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| New York Minute: Chapter 8
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I entered into the Judges chambers, and Jacob was already seated, head resting on one of his massive hands. As we walked in, he looked up, and waved us towards a tray that must have arrived just as we did. It was laden with coffee, tea and cakes.
Helping myself to a coffee, black, I sat down and looked at him.
"Thank you, Jacob." I said.
He shook his head, and looked at Jessica. "The political fallout from this is going to kill your career, you know that right?"
She shrugged and moved her hair back behind her shoulders. "A little girl is dead. Her mother was toyed with. A doctor was blackmailed, a husband committed suicide...and someone we all know has something to do with it. Right now, all we have is circumstancial evidence. At best, we have her for disclosing confidential medical records, which I can't put her in prison for.
She sighed and leaned forwards in her chair. "Whoever was after this money...is...after this money is after it for some reason more than greed."
Jacob looked up. "Has anyone actually said that this inheritance was money?"
I looked at him "Well, I was told wealth."
Winchester coughed. "My dear boy...you were told wealth?" He spluttered "But...wealth is so much more than money. Such typical thinking. My dear boy...wealth can be anything from someting as mundane as money to...power...or knowledge or information. Anything can be considered wealth to the appropriate person."
I looked at Winchester. "But it had to be something that could be inherited."
Winchester nodded. "Certainly, and all the tings I just listed can be. Knowledge and information can be transmitted through manual, analog and digital means. Power can be transferred by birth. Like..a king or a queen. And money, obviously, can move from bank account to bank account."
Jessica looked around. "So, the question is, what was it that the girl was meant to inherit?"
I shook my head. "No, it's not just that. The question is WHY was it something the girl was meant to inherit. Why not give it to an adult first? What is it a 4 year old has that an adult doesn't?"
Jacob turned to me this time. "Innocence." He said, plainly. Suddenly there was a loud sound, a great clattering. The building rumbled and the power went dead. The phone rang.
The Judge picked it up. "Hello? Yes, speaking. What? You're sure? Oh God...."
I looked at him, feeling my heart drop into a pit in my stomach. "What is it?"
"The Defense lawyer, and Mrs. Smith are dead. Their vehicle exploded when he the lawyer turned the ingintion on in his car. 17 others are injured, 2 others are dead. There was another bombing. The offices of the firm that represented Mrs. Smith, Pelican and Sly, was also destroyed. No one was in the building, but everything is destroyed, including all the files that the firm had on Mrs. Smith."
My eyes glazed over, and I looked at Jessica and Winchester. Winchester's face had gone pale and Jessica's eyes were wide as dinner plates.
"This sounds like an old mafia-style hit. Blackhand. What the hell? Are the Five Families involved again all of a sudden?" I asked, more to myself than anyone.
Jacob shook his head. "Sounds almost like it. The thing is, whoever did this had to know that they were going to work with you. Which meant they had to be in the courtroom at the time I handed down my sentence. There was nothing to gain by killing someone who was going to be put on deathrow anyways. it wasn't until it was decided that she would be free to tell her tale that she was killed, otherwise they had ample opportunity.
Jacob narrowed his brown eyes. "No...this was a contingency plan that was put into effect when I made my judgement."
He looked at Jessica again. "This is going to get even worse for you, Ms. Gabrielle. The Media is going ot have a hayday with this. If you hadn't asked for this type of judgement, the lawyer would still be alive and the firm would still be intact. "
I breathed a deep sigh. "That's not the least of our problems. With Louise dead...the inheritence goes to her older sister who we can't find. We know she's alive...at least the last time we caught up with her she was...but I have'n't heared anything since...she's gone underground."
I closed my eyes, a flash of pain going across my face as my painkillers wore off, the wounds, I discovered, were weeping. "And our only lead is Alex, and we can't hold her for anything other than Doctor/Patient breech of trust. Unless we find something else we're done. She's our last lead."
Jessica shook her head. "No. The doctor is still available."
Winchester chuckled. "I suppose we could ask him....but I doubt he'll answer. If this group managed to pull something like this off without our knoing, chances are they've paid, or threatened, the doctor to keep quiet. If they killed a lawyer and his client...they'll kill again. The doctor is going to want to protect his family, that is a certainty."
"How can you be so sure?" Jessica asked, looking at him.
"Because," I answered for Winchester. "It's what I would do." She nodded and mumbled something about going home for the evening. She asked me to stop by later, she was going to pick up some b-movies and make dinner for us.
The rest of us sat in silence, each alone with our thoughts for a couple of hours, when the phone rang again, and the Judge, again, nswered. After a brief conversation, he looked at us. "They have a suspect in custody. They found a radio device in his pocket, and he was in the court room today.
I could hear the sirens right now, and I chuckled.
Jacob looked at me, "What?"
"The power's out...I can hear sirens. There are people going to the hospital and someone being arrested. It's...ironic. No...it's a pattern."
Winchester's brow furrowed. "What do you mean, my boy?"
I quoted the song again..."Lying here in the darkness, I heard the sirens wail. Somebody's goin' to emergency. Somebody's going to jail.
