Bully

by Gonzalez, J. F.

  “I’d like to have a quick word with Jerry before we turn in,” Danny said as he eased himself off the bed. Karen’s smile faded a bit and he was still holding her hand as he stood up. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay,” Karen said. “I’m going to get the kids ready for bed. Then maybe we can talk a little more?”

  “Of course,” Danny said. He smiled at Karen, wanting to kiss her, but the old part of him held back. Karen seemed to sense the silent struggle going on and she pulled him toward her. She kissed him lightly on the mouth. “I’ll wait here for you,” she said.

  Danny smiled at her. “Okay. I won’t be long.”

  Karen smiled back. Her eyes still had that sparkle. “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  Danny let himself out into the hallway and started heading toward room 57 when Jerry came out of the room and saw him. He closed the door behind him and met Danny in the middle of the hallway.

  “Out for a walk?” Danny asked.

  “Actually, I was coming by to see you,” Jerry said. Jerry looked tired. His face looked more weathered than it ever had before. He was wearing a pair of wire-framed glasses and his hair was frizzy and hung about his shoulders. He’d changed into a clean pair of blue jeans, a white t-shirt and tennis shoes. “Chrissy just put Olivia to sleep and is taking a shower.”

  Danny looked down the hall beyond Jerry. A man wearing tan slacks and a beige polo shirt was leafing through a newspaper, as if waiting for somebody to get off the elevator. That was probably a detective or an FBI agent that had been assigned to watch over them. Danny nodded toward the elevators. “Let’s make this quick then and keep our voices down,” he said.

  If Jerry noticed the man earlier he didn’t let on that the man was there, but he did understand Danny’s warning. He also seemed to be on the same wave-length Danny was on because he got right to the point. “James told us he killed Raul because he was going to kill us anyway. He saw no reason why he shouldn’t tell us. He did it in the days after Bobby’s death after you told him what really happened that day.”

  Danny nodded. “Yeah.”

  “And that fucked him up,” Jerry said, his voice low. “It really fucked him up, but he knew he couldn’t do anything about it. If he did...he’d be fucked. So he snagged Raul one afternoon, maybe when Raul was running out of the house after having been...you know...abused.”

  Danny nodded. “Yeah, that’s exactly what happened.”

  “And he got Raul to come with him easy,” Jerry continued. “After all, Raul recognized him. James told Raul that if he got in the car with him he’d protect him. He’d make him exempt from the child abuse stuff that was going on at the house.”

  Danny cast a quick glance at the man near the elevators. He was sitting on a cushioned bench, still reading the newspaper. “That’s exactly what happened.”

  Jerry sighed. “Yeah. I agree.”

  “Then he started going on about the group and how he got involved,” Danny continued. “And why he got involved.”

  Jerry was looking at Danny with that look he’d given him earlier: that look of surprise. “You still okay?”

  Danny thought the question was odd; he blinked. “Yeah, I’m okay. Why?”

  “You’re...you don’t...I mean...” Jerry still looked nervous but it wasn’t as great as before. He shook his head. “Nah...you’re okay. Of course, you are.”

  Danny grinned. “Of course, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be? It’s over now. This whole fucking mess is over, man.”

  Jerry grinned back, his look more optimistic now.

  “I’m sorry things were fucked up between us all this time,” Danny continued. “And I’m sorry I annoyed the shit out of you when Tom first contacted me.”

  “It’s okay,” Jerry said quickly. He patted Danny on the shoulder, like a big brother. “I’m sorry for anything I might have said or done that hurt you.”

  Danny had a thousand questions for Jerry that had been floating through his mind since he had been herded into his house this morning by James. He wanted to know why Jerry looked and sounded so surprised when he saw Danny this morning, as if he didn’t think Danny was alive; he wanted to know why Jerry’s house had been stripped of furniture, with all those boxes stacked up in the living room—it almost looked like Jerry was moving out. He wondered if that had been part of Jerry’s plan before everything went down this morning; getting the hell out of LA. If so, Danny didn’t blame him. He would have done the same thing.

