Broken Sky

by Saurav Dutt

  “That’s not true” Rossi shook his head, stifling his rage as he glanced menacingly at Laminsky.

  “In fact your custody hearing was more about lambasting your wife than about who should care about your daughter..in fact…now this is remarkable, she was caught with a small quantity of cocaine on her person at the hearing…remarkable” Remar shook his head as he opened another lever arch folder, slipping out a sheath of papers, one of which he slid over to Falk.

  “Another thing” Warden Sheen smiled, peering down at both Laminsky and Rossi “an independent medical examination by the state is of the opinion that your prostate cancer is treatable without surgery; other options are available, including chemotherapy. There is nothing to suggest the cancer is as aggressive as you make out”

  “Yes Warden” Laminsky replied with a nervous laugh “however our independent medical examiner, Mr John Write-who has over forty years experience as an oncologist might I add-has verified that treatment outside prison would aid my client’s recovery as well as being closer to his family”

  “Be that as it may..” Falk replied, crossing his arms “we either have a truly independent third party verify the exact magnitude of Mr Rossi’s cancer or believe your medical expert…which quite frankly we do not. Mr Rossi appears fit and mobile to us today and Warden Sheen has not reported any incidents of discomfort or reports to medical staff which are consistent with the usual symptoms of advanced cancer”

  “You think I’m making this crap up?” Rossi interrupted as he gritted his teeth, Laminsky placed a calming hand on his arm only to have it abruptly swatted away.

  “Nobody is saying that..” Remar interjected “but we’ll be frank with you about one thing Mr Rossi, you’re estranged from your wife, your previous testimony at your trial showed nothing but malice towards her and if it wasn’t for the recent attempts to contact her, there has been a complete absence of effort on your part to establish a relationship with her inside prison, or outside.”

  “The fact she is not here today Mr Rossi” Warden Sheen piped up “speaks volumes and the same goes for your daughter.”

  Rossi stared at Laminsky, watching him nervously fidget with papers instead of speaking, and instead turned his attention directly towards Remar and Falk.

  “Gentleman, I am what I am” Rossi sneered “I’ve always boasted about how my reach goes much further than the walls of my cell; but I’ve left all that behind. I don’t have the time or inclination for vendettas or running an empire..I’ve understood that now..however the three of you cannot sit there and judge my family, the extent of our love, the ties that bind..I make compensations, because not one of you seem to understand the power of family..”

  “Mr Rossi” Falk shook his head as his fingertips pressed firmly against the folder he had just slammed shut “don’t try to pull the wool over our eyes..you have no love for your ex wife, and even less for your daughter. Maybe you haven’t read the transcript of your trial or your first parole hearing conducted three years after that, but we certainly have. I’ve lost count of the amount of times you addressed her as a ‘bitch’ for betraying you and being a ‘rat’-as for your daughter, the state fought and argued their case exceptionally well that even if your case was dismissed, it was better for her to be as far from you and your wife as possible..between the two of you, you seemed to have made her young life a living hell…so recommending a release further to this parole hearing so that you can live happily with your ex wife and daughter doesn’t wash with me..in fact I believe you could inflict real harm upon both, particularly your ex wife..”

  “How do you feel about the fact that your ex wife turned state’s evidence against you Mr Rossi?” Remar remarked, resting his chin against his hand as he observed the increasing space that was widening between both attorney and client at their table.

  “It was what it was..” Rossi grumbled “I’m over it now..”

  “I know if my wife had ratted me out to the FBI and got me locked up, I probably wouldn’t forgive her quite so easily.” Warden Sheen answered with a smile.

  “Well I’ve had time to reconsider” Rossi leered at him “anyway this isn’t about her; this is about my daughter too.”

  “Well you invited your ex-wife to this hearing, so clearly it is about her.” Sheen shot back.

  “I love my daughter Warden” Rossi answered, slumping down onto his seat, “all I want to do is to be able to see her.”

  “What happened to your wife Mr Rossi?” Falk demanded, returning his attention to the papers in front of him.

