3 a.m. (Henry Bins 1) (10 page)

“
At first. She wanted to
know what sort of dad he was. Was he around? Stuff like that. But
she abhorred politics. My dad didn't come up very often after the
first couple weeks.”

“
How did you find out she
was killed?”

“
Jerry came in and took my
cell phone. Told me that Callie had been murdered. Brought me a new
phone a couple hours later with a new phone number.”

That would explain the phone number that had
been untraceable. It hadn't been the President's. It was
Ricky's.

“
What's the spread on the
Laker's game tomorrow?”

He scoffs. “I haven't gambled in six months.
I learned my lesson.”

I nod.

“
What do you think
'Jessie' needed the money from the watch for?”

“
I don't know. She didn't
have a job. She had to pay rent somehow.”

“
And you didn't care that
she stole a ten thousand dollar watch from you?”

“
I know I should have.
But, I didn't.”

“
You loved
her.”

He is quiet.

He did.

“
Do you think your dad
killed her?”

His lips quiver.

I've heard enough. And I'm out of time. I
chug the rest of my drink, pat him on the shoulder and leave.

…

I drive my one hour, this time in
Tennessee.

The next time I wake up, I am in my father’s
car parked outside my condo. There is an unmarked car parked down
the street and I feel the occupant’s stare as I get out and enter
my building.

My dad and Murdock leave and Lassie and I
sit down to the computer.

I log onto the Internet.

The email from the company I’d paid to do a
background check on Jessica Renoix is waiting for me in
my inbox.  I click on it and am not surprised to find very
little information.  There is a credit card, a phone, and an
Oregon address.  All are for show.  Just like they’d been
for Callie Freig. 

That’s why Jessica needed the money from the
watch. She wanted to change her identity.  She had done it
before.

Twice.

I'd known four Jessicas in my life. Some
went by Jess. None went by Jessie. It was a totally different
name. Like a Matthew going by Mark. Didn't happen.

I go to the Virginia Missing Person’s
Database and search, “Jessie.”

No hits.

Maybe I'm wrong.

I think back to what Ricky had said. She
liked sports. Especially the Ravens.

The Baltimore Ravens.

I log onto the Maryland Missing Person's
database and try again. 

Two hits.

One is a twelve-year-old boy.

The other is a sixteen-year-old girl.

Jessie Kallomatix.

She is younger, but there is no mistaking
it. 

It's her.

Jessie Kallomatix is
Jessica Renoix is Callie Freig.

Two Google searches later and I have it all
figured out.

What had Ricky said, “She'd ask what kind of
dad he was. Was he around a lot?”

Connor Sullivan had lied.

She'd been blackmailing him all right, but
not because he'd slept with her.

She'd been blackmailing him because Connor
Sullivan was her father. 

It takes three days – well, three hours –
for it all to come together. Three hours of planning, phone calls,
and favors. 

I pull open the curtains.

The car is still there.

Still watching.

It is 3:03 a.m.

At 3:04, I hear the sirens.

“
Here they
come.”

Meow.

“
Sorry buddy. I have to do
this one alone.”

Meow.

“
Yes, it's going to be
dangerous.”

Meow.

“
Danger isn't your middle
name.”

Meow.

“
Because I didn't think to
give you one.”

Meow.

“
Pistol? I don't think
so.”

Meow.

“
No. I don't care if he is
a triple threat. How bout Roger?”

Meow.

“
Well, Lassie Timberlake
Bins sounds stupid too.”

Meow.

“
Well, I don't care what
Murdock says.”

Meow.

“
Fine, your middle name
can be Danger.”

Meow.

The ambulance pulls up in front of the
condo.

“
All right, Lassie Danger
Bins, it's go time.”

Three minutes later, I am in the ambulance
and we are flying down the street.

“
Hey,” Sara says from the
passenger seat.

“
Thanks again.”

Her boyfriend, Clay, and his buddy, Jake,
who had taken me out on the stretcher both nod. Clay says, “It was
a slow night.”

“
Did they follow?” I
ask.

“
Yep,” Sara says with a
nod. “They’re probably two lights behind us.”

A minute later, the ambulance pulls up to
Summer Park and I jump out.

“
Good luck.”

I nod and take off running.

…

I bang on the window and she jumps.

“
Shit, you scared me,” she
says,, climbing out of her Crown Vic.

“
How long have you been
here?”

“
I got here right at
three, just like you said.” She pauses. “You gonna tell
me what this is all about?”

I scan the side street for approaching
headlights. “Not yet. Not till he gets here.”

“
Who?”

I ignore her.

Ten seconds later, lights turn onto the
street and grow brighter as the car pulls into the lot and parks
next to us.

The door opens and he says, “Get in.”

Ray's eyebrows jump five inches off her
forehead. “Is that the President?”

I nod.

The two of us climb in the back of the town
car.

Connor is wearing the same outfit as last
time, jeans and a gray sweatshirt.

“
This is Detective Ingrid
Ray from the Alexandria PD,” I say.

He takes her hand.

“
Pleasure to meet your Mr.
President.”

“
Likewise.” Then turning
to me, he asks, “So what is this about?”

I hadn't told him anything. In fact, I'd
simply called the private number he'd given me the day we'd first
met and left a message telling him to meet me at Summer Park at
3:15 a.m. That it was important.

I hand a piece of paper to him and say,
“Tell your driver to go to this address.”

He looks down at the paper, if the address
means anything to him, he doesn't show it. He pushes a button and
the divider slides down and he passes the paper through to his
driver.

