The Heart Page 23

  “I need to know why you turned your back on us.”

  “Blunt, aren’t we?”

  “I don’t have the time to ease into the conversation.” Al sat back in the chair directly in front of her and crossed his legs. “I’ve asked Ryan’s father for her hand in marriage.”

  The smile on Lena’s face was genuine. “You asked Ryan to marry you?”

  “No,” he replied. “Her father refused to give his blessing. He states his reason is due to my criminal activities from the past.”

  “But you’ve paid that debt and more, Al.” She stood with hands on hips. “Who does he think he is being judge and jury over my son? You want me to talk to him?”

  Al almost wanted to laugh at Lena’s reaction. She was ready to confront Mr. Williams over him. “No. I thought if I could understand and work through my own childhood demons, I would be better equipped to help Ryan work though hers.”

  Lena frowned and shook her head. “I like that girl, Al. She’s good for you. You think the issue Ryan has is connected to her childhood?”

  “I like her too.” Al smiled. “Her father turned his back on Ryan when she was young. Very reminiscent to what you did. I’m trying to understand why. What motivating factor could be that strong?”

  “So you think if you understood what happened in our lives it would help you with Ryan’s father?”

  Al nodded. “I do. The question is, are you willing to open Pandora’s box to help me?”

  Lena put her book down and chuckled. “I don’t see how knowing the hell of my past will help with Ryan.” She stood, “But if you want to know, we’re going to need some help.” She walked over to the bar, pulled out a bottle of Hennessey and two glasses. “Make yourself comfortable. This may take a minute.”

  Al stood, took off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves.

  She poured two drinks, gave a glass to him, and kept one for herself. She started to walk back, but instead, placed the bottle on the table between them. “This is going to dull the pain,” she said as Al raised an eyebrow at the bottle.

  “I have time,” he sat back.

  “You really like Ryan, hmm?”

  Al nodded. “I really do.”

  Lena smiled, then sat back on the lounge. “This will go a lot better if you just let me get through the story. You can ask questions later.” Al nodded. “Well son, to answer your question there is only one emotion that has the power to make men and women act like fools. And it’s as old as time. Love. It can make you do right, or it can make you do wrong. As Al Green once said.”

  Al smiled. “Tell me you didn’t name me after him.”

  Lena emptied her glass, then refilled it. “No, you were named after your father. Lord, I loved that man.” She snickered. “And you have the nerve to look just like him, except for the hair.”

  “What, no locs?”

  “It was cornrows back then, but no. Epstein Albert Day would make JD look like Huey Newton.”

  They both laughed. “That’s pretty conservative. I can’t imagine you with a nerd type.”

  “Oh Ep was a nerd. Hell, at that time so was I.”

  “You—a nerd. That is a hard sell.”

  Lena took another drink and sobered. “I can’t speak for Ryan’s father. Hell, if it wasn’t for this damn need to help you find happiness I wouldn’t be reliving things that are best left untold.” Seeing the faraway look in Lena’s eyes, Al sensed now was not the time to speak.

  “You’ve never met your real grandmother. Your grandmother John Russell was the woman that took me in when my mother threw me out. If you think your mother is beautiful now,” she smiled, “when I was younger I could have won beauty pageants had little black girls been allowed. My mother, who, I’m sure, is in Hell, was a beautiful, manipulative woman. She used her looks to marry what she considered to be the cream of the crop, a man with a Post Office job. They made damn good money back then. My father treated me like I was the most precious thing in the world. See, I wasn’t just beautiful; I was smart. Not the normal straight A student smart, but I was just like you and Tracy with numbers. So he had me tested and placed in a private school. Private schools back then were expensive, but more so for a working class Black man. They would argue all the time about the money he would spend on me. He would say, ‘The child has to dress nice going to that school.’ My mother felt he would pay more attention to me than he did her. She would say, ‘She don’t need to be going to that school. It costs too much and she ain’t going to be nothing but a whore.’ His response was always the same. ‘I’d think you would want more for your daughter.’ It wasn’t until I was fourteen that I understood what he meant.”

