The Victim of the System

by Steve Hadden

  The trip to the Prices’ office had seemed long, probably due to Ike’s impatience and his burning desire to get the meeting over so he could nail down his leads. Stepping out of the Shelby, he pulled out his phone and checked his e-mail. A few e-mails with morning news from the Oil & Gas Journal, Energy Intelligence and The Wall Street Journal popped into his in-box. The iPhone continued to cycle, downloading another e-mail from his personal account. His mind coiled like a spring under load, anticipating another e-mail from a dead man. Sure enough, Tom Cole appeared in his in-box. He opened the e-mail.

  9+13+30–7+8+7+99

  “Shit,” he said. A third e-mail. This was becoming more than a distraction. Someone was trying to tell him something. He thrust the phone back into his jeans and headed inside.

  Almost immediately, Jack rushed up. “Hi, Ike,” Jack said.

  Ike extended his palm and Jack slapped it. “How you doing, big guy?” Ike said.

  Jack pulled back. “I’m not a big guy. I’m in the twentieth percentile on size for my age.”

  Ike gently laughed and gave him quick hug. “I gotta get to work. See you when I come out.”

  Ike noted that the Prices’ assistant looked as if she had less sleep than he did. “Hi Kristin, they inside already?”

  “They started early.”

  Ike headed in and found Jenna, Ed and Lauren in a heated discussion that stopped upon his arrival. Lauren looked the unhappiest of the trio.

  “What’s up?” he said.

  Lauren was the first to respond. “Hi, Ike.” She stood from the table and hugged him, longer than before.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I think so.” She threw a nod at the Prices at the end of the table. “Alternate defense.”

  “You won’t need that.” Ike sat next to Lauren.

  “Hey, Ike,” Ed said with his usual easy style.

  “Good morning, Ike,” Jenna said with a smile she’d probably reserved for the handshake with opposing teams after she’d crushed them. “You have something for us?”

  Ike wasn’t sure if their competitive nature was a natural thing since they were both athletes who’d competed at the highest levels for most of their youth or if it was just a way to keep each other sharp. He liked Jenna and, after thinking about it, liked the challenge. It raised his game. Hers, too. Maybe she knew what she was doing.

  “Here’s what I got,” Ike said with renewed energy. “I’ve found several oddities in Tom’s suicide investigation.” Ike ran down the list of issues he’d reviewed with Cassidy.

  “That’s good,” Jenna said as if Ike had outperformed her expectations. “That might go to reasonable doubt and help generate an alternate scenario.”

  Lauren placed her hand on Ike’s forearm and looked as if some of the load had been lifted.

  Ed raised his pen in the air. “Based on what Ike’s shared about Detective Cassidy, they’d argue it was just sloppy detective work.”

  Ike glanced at Lauren. Uncertainty returned to her face. Ed was always the voice of reason. His job was to play the role of the prosecutor and he was doing it well.

  “I’ve got more,” Ike said. “As I’m sure Lauren told you, I talked to Brenda Falzone yesterday.” Jenna acknowledged she had. “She had a lot to say about Tanner. All of it bad. She hated the guy and the only reason she had him represent her was that her father paid her to do it.”

  “He paid her?” Jenna said.

  “Yes. She also said she thought he did it because of her brother, Nick. Said they were hiding something.”

  Jenna and Ed shared a questioning glance. “Back to the seismic?”

  “Maybe. Or something worse.”

  “Worse?” Jenna said.

  “Brenda gave me the feeling that Nick could’ve had something to do with his half brother’s death.”

  “She said that?”

  “No. She implied she wouldn’t be surprised.”

  “Too weak,” Ed said.

  “Still, I might be able to use it,” Jenna said, writing something down.

  “I don’t think you’d ever get Nick Falzone on the stand,” Ed said.

  “Can you subpoena the seismic?” Ike asked.

  “The judge would never sign it,” Jenna said. “If he did, they’d quash it.”

