Nothing To Lose: Part 14

 Jonas has to decide how to proceed, and other interested parties are making moves to find out the same truth that the Chief so desperately wants to hide.

Nothing to Lose Part 14 

Hours later, Jonas hadn’t told Danny about the two agents meeting with him in Amanda’s office. He was still processing what Agent Smith had to say. Were they holding back? He wondered. How was it that they seemed to know so much about the good Father Carusso? And what was their real interest in Bay City and Cal Montgomery? They’d obviously been watching Cal.  

Then another thought crossed his mind. Were they watching Cal that night? Or were they watching Jonas? Suddenly, the latter of the two started to make sense. Jonas was deep into the investigations around Bay City. And he hadn’t always managed to remain clean because of the badge. Badges don’t work that way.  

Jonas went down to the holding area to see Father Carusso. Maybe they’d given him an in with the priest. And Jonas wanted to know why a priest was showing up at crime scenes. As he walked out of the detectives’ bureau, he found Danny coming out of the crime lab. Judging by the look on Danny’s face, the younger officer had discovered something.  

“What now?”  

Danny held some photographs out to show Jonas. He had a perplexed look on his face. Something was not sitting well with him. And when Jonas looked at the photos, he could almost instantly see why.  

“Come with me,” suggested Jonas.  

Jonas led Danny down to the holding area. They had Father Carusso sequestered from the other prisoners. He was in an area made specially for the officers to have privacy with their informants or to make deals with people when it gave the officers an advantage to do so. The sergeant on duty buzzed them through the door as Jonas led Danny to question the priest. Knowing that he was at the first scene, something the photos Danny showed him revealed, made Jonas want to get him to talk. He was beginning to hope Agent Smith was actually on their side.  

Father Carusso was sitting with his back against the wall, whistling an old church song that sounded familiar. He looked out of place, sitting in a jail cell with his priest's collar on. It wasn’t the kind of scene that Jonas was used to in a holding tank. But it had served a purpose. A bigger one than Jonas could have hoped for.  

Jonas had his phone in hand when he approached the bars. He held it up and played a short clip, looking at Father Carusso. As the priest’s eyes locked on the screen, Jonas knew he had gotten to him. Father Carusso had met the elusive Agent Smith before. And judging the look on his face, they had been less than friendly.  

“So, you didn’t want to talk about you. And that’s fine. But what about him?” 

Danny looked puzzled. Jonas showed the image of the two agents in the video clip and pointed at Agent Smith. He explained that Smith had visited him before, and somehow, he and his partner showed up in Amanda’s office. It was why they’d been ordered into the office.  

“How about it, Father? Would you mind telling us about Agent Smith? He seemed to have something to say about you,” explained Jonas.  

“Smith doesn’t speak for me. I’m not someone he can control,” answered the priest.  

Jonas smiled. “So, you do know him.” He watched as Father Michael shook his head. As Jonas eyeballed him, he motioned for Danny to hand him the picture of Father Michael at the first crime scene. The priest was hidden from view until the crime scene photographer accidentally snapped his picture. But he was there, standing behind some of the neighbors, watching the action around Danica’s house the night she was found.  

Jonas took the picture and threw it down on the floor, at the priest’s feet. They locked eyes, and Jonas told Father Michael she’d been a friend. He reminded the Father that they’d managed to put him at three crime scenes so far.  

“I want to know what your interest is in the case we’re working, and I want to know right now,” Jonas told him.  

As Jonas put the key in the cage lock, Danny looked as surprised as Father Michael. Danny asked him what he was doing, and he was told it was a good time for him to take a break. Father Michael’s eyes got bigger, more attentive to the activity in front of him. He’d been a cop once upon a time, so he knew the move Jonas was making. He also knew there was no way to win this confrontation.  

“Alright, detective,” Father Carusson sighed. “But it’s not the case, specifically. It’s your suspect that interests me.” 

“And why would the suspect in my case interest a Catholic Priest?”  

Father Carusso looked at Jonas and Danny and silently resigned himself to the fact that he’d have to give a little if he was going to get out of there. It meant cooperating with them, and going outside of the confines of his sanctions. His investigations were sanctioned by the church, but they were meant to be handled discreetly without the knowledge of the world outside.  

