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January 16, 1984: The Truth, as it Lies. I wait, corner of Dekalb and Flatbush. My trusty bookbag at my side, as it has been with my almost everyday, through every event in my life since BTHS. Inside is all the paper work and photographs I will need, including a copy of yesterday's newspaper that Juanita gave me. My .45 automatic is also in there. Its 5pm, the sun is going down against the horizon. The Rush Hour crowd rushes by to enter the station. I stand by the building support pylon closest to the intersection. Across the street is where I threw that punk who's gang tried to mug Cathy and I. 40 feet down on Dekalb Avenue is where I ended the Chinese gang war with the "Born to Kill" gang. Across the street is where Fasil accidentally killed himself at Juniors, and not far away was where I was with Denise when I sensed it, like having my head explode, the pain was enough to stop me in my tracks and yell from it. Not far, right next to the subway entrance, is where Mary and I had our final get together. Yes, this little area of Brooklyn has a lot of memories, both good and bad. "Gutch...? You OK?", Juanita said from behind. "Lets get this done." I said without turning to look at her. "Gutch.... you up to this?", Kevin asks trying to approach me. I reach into my pocket and pull out a set of rented car keys and toss it at him, "You drive.", I say, starting to walk down DeKalb to where the car is at. We walk in silence until we reach the car, a brand new Ford Crown Victoria. Kevin reaches for the keys to unlock the doors, but I grab on the handle and open it before he could find them. I sit down on the rear passenger seat looking at the floor, Juanita tries to enter with me, but I point at the front passenger seat. She nods her hear and closes the door before reentering at the front passenger chair. Kevin finally gets in and fumbles around for the key that would start the vehicle. Eventually he gets it started. "Gutch- I don't know how to drive that well in city traffic.", he said. "Lets go and drive." I answer back. Juanita and Kevin look at each other unsure of what to say or do. "Put on your seatbelts", I say to them. They look at me, still unsure, and then do as I tell them. Finally, Kevin puts the car in drive and starts driving. We drive around in circles until Kevin gets his bearings straight; or was he getting used to driving such a big car or the city traffic? "Gutch...", Juanita, turned around on her seat, tries to start a conversation with me, "I know that this will be hard for you to do..." I continue to stare at the car floor, not yet answering to her statement. "Well, anything you need, let us know.", she continues. I look up at her, first thing I notice is the dual wedding/engagement rings she has on her hand that she is holding onto her seat with. I take my left hand over my right and take my wedding band off, for the first time ever for me to do this act. She reaches over to my clenched fist and draws it closer for her to see. I reluctantly open it, revealing the ring. She looks at it before taking it for a closer examination. "You're married?", she asks in shock and amazement. "Was...", I answered. "To who-*", as she notices an inscription, and reads it silently, "FG & CT: Aug 15th, 1983 UDDUA..." "UDDUA?" Kevin asks "Until Death Do Us Apart." I answer. "And Who's CT?", Kevin asks. "Somebody we're going to see.", I answer. Juanita stares at me, realizing the implications of my comment. I can see Kevin biting his lower through the rear view mirror. Eventually he pulls over and shuts off the car to turn around. "You... and Cathy? Married?", he asks I look at him dead in the eye to stare him down. "DRIVE...", I command at him. "No....", Juanita tells him. "Since when?", she asks. "You just read it." I say. Kevin restarts the car. "But her marriage to Randal?", she asks "It ended after James Jr. was born.", I answer. "But they wer..... oh my god.", she finally realizes the pieces of the puzzle: Randal and Cathy divorced. Cathy and I get married. Randal return from the Airforce to get back together. Cathy ends up missing. Almost a month later- a body is found matching her description. "Lets go.", I tell Kevin. For the rest of the trip, we remain silent. Juanita takes my right hand and slips the ring back onto my finger, whispering, "Don't give up hope- yet." We make it to Menosia Medical. Kevin parks the car outside in the street, but I point to the parking spaces inside. He drives onto the hospital tarmac and into the parking area. I step out the vehicle as soon as he shuts of the engine. I close my door, as both Juanita and Kevin start to get out. "Don't lock the doors.", I tell them as I start to go towards the main entrance. They follow behind, quickening the pace to catch up to me. We walk inside, heading to the information booth. There is a line of people there, all waiting to get their visitor's pass to visit their sick friends and relatives. I walk past it to skip the entire line. The guy in front of the line complains, trying to reach me but Kevin intervenes. "You don't want to fuck with him right now", Kevin tells him in a 1/2 nervous tone. "Who the Fuc*-??", he starts to reply and trying to get ahead of