Sonia was having a busy day. She had just gotten out of court. She had waited three hours to talk to the judge, and when it was her turn, he had given her three minutes. The legal system was terribly inefficient. “At least that child won’t have to grow up in an abusive home,” she thought. “Instead, she’ll move from foster home to foster home, where many families have good intentions, but don’t understand the responsibilities they are taking on.”
She was talking to herself which she always does when her secretary is out. She walked out of her office to her secretary’s desk, and was shuffling through some papers, when she looked up.
“Detective Chanello, detective Mangino, what are you doing here?” Sonia could tell something was wrong by the look in their eyes.
“We need to talk to you right now,” said Chanello.
"Sure. Why don’t you two come into my office.” She opened the door for them and they followed them in.
“Would you like some coffee?”
“No.”
“No,” said detective Mangino.
Jim spoke. “I am going to be blunt with you. I am very disappointed in the news we received about you and Mr. Massey.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Sonia glanced at some papers on her desk and shuffled them around nervously.
“We found out that you had a late night conversation with Mr. Massey,” said detective Mangino.
“I was just doing my job,” Sonia innocently protested.
“You were just doing your job by calling him at eleven o’clock at night from your house?”
“It was a busy day. It must have been the only convenient time for me to call. Besides what gave you a right to look at my phone records?”
“I don’t like to be lied to,” said Chanello. “You are coming dangerously close to interfering with a police investigation. Now, I am going to ask you one more time. Why did you call Mr. Massey’s house at eleven o’clock at night?”
Sonia just looked down at the desk. She was playing with a pen out of nervous energy. If there was any way to get out of this mess, she didn’t know how.
"When I called you the first time it was because of the article in the paper about Melanie being killed and I remembered a Melanie had left a message. The paper didn’t talk about any other possible suspects besides the boyfriend. Then you two came here and started talking about Mr. Massey. I guess I should have told you then, but I didn’t. We had dated for around six months and then he broke it off. He wouldn’t respond to my calls and it’s fair to say that he broke my heart.”
“Did you call him after we asked you to research and see if anyone else besides Melanie had called complaining about him,” asked Jim?
“No. I didn’t call him immediately. I swear, but I did research your request day and night. I was thinking about him all the time and really wanted to see him again. I loved him. I still love him. He began taking over my mind again.”
“You love a killer?”
“I never believed he killed Melanie when you first mentioned his name. I knew that he loved his child, little Jay, but he wouldn’t kill over it. He was so charming. When people talked about him being tied up in the mafia, I knew they were wrong.”
“Let me say that I disagree with you. He is in the mafia, and he might have killed Melanie and Maureen or had them killed, but right now I want to get back on track. You say you didn’t call him after we asked you to research him? He doesn’t know of our plan to get his child?”
“No. Like I said I was obsessing however. I started driving by his house at lunch and after work. I wanted to go to his door or call. I wanted to real bad. Then Maureen called and she said she knew something about Mr. Massey and his child. I called her back the next day when I got the message, but she wasn’t home. What she said on my machine was all bogus accusations. I couldn’t control myself any longer."
“So, you decided to call him,” asked Chanello?
“Yes.”
“And what did the two of you love birds talk about?”
“I told him I knew he loved his child and that these charges were false, but I was required to ask him about it. I really was doing my job.”
"So, you told him about Maureen?”
“Yes.”
“And Melanie?”
“Yes. When I called to tell him about Maureen and Melanie, I told him i was required to get a statement from him, and that the police may suspect him in Melanie’s death. By then everyone already knew this anyway, but I didn’t tell him we are going to question his child. I promise. I view this as a chance for him to exonerate himself."
“Or, it’s an excuse just so you can talk to him again,” said Mangino.
“I don’t believe you had a reason to call,” said Chanello. “I agree with Mangino. It was just an excuse for you to try and get back together with him.” He just looked at her for a minute and then continued. “Then what?”
“I called Maureen’s number back several times, but she never answered. I started to worry. The thought of him being a murderer seemed to be more and more real in my mind. I drove by Maureen’s house the next day, and even rang the doorbell but no one answered. After hours of driving around, I decided to call you. And now she is dead!” Sonia put her face into her hands and was sobbing. “There both dead and I feel like I am responsible.”
“You may have made a mistake by calling him at his home and telling him about our investigation, but you are not responsible for the murders,” said Chanello.
“I don’t know if you made a mistake, really,” said Mangino, “it is your job to get a statement from him.”
“But not to tell him about our investigation of Melanie, and if she knew him, she should have told us, and asked to be taken off the case. There shouldn’t be any conflict of interest.”
