Chapter 29
LA County Jail
So much had happened since morning that Fred hadn't had time to dwell on his predicament. The situation changed abruptly, however, when he arrived at the LA County Jail. Gradually, he became more and more depressed as he realized he might never be free again. All the little things he had taken for granted all of his life suddenly flashed through his mind. Would he ever jump in his car again and hit the open road as he so loved to do or hike in the mountains and smell the clear, cool mountain air? Would he ever hold Maria's hand again and feel her sweet, succulent lips?
After they booked him, he was escorted with four or five other prisoners down a long hallway. Three solid lines—red, green, and blue—had been painted on the floor. A sign along the way advised that the solid red line led to the main cell block. Two jailers led them along the red line until they came to a solid steel gate. One of the jailers rang a bell and then talked to someone inside though an intercom. After a few moments, the steel gate began to retract, clearing the way for the prisoners to enter. After they had entered the cell block, the gate began to close, and the sound of the steel doors slamming shut sent shivers down Fred’s spine.
They continued along the red line until they finally arrived at a door next to a glass window reinforced with steel mesh. Behind the glass sat another jailer in front of a control panel. As he saw them approach, he pushed a button that set off a buzzer that indicated the door was unlocked. They escorted them through the door, and one by one, assigned each of them to a cell. Each cell was designed to accommodate two inmates, but Fred was placed in a cell all alone. This was a great relief to him, as he was afraid of many of the inmates he’d seen and didn't relish being locked up with one of them.
That night, Fred couldn't sleep. His mind raced through the events of the last six months. Where did I go wrong? What could I have done differently to avoid the mess I’m in now? He pondered this for some time but finally decided there wasn’t an answer. Anything he might have done could just as easily have landed him in jail. It all came down to fate, he decided.
Never in his worst melancholic state would Fred have ever thought he’d wind up in a jail cell facing life-imprisonment or the gas chamber. The worst part of his plight was the fact that he couldn't tell anyone what really happened, not even his attorney. He had been taught all his life to be honest and truthful, but if he told the truth now, nobody would believe him, and he’d surely end up on death row. Oh God! What will become of me?
Fred guessed anyone could eventually adjust to prison life, and he was starting to resign himself to the fact that he might be compelled to make that adjustment. After staring in the dark for quite a while, he finally fell into a shallow sleep and found himself in Devil's Canyon looking at a pond and hearing water splashing.
He saw himself making love with Candy. They were both so full of life and happiness. Then, suddenly, she was sitting on a rock. He yelled at her frantically, "Watch out! There's a snake!" but she couldn't hear him, as he was in another dimension. Suddenly, he saw the snake attack her and heard her screams of pain. Then he was holding her limp body in his arms. The sight was unbearable, and he began to moan and tremble in terror until he was jolted back into consciousness. As he looked around, there was only the cold steel and the stark furnishings of his cell. The only sound that could be heard was a distant snoring from an inmate who had apparently made peace with his environment. He couldn't imagine himself doing that, being at peace in this junkyard of human misery.
After what seemed like an eternity, the night did finally come to an end. At 6:00 a.m. sharp, the guards awakened them and took them by chain gang to the cafeteria for breakfast. The food was tolerable, but Fred had no appetite. His body was so exhausted and his depression so deep that food had no appeal to him. After thirty minutes of staring at his plate, they returned him to his cell. After the door had been slammed shut, he laid down on his bunk, finally succumbing to exhaustion, and fell asleep.
A short time later, he was rudely awakened by a jailer calling his name. "Fuller! Get your ass up. You've made bail."
Fred opened his eyes and looked up. "What?”
"Somebody must love you,” the guard said. “They came up with a hundred grand to bail your ass out of here."
"Who was it?" Fred asked, incredulous.
"How the hell do I know? Just get your ass up and go find out before I lose this paperwork."
"Okay." Fred jumped up and followed the jailer out of his cell. He led him back to the control room. Outside the window, he could see Joel Roberts pacing back and forth. After a minute, the buzzer sounded, and Fred was a free man. He eagerly pushed open the door and greeted Joel with a big smile. His depression had vanished, and he looked around and breathed a deep sigh of relief. "Man, am I glad to see you!" he said.
"I bet. I hate this place. It gives me the creeps."