  “My father worked what they called the graveyard shift at the post office. One night something woke me up. I can’t remember what now. But I got out of bed to go to the bathroom that was in the hallway between my bedroom and my parents’ room. I heard a voice, but it didn’t sound like my Daddy’s, so I walked over to their bedroom and slowly pushed the door open. It was my mother with another man having sex in my Daddy’s bed.” Lena shook her head. “She didn’t even bother to try to explain. All she said was, ‘You better not say anything to your father.’” Lena swallowed. “Well, I’d learned a few tricks from my mother and whenever I wanted to get my way, I would threaten to tell Daddy about the man.” She became quiet, downed her glass of cognac then poured another. “The man would give my mother gifts, diamond bracelets, earrings, clothes—you name it. After he stopped coming there was another man and another. To keep me quiet they would give me things too. Well, one of my mother’s special friends as she called them, was a little more interested in me than she liked. I had just turned sixteen, when my mother knocked on my door late one night and said, her special friend, I never knew their names, had a birthday gift for me. Well, I liked pretty things as much as my mother did. So I didn’t ask any questions, I went with her to my parents’ bedroom. He motioned for me to sit on the bed beside him. So I did. He gave me a red velvet box. As I opened the box he told my mother to close the door.” Lena swallowed down another glass, but this time she took the bottle. “He took my virginity and my mother stood outside the door while I screamed for her to help me.” She turned the bottle up and took another drink. “When he was done, he told me how sweet I was and the gifts he would bring me the next time he came over. My mother came into the room afterwards and looked down at me in the bed with the meanest smile I’d ever seen. You tell your father about me and I’ll tell him about you.” Lena sighed at the memory, before she continued. “A month later I missed my period. My mother told my father I had let some little boy knock me up. To this day I wish I had just kept my mouth closed, but I was scared and mad that my mother let that man hurt me. So I told my father everything. About every man, every gift, and how I got pregnant. I will never forget the look on my father’s face. He stormed into the bedroom and found most of the jewelry my mother had hidden. That night, he took me to John Russell’s house and said he would be back. He never came back. From what I was told, when he got back to the house, one of my mother’s special friends was there. My father shot both of them, then turned the gun on himself.” Lena waited a moment then turned to Al with tears streaming down her face. “My daddy was a good man. He just fell in love with the wrong woman.”

  Al sensed she needed his acknowledgment so he simply nodded and continued to listen.

  “Life with John Russell was definitely different. There was none of the fancy furnishings or expensive cars. It was just a big house filled with a whole lot of love. When I had Valarie she took care of that baby like she was her own.” Lena smiled. “She took care of me the same way. It wasn’t until later I found out she had always been in love with my Daddy. But he married my mother and they just remained friends. She said she would have been his lover, but he wasn’t that kind of man. So having me and Valarie there was like having a part of him. She made sure I graduated from high school and encouraged me to take classes at the university. Th
at led me to your Daddy.

  “Dr. Epstein Albert Day.” She laughed a little. “When he first introduced himself, I had to ask what kind of name was Epstein for a brother. He told me a smart one. Ep was a visiting professor from Harvard. Every year he would volunteer at a Black college to share his knowledge. See he had a PhD in Economics and the man was fine as all get out. Lord, that man was fine.”

  “To get into his class, you had to solve a formula and write an essay on the effects of the economy on Black America and be selected. I was always great with numbers, but John Russell, who insisted that I take the class, had to help with the writing of the essay. My father had told her how smart I was, especially with numbers and she was not going to let the opportunity to learn from a man of Ep’s caliber pass me by. You would have thought I’d won some grand prize the way she carried on when I was accepted in that class. Anyway, I always knew I was pretty, but after the experience with the man, I stayed away from the male species. But when I walked into that class and saw that man sitting at the desk in the front of the room I knew my life was about to change.”

  Lena smiled, not just any smile, but one that made her look young again. Al had to smile with her. “I was barely nineteen at the time, but that man touched me without using his hands. I don’t have to tell you I excelled in that class. But you know, it wasn’t just a physical thing with Ep. He would tell me he fell in love with my mind. The physical beauty was secondary. I loved him because he would never let me take the easy way out when I answered questions. He would always make me think about the impact of my answers on everyday life.”

  “Unlike my mother, I hadn’t developed the knack for flirtation. During that semester, I didn’t care how much I called myself flirting with him; he paid me no mind. Now, I will tell you that was a blow to a woman that was used to men drooling at her feet. Needless to say, I excelled in his class. After that semester, he left. That summer I was heartbroken. It was my first real crush. John Russell would tell me, if it’s meant to be it will happen. The next semester when I registered, certain classes had to be signed off by the Dean of the Math department. I went there and standing in the middle of the office was Ep. He had taken the position of Dean of the department. My heart dropped when I saw him. I didn’t even know how to act. But unlike before, I saw something different in his eyes. He nodded and said. “It’s nice to see you again, Ms. Lambert.” I almost fainted, when I realized the man remembered my name. I told him why I was there. He signed the card for the registrar. He then asked if I would be free to have a cup of tea with him later. I wanted to shout hell yeah, but I played it cool. After all he was older, a professor and fine. I didn’t want to seem immature, so I simply said yes. We met at the coffee shop on campus and talked for hours. Six months later we were married. We had a nice house near campus. He taught while I attended. Valarie stayed with John Russell. There was no way I could take the child away and we didn’t live that far from them. A year later we had Joan. Two years after that you came along.” The smile she displayed at the memory was priceless. “For five years of my life I knew the power of love.” She stopped talking.

  “What happened?”

  She sighed. “One of his female students ran him down with her car. According to the police, he was having an affair with the girl. When he broke it off, she lost it and decided if she couldn’t have him no one would.” Lena shook her head, “At the time the shock of losing my husband that I loved and learning of the affair was just too damn much. Joan had his brains and you were and still are the spitting image of Ep. I couldn’t stand to be around either of you. John Russell was afraid I would do something crazy so she came and took all of us back to her house. I decided then and there that love wasn’t for me. Daddy loved my mother and it brought him nothing but pain and eventually his death. I loved Ep and it brought me pain and him death. I didn’t need that in my life. So I buried my unfaithful husband, sold the house and moved away. I left all of you with John Russell because I knew she would take care of you. My life became about me. What I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted it and where. Anything else, I didn’t let touch me. I didn’t care. I learned early if you care about something it will eventually cause you pain. I didn’t want or need that kind of pain in my life.”

