by Joe Corso
Jane’s $75,000.00 was in an attaché case on the table. John had asked Jason to deliver the money to her because he was the only one of the three men she knew.
She opened the attaché case and yelped. “My God,” she said. “I’ve never seen so much money in all of my life.”
Jason was concerned for her. “This is an awful lot of money to be carrying alone. Would you feel better if I took you home? It would be safer, you know.”
She looked at him, as if deciding if she needed to do that. “No. I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said pensively. “My car is parked in the garage downstairs.”
“Then I’ll walk you to your car. I know nothing will happen, but it will make me feel better knowing you drove away without a problem.”
“That’s very kind of you, Jason. Thanks.” While they were walking to her car, she said, “I never thought he’d give me this money. I helped him because I read the file and I didn’t want Rutgar to hurt another woman. But this money . . . I didn’t think he’d keep his word to me. I can’t believe he really gave it to me.”
“John? Nah! I knew he’d give it to you. He’s a funny guy that way. A real straight shooter and he doesn’t lie. If he tells you he’s gonna do something, you can make book on it. I’m glad you got the money, though. Put it someplace safe where you can’t get at it because if you can, you’ll find a way to spend it. Buy a business, or a house or condo or just give it to a money manager, do anything with it but remember to keep it where you can’t get at it.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Jason. It’s too bad you’re married. I would have really liked to do you when you came to my room. The offer is still open, you know.”
“Don’t do this to me, Janie. You don’t know how my resolve is weakening. I thought about you standing there in that sexy negligee, looking like you walked out of a dream, and the offer you made me, but I have a beautiful wife who trusts me and is waiting for me at home. But thanks for the offer, Jane. You’re a very desirable woman and if I weren’t a married man, right now you would be on your back, naked.”
She laughed. “I kind of like the idea of being on my back naked with you on top of me.” Jason didn’t expect her comeback and his face turned crimson. She noticed his reaction and smiled. “Here’s my card. Who knows, maybe someday you’ll change your mind - or maybe you’ll divorce your wife. Doesn’t matter, the offer will remain open indefinitely.” When they got to her car, she stood on her toes and kissed him lightly on his lips. “Goodbye, Jason. I’ll look forward to you calling me someday.”
Jason waved to her as he watched her speed down the long aisle to the exit, where she stopped for a moment and waved back. Then she left the garage and turned left. He watched her zoom out of sight in her Mercedes convertible.
“Help me up with him. Grab hold of his arms and let’s stand him up.” Angelo motioned to Lee. They had allowed the drug to wear off partially in the hotel so they could use his mobility to help get him down the stairs instead of carrying dead weight to the car. “Lee, take that arm and I’ll take this one. Let’s ease him out of here and get him down to the car and over to the airport. Mr. Christo is downstairs waiting for us.” As he manhandled the barely conscious, staggering Rutgar, Angelo whispered to Lee, “If anyone in the hotel sees us we’re just taking our drunken friend home from a party.”
Rutgar had been given just enough drugs to keep him docile. Angelo was a street guy who was a graduate of the school of hard knocks, so the thought of Rutgar waking up with a headache brought a smile to his face. It didn’t go unnoticed by Lee.
“What’s the smile for?”
Angelo kept the smile and answered him. “I don’t like this guy. He might have gotten away with the shit he pulled where he came from, but if he ever pulled that crap in my old neighborhood, they’d find him gutted in an alley with his face gone. And I was just thinking that when he wakes up, he’s gonna have one hellacious headache. That pleasant thought was what brought the smile to my face.”
Christo had left the room soon after Jason left to escort Jane to her car. He was waiting by the hotel’s back entrance. As soon as he saw his men come through the exit, holding a semi-conscious Rutgar, he opened the door to the Navigator, and then rushed to help them. When they were safely in the car, Lee gave Rutgar another shot to put him to sleep.
Rutgar’s head was throbbing as the sedative wore off and the altitude didn’t help him any. He looked around and knew that Toto wasn’t with him, and he wasn’t in Kansas any longer. This aircraft certainly wasn’t the penthouse. The operative in him knew he was in deep trouble and he struggled to get free of his restraints. But that wasn’t going to happen.
A voice from behind him said, “Don’t even try it. Those cuffs are carbon steel and unless you have a welding torch in your pocket and you’re wearing a parachute, you’re not going anywhere. Besides, we’re at thirty-five thousand feet, so relax and enjoy the flight.”
