A Perfect Grave Part 45

"Come on!"

Brady glanced behind them at the two figures gaining on them, then back at Sperbeck, who yanked on his arm. Brady saw the gun in his hand and struggled. They splashed across a creek, the cold water reaching up to Brady's thighs.

They scrambled up the meadow, up a hill toward a clearing.

Brady's legs ached. His ears roared from the blood rush.

The men were getting closer.

Cresting a hill, they'd come to a cliff and a dead drop of some two hundred feet. Sperbeck turned. The men were thirty yards away.

Sperbeck had nowhere to go.

He pulled Brady closer to him, edging back to within ten feet of the cliff.

The men were twenty yards away and separating. One going left. One going right.

Sperbeck used Brady as a s.h.i.+eld and placed his gun to the boy's head.

"You're going to give me your keys and let me walk out of here."

Henry Wade leveled his Glock at Sperbeck.

"It's over, Leon. Put your gun down and release the boy."

"I'm taking this pup to h.e.l.l with me to meet his old man and his girlfriend!"

They could hear the distant thud of a helicopter.

"It's over."

"It's not over! The b.i.t.c.h nun stole from me! She knew this pup's father was holding the rest of my money. I f.u.c.kING WANT IT! I paid for it with twenty-five years of my life!"

"We all paid!" Henry inched closer, lifted his safety, his gun never wavering from Sperbeck's head. "We all paid for what happened that day!"

Henry met Brady's eyes, wild with fear, his heart thumping in time with the distant chopper. Brady struggled against Sperbeck, only to feel his hold tighten into a crus.h.i.+ng death grip, forcing Brady to freeze in order to breathe.

"Leon, let him go! Don't make the same mistake again!"

"I'm not going back to prison! I'm not going back into my coffin!"

Jason rolled two rocks at Sperbeck's gun side, distracting him as Brady suddenly squirmed free, scrambled two, three, five, seven steps. Henry Wade, in the stance, waved him to the ground, Brady dove, hitting the ground hard.

Two shots split the air.

Sperbeck spun, stumbled back, collapsed at the cliff, slid over completely. He screamed as he stopped himself at the final moment with one hand gripping a sharp edge of rock as his gun tumbled two hundred feet to the bottom.

The rock was cutting into him, blood webbed down his arm.

"Help me!"

A shadow blocked the sun above him.

"Who shot the boy that day, Leon?"

"Please."

"Who shot the boy?"

"You-"

"I want the truth."

"You, you missed. It was me."

"I want the truth!"

"It's true! They were going to execute me!"

"Jay, help me get him up!"

Henry Wade got on his knees, gripped Sperbeck's arm, and reached for his shoulder. Suddenly, Sperbeck looked into the sun.

"No, I can't go back! I can't! Let me go!"

With his free hand Sperbeck pulled out his knife and slashed at their hands. They fended him off, while struggling to pull him up, but he drove his feet against the rock. Their grip grew slippery as blood gushed from their wounds.

"Let me go!"

Sperbeck continued stabbing at them until he broke free.

As he fell he extended his arms, plummeting fifty, seventy, one hundred feet before his body dropped into the yawning mouth of a jagged open crack. As he plunged deeper into its narrowing darkness, sharp rock walls peeled off his clothes and skin, transforming him into a lifeless, bleeding ma.s.s entombed in granite.

A perfect grave.

Henry looked into the black hole that had swallowed his demon.

Then he turned to Brady, who was standing in the light. The boy had started to cry. Henry held him as the helicopter approached. Bloodied and exhausted, Henry felt Jason's arm around his shoulder.

"I heard what he said, Dad. It's over. It's all over."

Henry nodded and pulled them both tighter.

Chapter Sixty-Five.

In the days that followed, Rhonda and Brady Boland were questioned.

They were investigated by Grace Garner, Dominic Perelli, FBI agents, and lawyers from the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and detectives from several other agencies.

The case had so many emerging complexities no one was quick to sign off.

After interviews and a.n.a.lysis of the new evidence on the histories of Jack Boland, Leon Sperbeck, and Anne Braxton, investigators concluded that Rhonda Boland had zero involvement with the original heist and its outcome.

Rhonda Boland was never aware of the stolen money, nor did she gain from it. In fact, she and her son were victimized because of it.

These were the new facts: Some twenty-five years ago in Seattle, Was.h.i.+ngton, Russell Scott Schallert, of Newark, New Jersey, alias Jack Boland, his girlfriend, Chantal Louise Segretti, of Montreal, Canada, and Leon Dean Sperbeck, of Wichita, Kansas, while disguised with ski masks, committed the armed robbery of $3.3 million from an armored car operated by a small subsidiary of U.S. Forged Armored Inc.

After shooting and wounding the armored-car guards, the suspects separated and fled. Schallert and Segretti absconded with the cash. Seattle police officers Vernon Pearce and Henry Wade, among the first to respond, encountered Sperbeck, who took a hostage, Timothy Robert Hope, aged eight, of Seattle, Was.h.i.+ngton.

Sperbeck fired upon Pearce, then at Wade, who returned fire. Hope was killed in the crossfire by Sperbeck.

After Sperbeck's arrest and trial, he refused to identify his accomplices and avoided the death penalty by admitting that his actions contributed to Hope's death. No evidence emerged to identify the other suspects and none of the stolen cash was located, until now.

During an interview with Brady, Grace Garner twigged on something he'd said about his father always digging deep to add nutrients.

"Did you ever see what was in those plastic-wrapped bricks?"

"No. He had them wrapped pretty good."

