by JL Curtis
Everybody nodded, and Billy racked and stacked his papers. “I’m going to go take a shower, back in a few.”
Jesse hobbled into the kitchen, looking back at Billy. “Gah, he looks worse than I feel, and that’s pretty damn bad.”
The old man said, “Well, I think Billy was up all night, and I’m dreading this phone bill, but it’s his ballgame, so I’m not going to complain… Yet…”
Twenty minutes later, Billy, now freshly shaved and showered, came back in an old robe saying, “John, don’t know whose this is, but I didn’t want to mess up my suit, and can I borrow a vehicle?” He dug into the breakfast Juanita set in front of him.
“Sure, you can take the Suburban, since I’m stuck here. Do we get a hint of what you’re going to pull?”
Billy just shook his head, and the old man rolled his eyes. After breakfast, everyone picked up their dishes, and trooped in to rinse them while Juanita loaded the dishwasher. Billy went in and unplugged his charger and put the phone in his briefcase. He disappeared into the bedroom and came back out a few minutes later dressed in a suit.
The old man whistled. “Damn Billy, you clean up pretty good.”
Billy preened. “Unlike you, I actually pay attention to style, and I am not afraid to dress in the latest fashion; unlike you, still wearing Dickie’s like some poor working shlub…”
The old man grinned and flipped the keys to Billy. “We’ll be here, I’m assuming you’ll be back some time this morning, right?”
“Yep, like I said, turn the TV on the El Paso channel at zero eight hundred.” With that Billy was out the door. Jesse hobbled back to her room and with Juanita’s help cleaned up and came back into the living room.
***
Meanwhile, in Dallas, Myers was standing outside Deal’s office when he came in. “Alright, what in the hell went on last night? I checked with detention and nobody’s there! And where are all the guns, there were only three checked in!”
Myers, pacing in front of the desk, started laying out the story he’d concocted with the two other agents last night, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Deal yelled, “I’m busy, come back in an hour.” Whoever was knocking then left. Myers finished his description of the failure, basically laying blame on Spears for dereliction of duty, and admitted that the Rangers had buffaloed him on the arrest, due to the wording of the warrant.
Deal swung around holding out his hand. “Okay, gimme the warrants back. I’ll get them fixed and get another judge to sign them.”
Myers said, “Uh, I would, but the damn old Ranger kept them. He wouldn’t give ‘em back.”
“What! You let a warrant get out, and now you can bet both the Rangers and that damn sheriff have them. Shit, who knows who has seen them by now? At least Gillory’s signature is on them. Dammit…”
***
At the ranch, the old man was sitting in the office working on the books when Jesse realized it was almost 8 AM. “Papa, it’s almost time.”
The old man grumbled and came into the living room, as Juanita, Francisco and Toby came in from the kitchen. Turning on the TV, he set the channel and slumped back in the rocker. The others arranged themselves around the various chairs and watched as the roller came up with the breaking news caption and dissolved into Little Hair standing in front of the Sheriff’s Office. In her usual breathless voice she said, “We are here this morning in Fort Stockton for a press conference by the Pecos County Sheriff in response to our report from last evening. The sheriff has promised this reporter an exclusive after the press conference, and here he is now.”
The old man flipped over to Fox News, and sure enough it was also carrying the interview, but from a slightly different angle. He switched back as the camera panned over to a podium set up in front of what appeared to be a car covered in a car cover and focused on the podium as the sheriff walked out in his dress uniform. Suddenly the old man leaned forward in the rocker, slapping the arm. “Oh, you sneaky sumbitch! This is going to be a public beatdown!”
Jesse looked at him, but snapped back to the TV when they sheriff came on. “Good Morning. I am Jose Rodriguez, I am the Sheriff of Pecos County, Texas. As you may have heard last night, two of my deputies were remanded to custody to be charged with murder in the deaths of four Hispanic males at a remote ranch here in the county. First, let me say I take this as a personal insult, not only to me as the sheriff, but also to the men and women of this department, and to Pecos County itself.”
