Chapter 7
After a restless and sleepless night, Albert knew it was useless to continue to pretend that he would get any sleep. His mind was still spinning, what was going to happen in this appointment today? Only one thing was certain, his relationship with his father was over. There was no more pretending that he was going to come back.
In an effort to still his roiling thoughts, Albert got out of bed. Trying not to disturb Valerie, he quietly pulled on his sweats and his running shoes. He silently left the house and started his run. The more he ran the calmer he felt. The more he sweated, the more his mind was alert. The harder he breathed, the better he could see answers. It was an incredible rush that he had begun to appreciate more and more! Albert had never understood the fascination with exercise before. Now he knew what it could do. He knew how it could make him feel. He had even started to bring a small recorder with him so that he could keep track of ideas that popped into his head.
The alarm clock suffered another assault as Valerie slammed her hand down to hit the snooze button. That stupid thing was so loud and so harsh it nearly gave her a heart attack every morning. Valerie turned it off and stretched her muscles. Her arm came down on the other side of the bed. She expected to feel Albert there, ready to gently wake him up to face the day with her. But all she found was a cool sheet over the empty mattress. Albert was gone, and had been for a while from the look of it.
Smiling, she noticed that his newly broken in running shoes were missing too. Albert had gone on another run this morning. This was beginning to become a habit for him. And she appreciated the fact that he could sneak out without waking her up. He knew how much she loved her sleep. The smile spread further across her face as she slowly got out of bed, starting her morning ritual of stretching and yawning and she made her way first into the bathroom and second to the kitchen.
A symphony of scents welcomed Albert back home. The house smelled wonderful, Albert followed the delicious aromas into the kitchen. He saw Valerie rolling oranges back and forth on the cutting board, getting them ready for squeezing. "Ah, fresh squeezed orange juice," he thought. "That is my favorite." His attention was directed to the stove with the pops and sizzling sounds of bacon cooking.
Valerie reached over to remove the bacon and place it on a plate covered with paper towels to drain, and then she went back to the oranges. She had sliced each orange in half and had just put down the knife when Albert came up behind her and gave her a squeeze of his own. She squealed, delighted, and turned around in his arms to give him a great, big hug. It was a wonderful start to a beautiful morning.
"Surprise!" she breathed into his ear. "I wanted you to be ready for your appointment, so I made all of your favorite things."
Albert took a closer look, she had made French toast, with nutmeg and cinnamon, just the way he liked. There was also the bacon, the orange juice, hot blueberry muffins and poached eggs, all of his favorite breakfast foods. She had gone to all this trouble for him. And at that moment, all he really needed was her. He held her even tighter, and suddenly he couldn't seem to get close enough to her. She was his everything, his life, his soul. He would do anything for her! And here she was doing everything she could for him, to make him feel better and more confident to face what would be happening today.
Sometimes it surprised him, amazed him that two people could share such a love. He had never seen his parents like this. They had never openly shown any love toward each other, and Albert often felt that he was traveling uncharted waters with Valerie. But his voyage of discovery with her was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him. Albert knew he was loved, that was all that mattered to him, especially today when there was so much uncertainty.
Valerie pulled back, and kissed him before she went back to squeezing the oranges. She motioned for him to take a seat at the table where she had set a place especially for him, complete with a note tucked under his plate. As he reached for the note, Valerie playfully slapped his hand away. She put down his orange juice and whispered into his ear, "that is for later," she said. "Take it with you, but don't read it until you get there." She gave the instructions speaking close to his ear. Her breath tickled his neck and shivers traveled throughout his body. All thoughts of the note were forgotten. She kissed his cheek and straightened up. "Eat your breakfast," she smiled at him.
