Intentional End
Chapter 34
Friday Afternoon
October 19
"Here you are," the young guy in Tech Forensics said to Falacci with a big smile, offering a folder. "How'd I do?"
Nola Falacci smiled broadly, checked her watch and said with feigned surprise, "You are really something, you know! Seven minutes! You did all that for me in seven minutes. No wonder you were third in your class. I'll tell you, the NYPD is lucky to have you."
The kid smiled and blushed. "Well, I'm lucky to be here."
Falacci took the folder with a smile and said, "Next time I need anything done with technology, you're my go-to." The kid turned red and looked down shyly. She continued with, "Now, about this computer . . ." and explained that it was an FBI machine and probably secured and she needed to be able to get to the files. So, would he be able to work his magic and get inside so she could look around?
"This is my favourite thing to do – go where no man is supposed to go," he answered, conspiratorially; and then he listened to what he said and, apparently in his mind, it became some bizarre, sexual innuendo and he went six shades red.
Falacci buried a laugh and said, "Thank you, young man. You'll call me when you do get inside, right?" The kid nodded without looking at her and she turned away, smiling. I do have a way with the fellas, she said to herself.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deakins slipped the pieces of the DVD into his suit coat pocket and felt sick to his stomach. In his entire career, he'd never done anything like this. Certainly, corners had been cut, shot cuts taken, portions of truth evaded or spun; but nothing like evidence tampering. Involving Logan bothered Deakins; in essence, Mike Logan was an accessory.
Jimmy Deakins felt twice his age and wondered how long he was going to be able to do this job. That decision might be made for him if word of this ever got out. He was confident that he could trust Logan; Mike is a good man, Deakins told himself, and he believed it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Falacci sat at her desk examining every name on Wycoff's contact list. The woman was rabid with this kind of thing – she would not stop until she found something, anything, to inspect. She believed that humans are stupid, weak creatures, sloppy in their endeavours. In her mind, everyone left a trail of detritus behind them as they walked through life, a line of evidence pointing right to them.
Everyone except the government, that is; those people are well trained and disciplined, which made them harder to catch. However, even in the government, there are those who just don't make the mark. Apparently, this Wycoff turned out to be one of those. Why else would they have taken him out?
"What did you put in here that will hang you?" she mumbled to herself. "You left something because you are a putz, a weakling. Where is it?"
She scoured his contacts, looking for anything and, indeed, she found something. "Ha! You stupid human; gottcha." Rather, she hoped she had him – may be something, it may be nothing. She ripped off the sheet of paper where she had made notes and looked up, searching for her partner and found him leaving the Task Room, heading for Deakins' office, in a hurry.
She stood and met him on the way out, "I think I found something."
"Yeah, let me get this to Deakins, I'll, uh, I'll be with you in a few minutes," he said and stepped around her.
"What was on the DVD?" she said, starting after him.
Logan turned and glared at her, "I said in a few minutes."
Falacci took a step back and looked through the door at Deakins and saw him speak to Logan. A man club, she thought with disdain and walked away.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bobby bought two bottles of scotch and headed home. He glanced at the clock on the dash and figured he would have his first drink in about seven hours. First he would call Gladys and ask her to leave the apartment like it was; IF she hadn't already cleaned it out. He had a feeling the super was going to keep Gleason's apartment like a shrine for as long as she could; he knew the woman was in love with his wife.
Luck was with him and he found a spot near his building. Once inside, he shut and locked the apartment door, walked into the kitchen, and stopped short. On the kitchen table sat what looked like a week's worth of mail and a large cardboard box – Gleason's things. Ted must have accepted delivery of the box and brought it up with the mail, Bobby reasoned. He set the scotch on the table, removed his coat and took the box into the bedroom setting it on the bed.
He shut the bedroom door and took his knife from his left front packet, snapped it open and sliced through the tape holding the top closed. He clicked shut the knife and returned it to his pocket, then opened the box. An envelope lay on top, addressed to him. He withdrew the letter and sat to read it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You and I are the only two who know about this. You ever get questioned on this, you refer them to me. Understand?" Deakins told him.
Logan nodded and then mumbled, "Yeah, sure."