Rutgar rubbed his eyes, trying to clear the cobwebs. “Where are you taking me?”
Angelo had the same smile on his face as before. “It’s a big secret, a surprise, so put your head back and relax. You’ll find out where we’re headed soon enough.”
John W knew that Sweeney was married, so he told Lee, who wasn’t, to call Officer Helga Borman of the Berlin Police Department, using the phone on the plane. When she got on the line, Lee told her to meet him at the airport. When she asked why, he said he was going to get her a promotion. She laughed. These Americans, she thought, always joking. “Silly man, how can you get me a promotion?”
“When we land, I’ll walk off the plane with Rutgar Kleinst, alias Rutgar Keisel, handcuffed to me and I’ll hand him over to you. That should make you happy, right? He’s still wanted for the murder of a police officer, isn’t he?”
Helga’s heart beat faster with the realization that bringing in Keisel could mean a promotion for her. Maybe this time she’d make sergeant. Her thoughts of a promotion were cut short by Lee speaking to her again.
“Make sure you bring a large police officer with you. I don’t want this guy to pull any stunts and escape from you.”
She thought about it for a moment. “You’re right, of course. I’ll take Rudolph with me.” She was referring to Sgt. Rudolph Schmidt. He was 6-3” and ex-military. “Don’t worry, Keisel won’t get away from us. If he even so much as tries to escape, I’ll shoot him like the dog he is.”
Lee laughed. Here was this beautiful 5’4” woman saying she would shoot Keisel if he tried to escape. “Okay. You convinced me. Now get going and meet me at the airport. Oh! One more thing.”
“Yes?” she asked.
“When you get off duty today, you and I are going to have dinner together and we’re going enjoy the rest of the evening, with you showing me the sights.”
Her face flushed as she laughed. “I’d like that, very much,” she said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Officer Helga Borman of the Berlin Police Department, accompanied by Sgt. Rudolph Schmidt, took official control of Rutgar Keisel, aka Rutgar Kleinst, as soon as he stepped onto the tarmac in Germany. Helga became Chief Froedrick’s star when she brought in the killer that was sought all over the world and whom now everyone in Germany knew was behind bars. The country had Helga Borman to thank for it. She was grateful to Lee for allowing her to take the credit for Kleinst’s capture. Whenever the two met, Lee and Helga discovered that they enjoyed one another’s company - and after Lee gave her Keisel as a gift-wrapped present, it made her a star. How could she refuse when he asked her to visit him in Arizona? She told Lee that as soon as things quieted down, she would take some vacation time, and that she looked forward to visiting him. He would be leaving Germany shortly and as far as Lee was concerned, it was far too soon for him to be separated from her. He thought of telling John that he’d like to stay in Germany for another week, then but then thought better of it. He’d have to wait until she came to America to see her.
Lee hated to admit
it, but when he and Jason left Germany after their first visit, he found he missed her more than he cared to admit, but the one consolation was that ever since John Christo walked into his life, he could afford many things - even a high class woman like Helga. He thought of everything that endeared her to him. She was a great police officer, had a bubbly personality and a positive attitude. Besides that, she was an extremely beautiful woman and since money was no longer a problem, Lee fantasized the various ways he would spend it on her. He’d take her out to the best night spots, see the best shows, eat in the finest restaurants, and maybe, if she were willing, some high quality intimacy - that is, if she felt about him as he did her. But it had to wait until she arrived in the States. He pushed these thoughts from his mind and smiled because he was still here in Germany and he had a dinner date tonight with this beautiful woman.
Two down two and two go, John told himself. His plan had worked perfectly in capturing Rutgar Keisel, and even when they turned him over to the German police, no one was hurt. Chief Froedrick assured John that no one kills a police officer in Germany and gets away it.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Christo; Keisel will spend the rest of his life in prison,” he assured John. Now John set his sights on Number Three, Governor Wilson. He decided Jack McCormack would be last. He wanted to savor McCormack’s descent into hell, and that was exactly what John W was planning for him.
