“Some long word,” Paulie said. “Some kind of ‘zene.’ “
Gardner smiled. An antidepressant, no doubt. That settled it. That brought everything full circle. Point, set, match.
Judge Ransome looked at Gardner. “Do I hear a motion, Counsel?”
Gardner took the hint. “Renew my motion for judgment of acquittal.”
“Wait!” King interjected. “That’s out of order. There’s already been evidence presented on the defense case. He can’t renew his motion.”
“Who’s in charge here, Mr. King?” Rollie asked.
King dropped into his seat without replying. It was over.
“Motion for judgment of acquittal as to all charges against Sergeant Brown granted,” Ransome said, slamming down his gavel. “The jury is dismissed!”
* * *
Paulie left the stand and approached Brownie. They eyed each other cautiously, unsure how to proceed.
“What’s up, bro?” Brownie finally asked.
Paulie put out his hand. “Not much. How ‘bout you?”
Brownie ignored the hand and grabbed his brother in a bear hug. “Thank you,” he mumbled.
“Sorry, man,” Paulie whispered. “I’m so sorry….”
“What for?”
“Everything. Mr. Lawson told me what you did.”
“What do you mean?”
“The school case. My arrest. Getting it thrown out. I didn’t know….”
“I never did anything like that.” Brownie released the hug.
Paulie smiled. His brother was straight to the end. “We don’t have to talk about it.”
“Nothing to talk about.”
Paulie nodded. Brownie had been his guardian angel his whole life and never admitted it. That was the brotherhood Paulie had somehow missed. He’d been fighting the war all these years, but Brownie hadn’t. They were on the same side all along.
Bedlam filled the courtroom. Spectators ran forward to congratulate the defendant and his lawyer, among them Jennifer and a string of police officers. The news had swept the courthouse, and the hallway was packed with well-wishers. King and Lin Song escaped through chambers.
“Unbelievable,”Jennifer said, “I never expected this.” She stood awkwardly next to Gardner, as shocked about the last-minute revelation as everyone else.
“Neither did I,” Gardner mumbled.
“You did it,” she continued. “You went for the truth after all.”
Gardner didn’t reply. He was thinking how gorgeous Jennifer looked in her red suit and how much he’d missed her. “I only did what you told me.”
“Well, you did good.”
He looked into her green eyes. “I’ve been pretty stupid these past few months… and I think I’ve finally figured it out. I do tend to overreact, to be overbearing. I know that now.”
“Sometimes you do.”
“I drove you away. I never want to do that again. I’m ready to talk.” Gardner put his arm around her waist and his lips to her ear. “You know…”
“You mean it?”
“I mean it.” Gardner suddenly held up his hand. “Excuse me, everyone, I have an announcement to make! May I have your attention, please?”
Someone whistled; the pandemonium died, and every eye in the courtroom focused on Gardner. “I want to thank you all for your support during this very tough time, and I want to acknowledge one individual in particular.” He looked at Jennifer.
She blinked nervously.
“To her I wish to say, first of all, I’m sorry for being such a blockhead.”
Someone clapped.
“And second of all…” He paused and took a deep breath. “Will you marry me?”
Jennifer crossed her arms and stared at him.
“Well?” he prompted.
“I’ll have to think about it.”
Gardner’s face fell.
Jennifer suddenly smiled and embraced him around the neck. “I’ve thought,” she said.
Gardner kissed her hard. And a cheer went up from the crowd.
They slowly disentangled, and Gardner gathered his files. “Let’s get out of here,” he told Jennifer. “I’m sick of this place.”
“Gard…” The brothers had finally made their way through the throng. “Sorry about—” Brownie began.
“Nothing!” Gardner interrupted. “We’ve never apologized to each other before, and we’re not going to do it now. The case is closed.”
Brownie gave him a hug. “I respect you for what you did.”
Gardner squeezed his friend’s shoulders. “You’d have done it for me.
