Gangster's Court

by Adam Van Susteren

  “This Darth Maul-looking guy ran into me with a silver BMW and threatened me and my family if I didn’t help him kill Omar,” she said in a hushed voice into her phone.

  “Where are you now?” Browning asked.

  “Outside Traffic Court.”

  “Be right there,” Omar and Browning said in unison.

  “Detective,” Jo whispered into the phone. “My parents. My sister.”

  “Where are they?” Browning asked.

  “Work, or on their way.”

  “Where do they work?”

  “My sister’s at UCSD Medical Center. My parents both work at a small family practice office in Hillcrest.”

  “Give me the address of your parents’ location. I’ll send an officer there to keep an eye on things and I’ll call UCSD to let them know to harden their security today,” Browning huffed. It sounded like he was moving around while he talked. “I’ll call from the car and will see you at Court in twenty minutes.”

  Jo gave Browning her mom’s cell phone number.

  “I’m on my way,” Omar said.

  “Thank you,” Jo said into the phone. She waited for a response, then realized Omar hung up on her again. She reached into the glove box and pulled out Darth Maul’s phone.

  Shit. If this was spying on me, you heard me call Omar before your call.

  Jo looked in her rearview mirror, cars were arriving in the lot. She put her car in gear and drove around to the employee and law enforcement parking lot.

  A minute later she walked into the employee entrance clutching the new phone in her right hand. At the entrance, she saw Annette pacing excitedly.

  “Morning, Judge,” Annette said with too much enthusiasm prior to eight am, and way too much given this morning’s events.

  “Morning,” Jo responded with a forced smile.

  “You okay?”

  “Fender bender in the parking lot. Has me a little shaken.”

  “Oh no. You’re not hurt?” Annette scanned Jo.

  “No.”

  “On your last day.” Annette shook her head and reached for Jo’s arm. “Since you’re not hurt, come with me to your department. We’ve got a little something for you.”

  Jo followed Annette’s lead. If not for Annette’s steadying arm, the thought of that man standing before her parents and sister would have made her unable to move.

  “It’s been such a joy having you,” Annette said, leading Jo through the back hallway past chambers to the big traffic courtroom.

  Something seemed off to Jo. On any other day, she would have noticed there was no one in the hall and no one in their chambers, but not right now. She was so focused on her family’s safety that she barely knew where she was or what she was doing.

  Annette opened the door to the giant courtroom. It was filled with staff, police, sheriffs, and the commissioners who heard traffic matters. Jo looked on, not processing what was happening. The multi-colored mylar balloons on her bench said “Congratulations” and “Good Luck.”

  Everyone turned and stared at her. A chorus of “hi, morning, congratulations,” from fifty people filled the room. Standing behind the lectern was Dzuy, wearing a blue suit, holding a bouquet of flowers. He was next to her father. Dad!

  Jo’s eyes widened. She looked to her left and saw Mom was with Jami. Thank you, God! Thank you! Jo blinked rapidly. How did Detective Browning get you here in ten seconds?

  Annette called out to the room, “Good morning, everyone. We only have a few minutes. So we can say a quick congratulations, then take your cupcakes and coffee to go.” Annette turned to Jo. “I’ll speak for everyone when I say thank you. You have been an amazing Judge. While we are sad to see you go, we’re happy for your next chapter downtown.” Annette signaled to a tall bailiff.

  He approached with a piece of paper framed in glass. “Judge, here’s your verdict from your very first trial as a judge. May they all go as smoothly.”

  “Thanks, Pete,” Jo mustered, trying to keep her composure, knowing her parents and sister were safe. Jo glanced at all the police and deputies holding their cupcakes and coffee. She smiled at her family. You’re safe.

  Wait, Dzuy is in D.C. Jo stared at her boyfriend.

  Dzuy’s voice boomed, “Judge. As amazing as you’ve been as a judge, you’ve been more amazing as my girlfriend.” He slowly started walking towards Jo. “You have been the best friend I always wanted. The partner I always dreamed of. And someone I want to share the good and bad of my life with.”

  Oh my God, Dzuy. Really? Jo stood rigid.

