State of Peril (State of Arizona Book 3)

by Doug Ball

  “As much as we might like to do that, we cannot, unless fired upon first.” Lenny had a strange smile. We’ll make every effort to catch the men responsible for your son’s death. We have a friend who was the father of one of the women. The other woman has family also, and we feel responsible for getting the perps and bringing them to justice. Thanks for the coffee. We just might be back.”

  Bruce added, “We will be back. Even if it’s only for more of this great coffee.”

  “Wait a minute,” Lenny almost shouted, “Do you feel so unsafe that you need protection?”

  Ray looked around the house and sipped his coffee, “Yeah, in a way. I don’t want to leave my house and the memories, but just putting that into words the answer would be yes. But, I’m not running and hiding. I will live out my days here. If necessary I will take steps to make this place safer from anyone who wants to break in, but I will stay here. Thanks for the offer, but no thanks.”

  “How about we see if we can get an officer to stay with you? Would you mind that?”

  “I’ll think on that. Check back with me in a couple of hours.”

  A few more pleasantries were exchanged about the house and the pictures on the walls before the two officers made it back to their car and rolled up the road.

  Bruce said, “How’s about we go see the Sheriff now? I think he’ll like us with this chip and just maybe he’ll have a way of protecting our witness.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Lenny responded as he looked both ways at a stop sign and turned left.

  #

  As the sound of the car Lenny was driving faded in the distance, Leon came out into the kitchen. “You handled them well.”

  “They just might care enough to get the job done,” Ray answered.

  Leon poured the dregs of the coffee in a cup, “Yeah, but we care all the way. My daughter and your son died, along with my daughter’s best friend and working companion. We can get the job done right without the courts or cops.” He drank the coffee. “Wanna make another pot, I didn’t get any.”

  “Sure. You want some breakfast, too? I do. Then we can go hunting.”

  “Sounds like the way to go. I know where Borrago keeps his aircraft. I’m betting my life on it. Yours, too.”

  “I really don’t care after losing Jack. He was all I had left. I shoot almost as good as he did. I think a little better with a long gun and that ought-6 in the closet will hit what I aim at.”

  “Great, you’re the sniper and I will be the skirmisher and scout. What’s for breakfast?”

  #

  Abdul walked into the office, “How do there, Ms. Rachel?”

  “I am fine this beautiful morning as I watch everybody but me leave for the day.”

  “You want me to stay with you? You scared or something?”

  “Nah, I just want to be where the action is. This has got to be the quietest phone and office in Phoenix.” She turned to grab her donut. “And, if I stay here I’ll just get fat eating all the donuts leftover from yesterday.”

  “Hey, I can help you with that,” yelled Tank busting in behind Abdul. He reached for a donut.

  Abdul slapped his hand, “That ain’t no way to act.” He stopped and looked Tank over. “Man, what’s with you, dressed all preppy and such? You even got a new ball cap.”

  “Well, the boss said I needed to dress up. So I went out and bought me some new stuff and the man in the store said this was the casual professional look. I guessed that was what I was, a casual professional, so I bought six outfits and three new ball caps. Burned my old junk. Think Tan will like this spiffy stuff?

  “Yeah. But, how you gonna look street dressed like that, my man?”

  Rachel added, “Wow, you don’t look like you. Abdul’s right, you don’t look street. You need to look like you to look street.”

  “Well, I like that. Both of you find fault so fast. I am hurt deeply. Can I have a donut for comfort food?”

  “No. Preppy folks don’t eat donuts, they eat some kinda goose liver stuff and fish eggs.”

  “Man, I ain’t wastin’ no fish eggs on eatin’, them’s for fishin’. As for goose liver, last time I got near a goose I danged near died. The goose beat me half to death. You can have your goose liver stuff.”

  The three were laughing when Tan trotted through the door, “I love the sound of a happy office. What’s the occasion?”

  Rachel said, “Goose liver.”

