ROLL CALL ~ A Prison List (True Prison Story)

by Glenn Langohr

  I knew Sarah was almost late for work and had to step further into my condo as it quickly filled up with gang task force agents. Detective Pincher stepped up right next to me and said, “This place is tiny! How in the hell can two people live in a place this small?”

  I heard Sarah yell from the bathroom, “Get out of here! I’m already late for work! Get your hands off of me!”

  I watched my new parole agent Stepwolf take over and tell Sarah, “Listen young lady, your boyfriend has a very serious criminal file, he’s on parole and his residence is subject to being searched 24/7 so get used to this. Now, you can walk out of here while we do our job, or I can handcuff you and remove you by force. It’s up to you.”

  I watched Sarah walk out and say, “You lay one hand on me and my Dad will sue you! Why don’t you leave my boyfriend alone? All he does is work, he hasn’t turned in one dirty test and 9/11 is wrecking his business. Give him a break!”

  I studied agent Stepwolf’s face and body language and saw her react to Sarah’s independent spirit aggressively. Sarah was halfway out and agent Stepwolf grabbed her arm to steer her outside. I watched Sarah resist a little out of frustration and then she was outside and out of view. I watched the gang task force search. Two of them were in the bathroom, only three fit in the bedroom, only three fit in the living room/kitchen where I watched with detective Pincher. A couple other detectives stood at the front door with a couple more behind them. The two at the door looked at detective Pincher and asked, “Where do you want us to search?”

  “Just search out there on his patio. This guy lives in a shoe box; there isn’t any more room in here. It’s pathetic.”

  I studied detective Pincher’s face. He looked like he was taking in my struggle, and understanding it, and enjoying it. There was a lot of loud reconstruction noise in the background that included jack hammers, saws, hammering and occasional yelling from construction workers.

  Detective Pincher looked at me and smiled. “How do you live with all of that noise every day? While I was driving around the complex I saw people living in their garages. Is that what you’re going to do when it’s your turn to have your condo turned upside down?”

  I still didn’t know what Sarah and I were going to do.

  Detective Pincher asked, “When are they going to be in your condo?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I watched detective Pincher nod like he cared. I knew he just wanted to know what my plans were so he could sweat me.

  My home phone rang. It went to my message and we listened to it. “This is Benny with Prestigious Transport. We’re here to serve all of your ground transportation needs with all varieties of limo’s and town cars. Leave a message with your name and number and we’ll get back to you promptly. Have a good day and God bless you….Beep.”

  We all listened to the caller. “Benny, this is Linda at the Monarch Marriot. I have a client who needs a car to get to L.A.X. here within ten minutes. I called you first so if you can get here in time call me back right away. I’m going to give you a couple minutes and then call the taxis. Have a nice day.”

  I looked at detective Pincher and said, “I have to get to that call. That will be my first job in a month since 9/11! Can I go?”

  “No. Your agent is still outside with your girlfriend and isn’t done with her home visit with you. She’s going to run down her program to you. You’re going to have to sit tight and miss this one.”

  A couple hours later my new parole agent and the gang task force finished vetting my condo and I was left with the task of putting everything they’d dumped upside down back together. Everything in a cabinet, drawer or on a hangar had been tossed in a heap. I started with Sarah’s clothes and put them back in her drawers and on hangars and thought about my new parole agent. She’d just moved to parole from probation. I knew that probation officers were so hard core that they didn’t feel like they were doing their job unless you went to prison, I was in for a rough ride. Sarah called while I put things back together.

  “Benny, your new parole agent is a bitch! She told me I should move out of your condo, that you were really bad news, that you had enemies that were dangerous and that I wouldn’t be safe with you. She tried to befriend me and tell me that I deserved way better than you and on and on. You’re screwed with her.”

  CHAPTER 144

  Every day I watched the construction workers inch closer to our condo. I had to come up with a plan. They were going to be in our unit any day now. Sarah started getting harassed by construction workers cat-calling her in the parking lot when parking her car from her shift at the hotel, so I started meeting her as she pulled up. One night she got out of her car and I told her, “I’m going to rent a hotel for us.”

  “You can’t afford to pay your mortgage, limo bills and a hotel for six weeks, it will break you. I’m going to my Dad’s house. You should call your Dad and ask for his help.”