  Dzuy handed the flowers to Annette and stared into Jo’s eyes. “You have brought love to my life. I planned this surprise with your father’s blessing and help from Annette as a little display of my love and to bring a little excitement to your life.”

  Jo smiled sadly, she had more than enough excitement before eight am today than she would need in an entire lifetime.

  Dzuy reached into his suit pocket and took a knee.

  “Of course I will,” Jo said quietly.

  “Hold on, I didn’t ask anything yet.”

  Slight chuckles murmured through the courtroom.

  Dzuy looked up at Jo. “Joanna P. Channing, will you marry me?”

  Jo tried to lose herself in the moment, to block out the image of that man and a dozen others kicking in the department’s door having a shootout with the police. She tried to block out images of Omar causing all of this. Her mind whipped back to last night when she almost kissed Omar. With tears forming in her eyes, she choked out the most honest response she could muster, “If you’ll have me.”

  Dzuy smiled wide. “I will. No matter what.”

  Tears rolled down Jo’s face as Dzuy put the ring on her finger while she clutched the cell phone in her right hand. After sliding the ring all the way on, Dzuy stood and kissed her.

  Shouts of “Hurrah!” and applause rang throughout the department.

  As Jo and Dzuy hugged, Annette called out, “To work everyone.” She clapped her hands. “Everyone to work.”

  Annette turned to Jo. “Except you. Commissioner Singer agreed to come in this morning to take your place, so you have the day off.”

  “Really?”

  Annette nodded.

  “Thank you so much,” Jo said as her mom stormed in for a hug.

  “Congratulations, Jo!”

  “Thank you, Mom.” Jo pulled back from the hug. “I really need to talk with you, Dad, and Jami. I’m so relieved you’re here.”

  “Relieved? What a strange choice of words,” Mom said, tilting her head in thought.

  Get your digs in later, Mom. You’ll have plenty of material.

  Jo looked to her sister. “Jami, can you grab Dad and come back to chambers for a few minutes?”

  Jami ignored Jo and hugged her. “Congratulations!”

  “Thanks,” Jo said giving her sister a quick hug. “But really, grab Dad, I need to talk with you all right now.”

  “Okay,” Jami pulled back tentatively.

  “Thank you.” Jo saw a little hurt in Jami’s eyes. She pulled her close. “Something bad happened. I’ll tell you all in a minute.”

  Jo took Dzuy’s hand and led him to her chambers.

  26

  “I’ve got work. I can’t stay, Jo,” Jami said in the doorway of Jo’s chambers.

  “Jami, please sit next to Mom and Dad,” Jo said with authority as she pointed to the couch her parents settled into.

  Jami rolled her eyes at Jo, like the sisters were teenagers again, before sitting between their parents.

  “Dzuy,” Jo commanded flatly by looking at one of the chairs opposite the couch. Dzuy moved to the chair without comment.

  Jo closed her chambers door then stood behind the other chair across from the couch. With a steady and flat voice, she said, “I’m glad you guys are here. I had the police looking for you. We’re in danger.”

  Jo watched confused looks on the couch. A quick glance to Dzuy and she saw understanding in his
eyes.

  “Omar?” Dzuy asked softly.

  Jo shook her head. “Not exactly.” Still clutching Darth’s phone in her right hand, she put both hands on the back of the chair to steady herself, then looked at her sister. “When I was in private practice as a defense lawyer, I got involved with a case that was intense. Turns out that has led to a gang threatening me today.” Jo looked down at the chair. “Threatening me by saying they would hurt you.”

  “Ha!” Mom scoffed.

  Jo looked at Mom, softly saying, “I’m serious, Mom. This is real trouble.”

  Mom stared back at Jo. “Dad just beat cancer. They don’t scare us. Tell those assholes to bring it on.”

  “Mom,” Jo was ready to explain just how much she didn’t get when she paused. “Thank you. But I’m afraid it’s VERY serious.”

  Dzuy and Dad asked simultaneously, “What happened?”

  Jo walked behind Dzuy, putting her left hand on his shoulder and the other on the back of his chair for support. She looked at Dad. “A gang member rear-ended me in the court parking lot a few minutes ago. He wants me to find out information about my former client before he kills him. That guy is supposed to call me soon for that information. He threatened your lives if I don’t help him.”

