Jamie Garrett - Riley Reid 03 - Ends and Beginnings (8 page)

The night I returned to Stone Harbor was not an easy one. Richard insisted on me icing my swollen face. He also gave me a handful of over-the-counter pain killers.

Something wasn’t sitting right with me, either. As Richard tended to my injuries, I couldn’t get what Harlan told me out of my head. He suggested that someone close to me was under his employ. That couldn’t have been Officer Rodriguez. We had no relationship, friendship or otherwise.

Then there was my dream. Who was the puppet master? Who was pulling those strings? It would have to be someone of authority, someone respected and followed, someone like my adoptive father.

Richard had wrapped my ribs with an ACE bandage, and then sat me down in the living room with an ice pack. He sat back in his recliner, and poured himself a full glass of amber liquor. He had a strange look on his face, and a single tear almost escaped his eye. At first, I just thought he was sad to see me injured. But then he started to talk.

“When I first met you, at the station, I felt bad for you.” Richard’s voice was monotone. He didn’t look at me. Instead his glazed-over eyes were fixated on the floor. “I felt guilty, too.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You told me about your parents and how they were missing. I could see that you were scared. It was my fault that you were alone. It was all my fault. So I gave you a home, I took you in. I hoped it would atone for…for all of my sins.”

I thought about Sam’s argument with his dad over the phone calls, the photos he found, and Harlan’s comments as I was leaving. He’d find someone closer to get to me.  Now, I knew. Richard knew something. He must have known something dirty was going on, or knew who the drug ring had in their pocket.  What I didn’t know was what that had to do with Richard feeling guilty about my parents.

“You’re freaking me out. What are you talking about?”

“Nothing. Forget it.”

Forget it? I couldn’t forget it. “I went to see Harlan Greene in jail. You ever hear of Harlan Greene?”

Richard didn’t answer.

“I asked you a question!?”

Richard’s eyes left the rug and looked up at mine. “Never heard of him.” He was lying. I could see it.

“Really? That’s funny, because he was maybe one of the most prevalent criminals in three states, including here in Virginia.”

“That so?” Richard averted his eyes away from mine.

“He told me he had people working for him in the Stone Harbor Police. Is this true?” I was lying. Harlan didn’t tell me that. But I needed to hear from Richard whether or not there were people on the take in the department.

“Yes.” Richard’s answer shocked me. I knew there had been corrupt cops in our small town, but hearing the ex-detective admit it still shocked me.

I needed to know how much Richard had known all these years.

“One of them was Officer Rodriguez. Sam caught him trying to burn down the Roxy last night. He’s dead. Rodriguez, that is. He confessed to burning down the marina, Sister Mary’s and Fresh Horizons. But he wouldn’t admit who he worked for.” I looked for any reaction on Richard’s face. There was none. He just kept looking away.

“What do you want from me, Riley?” asked Richard.

“I want you to look at me. Look at me!” I could feel the anger building inside of me.

Richard looked up at me. Only once had I seen the same look in his eyes that I saw that night. It was when his wife died.

I pointed at my bruises. “Was this you? Was this your fault? I need to know! There are too many coincidences, too many clues that point to you being involved. I don’t want to believe it, but….”

“Yes,” admitted Richard. “It’s my fault. And I’m sorry for what happened to you. I never meant for you to get hurt.”

My legs felt weak underneath me. I sat back down. I was just bluffing, and it worked. Suddenly, I found myself wishing that it hadn’t.

“I guess it’s time for you to hear the truth. You deserve as much. It started a long time ago. When I first met your dad, he was dealing some weed and a little coke. He wasn’t into anything too big or bad. I arrested him a few times. And I never gave him much thought.

“Fast forward a few years, and Molly got diagnosed with cancer. After a couple months of treatment, the cut-rate health insurance we got from the county reached its maximum. That left me with a choice. Either I went bankrupt trying to keep up with the bills or I had to find another way to make some money.

