Misdirected

Chapter 3 -- Full Disclosure

"So Tammy how did the trip go" LaSalle inquires?

"Well the defense counsel was brutal to me. Thank goodness I took good case notes. The jury was still in deliberation when I left D.C. yesterday.

Hey Percy and I went out Saturday night to some new club she wanted to try out. She got to griping about her single life again then admitted that she had only been to two clubs since she was there. Some guy tried to hit on her but she ignored him all night."

Tammy's was still talking and realizing that five minutes later LaSalle hasn't still asked any detailed questions about Percy.

"So you're not going to ask?"

"Not going to ask what?"

"About your old partner" Tammy retorts.

"What about her Tammy. She left New Orleans and left us in the rear view mirror."

"What? LaSalle" asks as she stares holes in him.

"That's not true and you know it Christopher. Percy told me that she wrote you and never heard anything from you. I could tell by the tone in her voice that it hurt her."

"No she didn't. I never heard anything from Percy. No letter and no phone calls."

"Are you sure? She said that she wrote you about six months after she left when she was on her first deployment."

"Well there only seems one way to settle this.

"What's that Chris asks?"

"Call her."

"You or me LaSalle? Actually I think it should be you. Here. I'll text you her contact information."

"I don't need a witness Tammy. Why don't you go get us some coffee?"

"Hey Percy this is Chris LaSalle. Can you talk for a minute?"

"Well, you called me at my desk. Let me go out in the stairwell and call you back."

A minute later

"Hello Chris. I can talk now."

"How are you Percy?"

"Just fine. A little busy and surprised to hear from you."

"I'm not sure how to say this Percy. Tammy and I were talking about her time with you in D.C. and she mentioned that you were surprised that I hadn't gotten in touch with you. She also inferred that you had contacted me after you left, but I didn't see anything from you."

"Yeah Chris I did. I wrote you on my first assignment. It was sent from overseas. I wrote it one night when there was a windstorm outside of the hotel. I sent it to your house addressed to Karin Johnson, c/o of Chris LaSalle. I didn't want to use my own name on the outside of the envelope. I knew that you would recognize that name as one of my snitches. So you're saying that you didn't get it?"

"No when was that?

"I'm pretty sure it was in April."

"So what did it say?"

"I don't know. I don't remember all the details"

They talk for a few more minute.

"Well Percy I know you're at work. Do you mind if I call you at home tonight?"

"No. I would like to speak with you a little more too."

"So what did she say" Tammy asked as soon as LaSalle disconnected his call?

"She said that she mailed it from her overseas assignment to Karin Johnson in care of my address but I could tell that it was the wrong zip code. Some addresses are duplicated in both Orleans and Jefferson Parrish. I see that look. Karin Johnson was a source she used in the area" LaSalle explained.

Two hours later.

"Hi my name is Chris LaSalle. I was wondering about how I might track down a misdirected letter that had the wrong zip code on it."

"Go down that hall and turn left to the dead letter office" the clerk responded.

"Hi my name is Chris LaSalle. I was hoping to find a letter that appears to have had the wrong zip code on it.

"Well, we clean those out periodically. If you want to follow me. There you go" he says as he shows Chris bins with several thousand letters. Business is over there and Letter Size over there. We stack them by the color of the envelope.

"I have no idea what color the envelope was. I'll have to get some more information and get back to you. Thanks for your time.

Later that evening

"Hey Sonja can you talk?"

"Yes I can talk."

"How are you Percy" he starts out. They have talked a good fifteen minutes when he brings up the letter again.

"That was a while ago. I would need to sit down and think about what the envelope might have looked like and just exactly which hotel that I stayed at."

Percy and LaSalle continued to visit with each other periodically until one day he got a note from Percy. "Chris, I had the hotel send me an envelope. This is the same type of envelope that I mailed to Karin Johnson.

LaSalle was out of his seat before he finished reading the note. "Hey Tammy, I need to run a quick errand." He's surprised he didn't get a ticket while speeding back to the Post Office. Armed with the tinted blue envelope it still took him a good thirty minutes to find the letter mailed to him.

He sat in the truck staring at the letter for three or four minutes trying to decide if he wanted to open it right then or wait until he got back home and would not be distracted by what it could possibly say. Chris hated to think it but he wasn't believing that Percy was being upfront about not remembering what she wrote.

Home it was and he was glad that he waited. He read it twice before he called her.

So Sonja do I need to read it out loud or has time jogged your memory. He waited a while and in the silence began to read what Sonja had written him

"Dear Christopher

I don't know where to begin. The past few months have been full of briefings and training. There is so much to learn. I have unfortunately become accustom to having team members for back up when executing a mission. I find that I am uneasy not fully knowing or trusting the persons assigned to watch my back. My concern is further exacerbated by the fact that I deeply miss all of you back in New Orleans. I had no idea how much that I came to depend on each of you and our caring for each other.

I was uneasy at how I left you all but particularly you Christopher. While both you and Tammy are still prominent in my heart, I have always felt a void in that we did not try to see if there could be more than a friendship between us. While there is much more that I could say, I think that I will just stop here. Do you think that you could find the time to call me?"

She listed her new private number and added that she looked forward to hearing from him.

He explains the void in his heart as well then asks "so is it too late Sonja?

"Too late for what Chris?"

"To explore something. "

Sonja gives him that classic Percy "I don't know"

"I would like to fly out there to see you if it's okay."

"Let me check my calendar at work and I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay Sonja, I'll look forward to your call."