The Memory Agent & Fool Me Once

by Kane, Joany

  Knox storms into the station holding the blow up doll. “Didn't any of you observant assholes notice that this was flying up our flag pole this morning?”

  Derek mumbles to the cop standing near him. “How long did Knox drive around with the crack whore bumper sticker before he noticed it?”

  The cop answers while laughing. “Four days.”

  Knox glares at Derek and the cop knowing he’s the brunt of their snickering. “Yeah, this is real fucking funny.”

  Derek observes Knox holding the blow up doll. “Looks like you've finally got a date for Saturday night, Knox.”

  “Fuck you, Winton.”

  *****

  Much later in the day Jillian sits in her living room reading the newspaper. She has one blow up doll left and it’s seated next to her.

  The headline on the front page reads: PURCHASE OF PRICEY YACHT FUELS SPECULATION ABOUT CONGRESSMAN REYNOLDS' FINANCIAL DEALINGS

  Underneath the headline there is a photo of the yacht. Her famous Cheshire grin lights up her expression.

  Jillian, dressed in her black clothes and black knitted hat and carrying the naked blow up doll, walks to the entrance of the marina.

  Jillian passes a quaint little maritime museum. The two story museum, featuring large glass windows, is right on the water facing the harbor.

  She walks down the dock, heading for a grand, pretentious yacht. The very same yacht from the newspaper photo.

  Jillian approaches the yacht. She stops, looks around making sure no one is around or on the boat. All is quiet.

  Jillian climbs onto the yacht. She approaches the flag pole. She strings up the blow up doll and hoists it up the pole. She savors the moment as the doll flaps in the wind.

  Jillian is about to disembark when she sees Congressman Reynolds hurrying towards the yacht. Jillian hides.

  The congressman boards the yacht. He looks flustered as if his life were unraveling. Jillian spies on him from her hiding spot. She watches the congressman enter the enclosed social area off of the open sitting area on the deck of the boat. The congressman goes to the bar, opens a bottle of vodka, pours himself a large shot and downs it.

  Jillian sees this as her opportunity to leave the yacht. She moves to disembark when she spies four men, all dressed like Eurotrash thugs, walking menacingly towards the yacht. She notices that the men are packing guns and wearing gloves.

  “Shit.” Jillian quickly hides again.

  The four men board the yacht. It's clear that one man, Peter Bosovich, slick and sleazy, is the ringleader and the other three men are just tailored guns.

  Bosovich calls out. “Reynolds.”

  The scared congressman joins Bosovich. “I swear there is no paper trail leading to you.”

  Bosovich responds, every word dripping with menace. “I don't mind you having side business. I have side business. But when your side business affects the business that you and I conduct, that is completely unacceptable.”

  “It was just some kick-backs with a couple of contractors. This will all go away, I promise,” the congressman pleads.

  From her hiding spot, Jillian watches and listens to the interaction, trying hard not to be noticed by the gunmen.

  “There is just one thing that leaves more of a bitter taste than cheap vodka,” Bosovich says as he motions to his men, two of them grab the congressman. “Double dealing dirty politicians.”

  Bosovich takes a bottle of pills from his pocket. The third man hands Bosovich the bottle of vodka from the congressman’s bar.

  “I imagine all of your very public problems are weighing heavy on you. A burden that a weak man such as yourself would find too difficult to bear.” Bosovich taunts as he forces the congressman to swallow the pills and the vodka.

  The congressman coughs and gags as Bosovich coerces the booze and pills into him. The congressman resists but he’s no match for Bosovich and his men. They drag the congressman to the boat loading area on the yacht.

  Bosovich shoves the congressman's face into the water. The congressman struggles only for a moment and then is dead. Bosovich pushes the limp body into the water and places the empty pill bottle with the empty vodka bottle on a boat seat.

  Jillian, who has witnessed the whole event from her hiding point, looks scared shitless. As Bosovich and his men are focused on staging and cleaning up the yacht, Jillian makes an attempt to get away.