  Dzuy stood, taking Jo’s left hand in his. “Wouldn’t have been much of a proposal if I’d be willing to walk out on you now, would it?”

  “I wouldn’t be offend—” Jo felt Dzuy squeeze her hand.

  “—I’m in,” he interrupted. “Like your mom said, we’ve got this.”

  Dad cleared his throat. “How can we help?”

  Jami nodded, finally dropping her sour sister act. “What can we do?”

  Steadied by Dzuy’s hand and the unexpected support, Jo responded, “Be somewhere safe for a while. With police protection, until this gets figured out. I have a lot to worry about. If I know you’re safe, that will make it so much easier for me.”

  “My patients?” Dad asked.

  “Will be at risk if they’re near you. These guys rear-ended me in a traffic court parking lot, filled with cops, to get to me. If they come after us, everyone near us will be in danger.” Jo looked at her parents and trembled.

  “Really?” Jami asked with disbelief. “You think they’ll come into the hospital and shoot it up?”

  “If they want my client bad enough.” Jo nodded. “I know of this gang from my time as a prosecutor. There are thousands of members here in San Diego. Tens of thousands in Southern California. Over a hundred thousand across the world.” Jo started trembling. “And they kill without fear.”

  “Jeez,” Dad said, rubbing at his temples. “If you sell out your client, would you be safe then? Or what would they ask you to do next?”

  Jo looked at her hand clutching Darth’s cell phone. She tensed. What if they have a mic in this phone? She walked to her desk and put the phone inside a drawer. As she walked back, she whispered, “I’m afraid they might be listening in.”

  Jo sat in the chair next to Dzuy. She turned to her mom and in a low voice said, “I’ve got a detective coming to help me work this out. He’s going to come up with a plan to keep you safe. So in the meantime, I know it’s miserable—but could you just wait inside this courthouse?”

  “Dad can use FaceTime to see patients today,” Mom said. “He just needs a private room.”

  “Dad?” Jo asked.

  He sighed. “I guess that can work for patients we can’t reschedule.”

  “Great. I’ll find a conference room for you.” Jo looked at Jami. “How about your schedule?”

  “I’ll call in to buy some time,” Jami responded quietly. “But I’d really like to get to the hospital. They have lots of security there.”

  “Give me two hours. Time to meet with the detective,” Jo pleaded.

  “Fine.”

  A knock on the door startled everyone. Jo went to the door and opened it.

  The tall bailiff, Pete, said, “Two people are here to see you. Detective Browning and some little guy named Marcos.”

  Jo let out a big sigh. “Can you please send them in?” Jo reached out and touched Pete’s arm. “Can you do me a favor? There is a situation. Can you find a conference room for my dad? He has to make some confidential phone calls. And can you please ask Annette to come in?”

  “Annette’s in session,” Pete said with a shaking of his head.

  Jo took a quick breath. “I was threatened in the parking lot by a gang member this morning. Can you find out how to get the footage from the cameras in the front parking lot? I figured Annette would know.”

  “Oh, Judge,” Pete put his hand on top of Jo’s. “I’ll get on it and help in any way.”

  “Thanks. Please keep this quiet for now, don’t tell anyone.”

  “Okay, I’ll bring in the guys, get the room, then the footage?”

  “Perfect. Thank you.” Jo walked back to her family. “I’m going to meet with the detective and my former client to plan some things out. Would you mind waiting outside or in the conference room Pete finds?”

  “We’d like to stay,” Mom chimed in.

  Jo shook her head. “It’s better if I can just talk with them for a while, then meet with you all after we know more. I want as much distance between you guys and this as humanly possible.”

  Dad stood and looked down at his wife and Jami. “She’s got this. Let’s go.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  Dad hugged Jo before walking to the hall. Next Jami gave Jo a hug. “Like Dad said, you got this.”

  “Thanks, Jami.”

  Mom got up and hugged Jo, but when Jo released her she kept holding on. Jo squeezed back again and released, but Mom still held her tight. “Mo-om,” Jo said a bit more like a preteen than she thought befitting a judge in the middle of a gang war.