“If I share with you, will you consider sharing with me,” asked Father Carusso.  

‘Son of a bitch’ thought Jonas. He got him to open up without placating Agent Smith’s ideas on how. He could rub that in the mysterious agent’s face when he saw him again. Jonas unlocked the door to the cell, and told the priest, “Start talking.”  

Father Carusso looked at Danny and Jonas, then at the cameras in each corner of the room. He didn’t feel comfortable doing it while they were recording. And when he told Jonas as much, he was surprised Jonas didn’t throw him back in a cell. But Jonas and Danny understood.  

“How about I invite you to the church, say, this evening. I’ll show you why this is something that they’d send someone like me to investigate,” promised the priest.  

“Alright,” Jonas relented. “But Father, priest or not, if you screw us, I’m going to throw your ass back in a cell and this time, I’ll for get you’re there.”  

Danny stood there, still surprised that Jonas was considering releasing their elusive witness. As Jonas motioned to the camera and the electronic cell door opened, Father Carusso nodded and told them he’d see them later. Jonas looked the mysterious priest in the eye, his hands in his pockets as he smiled.  

“You better believe it,” he told him before stepping aside and letting the priest leave.  

As Father Carusso was met at the door, Jonas nodded to the officer on the other side. When they disappeared, Danny looked at Jonas and demanded to know what was going on. He felt like Jonas was excluding him again. It wasn’t something he was comfortable doing.  

“I think the priest is the key to figuring out what is really going on,” admitted Jonas. “And I have the feeling we’re going to be chasing our tail otherwise. Something isn’t right about the whole goddammed thing.”  

“Why didn’t you tell me?”  

Jonas smiled and admitted, “It came together fast.” He wasn’t filling him in completely about Agent Smith, but it wasn’t because he didn’t trust Danny. He didn’t tell Danny that Smith told him how to get the priest to cooperate. He was still compartmentalizing things, and Agent Smith was something he felt needed to be handled specifically. He’d tell Danny what he needed to know, but nothing too sensitive. Smith was definitely the type that would bury the knife deep in their back if it served him. The type who’d buried it deep enough that they wouldn’t be able to get it out without the jaws of life.  

“Alright, partner,” relented Danny. “I hope you are right.”  

Jonas nodded, hoping for the same thing. He’d been in over his head before, and somehow, he was starting to feel that way about this case. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.  

A little after 5:30, Amanda walked into her condo with her work bag and a bag of groceries in hand. She had not spent much time at home since her friend's death, feeling guilty that Danica got caught up in the crossfire of something she was never meant to be. It was taking a toll on her, and she needed desperately to get her mind off things and sleep in her own bed.  

After she dropped her work bag on a table near the main door, the clip-clop of her heels echoed off the marble floors as she walked to the kitchen. Her place was immaculate, beautiful, and somehow sterile. She’d spent a small fortune on it and had a lot of work done to make it what she envisioned. Yet, she was barely there. It had rapidly turned from an intended home into just a place to go.  

She set her bag of things down on the counter, went to the cupboard, and took out a glass. She grabbed a bottle of wine and poured it. She didn’t just pour; she poured heavily until the glass was filled nearly to the rim. Then, enjoying a sip, Amanda turned to set it down and started working on dinner.  

As she grabbed a piece of butcher-paper-covered meat out of the bag, she finally noticed that she wasn’t alone. In the darkest corner of her dining room, just fifteen feet away, a man sat there with his .9mm handgun aimed at Amanda. It startled her enough that she knocked over the glass of wine. As the man reached up, turning on a light, her eyes focused on the barrel of the gun and the glass of bourbon on the table. Cal Montgomery had been in her home for a while.  

“I guess that says a lot about my security,” she sighed, slowly raising her hands.  

Cal shooshed her, shaking a finger in her direction as she stood frozen, uncertain of his intentions. He’d met some snakes before Amanda, but her recent dealings with the crew running roughshod over the area put her right up there with the evilest of them all. Cal ordered her to sit. He pointed the gun at Amanda more directly, aiming at her face. Then he repeated the order.  