  “Whaddaya mean?” Rossi scoffed “we got divorced..”

  “No what I mean Mr Rossi..she was relocated as part of the FBI witness protection programme..how did that sit with you? If you knew where she was now, what would you do if you saw her?” Falk replied.

  “She’s the mother of my only child sir, what do you think I would do?” Rossi sighed.

  “I think you’d do anything to make her pay for betraying you Mr Rossi” Falk replied, slowly rocking back and forth in his seat “I think that whatever feelings you had for each other went out the window a very long time ago; I don’t doubt you love your daughter, but I do doubt you when you say that you have no axe to grind with the woman who put you behind bars.”

  “Sir…” Laminsky shot up from his seat, adjusting his tie and straightening the grooves in his suit as he searched his thoughts “this is a baseless accusation, the purpose of the incarceration of my client was to rehabilitate him..this has been successful, he is an old man, he has no axe to grind, no vendettas to pursue and in any case most of his financial assets have been frozen-he has no wish to return to any of the activities he was imprisoned for.”

  “I’m going to read something out to you counsel, something perhaps both of you have neglected to go over or maybe forgotten about…” Warden Sheen leant forward as he surveyed several sheets of crisp white paper in his hands “now this is a transcript of an FBI tape taken at your client’s premises approximately a week before his arrest. I am quoting what your client said on April 26th, 2002:

  ‘You find that whore and you gut her like a fucking fish y’understand Chazzy?, nobody crosses Dennis Rossi, this is unimaginable, you can’t trust women, I should have known she would stab me in the freakin’ back..I’m telling you now, I won’t rest, I won’t lie peacefully in my grave until she pays for this, however long it takes I’ll find her, even if I fail, I don’t want a single one of you to stop looking for her-y’understand me??”

  “Mr Rossi, ten years of hard time can change a lot of people” Sheen sighed “but I don’t need to read back to you your words at your first probation hearing..there was no love lost and you did not want to contest the divorce in the slightest…I believe that if you are released, you won’t spare a moment of daylight in finding Gina, tracking her down and killing her..and if you can use your daughter to do it, then you will do it, and if she isn’t the willing participant you want her to be, you will harm her too.”

  “No…” Rossi growled “no you don’t know what you’re talking about Warden.”

  “You wrote to your daughter whilst in prison, we’ve vetted all those letters…I’m a father myself” Sheen explained “so I do empathise, but the cold hard reality here is Mr Rossi, you may be an old man but your respect on the street is unquestionable. Whether it’s your ex wife, your daughter or anybody else who makes the mistake of displeasing you..you are still a very real threat to society.”

  “Warden Sheen” Rossi rolled his eyes “you’ve been against me from day one… you’re a fucking puke..”

  “Dennis” Laminsky hissed as he raised his hands in protest, but the damage was done. Sheen smiled wider than a Cheshire cat, Falk raised an eyebrow and Remar stared on nonchalantly.

  “Fuck you” Rossi growled “is this the best my people could get me? You ain’t no attorney, you’re a joke you little punk.”

  “That’s enough Mr Rossi” Remar sighed, arranging the papers neatly, gently tucking th
em away into their envelopes “we still have to read over your attorney’s submissions and come to a decision.”

  “You assholes have already made a decision” Rossi shot back “I should have known this whole thing was fixed from the start.”

  “Not everything is a conspiracy Mr Rossi” Falk frowned, indicating to Warden Sheen there was nothing further to discuss “do you have anything you would like to add for consideration?”

  “It’s pretty clear to me” Rossi scowled “that the state always intended for me to rot in my jail cell, to suffer, to pay for being Dennis Rossi…but I wasn’t kidding you people, my reach extends beyond these walls.”

  “I see…so is that a threat?” Remar interjected, more concerned than both Falk and Sheen who were hugging the folders against their chests, eager to leave their seats.

  “Take it how you want buddy” Rossi spat “this was a miscarriage of justice, just like my goddamn trial, you took the word of a conniving, gold digging, psycho bitch whore over all the evidence.”

