by Doug Ball
“What’s going to happen now?” he said out loud.
The only thing he had or knew of that was hanging out was home. He called Joan.
“Hello, Jarhead.”
“Joan, baby. Don’t ask questions. I am on my way home. Get the boys inside, lock the doors, and load your gun.”
“My gun is loaded and laying on the table next to my rocking chair.”
“Pack it on you. I don’t know why I’m saying this, just do it. I’ll be home in no more than 20 minutes.”
He hung up.
As he ran for his car, he called each of the others in his crew telling them to lock in and stay alert.
Chuck headed for Rachel’s apartment. She lived alone.
With siren and lights, Tan bulled his way through the traffic and made it home in 18 minutes flat.
#
Armado, alias Bart Ramage, waited for two hours in front of the post office in Wickenburg before he got in his car and drove to Prescott for breakfast. Between his phone call to Tan Brown and his son not showing up, he felt the world closing in on him. His wife had hung up when he told her the son was dead. There was little sleep in the motel, many parties were going on around the pool and in the halls all night.
By noon he was in Surprise checking into a business man’s hotel.
His plans from the sleepless night had been to stay in the Prescott area and move north toward Wyoming in slow easy steps, but an idea was brewing. Vengeance is a nasty word and that was what brewed in his mind as the day went on. First he had cut across the mountains to the Verde Valley and stopped to see historic Camp Verde, which didn’t impress him at all. Sitting in a chair on the front lawn of the Camp, he listened as two children argued.
One of them kept saying, “I’m gonna get even with you for what you did.”
The other said, “How?”
Those two sentences hit his ears over and over until he decided he was going to get even with the group behind the raid on his place. He knew they had to be after the cop, Baldinado. So all he had to do was find out with whom or where this Baldinado worked. An old newspaper blowing across the grass gave him another idea. He headed south for Phoenix and turned off at Surprise after hearing the report on the radio of the wounding of a retired officer, Leon Baldinado, while he was stopping a robbery on the sidewalk in Surprise.
The officer had been taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital in downtown Phoenix.
“If this man is the man I look for, he was in no shape to break up any burglary. Somebody is lying here.”
He called the hospital and asked for his old friend, Leon Baldinado.
“I’m sorry, sir, but he is in a private room and asks all his friends to donate to their favorite charity and leave him alone. His words, not mine.”
“Thank you. If I were to send him a card, what room would I address it to.”
“Room 418 will get it to him.”
“Thank you, you have been very kind. I just hope that old geezer doesn’t ruin your reputation.”
“We have handled more serious cases without dents in our reputation. Thank you.”
He hit end on his phone.
The operator checked the caller ID on her console and read blocked. She hit another button and the phone number popped up and the location was marked on a map. She hit the print button and the save button for digital recording of the call along with the screen shot of the map.
Her next task was to call hospital security. All were very common actions for the switchboard of the hospital. Client safety was first and foremost after health. There was also the fact that she had been told to do this with all calls concerning Mr. Baldinado, who was not in room 418. Room 418 was a closet in an area marked employees only, and did not have numbers on the door, only on the floor plan.
Bart Ramage thought about the conversation after he hung up and turned off the phone. The switchboard operator had been very professions, but seriously evasive, but it was a hospital, a busy hospital, and with all the HIPPPA laws in effect now, she could say nothing more than he was or wasn’t in the hospital. Something wasn’t right in his mind. He could not put a finger on it, but there was something wrong with that side of the discussion.
“What the hell is that Baldinado guy gonna do for me?” he asked himself.
The thought came to him that Baldinado was the worm on a hook trying to catch him. “They can try any way they wish to catch me, but in a hospital, no. Vengeance is not the way for me to go.”
He moved north to Flagstaff and found a cheap motel room in a dumpy looking old motel on Old 66.
Tan arrived home to find Joan all flustered having heard his name on the television. The boys were throwing Legos all over the den as she sat mesmerized in the recliner watching the news on the big screen. Pictures of the hacienda as it looked before and after the raid were shown as the anchor woman talked of drugs and death.
The story the press was covering only included the Americans that had participated in the raid, illegally and without the Governor’s knowledge. The State Attorney General made comments concerning the illegal aspect of the raid and how charges could be brought against the law enforcement officers that participated, all friends of Leon Baldinado. Leon could be hung out to dry for his actions leading up to the armed incursion into Mexico. The Mexican Government had a knot in their panties over Leon taking the law into his own hands even if his daughter was killed by Mexican insurgents in the United States, Arizona in particular.
As he bent to kiss his wife hello, the newscast said, “Somehow, we at News Central feel that if the governments of our two nations cannot come together and stop the cartels and individuals who are constantly breaking the sanctity of our border, then maybe it is time for private, affected persons, known and unknown, to take action in order to obtain justice. Mr. Ray Lawler will be with us at eleven tonight when we bring you more information on the killing of his son and this raid.”
Joan looked around to see her husband standing in the doorway, “You?”
