Chapter 2

The local newspaper picked up the fact that the police had shot and killed a person and had questioned the home owner who had killed one other of the intruders. It was determined this was a home invasion. A few days later the two men killed were identified as two brothers named, Fellows from out of state and both had long rap sheets.

The two had been identified in one home invasion years ago in another state, but never caught. The story was picked up by the wire services and a headline and short item of the shooting appeared in Yahoo News posted on the internet. Crimes are still of an interest whether local, or country-wide.

For my information only, Clark said they were Mary's brothers. He had met them only once. They were older than Mary and she had married and divorced when in her teens. The police didn't make any family connection because of the difference in names.

Summer came and I was really busy. Clark did have his shoulder replaced and went through therapy. Over time and through my questions to Clark, I found how and why the kidnapping occurred and how he was involved. I had the feeling he was basically an honest man, but weak. He vacillated between being tough and determined and or weak and unable to make up his mind which way to proceed.

"I guess I had better begin at the beginning. I don't know how in hell I could screw up my life like this. I was a school teacher teaching middle school in the poor section of the city. This was in Detroit. I was in my early twenties and I was looking for a woman to make me happy. I used to walk by this orphanage and see this good looking young woman, but she always seemed sad. It began with a 'Hi' sometimes and then I often stopped and we would talk for a few minutes.

"I found out she had been married for a short time, but it didn't work out. We became close, too close thinking back. It wasn't long before I would do anything she asked of me. A year later she said she had figured out a way to make a lot of money. I was bothered because I thought we were earning enough to be comfortable.

"One day she came to me with plans all put together. The plans were to snatch a child and get away with the money. She said this was a child whose mother wasn't very nice. She said the little girl's father and mother were exceedingly rich and didn't deserve to have either a child or a lot of money. When I asked how we would return the kid, she said that was something I didn't need to know about, but she promised the child wouldn't be harmed."

"Just because of that, there isn't any reason to think you should steal their child."

"I know. Listen, I checked and the real mother, Eleanor Raven, was connected, an alcoholic, and slutted around on her husband. George is into union racketeering and most specifically money laundering. What were they going to do, call the police?"

"If the snatch was in the papers they must have got involved?"

"It was way after the fact when the newspapers learned of it."

"You two had to have guts. Christ, it's a wonder you are still alive."

"I know, but as I said Mary's family had connections. You saw what they were just a few days ago."

"What about you, you must have connections too?"

"No, I was an ignorant patsy."

"That's hard to believe, but go on. How did this happen so you didn't get caught?"

"I had nothing to do with the arrangements of the snatch. Mary had connections and help with the actual abduction. My chore was to pick up the ransom money. A trash truck was provided. Raven was to put the money in a specially marked trash bag and put it in the pile with the other bags on the sidewalk.

"Remember this was back before the city used dumpsters. Trash would come down from the tenements and the bags thrown in a pile. The trash truck had three men on it. There was the driver and two men, one on a foot-stand on either side at the rear of the truck."

"Someone must have been watching the bag. How did you get away with it?"

"I was on the sidewalk side as a pickup man. The truck would drive up to the pile of trash and the men on back would drop off and start slinging bags. Anyone watching couldn't keep track of one bag. Twice during the pickup the compactor had to be triggered. While one man ran that, the other was bringing more bags from the pile to the truck and the process would start all over again.

"I spotted the bag as we drove up. I ignored it until I was moving bags to the truck for the second cycle of the compactor. There was room to hide the bag under a canvas that hung down over a metal brace. The canvas was up and I just slid it in onto it and dropped the canvas. Understand these were regular city workers who now had a couple hundred extra dollars in their pockets. They didn't ask questions.

"So how did you get away with the money?"

"It was pretty damned neat. This was the last pickup on that particular street. The truck turned into an alley. My car was in about four car lengths headed out. As soon as the trash truck turned in, the regular worker was waiting by my car. I stepped down and ran along beside the truck pulling the bag from the shelf where I had hidden it.

"I was then beside my car and I tossed it through the door and onto the passenger's side. I slid in, pulled a blanket over the bag and drove out onto the same street the truck had come from. The trash man just stepped up onto his stand and took over his regular job.

"Two cars must have been following the trash truck. When I drove out the alley, the cars had to wait for me to exit. They did and then I drove away." Clark was grinning and I was shaking my head in disbelief at his luck in pulling this off.

"I picked this area here when looking for a home. I saw a magazine advertisement listing the house. I drove down here and using my own money, I bought it. A month later, Mary and the baby showed up and moved in with me. A new problem surfaced at that time. The plan was that she would return the baby before meeting me. She decided to keep the kid for herself for awhile. She never did give it back, as you well know."

"Did you divide the money?"

"Yeah, the first night she was with me. She was supposed to wait six months before moving here, but she was anxious about the money because it was all with me. She didn't have a plan for keeping the two-year-old child and had to land someplace quickly. She had me wrapped around her finger, and was afraid if she didn't get to me, I would give the whole kidnapping away."

"Basically she wanted the money and to keep Amy too, is that it?"

"Yeah, and it didn't take many weeks before I didn't want to give up the child either. Amy was a sweet kid."

"So tell me about the breakup between you two?"

