Читать книгу The Patsy Returns - J. Thomas Ford - Страница 6

“After I got shot and nearly died, I had a kind of awakening of sorts.”

“What are you saying, Lee?”

“I started praying, going to church and believing in God. That was a first for me.”

“You were a changed person.”

“I was, and that’s when I first saw her, in church, with her two little children. Two weeks alone, with no man by her side. I asked someone I knew about her and he told me that she was a widow, a wealthy widow, in fact. When I found out her last name, I looked her family up in the local library. they weren’t just wealthy, they were rich and had been for five hundred years.

Old European money that had been collecting interest longer than the United States existed. But, it wasn’t the money that made me curious about her, it was her beauty. I was still a young man and I was lonely. It turned out that she was lonely too.

“What happened to her husband?”

“He was a professional pilot for a major airlines. On a flight over a mountain range, his plane was hit by lightning. Everyone on the plane was killed instantly. She was left with two little ones to raise on her own. I was introduced to her one day coming out of church. I walked her home that day and we started dating soon after. One thing led to another and a year later we decided to get married.”

“But, you were already married, Lee, were you not.”

“Technically, yes, but under a different name.”

“Did she know about your former life?”

“Not at first, no, I did not think it was necessary to tell her.”

“Does she know now?”

“She does, because I told her last year, right before she died.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Lee.”

“I told her everything and I thought she was going to be upset but the only thing she made me promise was that I come back to the states and try to clear my name. That’s what got me thinking about calling you, Timothy.”

“I’m glad you did, Lee.”

“So am I.”

“What about the children?”

“They’re all grown up, in their forties. They both have with children of their own. I’m a grandfather four times over now, not

counting Marina and the girls here in America.”

“Wouldn’t you like to see them before you die?”

“If that were possible without upsetting their lives, of course, I would, but I’m not sure that is going to happen. I would rather they know that their father was not that bad a

fellow, after all, in spite of all the disinformation.”

“Speaking of that, Lee, who were you actually working for on the day of the assassination?” He looked up from the sketch he was working on and gave me a look that seemed to imply that he wasn’t sure I was going to believe what he was about to tell me.

He took off his glasses and put his marker down.

“That’s just it. This is where it gets confusing.”

“What do you mean, exactly?” He took a deep breath and momentarily closed his eyes.

“I was working for both sides.”

“Both sides?”

“That’s right.”

“Did you have a death wish, Lee?”

“No, but it sure sounds like it.”

“You’re darn right it does! You were either very brave or not very smart,” I said, followed by a grin.

His reaction was more sarcastic.

He shook his head, and said, “Some of the former, but more of the latter.”

“Is that how you got caught?”

“I admit that I was confused and that may have had something to do with what happened to me.”

“Are you saying that you didn’t know you were being set-up to take the fall?”

He put his glasses back on and started back in or his

drawing.

“No, I did not.”

“Jesus, Lee, it should have been obvious at some point.”

“Look, I was young and naive, and I thought I was doing what I had to do to end up with a job in intelligence.”

“That was a hell of a way to go about it, though.”

“Yeah, I know that now.”

I knew that Oswald was working for the FBI as a low level informant, and I had an idea that it was his dream to work for one of the agencies. All the signs pointed in that direction, why he learned Russian, the real reason he went to Russia, not so much to defect, but to learn what he could about the Russian people and to make his resume irresistible to the CIA or the ONI, or whoever he wanted to work for in that field. He wanted those things even before he met Marina and had a child, but

after that it became imperative to look for work and secure a good paying job. That made sense, but the way he went about it did not. Part of that one could attribute to his youth. He had no idea the sort of people he was getting involved with, and he had very little experience dealing with people who just might stab you in the back if it meant advancing their own careers.

“I was dying to meet him you know.”

“Dying to meet who?”

“J. Edgar Hoover.”

“Lee, the man screwed you, why would you want to meet him?”

“I admired him.”

“He was a son-of-bitch.”

“Yeah, but he was the man who built the Bureau. In my mind, that made him a hero. I wanted to work for them in the worst way, but when I went for the interview I was told that I had to have a college degree so I had to settle for a job as an

informant.”

“So, the man you were working for tried his best to blame you for killing the President of the United States. Nice guy.”

“He was just following orders.”

“I beg to differ with you, Lee. Nobody gave J. Edgar Hoover orders, not even the President of the United States!”

“I think Lyndon Baines Johnson did.”

“Are you serious?”

“What did I say?”

“This man tried to nail you to a cross and you’re still defending him after all this time. I can’t believe it!”

I was still shaking my head when I remembered that I had retrieved my old tattered bible from home for just an occasion.

“Before you say anything more, Lee, put your right hand on this bible and swear that what you are about to tell me is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” He did what I asked him to do and even added something of his own.

“I swear to you on my mother’s grave.”

I nodded my approval. I believe he was telling me the truth. You see, it is one thing to know something you might have heard from a third party but quite different when it is explained to you by the man standing only a foot away. The hairs on my arms were standing up straight. I had chills up and down my spine. As someone who had studied this subject for twenty-five years you have to understand when you’ve hit pay dirt. This was one of those moments. I could feel it in my bones. I knew it in my heart. I could see it in his eyes. I could feel the vibration in the room. For a researcher like myself, it is the pay off. I felt like I was being rewarded for all that time I have put into trying to understand this long standing riddle. I may not be the smartest person in the world, but I know the difference between the truth and a tall tale.

For the next few moments it felt as if I was talking to a wall. Lee got up and went over to the window and just stared. Every once in a while he would grunt or say something like he was agreeing with me, but I could tell that he really wasn’t paying attention. I was just mumbling, saying things that didn’t amount to much of anything.

A moment later, he sat back down, took a deep breath and spoke into the microphone. He raised his voice a couple of decibels. I got the feeling that this is what was on his mind and now he was ready to get it off his chest.