Letters From the Grave
we’ll get it all. They’ve notified every gold dealer and coin store in the universe. Anyone tries to unload my coins they’ll catch ‘em.”
“You deserve it, pal.”
BJ took a sip and asked, “What about Ryan? Anything new on him?”
“They didn’t say. I think they’re trying to sort out who gets first crack at him?”
BJ smiled and shook his head, then they split as Jake went to pre-flight his helicopter before the film crew arrived.
Silence
In Houston, Will Ryan finished breakfast in his cell when a guard summoned him to the cell door. “Come on, Ryan. You got a date with the Harris County DA and some FBI folks.” He finished slowly up to the cell door, holding his hands in front for handcuffs. When the door was opened, he walked easily through the opening as the guard urged him to move faster. They passed through a series of security doors before entering a large interrogation room without windows. It had numerous steel chairs bolted to the floor around an immovable table. The concrete walls were grey and the floor was black linoleum. There were two men in suits and a stenographer. He was told to sit across the table from the two investigators.
The lead investigator asked, “Mr. Ryan, please confirm your name for the record.”
“I wan’ a lawyer.”
“Mr. Ryan, this is just a preliminary interview and you’re not accused of a crime yet.”
“Then why am I locked up?”
“Well, Mr. Ryan, you were caught in a high speed pursuit with a large amount of stolen property, unregistered guns that appear to be stolen and suspicion of other crimes in Texas and another state.”
Ryan sat back defiantly. “So, I ain’t saying a thing ‘til I get a lawyer. I know my rights.”
The investigators looked at each other in frustration. They initially thought that Ryan would open up somewhat. He had a long record of petty crimes in Oklahoma, but no experience with major felony investigations. He was identified by finger prints, without any other form of identification. His arrest record in Oklahoma had started in his early teens. He had never had any form of legal identification.
“Mr. Ryan, can’t you at least verify your name for the record.”
“I ain’t verifyin’ nothin’ without a attorney.”
They reluctantly let him go back to his cell without accomplishing anything. Neither investigator was eager to request a public defender, which would guarantee that Ryan wouldn’t say more. The County ADA (Assistant District Attorney) had only forty-eight hours from the arrest to file charges.
That afternoon, Jeremy Wallace called Detective Tibbs in Lafayette. He brought Tibbs up to speed on the events in Houston and advised him to get an extradition request into the FBI immediately so that Ryan could be transferred to Louisiana. Wallace also called the Alabama Department of Public Safety to get them moving. The FBI could bring Federal charges for Interstate transport of stolen property, but a murder charge in Alabama or grand theft in Louisiana would be stronger charges.
New Start
The trials for Will Ryan had taken several months of courtroom posturing and countering, not to mention the appeals and threats of more appeals. The coins recovered from Jake’s collection were of uncertain evidentiary value to any of the outcomes, but every jurisdiction felt they were vital to winning their case. When it was over, Jake had half of his collection back, and the thief was behind bars in Louisiana. Texas had finally dropped all charges to let Alabama try the case against Ryan for the murdered Trooper. It ended in a hung jury because the only evidence consisted of a bogus license plate recorded on video from an old pickup at a gold broker and forty-five shell casings from the scene that had all been trampled or run over, or corroded by salt on the road. No bullets were recovered from the body, which had been hit once in the stomach, passing through, and another glancing wound that severed an artery in her neck. The video from her cruiser was inconclusive in the dark with ice covering some of the windshield and strobe lights, masking the people. Will never took the stand.