  Tan stopped, “Do I want to ask? Nah. Come into my office all three of you. I just got a call from the DPS lab.”

  Tan grabbed a cup, filled it with coffee, picked up two donuts with a napkin, and finished the jog to his office. “Just had to get my run in this morning. Doesn’t look like I’ll make it for a couple of days.”

  He looked into a drawer in his desk, “You two find out anything?”

  Abdul shook his head, “Nothin’ you ain’t already got, boss.”

  “Somebody’s out to open up Druggersville the easy way, explosives.” Tank stood tall, not very, in his new clothes waiting for Tan to say something.

  “Okay. Get with Chuck and give him your report on this Druggersville thing. You two are headed south with me.

  “What you got on the fire, Rachel?” His attention still buried behind his desk.

  “Ain’t a fire anywhere near this office and you know it. I want to go south with the rest of you. Chuck can handle the office and this end.”

  “Nope. You get to stay here with him. And, no hanky-panky in the office.”

  Rachel stomped out and slammed the door behind her yelling, “There has been no hanky-panky, whatever that is, in this office. I will not be treated like a slave.”

  Abdul yelled back, “You don’t know nothin’ ‘bout bein’ no slave, Missy Rachel. Someday I tell ya iffen youse want ta know.”

  Tan turned around, “What did I say?” He laughed.

  Seeing Tank, “Who are you?” Tan asked.

  “Tank. Your newest cop. The one for the street with Abdul. Don’t you recognize me? You get hit in the head? Or, maybe you got too much exercise and it’s affected your memory or something.”

  “Tank’s a scrounge. Not a preppy.” He turned back to his desk, looking for something.

  “Whatchu lookin’ for, Boss?”

  “My watch.”

  “It be on your wrist there, like it always is.” Abdul started chuckling.

  Tank said, “I am Tank. You told me to get some nicer clothes. I got them. This is the new me. Street or no street, I done burned all my old clothes.”

  Tan looked at his wrist and then at Tank, “You better get some old stuff from Goodwill or something, cuz I need you and Abdul on the border towns lookin’ for action in no more than three hours. Go. Take your truck, Tank. It’s street.”

  Abdul asked, “What we lookin’ for?”

  “Killers and reasons. Light blue helicopters that are fairly quiet. Mexican Army units drafting and on the move. Routes across the border being used by the bad guys.” He looked up, “Basically, anything illegal. Get a couple of the throwaway phones from Rachel and let me know what the numbers are by texting the number Rachel will have for you.”

  “Questions?” Tan moved to the door as he said it.

  “No, Suh. We gone.”

  Tan looked out the door, “Grab one of those throwaways for me and give these two phones. Make sure they have my number and I have theirs. Got it?”

  “I got it and you’re gonna get it as soon as these clowns leave the office, we need to talk.”

  “Tomorrow, ain’t got time today.”

  Tan closed the door.

  9

  The Governor stood in front of the cameras with the makeup gal trying her best to make the Governor look young and vigorous when she was beyond her prime and exhausted. The background was a shot of the murder scene with ambulance lights flashing and law enforcement running all over the place, many of them literally in circles. If a person watched closely they saw that it was an endless loop video.
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  “We’re about ready Governor, how you doing?”

  “I’m fine. Let’s just get it over with.” She turned to the makeup girl, “Young lady no matter how much cover you use it’s still an old face and I’m still covered in wrinkles. I’ve earned every one of them. Run the sand paper over the plaster one more time and let’s go tell the folks what’s what.”

  “Yes, Governor.” She’d been here before.

  “Okay everybody. All quiet. Down from three. And, ready, three, two, one, roll.”

  “Ladies and Gentlemen of Arizona, I address you again, hopefully for the last time under a bad news banner. We are being invaded again.