The plate in front of him was a work of art. An explosion of color with deep red strawberries and purple grapes, alongside a half slice of a ruby red grapefruit. Albert ate all of the fruit. He ate the eggs, he drank his orange juice. He knew how much work the muffins were, so he ate one, just one, instead of his usual 3 or 4, he wanted to show Valerie how much he appreciated the effort she made. And he savored it like nothing else he had ever eaten in his life, just for that reason. Valerie noticed that he left the rest of the muffins and the French toast. He even left the bacon, which she knew was his favorite food of all time. Without saying a word, Albert had told her that his lifestyle choices were changing. He had become so much more aware of his habits lately. He worked out every day at RangeMan. More mornings than not, he got up early and went running. And now his food choices were improving as well.
Valerie was not upset that he did not eat all that she had prepared for him. She just smiled and determined in that moment to do everything that she could to support him in his new found lifestyle. She would spend a good portion of the day doing research and making menus of healthy meals that the whole family would enjoy. Valerie knew that this would make Albert happy, knowing that she had noticed the subtle changes and that she cared so much about him.
Although he hadn't really been to NYC that often, Albert was able to drive most of the way on auto pilot. His mind was spinning. He should be nervous about the appointment that he was traveling to this morning. Usually he would agonize over every detail, the ones he knew, as well as the ones he didn't. He would overthink every one of those details until he made himself anxious and physically ill. But not today. Albert felt calm, reassured by Valerie's loving efforts for breakfast, and by her parting kiss as he left the house this morning. She had truly taken away all of the angst that he had been feeling about this whole situation.
That left his mind free to mull over the details of the case he was working on with Stephanie. Weeks of gathering bits of information, of researching, of talking with Hector to learn about gangs, of going over every word that Jake and Nicki had told them. The pieces of the puzzle were finally falling into place. He felt that he was close to finding the answers that would help save Tony. Albert really wanted to be able to talk to him; he knew doing so could answer a lot of his questions. If only he could just talk to Tony. But for now that was impossible.
Albert examined his thoughts. The key to putting all the pieces together was there at the edges of his mind, so he forced himself to focus and start analyzing everything that he knew. He started with Tony. Tony was part of the gang, no dispute there. But why he joined the gang in the first place was a mystery, he didn't seem to like it or want to be part of it. But he was there. He was also the new kid. Did having Tony take the fall for the break-in some kind of a test of his loyalty? The break-in gave them the opportunity to see how he would react, what he would do and say after being arrested. If this was the test, Tony was passing it with flying colors. Since his arrest he had refused to talk with any one.
Getting picked up by the cops could be part of that test. But something did not feel right about that. It was just too convenient that the cops were there within a few short minutes of RangeMan's response to the silent alarm that was set off in the office building. The rest of the gang members were able to get out quickly, leaving only Tony behind to take the heat. Why? How did that all really go down? Jake and Nicki had both been watching things unfold that night, and they both agreed that Tony had time to get out too, but he stayed. He stayed long enough to get caught. Why? From all the evidence or lack thereof, Albert also knew that Tony was taken into custody under suspicious circumstances. When they cuffed him and hauled him away, they left behind a crime scene that they did absolutely nothing with. There was no investigation of the crime scene, no searching for clues or evidence. In fact they left a group of men standing right in the middle of the crime scene, which should have been cordoned off and protected to avoid evidence contamination.
Albert felt the police arrived too quickly and they left too quickly. Tony was placed in Juvenile detention immediately. No charges were actually brought against him, and he was being held without any order from a court. If someone had wanted Tony out of the way, they had done an effective job. But Why? Nicki had told them that Tony was part of the gang in an effort to watch over his cousin. But now Tony was being uncooperative despite the pleadings from his parents.. He wasn't talking. He would not say anything to the police, and he refused to have any legal counsel assigned to him. What if he knew too much about the break-in, or he didn't know enough about it to help his own cause. In any case, somehow he had been set up as the fall guy. But on the surface it looked like whoever was in charge of the whole operation was taking a huge chance, hoping that the new kid would be silent about what he knew and what he had seen. Albert had a sneaky suspicion as to what the real story was, and it made him more anxious to speak with the accused as soon as possible.
