6:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Delmonico's Steak House
56 Beaver Street
New York City, New York.
Darnell Potter exited his chauffeured car and walked inside the landmark steakhouse.
The maître d looked up from the reservations book and smiled.
"Reverend Potter, welcome to Delmonico's." He greeted.
"Thank you." He replied. "I'm meeting Commissioner Reagan at seven o'clock but I'm a little early."
"The Commissioner is a very punctual man so he should be arriving shortly. In the meantime, would you like me to take you to your table, or would you like to wait for him at the bar?"
"The bar if you don't mind." Potter replied.
"Of course, please, right this way" the maître d offered as he guided Potter to the beautiful wood bar. "Upon his arrival I will let the Commissioner know that you are waiting for him."
Potter ordered a single malt on the rocks and took a sip. Many thoughts flooded his mind. He wanted to pick Frank's brain but he didn't want to seem intrusive or disrespectful, sure, they had their professional differences, but this was about as personal as it could get, the loss of a child.
He figured that he must have zoned out in thought for he felt a hand gently on his shoulder followed by a soft "Darnell?"
He turned to see Frank Reagan smiling down at him.
"Frank, hello, thank you for coming. Sorry, I was lost in thought." He replied as he stood to shake the PC's hand.
"No need to apologize, I didn't mean to startle you." Frank responded.
"Please, may I order you a drink?" Potter offered.
Frank looked to the bar tender. "I'll have what he's having, and put them both on my tab."
"No Frank, please, I insist. I invited you out. The least I can do is take care of our tab tonight." Potter responded.
Frank nodded. "As you wish."
After a few minutes of small talk about how Potter and his wife were doing, and Potter's inquiring as to Frank's family, the two picked up from the bar and walked over to Frank's customary corner booth.
"Gives us some privacy." He noted as the two men slid in.
"I appreciate it, especially considering our prior bouts with the media." Potter acknowledged.
Menus were presented and after ordering, Potter got down to the crux of the meeting.
"I only had the one child, but he was my life. At the end of the day, it was just him and Lois. All I could think about for the first two days after his death was this was the end of my life as I knew it, how could I go on, how could Lois and I move forward as a couple, the irony of Michael's murder and I can't come up with an explanation or an answer on how to deal with the fact that a boy I tried to save from a life of crime ordered my son's murder, and then you said something to me that makes me believe you may have an answer to that irony."
"What would that be?" Frank inquired.
"That your son was killed by a crooked cop." Potter replied.
Frank nodded. "Not just any crooked cop, his partner, the one person above all others who was supposed to have his back, to protect him against any danger he faced on the street."
Potter was aghast. "My God."
Frank leaned forward drawing Potter in as well. "Joe was a detective assigned to the Warrant Squad. Great hours, lots of overtime, but you never knew who or what awaited you on the other side of the door you knocked on, or kicked in. Desperate people and all. He could have been a homicide or major case detective like Danny, but solving crimes wasn't his thing. I always said that my Irish son was part Cajun bloodhound." Frank chuckled which got a smile out of Potter.
"He loved the Hunt." Potter commented.
"He did." Frank nodded. "Some of the stories he would tell at the dinner table, even Danny was mesmerized and trust me, he has some pretty good stories of his own."
"I have an idea as to how a few of those might go." Potter grinned.
"Turned out that a we had a few bad apples in the department. The FBI became suspicious that some cops in the Warrant Squad were busting drug operations and keeping the drugs and cash for themselves. The FBI asked Joe to be their inside man. At some point, his partner became suspicious and on May 15, 2009, Joe was ambushed and shot dead by his partner, who then murdered two additional men who were blamed for killing Joe. We, meaning me and my family, bought the story hook, line, and sinker and continued to believe it for over two years. We thought that the Joe's murder was a closed case, so we grieved and we had moved on."
"What changed that?" Potter inquired.
"Jamie, graduated Harvard Law and was supposed to stay out of the family business. When Joe was killed, he decided to become a cop to honor his fallen brother. Cost him his fiancée who left him. On the day he graduated the police academy, he was approached by the FBI to continue where Joe left off however, Jamie has a lot of Danny in him and he was suspicious of the FBI so he investigated the matter himself. One night, an attempt was made on his life and he went to Danny with everything he had learned and within a couple of days solved their brother's murder. Here a crooked cop had killed my boy and all that time I could only think that as the PC, by approving Joe's assignment to the Warrant Squad, I had inadvertently sent my son to his death." Frank stated.
"Frank, you couldn't have known that, it's no different than Detective Reagan chasing down a suspect, or Officer Reagan pulling over a drunk driver, there's always that unknown risk. You can't carry that weight, that's falls on the crooked cops." Potter replied.
"No more than you can carry the weight of what happened to Michael. You sent him off that day to school and afterward to engage in a math competition, which I hear he won. On his way home he did what any 15 year old boy should be free to do after school, he walked into a legitimate business and purchased some video games. It wasn't your fault, or his mother's, or even his that Omar Davis put a blanket contract out just to initiate Dante Micklewhite into his crew. That weight belongs to Davis, to Micklewhite, and to their parents for failing to raise them right, the way you raised Michael, and the way I raised my sons and daughter." Frank concluded.
Potter nodded. "I agree but still, you feel that somehow you failed them." He began before being stopped by Frank.
