August 2027: An Unwelcome Blast from the Past Part IV.
As those invited to the Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle were arriving at the venue, Thad was up and about in Manhattan, enjoying the quiet of a morning in the city at 6am. He had made himself coffee and some toast, had fed Caleb and was now concentrating on checking his messages, to see what news had arrived overnight. He smiled at the one from Nick that confirmed that the packages that had been sent to the United Kingdom had been stopped at the airport and would not be making their way to any of the intended recipients. The one that had been addressed to the newspaper editor had been the one he was most concerned about, as even now the salacious gossip that was printed in his journal would be seen as the gospel truth by those that believed in the old adage that there was 'No Smoke Without Fire'. The fact that those four packages would now be on their way to Dalton did not concern him either, and he was grateful to see that Nick had already copied in Sebastian, as it saved him a call. Even better, Trent was also included in the recipients of the message…
The fact that there was also a new message from Trent did not concern him, as he knew that he would need to speak to him directly anyway. It was a much better way for the two of them to communicate rather than through a string of e-mails, as they could deal with any questions that either of them might have immediately, and it also did not leave what in the old days would have been called a paper trail. He sent a quick text to him to tell him that he was awake and left it at that; the other man would call him when he had news to share and when he was able to. He was very conscious that Trent was technically on a family vacation, and even though Rory was the most patient and understanding of husbands where the Warblers were concerned, even he would get tetchy if his husband was continually being distracted by the affairs of his old schoolfriends…
Having said all that, Thad was not in the least surprised when his phone rang a minute or so after he had sent the message, and the call was coming from Dublin. He answered with the words, "Hey, I wasn't expecting to hear from you quite so soon; don't forget that you are supposed to be on vacation!"
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten, but as it happens this is the perfect moment, as I am here alone; it is Sunday, don't forget, so Agnes wanted to go to Mass, and she insisted that Rory and the children went with her to the Cathedral for it. The fact that she didn't request my presence is either a sign that she respects the fact I am not a Roman Catholic, or that she feels my soul is too far gone to save; her exact words were that it was probably for the best if I stayed at home…"
Thad laughed at that, then said, "You don't give her the credit that she deserves; she is a highly perceptive lady, and she will be aware that you have what she would term a work situation…"
"If by perceptive you mean nosy, then yes, she is. I think she is fully aware that the situation isn't a work one, but she still knew that I needed a little time alone to deal with it, bless her. Speaking of that, I take it that you have read Nick's e-mail, and know that with the assistance of royalty, he has successfully prevented the packages reaching the hands of The King and worse? Well, he actually called me before he received that information to let me know that he had thought of a Plan B, and I have been working on getting that into place just in case we have a setback."
"A Plan B? Wait, why would he be doing that? You didn't end up telling him about the second wave of packages?"
"Certainly not! We agreed to keep it to ourselves, and I have done! No, I think he was just worried that the Princess might not be able to stop the packages that had been sent here and needed a fallback. His Plan B is actually quite simple; he realised that if we had the actual stars of that film available to state categorically that the people in it were them, then it could put paid to the rumours and nip it all in the bud."
Thad had to admit that Nick had been smart in his suggestion, and he only wished that he had thought of it himself. He said nothing though as Trent carried on. "To that end I contacted a few people in various departments in Washington DC, citing every time that it was because of a potential issue that could destroy our relationship with the monarchy and hence the United Kingdom. I struck gold with the guy in the archives at the FBI; he had nothing else on at that time in the morning, so he was able and happy to find out everything I needed for me. He got into the studio record file; I think that he suspects that there might be a connection to a certain high ranked politician, but that is not really an issue."
Thad wondered who Trent meant, but again, kept that to himself. "He was able to tell me what I needed, namely that two of the three stars named on the DVD were using aliases, but one wasn't; that latter is the first proof that the film does not star Niff and Sebastian. I have all three real names, and what is better, they are all alive; one is in Florida, one is in Iowa, and the last is in Maine. He was able to cross reference to their social security numbers that were in the studio records and get me their current addresses and even contact telephone numbers. I haven't called any of them as firstly, it is very early in the morning over there, and two, the calls would probably be best coming from within the country, not from Ireland…"
"So that will be a job for me, and possibly Sebastian?"
