Fashionably Late (For My Funeral) Pt. 05

20

I drove past our house but there was no car there. I hoped that I wasn't mistaken and they had chosen somewhere else to scatter the ashes. I parked the rented car some distance beyond the house and walked across the dunes to the beach. I wasn't sure that the memorial would actually be held here but rationalized that if Sendi had the choice it would be, and who more appropriate to choose than her.

I had been waiting for over an hour, rehearsing my entrance when I saw the three of them walk onto the beach. I started to walk towards them.

Ruiz took the urn from the small wooden box in which it had travelled from New York. He handed it to Sendi. "You should be the one to do the honors."

"No. We were all his friends and I think that it should be a joint effort."

"All right. Jason," Ruiz held the urn above his head. "In bringing you to the place where you and Sendi were most at peace, we commend your soul to continue in that peace. You have been an inspiration to us all and we will continue to strive to live up to the ideals that you set, in memory of our friendship with you. Go in peace my friend, until we meet again." He handed the urn to Phoebe.

"Jason, I treasure the memories of our short time together. You have given me, given us, hope for the future. Until I met you I was reluctant to even think of bringing a child into this world. The qualities that you have shown us have given me hope that the child in my belly will have a future in a world of uncertain future. I had grown to love you as a friend and, as a friend drew strength from your friendship. I wish you God speed and will hope to see you again in the afterlife. Good-bye true friend." The urn was passed to Sendi.

"My Darling. You have shown me true love and friendship. You have shown me, us, that such emotions still exist in a world devoid of true emotions. You gave of yourself without condition, without the expectation that what you gave should be returned. You came into my world of shallow people and brought into my life a depth of character that transcended all other feelings and emotions."

"You were almost heroic in your support of my emotions, my feelings. At a time when it would have been easy for us to give in to the hype of the industry, you showed me that it was better to rise above that, and that life could be so worthwhile as a result. Most of all my Darling, you showed me the true meaning of love, friendship and family, something that I had lost sight of in my shallow world."

"My Darling I will continue in my life following the standards that you have led me to embrace. I will walk away from my previous life and continue the life that we had together, that beautiful few months that has become my guide to the future. I will treasure the love that you gave me. My one regret is that I don't have your child to remind me of you, but I am in no danger of forgetting you, the man who brought love into my life, life into my love and into my existence."

"This is good-bye my Darling, until we meet again." The three of them were about to walk into the surf to scatter the ashes when they notice a lone figure approaching them.

"We'll wait until he passes." Ruiz said. Looking at the approaching man.

I saw them about to walk into the surf, Sendi holding the urn. I continued walking at my normal pace towards them. At this rate I figured that it would take me around a minute to get to them.

"C'mon man." Ruiz was saying under his breath, "Get past so that we can get on with it." The frustration was showing on his face as his eyes darted back and forth between his friends and the approaching figure.

Sendi looked curiously at the approaching figure. There was something vaguely familiar about the red headed man walking towards them, but she rejected the idea as absurd.

I was six feet from them now. It was time. "Hi guys. Am I late for something."

Sendi was the first to respond. "Jason? Jason it is you!" She put down the urn and launched herself at me across the six feet that separated us. The force of her arrival knocked me over and I fell on my back to the sand with her on top of me. Her lips covered mine in the most passionate kiss I have ever experienced.

Eventually, reluctantly, we stopped and scrambled to our feet. Ruiz took me in a huge bear hug. "Go easy there, I'm pretty fragile just at the moment."

"Oh no! What happened?" Sendi was looking at me to see if she could find where I hurt.

"It's nothing really, just, as they say in the classics, a flesh wound."

"Show me." I took my jacket off so that she could see the wound. She untied the handkerchief and looked closely at the entry and exit points of the wound. "It doesn't look too bad but to be on the safe side I think that we should get a doctor to have a closer look at it."

"No, no doctor. There were a couple of attempts to kill me on the way down and a doctor would have to report a gunshot wound to the police and that will bring the bad guys swarming down here looking to finish the job."