  I couldn’t do that.

  CHAPTER 145

  The construction workers made it to our row of condos and I was delegated to my garage. I noticed some of the other condo owners doing the same thing. One made a room out of his garage with a bed, dresser, T.V. and the whole nine. My mind was too busy trying to wrap around every aspect of my struggle to do anything other than sleep in my Town Car inside the garage. I couldn’t sleep. I imagined how my car barely fit into the garage. It started to feel like I was in a coffin.

  CHAPTER 146

  Vince wrapped his body around Candy’s in a spoon position. She was facing the other way and he breathed in the fragrance of her shampoo and thought about things. I’ve been out of prison for almost three years; I’m off parole and back in Orange County. Why did I feel so drawn back to this county? Why didn’t I just stay in Bakersfield with my Mom where parole and life was so easy? I know why, life is boring out there and I missed this area.

  Feeling Candy’s heart beating too fast and her foot kicking, Vince thought about being released from Pelican Bay and then High Desert. He remembered paroling with Damon and the pact he made not to do any more speed no matter what! He remembered telling Damon how he could see that speed the biker slammed into his vein clearly, how it sent him off on a path that went in so many directions, but guaranteed that it would end in prison. Now here I am, discharged from parole and back in Orange County with this gorgeous girl, Candy, for the past two months, and her heart is beating to fast.

  Vince thought, Candy got out of rehab two months ago and seemed to fall in love with me instantly. Now I know I’m in love with her. Vince looked at the alarm clock he’d set up with the small mirror angled just right until he could see Candy’s face. Her eyes were open and her eye lids were flashing open like a butterfly’s wings. Vince thought about what he’d heard about Candy. There were rumors she had been an escort, a high priced one. It was said she used to have a route through the most expensive gated communities in south Orange County where she stopped and did what she did to get her bills paid and clothes and other presents bought for her. Supposedly she didn’t have sex with any of them, rather she was more like a mobile stripper who teased and flaunted her way through wallets and credit cards. Vince laughed, I should have known, with her name, Candy.

  Vince looked at the alarm clock right as it went off at six a.m… He watched her pretend to just wake up, yawn and get up. He watched her sexy voluptuous angular body walk to the bathroom in a G-string and thought, she is a candy bar, though. As soon as the door closed Vince reached over to the table and looked in the handbag she seemed so protective of. Her paper work for the lawyer she worked for was in there, so were two pairs of stiletto heels, a mini skirt, lingerie, and a video camera. Vince pulled out the small video camera and slid it under the bed. A half an hour later Candy walked out.

  She walked out dressed in a tan business suit looking like a model receptionist and sat on the bed. Vince looked into her brown eyes and kissed her pouting lips possessively for a couple of minutes. Then he stared at her curly brown hair and
angel shaped face as she said, “Vince I want a family life with you honey. That’s my dream, so don’t forget it. I have to go to work; I’ll be home for dinner. Love ya.”

  Vince pulled out the video camera. The little blue hand held camera had the name Candy 007 on it in glittered stickers. He hit play and watched Candy in her other life. The video showed the footage was from two days ago. Vince thought, right when I felt her feet kicking and her heart beating too fast. The video played. Vince watched Candy video herself driving in her Range Rover to the Smut Peddlers playing on the stereo. Candy was wearing strappy stiletto heels, a mini skirt, a top that showed off her uplifted breast and tan skin, her hair in pony tails, sucking on a sucker while dancing to the music. Vince saw her pulling up to a gated community. A gate guard came to the window and Candy said, “I’m Candy for Vladimir. He should have called me in already.”

  Vince stared at the gate guard and knew the community. It was the most expensive gated community in Santa Margarita. He watched the gate guard hand over a pass and Candy drive in. The video stopped and started again. This time, someone Candy called Vladimir was holding it and following her around. Candy walked into an extravagant kitchen right to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of Stolichnaya Vodka like she knew the place well. Candy asked, “Don’t you have any Grey Goose Vodka? You know that’s my favorite.”

  Vince heard the man holding the video’s deep voice say, “I’m Russian, what do you expect… Are you back on your mobile escort tour now that you’re out of rehab? And what’s up with your job working as a receptionist for that lawyer, is it just a front?”

