Stephen Cannell - King Con

She completed her negotiations with Gil and got the deal on paper; then she told Gil where Tommy was. Last, she called Paper Collar John in Adantic City. She told him the deal was done and that the Hog Creek Bateses should drop Joe off at the police station in Trenton. There would be no questions asked.

"Okay," he said.

"You hear from Beano?" she asked at the end of the conversation, her heart pumping with expectation.

"Y'know, Victoria, I seen him change over these last three weeks. He ain't the same as he was before. But I'm not sure that's good. You can't take his kind and turn him into something he ain't…"

"I guess you're right," she said, "but it would sure have been fun to try."

That night Victoria and her parents went to dinner at the country club. The TV at the club was on, and everybody was full of the story of Joe Rina's arrest and how the tabloid star's brother, Tommy, had come forward with the testimony to indict Joe for Murder One. Gil Green was on every news station. She listened while one reporter commented that these two brothers had been very close, and then asked rhetorically how it was possible that Tommy, who had once allegedly killed a man to protect Joe, would now testify against him.

"Because," Victoria said, repeating Beano's words, "the relationship had never been adequately tested."

She slept fitfully that night and woke up with a start when something jumped in bed with her. She sat up straight, feeling blindly for it in the darkness. And then, Roger-the-Dodger lunged up. He wagged his tail and licked her face.

"Roger, baby," she said, and she turned on the light and hugged him. There was a long crease in his hind end where the bullet had hit him, but brown and black fur was beginning to grow over the pink wound. She gathered him up in her arms and walked downstairs. She knew Beano was around somewhere, and then she finally saw him sitting in a chair out by the kidney-shaped pool in her parents' backyard. She moved over and sat in the chair beside him. He looked over at her and smiled.

"Hi," he said, "remember me?"

"Vividly," she said, still holding Roger. "He woke me up." She handed the dog over to him, but Roger jumped right back onto her lap.

"He's got good taste," Beano said. "1 didn't mean for him to wake you. He must've gotten in an open door," he lied.

"You were just sitting out here?"

"My second night," he said, and looked at her. "If you were David Letterman, you could get a restraining order."

"I've missed you," she said. "I've been thinking about you a lot."

"Me too," he said. "I'm sorry I ran, Victoria. I'm not sure what I am anymore. All the things I believed in have changed."

"So, everything doesn't have to happen at once," she said.

"So many questions… like what should I do from now on, what kind of life should I live, what should I do with the rest of Joe's five million?"

"You still have it?"

"Yeah, all but the ten percent I gave to the Hog Creek Bateses, but something tells me if I spend this Rina blood money, I'll ruin what I've found." He looked at her. "Silly, huh? I sound like a real sucker."

"No, I think it makes a lot of sense. You can't hold on without letting go."

"Then we have to do something. Get dressed," he said. "I'll need a lot of moral support."

They drove back to Trenton. It took only two hours at that time of night. Beano pulled up in front of the Trenton Children's Hospital.

"What's this?" Victoria said.

'Carol was a pediatric nurse here, gave a lot of time and money to this place. She'd work like a dog, then hand half of it back. I thought she was being a sucker with these people, like she was trying to make up for the rest of the family."

He got out of the car, opened the trunk, and pulled the two tan suitcases out. "I can't believe I'm doing this." Then he walked into the building with Victoria.

"I want to make a cash donation," he said to the nurse behind the counter. "Who do I talk to?"

The nurse led them to a man named Dr. Foster, who was the Assistant Hospital Administration. It was past midnight, but he was there, working on the annual financial report. Beano put the suitcases up on his desk.

"I want to make a charitable contribution. I want you to invest it, and I want the annual proceeds to be spent on child cancer research."

"I see. And in whose name would you like this gift to be made?" he asked.

"In the name of Carol Sesnick," he said. "She used to be a nurse here." And then he filled out the paperwork.

When the man opened the suitcase and saw all of the banded cash, Beano put a finger to his lips. "Nobody is looking for this money. It's not stolen," he told the man. "But it would probably be better if you didn't talk a lot about it."

They filled out the paperwork and left the hospital and got back into the car. Dr. Foster was watching them from the front steps of the large hospital, wondering who they were. He only vaguely remembered a round-faced, freckled nurse named Carol Sesnick.

Beano drove Victoria to the main street in Trenton. They cruised the boulevard of dead-end dreams. Finally he pulled the car to the curb and turned off the engine. "Come on," he said.

She got out of the car. He had a strange smile on his face.

"What is it?" she asked, wondering where they were.

He walked with her down the seedy street and finally entered a tattoo parlor called The Black Angel. Standing there was Paper Collar John, along with Dakota Bates. Dakota was still wearing the after-effects of Tommy's beating as Victoria hugged them.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked.

"They wanted to be here to see this," he said. And then he took off her wristwatch and she knew what he was about to do.

The tattoo artist began to work in the painted shop full of the colors of sunset and dawn. She looked away as the bearded and beaded man performed his artistry.

Roger-the-Dodger had jumped up in her lap and sat there, looking up at her, until the man was finished and had wiped the tattoo clean. When she looked down at her wrist and saw it for the first time, she smiled. It read:

B6-17-97

It was a strange badge of honor and meant more to her than her law degree. "But I'm not a Bates," she finally said, her voice shaking in anticipation.

"We've got a best man and a maid of honor," Beano said. "If you want, we can even take care of that."

So two days later they did.