"It gives you the creeps? You ought to spend the night here."
"No thanks. Come on, let's get out of here."
"You don't have to ask me twice."
"Are you alright?"
"Now I am."
"Tough night?"
"Horrible. I didn't think it would ever end. How did you raise $100,000 for my bail?"
"You'll see in a minute. There is someone waiting for you in the lobby."
Fred was very anxious and curious to find out the identity of his mysterious benefactor. As he came to the end of the solid red line and turned the corner he was shocked to see Maria.
Considering the way he’d treated her, Maria was the last person he expected to see. Tears began pouring from his eyes as he embraced her. "I never thought I’d see you again."
Maria also began to cry at seeing Fred. "You underestimated me. I wouldn't let them keep you locked up."
"But how did you get $100,000?"
"I didn't. I just convinced my parents to guarantee your bond with our home."
Fred’s heart sank. "What! Oh my God!"
"You better not skip town."
"How did you convince them to do that?"
"I told them if they wanted to keep their daughter out of the lunatic asylum, they would have to put up your bond."
Fred swallowed hard. "Maria, you must have heard about—"
"Yes, I did, and we'll definitely talk about that later. For now, let's just get out of this depressing place."
Fred looked back at Joel, and he waved him on. "Go with Maria, but be in my office tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. to start on your defense. We’ve got work to do if we’re going to get you off."
"Okay. Thanks."
As they walked through the revolving doors in front of the jail, a mob of reporters surprised them.
"Mr. Fuller, how were you able to post bond?" a short, dark-haired reporter yelled.
"No comment. Thank you," Fred said, quickening their pace.
"What is your reaction to the U.S. Attorney's announcement that they found your fingerprints inside the vault?" a second reporter asked.
Fred cringed. "That's not possible. . . . Let us through please."
"Ms. Shepard, how do feel about Mr. Fuller's affair with Candy Clisby?" a lady reporter asked.
Fred glared angrily at the reporter and shouted, "She has no comment. Now leave us alone!"
The crowd squeezed around them, blocking their exit. Fred slowly pushed a path toward the parking garage. TV cameras ran as reporters continued demanding answers to their questions. Finally, two uniformed policeman noticed their plight and intervened to help them extricate themselves from the mob. In a few moments, they were driving Maria's car out of the parking garage and into downtown LA. They headed immediately for the on ramp to the Ventura Freeway and headed north.
"Oh, man, it feels so great to be driving down the freeway. I was afraid I would never be able to do that again."
"It must have been horrible last night," Maria said.
"It was unbearable. I can't go back there."
&
nbsp; "Hopefully you won't have to."
"I sure hope not."
"Now that I got you out of jail, are you going to tell me what in the hell is going on?"
"I suppose I should, but if I tell you the truth, you may not be able to forgive me, and I’m afraid I will lose you again—this time forever. If I lie to you, you will know it and surely abandon me. I can’t win either way."
"Just tell me the truth. Otherwise, we're finished, Fred."
"Okay, you're right. I owe you the truth."
As Fred started to spill his guts, a cold chill surged down his spine. He was about to confess his sins to Maria when it suddenly occurred to him that her car may be bugged. He almost blurted out a confession that may well have sent him to federal prison and put Sam Whitehead in the Governor's mansion.
As they continued to drive down the freeway, Fred turned on the car stereo louder than any normal person could stand. Maria looked at him curiously.
"The bugs are sure thick tonight," he advised.
She frowned at him, trying to figure out what in the hell he was talking about, and then suddenly she got the message. "Oh. I guess it's all the rain we got this spring. Shall we go up to Griffith Park to look at the city lights?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea."
Griffith Park Observatory was one of their favorite places to go and just talk, among other things. When they arrived, they got out of Maria's car and strolled around the grounds.
"Do you really think my car is bugged?" Maria questioned.
"Yeah, it probably is. The government wants my ass pretty bad."
"I can't believe they would do that," Maria said.
“Oh, from what I understand, Whitehead would do just about anything to get elected Governor.”
“Hmm, you’re probably right,” Maria agreed.
Fred looked intensely at Maria. “Thank you so much for getting me out of jail. I can't believe you made your parents pledge their house. I didn't expect to ever see you again after you heard about Candy."
