Thomas for his part had not questioned her or himself. He welcomed her back into his life as though it was always meant to be.
Robert Jackson had exonerated Brady and Reid after Thomas’ damming testimony. The police found the murder weapon in Linda’s apartment, tucked in the back of a closet.
Thomas had been shocked to find that the two cops had been telling the truth. Still, he reasoned their lack of faith in the system had condemned them. They were so afraid that they’d framed themselves.
About a month after the World Series parade, Brady and Reid were at McGinty’s celebrating, when an agent from IAD and the FBI walked in and arrested them for the murder of Ned Young.
The bar was deadly silent as they were read their rights and walked out in shame. A week later, Brady would agree to testify against his partner, confessing that they’d gotten into an argument with Ned about the boy’s death and killed the older man.
Two other things damned them. One was a partial fingerprint on a counter in the kitchen and the other, a new cop at the science lab who touted something called forensic fiber analysis.
Thomas hadn’t been fired from the force but he was suspended for a time. He transferred to a new precinct and was surprised when Zack followed him.
He hadn’t had a drink in many months and was now meeting with a new group of regulars called Alcoholics Anonymous. A strong group who had the novel idea that drinking was a disease that could be passed down from father to son. Not the best news for the Irish, he mused.
Thomas kissed Sarah making the ceremony complete. He turned to leave, walking down the aisle. Thomas smiled broadly as he pulled Sarah behind him.
The couple moved past the happy faces in the gallery. Thomas saw his new partner, friends like Dennison and others from the old precinct.
His mother and sister stood together. Katie was growing up and looked dangerously like a woman to him. Esther cried of course and dabbed at her face with a handkerchief.
They were almost out of the room when Thomas saw Frank at the end of a pew. He was turned away from him about to leave. Thomas had a smile building on his face when the man turned back and he saw that it was not his father but another man he did not know.
Sarah went to the man and kissed him, calling him uncle somebody.
It would have been nice, Thomas thought if his father could have found some measure of forgiveness in this moment but life was not so neat. Life was far more complex and that kind of absolution did not fall from the sky like God’s rain; it grew from the tended earth of a man’s toil.
Thomas took his bride from the church as the crowd threw rice on them. He pulled Sarah into the bright sunlight and he thought a day had never looked so beautiful.
CAIN’S DELIVERANCE
Robert held the brown baby in his arms at the hospital and was a little afraid. Newborns seemed so fragile you think that if you sneeze you’re going to break something.
Abraham and Theresa chattered at him, telling him to hold the child higher as Abraham tilted a camera in front of them.
“Your first picture, Marcus,” Robert said to his son and smiled.
Denise was getting dressed for the trip home and she was happy to be going. The labor had been long and hard and she muttered something about “never doing this again.” Robert just kept his mouth shut. He was happy but he was no fool.
Robert told his parents what he discovered at The Vanguard about Marcus’ death. They had all agreed to go to the investigators and tell them what they knew.
Some days later, the Detroit police received an anonymous call and found the bomb in the storage room. There was a big panic as they called in the bomb squad who easily diffused it.
It was never reported in the press. Things were good and no one wanted strife to return. The police changed all of their security measures after the event.
The feds took the case, and although they suspected a link to a bizarre explosion some weeks before, no one was ever charged.
Bohan’s body was never found and Robert thought about going to the police, but Yusef, Vince and many of the other members of The Guard had disappeared. And without a body, there was really no crime. He wondered if the cops would look for their missing agent and if it would all come back to haunt him one day. Only time would tell.
“I’m ready,” said Denise.
Robert handed her the baby and Denise sat in a wheelchair. Robert pushed her out, supervised by a nurse.
They went outside into the parking lot and soon Denise and child were in the back of Abraham’s car. Robert did not notice but he had never stopped smiling.
**********
That next spring, Robert stood at his brother’s graveside with the child. Denise protested but Robert had countered that the baby would never know he was in a graveyard. Still, Denise was upset and stayed in the car waiting for him after paying her respects to Marcus.
It was a cool day and not a cloud in the sky. Marcus was buried in the northern corner of the place and they had erected a headstone, which read: “Son, Brother and Friend.”
“I used to think talking to dead folks was crazy,” Robert began. “So, this is your nephew, Marcus. Eight pounds when he was born. Big fella. Make a heck of a first baseman one day.”
Robert adjusted the baby in his arms. He was waking up and he’d probably start crying, he thought distantly.
“I know you been watching me and saw all the things I did,” Robert continued. “I’m not proud of them, Marcus. Change is hard, and it don’t pay to push it, but at the same time, you got to stand up. How far you go is the thing. We went too far. Anyway, I’m renouncing my ways again and I wanted you to witness it.”
Robert took the detonator from his pocket and placed it near the headstone. All of the wiring and the buttons had been removed and so he had no fear of leaving it.
Robert turned and walked away from his brother’s grave carrying his son.
They left the cemetery and drove into the city. Detroit was still draped in Tiger orange and blue, filled with banners and signs praising the team.