“Have a seat, Chief,” he demanded.  

Amanda nervously walked across her kitchen to the dining room table. She looked at the spilled wine, trying to figure out if she could sidestep enough to pick some of it up on her heel and track it onto the carpeting in the dining room. It would have been obvious if she moved that far to her right; a move Cal might see as a threat and decide to pull the trigger.  

“What's this about?” she wondered as she sat across from the local crime figure. 

Cal looked at her. He was amazed that she even asked him. Had she been so sloppy as to think she wasn’t drawing attention to herself? This wasn’t the girl he remembered when she used to frequent the club with Jonas and Danica. She seemed much smarter back then. She was certainly cleaner than him, back then.  

“So, you want to tell me who it was you were meeting in the old industrial plants?” asked Cal.  

Amanda looked surprised. Cal Montgomery had a way of knowing what went on in Bay City, but she was the chief of police. How was it that the local club owner knew she’d had a meeting there?  

“You have someone in my department on the payroll?”  

“Let’s just say, you have a few people who work there whose vision of the future aligns enough with mine that they share information,” replied Cal.  

Amanda racked her brain, trying to figure out who it could have been. Who else knew she had been meeting with someone on the riverside? It couldn’t be her assistant or anyone with her security detail. She would have recognized them following her. One of the investigators, looking to make a name for himself? Jonas?  

“Give me a break, kid; Jonas will come to you directly. Plus, as much as we get along, he’s refused more help from me than he’s ever accepted. Someday, he’ll come for me. That’s his job, and I know it.” 

“What do you want, Cal?” asked Amanda. “You aren’t just going to kill the chief of police over a suspicion. You’re not that stupid,”  

Amanda was right. Cal didn’t have much. Just photographs from the security cameras at his warehouse. He’d accidentally found her on the camera when one of his men pointed out that someone else had an interest in the area. He’d watched the tapes and pulled the stills he held in his hands. As he slid them across the table at Amanda, his charming smile turning serious, Cal demanded to know who they were.  

“You don’t want to get involved with this,” she suggested.  

In his mind, she’d already gotten him involved in whatever it was she was doing with those creeps so close to his turf. He reminded her that he owned the waterfront, and he kept his other businesses off the Bay City radar by keeping them on the waterfront on the north end of town.  

“Cal, listen. These guys aren’t someone to go messing with,” she told him.  

“Oh, why is that?” He demanded an answer, insinuating that the pictures alone were enough to throw her investigators off the beaten path if he did decide she was a problem.  

As Amanda weighed her options, considering telling Cal the truth, she realized that it would just get her killed. Her partners weren't the kind to take having their identities or details shared with others without permission very well. As she sat there, she felt the pressure of the position she was in. The room seemed very small compared to the past.  

“I can’t, Cal. They’ll kill me.”  

“And you’re more afraid of them than me. I put you in that office for a reason. You know what kind of reach I’ve got. You, better than anyone knows,” he reminded her.  

“Do what you have to, Cal. Whatever it is, they’ll do worse,” she told him.  

Cal gritted his teeth, clenched the handle of the .9mm Beretta in his hand, stood up, got right in her face, and looked deep into Amanda’s eyes. When he did, he realized that whatever she had gotten herself into, she was scared to death of her new associates. After seeing them on camera and the things he couldn’t explain, he knew he wasn’t going to break her. There was something far darker in Bay City than he was.  

Cal kissed Amanda on the forehead as tears swelled in her sea blue eyes. He wrapped his arm around her head, hugging her.  

“If you change your mind, I’m here to help,” he promised as he let go of her. “But don’t wait too long. It could be too late for anybody.”  

Amanda sat there, crying, as Cal walked through the house and out the front door. She wished, for the moment, she’d been better. Then she could pick up the phone and have Cal’s corrupt ass locked up. But that was no longer an option. Amanda had been dancing with the devils for so long that she practically needed a sandblaster to get the dirt of everything off of her. Cal visiting her was just another reminder that she was living on borrowed time.  

When the door closed, Amanda screamed out her frustrations, and fell to the floor in hysterical tears.

To be continued....