Dog Gone Lies (Pacheco & Chino Mysteries Book 1)

by Ted Clifton

  “Monica, can you leave right now—would the dogs be okay?”

  “I guess so. The deputies are still here. Do you think I’m at risk?”

  “I need you and the information to be safe. What I’d like is for you to get in your car and drive to my cabin. I can make sure you’re safe. We can review the information and decide what to do. I think it’s very important for everybody that we’re together for the next couple of days.”

  Ray debated with himself about what to do. He could go there or Tyee could go. Or he could have Monica go to the Bernalillo sheriff and give him the information, but he was hesitant to have anyone else see the information until he knew exactly what it was and what it meant. He knew he was becoming paranoid. Of all of the options, the one he liked the most was for Monica to leave immediately and drive to his place. He knew he only had one more day before the deputies stopped watching her, at which point something would have to be done. He was probably burning his bridges to both the Bernalillo sheriff and his friend the Attorney General, though, because of what he did yesterday with Martinez. He decided time was short and it was necessary for Monica to drive to him—for her safety and his.

  “Ray, if that’s what you want me to do, that’s what I’ll do. I think it’ll take me a couple of hours to get ready and to make arrangements for the dogs. I’ll do that and then drive to your cabin. I’m not sure I remember where your cabin is, though.”

  “Go to T or C and go to the Lone Post Café. I’ll wait there for you. If you leave in two hours you’ll be here in four. You need to stay on that schedule, otherwise I won’t know what’s going on. Are you okay with this?”

  “I think so. You’re scaring me a little bit, but I’ll be there on time.” They hung up.

  Ray went out onto the porch and told Sue what was going on. He didn’t give her all of the details, but enough for her to realize there were people in danger. He went back inside and called Tyee. Ray told him what was happening and asked Tyee if he could stay at the cabin for a few days until the situation was resolved. They agreed on a good spot to hide the key in case Ray left.

  Ray went back out and sat next to Sue on the porch. Happy was lying next to her so she could rub him occasionally.

  “Seems like your world is changing. You came up here to retire and now you’re fighting the bad guys just like before, only without all of the support troops. Is this really what you want to do?”

  Ray noticed the implied criticism. It didn’t bother or surprise him. He’d been in law enforcement for most of his life, and every person he ever got close to eventually thought the risk was too high for the reward. It was hard to explain why you did it, but there was nothing else that could give you the same feeling. No doubt it was the power and the adrenaline when things happened, but there was also a sense of accomplishment—you mattered.

  “I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, Sue. I just know that this is what I want to do. It makes me feel useful, and maybe even important. It’s probably wrong, and I’m too old to be running around punching young sheriffs, but I sure feel alive.”

  “You punched the sheriff?”

  “That’s a slight exaggeration. I shoved him into the wall.”

  Sue leaned over and gave him a kiss. He mentioned that he had a few hours open before he had to meet his next woman. Sue gave him a pretty good slug to the shoulder, then took him inside. They felt completely comfortable with each other.

  Sue told Ray that she thought she should stay at the cabin while he went to town to meet Monica. It was clear that Sue was going to stay put as long as Monica was around. Ray knew this, didn’t completely understand it—but at the same time, found it pleasing. Happy decided to stay with Sue as Ray headed to the Jeep.

  He drove into town alternately thinking about Sue and wondering what was in the package Monica was bringing. He entered the Lone Post Café and immediately realized he should have told Monica to meet him at the Firestone store or Smith’s grocery or something. This place was packed with living, breathing gossip machines.

  Ray sat at the small lunch counter and ordered coffee.

  “Hey, Ray. Sue’s not here today. Actually, we thought she was with you.”

  Ray hated this small town nonsense.

  “She’s at my cabin—I’m meeting my cousin, who’s visiting. She doesn’t know the way to the cabin. So, going to meet her here and Sue is waiting for us at the cabin.”

