Echoes of a Distant Summer (63 page)

Anu was leaning against the doorjamb when she asked, “Have you told them that they could have the entire estate?”

Jackson shook his head. “No, I haven’t. No one has contacted me! Truthfully, I don’t know that I could trust them even if they did contact me. They killed Wesley before I went to Mexico. Then they assassinated my grandfather. During that time they tried to kidnap Pres and attempted to kill my nephew Rhasan. They don’t appear to have a very high regard for human life. I can’t be sure that even if I turn over everything, they won’t try to kill me afterward, and I don’t know what they could say that would make me trust them.”

“This is the crux of the issue!” Pres challenged. “You aren’t ready to give up a damn thing! You want to keep the money!”

“Who wouldn’t?” Dan argued. “Hey, I don’t think I’d trust these people either! And I sure in hell wouldn’t give them a damn thing! Let’s vote on the offer!”

“Let’s not be precipitous,” Lincoln cautioned. “I want to go back to how Jackson is going to deal with these people.” He turned to Jackson and asked, “Are you trying to deal with all these thugs by yourself, or do you have help?”

Dan interjected, “He’s got brothers. He knows he can call upon us if he needs to.”

“Now wait a minute!” Anu declared angrily to Dan. “Your family needs you. You’re not helping anyone fight thugs and criminals!”

Jackson said, “Don’t worry, Anu, I’m not asking for that. I have my grandfather’s organization to assist me. I just want to get you folks out of danger. I’ll deal with these people once you’re clear.”

“How do you plan to stop them?” Lincoln asked Jackson.

“I’ll do whatever I have to do, but I’ll try talking first. The DiMarcos are in the middle of an election campaign, I’m sure they don’t want their criminal activities to come to light. Tree doesn’t have a large organization. Once he knows we’re on to him, I think he can be brought into line.”

Pres chimed in, “Are you prepared to kill?”

Jackson gave Pres a smirk then answered, “I’ll do what I have to do, but you won’t be part of it! That’s why I recommended that you all take vacations until I get this cleared up.”

Pres barked, “I don’t want a damned vacation! I can’t take a vacation! I’ve got to transfer the whole broadcast trainee project to this new radio station within the next month. I have to set up a schedule of meetings with the station executives and governing boards. I couldn’t leave here if I wanted to. I won’t let fifteen years’ work disintegrate or dissolve because of this.”

Jackson answered grimly, “Then be prepared to be on the alert and watch your back! Use the money for a bodyguard!”

Pres replied, “This money comes at a high price. This is blood money! You described it that way yourself. I think your decision goes against everything we’ve said we stood for. People will be killed before this is resolved. It doesn’t matter what side they’re on or who started it—someone will die. I’m asking you, don’t make a decision that will domesticate your conscience! Because once you start down this road, you’re going to have to tell your conscience to roll over and play dead. It’s an unclean feeling that you can never quite rid yourself of! I’m telling you this from firsthand experience!”

Anu said, “You know, I listen and I listen, and it sounds like Jax didn’t have much choice in all this! He said he’d give the money up if it would keep us out of danger. Nobody’s contacted him. I think it’s time to figure out whether we are going to accept his offer.”

Lincoln disagreed. “Just a minute. We’ve got two teenagers and in the best of times they worry the hell out of us by roaming all over the city. We definitely need to discuss some type of security measures. Let me make sure I understand what you said earlier. You’re offering us a hundred thousand dollars each to take a month-long vacation. Can you be sure this situation will be resolved in a month? We have kids in year-round private school. We can’t keep them out of school if this situation drags on for any length of time!”

Jackson shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t guarantee that it will be resolved. All I can say is that after a month, whatever you need to make your homes safe and your children secure, I’ll pay for.”

Dan said, “I think taking the vacation is the key for those of us with children. Anu and I have talked for years about taking the kids to Washington, D.C., then going down to Myrtle Beach to visit my mother’s family. Now, we’ll do it. Until we leave, we’ll keep our pistols by the bed.”

Pres interjected, “If we accept this blood money, we accept the karma that comes with it! This is a dangerous decision.”

“Pres, you’re a do-right brother and I love you,” Dan said impatiently. “But sometimes you’re really just out of the box! All money is blood money! There are a hundred tragic tales for every bill in your wallet.”

