by P. Thompson
“Will do, Loraine. We’re making a stop at Mr. Alvarez’s store first and then we’ll be in.”
“I’ll tell Bo and Bubba that. The sheriff wants to know how things went at the boat rental.”
“Tell him I’ll keep him in the loop as soon as we get back.”
******
As we pulled up in front of the bodega some boys scattered around the building and were gone by the time I opened the truck door.
“I wonder what all that was a bout.”
“Don’t have the foggiest, but you can bet its drug related. I’ve seen one of those boys out here before when I was talking with Mr. Mendez. He was keeping an eye on me as much as I was keeping an eye on him.”
“Some of Diego’s carriers I’ll bet.”
“You could be right on that one.” I said as we walked into the store.
“Buenos Dias Mr. Alvarez, how are you today?” I asked him.
He came out from behind the counter and shook our hands. “We are very well, thank you. My wife is here with me today. With things like they are, I don’t feel safe leaving her at home by herself. Here, I have a gun to protect her. My children are with my sister.”
“What has changed since I last talked with you?”
“I have had death threats on my life and my family’s.”
“Do you have a permit for that gun?”
“Oh yes I’ve had it for some time now. Even before they broke the window. Do you want to see my carry permit?”
“Yes, please I need to see it and the gun.”
While Mr. Alvarez went to get his permit Roy was wondering around the store. He came back and said, “Mrs. Alvarez must be in the back room, cause she’s not out here.”
He came back with his permit and brought the gun out from under the counter to show me. Roy took the gun and checked it out then returned it to Mr. Alvarez and said, “Looks clean to me. Do you target practice somewhere?”
“No I don’t have the time with the store and my family, but I was in the army when I was younger and was a good shot back then.” He said proudly.
“Was it Diego that threatened you?” I asked
“No, it was that punk Raymond.”
“When was this, the threat I mean?”
“The day you came by, so did he.”
“Okay, I’m going to put an extra patrol around here. If you see him or he comes by, you have my card, call me.”
With that we left and headed back to the office.
******
Back at the office, Bo and Bubba had their heads together in the conference room. Bo looked up as Roy and I entered and waved us on over.
“What have you got so far?” Roy asked Bo.
“Not a lot to go on. Mrs. Rojas has been sedated by her doctor and her husband is in Mexico or was in Mexico, he’s on his way back and should be here sometime tomorrow. No one got the number of the SUV. All we know is that it’s black. Wonder how many of those are around.”
“Too many right now.” I said.
Roy slipped the DVD into the machine and hit play. There was Diego as big as life. He didn’t even try to conceal his identity at the rental office.
“Well I think that pretty much says it all. I think this will hold up in court. This needs to be put into evidence for this case.” The sheriff said as he stood in the doorway. No one heard him enter. “What did Mr. Alvarez have to say?”
“He’s brought his wife to work with him and he is now carrying a gun, with permit, also his children are with his sister, so they are safe. Raymond had given him death threats, that is why he made those moves.” I told him.
My cell rang and I checked the ID and it was Max. I excused myself and left the room. “What have you got for me, Max?”
“The white powder Roy found at the duplex is pure grade Heroin from Mexico. It’s top grade for sniffing. Big spenders go for this stuff. You got to have money to be able to afford it. Whatever he’s selling the kids, it’s not this stuff. The blood is a different matter. We have no idea whose it might be. It wasn’t Lisa’s that much we do know. The Flex Cuffs aren’t ours. The best we got on them is they were issued sometime in the 90’s to a now debunked police department in Alabama. The town went under back in ‘95’ and all equipment like desks, computers, such as they were back then, chairs and filing cabinet were sold off on the court house square. The town was shut down a month after that.”
“What caused the town to go under?” I asked him.
“After the mines closed down there was only about thirty people left in the town and everything else closed up so they moved on to the next town which is Bridgeport. No clue what happened to the Flex Cuffs during that time.”
“Do you ride?” I asked him.
“Some, it’s been a while since I’ve been on a horse. Back in my college days we rode almost every other weekend.”
“If Saturday happens to be nice I was thinking of going out to Tony and Mick’s place and saddling up. Are you free for Saturday?”
“Nothing on my plate as far as I know. Sounds like fun, let me know what time and if you want to meet for breakfast.”
“Let me get with Tony and make sure it’s okay and I’ll get back with you.”
Back in the conference room I told them what Max had said.
“Who the hell’s blood is it then? Do we have another body somewhere?” Roy was saying as he removed the DVD and placed it in an evidence bag.
Bo’s cell rang and he left the room and was gone for some time before returning.
“They let the girl go in front of Mr. Alvarez’s bodega. She had a note that she handed to Mr. Alvarez saying this can happen to your children too. She had two eyes turning black her lip was cut and her clothes were ripped and torn. He closed his store up and left a sign in the window that he would be gone for a while. I’m guessing he knew where she lived, everybody out there knows everybody, and he took her home.”
