“Wow. Exactly what Mooney wanted,” I said, chewing. “Exactly what Mooney was hoping for when he blew the poor kid’s head off.”
“I don’t know, Mike. Isn’t some good coming out of this thing better than the alternative?” she said. “What would you do with all that money?”
“I don’t know,” I said after a moment’s reflection. I lifted a napkin and wiped orange sauce off my cheek.
“With my luck, I’ll never have that kind of problem. But I’ll tell you one thing. I’d burn it before I’d do exactly what my kid’s murderer wanted me to do.”
“You’re cold, Mike, you know that?” Carol said as her phone rang. She smiled and nodded as she lifted the receiver. “I like that in a cop.
“No shit!” she suddenly said. “Okay, okay. I’ll send somebody by right away.”
She looked dumbstruck as she racked her phone.
“Your ship just came in. Troopers picked up Dan Hastings along the turnpike in South Jersey. They took him home to his father’s boat.”
Chapter 101
I MET GORDON Hastings in the stateroom of his yacht, the Teacup Tempest, half an hour later. The Scottish media mogul was as sleek as a royal otter in his European-cut double-breasted suit. It was a far cry from the slept-in Margaritaville attire he was wearing at our first encounter.
Call me bitter, but staring at him, I couldn’t forget his drunkenness, rudeness, and stupidity, and his trying to take a swing at me. Worst of all was the fact that Hastings’s New York Mirror had led the NYPD smear job that had started three days after we took care of Mooney.
Accusations of overkill and police brutality were being lodged on a daily basis at Mooney’s miraculous takedown. In fact, law enforcement use of .50 caliber ammunition had become the latest TV talking-head topic. How did that happen? I wondered.
“I want to apologize for how I acted,” Hastings said in his Scottish accent. He gave me his best James Bond grin as he offered his hand. “It was unconscionable, inappropriate, and foolish.”
“You couldn’t be more correct,” I told him, ignoring his hand as I went to talk to his son.
Dan Hastings was at the head of the enormous dining room table, scarfing down a plate of salmon, when I came in and closed the door. A mound of caviar in a sterling silver serving bowl waited by his elbow.
“I’m glad you made it back, son,” I said, shaking the handicapped college kid’s hand. “I’m Mike Bennett, the detective in charge of the Mooney case. I’d like to go over what happened to you.”
“Well, the important thing is that the son of a bitch is dead, right?” Dan said with a weird smile.
“Yes, he certainly is,” I said. “I just need to finish the paperwork. I need you to tell me what happened to you from the beginning.”
Dan nodded as he hit a scoop of caviar. I noticed a slight tremble in his hand as he washed it down with some white wine.
“Let’s see,” he said, chewing. “I was coming out of the library and someone called me over by one of the campus buildings. The next thing I knew, I felt a blow at the back of my head. I woke up hours later in a cave of some sort. I never saw anyone. I was tied up, but after two weeks, I eventually got free. I told all this to the troopers.”
“Humor me,” I said with a grin. “How did you, um, how did you manage to survive for two weeks?”
There was a subtle hitch in his breath.
“There was food there,” he said, avoiding my eyes. “After a week, I finally decided to try to crawl out.”
“Wow, that’s heroic,” I said. “It must have been brutal.”
I’m not sure whether Dan or the silverware jumped higher as I suddenly brought my fist down on the table. I sat down on the table right beside him.
“Maybe everybody else is willing to swallow your bullshit, son, but you obviously haven’t looked into my eyes yet. I’m the person who has to clean up the messes other people leave behind. My only consolation is that I can smell lies from a very great distance.
“You’re a terrible liar, Dan. That’s not a bad thing. It’s actually a virtue in my book. It means you’re new to the world of being a bad person. But you need to stop lying to me. I won’t put up with it.”
He tried to look into my eyes but failed. He lowered his head toward his plate.
“It was Galina,” he mumbled. “It was all Galina’s idea.”
I checked my notes. Galina Nesser was his Russian girlfriend. Christ, what a punk. Right out of the box, he throws his girlfriend under the bus.
“She and her uncle cooked up the whole scheme,” he said. “It had nothing to do with the other kidnappings. They said we could piggyback it. What the hell you want from me, man? I’m handicapped!”
I scribbled in my pad, laid it down, stared at him.
“No, you’re more like an insult to handicapped people,” I said.
“What’s five million dollars to a man like my father?” Dan said as he wept. “I just wanted to get away from him. You don’t know what he’s like. His guilt. I hate it. I hate him. I just wanted to get away. I just wanted to be alone.”
That’s where Dan was wrong. I did understand. I hated and wanted to get away from his father, too.
We could have charged Dan Hastings with a host of things—fraud, misleading an investigation. I decided to give him the worst punishment of all. I grabbed the back of his wheelchair and pushed him back into the stateroom.
“Mr. Hastings, your son has something to tell you.”
“What?” he said. “What is it, Dan?”
“I did it, Dad. I wasn’t kidnapped. It was a trick. I took your money. It had nothing to do with that Mooney guy.”
Gordon Hastings’s regal face imploded like a demolished building. I guess he wasn’t too jazzed about my smiling, told-you-so expression.
“I’m not pressing charges, Officer,” he said, his shock replaced by the sneer that was his natural expression, “if that’s what you were hoping for. I want you off this vessel.”
“What a coincidence. I want me off this vessel, too. Even more than you,” I said on my way out.