“This is true,’” said Kate.
“They both called my office and ended up dead, so I am responsible,” cried Sonia.
Chanello was getting annoyed. This was one of the reasons he had trouble with women because they get too emotional without thinking through all the facts first. He spoke up. “Look, these ladies did call your office right before dying, but you didn’t tell Mr. Massey when Melanie called because you didn’t know who she was, or that she wanted to make a complaint against Mr. Massey right?"
“Right.”
“We believe, if he killed her rather than Donny, that he fought with her at his party and got a motive to do her in. And we know he already knew about Maureen before she phoned your office because she had told his daughter in law, Kay, who works with Maureen, about Jay, and Kay confronted him about this. So, he knew about Maureen before she called your office.”
“He was going to kill Maureen anyway is what we are trying to tell you.”
“Why didn’t he kill Kay too then?”
“He didn’t do that for two reasons. The first is that she is his son’s wife, and second, once Maureen is dead, everything she told Kay would be hearsay."
Mangino asked Sonia, “How did you meet Mr. Massey in the first place?”
“I had just gotten out of court one day. It was beautiful outside, and I decided to get a pretzel for lunch and eat it in the sun. I still remember the day vividly. The skies were the purest blue with an occasional white cloud. It wasn’t too warm. If I remember correctly, it was about eighty. I had been so cold in the courtroom that day because they keep the temperature way down in there.
“Sonia, please answer my question,” Kate interjected.
“I am,” Sonia said offensively. “While I was sitting there a boy was running around playing with a remote control car. At first, I couldn’t tell where his parents were until I saw a man in grey suit walking toward him, calling out his name.”
“I assume it was Mr. Massey and his son,” asked Jim?
“Yes. He was such a sweet boy and Mr. Massey was such a loving father.”
“Here we go again,” said Chanello.
“Jim. Let her finish.”
“We were talking about his son. I told him he was the most handsome young man I had ever seen and that if he ever needed my babysitting services, I wouldn’t charge him a penny. Of course, I was only joking, and he sat down. As we were talking, I eventually got around to asking him about the boy’s mother. She had died when Jay was just a baby, and his housekeeper was raising him. When he said she had died it just broke my heart. Here I was a child protective services worker who loves children and there was this young man in front of me who needed a mom.”
“So, you decided to be the boy’s mom and Mr. Massey’s rebound lady?”
“Jim.” Mangino yelled and slapped him half jokingly. Mangino was touched by Sonia’s story.
Sonia just ignored him and continued reminiscing about how that was one of the happiest times of her life. “I fell head over heels in love with that man and his son and I thought he did the same with me. We started dating and I practically lived with him on the weekends. We all had such a good time together.”
“How did his wife die,” asked Mangino?
“She died of cancer while she was only 33 years old. I think it was lung cancer.”
Mangino took a deep breath and sat back knowing she too may have to deal with a dreadful sickness like cancer.
“She had smoked a lot which probably caused it. I think he told me only 2 of her 5 siblings are still alive. She died of cancer in her thirties. Her sister died of cancer in her forties while her brother recently died of a heart attack in his fifties. They were all smokers. The two heavy drinkers are still alive believe it or not.”
”I’ll drink to that,” said Chanello.
“I have had cancer,” Mangino told Sonia.
“I’m sorry. The survival rate is much higher now.
"I just went in for my yearly checkup. I’m going for my mammogram soon."
Sonia warmly placed her hand on Mangino’s leg. “I hope everything turns out alright for you. I don’t pray as much as I should, but I’ll say one for you tonight.”
“Thank you. As you can imagine I’ve been praying a lot too lately.”
“So, when did your relationship with Mr. Massey end,” asked Chanello?
“It was about six months later,” answered Sonia.
“Here you are telling us how great everything was and now you’re saying it only lasted six months. Can you explain that?”
“It didn’t end badly really. When we started our relationship, Mr. Massey had lost his wife. Although it had been awhile, he still had a lot of pain over her that he was carrying in his bags. I would try to get him to talk about it with me, but he just shut me out. It seemed like the more I would try to get him to open up,” Sonia’s eyes were swelling with tears, "the more he became distant. Eventually he told me he needed some space and he stopped calling me. There came a point where he would not take my calls any longer.”
Her face was buried in her hands. She barely could say, "all I wanted to do was love him and make everything better for he and his son.”
“I’m sure you did,” said Kate, “but some people don’t want to be loved.” They want to sink in the sands of the past.”
