by Bryan Murray
She finally dried her eyes, pulled herself together and fixed her make-up before David and Andrew returned, both of whom had no idea what had been going on with Lorenzo all those exciting years previously.
As far as Andrew was concerned, she realized that for him there was nobody like David and vice versa and she loved her son far too much to ever let him think other than that David was his real father.
She fixed herself a stiff drink and made up her mind that from the next day onwards, she would give it her best shot at playing second fiddle.
If she had known what was going on across the city, she would have been far from happy!
CHAPTER 36
On their way back from the Bureau of Statistics, Jake’s phone rang. It was Del Peterson on the line and the final piece of the jigsaw was about to fall in place.
“Hi, Jake,” Del began. “I’ve finished the DNA tests you asked for on the two blood samples.”
Jake could hardly contain his curiosity. “And?”
“Like two peas in a pod!” Del replied.
Jake raised his thumb to Sarah who was listening. “Thanks, Del. Do me a favor, hang on to the samples, I’ll pick them up later. Oh, by the way, mum’s the word, okay?”
“Sure, no problem, bye, Jake.” Del went off the line.
Jake looked at Sarah who didn’t know if she should be happy or sad. “Let me guess? There was a match?” she whispered
“Like two peas in a pod, Del said.”
“Well, I guess we move it on a step further then?”
“Correct, and the President will wet himself twice. The first time in shock and the second time when he realizes that the Vice-President everybody loves, who he treated as family, was plotting to kill him with some Mafia Don, using his own son as the weapon!”
Sarah was going over the things in her mind before the confrontation with Stephen Parker and John Mulroney. “Jake, you know we still have the loose end with Jeff because we still don’t know what triggered his attack on his father.”
“Right, and we can’t leave him on the loose with this trigger thing still unknown. God knows what if anything would trigger another attack and when. Let’s face it, we can’t keep him away from his family forever in case he grabs another gun!”
Sarah was in agreement. “And with the KGB doctor now on a slab in an Italian morgue, there’s no way we can get him to reverse his black arts.”
“That’s true, where do you find a word so deep in someone’s subconscious that they don’t even know it’s there?”
Sarah suddenly slapped her forehead. “I wonder?”
“Wonder what?”
She was thinking back. “D’you remember that night of the dinner at the White House when all this happened?”
“Who wouldn’t?”
“Well, as we were all heading towards the dining room after it was announced that dinner was being served, everyone was happy and relaxed including Jeff. They were all laughing and joking and chatting to each other as we went in.”
“I’m listening?”
“Well, I was pretty wide-eyed myself, looking at everything, trying to remember what may have been my first and last chance to attend a White House dinner.”
“Go on?”
“Well, when you think of it, it was only seconds between when we all left the Oval Office relaxed and happy and then by pure chance I suddenly spotted that zombie look on Jeff’s face.”
Jake was now in the picture. “Exactly, so what you’re saying is that whenever he was given the trigger word it would have had to be in those few vital seconds!”
“What do you think?” she asked.
“So, if you’re right, how do we check?”
They both looked at each other and simultaneously mentioned the same word in chorus. - “CCTV!”
“Exactly!” Sarah added. “The White House is crawling with them. So, before we meet with the President, we need to get Mulroney to dig out the tape in that corridor leading into the dining room for that time on that night!”
They made their way direct to Mulroney’s office and he was most cooperative, not sure what they were looking for but prepared to let them explain later. Once they had the correct tape, they found a private office with a tape player and Jake and Sarah started to re-run the tape slowly.
They got to the part of the tape where the President and the First Lady went past into the dining room, followed by the rest of the guests, smiling and chatting. They ran back a couple of times to the part where Jeff came into view and they both looked on in shock when they saw Maria walking along with her arm around Jeff’s shoulders, apparently whispering something in his ear that made his face go suddenly blank before she walked over to David and Andrew and they continued on into the dining room.
“There!” Sarah grabbed Jake’s arm. “Let’s zoom in on what Maria is saying to Jeff, maybe something?”
“Worth a try.” Jake replied and he zoomed in on the picture on the screen.
When the enlarged picture came on the screen and they could even see Maria’s mouth closely, Sarah grabbed his arm. “Okay, slow the tape down.”
Jake did so and they both looked on until they could see Maria mouthing two distinct words in Jeff’s ear. Sarah was watching closely. “Okay run it again slowly?”
Jake ran the picture on the screen again, until they could both see what Maria was saying. She was whispering the words ‘It’s Showtime’!
They both looked at each other, immediately aware of the significance. “It’s Showtime!” Sarah whispered again.
“Exactly!” Jake continued. “Those were the damned words scratched on the wall in Jeff’s room at the cabin and also written in the steam on the window. So, how in hell did the Vice-President know to mention them just seconds before Jeff tried to kill his father?”
“Right, that must be the trigger this KGB monster planted in the boy’s brain and the fact that Maria knew the exact words and when to mention them proves she was in on the conspiracy!”
He smiled. “Did anyone ever tell you you’re one smart cookie?”
