THE TRUTH SHALL STEELE SET YOU FREE Part 6
Date: Tuesday, 03 February, 2004
From: "Lightfoot" <john_delenn@yahoo.com>

Well, here's chapter 6, chock full of memories and
diving into the heart of the mystery...just about 9
more chapters to go >:) Hopefully the formatting is
okay this time...

DISCLAIMER: RS is currently owned by Warner Brothers,
yadda yadda yadda...and they're PUTTING THEM ON DVD
SOON! (I know this has nothing to do with the
disclaimer, but I thought I'd mention it). Anyway,
not making a profit, so don't sue! Also, don't
plagiarize. It's not nice and God don't like ugly!

THE TRUTH SHALL STEELE SET YOU FREE (really post-SWAK)

copyright 2004 by Conner MacBride

CHAPTER 6

Her luminous dark eyes stared at him, tearful, the
hurting of his words evident. She turned away.
Remington grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look
at him. "Why Laura?! Tell me why! All those years,
everything I gave up to be with you! Tell me, damn
you!" He shook her.
"I didn't-"
He shoved her away. "I loved you! I let myself care
for you! And you, who wanted guarantees, couldn't
even be faithful to a mythical man! I hate you! I
loved you and you destroyed me and I hate you for
that!"
"I didn't-I love-"
"SHUT UP!" Remington Steele sat up in his bed,
screaming at his dead wife. The tears worked their
way down the crevices in the elderly face. He wept,
unseen by anyone in the darkness of the night.
Somewhere, he heard the echo of her broken sobs. /I
didn't./
It was just a dream. Only a dream.

*****

"What do you mean, he's not on the force anymore?"
Kelly rolled her eyes. "Well, when did he retire?"
Kelly exhaled, gritting her teeth in annoyance as the
help desk prattled on.
"Okay, well, I need some information about an old
case he worked on and I really need to talk to him in
person. Can I get where he lives now?"
Kelly was rapidly losing patience. Especially after
the next remark. "Why can't I get his address? I'm
just a freakin' college student! Yeah? Well, thanks
a helluva lot! No I will not have a good day."
She slammed the phone down and stormed to her laptop.
/I shoulda done this to begin with./
Punching into the personal records search engines,
she entered his name. Sixteen Jarvises came up from
San Jose to Petaluma. Kelly sighed, mentally
calculating how much this endeavor was going to cost.
Picking up the phone, she took a deep breath and
dialed number one of sixteen.

