The Girl in White Pajamas Page 33
*****
Rose and Jesus hugged each other. The embrace was interrupted by Rose’s phone ringing. “Amanda, your father’s all right. Yes, I’m sure. He hasn’t come out yet, but he’s okay. Yes, she’s okay too…No, I haven’t seen him yet, but I was listening all the time he was in there. Yes, he killed her…Yes, yes I know, he is a crazy bastard!”
*****
As Isabella sat on the top step studying the bullet riddled walls and carnage, Bogie grabbed his tee shirt, wiped his face and then wrapped the shirt around his bleeding right hand. Bogie saw Isabella staring at the red line down the center of his chest. He smiled, ripped the wire off his skin and winced. He removed an ear bud as she smiled. Bogie hurriedly put on his boxer shorts. He bundled up the remaining clothing and tossed everything in the gym bag. Reaching in the bag, he switched on his phone and called Rose. “We’re ready to come out, Rose!”
“You crazy—”
Bogie closed the phone, held his daughter and carried her and all the equipment to the window. “We’re going down the ladder, Pumpkin.”
George Washington’s black face appeared in the window, and Bogie smiled. “If you get this stuff, I’ll take her down.”
As Bogie moved down the ladder wearing his boxer shorts and work boots with Isabella’s arms wrapped around his neck, cameras rolled and pictures snapped. When Catie Christenson commented, “Wow! Who’s your Daddy? I wouldn’t mind this hottie rescuing me!” the human interest story started writing itself. But when the reporter overheard Isabella tell John Washington she killed the monster with her sword, Catie and the other reporters went into a frenzy trying to talk to the little girl in white pajamas.
Speculation grew as Chief Duggan had the child and her father whisked away in an ambulance followed by members of the R&B Investigations team.
THE END
EPILOGUE
It was almost midnight and other businesses in the area were closed. Only R&B Investigations was lit up. Men were clustered around the reception area talking in low tones. Angel was really dead, and their leader was locked in her office and wouldn’t speak to anyone.
When Bogie came through the front door, they all looked up and went to him. He assured them his bandaged hand would heal in a week or so. Bogie looked tired. He refused to speak to the police until his attorney arrived. He would not allow Isabella to be questioned alone. The standoff was finally over, Bailey and Isabella were at the Four Seasons, and Bogie was exhausted.
He walked down the hall and banged on her door. “Rose, open the door or I’ll kick it in.” After a long silence, he heard the click and walked in as she stood glaring at him.
Enraged she grabbed his bandaged hand and squeezed it. “Does that hurt?” she hissed. As Bogie winced, she made a fist and punched his upper arm, then punched it again as he stood there. Finally, she covered her face and sobbed. “You stupid bastard! That was your plan? You put your life in the hands of a three year old child! You are insane!”
He held her and let her cry. When she started to calm down, he picked up a box of tissues and handed them to her. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “You scared the shit out of me! I couldn’t believe my ears. You telling this little child how she was a warrior and she should sit and pretend to be tied until you gave her a signal with your what…hands?”
“Fingers.”
“Then you stood there pissing off Jeannie and egging on the kid.”
He nodded then said softly, “I didn’t have a choice. She had an arsenal in there. Even if she let me go, she wasn’t giving up Isabella.”
“I thought you were going to restrain her.”
“That was the plan.”
“What went wrong?”
“I wanted Isabella to distract her. I was sure Jeannie didn’t expect her to move and wouldn’t shoot her. Isabella took her part very seriously. She ran toward Jeannie and surprised her. I knew by the look on her face that Isabella was going to leap so I kicked the gun out of Jeannie’s hand. Isabella knocked her backwards, and I grabbed Jeannie’s throat. I was just about to tell Jeannie to give it up when Isabella picked up that sword and jammed it through Jeannie’s eye socket. She pushed the sword right in like this.” He positioned his arm at a forty-five degree angle. When Rose winced, he continued, “At that point, I was fully committed. I had to finish the job. I couldn’t let a child live with that.”
Rose blew her nose again. “And you told all this to the cops?”
Bogie shook his head. “I told them she tripped and the sword went into the eye.”
“And they bought it?”
“They have no choice. No matter what she says, she’s a little kid. They have to take my statement and leave it at that…I’m sorry about MacDonald.”
Rose waved him off as she shook her head but a sob escaped from her throat. “I sure know how to pick ‘em!”
“No matter, you did. He was a shit, but he was your shit!”
Rose half laughed and half cried. “He wasn’t even that. He’s somebody else’s shit. Now he can spend the rest of his miserable life being somebody else’s bitch in prison!”
When Bogie shook his head, Rose said, “You’re right! He’ll never live that long. Between his father-in-law and Kim’s boyfriend Tony, somebody’s going to finish him off real soon. He and Bud were quite a pair. Other people’s lives were so unimportant to them. They didn’t care if one or ten people died in a fire they were about to set as long as they got what they wanted. What assholes! And you owe George Washington big time! Jeannie had the cellar door rigged. If Matt had turned the key, he would have been blown to hell, and with all that gasoline down there the whole place would have gone up in seconds.”
He held her and said, “Angel.”
They both cried.
*****
As the black hearse pulled up in front of the church, hundreds of people stood on the sidewalk looking on. The silver casket was glided onto the gurney, and the pallbearers lined up on either side. All wore black, R&B Investigation jackets and black gloves. All six had stone faces with red-rimmed eyes. As they slowly moved into the church, Rose’s bottom lip quivered. Standing across from her, Jesus Hernandez wiped a tear off his right cheek. George and John Washington stood behind them looking straight ahead as their shoulders quivered. Bogie and Tommie Jurgenson walked rigidly in the back.
As the sad procession moved down the center aisle, loud sobs and cries rang out. Half the church was filled with young women of every size and shape crying softly. Angel’s mother screamed as her sisters tried to keep her under control. Bailey and Darryl stood in a pew behind other R&B members with Jack and George next to them. Isabella, hurt and angry that she was not permitted to attend the open casket viewing, pushed in front of Bailey and Darryl until she was at the end of the row.
The pallbearers stopped in front of the altar and filed into the first row. The robed priest, with an altar boy on either side opened his mouth to speak when the little girl wearing her white karate outfit jumped from the pew and stood at the foot of the coffin. A silence descended over the church. She held her hands at her sides and bowed at the waist.
Bailey made a move to grab her, but Darryl held her arm. “Let her go! She needs to say goodbye,” he said softly.
Isabella looked up at the ceiling. “Goodbye, Angel. I love you. Please don’t forget about me. And please take good care of Kim and Fluffy.” And then the little warrior cried. She sobbed as her mother carried her back to the pew and rocked her in her arms.
ACKNOWLEDGDMENTS
ERIKA BAERT – The woman who wore many hats and all of them well--artist, editor and more
JANET PARINI – The editor’s editor who made good, better, then best.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHRIS BIRDY
Chris Birdy was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, she did a four year stint in the Middle East. When she r
eturned to the States, Chris settled down in the Boston area and became a true Bostonian by collecting college degrees while raising a family.
For more than twenty years, Chris has been a member of the legal community performing investigative work for Boston law firms.
Chris lives outside of Boston and in Palm Beach, Florida with her husband.