  “Day before yesterday we had an unmarked black helicopter land in a rancher’s front yard and ring the doorbell. What were they looking for? They were looking for Mr. Smith. Makes me wonder what they wanted with or were going to do to Mr. Smith. The two door knockers were apparently Mexicans dressed in Mexican Army uniforms. When Mr. Smith was not forthcoming, they calmly returned to their transport and went back to Mexico, a harmless visit where the visitors had bad directions or were very purposefully in the wrong place.

  “The day before we had a visit by a helicopter that lost its crew due to the sharpshooting of two Arizona Border Patrol.

  “Yesterday we blew up a long tunnel, big enough to pass a large truck with trailer.”

  “Yesterday a pale blue, very quiet helicopter landed and murdered three citizens of Arizona, two women on an archeological dig and the man who tried to keep them from harm. The man’s father got the whole thing on video and copies of that video are all over law enforcement offices and the State Attorney’s office. We will find these people.

  “In the past four years there have been 23, or more, military style incursions from Mexico, not counting the War for Arizona. Federal agents have been pulled off the Arizona/Mexico border for two reasons. The President had to make a point, which failed by the way, and all the illegals have to be watched by someone, particularly the children. We have turned away the illegal children that have been pushed into our country illegally and transported those who the Federal Government attempted to dump on us back to the southern border and pushed them back. Those actions were not very humanitarian, but were effective in keeping the laws of Arizona and the United States.

  “We have actually caught individuals in Border Patrol uniforms aiding the illegals attempting to get across the border. So far these have not been real US Border Patrol agents.

  “From some evidence we have gained, it appears that people in Mexican Army uniforms are also involved in these incursions. The two killed yesterday and the ones the day before are being investigated. Of course, our neighbors to the south deny any involvement in these incursions. Now I must admit that they have owned five or six of the incursions as being done by accident and some of our troops have also crossed into Mexico by accident, but those are in the minority.

  “Any aircraft crossing the southern border under suspicious conditions will be hailed and if they do not reply properly or return immediately after hailing, will be shot down. There will be a bit of shooter discretion involved based on experience and the situation. We are not shooting down a scheduled aircraft that fails to respond because it is busy landing in Tucson and such.

  “We suspect elements of the Mexican Army and Border Patrol are aiding those attempting to move north from Mexico for whatever reason. Our response to walkers is a group of hunters that are paid by the number of illegal invaders that they catch. In other words, we have put a bounty on illegals arriving from Mexico and now we will expand that to any illegals caught from anywhere by anyone, with one caveat. They must be alive. No dead bodies will be purchased or paid for. Anyone presenting a dead body will be investigated to determine the cause and conditions of death.

  “We will not tolerate invasion. I call on our neighbor to the south to work hard at putting an end to these incursions and have no desire to start the shooting again.

  “Julio, work with me on this.

  “Thank you and good day.”

  #

  The CSI team was done in Miracle Valley so the Sheriff ordered the tunnel mouth dug out so they could start backfilling from this end. A front loader went to work. The operator slowly built a large pile inside the east end of the building. His assistant on the ground watched for signs of a cave in or breakthrough. They were in to almost the point of the first charges when the ground man yelled, “Stop!” as the driver backed out of the hole.

  From the bucket hung an arm, an arm covered with blood.

  The operator got down and checked it out. “Better go call the CSI boys back and the Sheriff.”

  “You do it, I ain’t got a cell phone on me. They told me when I hired on they’d fire me if they caught me with a cell phone on the job.”

  “I’ll do it.”

  #

  Leon and Ray made the rounds of the Tucson sporting goods stores. In one they bought 20 rounds of ammo. In another they acquired a set of camos for Ray. Another furnished camos for Leon. By noon their list was complete except for some subsonic .22 rimfire ammo. “Almost as good as a silencer,” Leon said.

  They had lunch in a small café in southwest Tucson. The food was marginal.

  “If we can’t find the .22, what’s next best?” Ray asked as he shoved in the last bite of Taco.