  He understood what was important now.

  His family...his children, Chris and Tina...Karen...

  He’d do anything for them.

  “Then we’re set?” Jerry asked.

  “Yeah,” Danny replied.

  “I can catch you at your place when this investigative shit is over?”

  “Of course. You?”

  “I don’t know.” Jerry looked uncertain. “Chrissy and I...we were planning on splitting, you know? Because of...well, because of all this and...I think we probably still will, but I’m sure the cops will make us hang around for a few days until this shit is finished.”

  Danny understood where Jerry was going. “But when it’s over you’re going?”

  Jerry nodded, meeting Danny’s gaze. “Yeah.”

  Danny grinned. “Good for you,” he said.

  Jerry grinned back, a silent understanding passing between them.

  “I’ll be in touch,” Jerry said, patting Danny’s shoulder a final time before turning around and heading back to his room.

  “I will, too,” Danny said.

  And then they went back to their rooms to be with their families.

  Twenty-one

  FOR NEARLY A week, the story on police and political corruption within the Gardena City police department was big news.

  It was the top story on all the local Los Angeles and Orange County area news media outlets, and was featured prominently on CNN and Fox News. With all remaining players in custody—Father Clavell, Jeff Manning, Bill Dennison and Harold Oblowski—Jerry Valdez and Danny Hernandez were questioned repeatedly by the FBI, who had taken over the case. Lieutenant Getz was formally charged two days after the story broke for obstruction of justice and corruption, and the repercussions were felt all the way through the department. Likewise, all the parties in custody were charged in the murders of Franklin Navarro and Gary Little. Tom Jensen tried to keep a stiff upper, and his workdays were soon sixteen hour marathons as he worked with the FBI on gathering enough material and physical evidence to indict the four original players on multiple charges, which included tax invasion once the IRS stepped in.

  Their stories corroborated one another and it matched with the evidence Tom Jensen had heard at Jerry’s house the day James Whitsett held Danny and Jerry hostage in the Valdez home. Raul’s murder was finally being scrutinized again, this time with an eye toward James Whitsett as the most probable suspect.

  This surprised Father Clavell and ex Police-Chief Manning, as well as the remaining members of the group. All four adamantly denied James Whitsett would have killed Raul Valesquez. When pressed on the issue, neither man could provide a straight answer. “He would have told me if he did it,” Manning told Jensen and Agent Baker during questioning. “He and I kept in continual touch after Douglas Archer was convicted and Eva Valesquez died. He would have said something to me at some point and he never did. I never once thought he was a suspect in Raul’s murder.”

  It was during this questioning that the four men admitted to framing Douglas Archer for the murder of Raul Valesquez. And they confirmed Jensen’s suspicions that their sole reason behind this was to turn law enforcements attention away from their own illegal dealings at the Valesquez home.

  Five days later Jensen reported to Danny Hernandez that Doug Archer’s sister, Jessie, was preparing to file a wrongful death suit against the city of Gardena. Robert Valesquez was considering a similar suit on behalf of his brother and late mother.

