by C. J. Shane
"Why hasn't he killed you yet?" Letty again.
"I don't know." Ricardo’s voice cracked. "Maybe they don’t want Jade to suspect anything until they figure out what she has and where it is. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know." Ricardo sat in his chair and said nothing more. Grief overwhelmed his features.
Letty and Zhou rose from the table at the same time. They left the coffee house and didn’t look back.
“They killed Carlos before they knew about papers,” Zhou said.
“Yes, then they learned from Ricardo that Carlos had left behind some incriminating evidence that would ruin them. That’s when they went to Jade’s house and started looking.”
“Where is Carlos?”
“Somewhere out in the desert,” Letty responded. “We may never find his bones.”
***
Ten minutes later, Zhou and Letty pulled up in front of the coyote’s house. They got out of the pickup, strode up the front walk, and knocked forcefully on the front door.
A thin, rough-looking Hispanic man in a t-shirt and jeans opened the door. He took one look at them then immediately attempted to slam the door shut.
Zhou pushed the man back into the squalid living room of the house, grabbed the coyote’s arm and pulled it behind him. He shoved the man up against the wall.
“What do you want? I did what you asked.”
Zhou glanced at Letty. He thinks I’m a triad member. Letty nodded.
“First, I’d like to know your name.” Letty said.
“None of your business.” Zhou tightened his grip on the man’s arm. He groaned and began panting.
“Okay. Okay. I’m Paco.”
“Paco what?”
“Paco Frijoles.”
Letty shook her head. Zhou bounced the coyote’s face against the wall, causing his nose to bleed.
“Very funny, Mister Beans. Want to try again?”
“My name is Paco Valenzuela. I didn’t do nothin’,” He sighed heavily.
“Mr. Valenzuela. Let me make this clear. My friend and I are private investigators. We’re not associated with your Chinese colleagues. We’re not associated with the Tucson police or the Sheriff’s Department, or ICE or the Border Patrol. We work for a private client who wants some answers, and he doesn’t care what we have to do to you to get those answers. He said if we have to get rough, that’s okay with him. Understand?”
“Got it.”
“What did your Chinese pals ask you to do?”
“They wanted me to give them that little Mexican girl. I did that, but I didn’t want to. She was worth a lot of money ‘cause she’s young and really pretty. I just gave her to them for nothing. I was scared not to.” He couldn’t help but sound annoyed. “And I helped them load their shit into that truck.”
“When and where did this happen?”
“I gave them the girl here at my house a few days ago. I helped them load their boxes at the warehouse up north on Marigold Street. They took the girl with them.”
Zhou nodded. Correct answer.
“They are planning another shipment?”
“Yes. They said they are going out sometime later today, just before sunset.”
“Hmmm…very interesting,” Letty said. “And where will they take their shipment?”
“They have a place out on the reservation southwest of Topawa somewhere in the desert. They take the stuff in a truck, almost always early in the evening. Then before morning under cover of darkness, they smuggle the stuff across the border.”
“You know where?”
“No. I never went there. I’m like a middle man here in town. I have nothing to do with buying the stuff or getting it across the border. I just help store it and move it around. The less I have to do with those Chinese dudes, the better it is for me.”
Zhou let go of Valenzuela’s arm. Both men turned and looked at Letty.
“Anything else you can tell us?” she asked.
“No! You’ve totally screwed me now. They’ll find out you were here, and they will kill me.”
“Maybe that’s your karma, Mr. Valenzuela, for playing with the bad guys.”
Letty and Zhou turned and walked back to the pickup. They got in and drove away. A couple of blocks passed, and then Letty pulled over.
“You are good, Miss Letty,” Zhou said. “You would be good with Interpol for seeking information.”
“I don’t like dealing with that kind of man. He exploits poor people by charging a high fee to smuggle them across the border and then he abandons them in the desert. Too many have died out there. He’s the kind of man who smuggles drugs, too, and what he does to women is unconscionable. He deserves bad things to happen to him. I don’t think he’ll stick around in Tucson. In fact, I bet he’s throwing together a few possessions right now. He’ll be on the road within an hour. But I’ll report him when this is over, and let’s hope they catch him.”