Anu punched her husband in the shoulder and said in a softer tone, “I understand that you are speaking from your heart, Pres, but me and Dan could use the money. We got four kids, one starting college this September. He’s going to San Francisco State because we can’t afford to pay his tuition and board at Morehouse. Our other three would do better in private schools. Our house needs a new roof. And we’re not even talking about the money we will need if Dan is to find a good nursing home for his mother. We’re definitely interested in the offer that Jax is making.”

“Sandra and I want to take it too,” Lincoln added. “You know we’ve often sat around discussing what we would do if we had a little money. It appears to me Jax is offering us the opportunity. He’s not asking us to kill anybody. We don’t have to break any laws. All we have to do is stay on the alert until he can clean up the situation. I say it’s a great and generous offer even though it comes with some risk.”

“Don’t forget,” Anu said, shaking her finger, “a paid vacation. A four-star hotel with room service. We haven’t stayed at a first-class hotel since the eldest was born!”

Pres stood and said with resignation, “I’ll do what the majority decides, but bad karma comes with this money. And these are bad people. I’ve seen them up close.”

Lincoln asked, “Are you referring to the ones you left tied together in that house down the hill from Jax’s place?” Pres nodded.

“Ohhh.” Anu pointed her hand at Pres. “I saw the article on those
two in the Oakland paper. Whatever made you pull their pants and underwear off before you tied them together?”

“I wanted to discredit them to their own people, and I wanted to make sure it got into the newspapers. Did you see that one of the guns found on them was used in a murder last year? These guys are killers!”

“Yeah,” Lincoln agreed. “That’s what makes me concerned about leaving Jackson here.”

“You’re not thinking of helping him!” Sandra protested. “He said he’s got help—”

Lincoln put up his hand. “You don’t understand, honey. Jackson saved my life. I owe him big-time.”

Sandra sputtered, “Whe-when was this?”

“Fifteen years ago, one night after Pres’s sister’s wedding.”

“The Titans!” Dan exclaimed. “I’ve done my best to suppress that memory. But the truth is, he and Wesley saved all our asses that night. I was sure we killed some of them, but there was never any mention of it in the papers, nor any police investigation.”

Pres shook his head. “It’s a mystery I’m sure we’d all like to forget.”

“Not me.” Lincoln leaned forward in his chair and looked Jackson in the eye. “I’ve never forgotten that night and I want you to know if you ever need me, I’ll be there. You can count on me.” Sandra started to protest again, but Lincoln quieted her with a look.

Jackson was moved. “Thank you, bro. I hope never to have to ask you, but thank you.”

“Let’s vote and get finished,” Anu said with a clap of her hands. “Talk, talk, talk! Talk is cheap when there is still so much to do like laundry, cooking, checking summer-school project assignments! We know what we will do already! We take the offer!” Anu looked around the room and received nods from Sandra, Lincoln, and Dan. She gave Pres a challenging smile and said, “That’s that! Discussion over! Take a vacation, Pres.”

Pres was resigned. He raised a hand in a gesture of concession. “If this is the will of the majority, so be it.”

“Good!” Anu declared. Then she looked around the room and demanded, “Is there anything more that can be decided now?”

Pres admitted with reluctance, “I guess not.”

“Then life must go on! Chores must be done! No more talking!” Anu clapped her hands. “No one else has four children! The Strongs must be organized big-time! Let’s go!”

Everyone got to their feet and good-byes were being said when Anu called out, “Just because I rushed you all doesn’t mean that I don’t love you.”

Lincoln waved from the door as Sandra said her good-byes, then the Shues went out to their car.

Anu said to Pres, who was standing by the door, “You, I worry about. Please be careful.” She gave him a swift hug.

Pres returned her hug. “Thanks, Anu. I love you, too.”

Jackson called out to Pres, “I gave you my number. Call me if you want a place to stay.”

“I’ll call you in the next day or so. But remember: Using violence to resolve a problem is like taking a strong medicine with side effects that are so immense they alone could kill you!” With that Pres waved and walked out into the evening air.

