[Lady Justice 12] - Lady Justice and the Class Reunion

by Robert Thornhill

  “So still acting after all these years.”

  “I’m afraid it’s in the blood old chap. By any chance are you married?”

  “Why yes, a couple of years now. Why do you ask?”

  “Then I would love for you and your better half to be my guests on opening night. I’ll leave tickets to my table at Will Call. It will be good to see you and our classmates again. Actually, I’ll leave four tickets. Bring some friends. We’re trying to spread the word about our show. Well, cheerio!”

  Maggie had been listening to our conversation.

  “Doesn’t sound like Archie’s holding a grudge.”

  “Well of course not. He got the girl!”

  “Well now you have one,” she said running her fingers through my hair. “Who would you rather spend the rest of this evening with? Me or Martha Woodstock?

  “Martha who?”

  CHAPTER 9

  “Okay, Padre, time to get to work,” Frank said to his old friend.

  “Just what did you have in mind?”

  “You were the priest in that parish for thirty years. I know that you know who the movers and shakers are in the Latino community. It’s time to pay them a visit.”

  “I don’t know ----.”

  “We won’t be doing anything to spill the beans about what you heard in confessional. Just a kindly old priest making a social visit.”

  Paddy thought for a moment. “Luis Mendoza. If anyone knows what’s going on, it would be Luis, but I don’t know if he will talk to us.”

  “Only one way to find out,” Frank said, getting to his feet. “Fire up your old Buick, Ernie. I’m out of gas.”

  As they were heading out the door, Frank stumbled, but caught himself on the doorjamb.

  “Are you okay?” Ernie asked, concern in his voice.

  “Yeah, just sat too long. Gotta keep the old joints moving.”

  The three pulled up in front of the Mendoza home on Jarboe.

  “Let me handle this,” Paddy said. “This is a very tight-knit community and strangers are not always welcomed with open arms --- plus --- well, Frank, you can be a bit pushy sometimes.”

  Frank held up his hands in mock defense. “Your show, Paddy.”

  A swarthy Latino man in his mid-fifties with coal-black hair graying at the temples answered the door on the third knock.

  “Father O’Brian! What a surprise! What brings you to our home?”

  “Luis, good to see you again. These are my friends, Frank and Ernie. I wonder if we could have a moment of your time?”

  “Certainly, Father. What is the purpose of your visit?”

  A teenage girl was in the living room busy with her IPAD.

  “Maybe it would be better if we could talk alone,” Paddy said, motioning to the girl.

  “Gloria, go to your room. I need to talk to Father O’Brian privately.”

  He watched as the girl disappeared into the back of the house. “This must be serious, Father.”

  “It is, Luis. I’ll get right to the point. We know that Hector Corazon is recruiting young Latino women as drug mules. We have been working with the police, but we’ve hit a brick wall. We we’re hoping that you could help us.”

  “Father,” Mendoza said, shaking his head, “you have no idea what you’re dealing with here. These are very bad men.”

  “Actually, I do know,” Frank said, butting in. “I watched them cut open the stomach of a young man and then throw his body into a dumpster.”

  “How ---?”

  “Never mind, how,” Frank said continuing. “This guy needs to be stopped. Can you help us?”

  “You have put my family in grave danger just by being here. Please leave!”

  “Luis,” Paddy said, “you have been a leader in this community for many years. People look up to you --- they depend on you. As long as he is doing his dirty business, no one in your community will be safe.”

  “He is right, Luis,” a woman said, coming into the room.

  “Consuela! You were listening?”

  “Yes, my husband. I am tired of living in fear --- wondering who is watching when I go to the market --- wondering when this animal will come after one of our own girls. We trusted Father O’Brian for many years. If he thinks we can help, then we should try.”

  Luis sighed, “Rosalina Torres. She is in Mexico and is due back in Kansas City in two days.”

  “I know Rosalina,” Paddy said. “I gave the child her first communion.”

  “Why would she do something like this?” Ernie asked.

  “Simple,” Luis said, “for the money. Her father lost his job, the family fell behind on their house payments and they are about to lose their home. Corazon promised her a thousand dollars. What are you going to do?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” Paddy said.

  “You must not tell anyone where you got this information and you must not contact the Torres family. If Corazon finds out that we talked to you, then we are all dead.”

  “We will be careful, Luis. The last thing we want to do is put you and your family in danger. Thank you for helping us.”

  Back in the old Buick, Ernie asked, “So what are we going to do? We sure can’t go after these bastards by ourselves.”

  “We have to go to the police,” Paddy replied.

  “They’ll just screw it up again!” Frank said. “Like they did last time.”

  “So do you have a better idea, Sherlock?” Ernie asked.

  “No, I guess not. Listen, I’ve got an appointment with Doc Johnson in an hour. We’ll call those two cops that gave us their cards and have them come by right after lunch.”

  “Doc Johnson?” Ernie asked. “Is something wrong?”

  “Naw, just routine. I’ll give them a call and have them stop by at one o’clock.”

  We were about to stop for lunch at Denny’s when my cell phone rang.

  “Officer Williams!”

