Chapter 28: 1997-1998

“So?” said Herb.

“There aren’t that many to choose from, not with the parameters that you laid out, Herb: pretty, hard up, desperate, suitable,” said Rein.

“Okay?”

“But there is maybe one. I was able to get in to see her. And yes, she does kinda fit the bill. Right age. She is a lifer, but, she is eligible for parole. She’s in for killing her cheating husband in cold blood, or maybe it was hot blood; but she did lay in wait for him. She is eligible for parole like I say, but just barely; she’s been in thirty years; I know you wanted her to be ‘ineligible’ to make it a favor she couldn’t refuse, and...”

“And?” he said.

“She’s skinny, a bit above average looking, short, a lot of gray mixed with the black hair. She’s bitter as hell, and, desperate. Like I say I did get in to see her, and we did talk long. Told her I’d be getting back to her. As for her hooking up with Chase, she let me know, that if we were able to get her out, she’d marry the creature from the Blue Lagoon, her exact words, and she was serious.”

“I’ll be having William to be doing the leg work from here on out. You did good,” said Herbert.

“Okay.”

“Oh, and what’s her name?” The PI passed him a slim manilla folder.

“It’s all in there,” he said.

“Okay, I guess I need to talk to Chase first. Apart from a recent talk with him, he’s kinda out of the loop. But if we go forward with this, he has to be committed.”

“Yes, really. I do have to say, my making the effort to get her to hoping, well...” said Rein.

“Yes, I see what you mean,” he said. “Okay, I will put it to him just that way.”

The Javelina was busy. Well, it was a Friday night, and it was a bar. The man took a seat in the middle of the bar; it was the only one open.

“Mister Cooper,” I said, coming up to him. “What’s your pleasure?”

“A tap,” he said. I got it for him. He tossed a ten onto the bar.

“Thanks.”

“Oh, and we’ve got a candidate. I need to know that you’re still onboard. Rein has kinda given the woman hope. So...” said Herbert. I stared for the briefest of moments. I remembered what he had said about his team being on the verge of identifying a woman for me.

“Really? I mean really?” And yes, I was still kinda surprised in spite of his recent heads up. “You really can do anything with the resources you’ve got in tow, can’t you?” I said.

“Yes,” he said. The man didn’t have any problem with letting one know he had the wherewithal to do what he wanted to do. Well, he had bought my family with his whatsoever, so I guess I shouldn’t have been all that surprised. I nodded.

“Yes, I’m onboard. I’m too damn hard up for companionship to let my pride get in my way at my age.”

“Age is just a number,” he said.

“Yes, and mine’s a large number.”

“I’m older than you,” he said.

“And your number is a larger number than my number. But you already have my use-to-be Valerie, so we’re not on the same plane.” He looked down, then up, then spoke.

“She’s a con, a lifer, but we can get her out. William is taking care of the details with a little help from Rein. We’re looking at about another three to four months, no more than six,” he said.

“Can I ask what’s she’s like? I mean, well, I know I’m not in a position to be Choosey.”

“According to Rein: short, okay looking, skinny, gray-black hair, fifty-five, kinda bitter; well, you can imagine. I mean you...” he said.

“Yeah, the bitter part. It took me a long time to get past that. But I’m cool now.”

My hearer looked dubious.

“No really,” I said. “I’m past the bitterness thing. I guess you could say that I’ve gotten to the realistic stage. I am what I am; I’ve got what I’ve got; and I’m doing okay. You’ve got my family, and a few billion bucks, so you’re for sure doing okay; well, in my opinion. Am I emotionally destroyed that my first marriage didn’t work out, that Jillian sees you as her real daddy? Okay, yeah. But, well, it is what it is.”

“Chase ... okay. Anyway, we’ll work stuff out,” said Herbert. I nodded. “Oh, and Jillian sees me as her stepdaddy and you as her daddy and father, well, now she does.” When he said this last, I didn’t spit in his face. I was done worrying about Cooper lies and exaggerations from whichever source.

After my talk with the Herbert, I was feeling a bit better about things. I’d told him straight about being less bitter as to my situation. Nevertheless, I was still kinda down regardless of my decision to be realistic and just get on with living. Getting by my ex-wife’s betrayal was still a steep hill to climb; and I was still very afraid that I would never make it to the top. But, whatever.

Almost sixty years old and starting over—fuck! And, again, Valerie being with him ... I really wasn’t exactly bitter anymore, but I really was still kinda down emotionally, and, jealous. But, maybe this new lady...

The Park was my place to think, to ruminate. And I was ruminating today. Herb clearly was doing his damnedest to help me out; I’d be giving him credit for that, regardless of everything else. The way I saw things; he was and had been, at the least, trying to make up for his crimes, and hers, against me. There was still a lot of bad water putrefying under the bridge: twenty-five years in prison, their words at the Lone Star, Wilma shining me on, my problem with the way Jillian really saw me in spite of her words denying such. I was desperate!

Sarah Bonaparte was shaking. She’d thought, long thought, that there was no hope for herself, none. Thirty years behind bars, a constant battle to try and remain at least marginally sane. But now, out of the clear blue sky, some guy comes along and says there’s hope. No, not just hope, but the probability that she would be getting out.

She’d have to marry some guy who was likely ugly, old, and more desperate than even she was. No, no, that was not possible, nobody living on planet Earth was more desperate than she was. She’d make the man happy. She just had to hope that he wasn’t the abusive type. She’d had enough of that in prison, her current place of residence. She thought now about her long-deceased husband, Jason Jarvis. She’d killed him, and she was not sorry for that. He turned out to be an emotionally abusive monster and a serial cheater and deserved to die. But she’d paid for her crime, and now she had hope; and she cried.

And now, Sarah Bonaparte had a visitor, but she had not the slightest idea who he was.

“Sir?” she said. “The guard said I had a visitor who was not on my approved visitor list. I don’t even have a list of visitors, well, except for a couple of guys trying to get me outta here. Are you with them?”

“They’re doing what they can at my request,” said Herb.

“Oh my.”

“A friend of mine, who spent a lot of time inside himself needs a friend, a woman friend. Both mister Bach and mister Golding have said that you are willing to be that woman friend,” said Herb.

“Yes sir, anything.” It was clear to her that the man across from her was sizing her up.

“I clean up okay,” she said. Herbert Cooper smiled.

“Yes, I expect you do,” he said. “We will get you out. It’s still some months off, but it is all but a done deal. Stay out of trouble at all costs, and do what mister Golding asks of you,” he said.

“Yes sir, I will,” she said.

The talking went on for a good half hour. Herbert had made up his mind. He would be talking to the head of security for the prison. Miss Bonaparte was going to be an investment, and she had to be protected. Oh yes, she was ideal that was clear to him.

“So, you went to see my client,” said a smiling William Golding.

“Yes, she’s quite acceptable. And I talked to the warden and the guard captain, she, the guard captain, has a problem that Rein will be seeing to,” said Herb.

“Oh?”

“Yes, her son is having trouble with some local bullies because she’s in law enforcement. That said, the kid is about to get a scholarship to the most prestigious school in the state, Emmanuel Christian.”