She grinned. “Only you, my love and that’s plenty for me.”
Jake heaved a heavy sigh. “So, now we know the whole story, let go get us a Vice-President!”
“I sure hope the President believes us?”
“That makes two of us!”
CHAPTER 37
In the villa in Pozzallo, the scene was one of abject sorrow where the staff of the late Lorenzo, in particular his successor Giuseppe, were deeply saddened by the apparent heart attack of Lorenzo.
Giuseppe had explained to the entire staff that he himself had stopped by to check on the Godfather late the previous evening as he always did and he appeared to be breathing peacefully.
He shrugged away the tears for a brother he had deeply loved adding that regrettably heart attacks were a silent killer and, unlike the Mafia, you never knew when or where they were going to strike. Even the hardened killers among them had tears in their eyes.
Suddenly, they were interrupted by the young IT guy Thomasino, who told Giuseppe there was something he needed to see and the new Godfather quickly followed him to the IT center in the villa.
Giuseppe looked at Thomasino curiously. “What is so important on the day that I grieve for my brother?” he inquired.
Thomasino looked nervous. “I have been checking the CCTV tapes, Padron and maybe Don Lorenzo didn’t die from ‘attacco di cuore’ after all!”
Giuseppe was now listening intently. “What the hell are you talking about, Thomasino?” he barked.
The young technician took out the tape from the CCTV camera that had been running at the side of the pool that fateful night and started to play it on the screen. “This is the tape from the side of the pool around the approximate time of Don Lorenzo’s death, Padron.”
Giuseppe looked closely at what appeared to be the motionless scene beside the pool until it suddenly changed as movement could be seen in the area. Giuseppe looked on in
shock as a murky, shadowy shot of Jake suddenly appeared. The intruder stopped, surveyed the scene and suddenly took a sprinting dive over the edge of the terrace, down towards the dark ocean below. Luckily for Jake he was wearing black, masked and totally unrecognizable.
Giuseppe screamed at Thomasino. “My, God! Rewind it again, I want to see the time?” Thomasino rewound the tape and the time showed 2.05 am. The mobster’s mind was racing.
“2.05 am, that’s just about five minutes after I checked on Lorenzo and then he had definitely been alive!” his mind was still racing. “Sweet Mother of God! If that was the assassin, he could even have been in the room when I looked in on Lorenzo earlier!”
His mind was suddenly made up. “Good work, Thomasino!” he whispered venomously before rushing back to his office and dialling the number of the morgue where Lorenzo’s body had been taken pending the autopsy. When the Doctor came on the line, Giuseppe told him not to touch the body of his brother, he was on his way over that very minute.
* * *
When Giuseppe and his Capo arrived at the small hospital, they rushed inside towards the pathology lab where the body of Lorenzo was in a private room on a slab, covered in a sheet, awaiting the arrival of the Pathologist.
The latter, an older man, Benito in his sixties with white hair, was finishing scrubbing up as Giuseppe and his Capo were ushered in. Even the doctors in Pozzallo were respectful to the Mafia, realizing what could happen if they ever stepped out of line. The Doctor was surprised to see Giuseppe. “Good day, Don Giuseppe,” he looked totally sympathetic. “We were so sorry to hear of the death of your dear brother here.” he pointed to the body on the slab.
Giuseppe was courteous to the old man. “Thank you, Benito. Before you begin I just wanted to let you know that maybe it was not a heart attack that caused my brother’s death!”
Benito looked at him. “What new information do you have, Don Giuseppe?”
Giuseppe chose his words carefully. “We have since detected that there was an intruder at the villa, caught on CCTV tape on the night of my brother’s death and so I would like you to be very careful in your detailed examination and please advise me if there are any unusual aspects of the post mortem that come to light?”
Benito nodded. “Of course, Don Giuseppe. I will let you know what I find out, exactly as I did with your beloved grandfather.”
“Thank you.” Giuseppe and his men left quickly
* * *
Driving back to the villa, Giuseppe’s mind was in a whirl. At only thirty five years of age, he was not only faced with assuming the lead role in a massive family empire of organized crime, but he was also honor bound to try and find out who had made the hit (if any) on Don Lorenzo, before exacting deadly vendetta.
First of all, the business had to be maintained and he was already late for a meeting with his Capos to make sure the profits were maintained and that their competition were not trying to capitalize on the deaths of two leaders in just a matter of weeks.
He was also concerned that the death of Lorenzo may have been set up by the rival Marazotti family. There had been a number of reciprocal hits in the past year between the two passionately ambitious families. Maybe the word on the street may shed some light on who may have done it. One thing was for sure, judging from the CCTV tape images, whoever had dived off the cliff to get away, was not your average street soldier!
* * *
Later in the day, Giuseppe received an urgent call from Benito at the hospital. He told the curious, new Godfather that his brother was a man in excellent condition for his age and that all his organs had been in good condition, especially his heart.
When Giuseppe asked the Doctor what he thought could have been the cause of death, Benito told him that there were three injection marks that his brother had been given, any one of which could have killed him.
