The Hart Remembers – Part Nine

Jennifer’s heart was beating very fast. She read through the file again but it yielded no further clues. She knew the answer had to be there she just wasn’t looking hard enough. After going through it a couple of times more she had to admit that the file didn’t have all of the information she needed but it had enough to set her on the right track. She would just have to start at the beginning and work through it again.

The fact that her memory of that time was practically non existent would make it a challenge but she was sure she could work it out. She would just take each item in the file one at a time.

She grabbed a clean note pad from one of the boxes and settled herself at the desk again. She read through page one carefully. What she had written was basic background information on Senator Blake. Full name, age, place of birth that sort of thing, nothing much there that would help. She kept going through the file reading each page carefully, extracting the most important information and facts.

After she was finished she had several pages of notes. She put the file to one side and studied them. There were a few names in the notes that she could check out. According to the file she had interviewed these people before but couldn’t find any record of these interviews in any of the boxes.

Jennifer was baffled. She knew it wasn’t like her not to have all of the relevant information on a project she was working on all together. Where the hell could it be? She had a feeling that these interviews weren’t the only things missing in regards to this project.

Also one other name seemed to pop up in her file several times. Senator Andrew Clarke. The name was tugging at her memory but she couldn’t quite get it out. And Fairchild popped up more than once. What the hell was that?

Jennifer could feel the frustration building. Why was she bothering with this anyway? It was old news. Senator Blake was dead. She had very nearly been dead. Did she really want to open this can of worms again? The person that put the hit on Senator Blake was still out there. What if he got wind of her asking questions again? She might be in danger again. Did she really want that?

Jennifer felt apprehensive about it all. Seeing the file had definitely unsettled her. She looked at her watch and was stunned to see that she had been at it for two hours. Maria and Max would be back from their shopping trip any time so she decided to put it all away for today. She would talk to Jonathan about it all when he got home and they would decide together whether to open it all up again or not.

—————————————————————

“Well, darling, while I am not too thrilled with the thought of you opening all this up again and possibly putting yourself in danger, I really think it’s your decision. I know you and I know that you won’t be able to let this lie. It will nag away at you.” Jonathan smiled at his wife.

They were in their bathroom preparing for bed that night. Jonathan was really apprehensive about this new development. He had been quite sure that this story had been put to bed for good long ago. He hadn’t counted on Jennifer getting intrigued by it all once again.

Jennifer grinned back at him and said “Yes, you’re probably right about that. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I opened up the file and read through it.” She finished up her nightly bedtime ritual and slipped into bed. Jonathan followed her. They lay quietly for a few minutes.

“You know I will support you in what ever you decide don’t you sweetheart?” Jonathan said quietly “I am just worried about you getting hurt, I don’t know if I could live through that again”

“I know darling, and thank you for your concern, but I think I’ll sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning. I’m not too sure I really want to open all of this up again anyway. I’m not too terribly keen on the thought of getting hurt again either” she said trying to make light of it “I just need to stop thinking about it for a while so I can let my subconscious make the decision for me”

“Well…” Jonathan paused while looking at her with a smile.

“Yes… you want to say something?” she said with a lift of her eyebrows.

“Well I was thinking that maybe I could help you take your mind of off it for a bit” he said with that grin that made her melt.

“What did you have in mind?” she said knowing full well what he was getting at but making him work for it.

He slid over closer to her and took her in his arms. He lowered his head and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. He then deepened the kiss and Jennifer responded immediately, catching fire as she always did when Jonathan touched her. They broke the kiss a little breathless and as Jonathan lifted his head he looked deep into her eyes and said “So am I giving you any ideas as to what I have in mind?”

She looked dreamily back at him and whispered “You sure are”

————————————–

The next morning Jennifer informed Jonathan that she had decided not to pursue the story. Jonathan was very relieved and went to work a happy man.

As the days went by Max began at school and loved every minute of it. It was so different from what he was used to. He threw himself into the work and was determined to do well at his studies.

