ROLL CALL ~ A Prison List (True Prison Story)

by Glenn Langohr

  Bob nodded his head. “He’s right. Why don’t we try moving the product somewhere else where it’s worth more. Like another state. That way you won’t be in the middle of all of your problems in Orange County. You can get some space to breathe and figure those problems out. I’ve at least got to make some money to get my own place. I don’t trust this one.”

  CHAPTER 104

  Ricky watched Ernie getting carried toward Argenta’s G. ride. The bouncer and Vixen had one of his arms around their shoulders and Vixen pulled out the keys and opened the driver door.

  The bouncer struggled to hold Ernie up and said, “Open the back door so we can slide him in. I don’t want to have to fit him into the front seat with the steering wheel.”

  Ricky watched them put Ernie in the back seat, close the door and walk back to Mr.G.’s back door. He put on his gloves and pulled the scalpel out of his sock and climbed out from behind the dumpster. He opened the door and pulled Ernie’s legs and felt his anger slipping away. He found himself staring at his nephew’s face and thought for a second. If I don’t whack him the word will get around that he ran his mouth about all of the cooks being removed. He’s going to look like a police informant when they all get raided by law enforcement. Then people will connect the dots that I’m Ernie’s Uncle and it will look like I’m involved… Ricky felt his temper erupting and brought the scalpel to his nephew’s neck and felt the hot blood soak his gloved hands. He felt the scalpel slip deeper and lost the grip on it. He fumbled for a grip and realized he was pushing the scalpel deeper into his nephew’s neck. He felt blood spraying all over himself and realized the scalpel sliced open his nephew’s carotid artery. He fought for control of his temper and gathered the scalpel and put it back in his sock, soaked in blood. Then he wiped the blood from his face with his shirt. He pulled his nephew all the way out of the car and dragged him in between the two dumpsters and remembered the plastic bag in his pocket. He pulled it out and dropped the blue bandana and cigarette butts next to his nephew and walked to Argenta’s car. He backed out and made sure he ran over his nephew’s blood, hoping some would stain the frame of Argenta’s car. He thought, everything will point to him and the neighborhood gangsters…

  CHAPTER 105

  L’il man got in the passenger seat, and I started the Festiva and asked, “Where am I going?”

  “Get on the freeway and go toward Hesperia. I’m calling Hector and telling him to go get the chemicals. I’ll have him meet us at his house.”

  I followed the directions and listened to L’il man leave messages for Hector to call him.

  I got off the freeway and followed directions.

  “B.J., Hector might be at the park talking to Puppet to get to the chemicals. You see that Boy’s and Girl’s club up there on the right? Turn left up there and the park is on the right.”

  I pulled up to the park and watched L’il man get out and walk over to a congregation of neighborhood hommies sitting and standing around two tables. I could see how much respect they gave L’il man by the way they maneuvered out of the way for him to talk to who I assumed was Puppet sitting on the table. The rest of the hommies watched the area and looked at me sitting in the Festiva. I watched L’il man walk back and get in the car.

  “Drive down the street, he might be at the safe house.”

  I followed L’il man’s directions and circled the house while he looked for anything unusual. He had me park around the corner from the house and come with him this time. We went into a garage and I counted twelve other neighborhood hommies stop doing what they were doing. L’il man left me in the garage and went inside the house. Every one of the hommies were staring at me. I backed up against the wall next to the door I’d just entered and waited. I took an inventory of the hommies. Most of them were youngsters between 16–20 years old. They were all dressed the way L’il man was. I could feel how much they wanted to be respected. There was one that looked like he had the most influence talking to another hommie his age, watching one of the youngsters walk toward me and ask me something.

  “What kind of gun is that you have in your pants?”

  I patted my shirt and said, “I’m not here for show and tell.”

  I watched the older hommie watching say, “Little Chuco, he’s here with L’il man on business…” Then he went into a bunch of Espanol I didn’t understand.

  I watched L’il man open the door from the house and stop to talk to the hommie who’d just called L’il Chuco away from me.

  L’il man walked back to me and nodded toward the door it was time to go.

  “Let’s just go to his house and wait for him.”

  I followed directions back to the freeway. I drove about five more miles and got off at the last exit in San Bernardino. L’il man directed me across some railroad tracks to the last street next to a wild and rough looking foothill. I waited at the light and looked to the right. There was a desolate lonely road going nowhere that way. Across the street was an empty gas station.

  “Make a left right here. Drive the speed limit because there is a police station a quarter mile down on the left. Hector’s house is a mile or so down on the right.”

  I parked and watched L’il man run to a house. At the door someone answered and he waved at me to come.

  “Hector isn’t home but his sister said we could wait here for him.”

  I sat down on a couch in the living room and realized how exhausted I was. I wanted to sleep but thought, how do I sleep in these conditions? Now I have to rough ride it until I get these chemicals, then drive with them back to Bob’s where he just said he didn’t feel comfortable anymore, and then to Orange County where I have all those vines trying to strangle me and nowhere to go. I looked at my watch, 5 A.M.

  “B.J. do you have any dope? My tolerance is built up to mine.”