"As time went on, Mary became less and less loving and I finally realized none of this was about me. I was just a weak person who had been taken advantage of. I thought Amy loved me and I know I loved her. Mary went by my name although we never married. Somehow Mary had generated a birth certificate for Amy. I guess working in an orphanage she could do that. I was glad of that and I suppose Mary could come back as a common-law spouse. I'm not going to worry about her anymore after what has happened with her sending her brothers after me."

"Roger, do you want the key to the locker? It's in my name?"

"No, you hang onto it. If we can find Amy, we can give it to her. The money should go to her. If her true parents died she would be the heir anyway."

"Are they alive?"

"I have no idea. I do believe Amy has had a good life. I did everything with her when she lived here. I don't think Amy knew Mary and I weren't getting along; we were careful to keep it from her. Mary had given me a couple of rough years before she left. She claimed I wasn't man enough for her. I knew our separating was coming so it was no surprise.

"Mary couldn't logically go after my half of the money. I gave her a check from my personal account for $10,000 and about a hundred thousand from my share of the kidnap money. She had to be satisfied with that. Think of it, I gave away a hundred thousand dollars and it didn't bother me a bit. I went to work when I first came here, and Mary was secretary in that nursing home next to the hospital after Amy started school."

"Clark, I still haven't got a sense of what kind of person you are."

"Back to calling me Clark, are you?" Clark grinned, and then went on. "I tell you, I'm a complicated individual. Would you believe I haven't figured myself out yet, either?"

"Tell me some facts that I can believe ... some that I can check on and verify."

"I can do that. You know some about me if you would stop and think. I'm a good worker, I like things clean. God, what a mess it was to clean up after I used the shotgun on that guy. Thank God there are people who don't mind jobs like that. I knew he was one of the brothers who trapped me upstairs weeks ago. I can tell you now I was waiting with a gun in my hand for them to come back after me.

"I like to read. Go upstairs and look at the books I read, that'll tell you more about me. I like to be by myself and you know that too. You've been my neighbor and know I'm not too friendly. Yes, and I can rise to the occasion if called to do something and not have to think about it too long."

"Like what?"

"Like when I was involved in kidnapping Amy. Mary had it all planned and I followed directions just as instructed. I had less than 24 hours from being told what I had to do and when it went down. Recently when I was under attack, I picked up my gun and began shooting. On the flip side, it took me years to get Mary out of my life. That was after I decided it needed doing and we both would be safer. It came to where we weren't getting along at all and it seemed senseless if we were ever caught for both of us to go to prison. Mary was the one that should move and safely shield Amy on one more level."

"I guess I know more about you than I thought. I still don't know where you work or what you do there? I've heard it is a diner."

"I'm the kitchen manager of a good-sized restaurant. It's just an everyday privately owned one. No big deal, but the food is good. I'll get you a seat sometime. You let me know when."

"That wasn't in the paper when the story came out?"

"Nope. I knew the newspaper owner is family of the restaurant owner and I asked that it be kept out of the paper. The paper obliged."

"One last question, how much ransom did you ask for?"

"Mary asked for two million thinking she might possibly get one million. They came back immediately with an offer of one and a half million. That's what was in the trash bag when we opened it a month later on the kitchen table. I suppose you want an accounting of how much I have left?"

I grinned, "You might as well tell me. I have the key to the locker."

Clark grinned back. "There is exactly one half million in those two suitcases. You may wonder at that. The $1,500,000 was divided evenly to start. Then I had to pay $50,000 to Mary as reimbursement she provided to pay the men who helped her set up the kidnapping. When she left I gave her $100,000 of my share. That leaves me with $600,000. Let us just say I have a few thousand hidden around the house here and I have $60,000 in a bank account I've managed to save from my job just by not spending too much. I earned all of that."

"So the rumors about you have hidden money and are rich is true?"

"You say so, so I guess it's true."

"How much did Mary leave here with?"

"Not sure, but most of her $750,000 and what I handed her. You do know it is difficult to spend cash in any great amount. I could have kept the house up, but I would have had to pay in cash. That would have fueled the rumors even more that I have money stashed."

"So what is in the future for you? You've committed a crime that doesn't have a statue of limitations. You are reasonably wealthy, but can't spend enough of it to live comfortably and you're all the time looking over your shoulder. You're alone. I asked you about your future, but I don't think you have much of one. Not here anyway. What you need to do is to stop idling and figure out something to make your life better."

"I've told you that is part of my problem. I've had twenty-six years to figure it out. You can't imagine what a rush it was to move into this house and have $700,000 in a locker a few minutes away. Then reality sets in. It's like you just said, I can't figure out a future.

"There is one more thing that I could do. I could confess, return what money is left to the Ravens and end up with life in prison. That doesn't appeal much to me, but I have thought about it. Hey, do you want to make some money? Maybe you should turn me in. There must be some reward."

"Clark, no thanks. I'm doing well on my own so I guess not. If you get caught, I'm going to deny knowing anything about you or your past."

"Thanks, Dixon, I appreciate your being such a good friend."

I had to leave for a few days doing a follow up on a building we had the contract to produce blue prints. It was a small church in a black neighborhood and I was doing it with barebones profit. The night I returned home there was a knock on my door. Thinking it was Clark from next door, I opened it with a glad smile.

It was a woman with her back to me looking at the house across from mine. She whirled, "Hi Beau, you look glad to see me so you must remember me."

"Amy?"

"Yeah, and all grown up too. Beau, the last time we were together, I gave you something a girl doesn't ever forget."