The picture on Nicky's camera left no doubts. Albert had been agonizing over finding out that Joe Morelli was the dirty cop who was in charge of the gangs activities. It wasn't so hard to believe that a cop could be dirty. Based on the stories he had heard in dealings with rogue cops, this was the easy part. But what bothered him the most was that it was Morelli. He had a hard time accepting that someone Stephanie had been so close to could be part of this. He knew Stephanie to be a pretty good judge of character. She would surely have known if Joe was the kind of person that could be involved in this kind of betrayal. But Albert was quite aware that some of the guys at RangeMan were willing to believe the worst of Joe. All Albert knew was that it just didn't fit with what he knew of Joe Morelli through Stephanie. But on the other hand, it was definitely Morelli in the picture that Nicki took. In fact, Morelli was in all the pictures that she took. The evidence was overwhelming. But what did it all mean?
His mind was going in circles; this train of thought was getting him nowhere, so instead he tightened his thoughts to what he absolutely knew. It had interested him to find that the break-in happened at a business that developed and sold computer software programs. This had to be significant in some way. Albert had done his homework and they had checked out as a legitimate business. And because their business centered on the manufacturing of intellectual property, they believed it was important to hire RangeMan to protect their premises. He couldn't agree more, it was perfectly reasonable. For now the police were treating the break-in as a robbery however there had been no report filed about what had actually been stolen.
Something about the business had crossed his mind earlier this morning. Albert pulled out his little recorder and hit rewind. Listening carefully to his own voice, he heard the following, "Nothing was stolen. Maybe the important fact about this business is that it was being protected by RangeMan." Albert took in a deep breath, the puzzle piece that was now slipping into place was big, really big. "What if," he said out loud to himself, "Oh man, what if Tony was being protected by someone? What if he was taken out of the gang's control for his own safety?" His thoughts went immediately to Nicki. There was something she had said the night she was found by Hector. It might be the key he was searching for.
There was a small ledge outside a skylight window in the ugly building that the gang used as their hangout. Nicki found it to be the perfect place to hide whenever she went to watch Tony. It was just high enough to be out of the line of sight for everyone inside, but close enough that she could hear most of what was being said, and she could see the majority of the main room. So after sneaking away from home, she came directly to her hiding spot. She was determined to get a good picture so they could help identify the man who seemed to be in charge of the gang's activities. As soon as she arrived, the guy was there, and as luck would have it, he was standing in the middle of a group of guys, facing the window. She was able to get a perfect shot. She was smiling to herself as she dropped her phone into her bag. "See, piece of cake, I'll get back and Jake won't even know that I was gone," she thought.
A sudden, unexpected, noise caught her off guard and Nicki nearly fell off the ledge. She jerked forward in an awkward attempt to regain her balance. Someone inside had lost control of a rubber ball they were playing with and it hit the window. The guys were all laughing at the mistake, teasing the kid about his pitiful aim. But there were two people still staring at the window, looking at the silhouette in the darkness. The first person grabbed his friend and they ran out of the building and raced to the window. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw Nicki lowering herself from the ledge.
He was angry. He didn't like the idea of anyone spying on him and he grabbed her forcefully by her hair before she could touch the ground. Before she could scream, he threw her down on the ground, knocking the wind out of her lungs. She was stunned, and looked up at him in time to see his hand coming right at her face. She tried to duck, but he made full contact to the side of her face. Almost immediately pain shot through her face and down her neck. Stunned by the first blow, she was still trying to catch her breath as she rolled as far away from his next assault as she could. She wasn't fast enough and he grabbed her arm and connected with another blow to her face. Panic gripped her and she tried to yank her arm out of his grasp. But he was holding her tight and pulled her up toward him. His friend stepped up, she saw the hard look in his eyes just as he backhanded her across the face, causing her head to snap back and slam into the chin of the guy holding her.
"You stupid bitch," he growled at her.
"What the hell are you doing here?" His friend demanded. His hand came forward and Nicki knew that there was no way she could get away from another hit, so she closed her eyes, bracing for it. Her head and face were throbbing, and she was still breathing hard from being thrown to the ground. Pain was radiating throughout her body and she knew it was only the beginning. But it was the panic that filled her heart that was most devastating, leaving her with the thought in the back of her mind that she had really messed up this time, and that her life was in danger.