“We can go to the warehouse now but maybe that is not so good an idea,” Zhou said thoughtfully. “If we confront them, then maybe we will not find the Hong Kong official’s daughter or the Mexican girl. What do you suggest?”
“Maybe we can watch from a distance, identify their truck and see where it goes.”
Letty pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “I’ll check my messages first.”
The first message was from Jessica Cameron, “I’m at my office now, and the items are safe and secure.”
The second message was from Adelita García.
“Oh, no,” Letty looked at Zhou. “Adelita was called into work. There was a home invasion and two murders on the southwest side. She says she took Jade to my house. She called Will, and Will said to bring Jade to stay with him and Clarice. This message was sent more than hour ago.”
Zhou looked very worried. “Do triad members know about you and your home? Your brother is hurt. He cannot protect Jade.”
“I don’t know if they know about me or where I live. We’d better get over there fast.”
Letty quickly drove a few blocks south and east, and then turned north onto the express Kino Parkway.
Two minutes later, a small gray sedan pulled up in the left lane even with Letty’s pickup truck. Zhou looked over and saw Chong Ma in the passenger seat pointing a gun at Letty’s head. He was looking at Zhou. He had a big smile on his face. Letty saw the gun and the dead eyes behind it at the same time Zhou saw it. She braked and jerked the pickup truck to the right and off the expressway into an empty parking lot. She pulled her gun from her truck’s glove compartment. Luckily no one was behind them to rear-end them at the sudden braking. The gray sedan sped off. No shot was fired.
“Not good,” Letty said. “They definitely know who I am and that I know you.”
“We must go to your house quickly,” was Zhou’s response.
Twelve minutes later they pulled up in front of Letty’s house and got out of her pickup. Letty noticed immediately that Millie was barking furiously in the backyard. At the same time, she was running full speed toward the backdoor, then back again to the side gate. She repeated this three times before Letty could get to the gate. Letty unlocked it, led Zhou through the gate and locked it behind her. They entered the back door. Millie was right behind them.
“Will, where are you?” Letty called.
All she could hear was some muffled voices.
In the living room, Letty and Zhou found Will and Clarice with bound hands and feet. Both were side by side, tied to chairs. Duct tape covered their mouths.
Letty pulled the tape off Will’s mouth. “What happened?”
Will growled. “They took Jade. I couldn’t do anything.” He looked over at Clarice. Zhou pulled the tape off her mouth.
“They hurt Will. Let me help. I want to bring those bastards down,” Clarice growled, too.
“Who took her?” Letty asked urgently.
Will grimaced. “Same Chinese dudes who grabbed that girl in the park.”
Zhou looked at Letty. “We must find her.
We must find Jade. They will kill her.”
Chapter 17
“Will, are you okay?” Letty couldn’t help but notice the pained expression on her little brother’s face.
“They hit Will in the face! Then they pulled his arm behind his back to tie him up!” Clarice said angrily. “I mean the arm with the dislocated shoulder. They really hurt him. Bastards!”
The Army medic kicked in. Letty said, “Let me look.” She quickly examined Will. “You’re going to have a black eye. Your shoulder was not dislocated again. There may be some tendon and ligament damage. It’s hurting, right?”
“Yeah, it hurts. I’ll take some pain pills. Let’s go find Jade. Who is this? The one you call Zhou?”
Letty made a gesture toward Zhou. “Yes, Zhou, this is my brother Will and his friend Clarice.” She turned again to Will. “You and Clarice should stay here.”
“No!” Will and Clarice said together. “We can all go together,” Will argued, “Clarice and I can be lookouts and call the cops and flag them down when they come. You and Zhou go into the warehouse and try to find Jade. There are several of these Chinese dudes. You need us.”
“How many?” Zhou asked quietly.
“Three came in the house. At least one was in the car outside. Maybe more. It was a big black limousine. I couldn’t see how many were in it.”
Clarice went into the kitchen and came back with a bottle of pills and a bottle of water. She gave two pills and the water to Will.