"I think we can arrange something safe. The police have all sorts of influence that they can use when it suits them so it shouldn't be too hard to find a safe doctor, or at least one who will keep quiet for the right amount of money. Getting back to the obvious, where have you come from and who is in here?" He glanced at the urn.

"Him? Oh some car thief who stole the wrong car at the wrong time."

"Why didn't you contact us and let us know that you were alive and well?"

"I thought that it would be better if I didn't. I couldn't be sure that you hadn't been followed and weren't being watched. If I had contacted you, your reaction would have given it away. It also gave me the opportunity to act without having to be continually looking over my shoulder." Taking Sendi into my arms again. "I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you, I'm sorry that you had to go through the pain of believing that you had lost me, but the outcome of what I had to do depended on the utmost secrecy. Do you forgive me?"

"Of course you're forgiven. I'm just glad to have you back."

"Do you think that we could go up to the house and continue this conversation over a cup of coffee and something to eat, I'm starving."

The cup of coffee, unfortunately, had to wait. We entered the house to find a man seated in one of the arm chairs. "Howdy folks. I let myself in, I hope you don't mind. Actually I couldn't care less if you minded or not."

"Who are you?" Ruiz asked.

"I'm sorry, I forgot you guys haven't met me before this, but I'm sure that you've heard my name around the traps. Marshall Griffin." He held out his hand and we, each in turn, shook it.

"The Marshall Griffin, Area Director of the CIA?"

"The very same."

"How did you find us?" I was curious about this.

"We visited the car rental agencies where you got, first the Jaguar, and then the Audi. They fortunately have fitted all of their vehicles with GPS tracking devices, and when we found out that you'd swapped to the Audi we picked you up. Unfortunately that didn't seem to have helped the agents following you. I assume that you had something to do with them crashing. I checked and there is some new accident damage on the front left quarter, consistent with the outcome. I must say that you, Mr. Feldham, are a creative and tenacious man, I've come to realize that. Like so many I under-estimated you and I've begrudgingly formed an admiration for you, it would be a pity to see that wasted."

"Is that some sort of apology or a veiled threat?"

"An apology, of the record of course, you'll get nothing official. Actually I admire the four of you. Miss Soren, I have long been an admirer of your work and I envy Jason for having someone like you who loves him totally. And as for you two." He looked at Ruiz and Phoebe. "What can I say, you have shown the rest of us what all police personnel should aspire to. Two less corruptible people I've yet to meet."

"Enough of this saccharin charm, what do you want with us?" I asked him.

"I have to say that you four, in particular Mr. Feldham here, have caused us a huge amount of grief. Now we have to repair that grief in a way that is beneficial to all parties."

"I haven't caused you any grief. What I have done I saw to be the right and proper thing to do under the circumstances. The fact that you people were involved on the wrong side of the law I might add, is not my fault. Neither is the fact that you got caught out."

"Semantics. Now down to business. I have been asked, no sorry, I have been ordered by the White House, through Langley, to cut a deal with you and cut our losses. We have found ourselves with our asses in a sling and the only people who can save us are you four."

"How can we do that?"

"You have some very important information that has the propensity to be very damaging to us. We want to ensure that it doesn't see the light of day."

"All the information that we have has been turned over to the authorities."

"Not all of it."

"Really? Supposing, just supposing that we have this information, what can you guarantee that will encourage us to hand it over?"

"We can finance your retirement anywhere in the world other than this country. You choose, we pay."

"Sounds good, continue."

"In return we will expect that you will hand over the information that we require and promise that you will mention its existence to any other person or organization."

"And if we don't agree to your demands?"

"You will meet with a terrible accident."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"I guess we don't have a choice. Tell me, what happened to all of that cocaine?"

"If I tell you that I'll have to kill you."

"Just what I thought you'd say. What information do you think we have that is so important?"

"The late and unlamented James Craigmore III had a computer disk on which he stored details of people who used his investment brokerage."

"And who didn't want their involvement made public?"

"You catch on quickly. We would like that disk."

