Holiday (The Falau Files Book 5)

by Mike Gomes

  Turning a corner Joaquim started to sprint a steep hill. Looking up the grass just over a hundred yards away was a large red cross showing the entrance to the hospital. Falau dropped his hand and pushed himself up the slope. Just his toes hit the ground as he climbed the hill and he felt like he was scaling a wall rather than going up a street. The incline was not conducive for getting sick people to a hospital in this location.

  “How can anyone get here when they are sick?” gasped Falau turning himself into the flat driveway where two large glass doors sat side by side.

  “The other side is much flatter but takes longer to get to.” said Joaquim grabbing a fist full of the man's shirt and pulling him toward the door.

  Falau stumbled trying to catch his breath but keeping his feet going with the boy. Drawing in each breath burned in his chest as his lungs were trying to process the oxygen as fast as possible.

  The large glass doors opened on their own as their feet hit the rubber mat in front of it. The two men pushed their way through and fell into the smaller back lobby of the hospital. Joaquim paused for a moment getting his bearings and pulled again on the big man's shirt leading him to a set of elevators that sat on the other side of the lobby.

  The door to the elevator opened letting two women off and then Falau and the boy entered.

  “Fifth floor.” said Joaquim. “They have her on the fifth floor. It’s a burn unit. She is burned bad. So bad.”

  “Calm down, Joaquim. It is going to be ok. I am sure they are working on her already. You just need to remain calm for yourself but more importantly, for your mother. She will need you to be strong right now.”

  The doors of the elevator opened and the two stepped out onto the medical floor. The strong smell of disinfectant rose up into their nostrils and immediately turned the stomach of the big man. He had spent far too much time in hospitals recovering himself or seeing the people he loved in pain. The fluorescent lights gave no character to the hospital that was doing its best to not look shabby. The paint needed to be redone and the floors were worse for the wear, but it was far from the worst hospital that Falau had ever been in and was the only thing that the boy had ever seen.

  “At the end of the next hallway. 521 is her room.” said the boy trying to calm himself fearing what he might learn when he got back to his mother’s room.

  Rounding the corner Falau looked the length of the corridor and saw two police officers standing outside the last room on the left.

  “What the hell are they doing here?” asked the boy looking to Falau who had stopped his movement.

  “I don’t know but don’t say anything about tonight.” said the big man turning his head to the boy. “You understand that? Nothing. Not a word about what happened with you or your thoughts on the fire. I want you giving them a steady stream of I don’t know. This is when you’re weak and they will use that if they can. Understand?”

  “I understand. Say nothing.”

  Falau now took the lead walking down the hallway with the boy slightly behind him and walked with assurance directly up to the police.

  “This room is restricted. No visitors.” said the police officer near Falau.

  “The boy’s mother is in there. Her name is Apollonia.” said Falau pulling Joaquim by the shoulder out in front of him.

  “Oh, the son is here. Well, young boy, I have had a chat with a few of your friends recently.” said Principal Chief Diaz. “You don’t know me son, but I know some of your friends and I know you. I was the commanding officer of Officer Silva the man your gang killed just a few hours ago. Funny how all this crime and death is happening all at the same time when this island is usually so peaceful and quiet. Don’t you think that is strange?”

  “I... I don’t know.” said the boy looking to Falau making sure that he was answering the question correctly.

  “Is this your father?” questioned Diaz looking up to the big man.

  Falau stepped in verbally breaking the chain of discussion between the police officer and the boy trying to cast some level of protection on the son of his friend. “Does the boy really need to be answering these questions as his mother is in the hospital?”

  “Are you the boy’s father?” asked Diaz as his eyes tightened in anger. “Are you the father or are you just a big mouth?”

  “I am not his father. Just a friend of his mother. She asked me to come here so I could talk with her. I think she wants to have me care for the boy while she is in this situation.”

  “Officer,” said Diaz tapping the arm of the other police officer but not taking his eyes from Falau. “Go in and ask the woman if she wants to see her son and this man named?”

  “Michael Falau.”

  “Michael Falau. We can only let you see her for a few minutes because she is the key witness in a major crime. Someone made a few bombs and placed them at the boy’s home and one of his friends. The other boy and his family were not so lucky. They died.”

  The door pushed open disrupting the flow of the conversation and interrupted Principal Chief Diaz from his working the two that had come to see the burned woman.

  “She will see them, but she wants it to be private.” said the officer coming from the hospital room.

  “Far be it for me to disagree with an ailing woman.” said Diaz holding his hand out and letting the two pass in front of him into the room.

  The hospital room was silent other than the familiar beeping measuring the heartbeat of Apollonia. Several pieces of equipment surrounded her laying in her bed next to the window.

  “Mom” called Joaquim from the first step into the room.

  The woman’s head turned showing the extensive burn marks that covered her left cheek and burned most of the hair off of her head. An oxygen tube ran under her nose and gave an occasional hissing sound. Raising her hand, she reached out to her son.

