Kermit motioned for Powell to join him. "Navarro and his lawyer are here."
"I was beginning to think we were going to have to arrest him," Powell said. "Not that I'm convinced we won't end up doing that anyway."
"Yeah, unfortunately when we arrest him for trashing Peter's place, we'll make it so that his wife sticks around and I don't get the impression that Pete is at all interested in getting to know his mother." He said as they walked toward the interrogation room.
"Do you blame him?" Jody asked.
"Nope," Kermit said and opened the door to step inside.
"Thank you for coming in to speak with us," Jody said, taking point on the interview. She was occasionally a little brusk and usually was the silent partner in interviews for the most part but Kermit was so much better at being the intimidating presence in the room that she wanted him to be precisely that. Intimidating behind his dark green sunglasses. "I'm Detective Powell and this is Detective Griffin." She offered her hand and the lawyer was the only one to offer to shake it.
"I'm David Collins. How can we help you, Detective?"
"I suppose we can start with how your client's fingerprints came to be in the Caine residences."
"They didn't," Navarro said flatly.
"But they did, Mr. Navarro. Our Criminalistics unit dusted both locations and the only unexplained fingerprints belonged to you."
"No, they did not," Navarro answered, once again flatly.
"Javier," Collins said, "I'm advising you not to answer to these allegations."
"The prints were verified through Interpol." Jody continued.
"Impossible," Javier said, ignoring his wife's lawyer. He knew how to handle these people.
"So you're saying that there was some sort of mistake?"
"Precisely."
Jody raised an eyebrow. "So Interpol made a mistake?"
"Yes."
"And this mistake just happened to come up with your name out of what… hundreds of thousands of prints available to them… and that mistake just happened to implicate you in criminal trespass, breaking and entering… and of course the destruction of private property… belonging to your … significant other's … husband and son. This was all just a misunderstanding, is that what you're telling me?" Jody said.
Javier's features darkened with anger when she referred to Caine as Laura's husband. This was not supposed to get out. "That is precisely what I am telling you."
Jody was not at all intimidated by the man's scowls or his tone. "Of course, if you would let us fingerprint you, then we'd be able to clear things up in a matter of minutes one way or the other."
"No, I don't believe we will be doing that, Detective," Collins said.
"And why is that?" She asked. "If this is all one big mistake and you were never in either apartment then there is no reason not to do so. As I said it would clear the matter up with no shadow of doubt."
"You have our answer, Detective."
"Then I have no reason not to consider the information we have accurate and we'll proceed from there," Jody said. "Now, once again, what were you doing in Peter Caine and Leanne Garret's apartment?" That was the one that was not only the one with the most damage done, but it was the place that he'd have had to break into. Peter's father tended to leave things unlocked and have an open door policy that Jody thought bordered on suicidal and it would be harder to prove that Navarro had done anything more than walk in looking for Caine and leave.
"How often do I have to tell you I wasn't there." Navarro growled, "Are you mentally deficient?"
"Your fingerprints were found at the scene, on some particularly expensive items that had been broken."
"No, they weren't." He insisted again. "Now I'd like our passports returned immediately."
"Not until this matter is cleared up to our satisfaction." She said. "As I said you have the option of giving us your fingerprints so that we can exclude you… that is if you really do believe that Interpol gave us a false match."
"Kwai Chang Caine's brother works for Interpol," Navarro said.
"I'm aware. We didn't speak to Agent Bradshaw. The fingerprints were matched through AFIS. That's not his department. So no you were not set up by the Caine family. What was it you were after?"
"I wasn't after anything." Javier said, "I was never there."
"This line of questioning is getting redundant, detective." Collins would say that he lost control of Navarro but the truth was he'd never had it to begin with. What was the point of having a lawyer if you didn't listen to him?
"That happens when people don't answer our questions. We have to ask them again, and again, and again." Jody said.
"Unless you're going to arrest my client this interview is at an end," Collins said. His only hope was to get his client out of there before he did or said something even more foolish.
Kermit got to his feet. "Well, if you insist." He said and produced a pair of handcuffs. "Javier Navarro, I'm placing you under arrest." Kermit listed the charges and then read him his Miranda rights. When the Spaniard didn't rise from his seat, he reached for his arm to drive the point home and there was a split second that he thought the man was going to hit him. He was a little disappointed that he didn't.
Once he was cuffed, Jody smirked. "Looks like we get those fingerprints after all."
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Leanne handed Peter a cup of coffee and an orange. "One of these days we're going to wake up early enough to have a proper breakfast." She said.
