Remington stood there, hands in his pockets, wondering when Daniel had taken to staying in single rooms. While it wasn't shabby, it was certainly a come down from the suites he usually stayed in. Daniel moved away. "I'd offer you something to drink- it's a bit early. And I don't have anything, anyway. When I checked in there was a convention of some kind in the hotel, and I wasn't really thinking about comfort-" He moved nervously around the room. "I suppose I could call room service, order some coffee-"
"I'm fine," Remington assured him in a soft voice.
Daniel nodded jerkily, and then indicated the television set near the bed. "I saw you on television this morning- did Lt. Jarvis give any indication about when Gardner might be here?"
"According to Inspector Lombard, by Monday. Look, Daniel, I didn't come here to have coffee or talk about Gardner. You said you could explain. I owe you the chance to do that, at least."
"I'm not sure where to begin," Daniel told him.
"The beginning is always a good place," Remington suggested.
"A friend of mine- you never met him- he was killed in a senseless shooting a few years before I found you in Brixton. Anyway, he and I pulled off a con in London that was successful, but we both thought it a good idea to get out of town for awhile until things cooled off. Colin had some cousins in Dublin, and suggested we go there. I agreed, fully expecting to be bored out of my mind. But then I met his cousin Deirdre. She was the loveliest young woman I'd ever met in my life." He went pulled out his wallet and withdrew a small photograph to look at it. "Do you remember seeing this, Harry?" he asked, holding it out.
Remington took the photo. "It was in your wallet when I stole it. I remember that you had a larger one stashed away as well-"
"Yes," Daniel agreed. "That's your mother. You look so much like her- the dark hair, the eyes." He took a deep breath. "That's how I knew who you were that day. The moment I saw those blue eyes-"
"You mentioned something about an explanation, Daniel?" Remington prodded.
"We fell in love at first sight. I'd never really believed in such things- but it happened. Just as it did with you and Laura. She knew what Colin was- and by association knew that I was involved in the same type of things. And it didn't matter. I asked her marry me, but her family was against it. One con man in the family was enough, I suppose. So we ran away to be married without their knowledge."
"You were married?"
"All nice and legal, I assure you," Daniel assured him. "Her parents disowned her when they found out about it, said she'd made her bed, and would have to lie in it. I had a bit of money from the last job that Colin and I had pulled, so we went to London and I tried- I really tried -to find a legitimate job, but- I'm afraid I wasn't cut out to be a factory worker. So I took a job tending bar in a local pub for almost nothing. Deirdre was homesick, she hated London, -she never said a word, but I could tell. And the money was starting to run out- when another friend came to me and told me about a job that would set us up very nicely. He said it couldn't possibly go wrong," he said with a regretful sigh. "I shouldn't have done it. But at the time-"
"Things went wrong?"
"Very wrong. We were caught- and I wound up in prison for two years. Deirdre came to see me, and I told her to go back to her family-that I'd find her when I got out." He lowered his head. "That's when she told me that she was going to have a child. I gave her my word that things would be different when I got out of prison. That I'd change- but I think even she knew that wasn't going to happen."
"Did she go home?"
"Yes. With Colin's help. And then he was arrested for something he'd done in Dublin several years before and wound up in prison there. Deirdre wrote weekly, her letters filled with plans and dreams, about all the things we would do once we were together again. I lived for those letters- they were the only things that kept me sane during the first few months that I spent in that English prison. Then, around the time you were to have been born, the letters stopped. I had no idea what had happened, and all of my letters to her family were returned unopened. I spent another year torturing myself, imagining all kinds of horrible things, wondering what had happened."
"A year?"
"I only had to serve eighteen months. Model prisoner. I suppose I was too worried about Deirdre and you to make any waves. The moment I was released, I found a way back to Dublin. Her father was only too eager to tell me that Deirdre had- died giving birth to my son- and that he had taken measures to insure that I never found the lad."
"Why?"