  Manning, Father Cl
avell, and the other two men were firm in their conviction that Whitsett couldn’t have been responsible for Raul’s murder. However, Manning did admit to Jensen and Agent Baker that Whitsett killed Eva Valesquez. “Eva was starting to come around,” he told them in the bare interrogation room during the three days of questioning. “During Doug Archer’s trial, she started sobering up. We weren’t running things out of her house anymore. That shit stopped when Raul turned up dead, and we all agreed that it was over. We started funneling whatever money we made into offshore accounts and stuff. But we kept tabs on what was going on at the house just to make sure things didn’t slip up. Eva, she started sobering up and as she did, she suddenly realized what had gone on and who was involved and started getting nosy. She talked to some of her friends, the other whores that used to sell themselves out of the house, and they told her what they knew. Bartell and Louie were still hanging out at her house even though Raul was gone, and they told her what happened to them and how we allowed freaks to have their way with them and she lost it; she started tearing shit apart at the house and it scared Louie and Dave. Louie called the police and I found out about the call and went down there myself. I sat Eva down and told her that her friends were lying to her, that she’d allowed her son to be killed because she was never around to care for him. And because she was always drunk and fucked up and never paid attention to what went on in her own house, that was an invitation to invite the wrong elements into her house. I told her that’s how Doug Archer got to Raul. Well, that just guilt-tripped her something big, and she grabbed a bottle of Night Train and started drinking again. Her middle son, Rudy, was home, and I told him to keep an eye on his mom and left. When I got to the station, I called James and told him what happened and he told me he’d take care of it. He later told me he went over to the house the next day when Rudy and Robert were at school and told Eva he was coming as a representative of the church, that he wanted to help. Eva, she’d passed out earlier that morning and got right up and started drinking again. She let him in the house and basically James just talked to her, kept encouraging her to keep drinking until she passed out again on the sofa. He waited till she was in a deep sleep, then he turned her over so she was sleeping on her belly and put a pillow under her face. Then he left. She was so fucked up she didn’t wake up when she vomited. She just...choked on her own puke right there.”

  Based on that confession, Manning was brought up on charges of accessory to murder after the fact two weeks later.

  Jerry Valdez and his family stayed at Chrissy’s mother’s house in the few weeks following the showdown at their home. Danny kept in touch every few days by phone; he would call after work, just to see how things were. He was seeing Karen again, and many times he would drive down to her rented house in Carson straight from work to spend the evening with her and the kids. Karen insisted they start off slow—she wanted to make another stab at fixing their relationship, and Danny did, too. He agreed to take things easy, let things develop naturally. They didn’t sleep together those first few weeks he visited; Danny slept on the sofa, but the kids could sense that things were different between their parents now. They were both happier, always smiling and laughing now. Despite being thrust into a world of terror only a few short weeks ago, they bounced back quickly thanks to the rebound of Karen and Danny’s relationship.

  Danny wanted to strengthen that foundation for them. He wanted them to grow up in a secure and loving home. He wanted Karen back in his life again; the last year without her had been tumultuous and he realized now how much he loved her.

  During one of their phone conversations, Jerry related he was still planning on moving his family down to Baja California. By this time he’d already told Danny about his uncle’s beach house and the plans he and Chrissy made. “Maybe once we’re settled in, you and Karen and the kids can visit.”

  “That’d be great,” Danny said.

  “How’re things going with you?”

  “Couldn’t be better.” Danny told Jerry about his and Karen’s slow attempt at getting back together. “It’s almost like what happened to us that day helped in a way,” Danny explained. “I actually stuck my neck out and dared to do something. I didn’t realize that until now, but Karen picked up on it right away when she heard about what I did to help save them. That was my whole problem with our marriage. I was always afraid to try things on my own.”

  “Maybe now we can finally put all this shit behind us,” Jerry said.

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  With James Whitsett finally pinned to Raul Valesquez’s murder, that wish seemed like a small glimmer of hope.

  ALMOST THREE WEEKS after James Whitsett was killed at Jerry Valdez’s home, Tom Jensen paid a visit to Danny Hernandez.

  Danny was surprised to see the detective standing at the doorway to his apartment when he looked through the peephole in response to the doorbell. He saw somebody next to him but didn’t recognize the other person as Jerry Valdez until he opened the door.

  “Hey,” Danny said, a little surprised. He glanced at Jerry quickly, who refused to meet his gaze. “What’s up? I wasn’t expecting you guys to be here.”

  “I was just in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by to talk to you about the latest developments,” Tom Jensen said. He shouldered his way past Danny without waiting for an invitation. Jerry followed him and his eyes locked with Danny’s briefly as he went by. Danny’s heart froze at the look in Jerry’s eyes. Something’s wrong.

  “What’s up?” Danny asked as he closed the door and followed them into the living room. He tried to act casual as he motioned for them to have a seat. Jerry sat down on the green sofa and Tom headed straight for the refrigerator. “Got any beer?”

