Heat (2 page)

J
esse walked into the punishment cell, and the door was slammed and locked behind him. This time, though, he wasn't alone in the dimly lit room. Just as the door swung shut he caught sight of a man sitting on the bunk, and he wasn't a prison official. Jesse knew him; his name was Charley Bottoms, and he was major trouble. Bottoms was the leader of the Aryan Nation group inside the prison; they were racist, anti-Semitic and extremely violent.

“Come on in, boy, and sit down,” Bottoms said.

Bottoms was a biker type, six feet five or six, three hundred pounds and covered in tattoos. Jesse had no intention of sitting on a bunk with him. “I'm all right where I am,” he said.

“You know,” Bottoms said in a southeastern drawl, “them's the first words I ever heard you say. What kinda accent is that? Where you from?”

No need to be hostile to the man; Jesse wanted to leave this cell alive. “North Georgia,” Jesse replied. “Up near the Tennessee border.”

“Tennessee was my guess,” Bottoms said.

“Yeah, even folks a little farther south in Georgia think my accent's kind of crazy.”

“A real hillbilly.”

“The real thing.” Jesse was a preacher's son and he had three years of college and two of law school, but his childhood country accent had never changed a whit.

“I hear you're heat,” Bottoms said.

Now they were on dangerous ground. “Used to be.”

“Why ain't you still?”

Jesse thought about it for a moment. Hell, why not? “They found half a million dollars and my dead partner in the trunk of my car.”

“You did all that?”

“I couldn't convince them I didn't.”

“Come on, boy, I want to know what you did.”

“I'm not making any jailhouse confessions; they have a way of turning up later on.”

“You think I'd testify in court against another con?”

“Maybe against a con who used to be heat.”

Bottoms shook his head. “You got a bad opinion of me.”

“Not at all,” Jesse said. “I just try to run a tight mouth.”

“So you're doin' two big ones, back to back, huh?”

“That's what the judge said.”

“How many fights you been in since you got here?”

“A hell of a lot more than I was looking for.”

“Yeah, I guess cons just naturally don't like heat,” Bottoms said. “You're one tough son of a bitch, though; I'll give you that. You took on some of the hardest guys in this joint, and you're still alive. Don't appear to be punchdrunk, either.”

Jesse wondered how long it would be before he was.

“Word in the block is, it's not gonna change,” Bottoms said. “Every time you get out of solitary somebody's gonna take you on.” He grinned. “There's a long line.”

Jesse shrugged. “Nothing I can do about that.”

“Sure there is,” Bottoms said. “What you need is some friends in this joint.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. If you're a nigger in the joint, you join up with the niggers; if you're a spic, you join up with the spics. But you're a white man, so you oughta join up with white men. That's us.”

“It's real nice of you to think of me, but I don't buy your rules,” Jesse said. “Thanks, anyway.”

“Just what is it you don't buy?” Bottoms asked.

“I don't hate anybody.”

“Shit, man, you gotta hate
somebody
just to live, so we picked niggers and Jews. What's the big deal?”

“Every time I ever hated anybody, even for a little while, it did more damage to me than him. Besides, I know some real good black people and some real good Jews. In fact, in both cases, I've known a lot more good ones than bad ones. Trouble with you people is, you've got to hate somebody else so you can feel worthwhile. That's what I don't buy.”

“Look, Warden,” Bottoms said, and he sounded exasperated, “you got a lot of time to pull in this joint, and every time you walk out in the yard, somebody's gonna try and beat the shit out of you, because you used to be heat. Now so far, nobody's been able to do it, but I'll tell you something, my friend, you're not looking so good.”

“Well,” Jesse said, “I've got thirty days of solitary to rest up.”

Bottoms stood up, and his full stature was awe-inspiring. “You're gonna need your rest, buddy, because if I don't hear by the time your solitary hitch is
up that you're ready to join up with us, then the next guy you meet in the yard is gonna be me.” Bottoms looked him up and down. “What're you, six-three, two-twenty?”

“That's close enough, I guess. It's been a while since I got measured and weighed.”

“Most places, that's big. Not in here.” Bottoms rapped on the steel door. “You better be in touch, you hear?” The door opened, and Bottoms strode out of the cell, then the door slammed shut again.

Jesse sank onto the bunk and stretched out his aching limbs. The guy he had just fought had kicked him, hard, in the thigh, and it hurt worse than his cut eye. He had another thirty days to do in this cell, and he was looking forward to the rest. Still, with no radio or TV and no reading matter it would be hard. Once again, he was alone with himself, and the company was lousy.

 

Whenever Jesse closed his eyes the same picture came back to him: it was the best year of their marriage; Beth was healthy after losing a breast to cancer five years before; Carrie, named after his mother, was nearly four, smart and pretty; they had the little house in Coral Gables, and he was moving up in the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Jesse had never thought of being a cop; he'd had his life all planned. It was college, law school, a few years in an Atlanta firm, then back to north Georgia to set up a practice. Then Beth got pregnant and sick at the same time. Jesse's parents were dead, and Beth's weren't rich; she had to quit her job, and the part-time work he had in the admissions office wasn't enough to support them. There was nothing to do but leave law school and look for a job.