  “Joaquim. Here.” she whispered causing the boy to move to his mother’s side dropping down to one knee and held her hand gently.

  “Mom. I brought Michael just like you said. I have him here.”

  Falau walked to the foot of the bed looking down on the woman in more pain than he could understand. The morphine was doing its job helping Apollonia deal with the burns that covered twenty five percent of her body.

  “I am here Apollonia” he said reaching his hand out but pulling it back from touching the wounded foot. “I can help with Joaquim. He can stay with me.”

  “You’re not taking him to America.”

  “No, I meant that I would stay here with him.”

  “Your life is back there in Boston not here in Funchal.” said the woman through a heavy whisper and a gurgle in her voice.

  ‘It’s ok. I can change things around and stay as long as you want.”

  “This wasn’t an accident.” said Apollonia in a clear firm voice that was followed by a cough. “No accident.”

  The room went silent and Joaquim looked up to Falau who still had his eyes locked with the boy’s mother.

  “You need to help us with that. If they are willing to do this, they will not stop until we are all dead.”

  Chapter 27

  Exiting the front door of the hospital Falau placed his hand up from the sun that was shining down. Despite the early hour people were already on the streets and hustling about. The cleaning service for the hospital did most of its work overnight and the staff was letting onto the street signifying the change of shift at seven in the morning.

  The big man adjusted himself looking to each side and tried to remember the labyrinth of streets the boy took him through just hours before. He went to the end of the driveway and looked down the steep slope remembering the pain it initiated as he attempted to run it just the night before. He was sure from the grade of the slope that the pain in his thighs would return as it pushed the same muscles in reverse.

  All of that he welcomed as a distraction from the words that Apollonia had said to him in the hospital room. The boys in the gang had meant to kill her and
Joaquim and they would continue to try until they succeeded. It all made perfect sense. The only way to shut up José and Joaquim was to have them dead. Without them around to tell the story of what happened then Carlos and Candido would have full domain of the story of what happened and what they had done that night. If the boys just maintained their story, then they had nothing to worry about. The police would push hard at the beginning but eventually would back off.

  Moving down the steep slope the big man moved carefully until he reached the bottom and made the turn onto the next street. The steep slope was not a disappointment in causing pain in his legs and back. Stretching his back with a loud crack Falau moved down the shopping district having his mind filled with the task at hand.

  Apollonia never said the words but her meaning was clear. Falau knew that she was right and that the boys would not stop trying to silence them until the job was complete. The task had turned into kill or be killed but the big man wondered if this was something that he wanted to get this involved with. The System would not be here to back him up. Tyler would not be monitoring him. This would all be on his own and clearly a crime in the eyes of anyone. The exact kind of crime that the judges would see fit to send an agent to and make sure the perpetrator was taken to justice

  Moving in and out of the streets the big man watched as the tourists started to come out and move around the streets. Killing a child and a boy just eighteen years old was nothing that he looked forward to and they had not done a thing to him. The only interaction with them was fighting that he walked away from without a scratch. But if they were not taken care of then Apollonia and Joaquim would die or kill the other boys trying to stay alive. In the end there would be bodies laying in the ground with blood all around them. The only question is whose bodies would be the dead and who would be alive.

  The sound of shoes pounding the ground in rapid succession came moving up from behind him. The big man gauged the sound and heard it moving off the wall letting him see the delay was of a young person without much weight. Shifting around the big man took a fighting stance to see Joaquim coming to a stop out of breath and pulling back from seeing the big man's fists raised to fight.

  “Yo. It's just me. Don’t hit me.” said the boy pulling himself to the side ducking away from a punch that never came. The big man dropped his guard letting the boy know he was safe from the wrath of the big man.

  “Sorry. I just heard you running up and didn’t know who it was.” said Falau letting his hands drop to his side. “This whole thing is nuts. I came to this place to relax and now I am in this mess.”

  “So, what are you saying?” asked the boy. “Are you going to just walk away? Go get on your plane and then just leave us behind?”

  “I didn’t say that! It is just that this problem has nothing to do with me.”

  “But you’re the only one who can solve the problem. You’re the person that can make everything right.”

  “You do know that as you sit there and tell me what I should do. You’re the reason for this mess. You’re the one who got mixed up with those boys. You’re the one who formed a gang. You’re the one who stabbed Officer Silva and killed him and now you’re trying to tell me I have some responsibility to take care of the mess you created.”

  “I know!” yelled the boy causing the passersby to turn and take notice. “I know that it is all my fault. I know I did everything. But this has moved into hurting my mother and other innocent people.”

  “You should have thought about that weeks ago.”

  “I am not asking you to go after them alone. I want to be there too. I need to take care of this for my mother.” said the boy turning himself in front of the big man trying to look him eye to eye but getting no response. “I can handle a gun and I am not afraid to kill them.”

  “Oh, so now you’re some stone-cold killer? Just a few hours ago you were in shock and not able to say a word but now you want to go hunt down a few guys and kill them because they came after you.”