“Hey, congratulations on your proposal,” Brownie added.
“Thanks.”
“Mind if I kiss the bride-to-be?” He gave Jennifer a peck on the cheek. “Way to go, girl. You chased him till he caught you.” “Thank you, Brownie.”
Then Brownie’s expression changed. “Am I reinstated with the department?”
Gardner signaled to Larry Gray, struggling through the crowd. “Better ask him.”
The police chief finally got past the human wall. “Congratulations!” he yelled.
“Am I still on the force?” Brownie asked.
“Of course!”
“With full powers?”
“Of course.”
“What’s going on?” Gardner asked. Brownie was behaving strangely. He should be ecstatic, but he suddenly had a detective look in his eye. Something was up.
“Unfinished business,” Brownie said.
“What?”
“Another case.”
“What case?”
“I’ll explain later. First, me and Paul got to go somewhere.” He pulled his brother aside, out of earshot.
“Brownie!” Gardner yelled.
But Brownie was talking to Paul. And a moment later they both hurriedly left the courtroom.
twenty-nine
Althea Brown looked up from her Bible. There was a noise at the front door. She had been reading and praying all morning, as she’d done for the past two weeks. She could not bring herself to attend her son’s trial. Her time could be better spent here, asking the Lord for guidance.
Suddenly a man entered the living room. “Joseph,” she cried with surprise.
Brownie smiled. “Hello, Mama.” There was a shadow behind him in the hallway.
“Who’s that?”
The shadow emerged.
“Oh, my God, Paulie!”
The brothers embraced their mom. “Son, son,” she cried. Her prayers had been answered.
“It’s all over, Mama,” Brownie said when he finally broke away.
“The trial?”
“I’m free. Paulie saved my life. He came to court and testified, and he proved that Ruth killed himself. The judge dismissed the case.”
Althea looked at her other son. “Praise God,” she said.
Paulie tried to speak, but his mother grabbed him, hugged him, and sobbed against his shoulder. “I’ve waited so long,” she whispered.
Paulie finally found his voice. “I did wrong, Mama.”
“Don’t…”
“I hurt you, I hurt Joe. It took me a long time to realize that I was hurting me, too. I’m sorry.”
“That’s not important now,” his mother said. “What is important is that we’re together.”
They sat down and caught up, and talked about the strange twists and turns that had brought them to this point.
“Well, it’s all over now,” Althea said with a sigh.
“Not quite.” Brownie pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to his mother. “We’ve got one more thing to do, one more piece of business.”
“What’s this?” she asked.
Brownie looked her in the eye, his expression somber. “A phone number. I need you to make a call.”
Althea didn’t understand. “What for?”
“For Daddy.”
The police van was parked in the trees behind Althea’s house. It could not be se
en from the road. Night had fallen, and a light powdery snow sprinkled from the black sky. Inside the van, Gardner, Jennifer, Brownie, and Katanga waited.
“I want to know the full story, and I want to know it now,” Gardner demanded. Brownie had been tight-lipped about why they had to set up a surveillance at his mom’s. He only promised that a lot of questions would be answered before the night was through. They had been waiting for two hours, and so far nothing had happened. Gardner and Jennifer were bundled together in the back of the van, and Paulie and Brownie sat up front.
“You’ll see,” Brownie replied.
“See what?”
“When it goes down, you’ll see.”
“Come on, Brownie,” Jennifer said. “Don’t keep us in suspense. What’s this all about?”
“Yeah. How ‘bout it?” Katanga added.
“Okay, okay,” Brownie conceded. “I wanted to show you, and then explain.”
“Just tell us!” Gardner urged.
“All right.”