  Ray sipped his coffee. Thirty minutes after the agreed time, Ray started to worry. If something happened to Monica because he’d asked her to drive here, Ray would never forgive himself. He should have just called the Bernalillo sheriff and had them escort Monica to their office with the documents. Ray should have driven up there. That seemed to make more sense to him now than what he’d asked her to do—he was really worried. He got up and was going to the payphone, when Monica walked in.

  “Monica, I was so worried that something had happened.” His concern was all over his face.

  “It’s okay, Ray. I’m sorry I worried you. It took me a little longer than I thought to put together all of the arrangements. My neighbor is just too old to handle the dogs. I asked the man down the street if he could if I paid him. So then we had to work out a price and I took him around and introduced him to the dogs—well, it just took longer. But here I am.”

  Ray realized his behavior didn’t fit with his story of greeting a cousin, but couldn’t do anything about it. He hurried Monica out the door and back to her car. He told her in a general way where they were going and said that she should just follow him. Once they got outside of town, Monica followed very close—as if Ray might try to get away. He drove slower than usual, so it took a little longer than normal to get to the cabin. Pulling up to the cabin, he could see Tyee and Sue sitting in the chairs on the porch. Monica pulled in behind him.

  Ray introduced Monica to Sue, but they said they already knew one another. Monica remembered how nice Sue had been to her when her tires had been slashed. They greeted each other like sisters. It was amazing to Ray how easy women were with each other and how hard it was to even get a man to smile.

  They all went into the cabin. Monica immediately gave Ray the package. Ray sat down and started going through the material. It was explosive stuff—no wonder people had been killed. After Ray had finished, he addressed the group.

  “There’s no question in my mind that this implicates some important people in some serious crimes and has put us all at risk. You need to know that being here puts you in danger. Sue in particular, you need to be aware that your safest recourse right now is to leave.”

  “Not sure what’s going on, but I’m not leaving. If this is going to be some kind of Wild West shootout, all I ask is that you give me a gun.”

  “White man’s woman got guts.”

  Sue and Monica looked at Tyee like he had just said the strangest thing possible. Only Ray knew this was his way of easing tension.

  “Tyee in his vast Indian wisdom hit the nail on the head. Sue and, also you, Monica are very brave. I don’t believe there will be a shootout. But we’ll need to be extra careful. I’m going to make some calls and see if we can get some assistance.”

  Ray went to make the calls. Sue looked at Tyee like she wasn’t sure who he was—and he winked at her. She began to laugh and soon all of them, even Monica, were laughing.

  Ray had called Sheriff Diaz in Las Cruces and told him that he had corroborating evidence of some serious crimes involving Martinez. The sheriff reported that Martinez was still in jail, but that he’d released Clayton. Jeff Young had gotten an El Paso federal judge to sign for the release. Ray thanked the sheriff and told him he was contacting the FBI and hoped that Sam would have all of the information shortly.

  Ray then called the T or C sheriff’s office.

  “Hello, sheriff’s office.”

  “Cindy, is Deputy Clayton there?”

  “Yes, he is. He’s been trying to find you—he was just headed out to Big Jack’s. Just a minu
te, I’ll get him.”

  “Ray, where are you?”

  “Dan, it’s good to hear your voice. I’m at my cabin. The new phone line was just put in. I need some protection, deputy. I have a long story to tell you. The bottom line is that there are some very dangerous people looking for the information I have in my hands. Could you send someone out to my cabin to help secure this area?”

  “I’ll be there is just a few minutes.”

  Ray then called Crawford in Washington, but got his voice mail. He left a message saying that he needed to talk and gave his new phone number. Ray then called Agent Sanchez in El Paso. He was told that Sanchez was out and was put through to his voice mail. Ray left the same message and again gave the new number.

  Shortly, Deputy Clayton showed up with another patrol car.

  “Ray, I’ve got no idea what happened between you and Martinez, but I’m sorry you’ve been dragged into this ugly mess.”