  Ike caught Lauren looking at him. He could feel her looking deeper inside him. He pushed the sensation from his mind. “I’ll have more after today. I’m going back to Cole’s Seismic Services. Scott has arranged for me to meet the party chief from the seismic crew that acquired the shoot across the Virginia blocks.”

  “Can you do that?” Jenna said.

  “Sure. I’m not asking for the data. Just asking a few questions offline. I also have a lead on Tanner I have to run down.”

  Jenna set her pen down. “Tanner?”

  “Yes. A source told me about a poker group he was in. Something didn’t add up.”

  Jenna scrunched her nose. “A poker group?”

  “I can’t say any more right now. Let me check it out.”

  “Okay.” Jenna picked her pen back up and started writing again.

  Ike pulled his phone out. “I have one more thing,” he said, opening his e-mail. He showed the phone to Lauren, then passed it to Jenna and Ed. After reading the e-mail, Ed offered it back to Ike. Ike took the phone and stepped to the whiteboard on the wall. He wrote down the three expressions:

  3–53+8x2+19

  4+3–53+8+74

  9+13+30–7+8+7+99

  “Three e-mails, so far untraceable. They’re coming regularly. Not exactly the same time every day. They’re not phone numbers, combinations, or some alphabet-number sequence. I haven’t been able to figure these out, but my gut says these mean something. More than minus 15, 36, and 159, their mathematical results. Because Tom was a math expert, I e-mailed the head of the Department of Mathematics at Pitt. Didn’t tell him where it came from. He came up with nothing.”

  Ike set the marker back in the tray. “These may hold the key to what I’m looking for. Then again, they may not. Any ideas?”

  Jenna cradled her chin in her hand. “Cryptologist?”

  “You know one?” Ike asked.

  “No,” Jenna said, writing again, “but I can find one.”

  “Let Mac know if you find one,” Ike said.

  Lauren’s lip quivered. “You think these are from Tom?”

  Ike walked over and sat next to her, covering her shaking hand. “Either it’s him or someone helping him. I don’t think it’s a distraction.” He squeezed her hand. “But we’ll figure this out. I promise.” He looked around. “Anything else?”

  “Good work, Ike,” Ed said.

  Jenna glanced up from making a note. “Yes. Thanks, Ike.”

  “Enough to stop working on the mental incapacity bullshit?” Ike said.

  Jenna looked at Ed, who shook his head. Then she looked at Lauren, then Ike. “Afraid not.”

  “I’m not done yet,” Ike said, standing.

  Lauren rose with him. “I’ll see you out.”

  They walked out together. Ike felt Lauren close to him. She was strong and kept it together, but the pain was still there. She knew, just as Ike did, that making Jack feel as if there were something wrong with him would end the boy they knew. They passed Kristin’s desk and saw Jack pecking away on his iPad. His face looked dour, as if missing someone.

  “Ike, Aunt Lauren,” he said weakly.

  “What’s up, Jack?” Ike said.

  Jack showed the screen of the iPad to Ike. “Can you take me here?”

  Ike’s internal alarm sounded when he saw the image. The demons in his gut dragged his heart down. It was a map of Homewood Cemetery.

  CHAPTER 28

  Ike yanked the shifter into fourth and watched Jack smile as they accelerated down the ramp and onto the interstate toward Pittsburgh. Ike imagined he’d had the same smile the time a friend’s older brother gave them a ride in his SS 396 when he was about the same age. Lauren was ahead
as they made their way back to the city and Homewood Cemetery. The Shelby growled and Jack’s hair parted in the wind from the open window. They both needed the distraction.

  “How much horsepower?” Jack yelled above the wind and engine noise.

  “Five hundred twenty-six,” Ike said.

  “Does it go any faster?”

  Ike checked his mirrors, then ahead. No traffic in the southbound lanes. He downshifted to fourth and floored it, then hit fifth and sixth. Jack’s head was pinned against the headrest, grinning ear to ear. Ike slowed before they passed Lauren.

  “That was awesome,” Jack said.

  Ike found himself grinning. “Yes it was.”