The DEA was recruiting on campus, and they
made working for the government look attractive and secure. Beth recovered, the baby was born healthy and things started looking up.

That year was the best—not just because they were comfortable and happy, but because the future looked so bright. Jesse had enrolled, part-time, in law school, and once the degree was his, he could rise to new heights in the Justice Department. His assignment to the South Florida Task Force had been a plum; it was where the action was, where promotions happened and careers were made. He was twenty-eight, smart, hard-working, making big busts on a regular basis, and his superiors, once they got past his hillbilly drawl, thought of him as a comer. Then Beth had gotten sick again.

Her first illness had been covered by her parents' medical insurance, but when they got married, that lapsed. Then, when he had joined the DEA, her cancer was excluded from his insurance as a preexisting condition. Suddenly, all the money was going to doctors, medical laboratories and hospitals. Beth took fourteen months to die, and meanwhile Jesse was left thoroughly in hock, with nearly $400,000 in outstanding medical bills. That was when he had started to think about the cash in the evidence locker.

 

He was startled by the opening of his cell door; he hadn't expected it to open for another thirty days.

“Jesse, you got a visitor,” the guard said.

Jesse sat up and blinked in the bright light. A prisoner in solitary wasn't allowed visitors, and since his lawyer had died a couple of months back, there was nobody left to visit him. He got up and followed the guard.

He was led upstairs, in the direction of the warden's office, and shown into a small conference room.
A man who had been sitting at the table stood up. A cardboard box was in front of him on the table.

“Hello, Jess,” Fuller said. “You look awful.”

Jesse blinked at this apparition. “Hello, Kip,” was all he could think to say. Kip Fuller had been with the South Florida Task Force for less than a year when Jesse had been arrested. The young officer and his new wife had been out to the house a couple of times for barbecues, and Jesse had liked them. When Jesse had been arrested, Kip had been sympathetic, had brought him things in jail, had tried to help inside the agency. “Seems like a long time,” Jesse said.

“It does, doesn't it?”

Fuller reached into the cardboard box and took out a set of chain restraints, then shoved the box down the table toward Jesse. “Your clothes are in there,” he said. “Get dressed; you and I are going to take a helicopter ride.”

J
esse had trouble climbing the stairs to the roof, because of the chains. Fuller helped him.

“I'm sorry about the rig, but I've got my orders,” Fuller said.

As they stepped through the door onto the roof the helicopter started up with a whine, drowning out Jesse's question. Fuller helped him into the machine, fastened his seat belt, then took the facing seat. He clamped a headset on Jesse, then put one on himself.

Jesse reached for the switch that isolated the passenger compartment intercom from the pilot, then adjusted his microphone. “What's going on, Kip?” he asked. The dull whine of the two turboprop engines made conversation noisy, even with the headset on.

“There's not a lot I can tell you,” Fuller said. “Barker will explain.”

“Dan Barker?” Jesse asked, surprised. Barker had been his last superior on the South Florida Task Force. They had never liked each other. “What the hell does he want with me?”

“Barker is no longer DEA; he's a deputy assistant
attorney general now, and he took me with him to Justice. He's in charge of a new special task force.”

“What kind of task force?”

“Barker will explain.” Fuller looked out the window; he seemed embarrassed.

“How've you and Arlene been, Kip?”

“We've both been very well,” Fuller replied. “Arlene likes living in Washington; she says she needs a place with seasons.” Fuller smiled. “There's more good news: Arlene is pregnant.”

“That's wonderful, and after trying so long. Always happens when you least expect it.”

“Thanks,” Fuller said. “I don't think I've ever been so happy.” Then he looked embarrassed again. “Jesse, you look like absolute hell. What's been going on?”

“Cons don't like ex-cops,” he said.

“The assistant warden said you'd been in a lot of fights.”

“I didn't start any of them.”

Fuller looked out the window again. “I tried to get them to put you inside under another name, so nobody would know. Barker killed that little effort. I'm sorry, Jesse; I did what I could.”

“I appreciate that, Kip,” Jesse replied.

“If this thing today doesn't work out, I'll try to get you moved to Leavenworth and work up a new identity. Now that I'm at Justice I have a little more clout, and maybe I can do it without Barker hearing about it.”

Jesse leaned forward in his seat. “Kip, was it Barker who hung me out to dry?”

Fuller shook his head. “I honestly don't know, Jesse. I combed through all the paper on your case, all the depositions and testimony, and I couldn't find a thing to hang on him. Certainly, he was in a position to do it, but so were half a dozen other people. I'm damned if I could ever find a motive.”

Jesse sat back. “Kip, there's something I never told you, something important.”

“What's that, Jesse?”

“I wasn't entirely innocent.”

“What do you mean, exactly?”