Robert felt pride but the victory he celebrated had nothing to do with baseball.
EPILOGUE
April 9, 2010.
Thomas and Robert walk into Comerica Park in Detroit alongside their grandchildren. Security is very tight this day and so it takes a while. People are searched and there is extra security around the stadium.
The old men disliked the new stadium. It is too clean, too... new.
But no new stadium would have been good enough for them. Their baseball hearts would always be at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull. Tiger Stadium still stood just across downtown, like a monument to all things past.
It is Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers. The temperature is warm and the skies clear, a perfect day for baseball.
Like all baseball cities, Opening Day is a grand tradition. The stands were filled with people, many playing hooky from their jobs.
And today is about more than the game, more than sport and team loyalty. The President is throwing out the first pitch of the game and the world is watching.
The old men settled into their seats with the two young kids. Thomas was with his thirteen-year-old granddaughter, Jenny and Robert was with his namesake, a boy everyone called Scooter.
They had good seats, several rows up from the opposing team’s dugout. Robert smiles and thanks his father for that.
“Where’s Sarah?” asks Robert.
“Gone shopping with Denise and the women,” says Thomas. “Let’s hope we still have bank accounts when they get back,” he laughs a little.
“All rise for the singing of the national anthem,” says the announcer.
The crowd buzzes as it gets to its feet. Robert rises and places his hand over his heart. The more than fifty thousand people sing as the anthem is sung.
“And now to throw out the first pitch,” boomed the announcer, ”The President of the United States, Barack Obama!”
The cro
wd erupts into a deafening cheer.
Robert and Thomas share a look over the noise and Thomas sees water in the eyes of his old friend. He feels a lump in his own throat as well.
In their lives, this moment is so much more than its obvious historical significance. They each think back to the road that has brought them here and feel the full measure of their years.
Theirs was a fateful and unlikely meeting, which yielded, after a time, a friendship that had lasted four decades. It would have been easier to forget their history but both men were strong and stubborn. So they held on to the bond if only to prove that they were made better by their shared ordeal.
The moment passes quickly as the pitch is delivered and the crowd cheers again.
“Didn’t know he was a southpaw,” says Robert absently.
The crowd sits but for a moment, Thomas and Robert linger.
“How about them Tigers?” asks Robert.
“Yeah,” says Thomas. “How about ‘em?”
BOXSCORES
The Detroit Tigers celebrated their status as the best team in baseball in 1968. That World Series would be remembered as one of the most exciting ever played, one that exhibited the truest spirit of the game and the life from which it springs.
The league instituted playoff games for the first time after the 1968 series. No longer would pennants be won solely by a team’s winning percentage. To baseball purists, the Tigers would be the last real champions of the game.
Motown Records became one of the most successful record companies in history, making billions of dollars and creating music that defined a generation in the most troubled of times. It would come to conjure memories of the best and worst of our nation’s heart.
The civil unrest ended in Detroit and the political landscape changed with the formation of New Detroit and Focus Hope multiracial committees that were designed to bring Blacks and Whites together in the spirit of cooperation.
But Whites continued to leave their beloved city and the Black minority grew to a solid majority.
President Lyndon Johnson did not seek reelection in 1968 and Richard Nixon was elected President. During his tenure, Nixon escalated the Vietnam War but protests at home and the uncanny resilience of the enemy eventually doomed the war effort.
Citing progress in peace negotiations in 1972, President Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam and unilaterally withdrew troops.
Nixon proclaimed victory, American war protestors proclaimed victory and the North Vietnamese claimed victory. But with over 58,000 Americans and 100,000 Vietnamese dead, no one had won anything.
Nixon had a few other troubles in this second term and by the time he resigned in disgrace in 1974, Detroit had elected its first Black Mayor, the fiery politician, Coleman A. Young.
He would hold office for over twenty years.
READING & VIEWING
1960's St. Louis Cardinals World Series, 1968 vs. Detroit Tigers (2005) DVD (Q-Video)
A City in Racial Crisis, Leonard Gordon, Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers, (1971).
The Black Crusaders: A case study of a Black militant organization, William B Helmreich, Harper & Row, (1973).
Detroit Divided, Reynolds Farley, Sheldon Danziger, Harry J. Holzer, Russell Sage Foundation Publications, (2002)
The Detroit Riot, Hubert G. Locke, Wayne State University Press, (1969).
Violence in the Model City: The Cavanagh Administration, Race Relations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967, Sidney Fine University of Michigan Press, (1989).
Whose Detroit? Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City, Heather Ann Thompson, Cornell University Press, (2004)
Layered Violence the Detroit Rioters of 1943, Dominic j. Jr. Capeci and Martha Wilkerson, University Press of Mississippi Jackson & London, (1991).
The Tigers of '68: Baseball's Last Real Champions, George Cantor Taylor Trade Publishing, (1997).
The Detroit Tigers: A Pictorial Celebration of the Greatest Players and Moments in Tigers' History, by William M. Anderson Wayne State University Press; (Updated Edition), (1999)
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