In Louisiana, the outcome was different. Jake avoided most of the trial, not wanting to hear Callie’s memory trashed in public. Ryan was convicted of felony grand theft, but the majority of the blame fell on a dead girl, unable to defend herself. The defense claimed that Ryan was duped by a very clever female prostitute who used sex to cripple his moral character. Poor Will had a good job as a helicopter mechanic and succumbed to the temptations of the flesh with Callie Murray, according to his attorney. The helicopter crash that nearly killed Jake and the missing neighbor woman in Texas were not admissible, and would probably remain unsolved. Callie’s confession in Georgia was ruled to be inadmissible without the ability to cross exam. For his crimes, Ryan received three years in Louisiana state prison. Based on the outcomes in three states, the Federal Government did not lodge separate charges. Ryan would be a free man in two years with good behavior, minus the time spent jailed during the trials. In total, he had less than a year left to serve in the State Penitentiary. The remainder of the coin collection was probably hidden by the girl after they split up, according to defense closing arguments. No proof was offered that Ryan ever went to Georgia and the video from the Alabama gold dealer was too grainy to support the proposition that Ryan went east with Callie.
Of course, Jake believed Callie’s confession, every word of it. He knew that Ryan had taken the whole collection. He didn’t need conclusive proof to believe Ryan was in Alabama and used Jake’s forty-five to kill the officer. That was a legal decision, not fact. He’d ridden with Ryan to work for months and knew he had a stronger personality than Callie and was capable of terrorizing her. The whole robbery was his concept from start to finish. Ryan just used Callie’s feminine assets and Jake’s old guilt feeling to deceive him into believing she was really Bobby’s little girl.
The missing piece for him was how Ryan ever knew of the collection, and knowledge of the special meaning Bobby had in his past, or that Bobby might be the father. Tibbs and Wallace didn’t believe Ryan’s defense either and said they would privately keep the case open, even though officially closed. Jake was patient and could wait to seek his own justice with Ryan.
New Beginnings
Jake accepted Callie’s death like most adults who had experienced the passing of parents, siblings and friends. Age gives people more tolerance for horrible losses. He was sure, after the fact, that he loved Callie like his own, but she was gone, and he couldn’t change it. Nor could he feel sorry for himself. She had awakened emotions and a joy of living he’d entombed decades earlier. Not only that, she had connected him with Julie, not purposely, but the investigation did that.
He was nervous about meeting Julie in person for the first time. As the trial progressed, they had talked on the phone frequently. She had re-read many of Bobby’s letters and looked at the old pictures. Jake tried to recall Julie’s picture Bobby showed him in the jungle all those years earlier. She was what – eighteen? He estimated that she would be almost fifty now.
When the trial ended and he phoned her with the results, it was more of an excuse to talk again rather than any interest she had. If she cared at all about Ryan’s fate, it was only because of some feeling she might now have for the guy Bobby knew in the Army. She actually suggested that he come to Mineral Wells where both he and Bobby started their flying careers. Her long summer break from school was beginning and she had an extra bedroom. Neither he nor Julie really needed to see remnants of a defunct Army base, but it provided a convenient excuse to finally meet.
He’d been driving for over seven hours, mostly on I-20 and wasn’t tired. He’d started before dawn in excited anticipation, and time soared past. The image from all those years earlier was of a beautiful young girl, slim with long curly brown hair and a smile that would bring joy at a wake. Bobby said she was an outdoors girl, and from his frequent talks with Julie, she was still active, hiking and mountain biking. She liked golf, which he’d
never played. She liked to fish, although she’d never seen the ocean. She’d never been in a helicopter either. They could have fun doing new things together, but that was thinking too far ahead.
Jake was a bachelor and had never shared his life with anyone. She had been married to another man who would always be with her in spirit. His time with Callie was not an adequate test of compatibility to confirm any chance of sharing his life in the future. But why was he even thinking about it? He was just going to meet someone who had befriended him over the phone. There was no prospect of a larger commitment – not now, and maybe not in the future. He also had a lingering sense of disloyalty to a dead friend.
What if she found him ugly or disagreeable? She was educated and had been surrounded by teachers all of her life. He led a completely visceral life. He liked flying because it was still fun and exciting. It wasn’t the kind of enjoyment most people received from a profession. She would probably want to talk about deeply intellectual subjects, and he was still basically a jock. He didn’t get nervous around people. His skills were unique and could not be bested in his narrow niche in the world, but he was leaving it behind on this trip. Even the old connection with Ft. Wolters was gone. It