Justice and Revenge
Page 17
“You’re welcome,” the Chairman said. “We’ll start tomorrow. See you in my office first thing in the morning.”
During his ride home, Nelson took stock of what the job meant to him. I like the pay. It’s good. But I don’t really care one bit if we find the Theater Group’s Agent and Backer or not. I’ll just follow the leader and do what I’m told. Who knows? This could take a long, long time. Maybe even until I retire. He was beginning to warm up to what was ahead.
When Nelson was out of sight, the Chairman checked in with the Backer.
“Hey. How are you? How’s the new Task Force coming along?” The Backer asked.
“Good. It’s now just Nelson and me. Nelson’s not the best. Not even close. But I hand-picked him to be the last member involved with the committee because of that. He’s mine for the duration. And I report directly to the Vice President. Officially, we start anew tomorrow. By the way, Nelson thinks you’re a woman. I just thought I’d throw that in to add one more problem for the investigation.”
“I appreciate all you do for the Theater Group. Since we did the Play for your granddaughter, you’ve been such a big help to us.”
“I can’t thank the Group enough for what they did. Shelly was avenged, and we are grateful for it. It gave her grandmother and me some peace and comfort. Oh, by the way, I have the information you wanted from the pirates who hijacked The Sabre. The Coast Guard intercepted them just before their vessel sank and managed to save them. The younger ones were thrilled to tell us everything we wanted to know after we made them an offer that was very much to their liking.”
“I look forward to reading your report. Did you find out who was bankrolling them?” the Backer asked.
“Yes, and you will be surprised to see who it was. This goes all the way to the top in more than one country.”
“What will happen to the pirates who gave you the information?”
“Let’s just say they will be joining a group of Ex-Gitmo Uighurs at their government-sponsored island home.”
“Excellent.” the Backer said. “Let me know when you finally disband your Committee and Nelson gets reassigned somewhere else.”
“You will hear from me regularly.”
“One last thing,” the Backer said. “I’m eager to receive the rest of the information on the Fast and Furious gunrunning fiasco. I’m counting on you.”
EPILOGUE
“Hi Daddy, how are you doing?” John Patel said. “Good to hear from you.”
“Good, John, how about you?” the Agent said.
“I have good news for you. As you know, Karl Blass has been found guilty of first degree murder in the death of Lissa Powell. The judge has decided to take the jurors’ recommendation for sentencing, and Blass has been given the death penalty. Charlotte’s Play is finally over.”
“That is very good news,” Daddy said. “And I hear from one of my other sources that Blass is to be extradited up and down the east coast to face trial for other murders. Hopefully, those victims’ families will get their day in court before Blass is executed.”
“Great,” John said. “I feel almost as good as I did when we did Suri’s Play.”
“I’ve thought about your daughter often, John. Such a beautiful little girl. Her story really touched me.”
He observed Suri’s photo on the wall, in its place amongst the many others for whom a play was executed. The little girl’s picture joined those in row after row of victims who had been denied their justice in court, but for whom a Play had gained what they were denied through legal channels.
“Her killer won’t be doing that again, thank God, and thanks to The Theater Group,” John said. “My daughter was struck down by a cowardly hit-and-run driver who fled and left her on the side of the road to die. He’s serving a well-deserved life sentence.” John’s grief was still palpable even though he felt a measure of relief.
“Has one of our Group been keeping you informed about how that’s going?”
“I get a call whenever there’s anything significant to report,” John said. “Thank you for making that happen.”
“It’s standard procedure for our group, John. The victim’s family gets regular reports after the Antagonist is convicted and his sentence is carried out. I’m only sorry he didn’t get the death penalty. But he won’t be running anyone else down for a long, long time, if ever.”
“This is almost as good,” John said.
“I appreciate your giving us the update on Blass,” Daddy said. “Take care of yourself, and I hope to talk to you soon. Call me when Blass’ sentence is carried out.”
“One thing, Daddy,” John said. “The police are trying really hard to find out who forged Lissa’s identification papers and also who leaked the story to the press about Blass’ past lie detector tests. Will there be some trouble from this?”
“I don’t think so,” Daddy said, “But I’ll check it out and let you know.”
Daddy turned off his cell phone and picked another one out of the desk to make his next call.
“Marvin, how are you doing?” Daddy said when the Searcher answered the phone.
“Great, Daddy,” Marvin said. “What can I do for you?”
“Double-check for me which one of the Players tipped the papers off to the Blass lie detector story. I want to make sure it’s secure. The police are putting in time trying to find out who did Lissa’s ID paperwork and who tipped the papers off to the Blass story. Since one of our Solicitors did the paperwork, I’m not worried about that. They’ll never figure it out. But I am concerned about the tip-off.”
“I’ll check on it right away, and I’ll call you back as soon as I know anything,” Marvin said.
“Thanks, I’ll be waiting to hear from you.” Vince set the phone next to some work he was doing while he waited to hear back from the Searcher.
Vince’s Agent’s duties continued to be plentiful. He was hand-delivered the script for each Play, oversaw the Theater Group finances, received and handled all the calls from the cast members during the execution of the Play, knew all the participants in each Play, and sometimes explained the rules of the group to new recruits. Despite his handling the production, there were often minutiae of which he wasn’t always aware. This was one of those times, and Daddy was interested in how the newspaper tip-off was accomplished.
The Dollar Dreamers had submitted their latest report on their finances to him. He scrutinized the records and was pleased with the results. All of the expenses for Charlotte’s Play had been paid, and their cash balance was higher than ever. Patrons had been donating regularly, some with amounts of five and six figures. Except for arranging transportation and accommodations for new recruits, Daddy hadn’t needed to call on their Backer for bailout money in a long time.
One philanthropist gave a seven-figure donation after his pet dogs were poisoned to death by a jilted lover. The Doggie Play went off without a hitch after the celebrity girlfriend was located. She was brought up on charges, and her name dragged through the mud on tabloids and television.
She remained unrepentant.
“He and his filthy dogs had it coming to them,” was her reply to the numerous paparazzi who had followed her around, taking photos and publishing them.
While her sentence wasn’t as severe as her ex would have liked, he was finding other ways to make her pay for what she had done to his beloved pets. Thanks to him, she would never work in her profession again. As an additional “Thank You” to the Group, he gave another large donation to them after her conviction for animal cruelty.
One of Daddy’s phones rang and he answered.
“Hi, Daddy,” Marvin said. “I have the information you wanted.”
“Great. What do you know?”
“The leak to the press for the story about Blass beating the lie detector tests came from within the news community itself. One of their employees is a Cast member and she brought forth the story after learning about the lawyer giving him a new lie detector test he
passed. The beauty of the leak is, it was in the papers the same day, and side-by-side with an article about his beating the polygraph done for his defense.”
“Is she covered?” Daddy asked.
“In many layers,” Marvin said. “They may someday find out it was her, but she’ll claim that she happened on her story while doing research on the case. It’s plausible and solid.”
“Good,” Daddy said. With all of his duties and the emotional toll they took, at the end of the day, Vince was pleased he and Marla had married and he would be going home to her.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Holly Fox Vellekoop, MSN, worked for many years as a registered nurse at a state mental hospital. She retired as a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing for Penn State University. Holly has a murder mystery, “STONE HAVEN: Murder Along the River,” published by Avalon Books, a division of Thomas Bouregy Publishing of New York and has also had newspaper and magazine articles and poems published. She is also the author of “How to Help When Parents Grieve: Practical Methods to Help Grieving Parents.” She currently lives in Florida with her husband, Dr. Ronald Vellekoop.
Visit the author at www.hollyfoxvellekoop.com.