  For the rest of the ride they talked about cars and growing up. But the conversation stopped when they pulled through the old stone-framed gate of the cemetery. Ike had been here many times, alone and with Maria or Mac. It was both a reverent place and a gateway to the past, both good and bad. But being here with Jack had a different feel: protective, insightful, even helpful.

  Ike parked next to Lauren’s SUV and he and Jack jumped out of the Mustang and climbed into her grocery boat.

  “You boys have fun?” she said with one eyebrow raised.

  “Uh, yeah,” Jack said.

  “Uh, yeah,” Ike said, giving Jack a high five from the front seat.

  Lauren sighed quietly and shifted into “drive.” She wound along the narrow old pavement, weaving between gravestones and mausoleums that marked the past for both the ultra-rich and those without wealth or ego. As they wound deeper into the cemetery, the old trees formed a canopy covering the road. The cemetery had been there for well over a hundred years. For Ike, it never seemed to change.

  Lauren took another turn and Ike could see her watching Jack in the back. No one spoke until Ike asked, “You doing okay, buddy?”

  “Yes. Aunt Lauren, it’s just down there,” Jack said pointing down the hill to the right.

  Lauren stopped the car and unbuckled. Jack unbuckled, then said, “Can Ike take me down this time?”

  Ike gave Lauren a nod. Maybe he could help Jack. Anything for Jack.

  “Sure, honey.”

  Ike got out and met Jack on the other side of the car. They started down the hill, Jack guiding Ike through the maze of gravestones. The trees provided welcome shade, and beams of morning sunlight streamed between the leaves. The air was fresh and crisp, and a light breeze toyed with the leaves and provided a majestic soundtrack.

  They broke into an opening in the trees and Ike spotted the newer grave.

  “This is where my dad is buried,” Jack said, pointing to the headstone. “Aunt Lauren says he’s in heaven.”

  “I’m sure he is. Your dad was a great man.”

  Jack nodded. “I miss him.”

  Ike could see a glimmer in Jack’s eyes. “I can see you do.”

  Jack looked up at Ike. “I think he would have liked you.”

  “I know I would have liked him.”

  Tears escaped from Jack’s eyes. “Do you think he would have left me?”

  Ike knelt down and mustered all the love he had in his heart. He gently cradled Jack by his shoulders. “No way. No way, no how. He’d never leave you. You’re such a great boy.”

  “I know I’m different,” he said.

  “So am I.” Ike sat in the grass facing Tom’s grave. “Let me tell you what I was like when I was young like you.”

  Jack sat against Ike and rested his elbow on Ike’s knee

  “When I was even younger than you, my dad gave me a train set.”

  “With a train?”

  “Yes. A miniature one. It had a metal track, cars, even little people and houses. We hooked it all up and played with it for hours.”

  “That sounds like fun.”

  “It was for a while. But my dad knew I liked science and math, so then he gave me an Erector set.”

  “A what?”

  “It was pieces of metal and screws that you could put together and build things, like buildings, robots, and stuff.”

  “That sounds fun, too.”

  “It was. Then he gave me a shortwave radio kit. He and I put it together.”

  “Oh. I’d really like that.”

  “I know. I did. We put that together and it worked and I talked to people all over the country. But then you know what I did?”

  Jack’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “Well, I’d seen western movies where they used a telegraph.”

  “My dad and I watched some westerns. He liked them. Me, too.”

  “Me, too. I knew the transformer for the train provided power—electricity.”

  “Okay.”

  “Then I knew the headphones worked by picking up electrical impulses, so I took the Erector set and built a key—the thing they tap on in the movies.”

  “Cool.”

  “Then I hooked the transformer to the key and the headphone to a wire from the base of the key.”

  “And it worked?”

  “Just like in the movies. My dad came in and saw it and smiled. He said ‘Good job.’ Then he explained that it might not be safe and I could be electrocuted. We both laughed as we took it apart.”

  Jack looked at the headstone. “My dad used to tell me ‘Good job.’”

  “I bet he did. Anyway, I went to school and told the other kids what I did and they looked at me like I was different. Some even made fun of me.”

  “They did?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were different like me.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “I sure was, thank God.”

  “And you were a star quarterback.”