Looking down and then back up he continued, “When I was a young man growing up here, we didn’t have TV. We couldn’t afford it, but we had a radio. I used to listen to a newsman named Paul Harvey who used to do stories in parts, and the last segment was what he called the ‘rest of the story.’”
He paused to take a sip of water. “I’d like to tell you the rest of this particular story you heard the beginning of last night. The first part of the rest of the story is a young female State Trooper who cannot be here this morning, because she is still in the hospital in serious but stable condition after being shot at less than six feet with a twelve gauge shotgun by one of these so- called innocent men. Luckily she had her vest on, and that is what saved her life, but she was seriously injured.” He walked over to the white van with the camera panning to follow, and the old man realized it was the actual van, leaning back the old man smiled and chuckled softly.
Opening the back doors of the van, the sheriff walked back six feet away. “The young trooper was shot from this range by one of these four who poked the shotgun through that curtain and did their damnest to kill her. Why? Because their leader, Ricardo Garcia, yelled out to shoot her. We have that on tape, and the video from the patrol unit showing the shooting taking place; both of which have been distributed to your station.”
Walking back to the podium, he put both hands on the podium and looked directly into the camera. “Ricardo Garcia is a well-known name to law enforcement down on the border. He’s a lieutenant in the cartel. He’s been convicted twice on drug charges, and was wanted on both sides of the border for at least twelve homicides. That’s the first part of the rest of the story.”
Taking another sip of water, he nodded at the cameras. “Here’s the second part of the rest of the story: it was almost thirty minutes before we were able to access the camera information and during that time, Garcia and his accomplices had gotten off I-ten and were moving North through the county. They happened on a ranch in a remote location and decided to hole up there. One of our deputies, whom I won’t name; since that was supposedly our agreement with all the stations down here about not naming deputies involved in shootouts with the drug cartels, was on patrol with a young Marine doing a ride along. They approached this remote ranch, noted a strange vehicle in the driveway, and slowed to check it out.”
Nodding to the deputies, the sheriff turned back to the camera and continued, as the two deputies pulled the cover off car #214, and even Little Hair inadvertently reacted to the damage along with most of the bystanders.
“This was what happened. There were fifty-eight rounds that were fired on full automatic at this vehicle at an approximate range of seventy-five yards, and forty-two rounds impacted the vehicle. If you zoom in on the driver’s side door and window, you can see that window is shot out and there are five rounds that penetrated that door. Now if you zoom in on the window, you’ will notice a brown stain covering the passenger’s side of the car. That is the blood from both the Marine and the Deputy being shot without provocation. Again, we know from the hostage that Ricardo Garcia told one Jesus Ramirez to quote go blow the cops away unquote. Jesus Ramirez is another cartel member, a part of Garcia’s crew as they are called, and he is an escaped murderer from a prison in Mexico City. His body count was thirty-two deaths he claimed credit for. The deputy got off a call that they were under fire about the time we realized what vehicle these four were driving.”
Pausing, the sheriff looked directly at the camera, “I was one of the multiple responders
from four departments, including DPS, Rangers, DEA and of course our deputies. I am a certified negotiator, and attempted to establish contact with the four, but they refused to answer the phone until we had multiple units on scene. We were over three-hundred yards away, to prevent any possible reaction, but when Ricardo Garcia answered the phone, he gave us one minute to –as he said, disappear before he started shooting hostages— That tape has also been provided to you. Unknown to Garcia, we had managed to get two deputies one of whom was accompanied by another Marine on a ride along into position to observe the house; as the scene commander I had authorized the two deputies to take a shot if they got one in order to save the hostages. When Garcia came out with the baby as a hostage, and sent Ramirez with the female hostage toward the police car with direction to make sure they were dead, the deputies took the shots that resulted in the two Hispanic men being shot and killed.”