"The entire song is a clue. The entire thing is...no...Jessica..." I stood up and started for the door, Winchester not far behind. Running intot he parking lot, we jumped into my car, and I hit the gas, speeding out past the other officers doing evidence and tagging, I hit my siren and took off down the road.
A few moments later, we arrived at Jessica's apartment. Clambering out of the car I took off at a run, weapon drawn. I was moving up the parking lot when I felt a rumble, and the front of the building exploded. I was kicked up off my feet, debris flying through the air. My cheek stung, glass and grazed it cutting me open. I landed on my back, groaning.
The heat from the fire was excuiating. Whatever they had used to destroy her building was burning very hot, but I couldn't think.
"JESSICA!" I stood up and ran towards the burning building.
"No, Jason. No!" Winchester had caught up to me and was holding me back. "You can't...you can't DO anything," he sobbed. "You can't do anything!" He covered my body as a secondary and tertiary explosion went off, showering us with debris.
I kept fighting, trying to push away, several officers had arrived on the scene now. The were helping Winchester hold me. "NO! Jessica's in there! Let me go! GOD DAMMIT LET ME GO!" I screamed. The sound was tearing from my throat ripping it raw. Still I fought till I collapsed, three officers and Winchester on top of me.
"You can't do anything, Jason...you can't. There's no way anyone can survive that..." but Iwas deaf to Winchester's words. They'd taken everything from me. Everything...just like that. In a blink of an eye my entire world had changed again. Still the heat from the fire raged, my skin was starting to burn from the heat as Winchester pulled me back to the car.
I was vaguely aware of a medic stitching my face and arms where glass and flying brick and moarter had sliced into my skin. I didn't care. I couldn't feel it. I could only stare at the burning building that the firefighters were trying to douse. I felt nothing. My vision was unfocused and all I had was this...deep pit of loneliness in my soul. Tears pouring openly down my face.
There are no words to describe this...absolute feeling of loss. People were screaming, crying...wailing. They had no idea...no idea at all. She had been targeted because of ME. Because I had chosen to love her she was targeted. This...feeling of surrealism permataed me at that moment.
Vaguely, I registered Winchester helping me to stand, and walk back to my car. He sat me down, on the hood, which was dented from a piece of brick, and pulled a silver flask from his chest pocket, and shoved it into my mouth. The whiskey in the bottle burned it's way down my throat and into my stomach, helping to warm the cold dark pit of dispair that had taken residence in my gut.
Then...he hugged me. Like a father. My dad had died when I was a child, and my mother had died in child birth..... My dad...he was cop, and one night he was off duty and ended up in a car accident. Hit by a drunk driver. It was what drove me to become a cop as well. I wanted to protect people. When I had turned 15, I had met Wincehster through a police benefit ball. Winchester had been an officer before he was a lawyer.
He had taken me under his wing, and had actually paid for my education, being independantly wealthy as he was. He was as much a father to me as my own dad had been. And sometimes I felt guilty about that. I couldn't remember my father very well, but here was Winchester. He had always been there for me.
I buried my face into his shoulders and began to weep. "I know my boy...I know...I've known you both since you were children...I knew you two would fall in love one day. I'm so...I'm so sorry my boy." And Winchester began to cry. I'd never seen him cry before. I knew he was sad from time to time...but he'd always hidden it from Jessica and myself.
"My mom...my dad...Harry....Emma...Louise......Jessica. I can't protect anyone....What kind of cop am I? I can't protect ANYONE!"
Winchester's grip tightened. "There was no way you could have seen this coming. You didn't know that Louise was unstable, you were a baby when your mom died and barely 6 years old when your father, Greg, died. You're a fantastic cop. I know you are because I saw you rise through the academy and be promoted to the head of hommocide in one of the largest cities in the world.
"You could NOT have predicted this. You couldn't have. There is no bloody chance that you could have seen this coming. But now you have the rest of the clues, my boy. What are you going to do? What would Jessica have wanted you to do?"
"She'd have wanted me to find whoever did this, and arrest them."
"Good lad."
"Thing is, I'm going to go further. I'm not just going to go after this bomber. I'm going to find and destroy anyone who helped him. Anyone who conspired with him. Anyone who planned with him. Anyone connected with him is going to pay for this." I looked my surrogate father in the eyes, and saw that he was frightened by my change.
"I will hunt each one of them down. If they won't come with me in hand cuffs, they'll come with me in a body bag." I said, my voice still thick with tears.
Then, Winchester's eye hardened. "I'll help you, my boy. You're every bit a son to me as you were to Greg. If you intend to see this through to the end...I'll help you. If only to keep you from crossing a very dangerous line."
"Thank you...Father." He smiled slightly and hugged me again.
There was no one left to cry for me. No one left to hold me. No one left to help me or love me. They'd taken everything from me. It was my turn to take from them.
*Author Note:
This entire chapter's concept came from the song "Cry" by Faith Hill
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Posted by mjwb on 2008-06-24 16:57:24 | Rating: | Views: 28
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Re-Wrote the ending. Decided I didn't want Jessica being kidnapped. We'll see how things turn out for Jason later.
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Posted by mjwb
on 2008-06-25 16:29:30
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