“I know. I know,” she spoke tearfully and gently.
Chanello spoke up as he was tired of all this crying over a crook. "Did you ever hear anything about his wife?”
“What do you mean,” asked Sonia as she was wiping her eyes with kleenex Kate had given her?
“Did she ever cheat on him?”
“Like I said he never told me much, but I talked to his staff at the house and others who knew him, and she apparently had been cheating on him with some lawyer.”
“Was his name Mr. Sorenstein?”
“I think it was. How did you know that?”
“What’s more important is that Mr. Sorenstein later wound up dead. His murder still hasn’t been solved.”
“Yes, I know that, but he was killed after she passed. He would have killed him during the affair if he really wanted to do it.”
“If he was so embittered by the affair, why didn’t he just divorce his wife?”
"I wish I could answer that, but he did just the opposite. He just wallowed in the pain.”
“Sounds like a fool to me,” said Chanello.
“Is there anything else you can remember?” asked Mangino.
“The only thing he ever said that gave me a glimpse into what he was thinking was one time he said she died of cancer because God was giving him justice for her cheating on him.”
“What,” said Kate? She took great offence to this.
“I thought it sounded odd too.”
Chanello spoke, “Did he also tell you Mr. Sorenstein’s murder was God’s punishment for his role in the fling they had?”
“Yes. He basically said something like that. He also said sometimes God has to use other people on this earth to carry out his punishments, or something like that. I don’t remember his exact words however, and I didn’t ask what he meant."
Sonia’s eyes squinted and she threw away the can of coke she was drinking from.
Chanello and Mangino looked at her, but she tried to hide what she was feeling. Jim asked Kate, “do you have any other questions for her?”
“No.”
“Let’s go then.”
They ended their conversation with Chanello threatening to tell her boss about her unprofessional behavior if she screwed up again. After the detectives left, she kept thinking about their conversation. She knew they had plans to take Mr. Massey’s son from him. That Jay somehow could offer any insights into these murders. It was ridiculous. She didn’t know why, but talking about him made her want Michael Massey again. If she would help him maybe he would see her love and respond. “That isn’t a good idea,” she thought. She had been willing to go along with the plan before because it would force Mr. Massey to deal with her. But he would be very angry. He would be more appreciative if she forewarned him. “Why take a child away from a good man. There are many people out there who don’t care about their children. Mr. Massey wasn’t one of them.”
Sonia sat there for an hour pondering over what she should do? She finally made up her mind. She knew she shouldn’t be doing this, but she had to warn him. If she saved his child, he might love her again. Although he was older, his embrace gave her the serenity she had always been looking for. It was the kind of love she didn’t get from her father. Is that why she loved him so dearly? He was a lover as well as a father. Although her psychology courses taught her that kind of love wasn’t healthy, she wasn’t the first woman who had fallen for an older man’s graces.
She decided to do it. She closed the drawers in her desk and walked out of her office to her secretary’s desk. Gina had just left for lunch and wouldn’t be back for an hour. Sonia noticed she had left her cell phone. She picked it up, walked back into her office and then called the Massey residence. Since they had tapped her phones before she wasn’t about to call Mr. Massey from her phone again.
Dr. Jones walked into Sonia’s office, ready for lunch. He opened the door and walked into where the secretary worked. The door into Sonia’s office was opened and Sonia was talking lowly on the phone, looking the other way, looking out the window.
“Tell Mr. Massey they are coming for after his child very soon. I am not saying who I am. The police are coming very soon. If you don’t call him now, I will tell him later, and you will be fired.”
After hearing Sonia, Dr. Jones quietly left the office. After Sonia hung up she erased the call so her secretary wouldn’t see it. As she was hiding the call her phone rang. It was Dr. Jones. “Hello.”
“Hey Sonia. I’m going to have to cancel lunch.”
“That’s fine. I really should work through lunch anyway. We’ll talk soon.”
“Bye,” Dr. Jones hung up abruptly.
Sonia just looked at her phone. He seemed a little short, but she really didn’t care. After returning her secretary’s phone to her purse, she left.
Dr. Jones walked out of the building. He went to lunch by himself and thought about what he just heard. The fact that Sonia was violating her professional responsibility was all he could think of. He started walking towards police headquarters. He knew what he had to do, but couldn’t figure out how. He didn’t want to get Sonia in trouble. He could act like he hadn’t heard the conversation but there were too many other considerations.
As he approached the huge door to the police department he had made up his mind. He was in a somber mood.
“Hey Doc, did someone die,” one officer asked?