  Candy smiled for the camera while she poured half a glass over a couple pieces of ice. “You ask a lot of questions. Yes, I’m back in business. It’s hard to let go of the kind of money I’m worth. The lawyer I started working for uses speed and had heard of my infamous reputation. He hired me because of it, so you can assume what kind of work I do for him. Now back to business. Do you have any more speed for me and can you pay my Range Rover payment Vladimir?”

  “It depends. Take off your G-string and throw it to me. You’re going to have to go up to my room and dance for me for a couple hours. Are you going to let me taste you yet?”

  Candy lifted a leg and climbed out of her G-string and lifted the other one and did the same thing. She threw it toward the voice and said, “Eventually, if you’re really good to me, I might let you taste my candy.”

  Vince felt a pain foreign to him as he heard the deep voice laughing, following Candy up the stairs with her ass swishing back and forth underneath the skirt. Vince realized what that foreign pain was, his heart breaking. He took a deep breath that got caught in his throat thinking about how long he’d been lonely, locked in a cell. His saw his hand holding the video camera shaking and set it down right as the phone rang.

  “Vince… Did I… Leave my video camera?”

  “What camera Candy?”

  Vince detected in the tone of his voice the knowledge of the camera and gritted his teeth.

  Vince heard Candy’s tone of voice signify she knew he knew. “I’m sorry Vince…”

  “It’s okay! We’ll deal with it!”

  Vince detected the desperate tone of his voice and hated it.

  Vince heard Candy’s voice crying, “No it’s not okay. I can’t be trusted, I’m too dysfunctional.”

  Vince said, “The story of my life,” to the dial tone.

  CHAPTER 147

  I woke up in my Town Car and tried to find a better way to lie on the seats. The steering wheel kept getting in the way. Maybe I should try the back seat. I laid there and thought about it with my eyes open and the walls seemed to close in on me. That coffin feeling seemed to envelope me. I magnified on thoughts that I was sleeping in my car, which barely fit inside my garage, for God knows how long, maybe six weeks, with my business grinding toward the curb, and I don’t have a plan.

  I woke up hearing my garage squeaking open.

  “His Town Car barely fits in this garage! How does he get in and out of it?”

  I looked at detective Pincher walking sideways to fit into the garage. I knew he couldn’t see me through the double tinted windows, but what was I going to do, pretend I wasn’t in my car? I got up and opened the door and felt my anger bubbling out. “What the fuck do you want?”

  “That’s easy Benny. I want to search your new home for drugs. Step out of the vehicle.”

  I saw three other gang detectives standing just outside of my garage and realized I’d better back my vehicle out or they would bang my doors against the garage walls squeezing in and out.

  “I’m going to back my car out so you don’t damage it.”

  “That’s a good idea Benny. By the way, how’s business for Prestigious Transport? I have to tell you, it’s not looking too Prestigious these days, more like ghetto transport now. I called Linda at the Marriot and she said business was almost nonexistent.”

  CHAPTER 148

  Vince paced Candy’s apartment back and forth just like he did in his cell for all of those years. He thought, I should call Damon at Crossroads sober living in San Clemente. I’ll call after I call Candy again. Candy still didn’t answer and Vince found himself remembering the hundreds of cell searches he lived through in the many different cells he’d lived in with Damon. Instead of calling Damon he found himself going through Candy’s closet. He searched every inch of every hand bag and purse, checked every pocket in jeans, jackets, and sweaters, went through the seams of every hat and then remembered something. Candy was wearing one of her favorite dresses three days ago when she first started acting wired. A Gucci dress, a Valentino dress and there it was, the Oscar De Larenta. It was a black sexy dress that had tassels that could be tied around the dress or left to hang. Inside one of the tassels there was an opening and a small bag of crystal speed wedged inside.

  Vince pulled it out and dumped it on a table. He remembered Candy saying, “I want to have a family life with you honey.”

  Vince thought, “I’ll find you and make that family life happen” as he snorted every granule like a vacuum. He felt the pain burn a trail up the nasal membranes that triggered all of the insane memories just under the surface. He thought of those six years in prison with Damon, the hundreds of cell searches, bus rides, court trips, politics and survival strategies, and realized something. I can’t call Damon, I’m high, and I’d be a bad influence.