"Dislike of me- She had been his only child, he was a widower. He saw me as the reason Deirdre was dead. I tried to find you, Harry. For the best part of a year, I knocked on the door of every orphanage in Dublin, looking for you. But the moment they heard that I was an ex-con with no visible means of support they told me that my chances of getting you back even if I *were* to find you was practically zero. No court was going to grant custody to me. I met up with Colin, but he knew little more than I did. I kept looking- until the authorities began to take a dim view of my accosting perfect strangers to ask them about their baby if he was the right age and coloring. They- firmly but politely suggested that I leave Ireland. So I went back to London, crawled around a few pubs feeling sorry for myself. But then one day, I realized that I *had* to find my son. I went back to London and this time, with a bit more money to help, managed to trace you as far as the last family that you'd stayed with before running away- dreadful lot, that. I had nightmares for years afterwards, imagining you in the care of people like them."
"If you thought it was bad," Remington commented in a monotone, "you should have been there and gone through it. Nightmares you can wake up from. Reality you can't."
"I know. Someone remembered seeing you get on the boat for England- and so back to London I went. It took me two years to finally find you- and then you picked my pocket. I wasn't about to risk losing you again, Harry. Not after all of that." He sighed. "That's it. The whole truth." Remington glanced at the photograph again, and then handed it back to Daniel. "I would have been there, Harry, really. If things had been different-"
Remington's hands slipped into his pockets again as he moved to the window that overlooked the alleyway. "My grandfather-"
"He's dead. Heart attack. You would have been around- five, I suppose. Colin managed to get his papers, but there was precious little about you in them. Only- your birth certificate- and the name of the orphange where he'd placed you. I'd already been there-"
"You have my birth certificate?" Remington questioned.
"It's in a safe deposit box in London," Daniel said. "Harry, can you ever forgive me for being a foolish old man who only wanted to keep his son with him- at any cost?"
Remington turned to look at his father . . .
***
Laura paced the hotel lobby for the hundredth time as Mildred watched from a nearby chair. Both of them looked at the elevator every time the doors opened, expecting Remington to appear. "What's taking so long?" Laura fretted.
"It's not a simple little story," Mildred said, and smiled as Laura looked at her. "Daniel told me some of it last night."
The elevator doors slid open again, and they looked up to see Remington and Daniel both coming toward them, laughing at something one of them had said. "Is everything okay?" Laura asked as Mildred got to her feet.
"Everything's fine, my dear," Daniel assured her, pressing a kiss to her hand. "Thank you."
"Daniel's going to stay in Los Angeles for awhile, Laura," Remington announced. "I thought he might stay in your loft-"
"Really?" Laura asked, crossing her arms. "And just *where* will I be staying?" she asked pointedly.
Remington put an arm around her shoulders. "With me, of course," he confirmed with a wide smile. Before Laura could protest the arrangement made without her agreement, Remington looked at Daniel and Mildred. "Lunch anyone?"
***
Nathaniel Gardner's trial lasted six weeks, due to the fact that they had to move it out of Los Angeles because of the publicity. It still took four of those weeks to seat a jury. Laura, and Murphy both testified,- even Mildred had taken her turn to identify Gardner as the man who had called the office to ask who Remington's dentist was so that he could break into the office and switch Remington's files with those of the dead inmate. But it was Jenks' testimony that sewed up the case for the prosecution, although the defense tried their best to color the warden as scum of the earth, and untrustworthy.
It took the jury only an hour to find Gardner guilty on all counts; the Judge sentenced the man to life in prison. "Too bad he can't be sent to Evergen," Mildred said. "Talk about poetic justice."
Remington shook his head as Laura gave him a worried look. "No, Mildred. I wouldn't wish that place on anyone." He'd still been having the nightmares, and after a particularly bad one, Laura that he do something about getting the prison closed down for good.
