Nothing To Lose: Part 13

As Jonas and Danny work to keep things clear of suspicion, Jonas comes face to face with the mysterious witness, then later has to face two federal agents who are very interested in his activities.

Part 13

Jonas quietly sat with his back to the wall, his legs crossed, and his hands cupped over his knee. He stared at Michael. Jonas bounced his foot in the air. He was anxious to find out why the priest had an interest in their crime scenes. As Michael sat across from him, eating a piece of apple pie and occasionally looking up at Jonas, Jonas could almost taste blood on his tongue from biting his lip.  

The two had been trading glances. Sizing each other up. Jonas was becoming increasingly impatient. As his anxieties boiled, something about Michael was different. It felt oddly familiar. The way he carried himself. The way he responded to Jonas being there.  

As Michael was finishing his pie, Danny came rushing into the diner. He froze at the entrance until he noticed the two sitting at a table, and Michael eating a piece of pie. As Danny walked over, he saw a waitress addressing Jonas. Jonas was ordering. As Danny got to the table, he told the waitress to add a piece of pie and a cup of coffee. He saw the waitress look at Jonas, and Jonas nodded.  

"It took you long enough?" Jonas smiled at Danny as he put his elbows on the table and clasped his hands together. "Let me guess. You got the background on our friend here."  

"I did," admitted Danny, unsure of what he'd interrupted.  

Danny looked at the priest, as if he were waiting. Then he asked Father Michael if he wanted Danny to say it, or if he was going to come clean and tell Jonas. Father Michael smiled charmingly, put his fork down, wiped his face, and took a sip of his drink. He told Danny to go ahead and share what he'd found.  

"This is Father Michael Carusso, from the Vatican. And he wasn't always Father Michael Carusso. He's also known as Padre Carusso, and as Detective Mike Carusso of the New York Police Department," explained Danny.  

Jonas smiled at the priest. He had thought as much, considering how the priest carried himself. The man in front of him wasn't a lifetime man of the cloth. He was a convert and still bound by years of habits built over a career as far outside of the priesthood as it got. There was entirely too much confidence in Father Michael. He was too cocky to have spent his life serving only God. But what gave him away more than anything, he told Danny, was the eyes.  

"He's got the eyes of a soldier, someone who's seen death, and who has taken lives," explained Jonas before returning his attention to Father Michael.  

"Isn't that right, Father," suggested Jonas.  

Father Michael looked at the two cops. He had sized them up already. Danny was still below ten years on the job. He had virtuousness that most cops lost by their twenty-year mark. But Jonas, he'd had some time in, and despite the job, knew the meaning of going the distance to stop the monsters on the streets. He looked at Jonas and asked him one question.  

"How many people have you put down, Detective?"  

"Enough."  

"And?" the priest asked.  

And all deserved it, thought Jonas. But it wasn't he who was a suspect, or on trial. It wasn't him that had mysteriously shown up at crime scenes and seemed to disappear whenever they noticed him. Jonas wasn't going to let even a priest try to turn things around on them.  

"I think it's time you tell us what you're doing in the area?"  

Michael was playing the cards as they came. He hadn't expected to run into either of them so soon, much less to get caught. He sat, staring at the two detectives. In his mind, they weren't the problem. But he wasn't used to cooperating with the police. Not anymore.  

"Well," asked Jonas, "What's it going to be? You can either tell us why you're so interested in those two crime scenes, or you can sit it out at the station, cooling your heels while we dig into your life."  

"Even in Bay City, you can only hold me for so long," he reminded them.  

Jonas had enough. He was as tired of the priest's cockiness as he was of any suspect he'd ever had in an interrogation room. They all played things the same way. At first, it was with bravado. Then came their lawyers. Eventually, they all ended up breaking down and telling the truth. If Michael wasn't going to talk, he could find out what a day in the holding cell would do. 

He stood up and told Father Michael to put his hands behind his back. Danny looked on in surprise. As Jonas walked around behind the priest, grabbing an arm and twisting it behind him, Danny just stood there, surprised that they were cuffing a priest. It wasn't something he was prepared for.  

"What are you doing?"  

"Making sure this guy doesn't disappear again, and besides, we have that search warrant to execute," he told Danny.  

