Target: Mendez: An Alex Mendez Tale

by Edward Hancock II

  “So, what’s the trick? How do I do it?”

  “You have to call upon the name of the Lord, like it says here. You have to invite Him into your heart. It’s not just taking control. You have to give up command of your life. Jesus is your leader and your Lord. Your savior. Following Jesus means you surrender everything.”

  “What if I’m not ready?”

  “None of us are, Derrick. None of us are ever ready for that kind of commitment. But, ask yourself this question. Were you ready to be married to your wife?”

  Calloway’s face filled with absolute mourning.

  “I’m sorry,” Alex said, “my point is—”

  “No,” Calloway interrupted, looking at his hands. He wiped a tear from his eye. “No, I wasn’t ready to be married. I wasn’t ready to be a dad. And no, I’m not ready for this.”

  “Then you’re ready,” Alex said.

  Suddenly, Calloway burst into hysterics. Tears fell like waterfalls. His audible sobs echoed off of Alex’s vaulted ceilings. Instinct kicking in, Alex reached a hand out and put it on Calloway’s head as it folded over into his lap. Though mumbling, Alex could make out several apologies in Calloways anguished sobs.

  “Derrick. I want to read something else to you. Derrick? It’s okay. I’m right here and we’re going to walk through this together, you hear? Now, look at me. Look at me, Brother.”

  Sobbing, Calloway raised his head. Tears streamed down his eyes and his face was colors of red found in comic books and fairy tales.

  “W-what did you call me?”

  “Derrick,” Alex said, “That’s your name, isn’t it?”

  “No,” Calloway said, “You called me brother.”

  “Well, we’re walking the road together. I’m bringing you into the family. When we’re done here, we’re going to be brothers in Christ.”

  “Never had a brother before,” Calloway said, “Well, you know, not really.”

  Alex let go a soft chuckle. “Well, life with Danny wouldn’t have been that big of a step up, my friend.”

  Calloway burst with a loud, short laugh.

  “Want to read you something else,” Alex said.

  Derrick nodded. It might have been small, but Alex could see it. It wasn’t him doing it. It was God. But God was changing Derrick Calloway’s heart. A light was coming on. Moreover, a light inside Alex was granting forgiveness for things he didn’t know he needed to forgive.

  “Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ That’s from the book of Revelation. Aside from James, it’s one of my favorite books. Yeah it’s full of doom and gloom. But it’s passages like this that shed light on the doom and gloom. There was darkness in you, Derrick. Jesus is The Light. I can see that Light turning on in you. And it’s a marvelous sight to see.”

  “Thank you, Alex.”

  “Don’t thank me. Thank God. Now, there’s something else I want to read you.”

  Chapter 36

  Nothing but darkness and silence and cold awaited them at the cemetery.

  “Footsteps,” Janet said, “Tire tracks. Somebody’s been here recently.”

  “Janet, I hate to tell you this, but it’s a public cemetery. Everybody’s been here recently. Heck, I think this is the one where my great uncle is buried. There’s a Busby over there. So chances are you and the hubs have family here you may not have known about.”

  “Kellan?” she shot a disapproving look.

  “It’s true, Janet,” he said, ignoring her look. “We have to follow the freaking evidence, not tire tracks that are probably going to lead to some mother mourning her soldier son.”

  “If you’re not going to take me seriously—”

  “Ease up, Janet. Unless you can give me one good—”

  “Blood!” Janet screamed, running into the cemetery. She slipped once, braced herself on a nearby headstone. Shining her flashlight on the ground, she looked back toward Kellan. “There’s blood here!” She waved him on.

  Suddenly, Kellan’s stomach dropped. Nervous, he ran to Janet’s position.

  “Now do you believe me?” She asked. “Now will you take me seriously?”

  Ignoring her, Kellan pulled out his cell phone. Dialing a number, he turned, ran a hand across his head. “Hey Brent, it’s Kellan. I need an investigation and forensics team at Forest Glen Cemetery immediately. We have a situation. Yeah, better tap Tabby. Just in case.”

  Hanging up the phone, he turned back to Janet. Silent, she stared at him in total disbelief.

  “You don’t think…” she broke off before she finished.

  Approaching her, he put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

  “Janet, right now, I don’t think anything. Just because it’s blood doesn’t mean it’s Alex’s. Remember, right over there is Calloway’s dead wife. For all we know—”

  “For all we know, Alex is dead and we’re sitting here doing nothing!” She screamed.

  “Sgt. Busby, I’m going to need you to settle yourself. We are waiting for a team to secure the scene. We will begin our investigation as best we can, but we need more light. In the meantime, breathe. Until we know something, we can’t afford to freak out. You hear me?” When she didn’t immediately respond to his words, Kellan switched tactics. “Janet, your friend, Alex, needs you to remain calm. You need to think. Whether this blood is his or not, we don’t know where he is. And we are not going to find him like this. Now, please, calm down.”

  Still sobbing, she nodded. A shaky nod, lacking in confidence. For now, it would have to do.

  “For now, keep a sharp eye out. We don’t know what’s out there.”