  “Dan, you’ve no idea how ugly this mess is, and it may be the other way around—that you were dragged into an ugly mess because of me.”

  They went inside and Ray went over the material they had and its implications. As they were beginning to discuss what it might mean, one of the deputies outside came to the door and told Clayton that there were FBI officials on the road and they wanted to see Ray.

  Friday

  Walking out the door toward the road, Ray could see Crawford and Sanchez waiting patiently. Ray showed them into the cabin. Everyone cleared the room, going outside to give Ray and his visitors some privacy.

  “Ray, looks like you’re getting ready for a battle.”

  “No, not really. I think there’s a bunch of shit you haven’t told me and because of that you’ve put a lot of people at risk. I know about Myers and Martinez, and I can guess at a bunch of others who are involved. This isn’t the Mexican Mafia—this looks like a rogue FBI operation.”

  “I’m afraid you’ve stumbled into the middle of one of the biggest mistakes the FBI ever made. We’ve been gathering evidence on Myers for months. We thought we had everything covered so that he couldn’t do any more harm while we monitored his communications and put our case together. But we screwed up. His order of the hit job on Ed Jackson caught us flat-footed. We arrested the two men involved in the killing and also charged them with the murder of Mrs. Richards. We were planning on arresting Myers today or tomorrow. We just haven’t been sure up until now that we had enough evidence.”

  “How long have you know about this?”

  “Ray, I’m not going to tell you everything about this. It’s just too embarrassing for the FBI, so this whole story is going to be buried. Let me just say that we’ve known of a problem since the arrest of the Sierra County sheriff for drug trafficking.”

  “You mean the sheriff was involved with Myers?”

  “At first the sheriff stayed quiet. A few weeks ago there were some incidents during one of his stays in a Texas county jail. He was admitted to a hospital and at that point he said he wanted to make a deal. He’s ready to testify against Myers, claiming he was the person running the whole operation. We didn’t believe him at first, but it didn’t take long to start fitting the pieces together. We were planning on moving on Myers this week but then things got out of hand.”

  “Not a good outcome—two people dead while you were watching.”

  “No—it’s a piece of shit. We’ll owe you big time Ray if we can keep this quiet. I have to tell you that the offer to use you and your new firm on a consulting basis was a way for us to watch you while we were still in the middle of this mess. But you can go ahead and agree to that plan and you’ll have the bureau beholden to you. I personally apologize for this whole mess—it’s not the way I like to do things.”

  “Maybe there’s something you can do for me.”

  “No doubt you’re talking about your partners—Big Jack in particular. Let me tell you we’ll fix everything so that the background checks won’t be a problem. I’ve already put a process in place to clean up any history on Philip Duncan—he just won’t exist anymore. We’ll process new paperwork and create a new identity for someone called Jack Parker, including a new license to practice law in New Mexico. You might be surprised that we can do that, but we have our ways. We’ll provide Jack Parker with a complete new background—all we want from him is a couple of briefing sessions where he explains what he knows about the inner workings of the L.A. Mexican Mafia.”

  “Well, yeah—that’s what I wanted. If you can make that happen then we’re ready to do work with the FBI. I won’t discuss what I know about how Myers was mishandled. The Jacksons won’t know—not sure it would matter to them anyway. It’ll be kept quiet, except that I’ll let my partners know.”

  “Ray, I think we have the basis for a mutually beneficial agreement. We’ll immediately implement our plan regarding Myers. He’ll just be gone and the new agent in charge in Albuquerque will be Sanchez. Agent Sanchez will contact you and let you know that everything’s been handled. Thanks, Ray. I look forward to working with you.”

  Ray sat and thought. He wasn’t sure who was more to blame for Ed’s and Mrs. Richards’ death, Myers or the reluctance of the FBI to move quickly on one of their own. Of course Ed had created many of his own problems and Mrs. Richards had been armed and stalking Monica. No telling what might have happened even without the goons getting involved. So they had their share of the blame as well.