Upon further study of the old landscaping records, Brady was able to lead police to a dozen locations of former clients where, after securing warrants, they unearthed scores of plastic-wrapped bricks. The bricks were bundles of cash. Serial numbers confirmed they were from the old heist.

The total: $894,380.

Since the story broke with Sister Anne's murder, it never moved from the front page of Seattle's big dailies.

And the Seattle Mirror Seattle Mirror owned it. owned it.

Jason Wade scored exclusive after exclusive and the paper's circulation climbed. In the wake of Sperbeck's death, it remained Seattle's lead story for weeks. It led to others.

After reading about Rhonda and Brady Boland's hard life, a lawyer, a single mom herself, from a high-powered firm stepped forward to represent her and Brady pro bono. She made convincing closed-door arguments to several parties that Rhonda and Brady had a strong case for civil action.

Without a.s.signing blame, it was agreed that authorities should have been suspicious of Sperbeck's activities upon his release. It was also agreed that information provided by Rhonda and Brady Boland was critical to closing the case. Therefore, they qualified for the standing reward which amounted to a percentage of the recovered funds.

"Rhonda and Brady Boland almost lost their lives helping clear this case," the lawyer said.

American Eagle Federated Insurance, in cooperation with state and federal officials, provided Rhonda Boland with $250,000; in addition, the insurance company agreed to provide the Bolands with full medical coverage for life.

Brady underwent the risky surgery to remove his tumor. The operation was successful, and before long he was back at the park playing basketball with Justin and Ryan.

Ethan Quinn received a per diem and $25,000.

Henry Wade was offered $75,000 and requested it be used to establish a scholars.h.i.+p in the name of Timothy Hope.

For the sisters with the Order of the Compa.s.sionate Heart of Mercy, the revelation of Sister Anne's past compounded their anguish over their loss, but ultimately they found meaning in it all.

This is what happened.

After the revelation of Sister Anne's involvement in the old heist became national news, Sister Vivian Lansing flew back to Seattle from the Mother House in Chicago, uncertain of what would transpire.

Sister Denise admitted to giving Sister Anne's diary to the press. Vivian did not reprimand her, for she herself had had a change of heart. In the end the information helped save lives by resolving a violent situation. "I regret that you did not discuss it with me, but I'm sure G.o.d was guiding your heart and it ultimately led to a greater good."

Sister Anne's story became news in Europe, with French and Swiss authorities debating the p.r.i.c.kly issue of what steps to take on Sister Anne's "donation" of $1.5 million to the Order. Did it not arise from a crime?

The victims, the American armored-car company and its insurer, both indicated to European investigators that they would write off the amount as unrecoverable. And given that all those involved in the crime were deceased, no further action would be taken.

The Vatican weighed in.

Rome not only insisted on offering to repay the $1.5 million, but issued a strong indication that it was considering the posthumous excommunication of Sister Anne Braxton, also known as the criminal Chantal Louise Segretti.

That twist in the story was carried on news wires around the world and gave rise to protests that arose among the very street people that Sister Anne had comforted at the Compa.s.sionate Heart of Mercy Shelter, at the fringe of Seattle's Pioneer Square District.

Their opposition found support in cities across the United States and around the world when an online editorial compared Chantal Louise Segretti's case to the story of The Good Thief, who acknowledged his crimes but asked Christ to remember him for good on Judgment Day.

At this time, Jason Wade received a call from Pincher Creek, Alberta. Sister Marie had located a series of letters Sister Anne had written to be opened in the event of her death. She faxed them to the Mirror Mirror for Jason to print. for Jason to print.

I could never confess to another human being the horrible things I did. As a young, confused woman I succ.u.mbed to drugs and joined a group of lost souls rus.h.i.+ng down a road to d.a.m.nation that culminated with the death of an innocent child.I wanted to end my own life, but realized that was a sinful, selfish act that would achieve nothing. I wanted to surrender, but I did not believe that it was the answer for me. I begged G.o.d to help me and after months of torture, while I was praying alone in a tiny church in Paris, He called me.I decided then that I was a failure, unworthy of forgiveness, but I would use every remaining breath of my sinful life to help others overcome their mistakes and find their way to Him.Later, I tried to convince Russell to search his heart and do the right thing himself. But he shut me out. Russell grew paranoid, fearing that Leon would betray us to police one day. So he lived in torment. I don't believe he touched the money. Eventually, I tried to convince Leon to surrender to G.o.d, but prison had made him bitter and he was blind to the path of redemption that G.o.d was willing to light for him.As for me, I do not ask for forgiveness, for I am not worthy. I do not ask for understanding, for my actions were beyond comprehension. All I ask is that you know that G.o.d spoke to me, told me to dedicate myself to helping others overcome their human mistakes and turn to the Light. not worthy. I do not ask for understanding, for my actions were beyond comprehension. All I ask is that you know that G.o.d spoke to me, told me to dedicate myself to helping others overcome their human mistakes and turn to the Light.

Chantal Louise Segretti The day the Mirror Mirror published Sister Anne's lost letter, Grace met Jason at the Rusted Anchor. published Sister Anne's lost letter, Grace met Jason at the Rusted Anchor.

"How's your old man doing?"

"One day at a time."

"How about you?"

Jason shrugged.

"Might take some time off, drive down the coast to Mexico, do some thinking. I got an offer to write a book."

"It's an unbelievable story," Grace said, "when you look at all the people it touched, the impact, and what they carried with them all these years. People dealing with their mistakes, you know?"

"I know."

"I mean, look at the nun. Look at Boland, afraid to spend the money, Rhonda and Brady, what they were facing, Sperbeck gave up twenty-five years for a payday. Then there's your dad and you."

Jason looked into his ginger ale.