John picked up Wilson’s file and studied it, deciding the best way to take him down. According to Jason’s report on Governor Wilson, there was no mention of him having Dutch Henry and John W. Hardin imprisoned in the Gila Bend desert prison. After the explosion, the Governor probably figured he was safe from any investigation. After all, the prison was destroyed and there was nothing left to investigate. And besides, Wilson had controlled the investigation from behind the scenes. It was nothing more than a sham show he had to put on in order to close the case. How could anything go wrong when there was no way of producing any evidence, and more importantly, no one knew what went on in that old prison or who the prisoners were? Wilson probably figured that time would soon forget.
John W. Harden and Lee Flowers were in a meeting deciding the Governor’s fate. At the meeting was Timothy Sutter, his new corporate attorney and full time legal council. John asked him to attend the meeting because the attorney had drawn up some legal papers that needed to be discussed and signed at the meeting. Sutter drew up Lee Flowers’s statement, detailing everything Lee witnessed while at the prison, up to and including his being fired.
“Read the statement, Lee, and if you agree with it, sign it,” Tim advised.
Lee knew what was in the document because they discussed it at length earlier. But he scanned each page and read one part over a second time because it was worded in legalize, and he had trouble understanding it. When he finished reading it, he signed it and handed it to the attorney. Sutter handed Lee another document to sign, this time as a witness. This document explained in detail everything that happened to John W Hardin from the time he arrived at the prison, until the explosion. It was important that Lee corroborate his story. This document was John’s statement and he signed it as John Wesley Hardin. Governor Holland Wilson was in for a surprise when he took the stand at the trial because he was going to be sandbagged. He had no idea that John W. Hardin was still alive and that he hadn’t been killed in the explosion. It was time to take down Governor Wilson, but first there was one other thing to attend to.
John told Sutter that he didn’t want to appear at the trial. Instead, he offered the court a video statement as well as the written statements that Sutter drew up. He even instructed Lee to take his fingerprints on a dated and notarized police fingerprint card. The state of Arizona had John’s prints on file. These new prints would prove beyond a doubt that the person in the video was John W. Hardin, and he was alive.
John converted a large room at the opposite end of the top floor into a video studio, complete with three JVC high definition state of the art video cameras and a high definition-editing suite. He also bought himself clothes similar to what he wore when he worked for Mr. Hayes. They consisted of a blue western shirt, dungarees, western belt and buckle, and a pair of inexpensive western boots. He shaved his face. He allowed his hair to fall in a wild tangle, which was how he wore it back then. When he sat down for the interview, he looked nothing like the suave millionaire he had since become. He needed to keep his two identities separate. No one could know that he was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; two different personalities wearing the same body. If this were done right, no one would ever suspect that the two men were the same person.
He sat down in a plain chair in front of a black curtain. Three professional klieg lights shined brightly at different angles, illuminating him on all sides perfectly - the result of a famous director who John hired for this one job. The director positioned the lights himself and then re-adjusted them when he wasn’t quite satisfied with the result of the test sample he viewed. He was satisfied after viewing the second test and he was ready to proceed with the interview. The director listened as Mr. Christo told him the effect he wanted. He nodded in agreement and told John he didn’t want a canned response. What he was looking for were spontaneous answers from the questions that scrolled down the teleprompter. John was instructed not to look into the camera, but to the person sitting in a chair to the left of the camera so it would appear to the audience that John was looking straight at them, answering their questions honestly, and not reading from a teleprompter.
After the first few questions, John shook his head and motioned for the cameras to stop. He told the director, “Let’s not use the teleprompter. Just ask your questions and I’ll answer them honestly. I just don’t feel comfortable looking at words scrolling down a screen. It feels phony to me.”
The director shook his head, and John thought he was disagreeing with him, but instead, he smiled and said, “I like it. Without the teleprompter, you’ll come off a lot more naturally. Take your seat, Mr. Christo, and let’s get this show on the road. I have a good feeling about this video.” The shoot went off perfectly.
After John changed back into his business suit, he called Sutter into his office. “Tim, I want you to call a few top marketing companies and set up a meeting with one of them. You’ll represent me at the meeting.” John started rattling off instructions. Sutter held up his hands, stopping him the way a referee does at a football game, signaling time-out. Then, Sutter reached over to the chair next to him and picked up his legal pad. With a nod, John resumed rattling off instructions and Sutter quickly began jotting down notes. “You’ll tell them that you represent a very wealthy client who has taken an interest in a young man’s plight and if this meeting is successful, I’m authorizing you to hire them.” He continued giving Sutter instructions for the next ten minutes. “Did you get all of that Tim?”
