Chapter 50
News of an Old Friend
(Ó
2010)
Four Days Later
The Chicago Five Point Lounge
Fountain Hills, Arizona
David Todd, now into his sixties, sat at the desk in his small office in the back of the kitchen of the Chicago Five Point Lounge, going over the receipts for the past two days. After his retirement from the Chicago Police Department, he and his wife Regina did finally move to where they always planned to retire, in the area known as The Valley of the Sun in Maricopa County, Arizona. However, David did not remain retired. He did become a deputy sheriff for the Maricopa Sheriff’s Office for almost ten years. Then some five years ago, he and Regina decided to take the chance and open a piano lounge and nightclub that David always said he would like to do. David had told his beloved Regina that he did not want to ever retire. He would see all of the guys his age or older who were, and he said that, “They all seem to be going crazy because they now had nothing to do.” So he came up with the logical conclusion, “We are in the place we wanted to be when we retired, why not do something we like while we’re here and make a little extra money.”
They then brought in their nephew Jamal from Chicago. While in his high school years, Jamal got a job working at a popular diner in the neighborhood near his Uncle and Aunt after his mother Coretta became employed at the local grocery store that his Uncle Dave had set up for her. Coretta over the years became assistant manager of that very grocery store. Jamal had caught what his Uncle Dave would call “the cooking bug”, Jamal would go onto learn to be a short order chef from the owner of the diner. He would later enroll in the Chicago Culinary Institute and study his art there. He did work in some of the better restaurants in the Chicago area upon his graduation. When his Uncle David and Aunt Regina had proposed the business offer, he took it immediately and became a business partner. Jamal always wanted his own kitchen to run, and his Uncle always wanted a lounge and nightclub. The offer was for Jamal to run the kitchen while David and Regina ran the tavern and lounge and it has been working out well for the three of them.
The Chicago Five Point Lounge was founded. It was named so for the design of the five pointed badge of the Chicago Police Department. The kitchen served well known Chicago favorites such as the deep dish pizzas, burgers, and hot dogs. It was also known for its steaks, pork chops and its “South Side Style” Bar-B-Q. The lounge and nightclub was in a dark wood décor with a stage area for the piano and jazz band. Of course, there were four television screens that always showed all of the Chicago professional and collegiate sports teams, and the Five Point Lounge was a favorite among the “Snow Birds” from the Windy City who were either vacationing there or had their winter homes in the surrounding locations.
The Chicago Five Point Lounge was also located right by the famous fountain in Fountains Hills Arizona, where at every top of the hour the fountain would come alive and shoot its stream of water some three hundred feet into the air.
David was looking at the total numbers first from the last two days receipts and was pleased with what he saw. He was just about to open the older of the two when the web phone on the computer on his desk began to signal that there was a call. An icon appeared that read “CAPTAIN SKI”. It was a call coming in from his former partner, Noel Jaworski. David had programmed the computer phone to read as such because Noel had retired a few years earlier than he did and moved to Miami right afterwards. Noel had to raise and take care of his remaining younger child after the death of his wife Mariola, who passed away from ovarian cancer in early 2012. After the youngest enlisted into the military, Noel found himself all alone in his home. He took his retirement and moved to Miami where he purchased a charter vessel and went into business taking locals and visitors alike out on the Atlantic for a day’s excursion to either go fishing or just to relax on the ocean. Some ten years ago, he had met a wonderful woman of Cuban decent while he was out with friends in the area known as “Little Havana”. Her name was Esmeralda Maria Morales Sanchez. She was a divorced mother of three grown children and she and Noel began to date. Their relationship blossomed further and two years afterwards they both were married. Noel and she both work in their chartered boat business together and have a small apartment in the marina where their boat is docked.
David saw that it was Noel and set the stack of receipts down and touched the icon on the screen and then appearing was the deep tanned face of Noel Jaworski. He was calling right from his boat and it appeared to be out on the blue Atlantic. Noel was wearing a typical tropical style shirt, sunglasses and a captain’s hat.
“Hey Ski! How it going Skipper? What do I owe this surprise too?” David said, very happy to see his old friend.
“Hey Dave! Well, funny you should use the word ‘surprise’, because I tell ya man, that’s how I’ve been feeling for the past few days, and it is a surprise that I have to share with you.” Noel answered. “You ain’t gonna believe this man.”