  “And the man you see now.”

  Jack smiled and wiped his eyes. “My dad would have liked you a lot.” Jack looked at the gravestone. “Do you miss your dad?”

  “Every day.”

  “Are you sad?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Do you talk to him?”

  “Sometimes.”

  Jack looked around. “Is he buried here like my dad?”

  Jack’s question caught Ike off guard. “Yes. He and my mom are in another section.”

  “Can we go there?”

  Ike would normally have declined. He never went with anyone except Maria or Mac. But the abyss didn’t look as dark for some reason.

  “Okay,” Ike said, standing. “Let’s go get Lauren.”

  Ike walked with Jack and they returned to the car. Lauren was leaning against the hood with an inquisitive look. Ike smiled. “One more stop.”

  Surprise spread across Lauren’s face.

  “We’re going to see Ike’s parents’ grave,” Jack said.

  “We are?” she said.

  “I’ll show you how to get there,” Ike said as they all got into the car.

  Ike guided them back to the entrance and then around to the south side of the cemetery. They pulled up in front of four huge mausoleums.

  “They’re in there?” Jack said, pointing to the gigantic stone tombs

  “Jack,” Lauren said in a scolding tone.

  “It’s okay,” Ike said. “No, Jack, they’re down here.” Ike pointed down the open hillside to their right. Ike got out and Lauren and Jack joined him. The hillside was grass and the size of a football field. A lone tree stood halfway down.

  “I don’t see any headstones,” Jack said.

  “They’re markers,” Ike said, pointing down. “You see, when Mom and Dad died, I was only nineteen and in college. My little sister was only nine.”

  “Nine. I remember,” Jack said.

  Lauren stepped close to Ike.

  “Yes. I had to come home and take care of her.”

  “Like Aunt Lauren and me,” Jack said.

  Ike looked at Lauren. He hadn’t thought of it that way. “Yes,” he said, nodding. “Like you and your Aunt Lauren. But I didn’t have any money, so we saved all the insurance money to take care of Maria and me. I could only afford to put them here.”<
br />
  Ike remembered the decision like it was yesterday. He was young, scared, and alone. But with Jack next to him, the memory didn’t seem as intense.

  Ike put his arm over Jack’s shoulder. “Let’s go, buddy.”

  “I’ll stay here, boys.”

  Ike wanted Lauren to come, but he also understood. This was between him and Jack.

  They walked a quarter of the way down the hill and stopped. Ike bent over and swept the mowed grass from the two stones.

  The sun was warm and the breeze picked up. Jack studied the stones. He looked up at Ike, squinting in the sunlight. “Do you think your mom and dad would have liked me?”

  “They would have loved you.”

  “I bet they were a good mom and dad.”

  “The best.”

  Jack looked at the stones, then at Ike. “You’re a good son,” he said.

  Ike felt the moisture coming to his eyes but held it back. “I did the best I could.”

  Jack studied the markers again. “They died a long time ago.”

  “Twenty-two years.”

  Jack looked at his feet and kicked the loose grass. “Will you ever find out who did this?”

  Ike waited for the anger, but it didn’t come. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know. But I’ll never give up.”

  Jack faced Ike. “You need any help?”

  Ike put his arm around Jack. “You’ll be the first I’ll call if I do.” Ike looked up the hill to Lauren. “Time to go.” As they walked up the hill, Ike felt lighter, focused and ready to find the truth—no matter where it took him.

  CHAPTER 29

  When Ike stepped through the doors of Cole’s Seismic for the second time, the reception was much warmer. Bobby Scott’s assistant met him in the lobby and whisked him to the fifth-floor conference room. As he waited, he stood at the floor-to-ceiling window, looked over the rolling hills of the Southpointe Office Park, and thought about his time with Jack. That morning, his belief in him had solidified like cooling steel. A kid like that would never shoot Tanner unless he had a very good reason—only one reason: to save himself and his aunt. But Ike’s belief was worthless in court. He needed proof. He needed to find whatever the Falzones were hiding. This was the last quasi-legal step toward doing that.