Deakins took a deep breath and then said softly, sadly, "Try to forget what you saw on the disk. Goren's had more than his share of pain. Let's just not think of it again, ok?"
"Absolutely, Captain."
"I'll take care of the disk before you return the evidence bin." Deakins rubbed his forehead and thought out loud, "Look, I'll take it from here. You don't need to be involved in anything more than this."
Logan nodded in appreciation and Deakins continued, "Go. Get back to work. This never happened." Again, Logan nodded, turned and left.
Jimmy Deakins was exhausted. I'm too old for this and too damn close to retirement to screw up now, he thought. No one needs to know I'm looking for a blank disk. If I ask the guys in Tech for a blank, they'll want to know why. He stretched out his arms in front, folded his hands and stretched, bent back his hands, snapping every knuckle. Let me check the cabinets in the View Room, one might be stashed in there, he told himself and headed that way.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Dear Mr. Goren,
I cannot tell you how sorry I am about your lovely wife dying. She was a very special, beautiful woman and. I am sorry I didn't have the chance to get to know her better.
All of her things are in this box, just as you put them. I hope they bring you some comfort.
I'll give you a call in a few days to see what you want me to do with the rest of her things. The apartment is paid up through the rest of the semester, so you are free to take your time making up your mind about things. No rush.
Mr. Goren, I know the battery in the CO detector was not bad. I changed it, and all the others, when we went back to standard time. Unless there was a bad one in the pack I don't know. I feel so guilty. And the heating valve is another thing. I check all the heaters at the start of fall, before it starts getting cool. That valve was fine on September 15. I'll swear to it.
Again, I am sorry I couldn't save her. I don't know how this happened. I did everything I was supposed to do. Please forgive me.
Sincerely,
Gladys O'Fannon
Quartermaine House Superintendnet
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So, what was on the DVD?" Falacci asked her partner from the open door. She had watched him walk from the Deakins' office back to the Task Room.
Logan jumped and stuttered, "Uh, nothing. Nothing, it's blank."
Falacci didn't believe him for a second. She stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. "Where is it?"
Logan looked at her with surprise and then tried to hide it. "Deakins' wants to check it." He felt sweaty.
She stared at him, reading his guilt and fear. "I don't know about this captain, but not one I've ever worked with checks evidence without the investigating detectives. What was on the disk that you and Deakins don't want anyone to know about?" She watched Logan shift. "Besides, why would a federal agent have a blank DVD in his briefcase?" She watched her partner squirm. "What was on the disk?"
Logan couldn't look at her so he looked inside the evidence bin, "I'm telling you, Falacci, the disk was blank. What did you find in his organiser?"
"It was sex, wasn't it?"
Logan's head snapped to face her. Falacci struggled to hide her smile, "Wycoff took the surveillance footage and burned a copy of Goren and his wife having sex." Logan looked at her in disbelief. "I'm right, aren't I?"
"Jesus, you are good," Logan offered with genuine admiration. "Uh, the Captain needs to know that you know."
"Let's go tell him."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eames wanted to tell Bobby that Sledge had called and would be in town. She glanced at the clock and decided to give him time to get home before she called. She ran her hands through her hair and looked at her watch, seven hours. Why did I say I'd pick up Edward, she wondered. You know why, you still love him, Eames told herself. No, no I don't. Yes you do, she argued, you never stopped loving him. But, Bobby, what about Bobby? Your feelings for him returned because Gleason is out of the picture and Edward went to DC and you're not sure about Peter.
She sighed heavily and went to fill her cup.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bobby read the letter twice. I was right, he told himself, the battery and heater had been tampered with. He reached for his cell and found her number.
"O'Fallon. How can I help you?"
"Gladys, Bobby Goren here."
"Oh, Mr. Goren, hi. Did the box arrive? I sent it the fastest way I could find."
"Yeah, yeah, thanks, it got here today. I, I just read your letter. Are you . . ." he needed to pause here, "are you saying this wasn't an accident?"
"This was no accident. I know these apartments inside and out. I do all of the inside work – all of it. And I keep meticulous records, everything is documented, work dates, times, description, product codes if needed. This was no accident."