  A loud popping noise nearby drew their attention. Training both flashlights into the nearby woods, they caught sight of what looked like a deer scampering into the woods.

  “Shouldn’t they be hibernating?” Janet asked.

  “Maybe one of Santa’s drivers bunch missed the sleigh.”

  When she didn’t laugh, Kellan shone a light near her face, causing her to squint.

  “Not amused,” she said.

  “Scared of the dark?” Kellan asked.

  “Scared of blood on the ground in a cemetery and being unable to see the potential approach or, worse, sniper sights set on me, yeah. You telling me a creepy cemetery at night doesn’t make you a bit edgy?”

  “Yeah, but if you tell anyone I will deny it and fire you.”

  She chuckled. “Like you would.”

  “No, I wouldn’t,” he said, smiling. “But I’d think about it real hard. Especially after saving your butt earlier.”

  In the distance, two black and whites approached, lights and sirens blaring.

  “Okay, looks like the first wave of the cavalry has arrived. We better go get things started.”

  “Hey, Kellan! Look at this!”

  Kellan bent down beside her, took the small object. It was soft, somewhat squishy.

  “Latex?”

  “Kellan, I think our perp might be a chameleon.”

  His eyes widening, Kellan stood.

  “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 37

  “Where the devil can that boy be?” Moe said, more to himself than any of the strangers in the waiting room with him. Flipping open his cell phone, he dialed Alex. It went straight to voicemail as it had each time before.

  “Son, I don’t know if I need to be worried or aggravated but I’m getting a bit of both. I thought you were coming righ
t back, but that hours ago. Where are you, Alex? Call me when you get this. Doc says Alyson will probably wake up soon. They’re weaning her off the meds as we speak. If you want to know more, call me back. If you don’t call me back, you better be lying in a ditch yourself. No, scratch that. I don’t mean it. Get back here soon as you can, Alex.”

  Flipping the phone closed, he stuck it back into his shirt pocket. He jerked when it vibrated almost immediately. Pulling it out, he recognized the number immediately. Heaving a deep sigh from his chest, he gathered his thoughts, flipped the phone open and answered the call.

  “Hey there, Lisa girl! How’s Arizona?”

  ***

  How quickly the world changed for Alex. A couple hours ago, he was battling Derrick Calloway in his own living room, wanting to kill him for something he wasn’t even sure was Calloway’s fault. Not long after, Alex was battling Calloway in a graveyard, where he came to understand – to a degree – the depths of the pain and the hollow anger inside the man. Now, he sat reading to him from a Bible in a desperate – and all too real – attempt to save the soul of the man who’d ended the lives of a number of Alex’s loved ones.

  Confession followed Bible reading. It had to be a God thing because nothing in Alex was angry, despite listening to the details surrounding the murders of Whit, his wife and Escalante. Awash in an almost unnerving calm, Alex listened as Calloway walked him through each death. As if involved in some spiritual dance, Calloway would share his sins and Alex would help him understand the depths of his sins by introducing him to the victims, in a unique and very personal way. Calloway’s tears were genuine as he recognized the murder of Escalante had destroyed the lives of a wife and children, including a newborn who would grow to know his father only through pictures and stories he heard from others. Finally, the death of Josh Sutton that would destroy the chance of two lives becoming one. A kind of pain that will never go away. Though Alex hadn’t said anything, it struck him that Alyson was now going to go through the very real pain that Calloway himself had gone through. In a very real way, a blow had been struck that would never heal, for Alyson or Alex.

  “Now I am become Death. The destroyer of worlds.” Calloway whispered, shame weighing down on him with increasing encumbrance.

  “Robert Oppenheimer, right? After they tested the A-bomb. See? I study history.”

  “Actually,” Calloway said, wiping a stream of tears from his face, “Oppenheimer was quoting from the Bhagavad Gita.”

  “The which?”

  “A 700-verse scripture that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. It is a sacred text of the Hindus. Sort of like the Hindu Bible, I guess.”

  “So, Oppenheimer was Hindu?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Calloway said, “I think he was Jewish.”

  “Well, he’s in good company then,” Alex smiled. “Jesus was a Jew.”

  Alex re-opened his Bible. This time, to John, Chapter eight. As he began reading the story of the adulterous woman, Alex kept watching Calloway’s face to gauge his reaction to the story.

  “Notice what he says here?” Alex asked, pointing to a very poignant verse. “He tells her to go and sin no more. He doesn’t say for her to be more careful next time and pray she doesn’t get caught sinning. He tells her very specifically to go on her way and do not do it again. A lot of people want to excuse sin and they misquote or misuse this verse to help them do it. They want to tell people not to judge and have the audacity to say Jesus never judged. But, here we have it right here in the eighth chapter of John. Jesus, in all His power and glory, judging the woman caught in adultery. He finds her guilty. People don’t really understand that part. And then he sets himself in a position to render her sentence. But, you see? Jesus already knew that this woman’s sentence had already been carried out. Even in life, Jesus had already died for her sins. Not physically of course. But He knew what was to come. He knew His death was eminent. And so forgiveness was given because the debt was His to pay.” As Calloway’s eyes brightened, Alex turned his attention back to the Bible passage.