  “Yes,”

  “This is Frank Pollard --- you know --- one of the old guys that wrote the letters to you.”

  “Sure, Frank. What can I do for you?”

  “My friends and I have some more information that might help you get a bead on Hector Corazon. I was wondering if you could stop by my place at one o’clock?”

  “Frank! I thought we asked you guys to back off.”

  “Let me ask you something, officer. How much closer are you to bringing this guy in since the last time we talked?”

  “Well ------.”

  “That’s what I thought. Now do you want what we’ve got or not?”

  “We’ll be there at one.”

  “Be where?” Ox asked as I shut the lid on my phone.

  “That was The Three Amigos. They claim they have another lead for us.”

  Ox laughed. “After you told me about that movie, I stopped by Blockbuster and rented it. You were right. It’s a blast! I loved the part where they do their little macho thing:

  Wherever there is injustice you will find us

  Wherever there is suffering, we’ll be there

  Wherever liberty is threatened, you will find

  The Three Amigos!

  “Then they do that goofy thing where they slap their chest, turn their heads and cough. We should work up something like that.”

  “Yeah, right. I’m sure that would go over well in the squad room. I’m worried about these guys. This isn’t a movie and Hector Corazon isn’t El Guapo. If they keep poking around, they’re going to get hurt.”

  Precisely at one o’clock, we knocked on Frank’s door.

  “Come in, officers. Let’s get down to business.”

  In the next fifteen minutes, they told us the information that they had learned from Luis Mendoza.

  “So are you sure that this Rosalina Torres will be coming back to Kansas City day after tomorrow?” Ox asked.

  “That’s what Luis said,” Paddy replied.

  “Do you know what flight?”

  “No, we don’t know that!” Frank said indign
antly. “How many flights can there be coming from Mexico in one day?”

  “Take it easy, Frank,” Ernie said.

  “Do you have a photo of Rosalina?” I asked.

  “No,” Paddy replied. “Luis asked us not to contact the Torres family for safety reasons, but I can give you a description of her. She’s --- ummm --- shall I say, plump. She’s always been pretty well endowed --- up here,” he said pointing to his chest. “I suppose that’s why she was a good candidate for Corazon.”

  “Thanks a lot guys,” I said, rising to leave. “We’ll get this information to the drug squad. They’ll know what to do.”

  “I certainly hope they do better than the last time!” Frank said.

  “We’ll keep you informed,” I replied.

  I called the Captain and by the time we arrived back at the precinct, he and Rocky Winkler were waiting for us.

  After sharing our tip from the old guys, Winkler said, “This might just be the break we’ve been waiting for. Here’s the plan. The passengers from all flights originating in other countries have to pass through customs. We’ll get a list of the flights from Mexico arriving that day. We’ll have men undercover at customs to identify this Torres girl. When her contact picks her up, we’ll follow them to that warehouse, or wherever they plan to remove the drugs and we’ll have them. Captain Short, could you spare a couple of men to help us at customs --- oh, yes, we should probably have a female officer there too.”

  The Captain looked at us, “How about it, guys? Are you up for an undercover assignment?”

  “Sure,” Ox said.

  “Good! Take Judy with you, too. We’ll make it a family affair.”

  On the morning of our assignment, we had just changed into our ‘Customs clothing’ when Officer Dooley popped in the locker room.

  “I heard that you guys were on hooter patrol. You guys get all the good stuff. A whole day just checking out women’s chesticles. If you were English cops, you would be Booby Bobbies --- get it? Knocker watchers!”

  “Dooley, don’t you have somewhere to be?” Ox said with disgust.

  Dooley got off a parting shot as he headed out the door. “Headlight hunters!”

  Even though we had a description of Rosalina Torres, Rocky Winkler had told us to keep an eye out for any other suspicious mammaries. Corazon could have had more than one mule coming back packing cocaine.

  “I’ve really been dreading this,” Ox said.

  “Why? This is a piece of cake compared to some of the other undercover assignments that we’ve had.”

  “Well think about it,” Ox replied. “All that stuff that Dooley was talking about --- I’ve got to do it with my wife. Would you want to spend the day ogling women’s breasts with Maggie tagging along?”

  He had a point.

  We picked up Judy and headed to the airport.

  There were five incoming flights from Mexico City that day. They were spread far enough apart that we could be at the gate of each flight as the passengers deplaned.

  Members of the drug squad were just outside each terminal ready to follow Torres and her driver after we had spotted them.

  It soon became apparent that Ox and I probably weren’t the best candidates for this assignment.

  While I had always been an ardent admirer of women’s breasts, I discovered that my method of classification lacked some finesse. ‘Hmmm’, ‘Okay’, and ‘Wow!’ didn’t prove to be very helpful.

  At least what we were to concentrate on were the ‘Wow’s!’ We quickly discovered that neither Ox nor I could distinguish between a natural ‘Wow’ and a store bought ‘Wow’.

  Judy finally took over. “Okay, dumb asses, I’ll handle this.”

  We stood idly by, watching Judy for a signal that something was amiss, but it never came.

  When all of the passengers from the last flight from Mexico had deplaned, there had been no sign of Rosalina Torres.

