by Robert Swetz
He flipped through a few other cards near the top of the box. Mostly credit cards from people he didn’t know and another license from a woman he recognized but hadn’t known her name. Should he take it and try to find her? He decided against it. He figured that Giovanni’s license was tempting fate enough. He left the rest of the cards alone and closed the box. He had only taken Mr. Giovanni’s license, although he didn’t really know why. Probably because he knew Mr. Giovanni better than anyone else in the neighborhood, even though Giovanni didn’t know his name – he thought. His mother had certainly talked with him more than a few times. He didn’t know if his mother had told him any names.
He waited an hour after his mother left so that the morning rush of people heading to work would be over, but it would still be too early for most of the Scorpions to be around. He stuck the box into his backpack and headed down the stairs and out to the street. He walked the two blocks down to Giovanni’s Market.
As always, Giovanni was inside behind the counter. He got a big smile and Giovanni actually said hi to him as he came in through the door. But before he could talk to Mr. Giovanni, he had to make sure no Scorpions were around. Anyone else either. He started wandering the store, looking to see who was there. He noticed two different women, but they both were near the back of the store and they both seemed to be taking their time with their shopping. He went back to see Giovanni.
“Hello again,” Giovanni said, once again noticing that he didn’t have anything in his hands to buy. “Is there something I can help you with?”
Instead of answering, he pulled the license out of his pocket and handed it over. “Is this yours?” he asked.
Giovanni looked at it. “Yes! Where did you get it?”
“Don’t ask! Please. And once again, don’t tell anyone I was here.”
“Okay,” Giovanni replied. “You know, you could have just thrown this away. After it was stolen, I got a new one.”
“You did?”
“Yes, of course. I can’t go without a license. I’ve got goods to pick up and deliveries I have to make.”
“Oh. Sorry,” he said. “See you.” He headed for the door.
“Hey kid!”
He turned.
“Why don’t you go grab yourself a drink or something. Take it with my blessing.”
He considered that, then shook his head. “Thanks, but I’ve got to get going.”
“Okay. Next time maybe,” Giovanni suggested.
“Yeah. Next time,” he replied.
He went back out to the street. Right now, his main goal was to get out of the area as soon as possible. He didn’t need the Scorpions seeing him walking around with the backpack. One of them might wonder what he had in it. That would be bad!
He hurried away from the area as fast as he could, only slowing to a more normal walk about five blocks later. He was going to be very early getting to the church, but his fear of the Scorpions demanded it. His other fear of course, was the backpack. He was carrying something now and he rarely ever carried anything. Like a woman’s purse, his backpack was a target for someone to steal.
The city blocks passed under his feet far too quickly. Before he knew it, he was there. But it was way too early. He had hours to wait until that nun would come out and they would open the door. At least he was out of the Scorpion’s area now. But with the backpack, he might still be a target for the gang that ran the local area here. To get out of sight, he wandered through a store for a few minutes until the owner figured out that he wasn’t there to buy anything and chased him away. He had no choice but to stand out on the street in the most hidden and out of the way place he could, all the time watching the church, waiting for when that door might open.
Would they have soup again today, or something better? He tried to think about that. He tried to think about anything except being caught with the box. But that was as impossible as not thinking about the box a few days ago. He was going to be very glad to get rid of it.
When the first of the homeless people started congregating around the side door of the church, he joined them. Those people being there meant that it wouldn’t be too much longer until the door opened, and he could get rid of the box. The number of people grew to its usual size, and then finally the door opened, and the nun came out.
“Hi everyone,” she called kindly. As she always did, she greeted each of them with something nice as they came in.
He realized that she knew most of the people by name. And then it was his turn.
“Hello David,” Sister Agnes said to him.
“Hi,” he replied as he went past her and joined the line for food. If the nun knew the name that Father Joseph had given him, then he realized that the priest had a big mouth. Nope! No such thing as a priest not telling things. This time Father Joseph came out from the kitchen to say a few words about his father and about blessing things, but as soon as he was done, he disappeared back into the kitchen again. Brian did notice though that Father Joseph had looked directly at him for a few moments.
No soup! Some kind of meat that looked like hamburger but without the bun. Mashed potatoes and vegetables with it though. Once again, everything he ate tasted good.
“How are you today, David?” the nun asked as she got around to his table.
“Okay,” he replied.
“Father Joseph said you might be here today,” she told him. “I’m so glad you came.”
Yup! Father Joseph had a big mouth. He just hoped it wouldn’t be too big. Big enough to get him into trouble.
When he was finished eating, he had no choice but to sit at his table and wait. The nun was outside saying goodbye to the people as they left, and the room gradually emptied out, but still no priest. The nun was back in before the priest. She smiled at him, then disappeared back into the kitchen area. Finally, Father Joseph came out.
“Sorry you had to wait,” he said. “Sometimes things get busy in there.”