Jose, looking out over the crowd that had gathered, took another sip of water. “Oh and one more thing, the last two more men who came out the back door were firing their AKs on full automatic, they were taken out by the first deputy, who is now receiving care for not only for being shot in the hip, but also multiple broken ribs from being hit in the vest by at least two rounds from an AK. There were forty-seven rounds fired in the back of the house as those two made a run for the creek.”
The sheriff walked over to the van again camera following, pulling the curtain aside, he gestured inside, “This is what those quote innocent unquote men were hauling. One hundred kilos of cocaine and almost two million dollars in cash.”
Even Little Hair gasped at that as both cameramen turned the cameras and zoomed in on the cocaine and money lying in the back of the van and now in plain sight.
Stalking back to the podium, he added, “As a result of the material found in the van, additional arrests were made in Chicago which effectively shut down what was planned to be the end of the distribution chain for this and follow-on shipments of cocaine. Due to the fact that this was an officer involved shooting, and Texas Rangers were on scene, I requested they bring in a team to conduct the investigation. Major Wilson from Company E determined since they had also been represented on scene, brought in investigators from Company F, which is the Ranger Headquarters Company in Austin. The Rangers from Austin conducted the investigation, took all statements and based on evidence at the scene, determined the officers were correct in the shots they took to preserve the lives of the hostages. That is the rest of the story. I will now take questions.”
The old man applauded the TV set, saying, “Outstanding, Jose, thank you!” All the others agreed.
Little Hair stepped into the shot with a mike in hand and asked, “But, sheriff, what you’ve said here this morning contradicts what the US Attorney released last night, how do you explain that?”
“Ma’am, I can only tell you what happened, I don’t know what the US Attorney in Dallas, which by the way is not the US Attorney with jurisdiction here, used to base the arrest warrants on, so you’d have to ask him.”
“Well, where are these deputies, and those two Marines? Why aren’t they out here to defend themselves?”
“Ma’am, I have no idea where the Marines are, as they left yesterday morning for their bases. As far as the deputies, one as I said is under nursing care for injuries, but they were both arrested. But their lawyer is here and I’m sure he’ll be happy to provide a statement.”
Billy Moore stalked to the podium as Jose stepped away. Little Hair looked confused and started to turn away, but Billy said, “Just a minute. I have a statement concerning the deputies I’ve been asked to defend. First, by publically naming the deputies, Mr. Deal has painted a target on both these fine officers, I guess the only suspects he identifies are law officers, which kinda makes me wonder who’s side he’s on. This incident was fully investigated by the Texas Rangers from Austin, so I’d suggest you also ask them what they presented to the US Attorney.”
Pausing for effect Billy continued, “And while you’re at it, ask the US Attorney why he decided to arrest these deputies with a DHS tactical team of eight personnel at 1900 last night with no notice to either the Sheriff’s department here, DPS, the US Attorney for this division of Texas, or notification to or request for assistance from the Texas Ranger Company for this area. By the way, normally the US Attorneys works with the US Marshals to arrest suspects and normally the also notify at least DPS and the Rangers.”
Little Hair, a bit off base, asked, “Well, why did they shoot so quickly, and why did they shoot to kill, if they’re such good shots, why not just wound them?”
Billy, ever the showman, shook his head as if Little Hair was the proverbial dummy in the class. “Well, Missy, these drug runners had already started it, by shooting up this car we’re standing in front of. Dontcha think that just might color the responding officer’s response? And the threat to kill the hostages? What would you have them do, try to wound the perpetrators so they could then kill the hostages before the officers could respond? You do know, don’t you, the two hostages were a young mother and her baby, right?”
Little Hair said, “But the US Attorney must have had some reason?”
Billy nodded. “Well, apparently Mr. Deal- ironic name isn’t it? Oh was I not supposed to say his name? Well, he was a low level DOJ civil rights lawyer in the New York office until two months ago. He seemed to do a lot of cases against law enforcement for civil rights violations but in six years he only had one— count ‘em one— conviction all the rest seemed to have been settled out of court. And he had his own little tactical team from DHS that worked with him on arrests up there in New York. And now he comes down here and jumps jurisdictions? I have to wonder where he is getting his instructions from, don’t you?