  “Looks like your old guys got it wrong,” Judy said.

  All day long, I had been watching the airport monitors for the arrival times of our Mexican flights. Dozens of flights from all over the U.S. had landed throughout the day.

  I picked up the phone and called the Captain. “By any chance, did someone think to call the airlines to see if a Rosalina Torres was a ticketed passenger?”

  A long silence. “No, I don’t think so. We thought she would be coming from Mexico, so we covered those flights.”

  “Could somebody do that? I think we may have screwed up royally.”

  A half hour later, my cell phone rang.

  “Walt, you were right. Rosalina Torres arrived at three-forty-five this afternoon on a Southwest Airlines flight from Denver.”

  “Damn! Corazon was one step ahead of us. Instead of booking a flight directly from Mexico to Kansas City, he booked to Denver. Torres cleared customs in Denver. Then her trip to Kansas City was just another flight for a girl returning home. We lost her!”

  I was really bummed on the long drive from the airport back to Kansas City. We had let the poor girl and her escort slip through our fingers.

  I was wondering what I was going to tell Frank and his friends, when my cell phone rang again. I cringed when I saw ‘Frank Pollard’ pop up on my caller ID.

  “Did you get her?” Frank asked expectantly.

  “No, I’m sorry, we didn’t.”

  I explained to the poor man as best as I could how we had totally botched another solid lead that he had given us.

  There was a long silence when I had finished.

  “Frank, are you there?”

  “Yes,” he said quietly, “I’m here.”

  “I’m so sorry ---.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said, cutting me off. “We’ll handle it from here.”

  “Frank! Don’t do anything stupid!”

  No answer. He was gone.

  Frank turned to his friends. “They blew it again. They only covered flights from Mexico. Corazon flew her into Denver and probably put her up for the night before buying her a ticket the next day. The idiots didn’t bother to check.”

  “We put both the Mendoza and the Torres families at risk for nothing!” Paddy said.

  “No, not for nothing!” Frank said emphatically. “I’ll bet they’ve taken the girl to the Sunset Drive House for the night. They’ll probably take her to the warehouse tomorrow for the surgery, and when they do, we’ll be there!”

  CHAPTER 10

  At daybreak, the Three Amigos had gathered at Frank’s cottage.

  “So what’s your plan, Frank?” Ernie asked.

  “We’ll sit on the Sunset Drive house until we see them bring out the girl. Then we’ll follow them to the warehouse or wherever they’re going to extract the drugs.”

  “Okay, so we’ll know where they’re at,” Paddy said, “but what then? Call the cops?”

  “Not this time. If it’s the warehouse, I can get into the building with my lock picks just like I did before. We’ll snap some photos of the operation and THEN go to the cops --- with undisputable evidence.”

  “Sounds risky,” Ernie said. “What if they catch us?”

  “Let’s just make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “Are you driving today, Frank?”

  “No, Ernie. Let’s take your old Buick again.”

  “But you always like to drive!”

  “I’m still out of gas. Didn’t have time to fill up. We’d better get rolling.”

  The sun was just above the treetops when they saw two men escort Rosalina Torres from the Sunset Drive mansion into a waiting SUV.

  “See! Told you!” Frank said jubilantly. “Don’t lose them, Ernie.”

  They followed the SUV through downtown and into the city market area.

  “They’re still using the Aztec Produce warehouse,” Frank said. “That’s good. We can get in and out of there in a breeze.”

  They parked and watched until Rosalina and her escorts had disappeared inside.

  “Let’s give
them a few minutes to get set up,” Frank said. “We want to catch them in the act.”

  Ten minutes later, Frank checked his watch. “Okay, let’s go.”

  Ernie and Paddy were out of the car and waiting for Frank who seemed to be having difficulty swinging his legs out of the car.”

  “Something the matter, Frank?” Ernie asked.

  “No, just this damned arthritis. Just give me a minute.”

  Frank struggled out and hung onto the car for a moment. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  They crept quietly to the second entrance that Frank had found earlier. He pulled his lock picks out of his pocket and started to work on the door, but the picks slipped from his stiff fingers.

  “Damn it!”

  He retrieved his picks and tried again, this time with success.

  He pushed the door open just a crack and peered in. Seeing no one, he put his finger to his lips and motioned for his friends to follow him.

  They crept along the hallway to the window that opened into the operating room. Rosalina Torres was lying on a gurney. The two men that had escorted her were watching a third man in a surgical gown that had just picked up a scalpel.

  “This is it!” Frank said, pulling out his cell phone. “I’ll snap some photos and we’ll get the hell out of here.”

  He was just focusing for the first picture when the cell phone suddenly came to life and blasted the theme from Rocky, Frank’s ring tone.

  The three friends looked at one another in horror.

  “Were you expecting a call, Frank?” Ernie said. “You never get a call.”

  “Oh, crap!” Frank said, fumbling to find the right button on the phone. “I forgot that Doc Johnson was going to call this morning.”

  Before he could silence the thing, Rocky blared out again.

  Frank looked into the room. The men had heard the phone and were heading in their direction.

  Frank made a quick decision.