Gardner and Jennifer leaned forward, and Katanga turned. Brownie shifted around so he could see their faces in the shadows. “I never gave up on the investigation of Daddy’s death,” he began. “And from the beginning, something bothered me. I knew that a snake had been wrapped around Daddy’s neck. The tests showed scale marks, and it didn’t matter what the examiner concluded. I knew what happened. Then the article came out about Ruth and the snakes, and I got sidetracked. I thought ‘Ruth’ and ‘snakes’ and ‘Daddy’ and got all balled up in the idea that he did it.…” Brownie’s voice drifted off. “But I had overlooked something important. There was no way that Ruth could have known about Daddy’s fear of snakes. That was a secret that only a few of us knew. Daddy didn’t talk about it to anyone. He was ashamed and kept it to himself.”
“So whoever put the snake on your father had to know about his fear,” Gardner said.
“Exactly. And that person could not have been Ruth. No way he could have gotten that information.”
A headlight against the side of Althea’s house interrupted his words. “Showtime!” Brownie exclaimed. “Follow me.” Brownie opened the van door and jumped out.
They ran to the rear of the house, Brownie leading, Gardner, Jennifer, and Katanga following behind. Then they entered the kitchen and tiptoed to the doorway beside the den. Voices could be heard on the other side.
Brownie drew his 9-millimeter and raised it to a shooting position. Then he sprang through the door.
“You’re under arrest! Get down on the floor!”
Reverend Taylor dropped the check that Althea had just given him.
“Get down on the floor now!”
Althea stepped back, and the others rushed in.
“What’s the matter with you, brother?” Taylor asked defiantly. He was still on his feet.
Brownie cocked the hammer on his Beretta. “If you don’t hit the floor now, I’ll put a hole in your head.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Taylor protested, going to one knee.
“All the way down!” Brownie shoved the barrel against the reverend’s skull.
Taylor lay flat, and Brownie cuffed him behind his back.
“Mama,” Brownie said, “this is the man who killed Daddy.”
Althea put her hands to her face, and Katanga leaped forward. “Him?”
“Lie!” Taylor hollered. “It’s a lie!”
Brownie frisked him and rolled him on his back. “Tell them your real name.”
“Taylor!”
“Try Corey Jenkins!” Brownie snapped. “A con man who cleaned out a small town in Oregon five years ago. Took life savings, stole old folks’ cash, preachin’ and pretending to give a damn about them and their lives. Slipped out of town with the loot, but got caught and served time in jail—”
“That’s not true!” Taylor struggled to get up, but Brownie pushed him down with his foot.
“It took me a long time to get a line on him. I had my troubles to worry about, so it took longer than it should have. He used a lot of aliases, moved around to a lot of places, but I finally tracked him down. He makes his living cheating people.”
“This is an outrage,” Taylor blustered. “God has forgiven my sins. I have done nothing wrong here!”
“Try again,” Brownie said sarcastically. “You set this whole thing up. You came into this little town and began laying your trap. You talked to folks about their lives, gained their confidence, learned private things about them. Who had the money, who was vulnerable, what people’s fears were.”
“He used the snake,” Gardner said suddenly.
“Yes, he did.”
“No!” Taylor began struggling again.
“He found out about Daddy’s phobia. And he also found out about the railroad pension. If he got rid of Daddy, and got close to Mama, he could also get close to the money.”
“No!”
Katanga picked up the check that Taylor had dropped. It was written to Taylor in the amount of $80,000.
“He was after the money,” Althea said. “For the church…. He said he was going to set up a fund in Daddy’s name.”
“I knew he’d come back for it,” Brownie declared.
“You can’t prove anything!” Taylor sputtered.
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve got a witness who puts you in possession of the cellular phone that made the nine-one-one call the night Daddy died. And I’ve got you in possession of the pension money.” He took the check out of Katanga’s hand. “But here’s the best part. He had help on the outside.”
“No,” Taylor sputtered.
Brownie took a copy of Anders’s picture from his pocket. “I have evidence. Mr. Jenkins here had help from an old friend, a man known as Thomas Ruth.”
“What?” Gardner exclaimed.