Kevin, but realizes what I just did: bare handily remove the bullet proof shielding that surrounds the Information Booth. I have the clerk inside suspended in air by the fist full of shirt I am holding on to. "Morgue.", I tell him. He nervously points down the hall and says the directions, "down the end, stairs two floors, follow sign." I drop him onto his ass on the floor of this booth. I turn around and stare down at the guy who dared to complain, a person who's twice my size, and possibly twice my strength. We proceed down the hall, where there is another line: a guard station checking for visitor's passes. I walk pass by the line and through the gate, Juanita and Kevin nervously follow behind me. One of the guards at the gate tries to block it. I push him away and continue going. They have stopped Kevin and Juanita, but several follow me down the hall. They follow with the guards, trying to explain to one of the that we're all going to the morgue. A few stop, and call on their radios to warn the other guards ahead of them to let me proceed in peace. The door at the end of the hall says, "Stairway 11. Do not use unless in an emergency." I grab the door knob and find it locked. Instinctively, I twist the door knob, applying more than enough force to break it. The knob falls off in my hands, but the door slowly swings open. I walk inside and down the stairs. Juanita and Kevin follow closely behind. As we walk, I reach into my bag and pull out my Missing Person's Report on Cathy. We continue to walk, following the signs that direct us to the morgue. There is a police officer at the door, But I walk through it ignoring his presence. He tries to follow, but Kevin manages to run by him to insure that I wont cause any trouble. Juanita stops by the officer and apologizes before running into the room herself. Inside are several men in suits and 3 in lab coats, all watching over another body recently brought in. I tap on the shoulders of one of the lab coats, while the ones in suits start to complain. Several draw out their guns and shields. One of them saying, "Brooklyn Homicide- don't move." The man in the lab coat reads over my report, and then looks at me. "Right this way.", He softly speaks. I follow, as does Juanita, Kevin and 1/2 of Brooklyn Homicide. We stop by a room of drawers, where the pathologist looks over the description panels before opening one of them. As we wait for him to find the drawer, I place my bag on the floor. He unzips the white bodybag inside, revealing the person within. "We brought that one yesterday.", one of the detectives stated. The doctor gives him the missing person's report, and tells them to leave us be. All but Kevin, Juanita and the officer with the missing report leaves the room as they approach the draw that Cathy lies in. She lies there, looking like she has been through a rough week at school years ago. But there are noticeable differences, Her body as cold as the blizzard that blew by a several days ago, her skin a strange tint of blue, almost a florescent blue. There are red and black bruises and abrasions around her neck, as are her fingernails and lips are dark blue. What ever happened to her, she did not die without a fight. Juanita looks at her for a moment, then turns around and starts crying. Kevin sees Cathy too, but refuses to look at her, instead, focusing on me. "Can you make a positive ID on this Jane Doe?", the detective asks. I just move my eyes to look at him like if he were stupid. As I look at him, I carefully reach down and remove her right hand and hold it like we used to do so many times before. The wedding rings, as well as other artifacts were still there on her. Holding her hand, the rings we wore matched up. I just look at the detective all bitter. He looks back, accounting for all that is happening. I signal to him to approach closer, and begin to remove her wedding and engagement rings, as I remove my with hers. I clutch at them in my fist as I slowly put her arm down to rest on her chest. Then I give the rings to the detective. Where he studies them, and sees matching inscriptions in them. He tries to hand them to me back but I refuse to acknowledge him or what's going around me. Kevin takes the rings and holds on to them, while I continue to unzip the body bag she was in. She was still in her evening dress and high heel shoes. The belt, my old '60s hippie belt with stitched in flower designs, round and spiked studs, and rhinestones, 1/2 undone, but still fastened around her waist. At her feet was her pocketbook, which I pick up and place under her resting hand. The detective reaches over to get my attention which I look at him like a dog being interrupted for his meal. "From the evidence- nothing was taken, there is even $500 in the purse. You have a motive?", he explains. I just look at him like a piece of trash waiting to be thrown out. I look at Kevin, tugging at my coat and signal to him to bring the doctor. He quickly leaves and returns with the pathologist. I look at him and put my hand on her pubic area- pointing at it. He looks at my gesture trying to figure what I mean, then makes his statement that I did not want to hear, "Evidence suggests that she was raped." I close my eyes and take in a deep breathe, letting