“I agree with Will,” Zhou spoke to Letty. “They can watch outside. See who comes and goes. Determine how many there are. They can call police. You and I will go inside.”
“Okay, okay,” Letty said. “But I don’t like this.”
Will and Clarice were headed for the door. “Come on. You’re wasting time.” Will urged her.
“We’ll go in my car. More room and they won’t be expecting it. They’ll be looking for your pickup and maybe they won’t notice my car,” Clarice added.
“I’m driving,” insisted Letty.
Clarice handed her the keys. They all exited the house, Letty locked the door and went first to her pickup and retrieved her handgun and its holster from the glove compartment. She was the last to get into Clarice’s car. She slipped the gun under the driver’s seat. Zhou saw this and nodded approvingly, but Will and Clarice were too distracted to notice.
As Letty had noted earlier, Clarice’s car was a Volkswagen. Much to Letty’s surprise and approval, Clarice’s VW Golf-All Track had four-wheel drive and a manual transmission. Letty preferred driving a stick shift. Always had. Always would.
No one noticed until a few blocks later that they had a fifth passenger with them. Millie the rescue pit bull was lying quietly in the back. She had jumped into the car along with everyone else, withdrawn to the back behind the rear seats, and settled down quietly.
Zhou directed Letty west on River Road, then farther west onto Ruthrauff Road. He told her to turn south until they found a turnoff to the much smaller Marigold Street. At this point, they were very close to Interstate 10. Marigold Street was a rough street with no curbs and lots of potholes. There were several warehouses with unpaved drives and gravel parking lots on both sides of the street. Ahead, Letty could see the dog rescue center on the south side of Marigold.
She drove slowly down the street. Suddenly Zhou said, “There!” He pointed to a nondescript metal building on the north side of Marigold Street. A faded sign promising Plumbing Supplies was off to the side and hanging by one corner on its rusty metal frame. The little gray sedan that Zhou and Letty had seen earlier was parked outside this warehouse. Letty parked across the street in the shade of a mesquite tree. She made sure that a big dumpster partially blocked the view from the warehouse of Clarice’s parked car.
“Okay. Will, call Adelita García and explain to her what has happened. We’re going to need patrol cars out here, and we may need EMTs and an ambulance. Clarice, you take care of Will. Don’t let him do anything dangerous. Stay here, Will.” Clarice nodded seriously.
Zhou was halfway out of the car when Letty said to him, “Let’s go.”
She retrieved the gun and holster from under the seat and joined Zhou. As they hurried toward the warehouse, she fastened the holster belt around her with the gun inserted into the leather holster, grip facing up, at the small of her back. She knew from experience that she could draw the gun from its holster and have it pointed at someone within three seconds. She hoped it didn’t come to that.
Letty and Zhou approached the door of the warehouse building. There were windows on each side of the door. They peeked in and saw that the door led to a small office-reception room. At the rear of this room was another door that was wide open. Through this open door, they could see a much larger warehouse space, two stories high, with a concrete floor. At the back of this much larger room and on the side wall to the right, almost in the back corner, was a fifteen-foot- wide, twelve-foot-high garage-like doorway. To the left, the view was blocked. No Chinese gangsters were visible anywhere.
The warehouse was almost entirely empty.
Letty whispered to Zhou. “Looks like they’ve already moved the contraband out. That garage door is big enough for a large van or even a ten-foot-high truck.” Zhou nodded his agreement. They moved carefully into the smaller office room, then stepped quietly into the larger room.
On their left was a temporary wall of plywood that extended about ten feet into the room. They couldn’t see what was on the other side of this temporary wall. Both moved close to the wall and crept toward its end.
Suddenly three Chinese men dressed in black suits appeared from the other side of the temporary wall. They stood side by side about fifteen feet away. They glared at Zhou. Zhou glanced at Letty. He stepped forward toward the three men. As he moved forward, Zhou looked to his left. He gasped. He could see Jade tied to a chair. A large black limousine was parked about ten feet behind her. A triad driver was behind the wheel of the limo.