  “They went after my mother and they killed José and his family. I am not going to let them hurt my mother again. You saw her in that bed. You heard the doctor saying it will be months before she can leave the hospital. The pain she will have cleaning the wounds each day. Twenty five percent of her body with third degree burns. So, do you think I can just walk away from this?”

  Falau pushed his hair back with his left hand and placed his right hand on the shoulder of the young boy. “You have grown up too fast over the last few days. It's time for that to stop. You don’t need to know anything about what I am going to do. You need to stay clear of me and make sure you’re in the public eye, so it is obvious you’re not around me. Your days of killing and hurting people are over.”

  “Bullshit, man. They tried to kill my mother. Lit her on fire! They melted the skin on her face. The doctor said her hair may never grow back like it had. She still had a chance of finding another man to live her life with but that’s now gone. It is a lot to ask anyone to look beyond disfigurement. Nobody will even get a chance to see how great she is. They will just see the burns.”

  “Your mother is a strong woman and I am willing to bet the friends she has care more about who she is than what she looks like.”

  “She is a woman. Not an old woman, Michael. She wants to love again, and I have been a prick keeping her from that because I keep thinking it is a slap in the face of the memory of my father for her to date other men. If I have to give my life for her then I will do that no questions asked.”

  “You want to make your mother happy then stay out of jail and be there to help her. Stay around her and love her. Don’t kill someone for her. She will not think you’re strong or defending her. It will just upset her.”

  “That’s why you’re not going to tell her that I am helping you.”

  “You’re not going to help me. You’re off the case. You’re not wanted and would end up being more of a problem than a help to me. I can’t carry your weight and do what I need to.”

  “Is that your attempt to make me back off? I have been to the movies and seen all this kind of talk before. You try to push me away to save me from myself.”

  “You need saving from yourself. You have needed that for a long time. Let me make things perfectly clear to you. If you interfere with what I am doing I will make sure to knock you unconscious, so you cannot get more involved.”

  “That should make my mother happy. How are you going to explain that to her?”

  “I think she would be just fine in me knocking you out to save you from more of your stupid thinking. Do you even hear yourself kid? The police are watching you and have you on their short list for Officer Silva and you want to get involved with the possible killing of more people. Stop being a jackass, Joaquim. Wake up and see what is happening around you. You’re sixteen but there is no time for you to be an idiot anymore.”

  The boy looked back at the big man and shook his head in frustration. “I just want to do something to help you out. Something to get revenge for my mother.”

  “I understand what you’re saying but the best thing you can do for your mother is to stay out of trouble and be there for her. When she comes out of the hospital she will need time to get better. She is going to need you to help her out. If you’re in jail, then she will be left to take care of herself. Just give her the gift of you being there. Let me do what I need to, and you do what you need to in taking care of your mother. Agreed?”

  The boy nodded his head and looked up to the eyes of the big man. “I agree. Good luck.”

  Chapter 28

  As the day turned to afternoon Falau sat out on the patio of his room at the bed and breakfast. His back pressed against the same chair that he was in the day that the maid came in and started to cry. The sun felt the same shining down on his face. The irony was not lost on the big man that he had come to the island to find rest and relaxation and now he was thinking about whether he should kill two teenagers to let a woman and her son live even
if he barely knew them.

  Holding his return plane ticket in his hand he turned it looking at the departure date that was 10:43 am the following day. Letting his mind drift he knew it would be simple to go out for a nice dinner and speak with some locals. Maybe take a stroll by the waterside. Then he could return to his room and get a good night’s sleep before waking early and making his way to the airport. All of it would be over in eighteen hours if he just let it all slip by without doing a thing.

  Tapping the side of the boarding pass against the arm of the chair he again thought of the time 10:43 am. The perfect time for travel. Not too late and not too early. He had got lucky in the planning of the trip considering it was on a whim at the airport that he made the choice to go to Madeira. He could have just as easily landed in Paris, Rome, or Barcelona but instead he wanted to walk the ground of his ancestors and now had been pulled into the war waging within the locals and the makeshift gang that had developed right beneath their noses.

  “This is fucking crazy.” said Falau to himself as he leaned his head back to pulling more sun to his face. The change in seasons was never kind to the big man. Seasonal disorder is what the doctor called it but Grady said he just had the blues in the winter. No matter what the name the lack of sunshine in Boston in the winter months took its toll on a lot of people who felt the lack of its rays hitting down upon them.

  “No Tyler. No team. If I get caught doing anything here I am screwed. They will never let me out of prison for killing one of their own.” said the big man opening his eyes and taking the sun into them before looking away. “This is just the stupidest thing I could be doing.”

  Looking up to the high drifting clouds he made out the shapes like he did when he was a boy with his father. The simple action always helped him think and process the different outcomes that could happen from any action. Today the processing was about life and death.

  Pulling himself from the chair the big man went back into his room and took his light jacket from the back of the chair. Within moments he was on the street and making his way to the waterfront to get a meal where he could take in the scenery for the first time since coming to the island.