  “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ So the Pharisees said to him, ‘You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.’ Jesus answered, ‘Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.’”

  Calloway smiled.

  “I want that, Alex. I want Jesus.”

  Alex closed the Bible, leaned forward and reached out a hand toward Derrick Calloway.

  “Then let’s go to Him together.”

  Chapter 38

  Though the potential for danger was great, Kellan opted for no lights or sirens after entering the city limits of Gilmer. He felt like he was chasing shadows. Perhaps because the thought of chasing ghosts was not one he wanted to contemplate.

  “He’ll be okay,” Janet had said, several times.

  “I know,” Kellan finally replied after about the fourth or fifth.

  “Oh, I wasn’t really talking to you. More to myself,” she answered.

  “He’ll be okay, Janet,” Kellan reassured her, as he turned onto Alex’s street.

  “How do you know?”

  Turning the heater down, slowing to a crawl, Kellan focused his attention toward Alex’s house.

  “Because he’s Alex Mendez. I don’t know much, but I know God has granted Alex some sort of supernatural protection on more than one occasion. He should be dead a hundred times over, but he’s survived.”

  “Even a cat only has nine lives,” Janet said. In the dim dashboard lights, a mere glance her way shone that she regretted the words even as they were spoken. Shame covering her entire countenance, she whispered an apology.

  “It’ll be okay, Janet,” Kellan said again, as he parked the car, a couple houses down, switched off the lights and killed the engine.

  “What now, Boss?”

  “Now, we think.” Kellan said. “We need to figure out if he’s even home first. Then, we have to figure out if he’s in any danger.”

  “Alyson is at the hospital clinging to life!” Janet screamed, “He left Moe and said he’d be back shortly. That was several hours ago. You and I both know Alex to be a man of his word, so if he’s not back, there has to be a reason.”

  “And his car is in the driveway,” Kellan said, pointing toward Alex’s house.

  “Whose car is that behind it?”

  Kellan shrugged. Realizing Janet probably couldn’t see the shrug in the dark, he said, “I dunno.”

  ***

  “You don’t think we’ll be recognized, do you?”

  “Doubtful,” Steelman said, “This is my wife’s car. Even if they’re looking for us, chances are they’re not looking for this car… well, not yet.”

  “Won’t they just ask your wife?” Danny asked, driving slowly past Alex’s house.

  “They could, I guess,” Steelman chuckled, “But she’s out of town and conveniently doesn’t have a cell phone.”

  “Wow,” Danny said, “Don’t know many women that don’t have cell phones nowadays.”

  “Well, she doesn’t like being disturbed while she’s cheating on me,” Even in the dark, Steelman could feel Danny’s sideways glance. “She thinks I don’t know. I don’t say anything because, well…” he trailed off for a moment. As Danny parked the car, he sighed. “I love her, I guess.”

  “You guess?” Danny said, “How do you guess? Seems to me you either love her or you don’t.”

  “Well, I love the woman she used to be, before we got married I mean,” Steelman said, shame and regret dripping from his lips. “But, then again, I love the man I used to be too.”

  “So, because you cheated on your f
irst wife, you feel as though this is, what? Some sort of Karma?”

  “Let’s just say I don’t question it.”

  “But Chief—”

  “Pass me the binoculars, will you? Steelman said. Without pursuing their conversation any further, Danny did as he asked.

  ***

  “Okay, now, let’s see what we can see,” Steelman said, training the binoculars toward Alex’s house. A large window looked into his dining and kitchen area, but nothing seemed visible by Danny’s naked eye. Looking toward Alex’s house, but not really attempting to see anything, Danny’s mind wandered to the conversation with the chief. His first wife had died not long ago. Nobody had known for months. Somehow, in East Texas, Tom Steelman had managed to keep his pain quiet. He’d kept his head down, done his job and hid the tears from seemingly everyone.

  Within a couple months, he had begun dating the woman now known as “Mrs. Steelman 2.0”. Everybody pretty much knew she had pursued him. Still grief-stricken by his beloved first wife’s death, Tom Steelman had wanted nothing to do with her in the beginning. It didn’t take long before his need for companionship won the day and he began to let her in. Like a fly caught in a spider web, the new Mrs. Steelman trapped him. And that was just a couple months ago, amid all the issues surrounding the death of one of East Texas’ most vile and vocal racists, the woman who would be the new Mrs. Tom Steelman had cornered her prey. Well, convinced him to marry her. Same thing to Danny.

  Except where Alex and Lisa were concerned. They were partners. They were friends. They were, if there was such a thing, soul mates.

  “Nothing,” Steelman whispered, handing the binoculars to Danny. “I see nothing.”

  “Want me to confirm the nothing, Sir,” Danny chuckled, taking the binoculars and looking toward Alex’s house. “Wait!”

  “What?”

  “Nothing, sorry. Just a weird shadow, I think.”

  The wind kicked up, causing the car to shimmy.

  “Let me see those,” Steelman said, grabbing the binoculars. Danny winced when they scraped across his nose.