  The two sat there. The silence was like a comforting blanket in the room. “You had a hell of a life Lena.”

  “You think,” she solemnly laughed as she glanced at him. “Don’t go feeling sorry for me. I made my decisions based on what I was going through.” She put the bottle on the table. “I didn’t treat myself like a victim back then and I don’t want to be treated like one now. What happened was in the past. The shit with my mother is in the past. I know my actions had a terrible impact on my children and I can’t do a damn thing about it now. All I can do is share some wisdom with you. I wish to this day, I had taken the time to really investigate what happened with Ep. If I had, I would have learned that he never had an affair with the girl. Oh, she tried according to other professors, but it was his rejection that made her go crazy and run him over. But I was too hurt to dig deeper to really find out what was going on. See how that affected my life and yours, not to mention Tracy. Valarie and Tracy don’t know any of this and there is no need for them to know. But you,” she stood, “you need to find out what happened between Ryan’s father and his wife. That will tell you why he turned his back on his daughter. Mark my words.”

  Al put his glass on the table and stood. He walked over and stood before Lena. For the first time in his life, he took his mother into his arms and hugged her. The tears from her eyes dropped to his shirt, as he just held her tight.

  Then true to form, Lena pushed him away. She pulled on his locs and smiled. “Now get out of here so I can finish my book. And whatever you do, don’t let that man keep you and Ryan apart.” She pointed her finger in his chest, “You hear me?”

  Al smiled, “I hear you, Mother.”

  “Oh hell, no you don’t. It’s been Lena all your life. It’s still Lena.”

  “Alright, Lena, I have one question.” She looked up at him. “Are you happy now?”

  Lena thought for only a second, “Yes.”

  He kissed her temple. “Thanks for sharing. I’ll check you later.”

  Lena watched him walk out the door. She dropped back down to the chaise lounge opened her book and smiled at the memory of him calling her mother.

  Chapter 16

  Samuel flew out to meet the camp in California, while Joshua followed the assassin’s trail to Austin, Texas. True to his word, the Senator had cleared the way for Joshua to see his son, Jerry.

  They agreed to meet at Jerry’s ranch since this was not a line of questioning he would want to be overheard at the Governor’s office. Joshua had no problem with the location since Jerry really wasn’t his target in this investigation.

  An older Black gentleman dressed in a black suit, white-collared shirt, and wing tip shoes opened the door to the mansion. “Good afternoon sir.”

  “Good afternoon. Nice suit,” Joshua replied. “I’m here to see Governor McClintock.”

  “Thank you. Special Agent Lassiter, I presume?”

  “You presume correctly.”

  “This way, sir.”

  The gentleman turned, expecting Joshua to follow. “I’m an admirer of fine clothing. I see you are as well.”

  “I do like to look good.” Joshua replied as he followed the man through the richly decorated foyer to a double doorway that led into the library of the home where he was greeted by the Governor.

  “Special Agent Lassiter,” Jerry extended his hand. “Welcome to my home.”

  Joshua shook the man’s hand. “Governor.”

  “No please, call me Jerry.” He turned to his right. “This is my wife, Eleanor.”

  Placing his hand on her lower back, they appeared to be the loving couple as she stepped forward, with her hand extended. “Should I call you Special Agent Lassiter or just Agent? The last thing I would want is to
offend the FBI.” She flashed a smile befitting the beauty queen she was.

  “Joshua is fine, ma’am.” He returned the warm smile.

  “Then Joshua it is. That’s a biblical name. Are you a man of God, Joshua?”

  “My mother claims all of her children are. All twelve of us have biblical names.”

  “Twelve. How charming.”

  “Let the boy’s hand go Eleanor. He has business to conduct here,” Mac growled tapping his walking stick on the floor as he entered the room.

  Jerry sigh a breath of frustration. “Agent Lassiter, this is my grandfather, Mac McClintock. You will find he is rather brash at times.”

  Every danger instinct in Joshua’s body sent alert signals. This was the man he had to take down. “McClintock.” Joshua spoke with a voice that clearly indicated he did not like the man.

  “That’s Governor McClintock to you, boy.”

  “Grandfather,” Jerry frowned. “Agent Lassiter is an invited guest in my home, unlike yourself. If you wish to remain, you will sit down and respect my guest.” Jerry turned to Joshua. “Please forgive my grandfather Agent Lassiter. Have a seat and tell me how I can help you with your investigation.”

  Joshua never took his eyes from Mac. “I only have two questions for you Governor.” Still holding Mac’s stare, Joshua asked. “Are you involved in an assassination plot against Governor Harrison of Virginia?”

  Realizing Joshua was not going to turn away from his grandfather, Jerry walked around to stand behind the chair where his grandfather was now seated. “I admire Governor Harrison. We have worked on several endeavors together. But more than that, I would not take another man’s life unless mine or my wife’s life was threatened.”