“I was going to steal the evidence money; Bobby was going to help me. Beth's medical bills were out of sight, and my only other alternative was bankruptcy. I wish I'd taken that route now, but it was something to do with the way my old man brought me up. A man who couldn't pay his bills was worse than dirt to him, and bankruptcy was the worst possible shame. I even went to see a lawyer about it, but I just couldn't do it. Then Bobby, who was the sweetest guy I ever knew, brought up the evidence locker and what was in it.”

“That doesn't sound like Bobby Dunn,” Fuller said. “He was the straightest arrow I ever saw.”

Jesse nodded. “I know he was. And when he brought it up he made it sound, I don't know…almost like I was entitled to the money. He even volunteered to move the cash from the locker to the car, while I was upstairs in a meeting. He said nobody would ever suspect him, and he was right; nobody ever did.”

“What about the coke and Bobby's death?” Fuller asked.

“I had nothing to do with either one,” Jesse replied. “What I think happened is, when Bobby went to the evidence locker for the money, he got caught by somebody and that somebody cleaned everything out of the locker and stuffed some of it into my trunk, then shot Bobby and put him in there. There was about a million and a half more in that locker, and a ton of coke.”

“And they nailed you for all of it,” Fuller said.

“They did. And somebody walked away with the rest of the money and the drugs and never got caught.
I always thought my best chance was that the guy would do something stupid and get nailed. But he didn't; whoever he was he played it very smart. Barker is that smart.”

“He is,” Fuller said, “but I always thought it was one of the other agents. I never had a line on who, though.”

They rode in silence for a few minutes, then Jesse asked the question he had wanted to ask all along. “Did you ever get a line on Carrie?”

Fuller shook his head. “I tried again when I knew I was going to see you, but it was the same as when I wrote to you last year. I got hold of the woman in charge of the adoption agency a couple of days ago, tried to use a little Justice clout, but she wouldn't budge. All she said was that the people were very nice, ideal adoptive parents. She said Carrie was very happy, and that if you knew the people, you'd be pleased. I hope that helps some.”

Jesse nodded. “Some. I just wish I could write to her and that she could write to me. There's so much I want to tell her, and if I could hear from her then at least I'd know something about how she was being brought up.”

“Carrie's young, Jess, and she'll adapt very quickly. I know it's hard for you, but I really think you should try to put that out of your mind. There's absolutely nothing to be done about it. Believe me, I tried everything.”

Jesse looked out the window and saw an airport. “Where are we going, Kip?”

“That's Fulton County Airport; the locals call it Charlie Brown. We're going to a meeting there.”

“With Barker?”

Fuller nodded.

“Any advice, Kip?”

Fuller looked uncomfortable, but he seemed to be
thinking about it. Finally, he looked up. “Barker needs you pretty bad. You're not in much of a position to negotiate, but you might remember that.” He looked out the window again. “I won't be able to help you, Jess; remember that, too.”

The helicopter was hovering over the tarmac outside what looked like an office building. Finally it set down, and the pilot cut the engines. Fuller helped Jesse out of the aircraft and across the tarmac to a door at the end of the building, then up a flight of stairs.

Finally, Fuller opened a door and ushered Jesse into a conference room. A soft drink machine sat in a corner beside a coffee pot. Sitting at the table was the man Jesse held responsible for his incarceration and the loss of his daughter, the man he hated most in the world.

“Hello, Jesse,” Barker said.

“Hello, Dan.” Barker was the epitome of civil service smoothness, Jesse thought.

“Have a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee or a cold drink?”

“Some coffee, please.”

Fuller went to the coffee pot. “Black, as I remember.”

“That's right,” Jesse replied.

“It's not great coffee,” Barker said, “but I expect it's better than what you've been getting.”

“I expect.”

Fuller handed Jesse the cup, and he raised his cuffed hands to receive it. “You think I could take the restraints off now, Dan?” Fuller asked.

“I think not,” Barker replied. “So, Jesse, how are things in prison?”

Jesse had still not sat down. “Dan, I'm not talking to you while I'm wearing this.” He held up his cuffed hands. “So you can either get this stuff off me right now or go fuck yourself.” Jesse knew he was flirting with a trip back to prison, but he was angry.

Barker waited a beat before he turned to Fuller. “Kip, get this piece of shit back to the pen.”

Jesse turned and hobbled toward the door.

Fuller caught up with him in the hallway. “That was a mistake, Jesse.”

“The hell with him,” Jesse said.

Barker's voice came down the hall after them. “All right, all right, come on back in here and let's talk.”

Jesse turned and held his hands out to Fuller, who began unlocking. First the handcuffs came off, then the leather belt that buckled in back, then the chain that connected the cuffs to the leg irons and, finally, the leg irons. Jesse walked slowly back into the conference room, rubbing his wrists and stretching his legs, then he sat down. There were some pencils on the table; Jesse wondered whether he could plunge one into Barker's neck before either he or Fuller could shoot him.