Sutter read back the salient points. He got them all, which satisfied John. John was anxious to get started, so he instructed Sutter that if he decided to hire a marketing firm, then he was authorized to proceed with the publicity campaign. Meanwhile, the firm of Jacob and Nash was just as anxious to close the deal. A wealthy client meant a healthy fee, so a meeting was scheduled for the next morning at 10 am.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
John scrutinized and critiqued, then approved the first commercials and newspaper ads to be released to all the major national newspapers and media outlets. He picked up the phone. “Tim, everything looks good. Go ahead with the campaign. Tell the firm you hired they should get this out as soon as possible. Let them know that I’m paying them a lot of money to get an indictment on the Governor. Tell them to keep the ads running until he’s arrested and put in prison.”
The television commercials and the newspaper articles broke at the same time and they kept appearing with no respite. Then, Tim called a news conference and since it concerned a sitting Governor who was being accused of multiple crimes, he knew there would be a lot of questions. Everyone wa
s aware of the relentless TV commercials and newspaper editorials that were blitzing the state. It not only aroused public interest in the Governor’s response, it also alerted the major media outlets, who smelled a major story. They swarmed to Phoenix like locusts.
The Governor was served with a warrant to appear before a grand jury to see if the charges against him were warranted, and his arrest was imminent. At the hearing, the attorney for the plaintiff presented the court with evidence against Governor Holland Wilson to answer charges brought by a person known as John W. Hardin and another person known as Dutch Henry. The case was remanded to a federal judge, who could not overlook the compelling evidence presented at the hearing. He ordered Governor Wilson to stand trial before a jury for the stated offenses. Wilson was released on one million dollars bail. The trial was scheduled to start in three weeks. Tim was empowered by John W to hire any lawyers he felt necessary, in order to obtain a conviction.
“Hire the best and put together a dream team.” That was what Mr. Christo told Tim, and that’s what he did. He hired a dream team. That dream team ultimately destroyed Governor Wilson’s credibility. The facts were irrefutable and John W. Hardin’s video testimony was especially effective when it was shown to the judge and the jury and everyone in the crowded courtroom, and ultimately everyone in the nation. To the media, the trial was mana from heaven. The judge allowed cameras in his courtroom, which captured the drama taking place in the courtroom. The dream team, through the power of the subpoena, had somehow obtained the Arizona transfer papers for one John W. Hardin to the Gila Bend prison, which by order of Governor Wilson had been re-opened to house besides John W. Hardin, one other prisoner: one Dutch Henry, an old prospector.
When Wilson was questioned as to why Hardin was sent to that prison, a prison that had been closed for over 50 years, the Governor had no answer to the question. Oh, he had an answer: a lame one, “The man was a convicted criminal, and deserved to spend time there.” When asked what he was convicted of, the Governor had a litany of charges that spewed from his mouth. But when he was cross examined and was asked if he knew a certain Rutgar Keisel, also known as Rutgar Kleinst, who had agreed to testify against the Governor for consideration of waiver of the death sentence to life in prison, Wilson denied knowing Kleinst. John’s attorneys presented pictures of Governor Wilson and Rutgar Kleinst taken by Jason Sweeney, a licensed private detective, based in New York City, which were placed into evidence. The pictures proved the Governor lied under oath. They showed the defendant and Mr. Kleinst together at many locations: seated at a table having dinner in a restaurant, attending a fundraising event, cheering on horses at a race track, and rooting for their team at a baseball game. Evidence was presented in the form of an affidavit, showing that Governor Wilson knowingly sent an innocent man to prison under the promise of a share in John Hardin’s mine. Wilson’s lawyer tried to have the affidavit thrown out of court, but the judge overruled him and let the affidavit stand as evidence. When that didn’t work, the lawyer tried to shift the blame to McCormack, which was exactly what Hardin hoped he would do. Now McCormack was named by two sources and linked directly to the crime. The first source was Rutgar Keisel from his prison cell and the second was Holland Wilson from his testimony while on the witness stand. The Governor was sweating profusely in the air-conditioned courtroom. He hadn’t expected the trial to go in this direction. When he thought it couldn’t get any worse, Hardin’s attorney then asked the sergeant-at-arms to play the recording. Wilson sat back in the chair, waiting for the trapdoor to open, and then wondered if this was instead the sound of the guillotine about to strike. The attorney ordered Wilson to listen to the recording.