“I tried doing odd jobs around town. I even tried working at a supermarket on my off hours. But it was never enough. No matter how hard I worked, I was always behind. Then I caught your dad selling dope to some ninth-graders in Valentine Park.”

Standing there, listening to my adoptive father’s confession, was an out-of-body experience. It was as if I was watching us there in the room from above. Nothing about it seemed real.

Richard continued. “When I arrested him, he had over five grand on him, in cash. And just like that, I found the answer to my money problems.”

I wanted to scream at him, “Drugs!? Drugs were the answer to your problems!?” But I couldn’t make my mouth work. Instead, I let him continue uninterrupted.

“So, I forced him to let me in. I made sure he wasn’t arrested, and in return he paid me every week. From there, it progressed to me providing protection for shipments into the marina. The money still wasn’t good enough, so I started dealing myself.

“Everything went well until your dad decided to rob Harlan Greene. Harlan was the one who was providing the drugs. He was the boss of both of ours. And, as you know, he was and still is a dangerous man.

“After Troy robbed Harlan, he skipped town with your mother and left you behind. Seeing you sitting there in the station, I felt like … I don’t know … I felt like it was my responsibility to take you in. Because I knew your dad was as good as dead, if he wasn’t dead already.

“Then … well, you know the rest. Molly died. That damn Clarke kid OD’d. I had to scramble to cover up my tracks.”

“You sent Martin Goldberg and his goons after me? You had the Branches killed? You told Jimmy to kill me!?” I stood up. I couldn’t stay sitting any longer.

“No! Of course I didn’t!” Richard stood up as well. “I never would have had you hurt, let alone killed! That was Harlan! He did it without even telling me.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t stop it. And you could’ve, at any time. You could’ve come clean. What about the Branches? Did you have anything to with that?”

“Pritchard agreed to do it. He had just as much to lose as me if anyone found out what we were up to.”

I stood there staring at my surrogate father. There was a volatile mixture of anger, confusion, sadness and disappoint that was brewing deep in my gut. Instead of exploding, I decided to leave.

“I’m taking your car.” I left the living room. In the kitchen were his keys, which I took.

Before leaving Richard’s house, I stopped to say one last thing. It would be the last thing I ever said to him. “I get it, I do. You were under a lot of pressure. Your wife was dying. You needed money. You were desperate. But none of that changes the fact that what you did or didn’t do, was vile. You’re not the man I thought you were. I’m sick of being lied to. I never want to see or talk to you again. Goodbye, Richard.”

I left the Greyson residence with tears running down my cheeks. If you had given me a million chances to guess who was behind the drug ring in Stone Harbor, I would never have answered Richard Greyson.

I was a block away from Richard’s house when I saw Sam’s car going down the opposite side of the road. It was clear he was heading towards the Greyson home, but why? My only guess was that he wanted to talk to his dad about what had happened at the Roxy Theater. I kept driving. My whole world had  just been shattered. And Sam needed to go inside the house he grew up in and have his world shattered as well.

I headed towards Valentine Park, which was just outside downtown Stone Harbor. Getting there only took a couple of minutes. During that short ride, my mind wouldn’t stop racing. Not only did I worry about what would happen with Richard, but I had no idea what I was going to find by Hangman’s Tree.

Valentine Park was not very impressive. The town had long given up maintaining the one-time staple of the community. Weeds and tall grass had taken over the paths that young lovers used to walk, hand-in-hand. Assorted debris from parties and the homeless peppered the area.

I parked in the crumbling parking lot. Then I started to make my way to Hangman’s Tree. It was smack dab in the middle of the park, so I had to wade through the overgrown vegetation to get there.

Hangman’s Tree was an ancient oak. It had been there when my father was my age and long before that. Long, twisted branches stuck out from the top. They loomed over the small area of dirt around the trunk. The autumn had taken its leaves.

I took out the photo that my dad left for me. And I examined it. What was so important about Hangman’s Tree? What did he want me to find? Then I noticed it.

In the photo, the area around the trunk of the tree was covered in thick grass. But what I saw was dirt. That clued me in that the earth had been disturbed. Something was buried.