  I looked at L’il man and nodded my head. “I’m glad you asked. I didn’t know if it was okay to break anything out here and get high. I’m on my last leg myself.”

  I dumped a little pile of the purple speed on a glass tray and noticed L’il man react weird. I smashed up some to snort and welcomed the stinging pain awakening my exhausted body.

  “Do you mind if I ask you whose dope that is?”

  “It’s not Bob’s dope. It’s one of Ricky’s associates. I don’t know anything about the guy other than Ricky saying he’s mob related.”

  I explained the scene in Oceanside until my phone rang.

  CHAPTER 106

  “B.J., it’s Piper. I had to call you. Someone got murdered at the strip club and I’m scared. I don’t know if this has anything to do with you but the guy who got murdered was saying that all of the cooks are going to get removed or something. I thought it might have something to do with you and Bob so I wanted to warn you.”

  I watched L’il man listening to my phone conversation intently.

  “Piper, who was running their mouth about all of the cooks getting removed?”

  I thought about what Johnny Chamberlain said about the cooks getting raided by law enforcement.

  “I don’t know if I should say his name or not. Vivid and Vixen are telling me not to get caught up in it.”

  L’il man said, “Tell her not to say anything. I already know who it is.”

  “Piper don’t say anything. Stay out of it.”

  I hung up the phone and called Bob. His cell phone went straight to voice mail. I tried the house phone, he didn’t answer.

  “L’il man I’ve got to go to the house in Colton to get Bob out of there.”

  “You don’t want to leave right now. That police station we passed is having a shift change right now. They are all driving over to the neighborhood we were in on the way here. Wait a couple of hours and it will be clear.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  I got off at Bob’s exit in Colton and saw the C.R.A.S.H. team parked in the IN N’ OUT parking lot. There was a white van and four other undercover cars and almost a dozen officers dressed in bullet proof v
ests and outfits signifying the operation they worked for huddling up together like a football team. I drove past them and turned at Bob’s street. Johnny Chamberlain and his partner were kick starting their Harley’s and pulling away. I drove by Bob’s and noticed him closing his door and followed behind the Hell’s Angels. At the end of the street they went left and I went right. I parked the Festiva and ran back to Bob’s.

  I hopped his fence and saw the C.R.A.S.H. team’s procession turn the corner. I ran to the front door and Bob opened it right as the white van screeched to a stop in front.

  I ran past Bob into his house and told him to follow me right as we both heard, “FREEZE!! SEARCH WARRANT!!”

  I ran to the kitchen window with so much adrenaline flooding my body that I somehow climbed and dove my body through the open window. I felt my legs pull the window off its track and land on me as I fell in a heap on the ground. I got up and looked back for Bob. He was letting me escape and walking back to the open door the task force was just getting to. I ran for the fence and practically hurdled it and ran for the next one and the next one.

  I drove the back streets for a few miles and found the freeway. I waited at a street light and saw an onramp to the freeway heading back toward the Orange County beaches and another one heading the other way to Hector’s. I didn’t know which way to go. I felt my arms stinging and looked at them holding the wheel. They were bruised and bleeding from the fences. My body was weary and my mind was exhausted. The light turned green and I still hadn’t decided which freeway I was going to take. I drove past the first on ramp and turned into the second one.

  I got to Hector’s house and L’il man opened the door.

  “I made it, Bob didn’t. I’ve got to get some sleep.”

  Hector’s sister let me take a shower and use Hector’s room to sleep. As soon as I laid down on his floor I was asleep.

  CHAPTER 107

  I woke up on the floor. I heard the front door open. My throat was so dry I had to choke to get some saliva going. I went to the door to use the bathroom and get some water and heard Hector and L’il man talking.

  “Did you bring the chemicals?”

  “No. I brought them to the safe house. I got a call and heard that Ricky is telling everyone that B.J. is a federal agent and he’s the reason all the cooks are getting raided.”

  Hearing I was being labeled a federal agent didn’t help my dry throat any. I sat on the floor and took the safety of my gun and set it next to me and pulled out my speed.

  I watched the bedroom door open and Hector and L’il man come in.

  I watched both Hector and L’il man look at my gun next to me and then me right as my phone rang.

  “B.J.. It’s Johnny Chamberlain.”

  I put the phone on speaker.

  “I just left Bob’s right before he got raided.”

  I kept my eyes on Hector and L’il man and said into the phone, “I know. I got there right as you were pulling out.”

  “Did you see the van that pulled away before us?”

  “No.”

  “That was one of our partners dropping off that flask of chemicals you and Bob left for us to pick up at Skip’s. Bob put it in his room. If you pulled up right as we were leaving, how did you get away?”

  “I jumped through his kitchen window and jumped a few back yard fences to get to my car. I had it parked at the end of his street.”

  “Oh… B.J. we found out who the informant is.”

  “How?”

  “We know someone who works for the Sheriff as a dispatcher. She knows all the details of what goes on within the police force. We traced the number she gave us to an address. The owner of the address is Mark Argenta. Do you know who that is?”

  I watched Hector react to the name. “I know who that is. He lives right down the street.”

  I watched L’il man think of something. “B.J., who is that you’re talking to?”