  “I suppose all members of the jury were in on it too eh Rossi?” Sheen cut in, rising from his seat and beckoning Falk to do the same.

  “All of them, the judge..what a mamaluke…all on the word of one witness.” Rossi shook his head.

  “We’ll make a decision and you and your attorney will know what it is in due course, that will be all.” Remar grunted, rising to join Sheen and Falk as they quietly slipped out of the room. Laminsky sat tied to his seat, frozen in fear, scared to turn his head sideways to look at Rossi; knowing with certainty his legal career was already doomed before it had begun.

  “I’m…I’m sorry Mr Rossi” Laminsky lamented as he swallowed hard “We will have the appeal, we still have a chance…”

  “You know it’s kinda funny” Rossi chuckled to himself “dying behind bars without seeing my only daughter hurts, it crushes me just thinking about it…but thinking that Gina is out there, living it up with my money, living all happy and smug..that hurts me more..you’re young, you’re like a little baby out in the real world..you don’t know what real betrayal is…”

  “Sometimes Mr Rossi” Laminsky replied as he wiped away the sweat from his brow “it’s better to let life work its way out, what goes around comes around.”

  “I’m not a patient man” Rossi sneered, his mind drifting off as he disassembled thoughts and images in his head, fixing on just one-Gina smiling at him across the court room. “And anyway” he added with a smile “God’s too slow keeping score, that’s why man invented violence.”

  * *

  She struck the match, watching the flame dance on its head and carefully brought it to the tip of the cigarette dangling from her lips. Sinking back into the seat, she watched the images on the television in front of her but absorbed nothing. Her head continued to throb with the same dull pain and she was still hungry after raiding John’s refrigerator. Three empty bottles of beer lay at her feet and she had just lit the last cigarette of the pack. Every few moments her eyes would turn towards the door, half expecting John and Pearce to crash through. They had been gone scarcely forty five minutes and yet it felt like hours.

  She rose to her feet as she heard the shuffling of feet by the door, about to step forward before she realised the key had not turned in the lock. She snatched the remote control off the coffee table and turned the volume of the set down. “John?” she asked, stepping back hesitantly as she did so. No response. Only the fiddling of the lock, the dull sound of a thump against the door, not so much a heavy knock as a determined barge to crack through the hinges. She looked around for a weapon, turning to head towards the kitchen before the hinges of the door squealed open. The only thing standing between her and the imposing man at the door was the thin strip of chain barely connecting the smashed in frame.

  “I..I don’t live here..” she protested “I didn’t do anything wrong..” she added as the man stepped in , his face shrouded in darkness. He flicked on the light switch and stared down at her, all six feet two of him. “Gina” he rasped as he adjusted the collars of his white shirt and lapels of his black suit “you still look fantastic after all these years babe..”

  Her head ached, yet through the cacophony of voices, images and muddled pictures racing through her head, she recognised his unkind face; the way he stared at her, the predatory manner he possessed as he began to prowl around the apartment, pausing only to glance around him, ensuring they were completely alone.

  "It's been a long time" Madsen glowered as he yanked the phone lead out of the socket. "My name....." she paused as his words seemed to smash into her head like a jackhammer "...is not Gina..." she breathed heavily.

  "After the beating I gave you, you probably think you're fuckin’ Madonna” Madsen laughed, a deep, ominous snort. He wrung his hands, circling her like a tiger, studying her. "I like the way you done your hair" he chuckled "like the new clothes too...no matter how rough you look Gina, you still look like a real Dame; I guess you can't ruin beauty no matter how hard you try."

  "I recognise your ugly face.." she slurred, her thoughts scattered "...I wouldn't forget your face you sonofabitch.."

  Madsen paused for a moment, furrowing his brow as he slowly began to snigger. He unravelled his leather belt, coiling it around his fist as he glowered at her. "You know Dennis gave me a lot of shit for not finishing you off” he grunted “I was younger, stupider...it was a rookie mistake. You're not getting away this time." he warned, stroking the surface of the leather curled around his fingers.