Anu squeezed Jackson’s shoulder. “I must get the children to laying out their clothes for tomorrow. You be careful too.” She gave Jackson a kiss on the cheek and turned back toward the kitchen, leaving Jackson and Dan standing at the door, talking.

Jackson said, “Your wife’s got spirit!”

Dan rubbed his arm. “She moves too fast sometimes! She doesn’t know how to hold back. I’m thinking about putting the old girl on Valium.”

“You did real well not to interrupt Pres during his karma lecture.”

“You saw that? I wanted to punch a few holes in Pres’s goody-two-shoes speech.”

“I liked what he said. Pres has a good heart!”

Dan put his hand over his mouth and belched. “I love him, but I swear to Buddha, whenever he starts bringing in Eastern religions to make his point I feel the forces of flatulence pressing on my abdomen.”

“Everything gives you gas,” Jackson observed.

Dan dismissed Jackson’s observation with a wave of his hand. “By the way, whatever happened to Elizabeth?”

“She hasn’t returned my calls.”

“I knew when she just walked away at the shooting range that things had gone to shit. What are you going to do?”

“Nothing. What can I do?” Jackson answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Oh,” Dan said as he recalled a forgotten point, “Wesley’s funeral is next Sunday, and you know his mother has no money and his brothers
are useless. I talked to the guys and we’re paying for all the funeral costs, but Wesley was paying for all her in-home care. Without his help, she’s going to be forced to move into some type of home. We thought you—”

“Not even an issue,” Jackson interjected. “I’ll take care of everything. She still has other sons who will be there for her.”

“That’s what makes you my brother.”

“I love you too, man. I’m just so sorry that it had to come down this way.” Jackson turned away with a wave and walked sadly to his car. The full weight of Wesley’s death was just beginning to sit upon his shoulders.

Dan shouted to him as he drove away, “Take care of yourself, bro, and keep your pistol cocked!”

J
ackson awoke from a restless night’s sleep. He had been dreaming of the last summer he had spent with his grandfather. It was not a pleasant dream. It always started the same way. His ears were filled with the sounds and images of gunfire and explosions. Laid on top of that were the wailing screams of people in pain. He was in a darkened room in which a hand grenade had exploded. He was stepping over the mangled bodies of women and children, and despite the darkness he was able to see their bloody faces. Thus did his night continue until the soft light of early morning brought him a tired but grateful wakefulness.

The demon faces of the dead departed with the sun’s arrival, but they left a sense of foreboding which oppressed him. Trying to shake off his distress, Jackson moved steadily through his morning routine, but the malaise clung to him like a wet suit. Wesley’s death and the attacks on Pres and Rhasan had shaken him. Yet he really couldn’t focus on those issues, because he was distracted by thoughts of Elizabeth. She had departed the shooting range without a word. She hadn’t returned any of his calls. Every time he thought of her he felt a pain in his chest as if it were being squeezed by a vise.

He turned on the shower and got into it before the water had
warmed up, hoping that the coldness of the spray would bring the alertness and clarity that he seemed to lack. Instead, the cold water merely confirmed his sense of foreboding. After his shower and shave, he donned his sweats and went down to the kitchen to get coffee.

Carlos, also dressed in sweats, was sitting at the table staring out the window at Alamo Square Park when Jackson walked into the kitchen with a towel, drying his hair.

“Is there any coffee left?” Jackson asked as he rubbed the towel over his head.

“There’s the end of the pot.” As Carlos watched Jackson pour himself some coffee he said gruffly, “I wish you’d stop acting like you’re playing a game. These people are killers. You think you can go around counting coup and it will mean something. These assholes will shoot you right off your horse just like they did the Indians. I go out of town for a few days and you do something stupid!”

Jackson sat down across the table from Carlos and replied, “Carlos, you can’t kill everyone. This isn’t Mexico. All I did was tell DiMarco to stop bothering my friends. His family is in the midst of an election, what can he do?”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t try the same thing with John Tree. You might not be standing here now. Let me tell you the only reason your enemies haven’t done more is that they don’t trust one another. We don’t want them to coordinate their actions. We want to catch them unawares.” Carlos looked Jackson in the eye and said, “Anyway, I’m more concerned about your mind-set and your strategy. You’ve weakened your position.”