Things in the Hart household settled into a nice routine. The summer was fading, the air was turning crisp, and the leaves began to change color.

Several weeks had passed and Jennifer only gave the Blake story a passing thought now and then. It still nagged at her, the journalist part of her just refused to let it go.

Then one day in late October fate intervened. Jennifer was doing research for a new article she was working on when she ran into one of her informants, Paulie ‘The Nose’, so called because he had a nose for breaking news.

“Hey there, Jen, how’s it goin’?”

“Paulie, what a wonderful surprise, I haven’t seen you since…”
Jennifer paused to think, when did she see Paulie last. She couldn’t remember.

“It was just before you had your accident. Hey, I was sorry to hear about that by the way. I wanted to come see you but I wasn’t sure if your old man knows about me or not”

Jennifer laughed at that “Yes, Jonathan knows all about you. He knows everything; I don’t ever keep secrets from him or him from me.”

“Oh, yeah, right. You have one of ‘those’ marriages don’t you. I forgot” he said with amusement in his voice.

“What ever do you mean, Paulie?”

“You know exactly what I mean” he said laughing “hey, I still have those discs you gave me. When do you wanna get them?”

Jennifer looked puzzled at this “What discs?”

“Whadya mean what discs?” Paulie said and when Jennifer still looked puzzled he continued “You know the discs you gave me for safe keeping to do with the Blake story you were working on” and then he looked sheepish as he said “Oh, crap, sorry that was the story that nearly got you killed wasn’t it? How’s your memory now? Can you remember anything about it?”

“Actually my memory of that time and the time just before it is practically non existent. I don’t remember giving you any discs I really don’t, sorry, but I guess I should look at them, they may be important. I’ve thought that there must have been more to my files than what I have at home because there are so many things missing”

“Yeah, well, you wanted to keep this stuff separate. Apparently you found something that wasn’t right and you felt it was too dangerous for you to keep it at your home so you asked me to look after it for you. I don’t know what you found, I didn’t ask and I haven’t looked at the discs, I didn’t want to know”

“So when can I get them?”

“How about, right now?”

——————————————-

The man in the black suit was on the telephone when his henchman Adro entered his office. He looked up annoyed at the interruption. He ended his call abruptly and said to Adro “Yes”

“Sir, you wanted to be informed of any new developments in regards to Jennifer Hart.”

“Yes, yes, what is it?”

“She was seen talking to Paulie ‘The Nose’”

“Really? That’s very interesting. What was the conversation about?”

“I don’t know what they talked about but they went back to Paulies place and she left a few minutes later. He must have had something to give her”

“That would seem logical.” The man in the black suit thought for a moment and then said “Pick this Paulie person up and bring him to me. We will find out exactly what he gave the Hart woman”

“Yes sir, right away”

—————————————–

As soon as Jennifer got home she went straight to the computer. While it was booting up she pondered what might be on the discs. Her excitement was mounting as she just knew that the answers would be on the discs otherwise why would she have had Paulie keep them safe for her?

The computer seemed to take forever to boot up and she began to get impatient to see what was on the discs. Finally, the computer was ready and she inserted the first disc only to be disappointed because it was the exact same information that was in her hard copy file she already had.

She inserted the second disc and could see that there were several folders. Each was named with a person’s name. These must be the missing interviews. She opened the first file on the disk which was just named ‘Benny’ and when she started reading her heart nearly stopped. It was her interview with Benny the bookie and she couldn’t believe what she was reading. Government corruption, oh boy, what have you opened up here Jennifer, she asked herself.

———————————————

Adro waited patiently for Paulie to come out of the bar he’d been in for the last 3 hours. This was taking much longer than he’d hoped and he knew the boss was going to be pissed with him.

About fifteen minutes later he spotted Paulie coming out the front door. He was staggering quite a bit and Adro thought that would make his job much easier.

He waited for Paulie to get closer and as he was about to pass by Adro slid into step behind him. He shoved a gun into Paulies back and grabbed him around the neck as he manoeuvred Paulie towards his car.