  Pacing around in circles Vince found himself stopping at Candy’s nightstand drawer, opened it and found her cell phone bill. There were two numbers she called with the most frequency, and the times developed the first part of a mental map. He brought every trash can in the apartment and filtered through everything and found notes containing more pieces to an investigative puzzle. Vladimir’s name, phone number and address were there. The search intensified into a meticulous dissection of Candy’s apartment; and, Vince thought, her own personality. There was a drawer full of legal briefs from the lawyer’s office where she worked. Upon closer inspection, Vince realized, Candy is filtering through his most high profile clients. Good girl. Vince pulled the drawer all the way out and off the hinges and found a flash drive hidden on the frame of the drawer with a piece of tape. Really good girl, let’s see what’s on it.

  CHAPTER 149

  I watched detective Pincher drive away and saw him stop near the entrance where a white van was parked. I realized that white van was one I’d seen at the Sheriff’s substation while piss testing. More people watching me suffer. I watched detective Pincher get out and brief the driver of the van and point my way. I walked back to my garage and looked at the row of tenants delegated to their garages and shook my head at how fast things were getting worse. The noise of jack hammers and other machines started and I realized it was 8a.m., time for another day of reconstruction. The noise was so loud I looked at my cell phone and saw some more bad news I hadn’t anticipated. My cell phone didn’t get a signal and I remembered how I’d dealt with that, by call forwar
ding the number to my landline, the one I couldn’t get to for six weeks! I felt this awareness hit me so hard that everything seemed to be a travesty! I felt my mind magnify on all the bad things in detail until the Momentum pressed against me in waves. I felt myself on the verge of feeling sorry for myself and decided anger was a better emotion than the others. I felt the comforting rage empowering me and focused on an enemy to pit myself against and came up with a plan. I thought, detective Pincher is determined to put me out of business, so I’ll determine myself to stay in business. I got in my Town Car and drove to the Marriot remembering that in the beginning of my business, I lived on their perch from 4A.M. until my shift at the restaurant.

  I drove up the hill to the Marriot and my positive thinking ran out of gas. I remembered how I was always polished from the wax on my car to my black silk tie. Now my car was dirty, my shirt was wrinkled and that black silk tie had stains on it. I parked on my familiar perch and saw my friend J.J., the lead valley car parker.

  “What’s up J.J.? How’s business?”

  “This place is a ghost town! I’ve never seen it like this…”

  I sensed J.J. was uncomfortable. His body language was tense, like he was trying to figure out how to broach an uncomfortable subject. I watched him figure it out.

  “Benny. Are you in trouble? The reason I ask is there was a gang detective calling all day asking about you. Word of his calls and questions made it to the general manager. Benny, we can’t use your service anymore. I’m sorry.”

  CHAPTER 150

  Vince stared at the computer screen and the highly sensitive data and evidence from the attorney’s firm, compiled through their private investigators, on Candy’s hidden flash drive. He went back to the first file labeled CHIPCOM. There was a history of the business as a provider of semi conductors for technical gadgets across the world. Vince scanned through the rest of the history and found the focal point of the investigation. One of the chairmen for CHIPCOM, Raymond Senior, lived in a gated community nearby and made the news as a philanthropist who donated enormous sums of money to the community. Newspaper clippings showed he held lavish parties at his house and when the neighbors complained he offered them invites to the parties. He offered paid vacations to those that didn’t accept. He also donated money to build up his community’s horse trails, and donated money to the Dana Point harbor. Another newspaper article stated that Raymond Senior donated over a million Dollars to pay for advertisements against the three strike law Proposition that contained the governor saying, “CHILD MOLESTORS, RAPIST AND MURDERERS WILL BE RELEASED IF THIS LAW PASSES!” Vince scanned further into the file and found the crux of their investigation. Raymond Senior’s son, Raymond junior, was dealing drugs. One of the investigators compiled a list of known informants, “Who’s information had been used to put other drug dealers in prison and was therefore considered reliable.” Also state, “Raymond Junior sells speed, G.H.B., Ecstasy, and Marijuana out of his house and at clubs.” Another investigator wrote, “I have determined that to obtain evidence sufficient to hold up, it will take utilizing one of the informants.” Vince thought, law enforcement isn’t interested in prosecuting because of Raymond Senior’s status as a philanthropist, but this law firm is interested in a little black mail.