“Probably ova’ on St. John. Here’s de deal. Me an’ de brothers don’ want no war with them Mafia guys an’ dey don’t want no part o’ us, so we got kind of a truce. We keep our business on Independence Avenue and dey keep dere business on St. John. Long as we bof stay where we belong, nobody gets hurt.”
“Any idea where they might be keeping Maggie?”
He thought for a minute. “If I was to guess, I’d say it was in dat big ole Catholic Church on St. John. Father Antonelli, de parish priest, is Manny’s brother-in-law. Big ole church --- dat’s where I’d be hidin’ if it was me.”
“Thanks, Louie. I owe you again.”
“You don’t owe me nothin’, brother. Merry Christmas! I hope you find yo’ wife.”
I hadn’t planned on spending Christmas Eve at church, but at that moment it seemed like a good idea.
CHAPTER 16
I parked across the street and down a block from the massive church.
If Louie was right, Maggie might be somewhere inside the granite walls.
The lighted billboard on the lawn announced, ‘Christmas Eve – Midnight Mass.’ I looked at my watch. It was only eight o’clock.
Kevin and Bugsy had probably arrived at the Blue Oyster Bar and were most likely being driven around town with Manny’s goons watching for a tail.
I had debated whether or not to call the Captain. The cop in me knew that we needed back up, but the husband in me remembered Manny’s warning of what would happen if he saw any cops.
Finally, the cop part won.
I dialed the captain and gave him the whole story.
“Right now, Willie and I are sitting outside the church. At this point, I have no idea whether we’re even in the right place. Until we know for sure, the last thing I want is for the Organized Crime guys to come roaring up and put Maggie in danger. Maybe you can have them on alert and if Manny’s boys show up here with Kevin and Bugsy, I’ll give you a call to confirm.”
He agreed.
As I sat there, it occurred to me that if Manny’s boys did show up, we were too far away to intercept them before they entered the church, but if we moved any closer, they might spot us.
Then I noticed the Nativity Scene on the lawn just outside the door. Three life-sized shepherds in flowing robes were standing over the Virgin Mary kneeling by a manger. It gave me an idea.
Once before, I had taken shelter in a hallowed stable much like this one. It wasn’t one of my prouder moments. I had been undercover in a tranny bar. Long story short, I was fleeing from a dirty cop in my wig and dress. I spotted a manger scene outside a church, disrobed the Virgin Mary and took her spot beside the manger. My ruse would have gone without a hitch except for the fact that this particular nativity had live animals. My cover was blown by a flatulent donkey. **
I turned to Willie. “How would you like to be a shepherd?”
“I’d rather be Sammy Davis, Jr, but I know dat ain’t gonna happen. What you have in mind?”
I pointed to the nativity scene.
“Why not,” he said, grinning. “Not ever’ day I get to watch ova’ de Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve!”
We headed to the nativity scene, disrobed two of the shepherds and hid their bare bodies behind some evergreen shrubs.
************************************
** Lady Justice and the Lost Tapes
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We slipped into the robes and I handed Willie my off-duty weapon.
“Try to stand still. Remember, we’re supposed to be statues.”
“I can be jus’ as still as you!” he replied indignantly.
Moments later, a young couple walked by, holding hands. “Wow!” the girl said. “The nativity scene is certainly more life-like this year.”
We had been there maybe fifteen minutes, but it seemed like hours, when I started to feel it. It was the same sensation that I had experienced when trussed up in the body bag. My nose was itching. I couldn’t scratch it then because my arms were pinned to my sides and I couldn’t scratch it now because some passerby just wouldn’t understand how suddenly, the manger scene had become animated.
About that same time, I realized that I was starting to shiver. It was, after all, December in Kansas City, and the temperature was probably hovering around the freezing mark. Frankly, I wasn’t sure what the weather had been like in Bethlehem in December, but I knew that these shepherd robes just weren’t cutting it in Missouri.
I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stand there.
Before I had to make that decision, a car pulled to the curb and shut off its lights.
Two guys got out and opened the rear doors, dragging Kevin and Bugsy onto the sidewalk.
As the goons pushed them toward the church entrance, I noticed that their hands were tied behind their backs.
I willed myself to remain still as they approached and just after they passed by, I hissed to Willie, “Now!”
We leaped from the nativity scene, pressing our weapons into the goon’s backs.
“Not a word or you’re dead meat.”
I held my gun on them while Willie freed Kevin and Bugsy’s hands.
I had expected some off-the-wall remark from Kevin, but instead he said, “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Luke, Chapter 2, Verse 8.”
I was about to tell him how impressed I was when he added, “Actually, you look a whole lot like Ahab the Arab. Good work!”
That was more like the Kevin I had grown to love.
We tied and gagged Manny’s henchmen with the ropes from the shepherd’s robes and tossed them behind the shrubs with the naked mannequins.
“Okay, what now?” Kevin asked.
“Manny’s going to be waiting inside,” I replied, “so we don’t want to disappoint him, but before we go in, I need to make a call. Captain Short and the Organized Crime guys are standing by, waiting for my confirmation that Manny is in the church.”