*****

Kelly stood on the stone porch, staring at the red
door, trying to calm herself. She knocked on the door
of the Modesto ranch house. She knew Remington Steele
would kill her if he ever figured out what she was up
to. Kelly didn't know much about the mysterious
Remington Steele, but she had gone through one
encounter which told her his pain was private and he
aimed to keep it that way.
The door opened and a plump grand motherly lady
smiled at her. "Are you Kelly?"
"Yes ma'am." Kelly was acutely aware of her scrutiny
and suddenly wished she didn't have her face piercings
in. "Uhh...hi. Can I speak to Mr. Jarvis?"
"Of course dear. Come on in. I'm Deborah Jarvis,
Jimmy's wife."
"Hi." Kelly walked in, smiling at the old lady; she
reminded Kelly of Grandma Ruby back in Opelousas.
Kelly glanced around, taking in the scene. Pictures
of children and grandchildren crowded the tables and
the walls. An assortment of knickknacks and plants
were everywhere. A stack of TV Guides was piled next
to a worn leather armchair in front of the big-screen
television. Mrs. Jarvis led her to the back of the
house. "Hon, that little girl's here to talk to you."
A balding man of about seventy looked up from his
newspaper. His glasses were slipping off his nose,
but his eyes were alert and lively. "Hello there.
You must be Kelly. Please, sit down."
He looked at his wife. "Deb, can we have a few
sodas?"
"Sure. Honey, can I get you anything else?" She
patted Kelly on the shoulder.
"Uh-no ma'am. Th-thanks." Kelly relaxed a little
with the old lady's mothering.
"Now," Jarvis eyes her shrewdly. "Why in hell would
a twenty-year-old hunt down an old detective about a
case. Must be pretty important if you're coming all
the way up from Los Angeles and wasting gas."
"I think it is." Kelly breathed a little. He didn't
seem to be annoyed by her chasing him down.
"So, what case is it?"
Kelly plunged straight into it. "I want to ask you
about the Laura Steele murder, thirty years ago."
Jarvis stared at her, his brow furrowed in thought.
Studying the young woman in front of him, he finally
answered her. "Now why would you want to know about
that?"
Kelly let out air she didn't know she was holding.
At least he hadn't thrown her out-yet. Quickly she
explained everything from the paper to what she had
found so far to her hunt for him. Jarvis leaned
forward. "Sounds like you got enough information.
Why hunt me down?"
/Okaaaayyyy...how much should I tell you? Oh hell,
what do I have to lose?/ "Because I got a copy of the
police report, and it was really cut and dried, like
there was no question of what had happened, y'know?"
He nodded, not really liking where this kid was
going. She continued. "Anyways, at the bottom of the
report, you dissented, but you didn't say why. Just a
line that the case should be investigated further.
Was it? And why did you dissent?"
Jimmy Jarvis sat back in his chair, his face clouded
in thought. He sat that way for what seemed like an
eternity, saying nothing to her. Kelly wondered if he
had forgotten she was there. "Mr. Jarvis?"
The old cop gave a funny smile as he looked at her.
"I haven't thought about those two in thirty years."
Kelly was confused. "Roselli and Laura?"
"No!" Jarvis snapped. "Remington Steele and Laura
Holt. I can't believe it's been thirty years since
she died."
Kelly leaned forward eagerly. Maybe she would
finally get her answers and learn a little bit about
the mystery that was Steele and Laura. "You remember
her?"
"Remember her?" Jimmy Jarvis chuckled. "I remember
every battle I ever had with her. She had a temper
like you wouldn't believe."
"What about Steele?" she asked sourly, remembering
his anger toward her.
"Actually, he was the calmer of the two. I think he
trusted her to run everything, which most people
thought was pretty odd, but I thought she was damn
good at her job. I could see why he let her have a
free run of it."
Although she wanted to know about the case itself,
Kelly leaned forward eagerly, finally able to get some
information on the elusive phantoms of Remington and
Laura Steele. "So she was a good a detective as he
was?"
"Kid, she always caught a lot of flack from the boys
in LAPD. Mainly because they'd try to intimidate her.
Wasn't that many female detectives back then, you
know?"
Kelly nodded, her brown eyes bright with curiosity.
"But was she any good."
"One of the best. So was he." Jarvis took a sip of
his coffee. "The two of them together, they WERE the
best."
"Mr. Jarvis," she didn't want to sound like she was
prying, but at this point, Kelly was nearly dying to
know what had really gone on with Steele and Laura.
Obviously, he had cared for her, loved her at one
point. Had she really betrayed him, or did Jarvis
have a reason other than a fond memory for dissenting.
She pulled her files and notes from her backpack.
"Mr. Jarvis, this is what I found." She pulled out
the photos of the murder, the police report, and the
photo of the Steeles at his citizenship hearing.
Kelly handed him the police report. "Mr. Jarvis, you
dissented. Why? The proof was all there. Why did
you dissent?"
Jimmy Jarvis looked at the information, seeing it for
the first time in thirty years. Why had he dissented?
Why did this Rager kid care? He looked up into her
expectant eyes. "I don't know."
Kelly saw all her hopes go crashing down. "What?!"
She stood up and began pacing. "C'mon Mr. Jarvis!
You're a cop! You don't dissent for nothing! You had
a reason!"
He looked up at the young woman tiredly. "Hon, it
was thirty years ago. It's over and forgotten about."
Kelly remembered the pain and bitterness in the old
man's face, his Cary Grant looks eroded by loss of