  “Sorry, Jo,” Mom said, backing away and wiping tears from her eyes. “Be safe, okay?”

  “Sure, Mom. Thanks.”

  Dzuy stepped forward. “I’m staying, right?”

  “If you want to.”

  Dzuy flashed a little smile. “Can I still get a hug?”

  Jo leaned in hard for a quick embrace. She pulled back and kissed him on the lips. “Thank you.”

  “The stories we’ll have for our grandkids someday…” Dzuy pointed at her desk. “Let me see that cell phone.”

  “Darth Maul’s?”

  Dzuy’s eyebrows raised up.

  Jo nodded. “The bad guy had horns like the Darth Maul guy in the Star Wars movie you made me watch.”

  “I told you it wasn’t as good as the classics, but you wanted to start with the first.” Dzuy shook his head. “I might be able to tell if there’s an extra chip in it. Maybe not, but maybe.”

  “Okay,” Jo said, striding to retrieve the phone.

  “How’d you get your family here?” Detective Browning’s gravelly voice boomed from the entry.

  Jo stopped, leaving the drawer closed. “Come in,” she said, stepping back towards the sitting area. “The phone I was given might be bugged,” she whispered.

  Browning nodded. His hair was disheveled and he wore a plain white t-shirt and gray sweatpants. As he walked further into the room, Omar appeared from his shadow wearing a green polo and slacks. “Some shit, huh Judge?”

  Jo caught Omar’s eyes then nodded to the door. He closed it behind him. “Let’s take the couch,” she said to Dzuy.

  Browning’s heft dropped into one chair while Omar glided into the other.

  Jo sat upright. “I’ve got a few minutes before this guy calls. I’m supposed to get information on Omar and the Filthy Rose murder, or my family and I are in danger.”

  “This guy who threatened you, what do you know about him?” Browning asked, tapping his tee shirt and grunting. “You got a pad and pen? I rushed right over, didn’t pause to put on a suit or get dressed up.”

  “Dzuy?” Jo asked signaling towards the desk. He responded with a nod and went to get a pad and pen from her desk.
>
  “From his face tattoos, I’d say he’s a member of MS-13. He had a tattoo of horns, but they were three-dimensional. I think he might have had little implants to make bumps in his head too.”

  “How tall?” Omar asked.

  “My height, inch or two taller.”

  “Tattoos on his hands?”

  Jo pictured the man putting the cell phone on the trunk of her car. “Yes. A big dot of some sort, maybe. I’m not sure.”

  “A bullet hole?” Omar asked.

  Jo nodded. “Maybe. Hard to tell.”

  Omar closed his eyes and sunk into the chair. It was the first time Jo ever saw Omar seem deflated. “What?” she asked. “You know him?”

  “Bala del Diablo.”

  Jo watched Browning scribble the name. “Who is he?”

  Omar shook his head. “Head of MS-13 for San Diego and Tijuana. One of the top five guys overall.”

  “That’s good, right?” Dzuy asked. “If we get their top guy, the whole group will fall apart.”

  Omar smirked. “The way they’re organized, taking out five won’t do shit.”

  Browning cleared his throat. “My Spanish is rusty, who’s the Devil’s Bullet?”

  “Garcia Miguel Sanchez.” Omar nodded. “The Devil’s Bullet.”

  “Can you set up a sting today?” Jo asked.

  Browning shook his head. “We’d need to get the feds looped in, set up a task force.”

  “He’s going to call in a few minutes, we don’t have that kind of time.” Jo deflated into the couch. She looked weakly at Omar. “Can he really get to my parents?”

  Omar nodded. “He could get to us—in here—past all those cops—right now.” He rubbed at his temples. “What’d he say he wants to know about me?”

  Jo looked at Browning, then back at Omar. “I’m not your attorney anymore. There’s a police officer here, nothing we talk about is confidential.”

  “I’ve never done anything wrong,” Omar said to Browning. “Only dumb thing I did was trust you guys with tips to catch these guys.”

  Jo pursed her lips. We don’t have time for games. “The Devil’s Bullet wants to know if you were involved with Filthy Rose’s murder.”

  “Detective.” Omar looked at Browning. “Will you agree to derivative use immunity for everything that comes out in here today?”