Part 11
The Hart Remembers – Part Eleven
Jonathan was becoming frantic. It was quite obvious by now that something had happened to Jennifer as she wasn’t home yet. The police had found one very clear finger print that didn’t belong there and were now analysing it. Hopefully, they would have some answers very soon.
The only things that were found to be missing were, as Jonathan suspected, Jennifer’s disks. So obviously this break in and Jennifer’s disappearance were to do with the information that was on those disks.
So that is why Jonathan now found himself being questioned by Herschel and trying desperately to remember what he had seen on those disks.
“So, let me get this straight” Herschel said with some annoyance “Jennifer had incriminating evidence on those disks pointing to Government corruption”
Jonathan didn’t speak he just nodded.
“Bloody hell, what was she thinking?” Herschel yelled. Jonathan flinched.
“I don’t know Herschel, I asked her the same question and she didn’t know, couldn’t remember the reason she had kept quiet about it” Jonathan paused for a moment and then said “but knowing Jennifer she must have had a damn good reason for not going to the authorities with it”
Herschel gave him a stern look that said that he didn’t believe that there could be any reason not to turn in such damning information.
As Herschel was about to get wound up again and start lecturing Jonathan on the stupidity of his wife a detective came over to him and interrupted by handing him a file. Herschel frowned at Jonathan for a few seconds more before turning away to look at the file.
He turned back with a stunned expression and the panic rose inside of Jonathan again.
“What’s wrong, Herschel” Jonathan said, not even trying to keep the panic out of his voice.
Herschel looked pained “I hate to have to tell you this…”
“It’s not Jennifer is it?” Jonathan grabbed at Herschels arm. Herschel looked at his friend with sympathy knowing that this must be eating him up inside.
“No, it’s not about Jennifer, but I fear that it is connected to her disappearance” he paused to let Jonathan take that in properly and Herschel could see him visibly relax as well as feel the hand on his arm go limp.
“Thank God” Jonathan whispered and then looked at Herschel expectantly “so what is it about then?”
“The man Jennifer went to meet this morning” Herschel took a breath before glancing at the file and continuing “Paul Celnik aka Paulie ‘The Nose’ was found beaten to death about an hour ago. It looks like he took quite a beating too and could only be identified by his finger prints”
Jonathan collapsed onto the sofa then. The enormity of the situation hit him fair and square in the gut. These people were deadly serious and were playing for keeps. There would be no survivors. And Jennifer was in the middle of it, and it appeared that they had her or she would have been home by now. She could already be…. no, he wouldn’t go there, he thought, he couldn’t go there.
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Jennifer watched as Nick Rhodes sat down behind the desk. He was looking very pleased with himself. He suddenly turned his head towards her and his eyes bored into hers. She visibly shivered, she couldn’t help it. There was something very evil about him under his smooth outer appearance. The room had gone very quiet, like they were all waiting for Rhodes to announce what was going to happen.
Jennifer looked away from Rhodes as she dropped her eyes to the floor. She had to get a grip here. She couldn’t just give up without a fight. But what could she do? There weren’t many options open to her. The silence in the room was beginning to unnerve her. She looked up once more only to find that Rhodes was still staring at her.
She didn’t like the look in his eyes. It was as though he was deciding exactly what to do with her. He suddenly stood up and moved around the desk to stand directly in front of her and she jumped.
“You have been a thorn in my side since the day I met you. It would have been so much easier if you had blown up with that bomb I set for you in the court house years ago!” shouting at Jennifer he got down in her face. “Why couldn’t you have just kept your nose out of my business, uh? Now you are just one more problem I have to take care of, and believe me I will take care of you. You won’t be a problem to me much longer” he almost spat at her.
Jennifer just looked at him defiantly, unspeaking. She could see the rage in his eyes for the first time since his goon had ushered her into the office. He seemed tense, like he was coiled to strike out at her and she prepared herself for the assault, but to her surprise he backed away and strode across the room to look out of the dirty window. She let out a breath that she hadn’t been aware of holding.
The other men in the room looked tense. Clark was pale and sweating and looked like he was going to be sick. Adro looked like he was awaiting orders, which he probably was. He knew his boss better than anyone.
Rhodes continued to stare out of the window. He stood as still as a statue, deep in thought. He stayed like this for some time and Jennifer started to relax a little hoping that his outburst towards her was done.
He suddenly turned from the window and faced Adro who stood up straighter waiting for his boss to speak. “Take her into the other room” he said, pointing to a door to the side of the office “and handcuff her to something, I am sick of looking at her. I have something planned for her that I am going to enjoy immensely” he laughed loudly and Adro joined in.