Chapter 102
GETTING INTO MY car in the Chelsea Piers marina parking lot, I still couldn’t believe it. What was wrong with that kid? Setting up such complicated money transfers would have been impressive enough on its own. Dan had even convinced that crazy kid to platform-jump off a bridge in order to get him his money.
Wheelchair or no wheelchair, the kid was clever and charming and rich. Wasn’t that enough? If he hated his father so much, why couldn’t he muster up the guts and leave?
Dan must have liked all that money too much, I realized. Leaving would have been hard. Leaving would have required sacrificing luxury. Dan wanted to have his hate, yet not have to pay for it. Hate costs. Even Mooney could have told him that.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong, I decided, looking at the shining yacht. The rich really were just like you and me. Just as stupid, petty, shortsighted, screwed-up, flawed. Just as human through and through.
Staring out at the yuppies doing their Tiger Woods impressions beside the boats, I thought of someone. I scrolled down through my speed-dial list until I found what I wanted and hit the Call button.
“VICAP. Parker speaking.”
“Agent Parker,” I said. “Bennett here. How are you?”
“Mike!” she yelled. She actually sounded happy to hear from me. She must have forgotten how we had said goodbye at her hotel.
“Hey, how are things up there? That party was fun. Man, was I trashed.”
“Not more than me,” I said. “Listen, I just found out we were right when we thought there was something funny about the Hastings kid’s kidnapping. It turns out it was complete bullshit. The kid cooked it up with his Russian squeeze. They did it to rob his father. Nice, huh? Little early Father’s Day present for the old man.”
“Wow,” she said. She was silent for a long beat.
“When Francis X. and I got into our shouting match, he sai
d that today’s youth was worthless. Sometimes I think maybe he was right. Maybe this world has lost its way.”
I tried to say something then, but when I opened my mouth, no words came out. I only wanted what all parents want, a nice place for their kids to live in. It was scary and painful to think of all the crazy, bad things that could happen, the kind of bleak future that might await them.
I looked out at the water. Though the day was bright, the air whistling in through my cracked-open window was harsh, biting, frigid.
“I don’t know about the world, Emily,” I finally said. “All I know is that Mooney is dead, and we’re still on the job.”
I started the car and cranked up the heat.
“That might not exactly be happily ever after,” I said, “but what the hell. It’s a start.”
We managed to get hold of Detective Michael Bennett for an extremely rare interview . . .
How long have you been working in the police force?
I’ve been a cop for sixteen years now. I started out with the NYPD before doing a stint with the FBI before I got married. These days I’m back with the NYPD as a senior detective on the Major Case Squad. I’m a troubleshooter, negotiator; I guess really I’m just whatever is needed by whoever needs it.
What is the hardest part of your job?
There are many tough parts to the job but one of the things I find the hardest is telling people that someone close to them has been murdered. But seeing the pain on their faces makes me all the more determined to track down the killers.
So what is the most satisfying part of your job?
Well it’s certainly not the salary! Plus the hours are demanding and don’t allow me to spend as much time with my family as I’d like to. But when a case comes together and you find the person who has brought misery into the lives of good people, it makes all the sacrifices worthwhile.
Have you ever considered quitting the NYPD to do something else?
Since the major hostage incident at St Patrick’s Cathedral a couple of years back, people have made me out to be a bit of a celebrity cop. I had some nice job offers to do things like corporate security management for ABC, and I guess I considered it fleetingly. It would be a lot safer for myself and my family, I’d have regular hours so could spend more time with my kids, plus we would be a lot better off financially. But when it comes down to it, I’m not ready to hand in my shield just yet. Despite all the crap that comes with it, I love being a cop, it’s who I am.
It must have been terrifying for you when Billy Meyer (aka the Teacher) got into your apartment and held your family hostage?
It’s every cop’s worst nightmare that the guy you’re chasing gets to your family. The only time I’ve felt fear like it was when I heard my wife had cancer. I’ll never allow danger to get that close to my family again. I couldn’t bear to lose them too.
Losing your wife must have been devastating. What kept you going through that time?
It was the hardest challenge that I’ve ever had to face. It’s left a permanent hole in my heart. I still miss her every day. If it wasn’t for the kids, I wouldn’t have made it through. They give me a reason to wake up in the morning. I also hold on to the hope that, if there is a life after this one, I might be able to see her again.
As a single father, how do you manage to do such a stressful job whilst looking after ten children?
Well I get a lot of help from Seamus, and Mary Catherine is a lifesaver. I wouldn’t be able to do it without her. She can take ninety-nine percent of the credit for how the kids have coped without their mother. My kids are by far the greatest achievement in my life. Even when I’ve had a real tough day, when I come home all that fades away and although it isn’t exactly peaceful, to me it’s bliss.
It sounds like you’d be lost without Mary Catherine.
I would, totally. She’s an amazing woman. She feels like part of the family now. Although I don’t know how she puts up with us sometimes.
What do you do in your spare time?
As you can imagine I don’t get a lot of spare time! But what time I do have I spend with my kids. I coach my son Eddie’s basketball team. He’s on the JV. Ricky plays on the varsity squad. When things get stressful I put on some eighties rock music – there’s nothing like a bit of AC/DC to help you unwind.
What does the future hold in store for Michael Bennett?
Well I hope I can keep doing the job I love. I think I’ve got a few years left in me yet!
James Patterson, Worst Case
(Series: Michael Bennett # 3)
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