They fell quiet as they were nearing the turnoff for Placerville. Ten minutes later, they entered the street in back of the Fletcher woman’s residence. Sotello looked at his watch. It read 10:40 PM, twenty minutes earlier than he had figured to get into place. He cracked open the window, after they had sat in the darkness for a few minutes, and looked out towards the street with his night vision scope. Most of the lights were already off in the houses surrounding the area in front of the Fletcher house. He handed Craig the scope and started the van again. He drove slowly around to Fletcher’s street and by their house. The street, already quiet as befitting a weekday night, showed no moving figures, or even many lights.
Sotello parked the van just one house down from their target, on the same side of the street. He motioned for Craig to go into the back of the van from between the seats, as he shifted over into the passenger side of the front. He again cracked open a window, after leaving the van off for five minutes. Sotello could see a television screen flickering inside the house they were watching. He used the night scope to check for people looking out of their windows, or walking along the street in either direction. When Sotello satisfied himself enough to begin the first stage of their plan, he rolled the window back up, and turned to Craig.
“I will go out and blend in next to his neighbor’s house. Wait five minutes, and make your call. He will look out the window for a while before he ever comes out. He will be armed with something. You can be sure of that, so stay in the back here. I will see if he walks toward the van or goes back inside. Your only worry in this will be opening the side door as quickly and quietly as possible, so I can get him inside. I lubed up the slides on the side door before we left, and they are as quiet as the things are capable of. Just be ready for your part, okay? As soon as I have him inside, get behind the wheel and take off.”
“Five minutes Dad, I’ll be ready.”
Sotello nodded, and slipped out of the passenger side door with his sap. They had already taken the dome lights out, and disconnected the door warning buzzer. He slipped the mask onto his head as he moved quickly to the bushes by the side of the neighbor’s house. The wet ground made his footsteps almost noiseless. He crouched and waited.
Craig waited five minutes, and took a deep breath. He made the call. The man answered, a slight slur in his voice. Craig repeated the message he had rehearsed with his Father, and then hung up. He did not crack the window, but he watched the house. A few minutes after the call, a man appeared at the door in a strap tee-shirt. His arms bulged with muscle, and Craig could see he had what looked like a pistol held down next to his right leg. The man looked around in both directions, and then headed straight for the van. As the man reached the halfway point, Craig saw a shadow rise up behind him, just before the man’s head snapped to the side.
An arm wound around the man, preventing him from falling. A black clad hand reached down, snatching the dropped pistol up. Craig watched the man’s body leave the ground slightly and get propelled towards the van. Craig wrenched open the door, without letting it bang into its stops. A split second later, the man’s body flew into the van and banged headfirst into the other side. His Father followed it, as Craig closed the door, and jumped into the driver’s seat. He had them headed towards the freeway, without putting on the headlights, until they reached the main cross street. Craig reached Main Street, turned to the right, and drove to a street they had plotted out before leaving, called Reservoir Street. He parked the van a hundred yards down the way.
Craig heard a sickening thud followed by the crunch of bones. He turned to see his Father bring the lead pipe down on the man’s other knee with similar results. Sotello threw the man over onto his face as if he were a rag doll. Sotello smashed both of the man’s arms at the elbows viciously with the pipe. He then drove the pointed end savagely into the base of the man’s spine. Craig watched him tear his mask off and grab the man’s head, one hand engulfing his chin, and the other the side of his head. Craig dove into the back, grabbing hold of his Father’s right arm. Sotello’s head jerked up towards Craig, and saw the look of fear on his son’s face. The gale force storm inside Sotello’s head eased, and he let the man drop to the floor of the van. Craig quickly returned to the driver’s seat, as Sotello returned to the passenger seat.
“Thanks boy,” Sotello whispered.