Danny shook his head. He wasn't ready to run in a Catholic Priest, but the father had been playing coy with Jonas instead of being cooperative. He didn't like it, and his religious upbringing was screaming at him, but he told Jonas he understood.  

Later, when they got to Susan's, Danny fumbled around the outside of the front door, looking for a key. Jonas stood beside the door, his collar up, and his ball cap keeping his head from being completely soaked. When he finally heard the sound of a door handle being manipulated, he turned to see Danny fumbling with a key.  

"She was smarter than that," he told Danny.  

"You mean the key wouldn't work," he responded.  

"No, I mean if you've got the key, go around to the back door and try it. She wouldn't have put a key to the front door with the front door. It would be too easy to find."  

Danny didn't think of it the way Jonas did, but he didn't know the victim. He hadn't had a chance to meet Susan before they found her body in the park. He nodded at Jonas and ran around back. A few moments later, he appeared at the front door, opening it for Jonas and sporting a wide-eyed, smiling face.  

"Proud of yourself?"  

"No boss, just happy to be out of the rain."  

As the two stood in Susan's living room, Jonas realized it had been a while since he'd been inside her place. She almost always came to see him. He felt bad about it, as he thought about what it said to her about their time together. Jonas was going to miss her deeply, and part of him hoped that she knew. It was bad enough that he'd failed her in death. He wanted to believe that he hadn't failed Susan in life.  

He pointed to the opposite side of the room, giving Danny instructions on where to focus his efforts. Jonas was going to work on the southern side of the house. If she left her cellphone anywhere, it was going to be along that side of the home. Her house wasn't particularly large but wasn't tiny. Jonas tossed her sofa cushions, the area around her end tables and coffee tables, and beneath her sofa and chair. Not finding it there, he continued along that side as he looked through her bookshelves, behind pictures, and headed toward her study.  

She was the smartest person he'd ever dated. And as he stood inside her study, it reminded him of why. There wasn't an unread book on her shelves, and she had a small library. She had everything from classical literature to academic texts, history to contemporary fiction, and poetry. She studied biology, psychology, and paleontology. What impressed him the most was how much literature she had on forensic sciences and criminal investigations.  

"Somebody took an interest in your work," Danny said, standing behind Jonas.  

Jonas looked back, somewhat annoyed by the intrusion, but strangely proud that someone in his life had been that interested in what he did for a living. He had never burdened her with much about work, at least not the more run-of-the-mill, day-to-day activities. In their time together, he'd worked everything from sexual assault to a serial killer task force. And she always seemed to respect the distance he put between his home life and his work life. But from the reading list, she was more prepared than any cop wife to be there and understand what he was going through.  

It sort of made him wonder. As he continued working his way down the wall of built-in shelving and drawers, what might have been? If she had been able to get past their age gap, and the things from the past that she admitted caused her to hesitate to bring anyone too far into her life, they might have made a good couple. They might even have had what it would take for it to last. He felt the pain of realizing they'd never get the chance to find out for themselves.  

"Got it!"  

Jonas turned as Danny yelled. He stood there, holding an older model flip phone. It was the one that Jonas remembered. Jonas held out his hand, and Danny tossed it across the room.  

As Jonas stood there, flipping through the text messages the two sent back and forth, realizing she kept them all. He heard Danny say his name, softly and with a solemn tone. He looked up to see Danny holding an envelope.  

"It's got your name on it," he told Jonas.  

Jonas took it and read the address. It simply read, 'Dear Jonas.' 

"What do you think it is?"  

Jonas didn't have a clue. But it was definitely in her handwriting. He ripped the seal and opened the letter inside. He read through the first few lines and folded it, putting it in his pocket. A tear came to his eye as he got a little emotional.  

"It's a love letter," he told Danny.  

"One last I love you, from the grave. Jesus, that's etherical," sighed Danny. "Well, we got what we came for. What next?"  

"There's not going to be anything else," said Jonas. "She lived to quiet a life. Whatever happened, our suspect from the others is the one who killed Susan. We need to get back to finding out who that is..." Jonas said before trailing off, thinking about how much he wanted to kill their suspect.  

As they stood there, Jonas's phone rang. He flipped it open and said, "Yeah, this is Quinn." As Jonas stood there, listening to the person on the other side, nodding and saying okay a few times, Danny watched him and began to get a sickening feeling in his stomach. They were in trouble for something, probably for locking the priest up and leaving him there while they handled searching Susan's house. He eerily suspected what Jonas was about to say.  

