Amanda's Blue Marine

by Doreen Owens Malek

  Amanda extended the second folder to him. When he didn’t take it she set it on the desk.

  “Yes, I do,” she said quietly.

  Tom’s arrogance was ebbing as he started to look worried.

  “Inside that folder is a list of ‘donations’ from you to your friends, bribes disguised as campaign contributions to ensure that these political buddies would first, get into office or remain in office and then second, vote the way you wanted them to vote to make the safety standards mesh with your imports. These people are all members of the construction standards committee which lowered the safety requirements for the steel you imported. They changed the standards for you to make more money and then you split the difference with them, I’m guessing. Nobody works for free.”

  “That list proves nothing.”

  “What would these people say if I deposed them? If a judge conducting an inquiry asked them questions about why they voted the way the did? Could they defend their decisions or would they break under the questioning? Would they lie to protect you?”

  Tom was looking cagey, rebounding enough to think about covering his butt. “There’s plenty of latitude in those standards,” he said defensively.

  “Not when I can show that several buildings constructed according to your new guidelines have collapsed,” Mandy said gently.

  “That’s a load of crap,” Tom said shortly. His ability to counter her was waning so she knew she was getting through to him.

  “Then how about this?” she said. “Inside that folder you will also find a record of payments made to thirteen local contractors for work that was never done. More bribes.”

  “How do you know the work was never done?” he shot back at her.

  “Oh, on paper it looks like it was done. All the permits were issued, all the plans were filed on time, everything was documented. But I checked. The work was all interior, refurbishing and reconstruction. No one can tell from outside if anything was ever done, and nothing was done. And in exchange for those payments, the contractors, who by a strange coincidence are the very same people on the civic advisory board which changed the building code, made the lower grade steel acceptable in the marina.”

  Tom was silent. He had gone pale, but otherwise didn’t react.

  “It was your scheme, Tom, these people named in the documents are all your pals.”

  Tom met her eyes and sighed.

  “What about the lives you would have endangered using this low grade steel?” Mandy demanded. “As I just said, the whole marina could collapse like the Hartford Civic Center auditorium in 1976. In that case it was the same soft steel, the same deal, and the roof fell in under the weight of accumulated snow when nobody was there. Nobody got hurt, since the jai’alai match scheduled for that day was canceled because of the weather. If the auditorium had been occupied hundreds of people could, probably would, have died. Did you think about that at all when you were calculating your profits?”

  Tom stared at her and she could see his mind racing. Then he sighed again, more deeply.

  “What do you want?” he asked tersely.

  “First, I want the crappy steel to go back to China or hell or wherever you want to send it. Store it in a warehouse if you want to, just don’t use it. I’ll be watching. Then order the right grade of domestic product to be used in the construction. I don’t care what you say about effecting the changes, just make sure that it’s done, and without implicating my father, who I’m sure knows nothing about what you’ve been pulling. I haven’t told him and I don’t plan to tell him.”

  “What else?”

  “Do exactly what I stated regarding Kelly’s case. Get him out of it with no repercussions, no record, and with full restoration of everything you took away from him.”

  “How the hell am I going to do that?” Tom demanded angrily. “They’re serious charges and I worked hard to make sure they would stick!”

  “That’s your problem. Get all of it dropped or your head will roll, and the only way you can silence me is to kill me. If you’re prepared to go that far I can’t stop you, but with Kelly out of my life I have nothing to lose, and that makes me dangerous. You have plenty of political friends who can help you. Get started now because you have just three days.”

  “Three days!”

  “That’s it. I’m not leaving Kelly at the mercy of the prison system any longer than that.”

  “What’s the matter, Amanda? Are you afraid your tough guy can’t take care of himself?

  “I know he can take care of himself, Tom. I’m afraid of what he might do when he thinks our relationship is over and he’s going to be alone for good.”

  “How touching, and so dramatic. You’re afraid he’ll despair.”

  “I’m not taking that chance. I want him out as soon as possible and you’re going to make it happen.”

  “Does that thug have you hypnotized, or what?” Tom asked, amazed. “Did you have to ruin everything I had planned in order to hook up with him? Why didn’t you just screw him until he couldn’t walk if that’s what you wanted but leave the rest of it alone?”

  “You could never comprehend how I feel, so I’m not going to try to explain it to you. The interesting thing is that you will never get it, but my father understands.”

  “Oh yeah, you and your daddy are so pristine, napping blissfully on your pile of money. I came up the hard way and had to earn everything for myself. No trust funds, no rich grandpa. Easy for you to sit on your high horse and dictate terms to me now. After this marina deal I would never have had to think about money again.”

  “You’d better think about it now and figure out how much it will cost you to put the construction plan back on safe terms. Otherwise I will be in Sam’s office on Friday morning with all of this in hand. What do you think, Tom? Fraud endangering the public safety? Bribery, extortion, collusion, abusing the public trust? I’m sure I can come up with a few other counts if I think about it. I have realized from this experience that I really am a good lawyer. Don’t piss me off any further or you will find out exactly how good a lawyer I am. Do you want to toss the dice with me?”