"Presuming that we have it." I had it. I had found it in Melissa's desk drawer along with several other disks when I had cleared out her effects. It had caught my attention because its label wasn't in Melissa's hand writing. When I put the disk into my computer it showed up as having a couple of games on it and nothing else, something that worried me because I knew that Melissa wasn't into computer games. Then I reasoned that the casual person wouldn't search the disk for hidden files and that the games were a front for something more involved.

Whoever loaded the file onto the disk wasn't very creative with passwords. Melissa's birth date backward had gained me access to the files and I had printed off a copy without going into the finer details of its contents, that could wait until I felt safer.

"We know that you have it."

"You mean this one?" I handed him the disk labeled 'JC3'

"This looks like it." He placed the laptop computer that had been on the floor beside the chair, onto the table and fired it up. The disk went in and he keyed in some letters and numbers that accessed the program and file. Satisfied he closed the computer down and stood up. "Now for my part of the bargain, what can we do for you?"

"Give us a couple of days to think this over. How can we contact you?"

"You can't. I'll call by in two days to discuss your desires." He left.

Discussion time. Cup of coffee in one hand, Sendi in the other, and food in my belly I was ready to talk. "At my funeral service you gave your support to the Avenger, well guess what?"

"You? Do you mean to sit there and tell us that you're the Avenger?"

"Was the Avenger. The Avenger no longer exists, his work is done, the bad guys have been dealt with and many of them are behind bars as a result of his efforts. I have always held the persona of the Avenger at arm's length. He wasn't really me, just a method by which I was able to carry out a function that Jason Feldham wasn't."

"How did you do it?"

"Simple, I took a copy of the computer files of the investments in the drug deal and worked my way through them. Not the files that I just handed over, these were Costanzo's. Several of the people weren't aware that their money was being used that way so I advised them to go to their attorneys and file actions to clear themselves."

"Those that knew and condoned the investment were bound and gagged and I left a copy of the relevant records pinned to their chest before I called 911 and had the police arrive and arrest them. It was simple and effective and I achieved it without fuss almost before the people concerned were aware of what was happening. Swift and decisive action was the important element here."

"The DA committed suicide after his wife visited him. She convinced him that his only option was to take his life and avoid an ongoing investigation into his past association with Guido Costanzo. She gave him the means and opportunity and he obliged."

"I had one final act as the Avenger this morning. The man that raped and killed Melissa is probably in hospital as we speak suffering from a loss of blood and, more importantly, the means of committing any more rapes. I shot him in the groin. That's not all, in the same hospital is probably one Rocco, who looked after me so well not long ago, protesting to anyone that will listen that it was me and not him that shot Luigi in the balls. Not many people are going to listen. Did you happen to hear the latest news?"

"What news?"

"It seems as if three members of the CIA have been charged with involvement in the importation of drugs and the murder of Guido Costanzo. As well as that there have been reports that several prominent members of the DEA have been implicated as well. It seems as I have really opened a large can of worms."

"That explains our recent visitor."

"Yes. Plus the fact that two men who I assumed at the time that they were from the CIA, a fact that Griffin just confirmed, tried to run me off the road on my way down here. I got here, they didn't."

"Dead?" Ruiz couldn't hide the new found respect from his voice.

"I'm pretty sure that they are."

"You really surprise me. I wouldn't have picked you as being so creative."

"Needs must you know."

"What are you going to do now?"

"What are we going to do now? We are going to go back down to the beach and cast the symbolic memories of the Avenger into the surf. After that we get me fixed up and then we, all of us, are going to have a couple of days here to relax and plot the future. I am resuming my real name, I'll still write, but because I can't use that or the name of Jason Feldham I'll have to find another. Actually I had a thought that this story would make a good basis for a novel, it's incredible enough to be believable. I probably won't be able to use Felix as an agent because he'll want to make the most of the situation and promote the life out of it."

"I can't see too much wrong with that."