"We're wanted back at the station." 

"Why," Danny asked.  

"Unfortunately, the ex-wife wants to have a word with me" 

"Just you," sighed Danny.  

"Don't worry, my partner. If it goes south, you're still safe. You were following my orders."  

Danny nodded, and the two of them walked out of the house and went back to the Suburban. Jonas peeled out as they left. He was in a hurry. Not necessarily to hear Amanda chewing him out for locking up Father Michael, but to get more into Father Michael's connection to what's been going on with the three dead women.  

Thirty minutes later, Danny and Jonas walked in through the back door to the station. Jonas went up the stairs to see Amanda, while Danny said he was heading to check on the priest. When Jonas got to Amanda's office, she wasn't alone. There were two suits in the office with her. One of them he recognized. It was Agent Smith.  

"Jonas, come in," suggested Amanda.  

"What's this," asked Jonas.  

Amanda made introductions. She introduced them as Agents Torres and Smith. They were there to share some information that might be of interest to the Bay City Detectives investigating the three murders. Jonas tried not to look like he had met Agent Smith, considering he imagined their last visit was off the books. And while they told Amanda they were FBI, he had a feeling they were a little higher up the food chain, and likely a little lateral to the usual federal authority tree of woe.  

"Gentlemen, I'd certainly welcome any help you can give us. So far, it's been tough to generate a lead," admitted Jonas.  

Agent Smith admitted they'd been watching Jonas and his partner as they worked on the case and were impressed by how they'd approached things. There were, however, according to Agent Smith, things they might not know. And they were there to enlighten the Bay City Police.  

"Alright, let's hear it," Jonas said, cockily sitting and putting his feet up on the edge of the desk.  

Amanda looked at Jonas with a cross look as the agents let out a chuckle. She was used to the testosterone, and this was playing out like another dick-measuring contest. However, she was interested in knowing what the federal government was doing, getting interested in a case such as theirs.  

"If you think Cal Montgomery and his connections to the syndicate have anything to do with this, then you're barking up the wrong tree, my friend," promised Agent Smith. "Mr. Montgomery is a person of interest to the bureau, and one that we'd appreciate you not bothering."  

"Cal didn't call you boys, did he?"  

"What makes you sound so certain that he didn't," asked Agent Torres.  

Jonas pushed past the question and leaned across the table. He knew Cal ran one of the arms of the crime families, but his business in Bay City, other than being in the gray area from time to time, was not overly concerning. Jonas realized it wasn't information that they were sharing. Not yet anyway. They were fishing, at least so far.  

"Why are you two bringing Cal Montgomery into the discussion?"  

That's when Agent Smith pushed a photo in front of Jonas. It was a photo showing Jonas sitting at Cal Montgomery's table at the Montgomery Club. They had someone following him, he thought. But then, he realized, the vantage point wasn't from the crowd. The vantage point was from higher up. They had a camera behind the bar.  

"You have someone on the inside."  

Torres looked at Smith and commented, "That's pretty bad ass. Less than five minutes and he's already ahead of us."  

"Look, guys, I've got things to do, and a killer to catch. So, if you have nothing of interest to me, I'd invite you to see your way back to the office in Whogivesafucktown, and twiddle yourselves on your own time," Jonas said before getting up to leave.  

"Michael Carusso!"  Agent Smith yelled out the name and stopped Jonas in his tracks. "Locking him down isn't the right play. You'll end up having to let him go, and then what?" 

Jonas stood, staring a whole through the two agents. It caused Agent Torres to share, simply because he got nervous. He explained to Jonas that they were familiar with him, and that if he was here, the killing wouldn't stop this fast. If he was there, they'd only just scratched the surface, getting to the truth.  

"What do you know?" 

"He's an excellent investigator. And he only shows up when things don't make any sense. But, because of who he works for, he doesn't like cooperating with the police. It has to do with the details behind his last case in New York."  

"Why are you telling me this?"  

As the two agents started walking toward the exit, Agent Smith stopped as he was inches from Jonas. He flashed a cocky smile at Jonas as he explained, "Because it's your way to get him to trust you. But trust me, once he does, you might regret it."