Little Hair started to interrupt, but Billy continued, “Now in this administration all of a sudden he’s pushed up to a full US Attorney and moves to Texas, and although he’s supposedly now divorced from the DHS organization, mysteriously this tactical team also shows up in Texas, and based on what happened last night, apparently takes orders directly from Mr. Deal. See it’s like this: it seems there was a DHS helicopter laid on, and this tactical response team in full combat gear was already on their way to the airport before this search warrant and arrest warrant were ever signed. Don’t you find that a bit strange? I know that I do.”
Looking at the camera, he added, “You know, I think you need to go talk to some folks, starting with this Mr. Deal, oops sorry, and maybe the Texas Rangers and a few others.”
Little Hair, looking dazed merely said, “Thank you and that’s it from Fort Stockton, now back to you in the studio Larry.”
Three different newspaper reporters could be seen swarming Billy as the camera shut down.
25 JAG
At 0730 Matt was standing at parade rest in his service dress greens outside the Judge Advocate General’s office in the headquarters building. Not knowing what to expect, he’d just driven through McDonalds for breakfast, rather than chancing the galley and running into somebody he wasn’t supposed to talk to. He’d heard the phone inside ring a couple of times, but there was nothing he could do; so he stood patiently by. At 0745 a sharp corporal came down the hallway, looked at Matt and said, “Gunny Carter, right?”
“Yes, corporal, that’s me.”
“Good, the colonel wants to see you ASAP, and he’ll be here in fifteen. I’ve got just enough time to get the coffee on. Need a cup?”
“Corporal, you should know no gunny will ever turn down a cup of coffee! Lead the way, and by the way, your phone’s been ringing since 0735.”
The corporal shrugged. “Probably the head shed, they seem to forget we’re three hours behind them, which actually pays off when they do the Friday dump. At least I get three hours to work on it, instead of thirty minutes like those poor SOBs at Quantico.”
Matt chuckled. “Heard that. Been there doing that until two weeks ago.”
The corporal made herself busy fixing
coffee and even dug out a guest cup for Matt, pouring it just before the colonel came through the door. Matt started to come to attention, but he was waved down as the colonel nodded, helped himself to a cup of coffee and disappeared through an inner door without a word. Matt could only think of Ichabod Crane as the colonel disappeared.
Ten minutes later, the corporal’s phone rang. She listened, hung up and motioned to Matt. Going to the door, she knocked, opened it and said, “Colonel Carson, Gunnery Sergeant Matthew Carter is here for his interview.”
Matt marched in and came to attention in front of the colonel’s desk. “Gunnery Sergeant Carter reporting as ordered, sir!”
The colonel stood up. “At ease gunny, I’m Bill Carson, and for my sins I’m the HQ JAG for Pendleton.” Coming around the desk, he shook Matt’s hand and steered him over to the small conference table sitting to the side of the office. “More coffee?” he asked.
“No sir, I’m fine. Sir, do you know how Staff Sergeant Miller is doing?”
Carson motioned for Matt to sit, and took the chair across from him, “As of 1700 yesterday, he was resting comfortably, and the doc says he’ll fully recover. We’re keeping him under wraps and in the hospital, and I didn’t want you to see him before I had a chance to interview you. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I want an impartial interview without his having given you a heads up. Matter of fact, I had Captain Hurst interview him day before yesterday after he arrived, so I’ve asked the captain not to sit in today, so that we can do an internal comparison here. Now, we’ll do this informally, but I will be taking notes.”
Picking up a stack of flimsies from the side of the table, he sorted through them, pulled out a stack, and slid them across to Matt. After doing so, he picked up a yellow pad, took a pen from his uniform and quickly wrote the basics across the top of a fresh sheet.