Craig nodded and started the van. He drove down the street another fifty yards, before doing a u-turn, and heading back the way they had come. He slowed when they were almost directly opposite the place on the other side of the street where they had first stopped. Sotello went into the back again, and opened the side door quickly. Craig watched in amazement as his Father grabbed the man’s belt, and with one hand from a crouch, lowered the man’s body to the side of the road. Sotello slipped out after him, and placed the man’s pistol back into his right hand. After closing the door, Sotello climbed into the passenger seat. Craig eased the van smoothly onto the road.
“That will be the last time that son-of-a-bitch ever works over another woman,” Sotello whispered between clenched teeth.
Craig nodded, and drove towards home.
Chapter 11
Friends
“Is he still alive Dad?”
“Thanks to you he is. I lost it Craig. Sorry, I was afraid that would happen. I thought I was okay, until he came out carrying the gun. When I got him in the van, I could not get Ellen out of my head.” “What now?” Craig asked.
“We park the van right where we picked it up and go home. Pete will see us, and take care of things from there,” Sotello explained again.
“Where do you know Pete from Dad? He’s been around since Ellen and I were young. You used to take us over to his shop on East 12th Street when we were kids. He always seemed glad to see us all no matter how busy he was. I never thought of him as anyone other than a friend of yours.”
“You earned the right to ask anything you want tonight. Pete and I go back quite a ways. When I first opened up, he was one of my first customers. Pete served two tours of duty in Vietnam back in 1967 and 1968. He won the Navy Cross while in Marine Recon on his second tour. I had saved my money, because I knew starting up cold like I did with a detective agency would be no walk in the park, so I was a little slow. I had time to talk. Pete and I hit it off right away. We had covered some of the same territory in Vietnam.”
“He seemed to be leading up to something,” Sotello continued, “but he never got it out. Pete just stood up, shook my hand and left. Two days later, he turned up at the office again. Pete sat down, and asked me straight out if I would work out some kind of payment deal for him. I asked him what kind of a problem I would be working on. He told me his fifteen-year-old daughter Cassie had run away from home, and had been gone for two months. I asked him if the police were on the case yet, and he told me they were, but could not do much. No one knew where she had headed.”
“There had been the usual arguments every parent faces with teenage girls. The only big one Pete could remember was his cutting off contact with an eighteen year old guy she had dated behind his back. Once he found out, he tried to reason with her, and then finally had to forbid her to see him anymore. She threw the usual teenage tantrum, but quieted down pretty quick, and Pete forgot about it.”
“A couple of weeks went by, and then Cassie did not come home from school one night. Pete and his wife Joan went crazy looking for her. They questioned all of her friends, and involved the police in it right away. He told them about the boyfriend, but it turned out he was already gone without a trace. All they had on him was his first name: Gene. Neither Pete nor his wife had met him, so they couldn’t even give the police a description of him. Pete told me he would pay anything to find her. I agreed to do what I could.”
“I asked if I could check Cassie’s room. He told me they had torn the place apart looking for clues, but I was welcome to give it a shot. It turned out Cassie could hide personal effects with the best of them. Joan told me Cassie had caught he
r with Cassie’s diary, and from then on had hidden it, so Joan had never found it again. She had a vent in the ceiling, because they had central heating. I took off the vent five minutes after I went in her room, and their little Nancy Drew had indeed hidden a small metal lock box up there. Cassie had included his name, address, and a picture in her diary.”
“The people who had rented him an apartment at the address, Cassie had written in the diary, had received a forwarding address from this guy. His name was Gene Emmerich, and he had moved to Los Angeles. I flew down to talk to him, and found out he was no longer there. They had another address in Arizona for him, so I continued on. I…”
“You were paying for all this traveling around?” Craig asked.
“You’ve met Pete and his wife Joan. Sometimes you take a chance on people. Ellen was a baby, and you know my imagination well enough to know I could picture something like that happening to her. Anyhow, I found this piece of human debris in Tucson. I waited around until Gene came home from work, and then I introduced myself. The little prick tried to sucker punch me. He was a black belt in karate at some school, and thought he was Bruce Lee. I blocked the punch, but he got in his stance to teach me a lesson. I tackled him, and threw him on his stomach. With his arms moving slowly backwards up to the top of his head, he decided to cooperate. It seems when he tired of Cassie, he ditched her in Los Angeles. He told me the last address they shared down there, and then I called the local police.”