Bobby's heart raced, son of a bitch, she was murdered. He squeezed his eyes with his fingers, took a deep breath and then said, "Ah, that's good, that's good – all your documentation. Listen, have you done anything inside her apartment? Has anyone been inside?"
"No, no one. Not since you were here. After you left, I took the box and locked up her apartment, then took the box to my place. It's been closed up since then. You thinking of investigating or something?"
"Uh, I'm not sure about anything yet. Say, can you make sure no one gets inside her apartment? Not even you. Can you do that?"
"You bet. I'll put a lock box on it and only I'll have the code. You going to come up here and check it out?"
"Like I said, I'm not sure yet, I'll let you know. I'll probably need your help, is that ok?"
The apartment super hesitated and Bobby heard her swallow, "Mr. Goren, I, I will do anything to help you find out what happened to your wife. She, she didn't deserve this. You don't deserve this. You tell me what to do and I'll do it."
Bobby had never liked this woman, in fact she repulsed him; but right now, she was the only one willing to help him, and his gratitude overflowed his heart. The lump in his throat made it hard to speak, "Thank you Gladys, thank you. I'll, I'll call you in a few days."
The pair was quiet and then Gladys asked, "I know this is a stupid question, but, how are you? You doing ok?"
A few deep breaths and then, "I, I have to go. Thanks. I'll call you." He had to hang up before he lost it completely.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ok, here's the deal," Deakins began, "I destroyed the disk and replaced it. We need to be straight on this. Chances are excellent nothing will come of this case."
The trio was silent a minute then Deakins said to Falacci, "So you understand the sensitive nature of this whole situation, right?"
"Of course, no question; you lie and I'll swear to it." Deakins nodded in what looked like relief and then Falacci said, "If he burned it using his laptop, chances are excellent there's a copy on his hard drive as well." She watched them tense up.
"Where's the laptop right now?" Deakins asked.
"I took it down to Tech. It's a government machine and will be locked up tight. I asked the kid down there to get past the security."
"Ok. Let him get inside and then bring it up here," Deakins told the pair.
The detectives nodded and left.
Will this week never end? Deakins wondered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday Night
Alex drove to JFK, parked in short term and sat with both hands on the wheel. What am I doing, she asked herself, this is such a mistake. Her mind was a swirl of emotion. Peter had called earlier and wanted to go to dinner, but she told him an old friend was coming into town and they were going to hang out all weekend; she said she would call him Monday.
Get through tonight, she told herself, and then Sledge will meet with Bobby tomorrow, if Sledge agrees to help. Get through tonight, right; what does that even mean, she wondered. The time on the dash told her to get going, his flight was due in fifteen minutes. Alex pulled down the driver-side visor, flipped up the lid over the mirror and checked her face but she couldn't make eye contact with herself.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first bottle of scotch was a third short at seven; Bobby had started drinking after his call to Gladys. Before he started drinking, however, he began to remove Gleason's things from the box her apartment super had sent; he didn't get very far. Her carpet bag sat on top; he removed it and sat on the edge of the bed, running his hand over the nubby surface. Tears filled his eyes when he held it open to his face and inhaled. He sobbed and then set it in the bottom of the closet where it had always been, continuing to the kitchen.
Now, he sat in his chair, in the dark, intending to finish the bottle. He drank steadily and purposefully, determined to drink until he died of alcohol poisoning. Even as he sat there, he knew this was not the worst of his pain and that frightened him.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Standing with her hands in her coat pockets outside security, Eames looked at the people heading to baggage claim; Edward said he would meet her upstairs near ticketing as he would be travelling light. He saw her before she saw him and his heart quickened.
A smile lit his face as he watched her toss her head to get the hair from her eyes; hair like silken wheat, he thought. Then, she saw him. Their eyes locked and she stepped to meet him, suddenly hot, scared, nervous and excited. He pushed through the swinging gate and met her with his arms open and she fell into his embrace. With both hands on either side of her head, he kissed her long and deep. People grumbled as they stepped around the two, others smiled.
The kiss broke and he looked down at her said, "I have missed you so much, Hon."
Eames swallowed and said softly, "Come on, let's go."