“No problem,” he replied. “I don’t have to be anywhere till my mother gets home.”
“Since you don’t seem to like our sanctuary very much, why don’t you come back to my office? We can talk there.”
He had no problem with that. He got up and threw the single working backpack strap over his shoulder. It was a longer walk to the priest’s office, and they had to go up a flight of stairs to get there. Once inside, he looked around. He had never seen such a nice place. Everything in the room looked rich and fancy, and one entire wall was all books. “You must read an awful lot to have so many books,” he said as he stared at them all.
“Those books are very important,” Father Joseph replied. “I spend a lot of time studying.”
“You mean you’re still in school?”
“No. But that doesn’t mean I don’t stop learning things.”
“Sounds like a lot of work.”
“It is, but it’s all a labor of love.”
He wasn’t sure what that meant. He finally sat down in one of the nice chairs in front of the priest’s desk.
“I guess you brought the box?”
“Yeah,” he replied. He opened the backpack and pulled it out. Father Joseph stood up and leaned across his desk as he handed it to him. He watched as the priest opened the box and looked in it. He watched as he briefly rifled through the contents. “I guess all that stuff is worthless,” he said. “If someone got their license stolen, then I’m sure they must have gotten a new one.”
“Maybe,” Father Joseph replied. “Where exactly did you find all this?”
“I can’t say,” he replied. “All I can tell you is that the Scorpions had it. It belongs to them.”
“But not the things in the box,” Father Joseph countered.
“Uh…no. They belong to whoever they took them from.”
Father Joseph put the lid back on the box. “I’ll see what needs to be done with it. I’m glad you brought it to me. I promise I’ll take care of it, and you won’t have to worry about it anymore.”
&nbs
p; “That would be good,” he replied. “Real good!”
“How is your mother?” Father Joseph asked.
“Okay. She doesn’t get paid for a few more days yet, but she’s looking forward to it.”
“I’m glad. Does that mean we won’t be seeing you for lunch anymore?”
“I don’t know. I’ll probably come around once in a while. At least until school starts.”
“Good. I’ll be glad to see you. Very glad. You’re always welcome here, and if you ever need to talk about something, anything at all, I’m always here for you. Any of us here.”
“Yeah, well, there’s nothing I need to talk about, now that that’s out of my way.”
The priest set his hands down on the box. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of it.”
“Thanks.”
Father Joseph escorted him downstairs and all the way out the same door he had come in through. “I do hope we’ll see you soon, David,” he told the boy. “I’d love to talk to you about the many different things this church has to offer.”
“Other things?”
“Yes.”
He considered it. “Maybe.”
“Good. Come anytime.”
“Thanks.”
Father Joseph watched as the boy walked away. He went back inside and up to his office. There were some puzzling things surrounding that boy, not the least of them was how he came across the box. A box evidently owned by the Scorpion gang. And the most worrying thing of all was that the last time the boy had been there, he had insisted that he couldn’t talk about himself or his mother. And he had noticed that not once had he been able to pry any further information out of him about that…except that it would still be another few days until his mother got paid. Useless!
He went through all the contents of the box. He found driver’s licenses and credit cards from two of the members of his own church. He pulled them out and set them aside. Then he put the lid back on the box and picked up the phone. He called a number for someone he had worked with many times over the years. His call was answered after only two rings. “Detective Crosby,” he said. “This is Father Joseph. How are you?”
“Doing okay, Father,” Detective Crosby replied. “How about yourself?”
“I’m doing very well, thank you. Listen, I’ve got something of a puzzle here, but most of that is my problem. What I’ve also got however is a box. A simple small box. But what’s in it may very well be your problem.”
“A box? What’s in it?”
“A whole lot of stolen credit cards, driver’s licenses…things like that. From what I understand, the box belonged to one of the gangs downtown. The Scorpions.”
“The Scorpions! How the hell did you get something like that?”
“Why don’t you stop by and I’ll tell you. Although there really isn’t much to tell. Nothing in fact. The box was brought to me by a boy whose name I don’t know, and he wouldn’t tell me. I only know that he somehow got it from the Scorpions.”
“Okay, I’ll be there later this afternoon. See you then?”
“I look forward to it,” Father Joseph replied.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Brian was happy to make it safely home. He put the backpack away where he usually kept it by literally throwing it in the back of his closet where it would be out of the way. After that, he sat by the open window and watched the goings and comings of everyone out on the street below. As he did, his mind remembered the nice rich looking office that belonged to Father Joseph. Was he rich to have things like that? He had to be. As far as he was concerned, he liked that office a whole lot better than that sanctuary place he had seen before.