  “Yeah,” Danny said, glancing quickly at Jerry who was looking at the TV. “I’ll take one.”

  “Good.” Tom was already pulling bottles of Corona out and opening them. “I need to talk with you two and I need to do it in privacy. Lucky for me, Jerry was home at his mother-in-law’s.”

  Jerry didn’t say anything as Tom handed him a beer. He didn’t protest that it was harmful to his sobriety. He simply accepted the bottle and took a swig.

  Tom sat down on the easy chair near the kitchen counter while Danny pulled up a chair from the kitchen table. He had a bad feeling about this. “So, what’s up?”

  “There seem to be some inconsistencies between what you told us about James Whitsett confessing to Raul’s murder, and the actual physical evidence,” Tom said.

  Danny felt his stomach plunge down an elevator shaft. Jesus, this can’t be happening.

  “The FBI is pretty much of the opinion that it’s an open and shut case,” Tom continued. “Since James Whitsett can’t be prosecuted, they’re willing to write Raul’s murder off as having been committed by him. I have no problem going with that, but there’s one thing that bothers me.”

  “What’s that?” Danny asked, taking a sip of beer to keep his mouth from going dry.

  Tom leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “First things first; I’m off duty. What gets said here doesn’t leave this room. I mean that. I also want to make it known to you that I never entirely believed you were telling me the whole truth, Danny. Even after all the shit that happened went down and you and Jerry told us what happened regarding James killing Raul, I still believe there’s something you’re deliberately withholding. I’m not the only one who thinks that, either. Hank Baker thinks you’re hiding something, too, but I’ve told him you’re clean, that you’ve told us everything you know. Hank’s a good guy and he’s starting to believe me, but he still has his doubts.” He eyed Danny. “Is there anything else I should know?”

  “No,” Danny said quickly.

  “You sure? I still feel like there’s something missing, and I’m supposed to see Hank tomorrow. I’d like to be able to tell him that my feelings about you telling me everything are free and clear. That will only make him feel better about things, and then we can move on, sweep this th
ing under the rug where it belongs.” He regarded both of them. “Do you understand what I’m talking about?”

  “Yeah,” Danny said, his mind spinning. He didn’t know how to respond. “I think so.”

  “Is there anything else you need to tell me that I need to know?” Tom asked.

  “No,” Danny said again quickly.

  Tom turned to Jerry. “Jerry?”

  Jerry shook his head. He was trying to look subdued. “Nah, man.”

  Tom nodded, rubbing his chin. “Okay,” he said. He took a quick swig of beer. “Let me spell it out for you then. Everybody is overlooking this shit and it’s only going to be obvious to anyone who wants to take a closer look. It’s going to take a lot of effort for them to do so, and if they come to Hank and me and ask, we’ll be obligated to point things out to them. You get what I’m saying?”

  Danny was confused. Was Tom blackmailing them?

  “James Whitsett’s work records for the company he was employed with at the time are lost, but we talked to a few of his old co-workers,” Tom continued. “And they’re pretty adamant that James was working at the time Raul disappeared. The reason they remember so vividly is because they remember talking to James about it a day or two later when the body was found. One of them remembers James being visibly affected by Raul’s murder.”

  “That just means he was guilty,” Danny said.

  “Maybe,” Tom said, eyeing Danny. “But then consider this. The footprints found near Raul’s body were from a size seven-and-a-half shoe...James wore a size ten. They were from a pair of Van’s sneakers, which Susan claims James never wore. We can ignore the other evidence from the trial since that was mostly fabricated or planted by the DA to frame Douglas Archer. But those shoe prints...those are the clincher. They were fresh, made not more than a few hours before the forensics team cast them. That means they were made by the killer. And you guys were at the right age at the time, you were the perfect customers for that particular brand of shoe. I saw the advertising the company did back then; they advertised heavily toward the skateboard and surf crowd. A crowd you two belonged to.”