves? Odds on that it is. Nice looking girl anyway. They're in a park having a picnic and Reese has got a bowling shirt on, wonder if I can make out the team name – might be able to track him from that. Hmm, no Shaw, maybe she took the photo. Anyway it proves Dad and the others were all part of the same thing, whatever that thing was. Or maybe still is. That's a point – if there are others still around maybe they won't like me sniffing about.

Yeah, I'm reaching make-your-mind-up time. Do I push on and find out what Dad and the rest were doing or let them rest in peace? The big worry, of course, is that it was something bad, illegal even. What do I do with that knowledge?

Oh no! Just found a key. Looks like one for a safety deposit box. Ok I've got to go on now, even if it's just to dispose of any evidence that's in the box. Look let's meet up tomorrow and I'll tell you how I got on.