"What's this proper breakfast you speak of?" Peter teased.
She gave him a playful smile. "I don't know… rice."
"And on that note, I'll be sleeping till noon from here on out." He teased back.
"That's not fair." She said.
"Sure it is. All you have to do is schedule your clients for after lunch and it's perfectly fair. "
"Yeah but then lunch turns into Coffee and fruit."
Peter shrugged "Yeah but we get to sleep later."
"And stay up later…"
"There is no logical way to end this is there." He grabbed his keys.
"Nope." She said, walking toward the door. She paused then went back picking up the small bottle she had set on the counter.
"Is that the mystery ingredient for my father?" Peter asked.
She nodded. "Maybe he can make it less of a mystery."
"You're still worried." He said as he locked the door behind them.
"Of course, I'm still worried." She shrugged. "I'm not worried about suddenly waking up evil or anything, I think your father of all people would have been able to see if there was a blemish on my qi because of the elixir, but I am still worried about what that ingredient might be."
"Let my father worry about that." It bothered him too, he wasn't going to say that it didn't. But it ate at Leanne. "We have one man's word that there is anything wrong with it," Peter said.
"A shamballa master." She pointed out.
"Okay, there are a few things I learned when interviewing people when I was a cop. One, People are biased, doesn't matter who they are they have biases. Two, People can only tell the truth as they know it. Facts are facts but truth is variable. Three, it doesn't matter who someone is, what they do for a living, or how respected they are in their community, anyone is capable of lying." Peter said.
"You're right. I know you're right. But I have the sinking feeling that biased or not, truthful or not, that man is also right."
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"What do you mean you know nothing about it?" Laura asked. "They have arrested him for … for breaking into here and into Peter's place. Why would you tell the police that he had."
"I did not," Caine said. "Why would I do so?"
"Why would he break in? Why would they know to check Interpol for a match? Who does that?" She countered. "It makes no sense. You promised that you wouldn't make things-"
"Messy." Caine completed for her, his tone uncharacteristically angry. "I did not. He did when he broke into MY son's home and ransacked it. I do not care that he was in here. I did not feel threatened. That he attacked Peter is another matter."
"He's OUR son, not merely yours. I was the one that gave birth, remember."
"It was you who forgot. You forgot your son, you forgot your husband." As he had feared once he allowed the anger to come to the front it was impossible to put it back in its box. "You forgot that you needed to get divorced before you married again not after." He said sharply. "Why would he break in? Because he is a man like any other. What husband would not be angry to find that he is not truly a husband, but rather a means to an end."
"A means to an end? How dare you!" She yelled.
"I dare because I am a husband who is not truly a husband as well. I would befriend him as an equal. Two flies in your spider's web if it were not that he acted against MY son. The son you abandoned. The son I raised alone because you would rather keep secrets than come to me."
"I couldn't come to you. He would have undone everything, I would have died."
"You should have come to me when he first approached you," Caine yelled back.
The argument was loud, and heated. Neither of them heard the footfalls on the stairs.
"What good would that have done? It wasn't as though you could save me. God knows you shoved enough of your damned, useless potions down my throat. For all the good you were doing me, I might as well have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge."
Peter stepped into the doorway. "Enough." He said firmly, but with more calm than his father was able to muster at that moment. "I know it's normal for children to see their parents arguing now and then but now that I've experienced that normal part of childhood, we can move on."
"This doesn't concern you, Peter," Laura said, glancing over her shoulder at her eldest son.
"Since I'm not actually a child any longer, and you weren't there when I was, you don't get to use that tone with me. Ever. Did you come here looking for a Shaolin priest?" He asked.
Laura scoffed "Not as such."
"She came because Javier Navarro has been arrested and she blames me," Caine said tightly, walking away from the woman, out onto the terrace to try and regain his calm.
"Well, my father and I have work to do today, as Shaolin priests. So if that isn't what you're looking for I suggest you go look for whatever it is you want somewhere else."
"Peter, I didn't want to argue when I came here. I wanted answers to why Javier is being targeted."
"I worked at that precinct from the moment I got my gold shield to the moment I became a priest. I know the detectives handling the case. I've worked with them, I'm close friends with them. One of them was my partner for the last couple of years I was on the force. They don't target people. They don't arrest people without evidence."
"Evidence provided by Interpol. Where I believe Martin Bradshaw works."
Peter studied her. "How did you know about Uncle Martin? We didn't know about him until about a year before Dad left to look for you."
She looked away and said nothing.
"You've had us watched?" Peter asked and shook his head. "Wow. You paid for information about me, pretty sure you didn't do the same for Pop. Why did you do that? Was it for you or Yulong Yeoh?"
