When The Program Fails People Die Part III

A Sunny Alexander-Johnson And Henry James Series

My name is Sunny Alexander-Johnson, and I’m Henry James, and we’re writers for Dark Sides of the Truth magazine.

Although introductions to the young woman and boy were in order, we were more interested in getting up to speed on what was happening. It seemed both Robert and Manny were holding all of the cards, and we were thinking about asking the house for a new deck.

We, along with Robert, took the couch, and we watched Manny walk over to the woman and rest his hand on her shoulder. As she placed her hand on top of his, she twisted and gazed up at him.

Neither of us missed the lover’s look she offered the man.

“Victoria, why don’t you and Georgie go into the other bedroom for a little bit? These people are the ones I told you about. They’re here to help.”

Without a word, Victoria removed her hand and nodded.

“Come on, Georgie, let’s watch television in the other room, okay?”

Manny stood in silence, watching only long enough for the woman and boy to enter the adjoining bedroom and close the door. Then he walked over to us, dragged a rolling chair sitting beneath a small desk over to us, twirled it around, and sat.

“Okay, I know you two have questions…”

“You think Hermanos?”

“Stifle it, old man, and let him talk.”

“Thank you, Sunny. Okay, so Robert already knows what’s going on. It was his suggestion to bring you two in. We need somebody on this they don’t know, and Robert and you two fit the bill.”

“They who Manny?”

“The Bianchis.”

“Whoa, back up a minute. Are you talking about Marco Bianchi, the Marco Bianchi, who ran a syndicate in New Jersey until about ten years ago?”

“Yeah, Henry. How’d you know about that?”

“Dude, anybody who reads the papers or surfs the internet knows about him. Isn’t he rotting in a cell in Riker’s for the murder of one his lieutenants?”

“One and the same.”

“And didn’t the eyewitness testimony of some mystery woman put him away?”

“Correct again, James. Of course, she wasn’t a woman at the time. She was a sixteen-year-old girl. She was there the night her father was killed, peeking into the living room between the rails of the stairway. She watched as two men garroted her dad until he passed out. Then they rolled him up in the living room throw rug. Before they carted him out of the house, Marco Bianchi himself leaned over and fired two bullets into the man’s head.”

“From what I understood, Marco Bianchi wasn’t the kind to get his hands dirty.”

“Normally, Henry, he wasn’t. But this one was personal. The lieutenant was like a son to Marco. When Marco found out this man was trying to make an end-run on the Bianchi business and set up his own domain, Marco figured he needed to step in and provide the family a show of power.”

“How come they didn’t kill the girl as well?”

“Good question Sunny. According to her, Marco’s people left the house with the body of her father, then returned and began trashing the place to make it look like a home invasion. She grabbed her brother, who was just barely two at the time, and hid in her closet beneath a pile of clothing from the dirty clothes hamper. She and her brother hid in there for almost a full day before she came out and called the police.”

“I think I see where this is going, Manny.”

“Yeah, Henry?”

“Yeah, it’s what you said to me on the phone about the witness protection program. What you said about what happens when it fails. Let me guess. The woman and boy in that room, she’s the witness, isn’t she Manny?”

“Yes, she is, and Gorgie is her brother.”

“Okay, fine, Manny, but that doesn’t explain what she and Gorgie are doing here. In fact, it doesn’t explain what you, a Special Director of the FBI, is doing here, and it sure as hell doesn’t explain what Henry and Robert and I are doing here.”

Manny stared at us in silence. We could tell there was something he wanted to tell us, something important he needed to say, but for some reason couldn’t seem to find the words.

We’d known Manny for a while now. In fact, Manny and his resources had been involved in several of our escapades and neither of us remembered a time when he seemed so indecisive, so unsure of himself.

“Manny, you alright, brother?”

Manny nodded, then straightened in his chair and stared at us again, swallowing over and over as if struggling with several false starts. We waited as he got up, opened the door of a small fridge, and removed a bottle of water. Saying nothing, Manny opened the bottle and almost drained it. Then he sighed and sat down.

“Henry, you’re right. What I said about when the program fails, people die is correct. No matter how hard we try to serve and protect if someone wants someone dead, they usually manage to find a way.”

“So how did they, this Bianchi family find them?”

“By the time the two of them were transferred into my custody, they both had changed their identities at least a dozen times. After ten years, we, I, was pretty sure whoever might be trying to find them had pretty much given up. So I convinced Victoria it was okay to use her maiden name on the wedding certificate.”

“She’s married?”

“Yeah, Henry, she is. And they found Victoria and Gorgie just like Robert’s people find info on anybody. Donnie and Becca aren’t the only computer geeks in this world. They found her in public records.”

“Does her husband know about this?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure he does.”

“Why ain’t he here with her?”

“Oh, hell, Henry.”

“What now, princess?”

“Manny’s the husband, old man. That’s it, isn’t it, Manny? You married one of the people you were supposed to be protecting.”

Manny nodded, the snapping sounds of the plastic water bottle popping loudly as he crushed it with one hand and continued to squeeze as if attempting to strangle it.

“Oh, brother, haven’t you heard the old saying about not taking a dump in your mess kit?”

“Henry, if I didn’t need your help, I’d beat the crap out of your ass right now.”

“You’re welcome to try Hermanos.”

“Both of you stop this shit right this very minute. The last thing we need is a useless show of testosterone when people’s lives are on the line. Henry? Shut the hell up. Manny? How can we help?”

“The first thing is, we need to make sure Victoria and Gorgie are safe. Then we need to go talk to Marco ourselves.”

“Well, you sure can’t stay in this hotel room, Manny.”

“I know Sunny, but we don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Who are you calling, princess?”

“I’m calling mom.”

“Whoa, back up. I mean, I, well we…”

“I know, sleep together. In case you haven’t noticed daddy dearest, it’s a big house.”

“Bite my…”

“Hey mom, I have a favor to ask.”

Read On — When The Program Fails People Die Part IV

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