Paulie had no clue what was going on, one minute he was walking down the street the next he was being grabbed from behind and bundled into a car. Then everything went black as his assailant hit him on the head.

————————————

As soon as Jonathan got home that night Jennifer showed him the information on the discs. He was very disturbed by what he read.

“Geez Jennifer, what the hell have you got here? Why didn’t you take this to the authorities’ way back when you first found out? Maybe you wouldn’t have gotten hurt like you did if you had.” Jonathan was dumbfounded. Government corruption was bad, really bad. God knows who was involved.

Jennifer could tell that Jonathan wasn’t too pleased with this and she wasn’t either really. She couldn’t answer his question though.

“I don’t know Jonathan. I can’t remember but I must have had a good reason. Perhaps there is something else that I have put away for safe keeping that would tell me. I just don’t know” Jennifer slumped down onto the sofa in a defeated gesture.

Jonathan looked over at her and his anger dissolved. He went to her and drew her into his arms. “I’m sorry darling, I know you can’t remember. And yes I believe you must have had a good reason not to go to the authorities’” He held her for several minutes until he felt her relax.

“So what do I do now? If there was a reason I didn’t go to the authorities’ the first time it’s probably not safe for me to do so now”

“I don’t know, darling. Let’s sleep on it and decide what to do in the morning”

————————————–

Paulies head was killing him. He didn’t know where he was. He was lying on the floor of a small locked room with no windows. What the hell was going on? He didn’t think he’d crossed anyone lately, but you never know.

He heard a key turn in the lock and then the door opened. He could see it was daylight; he must have been out all night.

“Well, you’re awake at last. Good, get up.”

Paulie looked up at the huge man towering over him. This must have been the goon that knocked him out last night. He slowly got to his feet and stood still for a moment as a wave of dizziness washed over him.

The big goon grabbed Paulies arm and dragged him out of the room while saying “Hurry up, the boss wants to talk to you”

Paulie was dragged down a corridor and shoved through a doorway into a room that was set up as an office. He was pushed into a chair in front of the desk. Paulies eyes took a few minutes to focus and then he noticed the man behind the desk.

His heart almost stopped because he recognized the man in the black suit. Oh no, he was most definitely in big trouble.

The man got up and came around to the front of the desk. He leaned back onto the desk just in front of Paulie.

“So Paulie ‘The Nose’, how goes it? Heard any good news stories lately?” The man laughed loudly. Suddenly he stopped and was down in Paulies face. In a menacing voice he said, “What did you talk about with Jennifer Hart yesterday?”

Paulies hungover brain was slow “Jennifer Hart?” he said with a squeaky voice. He cleared his throat and continued “what does she have to do with this?”

The man slapped Paulie across the face in anger “I am asking the questions here. You are answering me. Do you understand me?”

Paulie rubbed his stinging cheek “Yes I understand”

The man took a deep breath. “Now answer my question. What did you talk about with Jennifer Hart yesterday?”

Paulie thought about lying but he knew that his fuzzled brain wouldn’t be able to pull off a convincing lie and he didn’t want another slap to the face. This guy could really hit hard. And really what did he owe Jennifer Hart anyway. Ok, so she was a great lady but she wasn’t worth getting beat up for.

“I’m waiting or do you want some more? Adro here is just waiting to get his turn and believe me he can top anything I can do to you”

“Ok, ok. We talked a bit about the accident she had and I told her that I still had the discs that she gave me to look after before her accident.”

“What discs? What did they have on them?”

“Computer discs and I don’t know what they had on them. She didn’t tell me and I didn’t look at them, I didn’t want to know”

“So what happened? Did you give them to her?”

“Yes. That’s all; I just gave her the discs. I don’t know anything else”

The man got up and paced the length of the room a few times. Then he came back and got in Paulies face again. “Ok, I believe you.” Paulie let out a breath that he wasn’t even aware that he’d been holding and relaxed a little. The man was still looking at him intently though which made him feel uncomfortable.