  “I guess we all try to cover ourselves, but I have to tell you I’m disappointed. Both of you guys seem like good people. But there are two people dead, a mother who’s lost her son and been frightened almost to death, along with a whole host of other people affected in negative ways because you wouldn’t move on one of your own without perfect evidence. This will take some time to heal.”

  Crawford promised that they would keep Ray informed and that he had men watching Myers and didn’t believe there was any current danger. Ray made sure Crawford and Sanchez had his new phone number. He showed them to the door and watched them walk to their car.

  Ray told the others he was going down to see Big Jack for just a minute and would be back soon to tell everyone what was happening. He also told them that he had been assured by the FBI that the danger was over. Ray drove to Big Jack’s and went out to the dock area. Big Jack was finishing up with the customer.

  “Got some information for you, Big Jack. Got a minute?”

  Ray filled Big Jack in on the situation with Monica and related his conversation with Agent Crawford. Big Jack listened and didn’t interrupt.

  “So they fucked up, and two people are dead—and we get FBI business and I get a new identity and a law license. Somehow that doesn’t seem right.”

  “No, it doesn’t. The alternative could be us raising hell with anybody who would listen, including the media, and seeing how much shit we could stir up. No doubt ending any chance of working with any law enforcement agencies and putting a target on your head for the Mexicans to aim at.”

  “Yeah, that doesn’t sound too good, does it?”

  “I don’t like it, but my feeling is that it’s in our best interest to keep our mouths shut and take the deal.”

  “Jack Parker says Fucking A.”

  Ray left Big Jack’s, went back to the cabin, and explained to everyone what he’d learned from the FBI, but he left out some of the sensitive parts.

  “So it looks like the coast is clear. The FBI will be arresting the bad guys, including one of their own, and I think we can all feel secure. Monica, they were after you for the information your son had on them—mostly on Myers, the FBI guy in Albuquerque. Myers was the main guy running the operation, and Martinez was involved along with the previous sheriff. As far as we know there wasn’t anyone else directly involved with what happened to you except the two goons, and they’ve been picked up and charged with murder. Martinez is in the Dona Ana County jail and will be charged with a long list of crimes and may be charged with accessory to murder related to Mrs. Richards.
Myers will be arrested today, or may already have been arrested. He’ll be charged with various crimes, and with some special federal crimes because he used his FBI position to commit the other crimes.”

  “Can I go home, Ray?”

  “Yes, Monica. You can leave whenever you want or you can stay as long as you want.”

  “I think I’d like to go home now.”

  Ray said he understood perfectly. Sue and Monica went off to gather her things and get Monica ready to leave. Ray told Clayton that he could leave too, along with his deputies, since everything seemed to be wrapped up. He told Clayton that he should assume the acting sheriff’s position immediately to keep the department running. Ray explained that he would contact some of the council members and county commissioners and make sure they understood all of the things that had happened over the last few days. Clayton and his deputies hurriedly left.

  Tyee sat down at the table, saying that just to be on the safe side he thought he’d stay the night at the cabin. Ray said he was sure welcome to, but he really didn’t think it was necessary. He told Tyee about the FBI screwup and the fact that they’d known about Myers for some time but taken their time, probably to try to cover their own asses before they moved. That delay likely cost two lives. He also told Tyee about the agreement he’d made and how it impacted Big Jack.

  Finally, Ray told Tyee he should go home and get some rest. Everything was fine now.

  Saturday

  The new phone in Ray’s cabin rang early. Ray finally found it after fumbling a bit.

  “Hello.”

  “Ray, this is Crawford. We had a foul up—Myers got away.”

  Ray wasn’t sure he could say anything without screaming.

  “What the hell do you mean he got away? You told me you had him under surveillance. How the hell did he get away?”

  “Ray, we fucked up bad. Looks like he guessed we were onto him. I know it’s dumb but he’s an agent—he knows what we do. He managed to leave the building and just disappeared. I have fifty agents working on nothing else—we’ll get him.”