"Darnell, Michael was 15, not 8. He had a life, and he chose to live that life and 15 I can tell you, that means they want some amount of freedom to do as they please. Joe and Jamie weren't too bad. Danny and Erin on the other hand, those are stories for another time and another dinner." Frank grinned.
"Somehow I just don't see Detective Reagan as the playful type, as I can envision Jamison to be." Potter replied.
"I've noticed how you keep referring to Danny as "Detective Reagan". Frank noted.
Potter nodded. "Daniel, doesn't give off that warm fuzzy feeling though I do have a new-found respect and appreciation for his abilities."
Frank explained: "Danny served two tours with the Marine Corps in Iraq. That plus over 20 years of seeing the worst that humanity has to offer right here in our city has shaped him to be the way he is but he is a devoted husband and father and a very protective big brother to Erin and Jamie."
"There must be an interesting dynamic to your children's relationship with one another." Potter noted.
Frank nodded: "Danny is the eldest, Erin is two years his junior. Joe was three years younger than Erin and five years older than Jamie. Joe and Jamie were best friends but Joe, he was the patient one. Danny, Erin and Jamie have a bit of my temper but Joe, you would have liked him, he could sit down with anyone and calmly discuss anything."
"Why didn't Erin join the force?" Potter asked.
"She never felt the calling like her great grandfather, grandfather, and her brothers and I did. She felt that she could serve in a different way. Erin likes to say that having three brothers prepared her to become a lawyer. If she wasn't brokering a deal between two of them, she was figuring out which one of the three had done something they were guilty of. That, and she spent a lot of time defending Jamie from his brothers and their mock kangaroo court. For some reason, Jamie was always the defendant whom Danny arrested and Joe prosecuted. Poor Jamie didn't stand a chance, but he idolized his brothers. Danny was married, had one son and another on the way, and took his role as big brother seriously, still does. Joe was single, had this great job, drove a classic '71 Chevelle, dressed and lived the part of Mr. Cool, and as you may expect." Frank stated while raising his eyebrows.
"He had all the women he could handle." Potter smiled.
"And then some, but he did eventually meet a wonderful girl and that settled him down. I think had he lived another month he would have proposed. We found the ring."
"Michael was all Lois" Potter commiserated. "Her smile, her intellect, her positive attitude, her calm demeanor, but he had my curiosity and tenacity. If he wanted to accomplish something, nobody stood in his way."
Frank reached into the attaché case he sometimes carried with him and brought out a photograph of Joe in his NYPD dress blues which he handed over to Potter.
Potter looked at it confused. "This is Officer Reagan, Jamison, your youngest." He commented.
Frank warmly smiled, as he was use to the visual miscues between his middle and youngest sons.
"Meet Detective Joseph Reagan. He was three weeks short of his thirty-second birthday when he was murdered. That photograph was taken on his 30th birthday. Jaime isn't much older than that now."
"Remarkable resemblance." Potter noted.
Frank handed Potter a photograph of the four siblings.
"Taken the Easter Sunday prior to Joe's death."
Potter smiled at the three brothers huddled around their sister. "Easy to tell who kept your sons in line."
"Still does. She practically raised Jamie and still exerts a good amount of influence over her brothers." Frank replied.
"I remember when she was shot in the courtroom. I knew about Joe. Despite our differences, I asked those around me to pray that you didn't lose another child that day." Potter admitted.
"I'm grateful that all of our prayers were answered, and that Danny saved her."
"You never talk about your wife." Potter stated.
"Mary" Frank began. "Like Lois is to you, Mary was the better part of, and everything to me. She was a wonderful mother and there are days I truly did not know how she survived raising Danny, Erin, and Joe, let alone Jamie. We lost her to breast cancer in September 2005."
"Ever make Lois a promise?" Frank inquired.
"Of course." Potter answered.
"Kept every one?" Frank asked.
"Yes, as far as I can recall." Potter answered.
"Me too, except for the last one. On her deathbed, Mary made me promise that I would not allow Jamie to follow his brothers into the NYPD. Only promise I ever broke. Was bad enough when Joe died, but his mother had made her peace with Danny and Joe being cops, but Jamie was to follow Erin into the law." Frank explained. "Every day he is out there I wonder how I would explain it to his mother if anything happened to him."
"What reason would you give?" Potter asked.
"That Jamie's vocation wasn't her choice to make, nor was it mine. It was his as his alone, you see Darnell, we can feed them, teach them, and put bandages on their cuts and scrapes, and show them how to fend for and take care of themselves, but we can't live their lives for them. Would I like to put a big dome over my family and keep them safe, or would I like to assign Jamie to the Legal Department and Danny to the Motor Pool so that they remain safe, of course I would but that would be selfish of me and unfair to them, not to mention a loss to this city of a couple of very good skill sets." Frank concluded.
"So what you are telling me is that in spite of the irony we have both lived through, we have been blessed with the time we have had with those we have lost, and the ability to cherish those who remain." Potter stated.
"Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds. I have always kept an open mind, a flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of the intelligent search for truth."
"Malcom X" Potter noted.
Frank nodded. "You have Lois to help you through your grief and you have an obligation to support her in her grief. You two are a team and while losing a child is a pain no parent should have to bear, losing the love of your life is worse. Fortunately, I had my four children to help me through Mary's death, and then my remaining three to help me get through Joe. We turn to those who are left to us and we stand strong for those who remain. We are also both fortunate enough to have a close circle of those we trust who if we let in, will also be there for us to lighten the load of that grief."
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