  She quietly climbs off the yacht and then quickly runs down the dock. She looks back to see if Bosovich and his men are looking when she smacks into another gunman.

  He grabs hold of her as he calls to Bosovich. “Hey boss, we've got a witness.”

  Bosovich turns and looks, seeing the gunman holding Jillian.

  Jillian knees the goon in the nuts causing him to let go of her and fall to the ground in pain. She makes a run for it only to see another four gunmen heading her way.

  Bosovich calls to his men. “Get her! No gun shots!” He then make a call on his cell-phone.

  Jillian runs down the main dock followed closely by a couple of gunmen behind her. Two other gunmen approach from a different direction.

  Jillian is cornered - right near the maritime museum. Thinking on her feet, she picks up a decorative planter in front of the museum and hurls it through the plate glass front door. An alarm goes off.

  Jillian runs into the museum. She pulls the fire alarm, which sets off a second alarm. Now two alarms are going off.

  A couple of men follow Jillian into the museum. She runs upstairs. The men follow. One of the men, a man who isn’t wearing gloves, touches the railing on the stairs as they run up after Jillian.

  She takes a small anchor that is on display and tosses it at the wall length window over-looking the water below. The window shatters.

  Jillian jumps out of the window toward the water below. The man who touched the railing shoots a couple of shots at Jillian as she crashes into the water.

  The men on the dock look around the water for her body. There's no sign of her. Bosovich approaches. As the two gunmen who followed Jillian into the museum exit, Bosovich grabs the man who shot at Jillian. “I said no fucking gun shots!” He hollers as he slugs the man so violently he knocks a tooth out.

  “The alarms covered the sound of the shots.” The gunman bellows as he spits out blood and the tooth.

  The loud alarms still blaring signal that cops and fire trucks will soon be arriving.

  Bosovich orders his men. “Come on, let's get out of here. Now!”

  *****

  Moments later Bosovich and his men are gone from the marina.

  An unmarked cruiser pulls up near the maritime museum. Knox gets out of the car. He looks around.

  Jillian sees him and calls out. “Help! Over here!”

  Knox follows the sound of Jillian's voice. He approaches a boat loading ladder on the dock that Jillian is clinging to.

  “Thank God you're here. Congressman Reynolds is dead. They killed him.” She tells Knox as she climbs up the ladder.

  “And I'm the fucking Easter bunny.” Knox retorts. He forcefully grabs her and slams her against a dock pylon. He grabs her arms behind her and cuffs her. “You have the right to remain silent, which I suggest you do, you lying bitch.”

  “Please, you've got to believe me, the congressman has been murdered, this isn't a prank.”

  “Shut the fuck up.” He yells at her.

  The fire trucks and a police car arrive. Jillian looks relieved. A few firemen and two cops approach.

  Jillian, scared and shivering, tries to plead her case to the cops who just arrived. “Please somebody listen, Congressman Reynolds has been murdered, on his yacht over there, these guys with guns chased me so I broke into the museum to set the alarms off. This isn't a prank, as God as witness, this is not a prank.”

  “We've got to check it out.” One of the cops tells Knox.

  Knox, pissed as hell, grabs Jillian. “This is nothing but a fucking prank!”

  He brutally shoves Jillian towar
ds a bench on the side of the museum. She stumbles and falls, the force from his shove knocking her towards the bench where she whacks her cheekbone on the edge. The cop notices Knox's abusive behavior.

  Knox issues a demand to the cop. “Keep an eye on the bitch.”

  Knox heads for the yacht with another cop, while the firemen check out the museum and turn off the alarms. Jillian, scared and shivering cold, waits on the bench. The cop looks sympathetically at her.

  “This isn't a prank. I swear,” she pleads.

  Derek's cruiser pulls up and parks near the fire trucks and cop cars. He gets out and heads for the scene. As soon as Jillian sees him, she looks totally relieved. “Thank God you’re here, detective.”

  As soon as Derek sees her, assuming this all is a prank, he gives her a stern look before conversing with the cop. “What happened?”