“That’s right! Taylor, a.k.a. Jenkins, and Ruth, a.k.a. Graves, were in the same unit in Vietnam.” He handed Gardner the photo. “They went on after the war to run cons together, and this was the best con of all, a double-edged hustle. Taylor worked the dark side of the street, and Ruth worked the light. And they split the proceeds. It was a symbiotic relationship from hell, and they damned near pulled it off.”
“Shut up!” Taylor hissed.
Brownie placed his foot on the reverend’s neck. “You shut up!” He then turned to his amazed audience. “Ruth was a psycho, and Taylor supplied him with pills. But Taylor got greedy. As I read it, no one was supposed to get hurt because Ruth had this aversion to violence. Taylor, on the other hand, couldn’t care less. He ‘snaked’ Daddy and killed him for the pension. Ruth got blamed and hounded, and went off the edge. And when I got in trouble, Taylor hired Willie Stanton. He musta figured that would eliminate me, too.”
Up to now, Katanga had remained silent. Without warning, he grabbed Brownie’s gun.
“Hey!” Brownie yelled. Althea’s eyes went wide, and Gardner and Jennifer jumped back.
“You!” Katanga shrieked. He pointed the gun at Taylor. “You suckered me! Told me to let my brother go down! Told me to shut my mouth.”
“Give me the gun,” Brownie said. “Come on, bro.”
“You killed my daddy!” He clicked the hammer.
Taylor’s face went slack with terror. “Brother,” he begged.
“Don’t ‘brother’ me!” Katanga leaned close. “You’re no brother!” His hand was trembling as much as his voice.
“Give me the gun,” Brownie urged.
“You’re gonna die,” Katanga said, pressing the gun to Taylor’s face.
“Please,” Taylor pleaded. Tears rolled down his cheeks. “Please.”
The reverend closed his eyes.
“Look at him,” Brownie said. “Look at his skin.”
Katanga hesitated.
“What color is it?”
“Black,” Katanga muttered.
“What color was Ruth’s?”
“White.”
“So what color is greed?” Brownie was standing over Tayl
or now.
“Green.”
“Right,” Brownie replied. “It was just about money.”
Katanga’s hand dropped, and Brownie took the gun. “He’ll be punished, don’t worry about that. No reason for you to mess yourself up doin’ it. We all know what happens when you use self-help.”
Taylor lay back on the floor and sobbed while the others collected themselves.
Brownie addressed them. “You had to see what caused the trouble. I couldn’t just tell you.”
“I’ll call the police station,” Jennifer said, “and ask them to pick up the prisoner.”
Gardner shook Brownie’s hand. “God, Brownie. That was incredible. Ruth and Taylor, working a scam together. I’d never have guessed.”
“No one would have. That’s what made the damn thing work. Between the two of them they sure screwed things up around here.”
“But you smoked them out. You never gave up.”
“Neither did you.”
They looked at Katanga and Althea comforting each other in the corner. “There’s nothing like real family,” Gardner said.
Brownie turned. “You are right about that.” He smiled and punched Gardner’s arm. “Brother.”
epilogue
“Tired?” Gardner asked.
Jennifer looked over her shoulder from the bench of the makeup table. “A little.” Her hair glinted auburn highlights in the glow of the lamp.
Gardner picked up her silver brush. “May I?”
“I’d like that.”
Gardner stroked her hair until it bristled with static electricity. “It’s happy tonight,” he said.
Down the hall, Granville slept. He was in his old room, in the mansion on the hill. Carole had finally moved out and acquired a place in town.
Many months had passed since the Ruth case, and the world had changed. Brownie was now a lieutenant, chief of detectives. His wounds healed, he was back chasing felons and visiting his brother’s outreach program in D.C. Reverend Taylor was convicted of the murder of Joseph Brown and sentenced to life in prison. Frank Davis, terminated from the police force, was now a security guard.
Kent King quietly folded his practice, moved to Baltimore, and entered partnership with Lin Song. He was tired of the county, he said. The city was more exciting.
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