"Exactly, but it will need to be done discretely and carefully; all of them have new lives far removed from the adult movie industry now…"
Thad had expected as much, so moved on. "What news is there of the other matter?"
"Once again, I have a breakthrough to report, but before I get to it, I will fill in the background. As I surmised, there were no surveillance cameras outside the post office in Arivaca, but there is one outside the public library just down the main street, and it caught the exact same vehicle as was seen in Nogales yesterday. On that note, that car did cross back into Mexico yesterday just after the packages were placed in the mail for a second time, and by cross-referencing that licence plate in the border records, we know that it crossed into the country on Thursday afternoon at a much more remote crossing point. We know that one package, the one that was sent to the theater in Columbus was posted that night. The packages in Arivaca were mailed in the morning, but then we have a gap. We can surmise that they stayed somewhere overnight, most likely in Tucson, and we can't rule out that more packages were mailed from there…"
"Oh, Dear Lord!" exclaimed Thad.
"Don't worry, it is highly unlikely, unless they were consigned from a mailbox in the street and have yet to enter the system. To that end I have asked my contact at the USPS to put out an alert in Arizona that any large number of identical packages collected from a street mailbox should be regarded as suspect; he has also contacted the various courier firms operating in the region to give the same alert."
"That reassures me a little, but not much," admitted Thad.
"Well in that case you will like what I have to tell you now; we actually have an ID for our mystery mailer…"
"That is the best news! Who are they?"
"She is a woman by the name of, wait for it, Rosario Gonzalez Clarington. It would appear that despite the confirmed bachelor status that Hunter's step-uncle gave to the members of the board when he was appointed to the role of Principal at Dalton, he actually had a wife back in Mexico…"
"He had a wife!" exclaimed Thad. "Why was there never any mention of her when he was at Dalton, and more importantly, why was she not mentioned at his trial? I have seen inside his file at Dalton, and there is absolutely nothing there to say that he wasn't a bachelor. They are normally so thorough and investigate every aspect of the private life of potential teachers before their appointment; I have that on good authority from Principal Lefevre. Why was no check made into his background?"
"The circumstances at the time were very different and let us not forget that the entire board of governors at that time was subsequently removed from office when the scandal emerged into the public eye. They were perhaps not as cautious or might have been bribed not to be by someone who was anxious to ensure that he was put in to replace Principal Carmichael; we will never know the truth there. Of course, if the marriage took place in Mexico, then the records would perhaps not have been so easy to obtain and thus it could remain concealed from the school much more easily."
Thad thought about it and realised what Trent was saying made sense. "I suppose we could also assume that they were estranged at the time, although that does not make sense if she is now doing his work for him; if they were separated at the time, why would she have access to a copy of the film?"
"Again, I can't answer that, but the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that he has no involvement in any of this," answered Trent. "If you think about it, the timing is all wrong; if you are freshly out of jail and still being monitored by the authorities, then you wouldn't start to send out copies of the very film that got you sent to prison in the first place, unless you were really stupid, and we all know that he isn't. If it was him, then he would have waited until the heat had died down and he was off the radar again. No, I think that she has done this of her own volition, although what her motivation for doing so would be I don't rightly know. If she was intending to blackmail and extort money from Niff and Sebastian, then surely she would have contacted them and threatened to send out the DVDs before actually doing it…"
"You would think so, unless she is very inept… Fact is that neither of the two households in question has received any such demand," replied Thad. "The only explanation for it is that she posted it in Mexico, and sometimes the mail deliveries from abroad can be subject to delay. We can also assume that both households would have received a letter, not just one or the other. It is a mystery, that is sure, but maybe with the assistance of the Mexican authorities, it is one that we can resolve in time."