"Well, you don't know how much that hurt me. For a while, I wanted to break your neck. It was such a shock that you could betray me the way you did, but then I began to think, we aren't married, and you haven't actually asked me to marry you. Technically, you were free to date other women and even screw them, I guess."
"You told me you wouldn’t leave the country with me, so I figured it was over between us. Candy jumped at the chance to go with me."
Tears welled in Maria’s eyes. “I didn’t think you were serious. Had you told me what was going on, I might have gone with you.”
“Well, I didn’t press you on the issue because I didn’t want to ruin your life. I love you too much for that.”
“What about Candy? You didn’t mind ruining her life?”
Fred shrugged. “She was a willing accomplice. I don’t know how much I loved her or if she loved me. We didn’t honestly know each other that well. She was older, more worldly, and seemed to know what she wanted, so I didn’t feel as protective of her.”
"Well, she is dead now, so I won't have to worry about her stealing you away from me again."
"If we somehow get through this, I promise I’ll be the most righteous person on the planet."
"I hope so. If you do any screwing around after we're married, I’ll hire the best divorce lawyer in California, and you’ll be sending me a fat monthly alimony check until the Dodgers move back to Brooklyn!"
Fred laughed. "Okay, okay. I get the picture.”
“Now, are you going to tell me what in the hell is going on or what?"
"Yeah, I was working up to it.”
"No more lies, Fred Fuller."
"Okay. Hamlin and Sam Stewart and maybe some other people tried to set me up. I found the vault open again, but I didn’t go inside. I closed it so Hamlin wouldn’t get in trouble. On my way home, I discovered there was a bag of money in the trunk of my car. The robber apparently had planted it there to make the FBI think I was in on the bank robbery. Luckily, I discovered the bag and hid the money before I got back to the motor pool."
“So you had nothing to do with the robbery?”
“No, but I do have a million of the 6.7 million that was stolen.”
"Give it back! Tell them what happened.”
“Do you think for a minute anybody would believe me? I don’t want the money. I’d love to give it back, but if I do, I’ll end up in prison for something I didn’t do.”
Maria thought a minute. “You should have called Sinclair immediately when you found the vault open. Then they’d have believed you when you told them you found the money in your trunk.”
“You’re probably right, but Hamlin had given me this sad story about his wife leaving him, so I felt sorry for him and didn’t want to get him in trouble and lose his job. But he lied to me. He said his wife had just left him, but it was actually over a year ago. Hamlin must have been part of the heist and not the victim they are making him out to be. Since he’s dead, though, there must be an accomplice out there—Sam Stewart would be my guess. He had to be the one who put the bag of money in my car. There was nobody else around.”
“How could this have happened?” Maria said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I know. I wish I could turn the clock back, believe me. It almost seems like it was my fate to have the money. You know, two of my visions have come true this week.”
“What do you mean?”
“Candy turned out to be the woman in the pond who always ends up screaming in agony. I swear when Candy was bitten by the snake, it was like déjà vu.”
“That’s bizarre.”
“And last night, I lived my prison dream—walking in the chain gang, through the big steel gate, along a thick red line.”
Maria shook her head in disbelief. “So, what are we going to do now?"
"I wish I knew."
Maria pondered the situation a moment and then said, "I guess we could leave the country."
"Seriously? You’d leave the country with me now?"
"Of course. I love you."
“I wish I would have known that.”
"I didn't want to give you any encouragement. Leaving the country is the last thing I’d ever want to do, but when you left me and I thought I might not ever see you again, I realized I couldn't live without you. So yes, I'll go anywhere with you."
Fred pulled Maria’s lips to his to express his gratitude for her staunch loyalty and devotion. He knew he didn’t deserve her, but somehow God had blessed him with her love.
"There's no way we can get out the country now,” Fred said. “The FBI is going to be watching us like a hawk, and I won’t risk your family’s home like that."
"What are we going to do then?"
"I don't know about tomorrow, but I definitely know what I want to do now."
"What's that?"
"I want to feel your lips on mine, smell the sweet scent of your body next to me, and hold you and never let you go."
Maria put her arms around Fred and pulled him close. "You promise?”
“Yes. I promise.”
“Good," she whispered and then kissed him like he’d never been kissed before.
Uncommon Thief Page 29