Page 14 of Proof

“Fuck, Cass, would you just shut up and listen?” Sully responded in frustration.

“I don’t need to listen, Sully, because there’s one glaring fact that you can’t explain away. JJ was my alibi for that night, but he never spoke up. He never once came to my defense, and based on all the shit he just said to me, it’s obvious why he didn’t.” I climbed to my feet. “Because he believes all of it. Despite everything that happened between us before that night—” I let my words drop off as I realized what I’d been about to say.

“I knew what was happening between the two of you,” Sully said.

This time, there was no escaping his words. I sank back down into the chair, suddenly grateful for its support.

“How? When?” I managed to get out.

“A blind man would have been able to see the way you two looked at each other when you got home after your last tour was over. The way you were both conveniently busy at the same times those few nights before the shooting…”

“Fuck,” I muttered as I ran my fingers through my hair. “Sully, nothing happened. We talked. We kissed once. JJ, he wanted to come out to you before anything else happened. He was afraid because he knew?—”

“He knew our father wouldn’t have approved,” Sully finished. “JJ was right. Dad read that Bible of his every night, and he made sure we were at mass every Sunday. He came from a family of Irish Catholics who lived by the word of God. I want to believe that he would have tried to accept it… that he wouldn’t turn his back on his own son. Back then there wasn’t a lot of wiggle room for kids like JJ and you.” Sully paused before adding, “And me.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “I never knew,” I murmured.

“I didn’t know about you until you got home and saw JJ all grown up. JJ tried to hide it from me; he still does. We were all under the same illusion that if we saidanything, we’d loseeverything. I’ve never confronted JJ about it because it’s not my right. He’ll tell me if and when he’s ready,” Sully said firmly.

“So you knew about us,” I prodded since I figured our sexual identities weren’t really a top priority. I still needed answers. “So why the fuck does JJ believe?—”

“He doesn’t remember, Cass.”

“What?” I said laughingly as I tried to make sense of Sully’s words. When he dropped his eyes, I realized he wasn’t fucking around with me. “What are you talking about?” I asked even as my mind started putting pieces of the last two years together. I felt like I was on some crazy roller coaster that had lost its brakes.

“JJ doesn’t remember anything from the night of the shooting or several months of time before it. He doesn’t even remember you coming home that last time. Everything he believes about the shooting has come from the papers or the news, and he didn’t see any of that until six months after you were convicted.”

I shook my head. “No… no.” I had no idea what exactly it was that I was trying to deny.

“After the shooting, he ended up in surgery for eight hours. The bullet was a through and through, and while all the doctors and nurses considered it a medical miracle that it hadn’t killed him, there was nothing miraculous about what came after. Yes, the bullet missed several vital parts of his brain by centimeters, but it still left behind a lot of damage. JJ was put in a medically induced coma for months to give his brain time to heal. When the doctors tried to bring him out of it, he didn’t wake up. They weren’t sure if he’d ever wake up. That wasoneof the reasons I didn’t reach out to you. I was afraid of what you’d do if you found out he was barely clinging to life. I wasn’t sure how deep your feelings went, but I needed you to believe JJ had turned on you.”

“Why?” I asked. I felt like I was going to be sick. “I should have been at his side. I should have been holding his hand and telling him about all the things we were going to do when he woke up,” I said absently, not caring at the moment about my original question of “why.”

I didn’t know how long it was before Sully answered me. It felt like seconds and days at the same time. I’d nearly lost JJ not once, but twice. Sully’s voice sounded overly loud when he suddenly answered my question about why it needed to look like JJ had turned on me.

“Because I don’t believe those witnesses were the real target. I saw the police reports and took a look at the crime scene myself. I knew a guy who could hack into the police radio logs. The district attorney who’d stashed that lady and her kid at that apartment had an FBI agent on them twenty-four seven, but he’d also asked the police chief for a plainclothes officer to provide additional support. JJ never would have left his post until his replacement had arrived. According to the logs, his replacement got there two minutes before JJ left the scene. JJ’s replacement never radioed in after that. Turns out the officer who was supposed to relieve him never even made it to the scene. He was killed in a car crash four miles away and ten minutes before the call came in from the so called ‘replacement’ who relieved JJ.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The shooting had startedafterJJ had been relieved of duty. His replacement should have seen or heard something. He sure as hell would have called in the “officer down” code once he’d seen that JJ or the federal agent had been gunned down.

“The apartment was clean. Execution-style bullets to the two victims inside. Same for the agent. He never even made it out of his car. Gunman used a silencer. Only part that didn’t make sense was JJ. He’d already left his post. His car was foundaround the corner, far enough away that he wouldn’t have heard the shots. There was no radio call about shots fired at the scene.”

“I didn’t hear them either,” I murmured. “JJ and I were supposed to meet up so we could go to a diner that was just up the block and talk about how to tell you we were seeing each other.”

“What did you see?” Sully asked.

I didn’t want to relive the moment because it was the worst one in my life. I’d had nightmares about it every night afterwards. I still did.

“Um, I had parked a few cars down. I was leaning against my car while I waited for him. I didn’t see his car or anything but a few minutes after we’d agreed to meet up, I saw him walking toward me. He was walking in the street, not on the sidewalk. I started to walk toward him and then I heard the pop,” I explained. I could feel the tears stinging the backs of my eyes.

“I saw JJ go down. I just… I froze. It seemed like everything was happening in slow motion. When I did finally start running, I couldn’t get to him fast enough. It was dark so I couldn’t really see much but I… when I pulled him onto my lap, I could feel the blood running down my arm. I kept telling him to wake the fuck up.” I shook my head because my throat was closing off, making it nearly impossible to speak.

A warm hand covered mine where I had it clenched on my thigh. I hadn’t even noticed Sully move while I’d been telling him what I remembered.

“I can’t prove it, but I don’t think that mother and her child were the ultimate target. I think they were just a cover to throw off the cops. My theory is that either you or JJ were the target,” Sully explained.

I shook my head. My brain couldn’t comprehend anything but what it had believed for two long years. “No, that doesn’t make sense.”

“The kid and her mom, along with that agent, were shotafterJJ was. Why bother to go after JJ at all? He was already around the block. Even if he’d somehow managed to hear the shots, he would have called out to you and run back toward the scene. By then the killer would have been long gone.”

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