Thad would end his call with Trent feeling much more content than he had done the previous night. Between them they had managed to get everything in hand; they had stopped a tsunami of DVDs before it could have much impact, they knew the identity of the person behind it, and they had high hopes that it had now been stopped. The only thing that concerned Thad now was that someone would inadvertently reveal to Jeff what was going on in an unguarded moment, and that would be a disaster…
The man behind the original DVD that had now resurfaced was of course Jeff's step-uncle as well as Hunter's, as he was the stepbrother of the blond's birth father, Gordon Clarington. If Rosario was his wife, then she was technically Jeff's step-aunt and although Trent had not mentioned it, there was every possibility that he might have step-cousins too. It had been easy enough to hide all of it from the blond when there had been no real evidence of a family connection, but now ensuring that he never found out was crucial. If he found out, he would start to blame himself for it all, as he still did from time to time over the whole affair with Hunter…
That was a bridge they would hopefully not need to cross, and so Thad put it to the back of his mind for now. He had enjoyed a relaxed start to his day, but now he needed to step back up and get on with the prep work he had brought with him for the new school year at Dalton. The planning of the year's lessons was a complex affair and he had to refresh his plans every single year. Some thought that he only really needed to alter things every four years; that if he had four different lesson plans, he could repeat them time and time again, as no boy was at Dalton for longer than that. He knew that there were some of his fellow teachers that did do that, but that was not really practical in a subject like history, where the relevance of issues from the past changed annually…
Next years Freshmen would receive a little more on the subject of monarchs of the United Kingdom as that was a topic in the news and was therefore more likely to grab the interest of the students; that was crucial, as every good teacher knew. He would go back as far as Victoria and talk about her influence not just on Britain but the entire world, to the extent that things built in the United States during her reign were even sometimes referred to as Victorian. He would also be at pains to point out that the two longest reigning monarchs in the last two hundred years had been female, reigning for two thirds of the time between them, a total of 134 years. All that would be before he even speculated on whether Charles III would be a reformer King, or a mere caretaker for his son William V…
It was at 11am that the knock would come at the front door of the house in the West Village, and Thad headed up to answer the door; he found Dex standing on the doorstep. He asked him in, but he declined as he had to get back home as he was preparing a late lunch for himself and Miriam; he had only popped over from Murray Hill to check that all was well with Adam and Lawrence's apartment. "I was picking up all of the mail when the stamp attracted my attention and then I saw to whom it was addressed. The mailman must have made a mistake; this one is for Nick."
He handed Thad the envelope, and to his horror the Head Warbler saw the Mexican stamp on the corner that had attracted Dex's eye. He managed to keep his cool though, thanking Dex for taking the time to bring it over, and chatting quickly about the Coronation. He genuinely smiled when Dex told him that Adam had surprised his brother by taking him on a vacation within a vacation, and that they were currently in Paris. Then after checking his watch, Dex hurried off, leaving Thad to head inside thoughtfully. He shut the door, and had no hesitation in opening the envelope, even though it was not addressed to him…
It was what he had suspected, the one thing that they had been missing. The date on the letter inside was ten days ago and the envelope bore witness it had been processed the following day in Mexico. He surmised that it had been delivered on Tuesday, after the occupants of the apartment had left for the airport. He held in his hands the blackmail note. He read it, and was surprised to see that she was not demanding money from Nick; instead, she wanted him to intervene and get some of the assets taken from her husband by the US government at the time of his arrest returned to her and her children…
He took a breath, and then called Trent, taking a photo of the letter as he waited for him to answer. As soon as he heard the call being picked up at the other end, he spoke. "Dex has just been in to check that everything is okay at Adam's place, and he came to me with a letter that must have been lying there since the start of the week. It is addressed to Nick, but significantly, it had a Mexican stamp on it. For that reason, I opened it… It's the missing link, Trent!"
He sent the image that he had just taken to his friend as he responded. "I am guessing that we now have the letter in which her demands are made, and in which she threatens to send out the DVDs if there is no reply in a set period of time?"
"Yes, and you can read it for yourself in the image that I just sent to you. The thing is that she isn't asking for cash from our fellow Warblers; what she wants is the return of some of the assets that the government of the day seized from her erstwhile husband…"
There was no immediate reply, so Thad guessed that Trent was reading the letter. Eventually he heard an intake of breath at the other end, and then his friend's steady voice. "Okay. I am guessing from the way she says that Nick has friends in the right places that she knows all about me and the job that I do; then again, she could mean Burt. Either way, she is assuming that through us Nick could address President Kennedy on the subject."
"Well, she would be correct in that; either of you could ask to speak to him in confidence on this issue."
"True, but I would need a very sound justification for going to him, and a good reason as to why he should reverse the decisions of his predecessor."