faith and betrayal. "NO IT'S NOT!" She stared at
him. "There's an old man in Beverly Hills who used to
be Remington Steele who hates me because I had to go
ask him!" She held up the photo of the Steeles on the
courthouse step. "And I've read page after page that
called a woman who can't even speak up for herself
everything from a whore to a golddigger to a woman who
banged her boss to get where she got! That's not
right! This photo does not match that photo." She
gestured to the murder photo, glaring at the old man
sitting in the chair. "You dissented. You knew the
Steeles. Why did you dissent?"
"Steele's still alive?" Jarvis didn't even seem to
process her tirade. Kelly was ready to lose it.
"Yes! And he wasn't too thrilled to see me. Why did
you dissent?"
Jarvis glared at her. "Sit down now."
"I-"
"Sit."
Kelly sank down, embarrassed by her tirade. "I'm
sorry. I just need to know. Sorry."
Jimmy Jarvis chuckled, surprising her. "Maybe
Laura's spirit's living on after all."
She half-smiled, suddenly feeling complimented, but
not quite knowing why. "Mr. Jarvis-"
"Call me Jimmy."
"Okay, Jimmy. Why did you dissent?"
Jimmy Jarvis sipped his coffee, his eyes glazed over
in memory. "You've seen the case files. It seemed
pretty cut and dried. And the investigating officer
had covered everything."
"Who was it?"
"Dunno. See, I had already taken a job up here in
Modesto."
Kelly was confused. "I thought you were on the
case."
Jarvis shook his head. "Nah. I had some old friends
in the department and asked if I could see the file."
"And you dissented because?" Kelly was rapidly
losing patience.
Jimmy Jarvis glanced at her. "Kid, I knew Remington
Steele and Laura Holt. I think...no," he shook his
head. "No, I know they were involved when I met them.
They had to be. Kelly, that woman-see, Steele was
framed for murder by a guy they had once put away, a
Major Descoine. He really made it look like Steele
did it. "
"And?" Kelly knew he would get around to what she
wanted answered. Just let him talk. "She helped him
run and hide out. She gave me the slip, her and
Mildred, their secretary.
Laura Holt knew that would cost her her PI license and
she helped Steele run."
"So?" This was why he dissented?
"I remember them together. He could have had any
woman he wanted, but he was always sticking with her.
Laura, there were a lot of guys who would have dated
her, but she stuck with Steele."
"Betcha there were a few comments about that."
"Probably. But lemme tell you, Kelly. I was there
when one guy made a crack about that and Steele and
Laura heard." He looked at the girl. "I remember it
was during an investigation and Laura turned fifty
shades of red. Guess she had heard it before, because
she just turned and walked away. Steele, though,
grabbed the guy, said dirt like him didn't know how to
talk to a lady and punched the guy in the jaw."
Kelly nodded, suddenly understanding the look on the
faces in the picture on the courthouse steps. It was
devotion, pure and simple..and love. Still, why had
Jarvis dissented on a case that he wasn't involved in
and that had been cut and dried. "What does this have
to do with Laura Steele's murder?"
Jarvis leaned forward, as if confessing. "Kelly,
listen to me. I tried investigating on my own after
the murder. Steele was investigating on his own. But
I didn't know Steele had known Roselli before Laura's
murder."
Kelly sat up at that one. "What?"
"Yeah." Jarvis pulled off his glasses. "Apparently
Roselli was, according to Steele sniffing around Laura
shortly after she and Steele were married. He was
some sort of Immigration or espionage agent. I never
could get a clear answer from Steele. And then
Roselli and Laura ended up dead in a hotel room."
A sinking feeling came over her. "So it is that cut
and dried. She was having an affair."
Jarvis shook his head. "I know that's what that
crime report says. But honey, I knew Laura Holt. She
and Steele were two peas in a pod. I quit
investigating because I hit a dead end trying to
retrace her last steps. And I think Steele quit
investigating because he was scared of what he might
find. And that was odd."
"What was?"
"Him being afraid. I used to think the only thing he
would ever be afraid of was looking bad in front of
Laura Holt."
Kelly leaned forward. "Mr. Jarvis, do you think
Laura Steele was killed with her lover."
Jarvis was silent for a moment before finally
answering. "No. I can't give you a reason though,
other than I knew her and I knew Steele. No way."
Kelly Landry stood up, picking up her things. "Yeah,
well, you've got more faith in her than her husband
did. He apparently can't stand her."
Jarvis stood up, putting a grandfather's arm around
her shoulder and leading her to the door. "No honey.
He just got scared and he ran out of leads."
He opened the door for her. "Kelly, when he told me
to let it go, I watched a man die that day. I think
he finally believed the crime report because there was
nothing left to believe."
Surprised to find a lump in her throat, Kelly asked.
"Should I believe it?"
"If you're looking for answers, Kelly, I'll just say
investigate everybody and everything, even Steele."
"What would Laura do?" Kelly couldn't help herself.
Jimmy Jarvis grinned, a remainder of the boyish face
Steele and Laura had once described as "Huckleberry
Finn." "She'd kick him in the ass and tell him to
quit feeling sorry for himself and find out why she
was killed."
Kelly found herself smiling for the first time in a
week. "Guess I know where to start then." She held
out her hand. "Thanks Mr. Jarvis-for everything."
"Anytime."

TBC...next stop...Tarzana...

---

BACK