“Get your ass over to the Rojas’ and see if she was raped and get her to the hospital and have them take evidence off her clothes and her hair even if she hasn’t been raped there might be something we can get off her as to where this asshole is hiding out.” The sheriff said.
Bo and Bubba were both gone before he even finished his sentence.
He then turned to us and said, “Do you know where Mr. Alvarez lives?”
“Not really, we’ve only talked to him at the store. Maybe Loraine can run him down for us.” And with that we headed out to get Loraine working on it. It didn’t take her a second to find the info we needed. Roy and I slipped into our vest, checked our weapons and headed out to talk with Mr. Alvarez.
Before we got too far, Bubba called my cell to let me know they had the girl in an ambulance and was on the way to the hospital. She had been raped and sodomized. She’s only fifteen. I can honestly say I had murder in my heart and on my mind at that moment. From the look on Roy’s face I’m sure his thoughts were about the same as mine.
We arrived at Mr. Alvarez’s house, but there was no car in the drive or any signs of life in the house. “I bet he went straight to his sister’s house and God only knows where to then. I have no idea what his sister’s name even is let alone where she lives.” Roy said.
“Let’s try Mr. Mendez and see if he knows where the sister lives.”
When we got to the neighborhood it was as if everyone had pulled in the sidewalks and shut down. No one answered their doors or their phones. Word was out and they feared for their families.
“We have to get this bunch off the streets. It’s only going to get worse around here. They’re scared to death. Damn, I don’t know where to start.”
“We start by questioning Tonya Rojas. She’s all we got right now.”
“Aww man, I hate that. She’s been through a lot to go in and ask a bunch of questions. Maybe Bo can ask as he already has a relationship with Mrs. Rojas and he sure speaks the language.”
“Good thinking.” Roy said.
Chapter Nine
; We hit Bo up to do our dirty work and headed back to the office. Once there I went to the murder board and added Tonya Rojas’s name as victim, along with Mr. Alvarez and his family. My cell rang and checking my ID found it was Randy. That was just who I needed to talk to.
“What have you got for me, Randy? I really need something fast, all hell has broken loose.”
“Okay then, here is a tag number for a black SUV in his name and a tag number for a Black car in the name of Raymond Martinez. And by the way, Raymond is no teenager. He’s twenty-two years old. Martinez has a cellphone number and he has it on. The GPS co-ordinance I’m sending to you now. I have nothing in the way of a cellphone for Diego, but it could be under a different name. No iPads in either name but there’s a bank account with a lot of money in it for Diego. The only ones to put a freeze on it would be the feds and you say they don’t want you messing in their case, but I can tell you it’s in the First National Bank there in town. No motorcycles in either name, but there’s a house in Coffee County on the border of Moore County That’s in the name of Lisa Martinez. I’m sending you the address to that also. What’s happened since I last talk with you?” Randy asked.
So I explained to him about Tonya Rojas and Mr. Alvarez and the whole neighborhood shutting down and then he said, “This one is on me, go find the bastards!” And he hung up.
I had my phone on speaker so Roy heard it all. He turned to me and said, “Give Loraine the tag numbers and put a BOLO out on them in all surrounding counties and tag it with armed and dangerous. We’ll go check out the house.”
“You better let the sheriff know what we are doing. He needs to be in the loop in case we get our asses in a sling.”
“I’ll do that if you’ll get some more fire power out and put it in the truck.”
“I can do that. Wish we had Bubba’s Blaster about now.”
“If we need it, we’ll call and have him bring it on.”
******
The GPS was almost worthless out here in the county. After running in circles for an hour we found a mail box with Lisa’s name on it. The house sat back in a grove of trees and you could hardly see it from the road. There were no cars in the drive and didn’t look as though any had been here in a while. Maybe this was Lisa’s house and had nothing to do with Diego. We parked up the road, a very lonesome road; there were no other houses for quite a ways. I put one in the chamber of the Glock and slung an AK47 over my shoulder, as did Roy. Back tracking through the woods next to the property we came in on the side of the house. Slipping from tree to tree being careful not to step on broken branches we made our way closer in. Off in the distance I heard a dog barking, not close by thank goodness. Roy told me to stay as he made a run up to the side of the house. He left his AK47 with me as it would make too much noise on the run. I watched him peek in the window and slip back down, then move on to the next window. I was covering his back from the tree line when I saw a movement on the other side of the house. I do a pretty good whip-poor-will imitation so I let a couple of them go. Roy got the drift and stood still listening. I watched to see if I saw the movement again, but there was nothing. I moved out from behind the tree long enough to shrug my shoulders and Roy moved to the back corner of the house. I kept my eye on the corner where I had seen the movement and let Roy peek around the corner to the back of the house. He dropped to the ground and remained still, without moving a muscle. I knew there must be someone out back for him to be so still and quiet. I held my breath till he move slowing and quietly away and back to me.
“There’s a guard on the house, not sure if it’s friend or foe,” he said
“What do you mean by that?”
“He’s got an FBI vest on.”
“Oh.”