I made the call. Captain Short was on his way.
“We’d better try to make this as believable as possible,” Kevin said, shoving one of the goon’s pistol in his waistband. “We need to stall for time.”
Willie and I had put on the goon’s hats and coats. Kevin and Bugsy put their hands behind their backs, pretending to be our prisoners.
As we started up the steps, Kevin hesitated. “No matter what happens in there, we’re going to get Maggie back safe and sound. I promise.”
I wished that I was as confident.
When we stepped through the big double doors, the first thing I saw was Maggie, hands and feet bound, sitting in a chair beside the pulpit. Manny was holding a gun to her head.
“About time!” he bellowed. “Are you sure you weren’t followed?”
“Yeah, Boss,” I said in my best gangster voice.
“Then bring ‘em up here. I’ve been waiting for this moment for fifty years.”
We were about halfway to the pulpit by the time Manny noticed that something didn’t look right. His two henchmen had easily weighed over two hundred pounds. Willie and I were barely a buck and a half, but I think the kicker was that Willie was definitely a few shades darker than any of his men.
“Hold it right there! What is this?”
Realizing that we had been made, the three of us pulled our guns and aimed them at Manny.
I figured that he would reciprocate, but he kept his gun on Maggie’s temple.
“Let her go,” Kevin said. “We can put an end to all this. Nobody needs to get hurt.”
“Surely you don’t think that I’m going to just walk away after all these years. No! I plan to avenge my father’s death tonight.”
“It’s me you want,” Kevin said. “That was our deal. Let her go and I’ll go anywhere with you.”
“Actually, the stakes just went up. You took someone I loved away from me, now I’m gonna do the same for you. I’m gonna waste your little sister while you watch, th
en your friends and save you for last.”
“I don’t think so,” Kevin said. “I see three guns pointing at you and you only have one. If you pull that trigger, you may get one of us, but that’s all.”
Kevin was doing that bluffing thing again and it scared the crap out of me.
“Better count again,” Manny said, nodding to both alcoves.
Two men came from each side of the church holding automatic pistols. Manny hadn’t been bluffing. He had aces in the hole.
Maggie and I had been looking at each other the entire time. She hadn’t moved a muscle during the verbal exchange, but when it looked like things were not going to end well, I saw her mouth the words, “I love you.”
I was about to throw caution to the winds and charge the podium when all hell broke loose.
There was a thunderous ‘CRASH’ as uniformed officers smashed through the stained glass windows, hitting Manny’s henchmen from behind. I heard the sound of boots behind me as the captain’s men stormed into the chapel.
Manny’s look of surprise turned to desperation as he saw his carefully laid plans crumbling around him.
“I’ll get my revenge one way or the other,” he screamed, pointing his gun at Kevin’s chest.
I heard the report from his automatic and saw a blur out of the corner of my eye.
Bugsy had thrown himself in front of Kevin, taking the bullet that was meant for his friend.
I heard another volley and Manny fell to the floor under a hail of bullets.
I rushed to the podium, freed Maggie and held her close.
We pulled ourselves together and looked for Kevin who was on the floor holding Bugsy’s head in his lap.
“Why? Why did you do that you crazy fool.”
“Because I owed you,” Bugsy whispered as blood seeped from his lips. “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t picked you up for that ride-along fifty years ago. I took you away from your family, now I want to give you back to them.”
He patted his pocket.
Kevin reached inside and pulled out a piece of paper.
He opened it and read, “The last will and testament of Salvatore Scarpelli. Being of sound mind and body, I bequeath to my friend, Kevin McBride, all my earthly possessions, and most important, my kidney.”
Before we left the apartment, Bugsy had excused himself. I thought he was just taking a leak, but he must have had some premonition of what was to come.
“No! No!” Kevin said. “It’s not too late. Hang in there, Buddy. Somebody! Get an ambulance!”
“Too late,” Bugsy wheezed. “Don’t take this away from me. It’s one of the few good things I’ve done with my life. Good --- bye --- old --- friend.”
Bugsy went limp in Kevin’s arms.
Captain Short had witnessed the whole thing.
“If we’re going to give that man his dying wish, we’d better hurry. We need to get you both to the hospital and have you tested while the kidney is still viable. The ambulance has just pulled up. We’ll give you a police escort.”
After Bugsy had been wheeled out, I looked at the inscription on the pew where he had fallen.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15: 13.”
It was Christmas Eve, the night we celebrate the birth of a Savior who came to teach us how to love our fellow man.
Three wise men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh, but Bugsy Scarpelli brought the greatest gift of all.
EPILOGUE
Christmas is a magical time of year.
It is a season where we expect to see miracles, and for Kevin McBride, a miracle of sorts actually did occur.
Bugsy proved to be a compatible donor and the captain pulled some strings and called in some favors to get a surgical team and nephrologist to come to the hospital on Christmas Eve. After all, the guy had just helped bring to justice one of the top dons in the Kansas City mafia.