  Tom surveyed her wearily, studying her as if further contemplation would help him to grasp her mindset. “He's a COP, for God's sake, Amanda. Do you get that? All this for a cop? What are you going to do? Have a massage and a facial while he does shift work at the precinct?”

  “Why not?” Mandy countered directly, holding his gaze. "Is there a law against it? There are plenty of laws against what you’re up to, so I’d worry about myself if I were you.”

  Tom shook his head in wonderment. “Do you think a guy like this wants to be a gigolo? A roughneck, a combat veteran marine playing house with a rich mistress? The relationship won't survive a year. He'll be an object of scorn in the station house, a rent boy. His buddies will envy him but ridicule him behind his back.”

  “Not everyone is as petty or as obsessed with appearances as you are, Tom. And he’s not taking any money from me so there will be nothing for them to say.”

  Tom exhaled explosively in exasperation. “Why couldn’t you just have a torrid affair, then pack him off to a little woman who'll press his uniforms and produce parochial school children and attend the FOP dinners in a thrift store dress? You didn’t have to break us up over a runaway case of adolescent lust.” He smiled thinly. “I'm in favor of lust, of course, but only when it doesn't control your higher thinking.”

  “My higher thinking is just fine, good enough to put you in the box you currently occupy, Congressman.”

  Tom’s eyes narrowed. “You always assume you’re smarter than the other guy, Amanda. But this time you’re not. You've crossed the line.”

  “What line?”

  “The line between a good time and forever together. Your detective, as natty as he looks in his tailored blue coat, is nothing but a good time.”

  “I am touched by your concern but I think I am a better judge of Kelly’s character than you are.”

 
; “Character! He’s a self loathing street boy with a violent streak. It didn’t take him long to throw himself under this bus, and if you bail him out of his current mess another bus will come along soon enough.”

  “I’ll take that chance.”

  “And continue to fight his battles for him?”

  “I’m fighting this battle because I can, just as he fought the battle with Cameron for me when he was much better equipped to do it than I was.”

  “Big and tough and macho don’t count for much in the civilized world, Amanda, as you should know by now. That’s all he has going for him and it won’t be enough once you cool your jets and realize you can’t stay in bed with him forever.”

  “He is big and tough, Tom. And strong and sexy, and I love that. I love that he could kick your candy ass from here to Wellington, New Zealand if he wanted to and you would just have to take it.”

  Tom stared at her, stunned. Amanda held his gaze but felt slightly ashamed of herself for descending to his level. This was fun and satisfying in a visceral way but it was getting her nowhere.

  “Gone primitive, Amanda?” Tom inquired. “A few more sessions lying under him and you’ll be gibbering like an ape.

  Amanda forced herself to swallow the retort that sprang to her lips. Sniping at Tom accomplished nothing and was as dispiriting as having the same type of conversation with her mother. She stood up and gathered the materials she had brought with her, stuffing them into her leather case.

  “I’m not going to exchange insults with you any more,” she said to Tom. “What you have to understand now is this: you thought you had Kelly cornered but he has a potent ally you didn’t even consider, and that’s me. I’ve changed, Tom, I’m no longer the compliant daddy’s girl you knew. I’ll use this information to stop you if I have to, and without a moment’s regret.”

  She paused to let that message process. Tom looked disturbed and irritated but said nothing, which meant that he was listening.

  “So here’s what we’re going to do,” Amanda continued. “You leave Kelly alone and I’ll leave you alone. That’s the deal. Drop the case against him, make it all go away, criminal and civil. Talk to Rhinegold or whichever of his acolytes is handling it and have it expunged, canceled, exsanguinated. Schmooze whoever you have to, file whatever motions are necessary, make it end. And in exchange I’ll forget I ever dug up this evidence against you. I’ll watch to make sure you use the better steel in the marina construction, but beyond that I won’t bother you. On the other hand, pursue this case against Kelly and I’ll be in Sam Rhinegold’s office this week with the details of your illegal activities in my briefcase. Do we understand each other?”

  Silence reigned in the small room for almost a minute.

  “I never knew you could be this hard,” Tom then said quietly, with more than a hint of grudging admiration in his tone.

  “Neither did I. I’ve grown up a lot since we’ve been apart. It’s amazing what happens to you when your back is against the wall.”

  “His back, not yours,” Tom said.

  “It’s the same back, Tom, that’s what you don’t get. What happens to him happens to me. I love him.”

  “And you’re not ashamed to throw it in my face either. Did you ever feel anything for me?”

  “I thought so, until I met Kelly. Then I knew the difference.”

  “Why him, Amanda? He’s nothing. He has nothing.”

  “He has my heart.”

  “You realize that you are making a fool of yourself over this guy.”

  “If that’s true it’s my problem and you don’t have to worry about it,” Amanda said crisply. She picked up her purse and the briefcase and waited while he unlocked the door. Then she said, “Three days,” and went through it without glancing back at him.