Jennifer’s heart picked up speed again at hearing what Rhodes was saying. Panic threatened to overwhelm her but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing it. Adro grabbed her arm and hauled her out of the chair. Her legs felt like jelly and it was hard to get them to move. Adro practically dragged her out of the room.
In the other room Adro threw her down into another chair. He pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and roughly shackled Jennifer’s left arm to a pipe on the wall. Without a word he turned to leave, shutting the door behind him and leaving her on her own in the poorly lit room.
Jennifer looked around. The room was small and damp. The only light in the room was coming from a skylight in the roof. There were no windows so even if she got free of the handcuffs there was no way out. The chair that Jennifer sat on was the only piece of furniture in the room.
She tried to get comfortable but the chair was hard and the cuff around her wrist was starting to cut into her skin already. She sighed loudly and ran her right hand through her hair. She felt despair and it was a foreign feeling to Jennifer because she was usually so optimistic about things but not this time. She just couldn’t see how she was going to get out of this one.
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Jonathan felt the ever present swirling of panic in his stomach. The sickness threatened to overflow and he swallowed it down. He felt so scared now that tears actually welled in his eyes. He blinked them back. Now was not the time to fall apart. Jennifer needed him to stay focused.
He took several deep breaths to try and calm himself down. Clearing his mind he tried to think back to last night when he and Jennifer were looking at the disks. He stopped for a moment, was it only last night he thought, it seemed so much longer. He mentally shook himself, aware that Herschel was waiting for him to speak.
“Ok, one of the disks had a list of names. People Jennifer interviewed when she was doing research for the Blake interview.”
“Good, do you remember who they were?” Herschel asked him.
“The first one on the list was Benny ‘the bookie’.”
“Great I know Benny. He’s a bit shady but mostly on the up and up”
“Well, it was in his file that all of the information about Government corruption came up. I was so upset about it that we didn’t get to any of the other names on the list.”
“Ok, can you remember the details?”
Jonathan scratched his head and got up from the sofa. He began pacing. He wished he had taken more notice of the details but he had been so upset that the details were now a bit of a blur to him. He knew it was important but the more he tried to remember the less he could.
“It’s ok Jonathan we’ll just go and find Benny and have a talk with him, see what it was all about”
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Benny ‘the bookie’ was getting worried. The word on the street was Jennifer Hart was missing and Paulie ‘the nose’ had been killed. Benny was sweating. He figured it was time to get out of town. He would just disappear.
He was sure it was something to do with what had happened to Senator Blake. Jennifer Hart had asked all sorts of questions and it wasn’t until later that Benny had put it all together and realised what he had done by telling her all the stuff he had. If the guys behind all this ever found out, he was a dead man like Paulie.
He had just finished throwing a few things into a suitcase when there was a knock at the door. He froze. Shit, what to do? Go out the window, or what? He was struck immobile by panic. Move, for goodness sake he told himself, but he couldn’t. The banging on the door got louder and the words that were being yelled through the door finally penetrated the panic.
“LA police department, open up!”
He looked around the room and realised they would know that he was about to skip out. He grabbed the bag and shoved it under the bed just as the door smashed inward. He jumped up quickly and shoved his hands in the air.
Cops spilled into the room with guns raised. Benny backed off even further and pushed his hands higher.
“Benny Cooper you are under arrest” the lead detective said as he grabbed Benny and twirled him around to cuff him. The other cops were tearing up his apartment searching for what, he didn’t know.
Benny looked dumbfounded “What for?” he yelled “I ain’t done anything to get arrested for.”
The detective tugged hard on his cuffed arm and said “For the kidnapping of Jennifer Hart and the murder of Paul Celnik”
“What” Benny said incredulously “I don’t know anything about that.”
“Well, we think you do. So you’re coming with us to have a little chat.”
“You didn’t have to arrest me; I would have come in to talk voluntarily”
“Oh yeah” Herschel said with a meaningful look at Benny’s case that had been dragged out from under the bed by one of the cops searching. “It really looks like you would have too” he said sarcastically.
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Jessica was still up on the roof and had witnessed all of what had gone on in the room below. She couldn’t believe that her father had just sat idly by and watched while that awful man had terrorised poor Jennifer Hart. She wasn’t sure what the best thing was to do. She knew she had to do something, but what?
She felt around in her pocket, yes, she had her cell phone. Ok, what now? She would call Andy, her boyfriend, he might have some ideas. But not up here on the roof, she needed to get away from the building a bit so that they wouldn’t overhear her. She was terrified but knew that she was the only person that could help her father and at the same time, Jennifer Hart.