The operation was a success and it looked like the big galoot was going to be with us for a while longer.
As Maggie and I sat in the waiting room, I couldn’t help but reflect on the events of the past month.
Kevin McBride, by virtue of his age and the inadequate supply of donor kidneys, had been, for all intents and purposes, dealt a death sentence. The badge he had worn to his celebration of life, bearing the words, ‘Dead Man Walking,’ had been worn in jest, but the reality was true all the same.
I couldn’t help but think how ironic it was that during the past year, 39 convicted felons had been executed for committing heinous crimes, but 5,000 innocent souls had perished waiting for a transplant that never came, in spite of the fact that there were plenty of donors willing to part with a kidney for a price.
I had seen both the best and the worst of the black market organ trade that flourishes because society is not yet ready to embrace the concept of selling parts of one’s body.
I was appalled by the badly burned body of Leroy Grubbs, who most likely would have lived if his operation had been done in a proper facility rather than a converted warehouse.
But at the same time, I witnessed the joy and relief when Beth Summers, a young mother of two, was returned to her family.
Unfortunately, the business of buying and selling human organs was just one more thing that I would have to add to the long list of things that make absolutely no sense.
As long as people are dying from kidney disease and as long as there are people willing to sell a kidney, these transactions will take place whether legal or not.
Pastor Bob talked about the prohibition years when alcohol was illegal. The fact that it was against the law meant little because the demand was there. Today, in spite of the hazards of alcohol addiction, booze is as common on grocery shelves as breakfast cereal, and there are few shows on TV where the actors are not enjoying a drink or two. The passing of a law changed everything.
Even more perplexing is the notion that something is legal in some parts of our nation, but illegal in others.
In Washington, Vermont and Oregon, a physician may help a person end a life of pain and suffering with dignity, but elsewhere, humans are not afforded the same compassion that is given to family pets.
If a person travels to Colorado, makes a legal purchase of marijuana, then brings it back to Missouri, I will have no choice to arrest them for possession of a controlled substance.
Prostitution is illegal in Missouri and Ox and I have rousted dozens of johns and hookers over the years, yet, I looked the other way when my best friend helped Kevin hook up with Veronica for what he thought would be his last fling before dying.
We abhor the taking of a human life with premeditation, but that same act, done in defense of one’s home or family, is excused.
Is any one thing either good or bad, right or wrong, moral or immoral?
It certainly seems that in our society, circumstances alter cases.
I have come to the conclusion that it all really boils down to the free will thing that Pastor Bob likes to talk about.
Each of us are presented with choices in our lives and we make those choices based on our circumstances regardless of whether they are legal or not.
If marijuana and prostitution are ever legalized in Missouri, will I start smoking pot and frequenting brothels? Absolutely not, because that’s not the choice I want to make.
On the other hand, if Maggie was dying of kidney failure and I found a willing donor at a price that I could afford, I wouldn’t hesitate for a minute.
If these choices are difficult for the man on the street, just imagine how difficult they are for a cop.
More than once I have had to arrest people for doing something that I probably would have done myself, yet, I have taken an oath and sworn to uphold the law.
My name is Walt Williams, and sometimes it’s not easy being a cop.
What Other People Are Saying About
The Lady Justice Mystery/Comedy Series
This book surely meets
the author's goal of bringing a smile to the reader's face and a bit of laughter into their lives. It is an enjoyable read and I recommend it to anyone who likes a thrilling police book. Allison – Amazon Review
This guy’s books are entertaining, funny, delightful -- none of the words you would expect to find in a review of a mystery, unless you're already familiar with Walt Williams and his band of old timers. I have yet to read one of Walt's adventures and not be drawn into the story, and the characters. Cheryl – Amazon Review
Love Love Love this book. I spent years in Kansas City, MO and could picture everywhere the story took me. Loved the characters. A must read for anyone who wants a suspense story with comedy added for an added dimension. I am now downloading every Lady Justice book available. Sharon – Amazon Review
Great read. Couldn't stop turning the pages. Look forward to reading the rest of the series and other books by the same author. Dale – Amazon Review
You can't beat this series. It's funny, educational, serious, and attention-getting all in one series. And Mr. Thornhill writes really fast so I don't have to wait a year before the next book comes out - it's awesome! Lori – Amazon Review
I love this series, and Robert Thornhill always seems to throw in a look at a social issue that needs reviewing. He manages, humor, mystery, some thrills and chills and great characters in fresh situations. I love the elderly characters who kick butt and take names and always put the bad guys in jail. This is just another great story, well told. Sandy – Amazon Review
This was the type of book that never goes out of style. Right versus wrong with a clear distinction between the two. It was an easy read and an easy decision to read as the writing style draws you in from the first page. I love reading this kind of book when I need a little pick me up because this is the kind of story that leaves you smiling. It's based on old fashioned, (but never 'out of fashion'), morals and good people. It was a quick and fun read for me. Take the time to read just for the pure fun of it & the feel good feeling you'll get. Gin – Amazon Review
Lady Justice and the Organ Traders Page 13