Chong Ma was standing next to Jade. He did not acknowledge Zhou and Letty’s appearance. He raised his fist and in a low, guttural voice demanded of Jade, “I ask you. Last time. Where is it?” Jade raised her head. Both Letty and Zhou could see that she had a black eye and a bruised jaw. Blood oozed down her face from a cut near her hairline.
“I don’t know.” She whispered. She looked over and saw Zhou and Letty. “Zhou,” she cried softly.
The three men moved toward Zhou menacingly. Rather than retreat, Zhou moved forward quickly, blocked the first man’s attempt at a punch, then kicked him viciously in his stomach, then his knee. The man cried out in pain and fell back unable to stand. The other two came at Zhou at the same time. Zhou feinted in one direction, then the next, to avoid their punches. Then he attacked. In only a couple of seconds, one of the men found himself with one of his arms crossed under his other arm. The arms suddenly had excruciating tension on them. Letty heard a bone crack. Meanwhile, Zhou danced around the third man. A couple of kicks later, Zhou had the man on the floor face down. Zhou stood over him and grabbed his hair. He smashed the man’s head into the floor. Letty could see the attacker lose consciousness and go limp. The other two men were groaning in pain.
Amazing. Letty had seen some martial arts experts in her time in the military, but nothing like this. She had never seen one man take on three at the same time and emerge completely unscathed. And so fast. The thought crossed her mind that if they got out of this alive, she was going to ask Zhou to teach her.
Just as Zhou stood and looked toward Chong Ma, Letty realized that yet another 49er was coming toward them, but this time, she was the target. She stood straight, legs slightly apart, balanced. Her teacher told her to find her balance first. Then she heard her teacher’s voice in her mind: “element of surprise.”
Just as the triad 49er got within striking range, instead of backing up or running, Letty moved aggressively toward him. The smirk on his face instantly disappeared. He had not expected this woma
n to come at him.
Letty grabbed his right arm and pulled him toward her violently. As his body passed hers, she turned to the right to pull him even farther. As he went past, her left foot kicked out into the back of his knees. He went down. She still had control of his right arm. She twisted it violently backwards and up. She could feel the elbow dislocate. Then a vengeful thought crossed her mind. She wished that this man was the one who had dislocated her little brother’s shoulder, although she knew that it was Bao who had hurt Will. She could feel the triad 49er’s tendons, ligaments and muscles giving way. The man cried out in pain and ended up rolling on the floor and whimpering.
She looked up and saw Zhou standing deadly still, staring at Jade. Chong Ma had his hand on Jade’s shoulder. Then he began stroking Jade’s red curls. He said something in Chinese to Zhou. Letty could see the muscles in Zhou’s jaw twitch. Zhou said nothing.
Suddenly to her right behind her, she heard a noise. She looked back and saw Will running into the warehouse toward her. Her heart sank. At the same time, yet another 49er appeared in front of them both. Letty thought maybe he was the driver in the limousine, but she wasn’t sure. The 49er stopped about ten feet away. He pulled a gun from his jacket. Will had come to a stop. The 49er pointed his gun directly at Will’s head.
Everything froze. Time stopped. Letty was paralyzed in horror. She felt this sudden fire of rage flow through her. She knew if her baby brother was hurt, or god forbid, killed, she would kill every triad gangster in the room with her bare hands, starting with the shooter. Then she would go looking for more to kill. She also knew she would never recover if Will died. Not after seeing so much blood and death in Iraq. Not after losing Chava. She would never recover. She would never forgive herself for allowing her little brother to get hurt.
Letty cried out, “No! Will!”
Suddenly a ball of fur flew past her. Millie! Millie had followed Will to the warehouse. Somehow this gentle runt of a sweetheart pit bull knew that her master was in danger. Her brawny, muscular hind legs propelled her toward the man with the gun. Millie’s powerful jaws clamped down on his wrist before he could react. The 49er screamed in pain and terror. He dropped the gun. Letty immediately moved to kick the gun out of reach. Millie held on, even when the man attempted to retreat, to run away, to escape this canine fury. The dog’s fangs sank deep into his flesh.