Giuseppe was furious. “What kind of injections, Benito?” he snarled.
“That is the problem, Don Giuseppe,” Benito replied. “There were no toxic traces in your brother’s blood, but yet there were the three distinctive needle marks on his body.”
“And where were these needle marks?”
“Two were in his upper leg and it was the third that was harder to locate. And this could have been the most sinister of the three, Don Giuseppe.”
“Where was it?”
“It was hidden in the hair line of your brother, at the back of his neck, amongst the dark hair!”
Giuseppe was furious but kept his calm. “Thank you, Benito, our contribution to your community fund will be sent as usual and please do not mention this conversation to a living soul, is that clear?”
“Of course, Don Giuseppe. Once again my sincere condolences.”
“Thank, you, bye.” Giuseppe put the phone down, a curious look on his face. He looked wistfully out of the window, towards the shining ocean below. “What were you involved in, my brother?” he mused.
CHAPTER 38
It was early evening, three days before Christmas and the snow was still falling as Jake and Sarah made their way across the city in the direction of the White House.
The whole scene was very picturesque with the Christmas lights still lit on all the city buildings, especially on the White House itself. On arrival they were quickly ushered through the security gate and escorted into the Oval Office where the President and John Mulroney were anxiously awaiting their arrival.
The President offered them coffee before they settled down around the table to get down to serious business.
Jake and Sarah had realized that this would be their most stressful debriefing of their entire lives and Jake had decided to tell it all slowly, so that the two extremely intelligent men opposite, who ran the country on a daily basis, could already be reaching their intended conclusions before Jake even had to explain them.
“So, Jake, take it from the beginning from the minute we realized the Mob were involved?” the President began.
Jake explained that the intention of the mission had been to get right in the face of the Mobster on a one on one basis and to get some kind of confession from him before following the President’s instructions concerning the use of extreme prejudice, once he was convinced that Lorenzo was the man responsible.
He then explained every step of the mission and when he got to describing the climb up the cliff face, the President and Mulroney were hanging on his every word. When he described the final arrival in the Don’s bedroom undetected, there was a look of admiring amazement in the eyes across the table
“So, was the Mobster asleep when you arrived, Jake?” the President asked.
“Yes, sir,” Jake replied. “So, I gave him a tranquilizer to make sure he continued to snooze as I checked out his bedroom, office and master suite.”
“And did you find anything linking him to the conspiracy to kill the President?” Mulroney asked eagerly.
Jake and Sarah quickly exchanged glances as Jake replied. “Yes indeed, Mr. Mulroney. In fact we found a whole load of trouble!”
“Trouble?”
“Yes, sir, the first thing I spotted was a paid check stub made out to the KGB Doctor for ten grand and then as I checked out the rest of Lorenzo’s suite, I finally realized who was working on the plot from this end, Mr. President!”
“And who was it, Jake?” the President was almost afraid to ask.
Jake opened the file in front of him and slid the photograph of Lorenzo and Maria across the table. The President picked it up, looked at it, read the note on the bottom and then looked at Mulroney before passing it to him.
“My God, Jake! Do you realize what you’re saying here?” he whispered. “Surely there has to be some mistake?”
Sarah tried to ease the shock a little. “That’s what we thought, sir, but then Jake found this.” she slid the copy of the recent photo of Andrew across the table where the President and Mulroney were equally shocked after looking at it.
Suddenly, the President’s razor sharp brain
kicked in. “My God! You don’t think....?” his words tailed off.
Jake finished the sentence for him. “That he was their son, sir? We had the same thought and so, after I terminated him, making it look like a heart attack, I took a sample of his blood and brought it back with me.”
Mulroney was already ahead of him. “And the boy’s blood?”
Jake nodded. “I got a sample from the doctor who checked both boys out when they got back to the embassy in Rome, sir.”
“And?” the truth was now sinking in with the President.
“A perfect match, I’m afraid!”
Jake then slid another photo across the table of Lorenzo with the girls.
“And who are these people?” the President asked.
“The girls with their faces circled are all in Jeff and Andrew’s ski group at the University! That’s how Lorenzo knew the boys were coming to town. All he had to do was wait and grab them!”
The President was still struggling to come to terms with what he had just seen and been told. “Could it have been a coincidence that this man and Maria met long ago and then nothing further happened?”
Sarah explained. “I’m afraid DNA doesn’t lie, Mr. President and the date on the photograph of Lorenzo and the Vice-President was just one week before she got married to David Carrington and slightly less than nine months later Andrew was born!”
Mulroney was impressed. “My God, you guys have been doing your homework, I’ll say that!”
The President was thinking out loud. “But how does that link the Vice-President directly to the recent incident here in the White House?”
Sarah then brought out the CCTV tape and a small player and she fast forwarded to the part showing the SLO-MO in the dining area.
“This CCTV was taken on the night of the attempted attack on you, Mr. President. If you look closely, you will see that just before the Vice-President walked into dinner, she went up to Jeff, put her arm around his shoulders and whispered something in his ear, before rejoining her husband and Andrew as they continued on into the dining room.”