Daylight

Chapter 19

Over the phone Jack Lineberry sounded weak and a bit depressed. He’d known both of Pine’s parents for decades. Pine had recently learned that he’d worked with a government agency back then on the sting operation against the mob in which Pine’s mother acted as a mole. Lineberry had been sent to Andersonville to watch over them, a mission at which he’d failed. Since then, he’d become extremely wealthy through an investment company he had started.

And Pine had also learned that Jack Lineberry was her and Mercy’s father, having conceived them with their mother before she met the man Pine thought had been her father, Tim Pine.

“Jack, are you okay?” asked Pine in a worried tone.

She had put her phone on speaker so that Blum could listen in.

“Just a bad day. Some infection, they said, and a bit of pain accompanying.”

“Wait a minute, are you still in the hospital? I thought they were releasing you.”

“They’ve assured me it’s nothing serious, but they are keeping me a while longer, as a precautionary measure.”

“Are they sure it’s not serious?”

“Yes, just typical postsurgery stuff, but I’m feeling claustrophobic. I just want out of here. Hence, my mood is not all that good.”

“Hang in there, Jack. They need to make sure you’re good to go.”

“Where are you?”

“Trenton.”

“Ito Vincenzo, then?” he said.

“Yes. We’ve found out a few things and had some curveballs thrown our way.”

“Such as?”

Pine said, “Such as Ito’s grandson, Tony, is a fleeing fugitive. And Ito’s son and Tony’s dad, Teddy, was just murdered in prison shortly after I spoke with him.”

To his credit, Lineberry did not sound shocked by any of this. “Life is full of curveballs, Atlee,” he said quietly. “And I surely speak from experience on that.”

“Which is why I’m calling you for some help.”

Lineberry said, “Your call could not have been better timed. It will give me something to do while I wait for the next bad meal they’re going to serve me today.”

Pine told him about the letter they had found in Evie Vincenzo’s closet.

“What?” gasped Lineberry. “That sounds like Bruno knew about your mother’s working with us.”

His heavy breathing was making her worried. Pine said, “I don’t think you’re in a condition to hear any more.”

“No, no, I’m... I’m fine, please go on.”

“I take it you didn’t know that Bruno might have known about my mom.”

Lineberry said disgustedly, “Bruno Vincenzo was a cold-blooded killer. If I had known that, I would have pulled the plug on the whole op in a New York minute.”

“He said he didn’t rat out my mom, but that he was screwed over. He made it sound like he had worked a deal where he would get some sort of immunity but that it didn’t come through.”

“I can’t believe that, I really can’t. But you have to understand that I was kept out of the loop on the legal end of things. I’m not a lawyer. My job was to watch over your mother. Any deal would have to have been made with the prosecutors, the folks at the FBI, and ultimately the Justice Department. Not with me. But still, I would have been made aware of it, or at least I should have been. Bruno knowing about your mother’s real role comes squarely down on the operation’s side. That was my jurisdiction. If the lawyers did cut such a deal and didn’t tell us? Well, it would have been incredibly stupid. If we had known we would have changed how we engineered the whole op. I guess we could have used Bruno as an asset. Not that I would have ever trusted the son of a bitch.”

“He eventually did turn state’s evidence,” pointed out Pine.

“Right, only to save his own ass. And he failed at that, and you won’t find me crying over it. That guy probably had the blood of at least fifty people on his hands. Good riddance.”

“But assuming that Bruno’s having found out about my mother’s undercover status was relayed to the prosecutors, why wouldn’t they have struck a deal with him? I mean, he had leverage. He could have blown the whole investigation, like you said. He could have put my mother’s life in danger. They might not have had a choice but to go along.”

“Her life was already in danger,” noted Lineberry.

“In more danger, then.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Atlee. I wasn’t in those discussions, if they did occur.”

“It seems clear that was why Ito did what he did. To avenge Bruno.”

“Look, don’t assume that Bruno was telling the truth in that letter. It could have just been sour grapes on his part. And he deserved what he got. Like I said, the number of people he killed while he was in the mob? And how he killed them? It was nauseating. The bastard!”

“Okay, Jack, just calm down. The last thing you need is to get all worked up.”

She could hear him take several deep, calming breaths. “I’m sorry, I don’t usually let it get to me like that. I’m good now. Continue on with your questions.”

“You’re sure?” she asked.

“Yes. Quite sure.”

“Okay, moving on, you said that, at least initially, my family was in witness protection?”

Lineberry said, “That’s correct. After your mother served as an inside source for law enforcement, her identity was leaked, and threats were made. The decision was made to put all of you into witness protection.”

“How was her identity leaked?” asked Pine.

He didn’t answer right away. “That is something we never determined, although we did an exhaustive investigation.”

“Did you make the assumption that her identity had been leaked because of the threats?”

Lineberry coughed and said, “Exactly. That was the surest proof of all.”

“What was the nature of the threats?”

There was a long moment of silence.

She said cautiously, “We can do this another time, when you feel better.”