"If Sendi and I are to have any peace in the future we have to disappear from the spotlight. Sendi can achieve that by announcing that she has been devastated by her loss and is going into seclusion somewhere to put her life into some sort of perspective. Her publicist will release a statement to that effect that she will be giving no further statements to the media. We had decided that this will be a good place to write and Sendi and I will be able to live quietly here, but in the light of the recent offer, that we can't refuse, we will be forced to leave the country. Before we do anything else I am going to consult a specialist to see if my problem in fathering children can be overcome and, if it can, I plan to father as many children as Sendi and I can have. Sendi and I are going to get married as soon and as quietly as possible." The pressure of her hand in mine confirmed her approval. "And we want you there. What are your plans?"

"We are going to take a couple of days off and make sure that you guys have a good time, then Phoebe and I are going back to New York to formally resign from the police force. We told the department that we intended to and they have told us to take some time to think about it. We have had enough time. What happens from there we haven't decided yet, something will come to mind"

"The main thing at the moment is to find an appropriate environment in which we can raise our children." Phoebe looked towards Ruiz, "We plan to have many more."

"Here would have been as good a place as any."

"You two have your own lives to live you don't want us pissing in your pockets."

"When I said here I didn't mean with us. I'm sure that there are other places around here you could buy."

"If we accept the offer that Griffin has just made, and I don't see us refusing, we can go anywhere we like, the South Pacific sounds fine. I can just see us lazing around on some deserted beach eating coconuts and fishing."

"And how long before you get bored?"

"It's just a thought. I'm sure that we can come up with something over the next two days."

"I suppose that we will have to change our identities. I don't trust the CIA to be able to keep a lid on this, and sooner or later someone is going to want to find us and claim back the money that they believe that I have cost them."

"Leave that to me," Ruiz said, "I have friends in high, and low, places and, one way or another we'll be safe."

"I hope so because I don't think that I could go through this again." Sendi said as she kissed me. "Do you think that you can manage to show me just how much you love me with your wounded wing?"

"I think that after we consign whatever it is that's in this box to the waves Phoebe and I will go for a long walk along the beach, a very long walk." Ruiz said. "I think they want to be alone." He mock whispered to Phoebe.

"Do you really think so?" She said as if the thought had never occurred to her.

The water was cold, not that we noticed. We all said a quick prayer for the symbolic ashes before we tipped the urn over and allowed the wind and waves to carry them out to sea.

"I'm sorry I put you through all that pain." I whispered to Sendi as we settled into out bed. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"Does this answer your question?" Her hand had found and was stroking my cock and it, having anticipated this moment was already hard. "I want all of you with me for all time, not just this. You broke my heart by dying on me, and I was even contemplating whether I could face life without you."

"I know, I was at my funeral and what you said was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard, I was actually crying, people around me were crying too, so I didn't feel alone. I wasn't grieving the loss of me or the sadness of your words, I was grieving the hurt that I'd inflicted on you. All that I could think of was to get this over with and get back to you. When that thug that shot me went down it was all that I could do to restrain my anger, not just at what he'd done to Melissa, but that he was trying to keep me away from you. I just couldn't let him, but to have killed him would have meant I'd have to deal with the police and they wanted to talk to me about a whole raft of things. It would have taken days and I couldn't allow that to happen. That was all that stopped me, the thought of being kept from you a minute, a second longer than necessary. I love you my Sendi, more than life itself. When the Avenger was doing his thing his alter-ego was thinking only of you and this moment."

My caresses, my kisses, spoke of my love for her in greater clarity than my words ever could. Her lips covered mine as if to stem the flow of inadequate words and allow me to get on with loving my spiritual Sendi.

Much later, when I eventually entered her body, she gave a sob of pleasure and clung to me as I slowly made love to her with more passion and feeling than I had ever experienced. I could feel that she was giving herself to me totally and I was humbled by her gift of love. Finally spent, I lay at her side. "You amaze me my Darling," she whispered, "any other man that I've ever been with would have gone at it like a bull at a gate to show how glad he was to be with me again, but you knew exactly what I wanted, what I needed, and that was to savor this moment so that it will stay with me for the rest of my life. I love you, you are my life, we are my life and I am your life, forever our lives are now one. Now will you please make love to me again, I want to feel once more what it is like to be part of a wonderful thing."