“I tell you what Paulie, this is what you are going to do. You are going to ring Jennifer Hart and tell her that you have uncovered some more information on the Blake story. Tell her that you can’t discuss it over the phone. Tell her to meet you at that old warehouse on Carbon Canyon Road right away”

Paulie knew better by now than to ask any questions. A phone was placed on the desk in front of him.

“I.. uh.. I don’t actually know her number” he said bracing himself for another hit “I think she has an unlisted or private number or something but I do know how I can get a message to her, it’s how I always let her know if I had any good leads for her” he got in quickly.

The man looked like he was losing patience again and said in a harsh voice “Do it”

Paulie quickly dialled the number and left the message and said that it was urgent.

“She will get that message almost immediately I am sure. She was always quick contacting me in the past”

The man just stared at him. “You have done well Paulie and I always like to reward people when they do well. Adro will now take care of you, won’t you Adro” he said with a look at the man in question.

“Yeah, sure boss, anything you say. Come on Paulie, have I got a treat for you”

“A treat, ok, and then can I go?” Paulie said looking at the man in the black suit.

“Of course you can go Paulie, just as soon as Adro takes care of you” and then the man laughed evilly and Paulie realized that he wouldn’t be going home, he wasn’t going to be allowed to go free, this was how it was going to end. He felt very scared then, and hoped that he hadn’t just assigned Jennifer Hart the same fate.

———————————————–

Jennifer and Jonathan didn’t have time to discuss what she should do the next morning because Jonathan received an emergency call from his office and he had to leave to take care a problem that had arisen.

Jennifer received the message from Paulie and because it sounded urgent she dropped everything to go and see him. Because no one was home at the time she left a note to say she was going to see Paulie and would be back later.

She was curious as to why he wanted to meet her at such an out of the way place but it was probably for a good reason. It took her a while to get there and as she got closer to her destination an uneasiness kicked in. She didn’t like the feel of this but if Paulie had something important for her she couldn’t very well refuse to meet him. She tamped down the feelings and kept driving. Not long after the warehouse came into view.

It was a dilapidated building and as she drove through the misshapen gates the uneasiness kicked up a notch. She pulled up at the front door and turned the car off. She sat for a few minutes trying to gather courage to go in. She took a couple of deep breaths and then got out of the car.

As she approached the door she scanned the surrounding area looking for anything out of the ordinary. She put her hand on the door handle and hesitated. Her gut was telling her not to enter and to get the hell out of there. But she ignored it and pushed down on the handle and the door opened. She took one more look around and then went in.

She took a few steps further into the building and the door slammed shut behind her making her jump. It was very dark inside and she couldn’t really see all that well. She was starting to think that this was a very bad idea when she heard a noise. She looked all around her but couldn’t see anything. Maybe it was just a rat or something. Eww, a rat. She shivered at the thought.

She kept moving slowly into the building. There were a lot of boxes stacked up giving off a lot of dark shadows where anyone or anything could hide. Just as the anxiety was getting the better of her and she was going to turn around and run out she felt someone behind her pressing the muzzle of a gun into her back.

“Don’t move, Mrs Hart, or I will be forced to blow you away right where you stand and my boss won’t like that. He wants to see you. He has an old score to settle with you” the man growled into her ear. He was big she could tell, bigger than Jonathan.

Slowly they moved towards the back of the building to a door. The large man leaned around her and opened the door then he nudged her with the gun to go through.

There was a man in a black suit in the room. He had his back to them as they entered and as he turned slowly around to face them Jennifer gasped. She then realized that Paulie had set her up and had landed her into a real nightmare. She recognized the man. He is someone who makes an appearance fairly frequently in her sleeping nightmares. He is a man who she helped send to jail many, many years ago. And yes, he would have a score to settle with her. Oh Jonathan, she thought, what have I done?

To Be Continued.

Authors Note: So do you know who the man is? If you think you know, you can vote for your guess  over on the sidebar.

I apologize for any geographical errors in this part. I don’t live in LA or the US for that matter so I may appear ignorant.