“No, let’s just push on.” He cleared his throat. “The first threat came in the form of a letter that was mailed to the apartment in New York where you were living at the time. The location of that apartment was a secret, but nonetheless there it was. It was a clear death threat. The decision was made to move all of you into witness protection.”

“Why send a letter and essentially warn us, instead of coming there and trying to kill my mom?”

“I could never figure that out. It might have been done to intimidate, which it did. And also cause us to move you, which we did. We never determined why that was advantageous for whoever sent the letter.”

“So they knew of her identity even though she never testified in court?” she asked.

“Your mother ‘testified’ to federal authorities in quite a few lengthy interviews, which in turn led to other witnesses who did testify in exchange for plea deals. She also provided recordings she took secretly while in the presence of numerous mob bosses. Those recordings were validated by other sources and entered into evidence. It was all legal and aboveboard, but we took great pains to keep her identity secret. She was our best shot at taking the families down. We had to keep her safe. And in the end, many of the mob just took deals because the evidence was overwhelming. Most of the older members we arrested ended up dying in prison. As far as I know, the younger ones are still in prison, right where they belong.”

“Okay, tell me about the first witness protection experience.”

“You were relocated to Hudson, Ohio. It’s a suburb of Akron. It was far removed from New York City. We thought you all would be safe there.”

“But we weren’t.”

Lineberry said, “No. One night, about two months after you arrived, there was a home invasion. Two men with guns.”

“What happened?”

“You had a dog back then, a lab named Molly.”

“I don’t remember a dog,” she said.

“Well, you were very young, Atlee. Anyway, the dog barked and woke up your parents. Your father kept a shotgun. He fired at the intruders and managed to scare them off. The decision was made to move you the very next day to a temporary safe house pending the readiness of a more permanent location.”

“And where did that turn out to be?”

“Colorado. It was rural and any strangers in town would be instantly noticed. We really thought it would work.”

“But it obviously didn’t. What happened?” she asked.

“This time it wasn’t a home invasion. It was an attempted car-jacking. They ran you off the road. It was only by the grace of God that two state troopers were coming the other way. They intervened and saved you and your family. One of the carjackers managed to get away. The other was killed after a shootout with the troopers.”

“Did they manage to ID him?”

Lineberry said, “They did. He was Giovanni Colletti, part of a Colorado-based crime family. We obviously couldn’t interrogate him, but we did subsequently learn that a contract had been put out on your family by one of the Mafia families that had been destroyed by your mother’s work.”

“Okay, the big question becomes: How did they keep finding out where we were? There had to be a leak, Jack. And it kept leaking.”

“A fact we were well aware of. But we took every precaution, dug through the background of everyone who knew about your relocations. We could find nothing, no common denominator that would lead us to the mole. We constantly changed personnel, so that the inner circle was different, so that those who knew the most were limited. It was the most puzzling and infuriating phase of my career. After Colorado, the decision was made to take you out of witness protection and move you to Andersonville, Georgia. I was assigned there to personally look over you and keep you safe.” He paused to clear his throat once more. “I clearly failed at that.” A single cough followed this last comment, and then turned into a series of wracking ones.

“Jack, are you all right?”

As the spasm subsided, he said, “I’m fine. Just... tired.”

“Look, you clearly need to rest, but can I ask you a favor?”

His tone instantly became alert. “Certainly. Anything.”

“Can you provide me with information about who was in the loop with my family’s experience back then? I mean, anyone you can remember, no matter how attenuated their connection was?”

“Atlee, a lot of them are long since retired or even dead.”

“I still would like to go over them.”

“I don’t see the purpose.”

“Then I’ll tell you. Ito Vincenzo came to Georgia. He tried to kill me, and he took my sister. Whoever leaked our locations in Ohio and Colorado did the same in Georgia. That person must have communicated either with Bruno or Ito or someone close to them. If I can find that person, they may lead me to Ito.”

Silence followed for a few moments.

Lineberry said, “I’ll see what I can do. But I’ve been long since removed from that world. My contacts are largely no longer viable.”

“If you run into obstacles, call me and I’ll see what I can do to help,” she said. “I told you back in Georgia that we had to try to do this together. And I haven’t changed my mind.”

“And sometimes dredging up the past can be more devastating than people realize.”

“I need to know the truth. And I need to find my sister, and your daughter, Jack! Ito is really the only connection I have right now.”

“He may not even be alive,” said Lineberry.

“No one has seen him since 2001, apparently. But that’s not proof that he’s dead. Until I know that for sure, I have to keep looking for him.”

“It’s quite ominous that Teddy Vincenzo was murdered right after speaking to you. You don’t think...” Lineberry’s voice trailed off.

“No. I don’t think it’s connected to my case. I think Tony Vincenzo was into something far more serious than simply drug dealing. And I think he told his father. And his father paid the price.”

“Then Tony Vincenzo is a target as well.”

“And I just hope we find him before the people who killed Teddy do,” replied Pine.