I didn’t have a shovel. And the ground was too hard to start digging by hand. The only way to do it was to find something to break up the dirt. Or, I would have to leave, get a shovel, then come back. There was no way I was leaving, not when I was so close.

Upon searching the trunk of Richard’s car, I found a tire iron. I got on all fours near the trunk of Hangman’s Tree and started hitting the ground with it. It took a little work but the dirt started to break up. Once it was loose, I began scraping and digging at the little hole I was developing.

Half an hour later, I’d managed to dig down a couple of feet. I was exhausted and almost ready to give up. Then the tire iron got stuck in something.

When I investigated what it was snagged on, I saw what looked like black fabric. On the fabric was a zipper. There was a duffel bag buried under Hangman’s Tree.

I dug a little more and got the duffel bag out. It was heavy. When I unzipped it, what I saw made me fall backwards onto my rear end.

On in the top of the bag sat a folded note. I picked it up and read it. It was from my father.

I can remember the day I became a man. I was at Saint Mercy with your mom. The doctor let me hold you. Looking at your little face I knew what the meaning of my life was. All I had to do was take care of you. Nothing else mattered. And I failed you. You don’t know how sorry I am. Nothing I can do will make up for leaving you. But we did it to keep you safe. And I hope you can forgive me. This should help.

From your dad, I will always love you.

Inside the note was a photo. It fell out onto the ground. I picked it up. Looking at it, I couldn’t help but get emotional.

I had no pictures of my parents. Up until that afternoon in Valentine Park, the only images I had of them were in my memories. The photo was of the three of us at Virginia Beach. I was maybe ten years old. My dad had me on his shoulders. He was holding hands with my mother. We all looked so happy. I looked so happy.

For an hour, I sat there under Hangman’s Tree. I sat there with the photo in my hands. I sat there crying. I sat there with $750,000 dollars in cash. I sat there, satisfied. The biggest mystery of my life was solved.

Later that afternoon, I went to the Side Car diner. I had decided to seek comfort. And for me, comfort came in the form of a waitress old enough to be my mother and a plate stacked high with waffles

I wondered how Sam was doing. Learning about Richard’s involvement in the drug ring was hard for me. I could only imagine how hard it would be for Sam.

As I sat there with my syrupy therapy, much to my surprise I saw Sam’s car pull into the parking lot out front. As he got out, even from the inside with a pane of glass between us, I could see how stressed he was.

As soon as Sam entered the diner, he saw me and came straight over. He looked shell-shocked. I could only imagine what he was thinking.

“Jesus, Riley, what happened to your face? Who did this to you?”

“It’s nothing, really. A rough night.”

“A rough night?” One of Sam’s eyebrows raised.

“Never mind that. I’m so sorry about everything. I saw you as I drove away. I wanted to tell you but…”

Sam gently grabbed both sides of my face and frowned at the bruises on my cheek. He pulled me towards him and wrapped his arms around me. I leaned in, welcoming his embrace this time. After the few days I’d had, I could do with a hug.  After a short while, Sam pulled back a little and I rested my head on his shoulder. It felt nice. Sitting there in the Side Car with Sam, it occurred to me suddenly that I was right where I wanted to be. For so long, I’d been so invested in chasing my past, I never took the time to see that my future was right in front of me.

“Sam, I’m so sorry. I know this must be hard for you.”

Sam lifted my head up gently by the chin with a finger. Then, he leaned in and kissed me. It was a long and passionate kiss. And it felt right. The warm feeling of his lips against mine felt like destiny. I felt like kissing him was what I was always meant to do.

All the stress and strife of the last year seemed to flow out from our interlocked lips and melt away. There was nothing and no one else in the world but us. He held me close and didn’t let go. And I didn’t want him to.

“My dad…” Sam started to say.

I put my finger on his lips, effectively shutting him up.

“I know, and I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why now? I mean, if I would’ve tried to kiss you just a week ago, I’m pretty sure you would have slugged me.”

I smiled at Sam. “Not everything is a mystery, Detective.”