  “Johnny, let me figure some of this shit out and get back to you. Thanks for the heads up.”

  I hung up the phone and didn’t answer L’il man. Silence filled the air in the standoff.

  Hector filled it. “Was that one of Bob’s biker associates?”

  I nodded my head. “Something like that.”

  I watched Hector tell L’il man, “Let me talk to you in private for a second.”

  I watched Hector and L’il man walk out of the room and close the door.

  CHAPTER 108

  Hector looked at L’il man in the living room and said, “Let’s go get the AR15 machine gun out of my garage and see if B.J. will use it to blast Argenta.”

  CHAPTER 109

  I snorted a nose full of speed and felt my mind racing with images. I remembered meeting Bob on Paul’s boat and telling him I’d be a tool he could utilize to clean up problems in his backyard. Argenta leading the police to him and a bunch of his biker associates qualified as a problem and my word to clean it up was on the line. I saw images of all the other jobs I’d done since meeting Bob on Paul’s boat. They rolled through my mind’s eye like a movie screen. It started with the collection I made for the pot money I was owed. I saw myself loading up the back of my truck with the dryer and fishing poles. Images flashed through my mind of going to Bagel’s house, then Yerga’s, then 420’s, then Dennis’s, my rules and regulations, then Maniac’s, then Ricks… I felt all of that Momentum and felt qualified to take out Argenta.

  I heard Hector’s front door open and watched Hector walk in with a machine gun in his hands with L’il man right behind him. I looked at the machine gun and saw something that looked like a net attached from the bottom of the trigger along the bottom of the barrel.

  “B.J.. This is our neighborhood’s problem solver. You see this net. It catches the shells that get ejected so there isn’t any for the crime scene detectives to pick up. Come with us and I’ll show you the hill we can climb to check out Argenta’s house.”

  I followed Hector and L’il man to the hill above the freeway. The sun was out and I still hadn’t drank any water. I was dry gulching my way up the hill and looked back and saw the police station didn’t have any action. L’il man had said shift change was at 6 P.M., I looked at my watch, 12 noon.

  I followed Hector and L’il man to the other side of the hill and stopped out of breath at what looked like the edge.

  “B.J.. you see where those houses start down there.”

  I looked and saw the first house about a hundred yards away.

  I watched Hector reach into his pocket and pull out a small pair of binoculars. He handed them to me.

  I looked through them and looked down the lonely street. It looked like it was headed to nowhere. I asked Hector, “Where does the street go?”

  “It doesn’t go anywhere. It dead ends a half a mile or so after Argenta’s house. His house is the last of the five. Do you see the black fence in front of his house?”

  I looked and found it. There was a wrought iron gate that looked like it was ten feet high. At the top of the gate it looked like pitch forks of black steel pointing toward the sky. I raised the binoculars and looked at the foothill behind Argenta’s house. It looked like it was on fire. I pulled the binoculars away from my eyes to see if they were playing tricks on me. The hillside was a burnt orange and did look like it was on fire.

  I looked at my feet to the edge of the hill I was standing on and saw a ledge about ten feet below me. There were a bunch of cigarette butts. I imagined someone sitting there watching the same house I was. I wanted to climb down there but didn’t want to have my back to Hector and L’il man. I thought about it and realized there were too many people involved in this mess, I needed to buy some time.

  I realized while I was studying Argenta’s Hector had gotten behind me about ten feet. I looked and saw he had something in his hand. It was a hypodermic needle. He was fixing a shot of speed in a spoon.

  He looked up from his task and saw me looking at it. “B.J., You could wait at the end of Argenta’s street un
til he comes out and opens his gate. We could stay up here and call you to tell you when. You could catch him pulling out and dump the whole clip from the AR15 on him. Do you want this shot of dope to wake all the way up to handle the business?”

  I felt that same disgusted feeling under my skin I’d felt at Skip’s. “No I don’t want that shot of dope, and I don’t like your machine gun strategy. I’ve never used one and I can picture spraying it all over the place and hitting those houses.”

  I made the mistake of patting my handgun and Hector jumped on it.

  “Are you just going to carry that little gun around, or are you ever going to use it?”

  I looked at L’il man to see his reaction and he was a statue.

  Hector continued, “B.J., I know you can handle this job after all of the other stuff I’ve heard about you. I know you’re not going to let Argenta get away with sending your partner Bob to prison, are you?”

  L’il man was still a stoic mask, but he stepped closer to Hector.

  Hector continued, “B.J., I know you’re not going to let that Satan worshipper take your operation out, and just let it go.”

  “Satan worshipper? What are you talking about?”

  “B.J., You can’t tell me that Bob didn’t tell you about Argenta. You didn’t know he used to be a big shot around here in the 80’s and that he got put out of business for getting young girls addicted to heroin and turning them into prostitutes? He got back into business by being a Satanic worshipper and hooked up with El Diablo in Mexico. How did you not know that?”

  I looked at L’il man and remembered just telling him a little about Oceanside. It had to look like I knew more about Argenta than I really did.

  L’il man said, “B.J., trust and believe that if you don’t take out that evil piece of shit, our neighborhood will. We’re just giving you the first chance since you’re Bob’s partner.”