He was so preoccupied thinking about Father Joseph and his nice office that he didn’t notice that he never once gave the box another thought. But then, as far as he was concerned, the box was history.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Detective Crosby had worked as one of the detectives fighting the New York gang problem for the last five years. It was an impossible job. Like the others in his unit, he not only considered himself to be overworked, but to him, it seemed like he rarely managed to close a case. Because of that, he felt like the scourge of the entire police department. He had asked to be transferred several times, but each time he had been denied. Nobody else wanted his job.
He took the box Father Joseph had given him back to his desk where he briefly looked through it. Not seeing anything of interest, and not wanting to deal with it, he handed it off to a staff woman who did most of the detailed work of searching for information. Glad to be rid of it, he put it out of his mind and went back to thinking about his latest gang related problem. Another murder. He already knew he wasn’t going to solve it, but he still had to go through the motions.
He only got fifteen minutes to work on that before the woman he had given the box to showed up at his desk. “Detective Crosby…”
“Yeah?”
“You know that box you gave me?”
“Yes?”
“Well, I ran the first license I found in it, and I got a hit. But it was an unusual hit, and it didn’t come from any of our usual systems. It was a name flagged by the FBI.”
“The FBI! Well, it’s not the first time we’ve come across something they’re interested in, not by a long shot. Who was the perp?”
“Well, the woman’s name is Francesca Bianchi, but as far as I was able to see, she wasn’t wanted for anything. They just wanted…her. To talk to her I guess.”
“Could be,” Crosby agreed.
“There was a note in the file for anyone with information to call them immediately.”
“Call them?” He considered it. “I don’t know that just a driver’s license could be considered usable information, but if you get me their number, I’ll at least go through the motions and make the call. At least we can say we did our part.”
“I’ll get it for you,” she told him and left to go back to her desk.
Crosby considered the information. The FBI was interested in the woman. He couldn’t help but wonder why? What crime did she commit that they had flagged her file that way?
The staff woman got back to her desk and had just started to write down the phone number, when her desk phone rang. “Hello?” she said.
“This is Special Agent Rockford with the FBI. Did you just run a request for Francesca Bianchi?”
“Yes. I did,” she replied, very surprised by the call. “Detective Crosby was just about to call you. Can I transfer this call to him?”
“Yes. Please! As soon as possible.”
She put the call on hold and yelled. “Detective Crosby, the FBI is already on the phone. They want to talk to you.”
“Already?” he yelled back. “You just ran the name!”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Better bring me that license,” he told her.
“Right away,” she replied. She grabbed the license, then pushed the buttons to transfer the call. By the time she got to Crosby’s desk, he was already talking to the FBI agent.
“This is Detective Crosby with the New York police,” he told the agent. “How can I help you?”
“This is Special Agent Rockford with the FBI in Washington D.C. One of your people just ran a name and it flagged something in our system.”
Crosby picked up the license and looked at it. Even for a driver’s license photo, he could tell that the woman was young and beautiful. He was quick to note that it was from Chicago, and he also noticed that the license was old. About ten years old. “Yes,” he replied. Some woman named Francesca Bianchi. “Why?”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know. All we have is a driver’s license that was found, and we were just running the name to see what we could find.”
“You didn’t find anything else? You don’t know anything else about her?”
“Nope. Not a thing. But this license we have is old. It was issued ten years ago in Chicago. So whatever you want, I ha
ve no doubt it would be useless to you now.”
“But you just found the license? Recently? There in New York?”
“Yes.”
“Where did it come from?”
“A priest gave it to me, along with a whole box of stolen driver’s licenses and credit cards.”
“Shit!” the FBI agent swore. “The last we were able to track her was to Atlanta, and that was a long time ago now. If she was in New York, then that’s the latest city we can place her in.”
“We have no way of knowing if she’s still here,” Crosby pointed out.
“It doesn’t matter. Maybe we can trace her from wherever that credit card was found.”
“All I know is that the box used to belong to one of the street gangs. The Scorpions. They’re a particularly troublesome bunch.”
“The Scorpions? Whatever. Listen, me or someone from our office, will be flying out there personally to look into it. Dig up whatever you can on where that box came from, and also see if you can find anything else about her. Got it?”
Crosby got the distinct impression that this was an important issue for the FBI. “Sure. I can try. But since we’re talking about one of the gangs, don’t expect much. Solving any of their crimes is usually a losing battle.”
“We’ll be in touch,” the FBI agent told him.
Crosby hung up the phone, then he called Father Joseph. “Father, that box you gave me, I’m afraid I’m going to need to know a lot more about it.”
“I already told you everything I know,” Father Joseph replied.
“You said some kid gave it to you. I need to speak to him as soon as possible.”
“I’m afraid that’s going to be a problem. I don’t know who he is or where he lives. Only that he said he got that box from the Scorpions, and that gang is a long way from our church here.
“How did you find him?”
“He showed up one day in the line for the soup kitchen. He’s been here a few times now.”
“I need you to let me know the minute you see him again. It’s important.”