  "Please..please leave me alone" she stuttered, backing towards the kitchen knowing it was the only place she could find anything resembling a weapon. "I'm not buying your act" Madsen snarled "dyed hair, cheap clothes...it don't change what you are, who did you think you were kidding?" he chuckled, moving forward to cut off the space between the both of them "how far did you think you were going to get? Just tell me, where's the money?"

  "What money?" she gasped as he brushed back his suit lapel to reveal a holstered gun.

  “Gina, Dennis left me very strict instructions” Madsen sighed “you return the money, you speak at his parole hearing, you take back your testimony, you retract all the nasty allegations you made and maybe..just maybe.. he won't put you six feet under with the worms" he paused "or the alternative is I finished what I fuckin’ started..”

  She turned to run, heading straight for the kitchen and felt his outstretched hand brush her shoulder. His hand tugged at her shirt cuff, yanking it until it tore apart. As her right foot made it into the kitchen, she heard the snap of his leather belt rebound off her shoulder blades and she screamed out, losing her balance and collapsed against the kitchen counter. She whirled around and saw Madsen standing in front of her, the belt dangling from his hand and a sinister grin spread over his face.

  “Don’t try to run, you’ll only piss me off” Madsen cackled as he stepped forward, his tall frame casting a shadow over her. As he raised his fist she slipped underneath his arm and threw herself in the direction of the nearest cabinet. Yanking open the door, she rifled through pots, pans, glasses, cups before managing to grab onto a pair of kitchen knives. As she attempted to grip onto the handle of one, she felt Madsen’s fingers tighten around the strands of her hair and wrench her back towards him.

  He slammed an elbow into her lower neck, sending a shooting pain pierce through her spine. She stumbled forward and kicked out, one of her legs managing to land squarely against his shin. Madsen let out a groan, shaking off the pain and yet still came forward, snapping the belt back and forth like a whip. One of his lashes landed across her face, stinging her pale skin and leaving a bright pink imprint on her cheek as blood squirted out from the cut. She tightened her grip around the handle of the knife and began slicing at the air in frenzied movements as the blade whistled past his face.

  “Get away from me…” she panted, noticing that he was also out of breath as he lunged forward. She kicked out towards the region of his groin. Madsen roared out in pain as h
e doubled over, giving her the chance to attack. As she moved forward uncertainly, raising the knife above her head, Madsen trashed out an uncoordinated punch, the knuckles of his right fist smashing against her lower jaw. She felt a dull, reverberating pain echo through her head and a dazzle of what looked like sparks line her vision as she staggered backwards. As she felt the taste of blood ooze out of the corner of her bottom lip she could tell he was hurt, tired and struggling to straighten up.

  “You fuckin’ bitch..” Madsen snarled, his eyes burning with rage as he curled the belt around his fist, ready to pounce again. As he did so, she feigned to the left and brought the knife down into the side of his neck in a frenzied rage. Blood spurted as the knife jutted out from the vein she had pierced. He contorted his face, letting out a low drone of pain as he fell back against the kitchen counter, his arms flailing around as he pressed both hands against the gaping wound. Her eyes scanned the room, grabbing a pan that was sitting atop the oven hob. Her head pounding, her heart racing, she smashed it across the rear of his skull. Crashing against the cabinets, Madsen fell onto one knee, still attempting to stem the gushing blood from his neck, but his reflexes were now slower, his eyes dulled as the blood rapidly escaped his body.

  His blue eyes stared up at her, and she knew immediately that he was dying. He swallowed hard, choking on the mixture of blood and saliva snaking down his burning throat as his knees buckled. Madsen let out another groan of pain as the blood haemorrhaged out in violent, jerking spits from his neck. He glared up at her, his eyes now soft, pleading for mercy, his lips parted, but he was unable to speak.

  She hung her head, feeling that its weight had somehow quadrupled as she struggled to move away, her vision blurry as her stomach burned with a fierce rush of adrenaline. She staggered out of the kitchen, wanting to scream for help, wanting to sit down but she could hear Madsen kicking around behind her, trying vainly to rise to his feet, trying to summon the strength to pounce on her like a leopard striking down its kill.