“
Hey Red,” I
say.

He nods.

The divider goes back up and the car begins
to move.

I can feel four eyes on me.

“
You lied to
me.”

The President doesn't flinch.

“
There was no
video.”

Sullivan's face is marble.

“
You never slept with her.
She never seduced you.”

I wait for Sullivan to scoff, to tell me
that I'm full of shit, to get out of his car.

He doesn't.

“
She was your
daughter.”

Ray pinches my leg. A 'what the hell are you
doing?' pinch.

“
Yes, she is.”

“
What?” Ray shouts.
“Jessica is your daughter?”

He nods.

“
Wait, what, how . . .”
Ray bumbles.

“
I'll explain in a
second,” I tell her.

“
How did you find out?”
Sullivan asks.

“
Your son.”

He sighs.

“
She told him to call her
Jessie.”

“
Jessie? I thought her
name was Jessica?” Ray shouts, trying to piece things
together.

“
She changed her identity
twice,” I tell Ray.  “Her real name is Jessie.” I explain
about the pawn receipt and my chat with Ricky Sullivan in Vegas,
how I'd found Jessie on the missing person's database on the
Internet, and how after searching her name, I'd put the pieces
together. Then I turn to the President and say, “He thinks you
killed her, you know.”

“
Better than the
alternative,” he says, leaning his head back. “Better than him
knowing he's been fucking his half-sister for the past three
months.”

“
Wait,” shouts Ray. “Will
one of you tell me what is going on?”

I nod towards the President. “Why don't you
start at the beginning. And no lies this time.”

“
All right, but first tell
me where we're going.”

“
You don't recognize the
address?”

“
Just that it was in
Maryland. Should I know?”

“
Yeah, you married the
woman who lives there.”

…

It was a story that was said to have won
Connor Sullivan the presidency. A story that could have been
told in any bar in the world. It made you see him as a guy,
any guy, who accidentally married the wrong woman.

Kimberly A. Bells was born in Nevada. She
went to college at a small school in Ohio, Dayton University, where
she met and fell in love with one of the stars of the basketball
team. After graduating, Kimberly moved to Virginia with her new
love, married him, spawned him one child, and eventually became the
First Lady of the United States of America.

Kimberly S. Bells grew up in Virginia, met
Paul Kallomatix when she was 22, and had a daughter. The
couple would move to Maryland years later, stay happily married for
sixteen years, then divorce bitterly. 

Both marriages took place at the same church
in northern Virginia. Kimberly A. Bells to Connor Sullivan on the
Saturday. Kimberly S. Bells to Paul Kallomatix on the
Sunday.

To this day, it still isn't known how it
happened, if it was the clerk at the courthouse, the minister, or a
third party, but the documents were mixed up and Connor Sullivan
ended up married to Kimberly S. Bells, and vice versa.

You would think one little initial wouldn't
have been such a troublesome problem and it wasn't, at least, not
until it came time to pay taxes. It took Connor Sullivan two weeks
to figure out why he owed so much money to the United States
government. It was because he wasn't married to a third grade
teacher as his wife had been for the past three years, but to a
marketing executive who made nearly three times her salary.

He finally realized the small faux pas and
after a couple of phone calls, rectified the matter.

“
I wanted to meet her,
meet the woman I was married to,” the President says with a laugh.
“But not just her, I wanted to meet him too.”

I glance at Ray and wonder what is going on
in her head. 

“
The address on file for
her was only a half hour away and one day I found myself in the
neighborhood and decided to pop by.” He shakes his head. “The
second she opened the door, I knew I was in trouble.”

I'd seen a couple pictures of her on the
Internet. When the story had come out during Sullivan's initial run
for governor, some journalists had tracked her down and taken some
photos. She was of medium height, brown eyes, high
cheekbones, full lips.

“
Did the affair start that
day?”

“
No. We just talked for an
hour. Laughed over the whole thing. Promised to get our spouses
together and have dinner some night.”

“
But that never
happened?”

He shakes his head. “In fact, I didn't see
her for another three years. Then I was up in Maryland for a
meeting and I ran into her. She and her husband had moved up there
a couple years earlier. We had coffee and well, you could tell she
was unhappy. The marriage was on the rocks. She never saw him. He
worked constantly. After that, we'd see each other a couple times a
month.”

“
When did the affair
start?”

“
In December of that year.
Kim, my wife, was out of town for the week. The other Kim called
and said she'd be down in Virginia for a couple days visiting her
folks. She came over and, well—”

“
How long did it
last?”

“
Six months. I stopped
when my wife told me she was pregnant.”

“
Was the other Kim okay
with it?”

“
I guess so. I never heard
from her again.”

“
Then how did Jessie come
into the picture?”

“
Well, she'd already
changed her name when I met her. If she'd come to work for my
campaign and said her name was Jessie Kallomatix, I don't know
if I would have let her work for me. So, when I met her, her name
was Jessica Renoix. She worked hard for me for three months,
then one day she comes into my office, tells me point blank who she
is. That her mother had gotten drunk one night and told her
about her affair with me. Then she shows me a little
baggy and a piece of paper. The baggy has a lock of my hair in it,
says that she cut it off my head one night when I was asleep on my
desk. The piece of paper is a DNA test. She says that I'm her
father and that she wants a hundred thousand dollars.”

“
And you gave it to
her?”

“
I did. And she
disappeared the next day. I didn't hear from her until three months
ago.”

“
What did she
say?”