Miraculously the punch didn't come. Instead Nicki felt herself being grabbed out the hands of her attackers. She almost couldn't comprehend what was happening now, as stars were starting to explode behind her eyes. The two guys were nearly snarling at the new comer, throwing words at him in low menacing tones.
"She is ours to deal with, I found her snooping around here,"
"Yeah, we have our own way to deal with stupid bitches like her," both were determined to dish out their own form of justice.
"Leave her alone, it's not worth it," the older voice said. "Don't be stupid."
"She was spying through the window," he spit out the words. "I'll kill her!"
"Right, and what did she see? "A few kids playing a game of catch with a stupid rubber ball, that's it?" The voice closest to her continued to explain, sounding exasperated that he should even have to make the effort. "She didn't see anything, but think about it, how much unwelcome heat you will bring down on us if a dead body shows up around here."
The argument was still going on, but Nicki couldn't concentrate on what was being said. Vaguely she was aware that the voices had stopped. The pain in her head was increasing and she felt nauseous and wanted to just curl up and hope that it would all go away. But suddenly she was shoved forward. "Run" she heard the voice say. It was a quiet word, but spoken with force and urgency behind it. It became the only focus in her brain and she ran. As fast as she could make her legs move, she ran out of the alley. She put all of her efforts into getting away from here. But she could feel darkness trying to close in around the edges of her vision. Her heart was racing and she could feel her pulse pounding in her ears. She stumbled, and fell hard to the ground. Desperation hit as she knew she would lose consciousness at any moment.
And then she saw him, the guy with the tattoo. Jake trusted him, he could help her. That was the last thought that she had before everything went black. Several hours passed before she finally woke up. And when she did the first person she saw was Jake. Jake was there and the guilt hit her hard. She had lied to him, let him down. Tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to speak, but she was unable to make a sound. Jake hugged her tight, and whispered over and over "It's okay. You're safe now. It's okay." He had become absolutely frantic when he saw how battered she was. His relief, when she woke up, was as much for him as it was for her.
Slowly the tightness in her chest eased enough for her to say something. "Jake, it was him." It wasn't enough to explain what she meant, and she knew that he didn't understand. So she tried again. "The man in the picture, it was him," Jake tensed up, he was angry and he immediately wanted revenge. Her words failed to make him understand the significance of what she was trying to tell him, but she understood the look on his face. "No, Jake," she cried out to him. "The man saved me tonight," she said. "He told the others to leave me alone," her voice was not strong but she made herself be heard. "He made them stop hurting me. He helped me get out of there." Nicki noticed the looks that were being exchanged between the men in the room. "I don't know why, but it almost felt like he was protecting me." She insisted. "I don't know what would have happened if he wasn't there."
Albert remembered what she had said, and now things were making sense. He had a gut feeling about what he thought really happened, but he reminded himself that any attorney will tell you that these types of hunches aren't enough to convince anyone of anything, not until he could back them up with facts. But the pieces all fit and he knew that he needed to put it all together. He again concluded that he needed to talk to Tony as soon as possible. And he knew he wanted to talk with Hector when he returned to compare notes and find out what he had discovered during his own investigation. Albert felt confident he was getting closer to solving the case and he felt the remaining puzzle pieces would soon fall into place. Albert knew that Stephanie would be very pleased with his hard work and attention to details. This thought brought a smile to Albert's face.
Suddenly Albert realized that he had passed his exit. He was so caught up in his thoughts he had actually gone four exits further than he had planned on going. Laughing out loud at himself, he quickly turned off the recorder and tried to figure out the new route he would now have to take to get to the Attorney's office. Exiting the freeway, he felt a little silly for having zoned out, but it would only end up costing him a few minutes. His mind had been engaged in solving this puzzle for nearly two hours, he was starting to see the whole picture forming.