it out slowly. This is definitely not an answer I wanted to hear. When I finally reopen my eyes, I reach over and grab his tie and pull him closer to her, where I was pointing at. The detective reaches over for his gun, but Kevin whispers towards his direction something to the effect of "That would only make him angry...", and he look back at Kevin with this 'You're joking look.' Juanita slowly gets up after wiping a few tears, and approaches the drawer. The doctor looks around the cabinet and finally pulls out her preliminary report, and shuffles around the paper looking for what might be an answer. "The report say that she was about 5 months pregnant", he said. I then let him go. I brush aside her hair and stroke the side of her face, about to give her one final good-bye kiss. But as I get closer to her, I notice something that should not be there. I turn around to look for a lab tray table with some tools. I step into the other room and see that the preliminary autopsy was being done on the other body that was brought in, so I grab the table and drag it in to the room and besides the drawer she laid in. The detectives and other pathologist came in complaining and arguing. I took a pair of tweezers off the table and went back to Cathy. There is, behind her right ear, among her golden blonde hair, a hair unlike hers. Black, short and kinky. Hers, though kinky, has been straightened out with help from a perm. I grab the hair with the tweezers and slowly pull it out. The detective approaches closer to take a look at it. "Randal", I say to myself staring at the hair follicle on the end of the tweezers. I put it down on the examination tray on top of some sterile towels. The other detectives ask the first questions, "You saw his actions all of the time? Did he planted it?" He looks at his superior and answers them- yes to the first question, no to the other. I walk out to the door, stopping by its archway, trying to recompose myself. Juanita gets behind me, "Don't do anything stupid, Fernando...", she says. "I'm just doing to find him and to the same to him as he did to her.", I say to myself, but the silence of the room betrays me and everyone hears it. "Don't do it Fernando.", she says almost pleading. Kevin and two of the detectives follow up from behind. One of the detectives reaches out to grab my hand and tries to cuff it. I pull away from him and take a defensive posture. The remaining detectives in the other room take their stand by the door, weapons drawn and ready. "Its Randal.", I say, "Special Ops training, licensed to kill for the Gov't. There is nobody here in the city that is capable of bringing him in, except for 1 person..." Kevin turns away and walks in a tight circle, repeatedly saying, "Damn- he's right..." "What?", one of the detectives can be heard saying. "But...", Juanita starts to ask, trying to find the right words. "But nothing.", I reply. She remains silent. The detectives draw closer. "Let him go...", she said, "...he's the only chance you have." "Juanita- don't let them cut her up, but get her ready.", I tell her, taking my wallet out and toss it at her. "Kevin- take care of the car for me.", as I start to step out the door. She looks inside the wallet as I bolt out the door, finding my ID, credit cards and $3500 with a bank deposit slip for fifty grand inside it. "Fernando?!!", she starts to yell as I walk out the door. I leave out into the hallway, and run for the stairs. As soon as I make it outside, I blend into the crowd and slip away. Juanita walks up to the drawer Cathy lies in, and looks at her. Kevin soon follows her and takes her hand, while the detectives gather the evidence I found, and finish their paperwork. The pathologist started to remove the personal effects to prepare Cathy for the final autopsy. The personal effects were put into a self sealing plastic bag and given to her, along with a metal clipboard with various sheets of paper for her to sign. As she reads them over, she notices that a team of medical professionals roll a gurney into the room and lines it up with the drawer she laid in. Juanita asks, "What are you going to do?" "Getting her ready for the final post mortum exam.", he stated to her. "You going to cut her up?", she asks. "Its part of the procedure.", he said. "Fernando would not wanted that.", she softly complained. "Well," he started to say, "I'll delay it for 48 hours, but I need this consent release form signed by an immediate relative before then." as he hands her the paperwork. "What about the evidence?", the detective asks. The doctor looks around and finds the tweezers I used with the hair follicle still with it. He takes it and puts it in a glassine envelope and hands it to the detective. "That is all the evidence you will need to convict the person who did this.", the doctor says. "If Fernando does not find him first.", Juanita whispers to herself. Kevin notices that I left my bag behind, and takes it. The detective turn his attention to her, as the doctor zips up the body bag, and closes the drawer she lies in. They all walk to another room to be interrogated for information about this case. When all is said and done, the hunt for Randal starts, with me having a 4 hour head start over on the police. |