“Ha-Ha,” he answered while calling him an ass under his throat.
“Is Detective Chanello or Mangino in?”
The officer answered, “let me check.” He dialed a number. “He is in his office. I assume you know the way.”
“Thanks,” said Dr. Jones as he walked to Jim’s office and opened the door.
“Dr. Jones. This is a surprise. What can I do for you?” Chanello saw the look in his eyes, but wasn’t sure what it meant. “Why don’t you have a seat.”
“Thanks,” Dr. Jones said as he sat down. “I have something important to tell you. I don’t want you to read too much into it."
“Alright. I won’t.”
“I know you are going to get Mr. Massey’s son soon,” Dr. Jones said.
Chanello tensed up, “I assume you know that because of Sonia.”
“No,” Dr. Jones said this as he slammed his hand down on the table! “I didn’t say anything about Sonia. I heard the police talking about it.”
Chanello didn’t have the patience for this crap but decided to play along. “Assuming what you said is true, what is it to you?”
“This is hard for me to say so I will just spell it out. I have reason to believe Mr. Massey is being informed this very minute of your plan.”
Jim was staring incredulously at him.
“You need to act fast if you plan on getting him. I think he is going to be flown out of the country soon,” Dr. Jones said.
“I can’t believe Sonia called him again after I just talked to her.”
“Detective, I told you it was not her.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“You better tell me your plans for getting the boy. Maybe I can help.”
“We were going to pick him up when he was being dropped off at school tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow is now too late. You can’t just go to the door?”
“They would say he wasn’t home.”
“Can’t you search the property?”
“That would take a different kind of warrant. A kind that we can’t get. The child’s father is out of the country, so we don’t have the right to go into the house unless whoever opens the door admits the child is under his or her care.
Dr Jones stood up and walked over to the window and was looking out at all the police officers. “I have an idea, but I want a promise from you that you won’t go accusing someone of this. I never mentioned any names. If my plan works out, you just forget about everything that has been done by certain people."
“I just don’t know why certain people would tell quote -un-quote the bad people what we are trying to do. Do you think he or she is being bribed?” It was clear Dr. Jones didn’t know about Mr. Massey’s relationship with Sonia, thought Chanello, and he didn’t want to be the one to tell him, at least not now. There was too much to do.
“I don’t know. She could be.
If we found out she was doing it for money, we might need your testimony.”
“I might give it if you find out something first. I’ll tell you what I know, but I don’t want to be the initial whistleblower.”
“I understand. I’ve got to get this kid before he is taken out of the country.” Chanello laid back in his chair and put each hand behind his head. “What is your plan Dr.?"
As he listened, it sounded like it might work. They had nothing to lose at this point. He was actually gaining a little more respect for the good old Dr. He knew Sonia had screwed up again, but he admired Dr. Jones’ for informing him. And he slightly respected him for not turning her in directly. He had to protect her because of their fling though they were only casually dating, and he had to protect one of their own, a government worker. A police officer never turns in one of their own, unless a real crime has been committed, and this should be true across all government agencies.
At the same time, he realized what a fool Dr. Jones was. He wondered if the Dr. knew about Mr. Massey’s former relationship with Sonia, or that she has recently been obsessing over him again?
On the other hand, Dr. Jones has never been known to be faithful to anyone but himself, and Chanello doubted that he would even care if Sonia still had some feelings for him. Everyone has some feelings for lost love’s although usually bad. Dr. Jones is a ladies man par excellence who has so many different ladies he probably quickly forgets about the others. Jim has seen him out with many ladies, even while he was dating Sonia.
He picked up the phone and called detective Mangino and explained the whole story to her. Jim of course had a man’ point of view and said,” so it’s like he is getting poetic justice against Sonia for cheating on him, if we decide to prosecute her.”
“Give me a break,” answered Kate, “She didn’t cheat, but he has many times. You’ve seen the way he has hit on me.”
“Yeah, you’re the only one who has rejected him in a long time.”
“What makes you think I am still rejecting him,” she asked jokingly?”
”Ha-Ha. Come back to the station for I’ve got a plan. I’ll see you in a half an hour,” Chanello responded jokingly as well.
“I’m just glad to see that the Dr. did the right thing.
When you get here, we’ll go to Marco or Richie’s old house to see if we can figure anything out from that angle, and then tomorrow morning we will get Mr. Michael Massey’s son. As long as we get him within 24 hours it shouldn’t be too late. From what I could tell Sonia just informed someone in his organization. It will take some time for Mr. Massey to figure out what he is going to do.”
“I’ll see you soon.”