“Yeah, babe. That was us.”
“Why?”
“Leon was in trouble. He would have died without us. Mr. Lawler was in the same boat.”
“You put your ass on the line for those two men? What are you, crazy or something? You could have set off another war, worse than the one that just ended.”
“I am a Marine. I am a law enforcement officer. I put my ass on the line for people every day. It’s what I do and have done since I was nineteen. I’d put my ass on the line for you and the boys, the neighbors, anyone who was in the right and in jeopardy. It is what I do.”
“But, you have a family, me, the boys.”
“Joan, what gives? You put you on the line when you joined the Navy. We all in some degree put ourselves on the line whenever we breathe, the way things are in this country. At least this time I could plan and be ready for the bad guys. Also, I had help. Think of the shootings that have happened in schools and malls. Everyone in the area had themselves on the line and most had no idea how to handle it. I am trained to put it out there and then win. The majority of civilians only know how to panic.”
Joan stood, bulging in the middle, “I don’t like it.”
“That makes two of us. I have never liked putting myself on the line, but I’m good at it and have lived through them all so far.”
“Every damn morning you go off to work and I never know if you’ll come home.”
She fell into his arms crying.
“This baby must be very close to arriving. You never act like this.”
“I think it, though.”
“Yeah, I do, too. Why don’t we call Mom and have her come down to be with you for a few days. I’ll feel better and some of the load of those three boys will be lifted. Mom did say she was available and wanted to be here when you came home from the hospital. Let’s give her a call.”
“I see the doctor tomorrow afternoon. It would be great if she was here to watch the boys while you take me, if you can.”
21
At 8 AM the next morning the phone rang on Joan’s side of the bed. “Hello.”
She listened for moments. “Okay, Mom, I’ll be home then.” She hung up.
“Mom?”
“Yeah, that’s what I called her.” Tan stayed quiet. He knew when the mood hadn’t improved.
Tan’s phone rang on the nightstand. The window said, ‘Blocked.’
“Les Brown here.”
“DPS dispatch, Mr. Brown. Please hold for the Director.”
Tan listened to all the mumbles in the background and finally, “Patching through, go ahead, Director.”
“Tan.”
“Right here, sir.”
“Need you in Prescott Valley as soon as you can get here. Code 4.”
“What’s up?”
“Can’t say over this rig, but it’s a part of what you’ve been working on. Call my cell when you get close and I’ll let you know where to meet us. I can tell you, we found the Mercedes.” He disconnected.
Tan rolled out of bed, put the phone in the charger again, and headed for the shower.
“I guess Mom can drive me to the doctor. She also said your name was on the 8 o’clock news in Flagstaff.”
“Sorry about that. Sounds like a break in the case of Mr. Borrago.”
“You better be careful, Jarhead.”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head, Sailor.”
Tan passed the car of Armado Borrago on his way to the highway 69 cutoff to Prescott Valley on I-17.
#
Tan arrived in Prescott Valley and met with Director Armistad to find that the Mercedes they had been looking for had been found with damage to the front end. Paint marks on the grill matched the paint from the Hummer and all other info they had from the Mexican Authorities after the Director called the Colonel in charge of that sector of the border. The Director had been extremely surprised at the level of cooperation and friendliness he found on that front.
Tan looked the car over and found nothing of interest. The Director showed him all the material they had found and were waiting to send to the lab. One item caught Tan’s eye.
He picked up the baggie it was in, a business card for a local extended stay motel. “What do you think of this?”
“Not much. There are three more cards in the box there; one from Vegas, one for Phoenix, one for Albuquerque, and the last for here. What we do know is that she walked down the street that way,” he pointed. “This motel is off over that way, he swung his arm in the opposite direction, “and the girls were not with her when she went to the dealership. We checked down the road and found her. Nothing on the girls.”
“Did you check this place out?”
“Yeah. No Hispanic families in the place.”
“How about one single gal. Borrago is light skinned and so might one of the girls be. All it takes is a driver’s license and a credit card and the oldest girl could have registered for a room and pulled the two younger ones in later. They been here for a while?”
“Yeah, Mama checked in two days ago all by herself. A suite with hide-a-bed.”
“Let’s go recheck the place on the card.”
Twenty minutes later they knocked on the door of a room. A nice looking young woman answered the door.
Tan said, “Miss Borrago?”
She tried to slam the door in his face.
Moments later the three girls were in custody and headed for the Yavapai County jail on charges of using a false ID, ID theft, and fraudulent statement of citizenship on the motel check-in form. It was an unhappy reunion with their mother.
Tan’s mother arrived at the house early enough to help Joan get ready for the visit to the doctor. Joan said, “I’m okay to drive myself. It isn’t more than two miles from here, traffic is light at this time of day as long as I stay off the interstate, and the boys will be happy to entertain you. It’s been a couple month’s since they’ve seen you.”
“Okay, but if you need me, just call. I’ll throw the boys in the trunk and come get you.”