“I explained the situation to them. They were more than willing to help, once I called Pete on the phone to promise to swear out a complaint of statutory rape. They held him while I took off for Los Angeles with Cassie’s latest picture. The last place Gene had taken Cassie to turned out to be a flophouse for pimps, prostitutes, and druggies. I showed her picture around. A twenty dollar bill located the corner where she worked for some lowlife called Big E. Seeing her there on that corner made me see parenting in a whole new light. When Cassie heard her Father wanted her back no matter what, the tired hooker look turned into a fifteen-year-old little girl look.”
“I had only really began telling her how I could get her back home by morning, when the infamous Big E came over to hurry the transaction along. I explained to him the story about Cassie’s age, and the fact I represented her Father, who would swear out charges against anyone interfering with my taking her home. Of course I was wasting my time, but I had to try. He reached back under his shirt, and I laid him out. I took the Colt .357 magnum he was reaching for, and showed it to his little pimp posse. They moved back into the shadows. I loaded Cassie into my rental car, drove across town to where I could rent a decent room, bought her a nice looking set of clothes, and waited while she cleaned up. I had her back at Pete’s house that night.”
“Cassie’s married to a Doctor now, and has two kids, right?”
“Three kids,” Sotello corrected, “and she met her husband after she finished her nursing degree. Pete has never forgotten, and you’ve seen the Colt magnum.”
“The chrome one?” Craig asked.
“The very same, Big E didn’t object when I took it, so I just kept it. Cassie still sends me Christmas cards, and stops over to the office when she sees Pete. That’s where you and Ellen met her. She loved seeing you kids. She turned out to be a great young woman, and Pete has three grandchildren he worships. It don’t get no better than that Craig.”
“Your line of work does have some redeeming aspects to it,” Craig joked.
“So kind of you to say so.”
They drove by Sotello’s house, so Pete could see they were back. The lights of a small Taurus station wagon blinked, and Sotello drove over to where they had picked up the van. He surveyed the surrounding area with his night scope. Confirming there was no movement on the street, he and Craig then stuffed everything into Sotello’s bag. They put on the jackets they had brought, and left the bag in the back. After returning the key to the frame under the driver’s door, Sotello walked with Craig back to their house.
Ellen met them at the door. Even with ice packs, Sotello could see she had not been able to keep the swelling down. She hugged them, with tears of relief running down her cheeks.
“I am so glad to see you two,” Ellen sobbed. “You cannot imagine all the bad thoughts, which ran through my head, while you both were gone. I expected the phone to ring at any minute, telling me you two had been arrested for murder or something.”
“How’s your rib cage Sis, I can already see how your face is?”
Ellen reached up and touched her face gingerly. “It throbs a little, but my ribs are the only things aching whenever I do anything the least bit fast, or I turn the wrong way. I may as well get used to it. The doctor told me I could have some pain for as long as eight weeks.”
“Sometimes twelve,” Sotello added. He held Ellen’s head up so he could examine her face more closely. “Your face will probably be good as new in a few weeks.”
“A few weeks,” Ellen gasped. “You mean I have to look like Rocky Raccoon for three weeks?”
“I’m afraid so Honey,” Sotello smiled, “and probably longer.”
“If you could see the guy who did it Sis, you’d…” Craig began.
“Never mind about that Craig,” Sotello interrupted. “No one talks about him anymore at all. When the police get around to questioning us about tonight, and they will, keep it simple. We took care of Ellen here tonight, which will be the truth. From my experience raising you, I know you both are accomplished liars, so I have no doubt the two of you can act believable.”
“If we were so good Dad,” Ellen said indignantly, “how did you always know when we were lying?”