  “She claims that congressman Reynolds was murdered on his yacht.”

  “It's true, detective. This did start out as a prank, but I swear I saw them kill him.”

  Derek looks at Jillian. He notices that she is frightened and freaked. He also notices the red swelling mark on her cheek. “Where did you get that?”

  The cop responds. “Knox was pretty rough with her.”

  This information clearly infuriates Derek. “Knox? What the hell is he doing here?!”

  “He was first on the scene. Doesn't buy her story.”

  “He wouldn't even let me tell it,” Jillian adds.

  Derek takes a seat on the bench next to Jillian. He sees how cold she is. He takes off his jacket. “Turn around so I can uncuff you.”

  As she turns for him to reach her cuffed hands behind her back, Derek notices a burn hole in the edge of one of Jillian’s sleeves.

  “This looks like it's from a gun shot,” Derek says as he motions to the cop.

  The cop takes a look at the burn hole. “Yeah, it does.”

  “They shot at me as I jumped out the museum window,” Jillian tells Derek.

  “I want the CSI team down here now,” Derek tells the cop.

  The policeman hurries to his cop car, leaving Derek alone with Jillian.

  “We're going to need to process your shirt,” Derek tells Jillian.

  “Okay,” she turns and takes off the black top. Derek holds up his jacket and turns his head so she has some privacy. He does notice out of the corner of his eye the sports bra clinging to her supple breasts.

  Jillian hands Derek her top. He helps her put his jacket on. She pulls it tight around her, trying to get warm. “Thank you.”

  “Tell me everything that happened. Truthfully.”

  I snuck on the congressman's yacht to put a doll up his flag pole. No one was around. When I went to leave the yacht, the congressman showed up, so I hid. He looked really bothered about something and when he was getting himself a drink I tried to sneak off the yacht. That's when these four guys with guns showed up. So I hid again. One of the guys confronted the congressman, something about side dealings. The congressman was trying to explain that there was no paper trail to this one guy, but the guy didn't buy it.”

  Jillian takes a breath and continues. “That's when he and the three other men shoved pills and vodka down the congressman's throat and then shoved the congressman's face in the water. When he was dead they kicked his body into the harbor. When they weren't looking I tried to sneak off the yacht, but there were other guys with gun waiting down the dock and they saw me.

  Jillian’s voice is now getting shaky. “They started chasing me from both directions so the only thing I could think to do was to break into the museum and set off the alarms. A couple of the guys followed me in so I smashed the window and jumped in the water.”

  “What can you tell me about the men?”

  “They all looked like Eurotrash thugs from late night TV movies.”

  “What did the main guy look like?”

  “He was white, middle-aged, polished, dark hair, clean shaven, average size.”

  Knox shows up. “What the fuck are you doing here Winton, this is my case.”

  Derek stands up and shoves Knox against the museum’s exterior wall.

  “What the fuck man?” Knox hisses.

  Derek gets in Knox’s face. “If you ever rough handle a witness again, I'll kill you.”

  “I can handle this case how I chose because it is my fucking case!”

  “I processed her last year and left the case open, since this started with a prank by my perp, this is my case,” Derek informs Knox.

  “No fucking way.”

  Captain Harris approaches. He has heard the exchange between Knox and Derek. “Yes "fucking" way, Knox. The case of Jillian March was left open by detective Winton, it's his case.”

  Captain Harris joins Derek and Knox as he continues, “and if she decides to file a formal complaint against you, I support her. You are now officially off duty so go home, Knox.”

  Knox takes one step when Derek stands in his way, getting in his face, glaring his intention.

  Knox snarls, “fuck you, Winton.” And then he storms away, passing the arriving CSI investigators as he leaves.

  Derek hands Jillian's shirt to one of the investigators. “Here, this needs to be processed.” Derek shows the burn hole to the investigator. “There's what appears to be a bullet burn on the upper right hand sleeve.”