  Carol was standing in the hall, looking worried, trying to read the results of the conference in Mandy’s face.

  “It’s all right, Carol,” Mandy said as she passed her. “You’re not in trouble. Tom will be with you shortly.”

  Mandy heard Tom begin talking to Carol quietly as she walked away down the hall.

  15

  Amanda spent the next several days in a state of suspended animation. She had hope that Tom was doing what she wanted when she didn’t hear from him; if he had discovered a way to confound her he would have lost no time in contacting her to gloat about it. But the hours without Kelly were long and she couldn’t sleep. The time at work passed a little quicker because she had something to occupy her thoughts. But she had nothing to say to her colleagues, who were either aghast at Kelly’s arrest or sympathetic to her dilemma, and either attitude left her silent with suppressed emotion. She had a short interview with Rhinegold’s assistant, but it was long enough to tender her resignation and observe that everyone involved was relieved that she was going. That was just as well. No one else could possibly understand how she felt and she didn’t have the energy to explain anything. She just passed the time in a waiting game, constantly reviewing the recent events in her mind.

  She didn’t know if she would wind up helping Kelly, but she knew that she had done everything that she could.

  When the third day passed with no word on anything Mandy felt that she had lost the game of chicken she’d been playing with Tom. He was going to do nothing and just hope that she would let his illegal dealings go, out of deference to her father or a desire to avoid more trouble. She went to bed that night in a state of near despair and lay awake staring at the bedroom ceiling, wondering what she could have done differently to get a better result and wondering what her options were if Tom’s decision went against her.

  She knew one thing was certain. She wasn’t giving up on getting Brendan Kelly out of jail.

  She finally did fall asleep and was awakened by the sound of her cell phone ringing. The clock on her nightstand read 3:17 AM.

  She grabbed the phone instantly.

  “He’s out, all charges dropped,” Manning’s voice said in her ear. There was no disguising the delight in his tone.

  Mandy closed her eyes and exhaled in a burst of relief.

  “Why now?” she was finally able to say. “Why so late?”

  “Aw, some snafu in the DA’s office, papers didn’t come through on time or something. I’m picking him up, he can’t drive until he gets his license back. They impounded his phone with his personal effects and the charge died. He asked me to call you.”

  “Thank you, Ted,” Mandy said softly.

  “I’ll drop him off at your place in a few minutes, okay? He told me you wouldn’t mind letting him bunk in with you on short notice.”

  Mandy could hear the amusement in his voice.

  “Is he…does he seem all right?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Oh yeah, you know, quiet, alert, same Kelly. He looks like a boulder has been lifted from his shoulders though.”

  “Is it really over?”

  “It’s over. No charges means just that, nothing criminal or civil, federal or local. Henderson dropped the civil charges and the DA’s office won’t seek an indictment against Kelly without Henderson’s testimony. The DA could compel it with a subpoena but then Henderson would be a hostile witness and the jury would hear that he had dropped his own suit. It’s a dog to prosecute and won’t fly without Henderson’s weight behind it. I’m sure Rhinegold’s office knows it.”

  “Rhinegold won’t go after Kelly on the criminal charge?”

  “Why, Amanda? Your ex is the only person with a yen to ruin Kelly’s life, and somehow you’ve neutralized Henderson. He’s dropped the civil charges and Rhinegold’s not going to spend money and time and resources prosecuting Brendan, a local hero nobody wants to see in prison, for an assault nobody cares about but the Congressman. Plus Rhinegold has to be worried about a malicious prosecution case which would make his office look bad. Brendan could turn this around and sue the DA for malpros if the history with the three of you comes out and it’s obvious that the prosecution was undertaken friv
olously, and for personal reasons.”

  “You’re right,” Amanda said, impressed with Manning’s knowledge of the law. Thirty plus years on the police force had turned him into a jailhouse lawyer.

  “But I’m sure all of this has occurred to you and you’re ready with the malicious prosecution case, right?” Manning said. Mandy could hear the smile in his voice.

  “I did some research on it, yes. I just wasn’t sure it was on point.”

  Manning chuckled. “You won’t need it, Amanda. He’s free as the wind. The Congressman must be spitting cotton. I don’t know what you did there, lady, but it worked.” Manning paused and then said, less jovially, “But you’d better find Kelly some help, Amanda. He needs to get a handle on his hair trigger or this sort of thing will get him nailed again and again until it really costs him. Another time he might not be able to wriggle out of it, even with your help.”

  “I know that’s true.”

  “The department is going to insist on anger management or therapy or something, the brass won’t give him his shield back unless he enters a program or hooks up with one of their doctors. He may be on desk duty for a while until the Commissioner calms down about this. Punching public servants is not going to help his career. He may not be in trouble legally any more but everyone knows what happened and his superiors can’t ignore it. He’ll get the details of what he has to do later but you should talk to him about it.”

  “I will.”

  Mandy could hear Manning sigh over the phone. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to him, Amanda. I didn’t think so at the start but I can see it now. Just hang in there over the rough spots and I feel sure it will come out right in the end.”