It was Donald who finally managed to explain how the coroner's office had wrongly identified the dead prisoner as Remington Steele. When he'd gotten the call that Remington was presumed dead, Donald had rushed to his office and grabbed the file he needed. He'd been in such a state of shock that he hadn't really examined the x-rays very closely, never dreaming that anyone would have changed them. It had happened once, yes, but he'd thought lightening couldn't possibly strike twice. And at the coroner's office, he'd taken one look at the charred remains- and fainted. He apologized profusely to Laura and Remington for the mistake, and promised firmly to Laura that he was definately going to get a decent burglar alarm installed in the office. After two cases of having his patient's files changed, Laura agreed wholeheartedly with the plan.
Remington arranged for Gabe's ex-cellmate who had been murdered by James Gardner to be buried in another plot, since they couldn't find any of the man's family who cared enough to take care of it.
For his cooperation, Jenks was given ten years of probation- which meant that he couldn't return to Evergen and had to remain in California. But he still had his accounts in Switzerland, he informed Steele the one time they met after the trial, and so it really didn't matter very much. With his approval- and backed up by the court- Remington began making telephone calls to various countries that had contracted with Jenks and Evergen to take prisoners, and had managed- somehow- to convince them to break those contracts, and to retrieve the prisoners already on the Island.
***
Eight weeks after he left Evergen Island, Remington was back, with Laura, Daniel, and this time Mildred at his side. Captain Morgan wasn't happy to see them, but once he read the message from Jenks, he seemed resigned to his fate and took them to the cell block, where only a few prisoners remained- all of them getting ready to return to the country where they had originally been imprisoned.
Remington approached the cell quietly, watching as Gabe stuffed his few personal items inside a small bag that had been provided for that use. "Get everything?" he finally asked.
Gabe looked up, and then looked Remington over. "Johnny! I was hoping you'd come back to say good bye." He grinned. "Look at you. Tailored suit- Italian shoes?"
Remington grinned, tugging at his ear. "You okay?"
"Never better," he assured Remington, touching the back of his head. "Got a hard head." He glanced behind Remington. "Hi."
"Oh, excuse me. Gabe, this is Daniel-" he paused as they men shook hands. "Mildred."
"Ma'am."
"And this is Laura."
"I recognize her," Gabe said, smiling as he shook Laura's hand as well, then gave Remington a sheepish grin. "Hope I didn't say anything out of line that day-"
"I understood the reasons," Remington told him. "I wanted to thank you-"
"I didn't do anything. And when push came to shove, I wound up flat on my face thanks to that- bast-" he stopped, as if realizing that there were ladies present "-creep Diego. You know, James offered me a small fortune to take you out," he confided.
"He did? When?"
"Before you got here. Didn't give me any details, but said his father would be willing to pay me well to kill you."
"Why didn't you?"
"Hell, how was I gonna spend the money locked up in this place? Gardner couldn't get his little boy out of here. No way was he gonna get me out."
"True."
One of the guards approached. "Your boat's here," he told Gabe.
"Where are you going?" Laura asked.
"Little place off the coast of Australia," he explained. "Doubt you've heard of it. But I might be eligible for parole before long, from what I've heard. Lots of the guys here are getting their cases reviewed."
"If you need someone to testify in your behalf, mate," Remington offered, "Have 'em give me a call. And if you get out and manage to get to Los Angeles, look me up." He held out a business card.
Gabe looked at it. "Private detective, eh? Knew you weren't just an investment counselor," he grinned.
"Let's go," the guard said.
Remington gave Gabe another hand shake. "Good luck."
"Thanks."
"No, thank you. And- you remember that comment you made about the tiger?"
Gabe glanced quickly at Laura, then back at him. "Yeah?"
"You were right," Remington said with a wink and both men laughed before Gabe followed the guard down the common way toward the door.
Laura looked up at Remington. "What was that about a tiger?" she asked.
"Nothing, Laura," he assured her, pulling her to his side with a grin. "Gabe's just a nature lover, that's all." He took another look around the empty cell. "Let's go home."
The End
