Deadly Distractions, A Stan Turner Mystery Vol 6
Page 35
CHAPTER 35
THE CONNECTION
Marcos showed up for his deposition with the plaintiff, Miss Cabrillo. He was tall, thin, and casually dressed in blue jeans and a T-shirt. Ortega looked calm and confident as he joked around with his client and the witness in Spanish. Whenever this happened I cursed the fact I had taken French in high school rather than Spanish. Paula was too busy to attend the deposition so I was on my own. The court reporter asked for agreements and then we got started. Marcos gave me his full name, vital statistics, and current address. We talked about his childhood in Los Angeles, his move to Dallas, and his relationship to Miss Cabrillo. He said they had been dating for about six months and recently he had moved in with her. Then I asked him about his employment.
“Before you served time, where did you work?”
“S and T Packing Company,” he replied.
Bells and whistles started going off in my head when I heard the name S & T Packing Company. Paula had just observed Don Harris at an S & T Packing Company warehouse. This might be the connection we had been looking for to prove Paula’s alleged hit and run was a fraud. I proceeded carefully not wanting to seem more than casually interested in S & T Packing Company.
“What kind of business is S & T Packing Company?” I asked.
“They export fruit and nuts,” he replied.
“Where do they export them?”
“I don’t know. Lots of places. Japan, Europe.”
“Where do they get their products?”
“Different places. Pecans from West Texas. Grapefruit from the Valley. Oranges from Florida. Bananas from South America.”
“Where are they located?”
“I worked in the Wylie, Texas office.”
“When did you work for them?”
“June '85 to April '86,” Marcos replied.
“What were your duties there?”
“Driver . . . loader.”
“Where did you drive usually?”
“All over. Sometimes to the Valley to take grapefruit to be shipped out of Corpus Christi. Sometimes to West Texas to pick up pecans.”
“Who owns S & T Packing Company?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Who was your boss?”
“Joe.”
“Joe. Do you know his last name?”
“No.”
“Do you know a man named Don Harris?”
Marcos had a startled look on his face. He didn’t respond, so I repeated the question.
“I don’t know him.”
“You know who he is though?”
He shrugged. “I guess. He's some kind of a supplier. We picked up his shipments and took them to Houston for handling.”
“What kind of shipments?”
“I don’t know. They were always sealed.”
“You have no idea what you were hauling?”
“No.”
“Wasn’t there an invoice or bill of lading?”
“It didn’t show what was in the cargo.”
Marcos' deposition went on for several more hours but there were no startling revelations beyond the connection of Don Harris to S & T Packing Company. I wondered what Don Harris was having shipped overseas? I was pretty sure he wasn’t in the commodities business. And why all the secrecy about the type of cargo being shipped. I called Jodie on the intercom and asked her if she had got the reports on S & T Packing Company from the Secretary of State, Comptroller, and Dunn & Bradstreet. She said to look in my inbox. I did and they were all there.
The Public Information report from the Comptroller’s office indicated there was just one officer of S & T Packing. His name was John Cox and his address was in Garland, Texas. The company had been incorporated in 1982, and according to the Secretary of State, was active and in good standing. A Dun & Bradstreet report indicated they had commodity sales of more than five million dollars per year, had a line of credit with the First National Bank of Wylie, and paid their bills on time. I wondered if Harris had hired Marcos to mastermind the hit and run scam on Paula. If so, why? Nothing quite made sense yet but I felt today I’d made a big step in figuring it all out.