“I didn’t,” Sotello replied smugly. “I just kept silent while you were spinning your yarns. When you were lying, you always kept adding details, until you were boxed into a corner. In other words, I just gave you enough rope to hang yourselves. So, the lesson I am getting at here requires us to stick to the truth, and add no details.”
“Maybe they won’t figure this out Dad,” Craig said.
“I do not know how large the Placerville police department is, but if that guy who came up to us in the hospital sees both reports, he may be calling on us real quick. The Fletcher woman may, or may not, tell him anything about her boyfriend’s run in with Ellen. If she does, they will definitely be around to see us. If she fears the consequences, she will keep silent about what the boyfriend did, and who might have been responsible. The officer at the hospital will know I was not completely truthful with him, if he finds out Ellen had the Fletcher house staked out. We will get past this. It complicates things, and that happens sometimes. Let’s count our blessings. Did he get the digital camera Ellen?”
“No, I had already put it in the hideaway in the trunk.”
“Good,” Sotello nodded. “We’ll send the pictures to that idiot Fletcher, and let him take it from there.”
“I’ll send them out in the morning with our bill. It will of course not be enough,” Ellen smiled.
“I ought to go visit him for calling the mother after he said he wouldn’t. I guess he figures he had a chance of never seeing his kids again, so I can’t fault him for doing it. He should have known they would just use him. Let’s get some sleep. Do you have class today Craig?”
“Yea, I have a lab first thing in the morning, and an English Lit class an hour after that,” Craig confirmed. “At least tomorrow’s Friday.”
“I have a class today too,” Ellen groaned.
“You need to take the day off El,” Sotello said. “Come up to the office with me today, and we will be business as usual until further notice. I am certain, between the rib ache, and answering a thousand questions from your friends, going to school this morning will be too much.” Sotello looked at his watch. “It’s 3 AM now, so if we want any sleep at all, we better go for it.
__
Sotello finished the Fletcher report on the front desk computer terminal while Ellen loaded the digital photos in t
heir computer room. He transferred the report to the file Ellen could access from her workstation in the computer room. She could then send it along with the bill and pictures. It was already 11 AM, and they had been in the office since nine that morning. He had called the Placerville police at 10 AM, and asked for the Sergeant Williams, who had given him the business card at the hospital. They told him Officer Williams was out at the moment. They promised to have him call when he returned. Sotello had taken two calls since then for setting up appointments to discuss future service, but nothing from Placerville. He walked back to the computer room, from where he had been working in the kitchen, to see how Ellen was doing.
“You did a nice job on the report Dad,” Ellen complimented him, as she scanned the report.
“How are you feeling so far?”
“The ribs ache,” Ellen noted, “but other than looking ugly, my face feels fine. I think you wrapped them a little tight this morning, but at least they don’t feel loose and squishy.”
“Better if they are wrapped a little tight,” Sotello replied. “If you make a sharp movement, it won’t feel like someone stabbed you with a red hot poker.”
The outer motion detector went off. Sotello walked out into the front office area to see Officer Williams from Placerville, accompanied by Tank Simmons, and Jay Watson. Ellen had followed her Father out to the front. The two Oakland officers came right over to her. Watson gently turned her grinning face from side to side, clucking his tongue. Simmons looked from her to Officer Williams with pure rage showing on his face.
“Girl,” Watson admonished. “I hardly recognized you. What have I told you about street fighting?”
“How are you Uncle Jay,” Ellen replied dutifully, as she gave him a gentle hug. She went over to Simmons then, and took hold of his hand, while he stood glaring at Williams.
Simmons looked down at her, with open concern replacing the anger, as he took Ellen into his arms carefully. “Hey Honey, you should call your old Uncle Tank before you let this white bread gumshoe send you on dangerous missions.”
Sotello: Detective, ex-FBI, ex-Secret Service (DeLeo's Action Thriller Singles Book 1) Page 11