Thad though for a moment, and then wondered out loud. "Do you suppose that the fact that she has children by her ex-husband, the creator of the film, would be a good enough reason? Children have needs, and if she is struggling to provide for them as she would wish, then resorting to blackmail to get back some of the assets of her former spouse would be justifiable when young lives are concerned. Indeed, wouldn't the state probably be more inclined to return the assets if there were children involved and it was solely for their benefit, or so I would assume…"
"Well, yes," admitted Trent. "If there are dependent children in need, then some of the assets and property would be returned without hesitation; indeed, had they been known about at the time, then less would have been taken. Right, so I will take this latest piece of information back to my contact in Washington and ask them to see what they can find out, through the Mexican authorities about her children, and when they were born. Their ages will be crucial, as the authorities will not deem children of another partner as eligible for the assistance from the seized assets. If they are definitely his, then trust me, I will act upon it straight away…"
Thad and Trent both agreed that they should keep his new development between themselves for now; it would not help either Nick or Sebastian to know that they now had the blackmail letter, and indeed, they might be given false hope that all would now be well before Trent could check into everything properly. There was always the danger that even if he could prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that she had children and that they were the offspring of the ex-Dalton principal, the government department involved might still be unwilling to return the assets, even if there was a presidential intervention. Indeed, they could have been sold off, or the cash used for other things, as was permitted…
A call to Nick would indeed have been counter-productive, as he had been able to distract himself from all of his worries and immerse himself in the varied music that was being played at the Windsor Castle concert. The fact that a lot of the music being played was familiar from his teenage years at Dalton was helpful, and he found himself singing along to some of it, much to the embarrassment of his son. The fact that his Papa kept joining in too made it even worse for Wes. Jeff was supposed to be working, sketching the King and Queen Consort in less formal surroundings, but he was still enjoying the music that had been chosen in the main by the King himself…
As well as sketching the royal couple, he also made sketches of the musical performers; they were the great and good of the music scene, veteran performers mixing with the younger stars of the last few years. A lot of the former were paying their own tribute to the King by video link, a man of their own generation in so many cases. Wes was left quite bewildered by some of it, as he had never heard of the people, even if his parents seemed to be quite excited by the appearance of some of them. However, he had to admit that the music was good, and everyone seemed to be really having a good time…
Eventually even he got carried away when one particular song by Kylie Minogue was being sung, and he started to spin around in happiness; that made his dad laugh out loud, saying that both his Uncle Rory and Aunt Brittany would be doing the same thing if they were present; in fact, they would be spinning round the room if they were watching the live broadcast in Dublin and New Jersey respectively. He then turned in the other direction and saw that his husband was also spinning round like a dervish, the sketch he had been making of the Australian singer now complete and lying on the table beside him. Surrounded by his spinning son and husband, Nick sighed and decided that if he could not beat them, then he should probably join them…
Naturally, given that the concert was being streamed all over the world, it was inevitable that when the cameras focused in on the young boy and his blond dad spinning around side by side, someone that knew them would see… Just as Nick joined in, Sebastian caught sight of them on the screen, and burst out laughing at them, his heart happy as he knew that his blond friend was still in the dark and did not have a care in the world. That helped to lift his own spirits, and had he not been surrounded by family, he might well have got up and joined in with the spinning…
Rory obviously saw them, glued to the screen the moment that Kylie had appeared, much to his nana's amusement; he yelled to Trent, who was busy on his laptop, and his husband looked up, seeing his two friends just before the camera went back to focus on the singer herself. He chuckled, then laughed out loud as she moved on to another of her hits, one which had his husband up on his feet and copying the moves from the video that had accompanied Can't Get You Out of My Head; their children got up and tried to copy him, as his nana just rolled her eyes and smiled at his antics…
Trent went back to his online chat with the head of the records department in the small town in Mexico that had been home to the former Dalton principal before his arrest and deportation; it was still home to his wife. The lady in question had been reluctant to talk to him at first, but once he had explained that he needed some information from her so that he could try and facilitate the return of money and property to her fellow citizen, her attitude changed completely, and she opened right up. She had taken a note of all that he had told her, and then had asked for a moment to check the records. Trent had a sneaking suspicion that she already knew the information, but wanted to keep him waiting…
When she came back, she admitted that she did know Rosario, and her two children; twin boy and girl, born just under 8 months after the detention of their father… Trent was eternally grateful at that moment that he had taken two language courses at Dalton and was fluent in Spanish as well as French; that knowledge made it so much easier to converse with the Mexican official, and she was much more forthcoming talking in her own tongue. She confided in him without holding back…
"It is true that she has very little money to spare. The house that she had been living in with her husband was taken from her and has lain empty ever since. She has to work two jobs, moving in with her grandmother, who helped her to take care of the babies when they arrived and continues to do so even now, despite her own age. That I think is the problem here. Rosario is a proud woman, but now her grandmother is ill, and she is struggling to cope with the children and pay for her grandmother's medical needs. As you know, medical care is expensive, the childcare she now needs is expensive, and rents never come down. If there are assets that can be returned, and in particular the house, then it would ease her worries no end…"
"Well, I will certainly see what I can do now that I know the entire situation. Would it be possible for you to send me an electronic copy of her certificate of marriage and the birth details of her children? With the documents to hand, I can build an exceptionally strong case to put to my superiors."