We moved back through the wood and back to the truck. Dumped our gear in the back seat and sat to gather ourselves.
“What do you think?” I asked Roy, “Friend or foe?”
“Feds have never been friend, but how much foe I’m not sure. We can’t even ask due to the fact you got your info from Randy and they would be wondering just how you found out. We need to travel this road and see how to get out of here without going back by the house.”
We turned our cellphones back on and head on up the road, only to come to a dead end. Roy could see a road over a field of clover and he put the truck in four wheel drive and headed out. Seeing as how we had just had rain it was touch and go till we got to the road. I’ll bet the farmer of the fine field of clover will be none too happy when he sees the mess we’ve made of it.
“Well, that was a bust, but I still would like to know what the FBI is doing there if she was undercover NCIS. Why are they sitting on her house? Maybe we could get some answers from her brother, if he even knew she had a house. He would have legal rights to it as her soul survivor.”
“Let’s go have a talk with Mr. Carl Harris. Where is he staying at now?”
I gave Roy the address and he put it into the GPS and off we headed to Haley’s house. “Should I call and say we’re coming or just surprise them?” I asked Roy.
“Oh, let’s just surprise them, more fun that way.”
******
Haley lived in a small cottage with a nice front yard with a big old oak tree in the front yard that had a tire swing attached to it. She had a long front porch with a porch swing on one end and chairs and a table on the other. The neighborhood was a nice one most everyone kept up their lawns and their houses in good order. Haley’s was painted white with country blue shutters and pink roses by the front steps. There was no doorbell so Roy knocked on the front door. I heard movement in the house and someone called from inside, “Who is it?”
“Haley, its Detective Jordan and Detective Turner. We would like to check in on Carl and speak to him.”
She opened the door with a smile on her face and waved us in. Carl was on the couch propped up with pillows and a glass of iced tea in his hand.
“I just made iced tea would you guys like a glass?” Haley asked.
“That would be great.” I told her. Hot coffee would have been better on a cold day like today I thought. She returned with two glasses of southern sweet tea. Now I’m here to tell you when the south says sweet tea, they mean sweet tea.
“Excuse me for not moving I just got here and it still hurts to move. Have you found Diego?”
“No, but we’re closing in on him. Did you know that Lisa had a house in Coffee County on the border line of Moore County?”
“No. The only place I knew she had was the duplex that her and Diego had next to mine. But then again I didn’t know she was with the NCIS either.”
“I don’t want to tell you what to do, but I think you might need a lawyer. You are her soul survivor so the house should rightly go to you. We were by there today and found that an FBI person was there guarding the house. You can’t tell your lawyer that we told you about it because I got the info from an informant, but there’s something fishy about this whole thing. FBI and TBI won’t let us in on what’s happening. We can guess, but that’s all.”
“I’ve already call my lawyer and he’s coming by later this evening to talk with me. I’ll pass this on to him and let him work on it. I’ll need that address.”
“Sure, no problem. I have another question for you. Who else besides Lisa, Raymond and Diego lived or frequented that duplex?”
“Raymond had a girlfriend; I think her name was Tia Cortez, she’s an illegal from Belize. Raymond brought her across the border in a carton in the back of his truck. Is she missing?”
“Not sure, we didn’t know anything about her, but now that we know we’ll be looking for her. Can you tell me what she looks like?”
“The last time I saw her she had dyed her hair red. She’s maybe five foot and one hundred pounds. She was always dressing sexy so the boys would look at her. Raymond didn’t like that; he was a very jealous person.”
“Good to know, thank you Carl. We’ll let you get back to resting and we’ll let you know if w
e find her. You let us know what you find out about the house.”
And with that we left and headed back to the office. I was starved; my peanut butter and toast had long since left me. It was time to call it a day anyway so I was going to head to The Table for dinner. But first we had to fill the sheriff in on how our day had gone.
******
The sheriff was talking with Cindy, our evening hours dispatch person. He looked up as we came through the door and signaled for us to meet in his office. He closed the door as we went though and we found seats in front of his desk.
“What’s up?” Roy asked.
“Bo talked with Tonya Rojas at the hospital after her exam. They put a sack over her head and beat her till she passed out. She was in some room where she was raped repeatedly by several men, all Hispanic, one of those was Raymond. She did not see Diego at any time. She has no idea where they took her as when they returned her to Mr. Alvarez’s store they put the sack back on her head. Mr. Alvarez was the one to get her back home. So, tell me what you two have been up to that I’m going to get a call from either the FBI or the TBI.”
We looked at each other and either of us spoke right away.
“I see from you silence that I may be getting a call at any time from one or the other of them.” The sheriff said with a smile on his face.
“We tracked down a house that was in Lisa Martinez’s name over on the Coffee/Moore County line. When we drove by, it was being guarded by FBI. Something we have yet to understand as to why. She was NCIS, so what does the FBI have to do with her undercover work or are the three working together?”
Roy told him.
“Well as of yet no one has called to say you guys were out there. Hope you were careful.”