“Come on Ski,” David quipped back, “There is nothing that I don’t believe anymore. I was a cop almost thirty years, I went through three bouts of teenage years, one was a girl’s teen age years, and I’m in my sixties now and a grand-dad. Come on man, nothing surprises me anymore.”
“You have spoken to soon my old friend … this … is gonna knock you on your ass.” Noel said with a big grin on his face. “Is Regina around?”
“No, she’s out watching the front.”
“You alone in the office there?”
“Yeah … I am.”
“Shut the door man, I’m gonna send you over a couple of links.” Noel said, “Open the news story one first, but do me a favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Set your webcam up so that I can still see your face when you see this, I just gotta see your expression man.”
David now looked inquisitively at his old friend. He then stood and closed the door to his office, then sat back down in his chair. He set his computer web phone they way Noel asked. When he would open the link that Noel had sent him, Noel would then have a ‘picture on picture’ on his own screen. He would then simultaneously watch the link with David, however in the upper right hand corner; Noel would also see the face of David Todd as he watched also. “Okay Ski, it’s all set up. Come on man, what’s this all about.”
The grin on Noel’s face grew larger and he answered, “The only hint I’ll give ya, is that it has to do with an old friend of ours.”
David now grew more curious, he then touched the screen where the icon was for the news link, sat back in his chair and watched the video.
The news story begun at the front security gate of a private community in Boca Raton Florida. It was the unusual story that concerned a woman who lived in this private community, her name is Melonie Church. It was the story of a high school sweetheart that she had … in 1969 … some seven decades ago. Her boyfriend’s name was Brent Michael Lyle, and they both were from a small town in Michigan at that time. He had killed his father in self defense. Fearing for his future life, the boy had run away from home and was never, ever heard from again by anyone who had ever knew him. It turned out that the boy had run away and hid through an organization that was somewhat forgotten back then. An organization known as … the French Foreign Legion … and this boy … this Brent Lyle … had changed his name to … Logan Ian Morrow.
Noel sat with anticipation looking at the video image of David Todd’s face, when the name of Logan Ian Morrow was revealed, Noel watched as David’s jaw dropped open. The story then continued of how this Logan Morrow spent his entire life in hiding in the most God forsaken places in the world for seventeen years and then spent the rest of his life in the country that helped to hide him, France. Of how he was even a police officer in France. It showed a book that he had written about his life, however, the book only dealt with his life in the French Foreign Legion and his service with the French National Police. The book was entitled “ON TWO FRONTS”. The story then concluded with how Mrs. Church had always, through her entire life, wondered what had ever become of her high school sweetheart, she feels a great weight has lifted from her, and that she was fortunate and blessed to be able to live long enough to discover what had happened to him, and to bring closure to her with this life long mystery. The video then showed the two women news anchors of the Miami television station that the news link had originated from. One of the women anchors then informed the audience that Logan Ian Morrow had passed away some six months prior, that he revealed himself to the police department in the small town where he had first fled from after his death by mailing his book and a long letter to the authorities there. This was done through instructions to his attorney. The news story was just a little over four minutes long, it then came to an end and the screen was then black.
Noel looked at the expression of his good friends face; it was almost thirty seconds before David was able to speak. “Jeez, un-fucking believable. He … he just popped up again.”
“Told ya man.” Noel said, “I’m sending you another icon, open it.”
David saw the icon as it appeared and then touched the screen to open it. His screen was then filled with the portrait of a very beautiful woman. She had dark naturally curly hair, dark brown eyes with a sparkle that you could not help but notice, and full naturally pink lips that were in a loving smile.
“She’s beautiful … who is she?”
Noel answered, “That my friend is Lillian Emily Morrow. She was a hairdresser in Paris. One day in 1993 when she was on her way to get some tea, she was grabbed by two Albanian guys, taken into the alley next to the salon that she worked in, and was stabbed twice in heart. Her last words were of her calling the name of her husband, Logan, who was a police officer.” Noel paused for a second then said, “Him being a police officer was the reason she was murdered. I found Morrow‘s book online in one of the book clubs. I downloaded it to my e-book. I got that picture from the chapter that he wrote about her. I read that chapter first. You’re going to get a copy of it for e-book in an email from me so that you can download it and read it too.”