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Herschel Gray exited the interrogation room with urgency. Jonathan had not been allowed to listen in and was waiting impatiently for Herschel in his office. He had quite a bit to tell Jonathan and none of it was good.
He entered his office and Jonathan jumped up out of the chair he had been sitting in and looked at Herschel expectantly.
“You might as well sit down again I have a lot to tell you” Herschel said.
Jonathan didn’t say anything he just sat as he had been told and waited for Herschel to begin.
“Well, my talk with Benny has been very enlightening. It’s all starting to make sense now.” He paused and Jonathan nodded his head as if to say continue.
“It seems that he was paid a large sum of money to make sure he was an indispensable bookie to Senator Andrew Clark.” he paused to take a breath “You know how there was a government contract for the new power plant that is going to be established?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Well, it seems that Senator Blake was absolutely against this plant being built and it seems he was gaining some momentum with getting others to agree with him. So much so that it looked like the contract was going to get dumped. Of course, then Senator Blake was killed and the contract went through uncontested”
Jonathan looked stunned and said “So now we know why there was a hit out on the Senator. Someone didn’t want the power contract to get dumped”
“Exactly” said Herschel “Now here is where it gets interesting. Guess who pushed it through”
Jonathan thought for a moment and then the light bulb went off over his head “Not Senator Clark?”
“You got it” Herschel said with his thumbs up “and that’s not all. Benny said he was paid to make sure that Clark was in debt up to his eyeballs. He had to just keep giving him credit until his debt was so huge he had no hope of paying it back on his own.”
“Wow, so then whoever was behind this made sure Clark would be easily manipulated” Jonathan said and Herschel nodded.
“Yeah word is that Clark was into it heavily with Joey ‘the rat’ DiMarco. He’s a nasty son of bitch loanshark if ever there was one. And not only that but guess who’s nephew he is?” Herschel looked really pleased with himself.
Jonathan was getting impatient and just wanted to know so he shrugged his shoulders hoping that Herschel would speed up the story.
“Ok, before I tell you that, we got a hit on that fingerprint that we lifted from your place. It’s from a fellow called Jose Sanchez.” Herschel paused to take a breath “DiMarco and Sanchez have a common factor involved.”
“And the last piece of information I have is about the Fairchild Corporation. It got the power contract. And it also has a common factor involved in this”
“Please can you not keep me in suspense any longer Herschel, you’re killing me here”
“You’re not going to like it. We think that he has Jennifer and if he has, then the odds are not good for her getting out of this, I’m sorry Jonathan” he said as he saw his friend looking panicked.
“Please, just tell me Herschel”
“Nick Rhodes” Herschel said and watched as Jonathan’s face paled to the shade of snow as he fell back into the chair.
“On no, how can that be, he’s in jail isn’t he?”
“He was until about two years ago, he’s out on parole now for good behaviour.’
Jonathan scoffed at the good behaviour part. He felt really helpless. If Rhodes had Jennifer she was in very real trouble and he wasn’t sure how he was going to help her.
Herschel continued “He owns the Fairchild Corporation. Of course that bit of information is buried pretty deep and you have to dig to find it but I have the best working for me. Sanchez is one of his henchmen and has been with him for years. And as I said DiMarco is his nephew.”
“So what now?” Jonathan said with a hint of despair.
Herschel sighed “I’m not sure. We know ‘the who’, but we don’t know ‘the where’. I have my men checking out everything and anything that is connected to Rhodes. The information is there we just have to find it”
“Yeah, I just hope that Jennifer has that time” Jonathan said quietly. Herschel looked at his friend and felt for him. He didn’t know what to say to help him because the truth of the matter was Jennifer was most likely dead already.
There was a knock on the door and a small blonde woman poked her head around the edge and looked at Herschel.
“Um, there is a young man here who says he needs to speak to Mr. Hart urgently. I’m not sure what to do; he is so insistent and refuses to leave”
Herschel looked surprised but said “Send him in, Lilly”
The young woman nodded and stepped back to let a young man of about twenty into the room. He looked from Herschel to Jonathan and said “Mr. Hart”
Jonathan nodded to him and said “Yes”
“Oh thank goodness I’ve found you. I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Your housekeeper told me I might find you here”
“Ok, what do you want” Jonathan said a little impatiently
The young man stood up a little straighter and looked Jonathan in the eye as he said “I have news, I know where your wife is.”
Author Note: I know nothing about how the US Government works so any and all mistakes are my own:)