  As the investigator bags the shirt Derek issues orders to the CSI team. “Check the museum for fingerprints. Check the dock and pylons for bullet fragments. See if there are any security cameras in a one mile radius and secure the footage for the last three hours.”

  A fireman near the yacht hollers out. “We've got a floater!”

  Captain Harris and Derek hurry over arriving just as a couple of firemen pull the congressman's dead body out of the water.

  From the bench by the maritime museum, Jillian can see the congressman's body being pulled from the water. At this moment, the enormity of the situation and how she handled it hits her, tears stream down her cheeks.

  Derek returns to her. “Come on, let's get you down to the station.” He gently takes her elbow and helps her up from the bench noticing the tears on her cheek.

  She tries to soldier up and hide her emotion. “I'll pay for all the damages to the museum.”

  “We're not worried about that now, and don’t you worry about anything,” he tenderly replies.

  Derek escorts her to his car and opens the back door for her. He makes a quip, trying to make her feel better. “I don't get a ‘bless you, detective’ this time?”

  Jillian stops short from getting into the car and stands by the open door just inches away from Derek. Her eyes widen. “You remembered I said that?!”

  “I remember a number of things you said,” he replies as he gives her a warm smile. She blushes, her eyes widening even more but now with hope. He notices the flush growing on her cheeks and can hear her heart quickening. At this very moment he realizes that he, for some unknown reason, has made an impact on her, more than just flirting and pranking, which throws him for a loop. What could she possibly see in an older, loner detective like him?

  She hops in the car, Derek closes the door and gets in the driver’s side. He starts the car and drives away from the marina.

  As he drives along Derek looks in his rearview mirror at Jillian in the backseat. He notices that the hopeful look has faded and has been replaced with a vulnerable and troubled look. “'You okay?” He asks.

  It's too hard of a question for Jillian to answer without letting some emotion out. “I didn't do anything to help him, detective.” She says her voice quivering. “I hid like a coward while the congressman was brutally killed.”

  Derek tries to reassure Jillian. “Four guys with guns? More on the docks? There was nothing you could have done. If you tried, you would have been killed, too.”

  Derek gives Jillian a warm, reassuring smile through the rearview mirror. The smile alone makes her feel better and she smiles back. Again, just like last
year in the car, their eyes lock for a moment longer than cordial. Way longer than cordial.

  *****

  Inside the police station Derek leads Jillian to his desk. She takes a seat, same as last year.

  “Deja Vu all over again, huh?” Derek tries to tease.

  “Not so light-hearted this time,” she answers softly.

  “I'll be right back.” Derek walks away.

  Jillian notices the flag toothpicks and her donut note on his desk.

  Derek returns, holding a BPD sweatshirt, BPD sweatpants and white socks. Derek notices Jillian looking at the note and toothpicks. “Thanks for the donuts.”

  “I was hoping I’d see you again today.” Jillian reveals. “Every doll I strung up I was secretly hoping to get caught, I mean I couldn’t make it look like I was trying to get caught, I do have a reputation to defend.” Jillian says earnestly causing Derek to chuckle.

  “I certainly didn’t want it to end up like this, not like this.” Jillian quietly and honestly continues. Derek gives her a nod and a warm, serious smile, a smile that says he was thinking the same thing.

  Derek hands the clothes to Jillian. “The ladies room is down the hall, to the left. Would you like some coffee or tea?”

  “Tea would be great, thanks,” Jillian answers before heading to the ladies room.

  As Derek leaves the room to get the drinks Knox enters the station. He looks around. He looks at Derek's desk. No one is there. Knox approaches the cop at the reception desk.

  “Hey, where's the bitch? Locked up?” Knox asks the cop.

  “Nope.”

  “Why the fuck isn't she locked up?”

  They found the body of the congressman and her story's checking out so far. The CSI team is processing the evidence they collected.

  “What evidence?”

  “Her shirt, they found a bullet in a pylon, and they're running tests on prints from the museum.”

  “So she saw someone kill the congressman?”

  “That's what she says.”

  “Does she know who it was?”