"I certainly can do that for you and will get on to the task right away. I know that what she did was wrong, but she is a good woman, who like so many deserved a much better husband."
Trent did not disagree on that point, and a few minutes after he ended the call, an e-mail arrived with the relevant documents attached. He looked over them and knew that he had the basis of a good argument, but now he had to decided which of the two most powerful people in the United States he should approach. The Vice President already knew everything that was going on, so she would need less filling in on the background. If he went to the President directly, then there would be a lot of explaining to do first, and time was really of the essence here even now…
For that reason, he chose to approach the Vice President again; he checked the time, then called her up. She answered quickly enough, and he explained that he had a development in the case to discuss with her. It was then that she told him that she was currently in the Oval Office with the President; she suggested that they have a video conference, as she had already briefed the President on what had been taking place in the last 24 hours or so, and he was as anxious as she was to hear an update. Trent agreed to it, but then added, "Whilst it is good to know that you are ready for an update, ma'am, you might not feel very pleased when I inform you exactly what is behind it all and the exact reason why a lady in Mexico has done what she has..."
Trent made the video call on his work laptop, as the feed there was encrypted. He began by summarising all that had transpired since he informed the Vice President what was going on, then what he had just found out. When he finished there was silence at first, the two people in the Oval Office both looking thoughtful. After a minute, the President spoke. "So, it would appear that we would not have seen any copies of the film in question being mailed out to prominent institutions in the United States and worse, the United Kingdom, if one person in Manhattan had not posted one item of mail in the wrong mailbox? There is an irony in that, and it is also an example almost of the butterfly effect… Moving on, I am assuming that she has not started any form of divorce proceedings against her husband?"
"No sir, not from any information I have gleaned, or from my conversation with the lady in Mexico; I suspect she is a good Catholic and thus divorce is anathema to her. I am also going to admit that the fact he was married is news to me; during the darkest days of Dalton Academy's history, we all thought he was a bachelor, and the school records make no mention of a spouse. I believe that the authorities thought he was single at the time of his arrest and prosecution too, or they would not have taken the house from him. All in all, it doesn't sound like a recipe for wedded bliss…"
"What you are saying about the house is true from what I can recall of the legal codes in these situations, so there will be room for manoeuvre there for a start. Can you forward those documents to me now, and I will get in touch with the relevant people as a matter of urgency. I will tell you now that I will demand that the house is returned to her at once, along with a good percentage of the cash assets seized; the latter of course on condition that none of it is passed back to her estranged husband, and that she hands over the master copy she obviously has of that film."
With the call over, and the documents sent, Trent allowed himself to smile broadly for the first time since the storm had broken the previous day. He had been forced in the last 24 hours to call in every favour he had ever earned in government circles, but it looked like it would pay off. The film would vanish into the mists of time once more, and hopefully this time the disappearance would be permanent. Life could return to normal for all of them, particularly the two other musketeers who had been left sweating by it all…
He was confident that now the President was involved, things would move swiftly; when the name of the most powerful man in the country was invoked, notoriously slow government departments suddenly found their accelerators; the obstinate people that hummed and hawed developed a can-do attitude. He kept smiling as he put away his work laptop, that sight earning him a smile from Rory too. He went to sit alongside him and their children, able now to relax and enjoy the remainder of the concert. It might only have an hour or so left to run, but he deserved to have a break from all of the stresses of the world for a while…