"Peter…" She began, suddenly deflated. "It wasn't for him… it was because of him. I wanted to make sure you were alright."
"When did you start? Was it when I was an adult? Or when I was younger."
"Peter…"
"Okay, so, it was when I was younger." He said.
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't deny it either. So you knew who Paul was when he came to visit you. When did you start? Was it when I was in the temple? It's not like it would be hard to figure out where a Shaolin priest would go to raise his son."
She said nothing.
" Okay, so you started then." He frowned deeply. "You knew." He said, "You knew and you did nothing."
"I couldn't." She said.
"Yeah, such a loving mother. Leaving her son in an orphanage because she was afraid of dying. I've known some incredible mothers. Some I only knew OF after their death. They were dead because they shielded their children from dying in the process. I worked extra hard on those cases. Not just because I knew what it was like to be an orphan… but because there was some foolish notion in my head that if you had been alive you would have done the same for me. Part of me was clearing those cases for you."
She turned to look at her son once more. "Peter, I never meant to hurt you or to allow anyone else to hurt you. I couldn't imagine anywhere safer for you to be than with your father."
"You were right about that. Until the temple was destroyed I was safe and as happy as any kid can be." Peter said. "But it was destroyed and I was placed in an orphanage. Not just any orphanage but Pine Ridge. You knew I was there, your detective had to have told you what went on in that place but you just… left me there." His tone wasn't angry, it lacked his strident emphasis, and there was no animated body language. There was simply resignation.
"Peter…" She said, but he interrupted her.
"I could have eventually forgiven everything." He said. "The lies, the abandonment, hell I could have even forgiven your denying that you're my mother. But leaving me in that place when you knew what it was like, that I will never forgive."
"Peter I couldn't come for you. The result would have been the same. I would have been dead and you would have wound up in another orphanage, possibly one far worse."
"That doesn't exist outside of Victorian novels," Peter said. "You could have had your watchdog turn over his evidence to the police or children's services. There were ways you could have protected me without upsetting the Navarro apple cart if you wanted to, but you didn't. You just wanted to know, like some soap opera-addicted housewife you wanted to watch it all play out."
"That's not fair." She said.
"You're right. It's not. Not to me and not to all the other children who had their lives turned into a nightmare in that place. Congratulations, you may not be mom of the year but hey, you win the voyeur award. I would say that has to count for something but it doesn't." He said sadly. "You're not here for me, you're not here to get a divorce from my father, you're here for something else. Or you're the excuse for your husband to be here to get something else. He's just too stupid to wear gloves when he breaks and enters."
"I think I should go now." She said.
"Don't let me stop you," Peter said. "It's what you're good at."
She paused at the door. "He wants this, you know. He wants you angry and bitter with nowhere to go but him."
"Then he is never getting what he wants. I may struggle with anger and resentment for the rest of my life, or I may get over it next week. I won't know until it happens or doesn't but one thing I do know, the one thing I have not doubted once since Paul and MOM rescued me from that place, is I am never going to have to face life alone again. I have two fathers and the world's best mother in Annie Blaisdell. I have two pain-in-the-ass sisters that I love very much, I have Leanne, I have my fellow priests, and I have my community. If your all-powerful, all-knowing, master wanted to manipulate me into absolute devotion he should have rescued me from Pine Ridge. If you still have things to say to my father, that's between you and him. As for you and me… don't bother coming back around."
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Lo Si began to slowly pack up the papers, now a combination of Yeoh's research and his own.
"Have you finished your work, Sifu?" Sparrow asked.
"No, but I believe you are right, I need to be away from this for a time to clear my mind and renew my strength of purpose." He said. "Besides, I have made a promise to Sun WuKong that I intend to keep."
"Are you sure you are ready to travel ?" Wukong asked. "You are tired… you seem more so with every day."
Lo Si waved a hand dismissively. "I am very old." He said "That is all. I have spent too long dissecting flowers and not enough time walking."
"Where do we go from here? Have you found something to lead us to where he is holding the others?" Sparrow asked.
"No. But we will find them. The universe will provide the knowledge when it is required."
"Yes, Sifu." She said and began to help him bundle up his research and put it under the floorboards of the cinnebar pagoda.
"I will scout ahead," Wukong said as he left the house he had built for the Holy Priest. He was worried. As much as he wanted to find his brother monkeys and the foxes, he was worried about Lo Si. He had been very old when he had first arrived in Kunlun Shan, it was more than being very old. His friend was somehow diminished.