  “We can do without, but it would be nice to have. There’s one more place to hit before we move toward our campsite. Borrago isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. His Rancho is only five miles south of the border. The airport is about a mile more. You up to walking?”

  “Yeah. I could keep up with Jack on the flat land. The up-hills kill me though. Too many years smoking, I guess. I don’t run though. I have a bad knee that only acts up if I try to run, especially over rough ground.”

  “No problem. We won’t be doing any running. Wish we had that .22.”

  The cook walked over and said, “I overheard you are looking for some .22 ammo. You talk loud enough. Good thing we have no more customers now. An hour ago you would have told your plans to twenty people in here. I will not tell anyone.”

  “We’re looking for some subsonic .22 rimfire. Like to hunt cottontails and the other ammo makes so much noise it scares the bunnies off.”

  “Wouldn’t want the other bunnies to run away. I just happen to have two boxes of that stuff I bought three years ago. About a dozen rounds are missing. I didn’t like it. Not enough power for the coyotes in my neighborhood unless they get hit in the head. I am not that good a shot. $10 and they are yours.”

  “Sold.” Leon put a ten dollar bill in the man’s hand.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  When he returned, he laid the two boxes on the table. “Take a look.”

  “Look fine to me. I trust you or I wouldn’t have given you the money first.”

  The cook looked at Ray, “Aren’t you the father of the man killed yesterday, the one that tried to protect the women on the dig?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good bunny hunting.” The cook turned and walked away.

  Ray looked at Leon, “Do you think he will tell?”

  “No. He’s a good citizen. They don’t like people dying because of the drug runners and such. He’d probably go with us if we asked him.”

  “You really mean that? He’d go?”

  “Yup. We could probably muster a couple hundred folks with very nice weapons if we tried, but just the two of us is safer.”

  Ray looked puzzled, “Two hundred. Wow! But, I can understand the need for security and with two hundred we’d lose control of the situation probably.”

  “You have hit the nail the pointy end.” Leon laughed. “Tonight we go south. For now, let’s go find a campsite to live in for a few days.”

  They paid the bill and left a healthy tip. The cook waved from the side door as they turned onto the road heading for their destination.

  #

  “This guys wearing Mexican Army dog tag
s or a reasonable facsimile thereof,” said the man working the shovel for the CSI team.

  The whole team had been surprised by the call to the warehouse location. They hadn’t gotten much on the first trip and were just finishing the notes and filings in the office in Bisbee when they got the call to return. Tim Waters, the team leader, could not imagine what caused them to be called back.

  Tim said, “Bring them over here and we’ll get them tagged and bagged. I’ve seen a few of those before when we cleaned up after the War.”

  Alicia Cordova took the tags from the digger and gave them to Tim.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  The two of them looked over the tags and checked them against pictures they had on file. Alicia said, “Looks like the real McCoy to me.”

  “Me, too.”

  Tim grabbed his cell and called the Sheriff.

  #

  Tan rolled into Nogales after stopping in Tucson to have lunch with the Sheriff and local Police Departments. He was surprised at the information he received concerning incursions from Mexico that had never been reported to the public. Some because there was only one witness and that witness was not deemed too reliable and others were as innocent as a patrol of four Mexicans following an individual and not realizing they had crossed the border due to the barbed wire fence being down completely. AzBP had done the same thing a time or six according to the sector boss.

  “It’s easy to do. A wire or two are just lying there on the ground and half buried. I’ve missed the border myself a time or two. The wall will help when it’s finished,” He told Tan.

  At the end of the meal, when Tan picked up the check, no one had any objections to his team working in their area as long as they were kept informed. “Gentlemen, and Lady, I promise you we are not involved to throw all the glory on us or to be super cops. We are in place to assist you, provide more eyes and ears on the investigation, and if necessary, to do the job for you. We know you are all tight on manpower, equipment, and money. Just call and let us know how we can help you. Right now I have two teams of two men working on this case and this case includes the AzBP shootings, the Smith incursion, and the Buenos Aires murders.