Page 36 of King

Why would the FBI take care of everything?It's then that I realize there's much more to the story than I knew.

"Those are my parents," I say and touch my mother's image.“That’s my mother.That's my stepfather.They died in a car crash five years ago."

He covers his eyes, and I hear a sob come from behind his hand.“I’m so sorry."

He's saying he's so sorry?Sorry for what?Is he actually confessing to me?

“What are you sorry for?"

He removes his hand from his face.“For what happened," he says simply.“I had no idea.No idea," he repeats with emphasis.“I only did what I was told by my supervisor.I thought it was to get new vehicles for the field office.Management has been repairing the vehicles for so long and has refused to get new models.I thought I was doing something good.That they would point to the leaky brake line and say it was a problem and that they needed new vehicles.I never thought…"

"So, you're telling me that you knowingly broke the brake line in my stepfather's vehicle but had no idea he would actually drive it?"

“No, no,no,” he says emphatically.“I would never be part of anything like that.I thought…” he says, his voice breaking.“I thought they would show the manager this defective brake line and would impound the vehicle.I didn't think your stepfather would actually drive it out of the garage."

I take a deep breath.It's starting to come to me what happened.Deluca was told to tear the brake line to convince management to get new vehicles, not as part of a plot to kill my stepfather and mother.He thought he was doing something good.He had no idea.

He cries in front of me like a baby.He actually sobs out loud.

“When I found out?When I heard about the accident?I knew what happened.I knew they used me.I went straight to management, and they took me aside and said that it was all taken care of.Not to worry.But that's easy to say when you had no hand in it.I was the one who tore the brake line, but I thought I was doing it for a good cause.I would never have never never never."

He cries some more, and I hand him a tissue from a box on the chest of drawers next to the bed.I actually feel sorry for the man.He's truly broken up about it.When he did what he did, it wasn't to kill anyone, but to procure better vehicles for the FBI.

He's no longer the enemy.But what I really want to know is who he talked to and who in management said not to worry and that it was all ‘taken care of.’”

"Can I ask who you talked to in management?"

He looks up at me and wipes his eyes."I don't know…" he says with hesitation.“I don't wanna get into any more trouble than I already am.I'm in here because it was either here or jail."

I frown.“You’re in a nursing home instead of going to jail?Was that the price of your silence?"

"Yes," he says, nodding like it's a good thing.“Yes, instead of going to jail for my part in this, even though I didn't know what was happening, I would go into a nursing home.I could still get charged with damaging one of the Bureau’s vehicles even if I wasn’t charged with murder.When it all blows over, and management thinks I'm in the clear, they'll get me out of here, but until then, there's a hold on me, a psychiatric hold.They say I have dementia, and then I don't know what I'm talking about.That I make up stories, and that I'm a danger to myself."

I see his wrists, and there are cut marks on both of them.“Did you try to take your own life?”

He nods and examines them.“Yes.Yes, I did.I couldn't live with myself at first.Being in here," he says and glances around.“It's almost like a jail, only slightly better, but the way I'm treated?Like some old, demented man?It's almost worse than being in jail, I imagine.I'm just waiting until they figure it's safe for me to leave.Then I’m done and have my pension, as long as I stay put and follow orders.”

I wonder if the FBI is trying to protect their own management from any taint in case there ever was a real case opened into my parents’ deaths.

“Who ordered you to tamper with the brake line in my stepfather’s vehicle?”

He shrugs.“I didn’t know it was your stepfather’s vehicle, like I say.It was just a vehicle.I was told… Giordano told Rossi to do it.He said…”

He sobs again, and I can see he’s really, truly broken up over his role in their deaths.

“Who’s Rossi?Is that your supervisor?”

He nods.“I was only doing what I was told.I was told it would be better for the officers to have new vehicles.”

So now I have confirmation it was Giordano who was involved.Giordano ordered Deluca’s supervisor, someone named Rossi.

How many of them are involved?Are either of them tied to the Marinos?

I sit with Deluca for a while longer but then check my cell and see I’ve been gone for almost three-quarters of an hour.

“I have to get back to work, but thank you so much for talking to me,” I say.“It’s been a real comfort to know that you didn’t intend to kill my parents.It was just a big mix-up.”

He nods, his face a bit brighter, like he wants to believe that lie as well.