Next Door Neighbor

He told me about his family, and that he didn't want to make his mark that way – that was why he'd volunteered for the military, so that he could do something on his own. Said when he got out, he was going to pass or fail on his own name. Sounded pretty reasonable to me, so I didn't have any reason to doubt him. Didn't know the local Family was his, though; you kinda forgot to tell me their names, remember?'

That flustered her for a few moments before she told me 'Well, you might like to know that we're starting hear from our informants that old Benny has said to lay off you, that everything's cool. That, coupled with Vinnie Castillo being in the hospital and Charlie Petrovski telling people that you're – and I quote – 'one*bad* motherfucker', has about convinced anyone with any sense to leave you way alone. We're going to give it another day to see if the story holds up. If it does, we're going to reduce your detail – the only people you'll have to worry about then are the freelancers, and they're so inept that they shouldn't be any problem.'

I nodded my understanding, and told her that Lucy and the girls would be happy to hear that. Clara went on to tell me 'Just make sure you keep that vest on, and don't forget your weapon. You're still damn important to this investigation, and we don't want to see anything happen to you.'

I asked how things were going, and she told me 'They're going great.

The banks have been extremely cooperative, and our forensic accountants have taken what you gave them, and run with it. They've been at it all weekend, and expect to be done by tomorrow afternoon.

The last figure I heard was that the money they can directly attribute to you is three hundred and seventeen million dollars. This morning, they told us that they had roughly one point four BILLION dollars frozen, and were able to prove that all of it was destined for, or sourced from, illegal operations. They think they'll have a few hundred million more before they're done. This morning, we took down the honchos from TechnoDynamics; we snagged each of them as they showed up for this mornings meeting. We also got them under RICO – Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations – to seize all their property, too. Larceny, fraud, money laundering, drugs, weapons, tax evasion, and accessories to murder are just SOME of the charges they're facing. This one is going to be a beauty of a case; we figure to get at LEAST a quarter of old Benny's organization; with a little luck, we'll take out half or more of it.'

I shared her smile, and asked how much of what she'd just told me I could share with the owners of the company, and Lucy's boss. She thought a moment, and said 'You can tell them the financial part of it, and the stuff that directly affects them. Benny knows we're onto him, but not how bad we can hurt him – we'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible.'

I agreed, and thanked her for her time. She smiled, and said 'Believe me, it was MY pleasure. I'd be happy to come and clean your HOUSE after you bring us a case like this. Shucks, I'd clean Lucy's house, too, while I was at it. And I've got a couple dozen agents that would be willing to do yard work for you, too!', she laughed.

I chuckled at her enthusiasm, and she calmed down a bit and told me 'Dan, I don't think I've*ever* had my people so happy and enthusiastic about protecting witnesses. No, come to think about it, I KNOW they haven't. Jones, Gallery, and Hendricks are all singing your praises. Every agent that you've come in contact with has made a point of mentioning how polite and friendly you are. I know you had four of them in the pool with you the other day, and all the other agents are actually jealous that they weren't on your detail that day. Sometimes they've had to protect people they didn't like very much – like Mob informants and such. But every one of them considers it an honor and pleasure to be on YOUR detail. Knowing your record, and seeing you shoot, they know that they're there more for Lucy and Robyn and Sandra than you; but even protecting the people you care about means something to these people – because it's YOU trusting them with YOUR loved ones. They know that you respect who they are and what they do – and for the most part, they just don't get enough of that in their jobs.'

'What you said is right – I DO trust them, and respect them. But I have a question for you.'

'What's that?'

'Is there any way that I can thank them for their time and efforts?

Without causing offense, or getting anyone in trouble?'

She thought it over for a few moments, then told me 'I can think of a couple of things. First, we have an Emergency Fund for agents. It covers things like expenses for the families of agents that are wounded or hurt in the line of duty. A contribution to that would certainly be welcomed. If you wanted to do something for the people on your details, something that applied to all of them equally would be acceptable.'

I nodded and thanked her, she assured me it wasn't a problem. We went on to talk about a few other things before I finally took my leave to head back to the hotel. I let Agent Gallery know I was going to make a detour along the way, and after I explained why, he readily agreed to it.

At the park, I wandered around a bit before I found the homeless man we'd seen the previous day. He watched as I approached, and when I got close enough, he told me 'I remember you. You were the guy with the blonde and two kids yesterday. If you're here about the chicken, I waited to see if you were coming back for it; when it didn't look like you were, I ate it myself.'

'No, I'm not here about the chicken. I'm here about you.'

'What about me?' he asked, slightly suspicious.

'I'm curious to know what happened that put you here.'

Only slightly mollified, he asked 'Why? You one of those church people that thinks if you can save my soul, that's all I need?'

'Nope. You wanna be saved, you know where the church is; no matter to me if you go, or not. You're not dirty, and you're staying away from the junkies and drunks on the other side of the pond. I'm just curious to know why.'

More relaxed, he thought about it for a few moments and finally told me 'My name is Mark Sellers. I used to be a carpenter, until some old guy in a Caddie ran through the construction site I was on. Knocked out the wall I was working on, and ran over my leg – broke it in four places. The old guy was like eighty, and could hardly see or hear, but had a valid license. His insurance paid for my hospital and medical, but wouldn't do anything about teaching me how to get around again after they put all these pins and shit in my leg. Now I can't move around like I could before, and can't do carpentry like before – at least, nothing above ground level, which kinda put the kibosh on how much work I could do. I get a little work now and then, but nothing much, and nothing steady.'

'How do you keep yourself clean and such?'

'There's a convenience store a few blocks over; they let me use it to wash up in the morning because I leave it cleaner than when I go in.

A Laundromat lets me run a load of clothes once a week in exchange for cleaning the place up. Every so often, I get somebody that lets me hang a picture or do a little light work; that keeps me in food, mostly. The cops know I'm not part of that bunch on the other side, so they leave me alone. A couple of the junkies tried to rip me off, and I managed to beat hell out of them, so the rest stay away, too.'

'Doesn't sound like you feel sorry for yourself.'

'Why should I be? Shit happens. The old man, he shouldn't have been on the road, but the law says it's okay with them, so I'm not gonna piss and moan about it. I do what I can, and hope I catch a break before the weather gets bad.'

I looked him over, and he sat there without looking away. Finally, I told him 'I think I might be able to help, if you want it. You'd have to learn a new job, but it would still be something involving housing and construction. Interested?'

He looked at me skeptically, and asked 'And what's it gonna cost me?

Didn't look like you were into guys, yesterday. You don't know me, so you got no reason to trust me. What's the deal?'

'The deal is, I'm doing it*because* you're doing what you can, *because* you're not part of that bunch on the other side. What it's gonna cost you is your time and your effort to learn something new. I think I've got the best reason in the world to trust you: because you haven't asked me to.'

That surprised him, and he looked at me with more curiosity than suspicion when he asked 'And what do you get out of it? How do you get paid back for all this?'

'What I get out of it is helping somebody 'catch a break' – I've been in a couple scrapes myself, and know what it means. I get paid back when you do the same thing for someone else.'

'How do you know that's gonna happen?'