“Thanks.” David said then stared down at the portrait of Lillian Morrow, he looked for a few more seconds and then closed the icon, then the image of Noel came back to the full screen. “I’m … like … totally speechless man. After all this time. It’s like … over.”
“I don’t know Dave, I feel like it’s over … but it isn’t.”
“Yeah … I know what you mean … I feel like we still have to do something.” David said.
Noel then asked, “Did you ever tell Regina about Morrow? I mean that he was the only suspect to us?”
“No … I never did. I didn’t want to say anything to her unless I was sure. Besides, if she didn’t know, then nobody could do anything to her if something went wrong, you know what I mean?”
“Yeah I do know. I never told Mari anything about it either for the same reason.” Noel paused, and then he asked, “You don’t think that anything is going to come from all of this do you? I mean back in Chi-Town. He does still have his name on file there.”
“No,” David answered confidently, “I don’t think anything will even surface with all that. And if it did … so what? What the hell are they going to do? That was over forty years ago man. And the political shit storm that it caused, plus with all of the other political shit storms that came from those days? I don’t think that Chicago wants to return to what it once was back in those days. No, when Morrow died, The ‘Tapper’ died.” David sighed and added, “Like that lady there in Florida, I feel fortunate enough to have lived long enough to find out what happened to him.”
“And …” Noel spoke up while holding up his index finger, “to know of the reason why. She was beautiful … wasn’t she Dave?”
“Yes … yes she was.” David answered, “Now we know the reason why.” He paused himself for another second then said, “I still feel like I have to do something though.”
“Me too.” Noel said, “And I think I know what it is that we can do.”
“What’s that Ski?”
“I was listening to the news on the radio this morning and they were talking about that Church woman. She said that she and her family are making plans to go to France to visit his gravesite. She says that it will give her a final closure.”
David looked at his friend and asked, “Are you saying that we should up and go to France too? To go see Morrow’s grave?”
“Why not Dave?” Noel said, “Don’t ya think we deserve a final closure too? Besides, it’ll be fun. We’ll take the wives and finally go to Europe. Go to Spain and Italy as well … maybe even Greece.”
“You’re right there,” David said, “I mean we’ve taken them all over the Caribbean, Mexico, Rio, and Hawaii. We should take some time and take them there. Yes, we can stop in France and see his grave and close this all up.”
“I hear that it’s not that far from Paris either … so that alone is a plus.”
“You know what Ski … I think we should do it. I’m gonna talk to Regina about it today.”
“And you both can spend a couple of days here with Esmeralda and me before we go.” Noel suggested happily.
“On the boat? Do some fishing?”
“Sure ‘nuff”
“Okay then Ski, looks like we got a plan to make.” David said, “Thanks for calling man. Thanks for showing me. I feel like … really elated. Let me call you back later today about the Europe thing.”
“Think nothing of it my good friend. We still are partners in this thing. I’ll look forward to hearing from you tonight. Bye man!”
“Bye Ski.” David said, and with that he pressed the icon on his screen that ended the net phone call connection. David stared at the dark screen for a second, and then reached over and touched the icon that reopened the portrait of Lillian Emily Morrow. He sat there quiet for over five minutes just staring at her. He whispered into the quiet of his office, “So … you’re the reason for that whole thing … that whole ordeal. Now … I understand.”
There was a sudden knock on the door and it opened. It was Regina. She looked down at her husband and asked “Is something wrong baby?”
“No, no sweetie nothing’s wrong at all. I just was talking to Noel about something.”
Regina then saw the portrait of Lillian Morrow on his computer screen and she asked, “Who is that woman?”
David looked at the portrait and asked his wife, “Her? Well … tell me Kiss …what do you think of her?”
Regina stepped closer to the computer, looked down at the picture and said, “She’s very beautiful David … now tell me … who is she?”
David looked up to his wife and said, “That woman there … was at one time … a very significant factor in our lives my love.”
Regina looked confused and said, “I don’t know what you’re saying baby? How’s that?”
“Is the front covered by anyone?” David asked, referring to the front desk of the restaurant and lounge.
“Yes, Juanita is there.”
“Good then.” David said, he turned in his chair and motioned for her to sit on his lap, “Shut the door behind you Kiss and come sit down here. I have a little story that I’ve got to tell you.”
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