Mercy

Chapter 80

“So can I get the money now, or do I have to wait for you to die?” said Mercy.

Lineberry said, “Oh, I’m sure something can be arranged. As you can clearly see, I have a great deal of wealth. You certainly should have your share of it.”

“That’s not what I meant. I had to quit all my jobs to go back into my past and get stuff figured out. And I got tossed out of my place, so I’m homeless right now. All I need is a little stash to get back on my feet, find some work, and I’m good to go. And you can leave all the rest to Lee. I don’t need it.”

“So that’s it? It’s just the money. No other questions for me? About your mother?”

Mercy shrugged. “I know all I need to. When I got taken my mother never looked for me. She left me to rot in a hellhole. Then she abandoned Lee and was never seen again. Oh, and then she wrote some bullshit letter to you to make herself feel better. And in that letter she never once mentioned trying to find me, so screw her. Did I miss anything?”

“You missed a great deal. Like the truth.”

Mercy stared at him contemptuously. “Oh, is this where you tell me she was, what, like that Joan of Arc chick?”

“No, she had her faults, many of them, as we all do. She made mistakes — again, like we all do, including me and, I’m sure, including you.”

“Don’t include me in this, okay?” Mercy said sharply, glowering at him.

“But you are part of it.” He paused and looked thoughtfully at her. “Your mother blamed herself for what happened to you and your sister. She went berserk with guilt. She pulled out all the stops to try to find you.”

“I know that’s bullshit. If she had, she would have found me.”

As though he hadn’t heard her, Lineberry continued, “And then she was forced to stop looking for you, at least officially. After that, she was compelled to go underground with her remaining family.”

This got Mercy’s attention. “Forced to stop?”

Lineberry gave her an appraising look. “I’ve never even told your sister what I’m about to tell you.” He paused again, as though to make certain he had her full attention. “Are you prepared to hear it? If not, you can get up and leave. I won’t try to stop you.” He reached into his pocket and took out a checkbook. “I can write you a check now so you can get back on your feet. Will two hundred thousand dollars do it? If not, just name the amount. A million? Two million? Ten? I don’t really care.”

Mercy flinched at these absurdly large numbers, but then relaxed. She slowly nodded. “I’m ready to hear it, but that’s not the same as believing it. You were in love with my mom and maybe you still are. You’d probably say anything to make her look good.”

He set his checkbook aside. “What I’m about to tell you is the literal truth. Whether you believe me or not is up to you.”

Mercy folded her arms over her chest, sat back, and waited.

“The Mafia families that your mother helped take down at the tender age of eighteen? They still had many tentacles across the country, in many different forms. Including in law enforcement and the federal government.”

“Stop right there. I was told a dude named Ito something or other kidnapped me and tried to kill Lee. Then he dumped me with this psycho family. And he did it for his brother, who was in the mob and got screwed somehow. He blamed my mother for it. That’s what Lee told me.”

“Bruno Vincenzo did get screwed. But not by your mother.”

“Who then?”

“I’ll get to that. Your mother made a deal with Bruno when he discovered her identity. It was the only thing she could have done. If she were exposed it would have blown the entire operation and cost your mother, and many other people, their lives. And apart from that, many dangerous and hardened mobsters would have gone unpunished, free to commit more terrible acts. So she made the deal with Bruno, and that deal was approved at the highest government levels. But when it came time to live up to that deal, Bruno got double-crossed. He was supposed to get immunity and then be placed in Witness Protection. Neither of those measures ever happened.”

“Why not?” said Mercy, now looking interested and engaged.

“Because a very high-ranking official, a man many rungs above me and a name that many Americans would recognize, ordered the deal not to be honored. Bruno was tried and convicted, and he was killed in prison by the mob for being a snitch.”

“Why would this high-ranking guy do that?”

Lineberry didn’t answer. He just looked at her.

She said, “Are you saying because the dude was paid off by the mob?”

“They wanted Bruno,” he said simply. “They wanted him to pay for not coming to them about your mother being a spy in their midst. So the deal was deep-sixed, and Bruno died. What we didn’t know was that Bruno convinced his brother, Ito, to go after your mother, who he thought was the one to betray him.”

Mercy looked at him closely. “Okay, let’s say that’s true. But my mom didn’t even try to look for me. Nothing you’ve said addresses that.”