“I should be home by one thirty, but don’t worry. I’ll call if I will be later than that.”
Joan waddled out to the car, climbed in, started it up, got settled, and drove away.
Borrago received the news of his wife and daughters being taken into custody on the 12 o’clock news. With no one to help him, other than his one old friend in Casa Grande, he decided his daughters were worth the effort and danger required to rescue them from the law. All they needed to ruin their lives forever was to have their faces plastered all over the news, print and broadcast. Somehow he had to be able to keep their faces private and give them a chance at a real life. He didn’t much care what happened to his wife. They could plaster her all over the highway as far as he was concerned.
The news at noon had also mentioned the Governor’s special investigator, a Mr. Les Brown. From that news cast and a later one, he figured that Mr. Brown was a big part of his downfall. ‘I wonder what he has to lose?’ he thought. “I might be able to arrange a swap, what he loves for what I love. Es Probabilidad, No?” he asked himself out loud.
Les interrogated the four women one at a time. Mrs. Borrago’s only statement was, “I want an attorney and asylum, then I will tell you all there is to know about Armado Borrago and the operations for El Trinchante.”
Les’s response was, “Trinchante is dead. Your husband is in hiding. We have the mules and they are singing like the desert canaries they are. We have three men from the compound and the books from the compound. What more can you tell us?”
“You will never know until I get asylum - signed, sealed, and delivered - for me and my daughters. I will also require immunity for my daughters, they have done nothing even if they might know much.”
“Mrs. Borrago, I need one good tidbit, piece of information, that will cause me to believe you have information I want and do not already have.” Les stood, looking down at the woman with no emotion whatsoever on his face. He had practiced the look many times and was now able to use that skill.
“Mr. Brown, I will tell you nothing, my daughters will tell you nothing, until we have the papers in our hands. That is final.”
Tan left the room and went to talk with the youngest daughter. The jail matron was standing behind the girl as Tan entered. The girl was in tears as she drank from the soda can in front of her. There was a half-eaten hamburger on the table, also. “Good afternoon, my name is Brown, Les Brown. I am a special investigator for the Governor of Arizona. I would like to ask you some questions and get some answers. The more you cooperate, the sooner you can be released from this place.”
“I understand. As soon as you show me the papers for asylum and immunity, the sooner I can talk to you.” She looked up at him and smiled before returning her attention to the burger and soda.
“How old are you?”
“Show me the papers.”
“What’s your name?”
“Show me the papers.”
Tan checked the two remaining daughters and got the same results. The three girls were well rehearsed and as tough as their mother. “I can’t blame them.”
He called the Governor.
22
As Tan left his office to head for home, he did not notice the silver gray Toyota with a swarthy faced man holding binoculars checking him out. As the investigator climbed into his hotrod truck and started out of the parking lot, the Toyota pulled from the curb across the street and moved into a trail position two cars behind.
Tan stopped and bought flowers, coming out of the shop with a large bouquet in hand. Borrago smiled, “He is going to a wife or a mistress. I think it is a wife.”
Borrago fell in behind and followed onto the Interstate where his car was one of many silver gray Toyotas and would never be noticed. He reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed a red ball cap to put on his head. T
he cheap cowboy hat could wait until it was time to get closer. The blue ball cap in the back seat he didn’t much like, either, but it was the cheapest in the store.
Tan stopped for gas after leaving the Interstate. Borrago kept going, pulling into the parking lot of a Burger Doodle next to the station.
After two more stops, Borrago watched as Tan pulled into the driveway of a middle class suburban home. Three young boys ran to greet their man as he pulled the flowers and a couple of bags from the front seat. Borrago watched as he remembered the greetings he had received from his children over the years. ‘That is all over, old man, they are lost to you. They will be lost to you, also, Mr. Les Brown, Special Investigator to the Governor,’ he thought as his eyes watered.
Tan entered the home and was gone from sight.
Borrago continued to roll down the block to a home with a for sale sign in the front yard and no curtains in the windows. He got out and walked around the home for a few minutes until a neighbor came out and struck up a conversation. The neighbor was a wealth of information concerning the home and wouldn’t shut up which was everything Borrago wanted at this point so he could keep an eye on the Brown home. When it became apparent that Tan was home to stay and after more than an hour of the neighbor’s line by line telling of the story of the home for sale and the family, ‘Oh, they were loud,’ that had lived there before, Borrago excused himself after looking at his new cheap watch, and drove away obeying all the traffic laws studiously.
Tan settled in for the evening with a very appreciative wife and three rambunctious boys.
#
Chuck and Rachel found many things they liked as they finally got to do the big date that Chuck had planned for the big day. They spent an hour and a half at a Gourmet Chinese Restaurant eating everything from sashimi and raw oysters, to prime rib and frog’s legs, before hitting the theater where they watched “American Sniper.” They both agreed it was a great flick and told the true story of American military on the field of combat and the trials of the family left at home.