In answer, Lineberry held up a single finger. “She left your sister’s side at the hospital only once. And that was to fly to Washington, DC, and demand that everything that could be done to find you be done. She said that if it wasn’t, she would go public with everything that she knew.”

“Hang on — what exactly did she know?” asked Mercy.

“She knew that the high-ranking official I’m talking about had been bought off by the mob. She knew that he was the one who had, in effect, killed Bruno. And she believed that someone connected to Bruno Vincenzo had taken you. She didn’t know it was his brother. I doubt she knew he had a brother. She just assumed it was the mob. And more than anything in life, she wanted you back.”

Mercy became noticeably subdued. “How did she find out the government guy was working with the mob?”

“She was undercover. She listened at lots of keyholes and overheard lots of conversations. Folks told her things they shouldn’t have because she was very, very good at her job. And she saw people come and people go. He was one of them.”

“But if she knew he was involved, why didn’t she report him to the authorities right from the start?”

“Because, Mercy, he was the authority. And she wasn’t even officially a government agent. She was still a teenager. He, on the other hand, was a legend, grown gray in service to his country. Who would believe her? He could have easily trumped up evidence against her. She used drugs back then. She hung out with criminals. There were myriad ways for him to go after her. So she kept silent. But when you were taken, that was the final straw. She went to see him and confronted this bastard right to his face. Because of you. And I can’t tell you how brave an act that was. You may not know much about how governments operate, but it was akin to David taking on Goliath. And she did it without a second thought for herself.”

“And what happened at this meeting?”

“She made her threats.” He paused. “And he made one in return.”

“What?” said Mercy a bit breathlessly.

“If she continued to make waves, if she kept demanding this nationwide search for you, if she kept drumming up attention for the matter... he would have your sister and Tim...” He paused and eyed her knowingly.

“What the hell! How could a government guy do that?”

“It was a different world back then, Mercy. The mob was still a big deal. A lot of muscle. He was in too deep with them. And while your mother helped take down a lot of very bad people, there were a lot of other very bad people still out there. And this traitor was not about to have his entire reputation ruined over this.”

“You mean he threatened to tell the mob where my mom and her family were?”

“And that’s why they vanished overnight without a trace from Andersonville. She had lost one daughter. She couldn’t lose another. But I know that she continued to do all she could, spent time and money, everything she had, in trying to find you. I know this because I tried to help her do so. From the very moment you disappeared, I never saw her smile again. All the life, all the happiness was... struck clean from her.”

Mercy looked down. Her features had a lost, disbelieving component to them. “Then why didn’t you out this asshole?” she said sharply.

“By the time your mother confided in me, he was dead. He died quietly in his bed and was given a hero’s send-off for many years of faithful public service. He is now buried at Arlington National Cemetery.”

“How screwed up is that?”

“Very. And your mother couldn’t tell the truth at that point about him. No one would believe her, and it would have alerted the men still after her where she was. It would have put Tim and your sister in terrible danger. Your mother was caught in a box with no way out.”

“And you never told Lee any of this? Why not?”

Now Lineberry shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “The easy answer is that I took an oath never to divulge official secrets. But if you want the blunt truth, your sister idolized your mother. She lived with her far longer than you did. Even after Amanda left her, your sister continued to have deep feelings for her. And I knew that if I told her all of this, she would be obsessed with finding her. She would put everything else on hold. She—”

“She wouldn’t have had her own life, you mean? She’d just be chasing all of this down and never do her own thing?”

“Yes. And maybe put herself in danger. And your mother believed if Atlee had no idea where she was, that would protect her. That’s why she left her.”

They sat there in silence for a few moments as Mercy processed all this.

“Look, I... I appreciate your honesty. I don’t get much of it. People sort of look through me.”

“I never will,” he said forcefully. “That you can take to the bank as easily as the check I’m going to write you.”

She glanced up at him. “You’re different than I thought you would be.”

“You’re exactly like I thought you would be.”

“Meaning what?”

“Indomitable.”

“That’s a nice, fancy word. But I wasn’t that way for a long time. I let people screw me.”

“But no more.”

“No. No more.” She looked at him. “Will you ever tell Lee what you just told me?”

“I think it might be better coming from you. And that decision I will leave entirely to you.” He rose. “And if you don’t mind, I’d like to have your sister and Carol come back in. We need to take a little trip, a long overdue one.”

“A trip? Where?”

“You’ll see. All of you will see.”