Sergeant Blanco said with a shrug, “There’s not much we can do about things that happen up there, the area is just too big and we have to deal with too many problems here in Espanola. Did you know that last week there was a murder here in Espanola, and we know that there are drugs that just arrived on the streets?”
Hidalgo who had had some experience with police departments looked upwards and said. “The truth is that you aren’t going to do anything about what just happened to us, too much trouble for you.”
Sergeant Blanco looked a little miffed but answered him with, “The truth of the matter is things happen up there all the time and there is little we can do about it. By the time we get there, there is no evidence. The people who have been victimized have left and the locals won’t tell us anything because it is their relatives that are causing the problem in the first place. Stealing from the tourist is a cottage industry there, a way of life for many of them. I can’t arrest all of them.”
“That’s true,” said Hidalgo, but you can write up a report on it so that if anything serious happens you will have something to go on.”
“Well yes,” says sergeant Blanco, “I thought maybe you wanted us to assign an officer to watch your camp for you.”
Hidalgo, who was becoming exasperated, retorted. “Did you hear what I told you in the first place? This was an attempted murder, not of just one individual but four of us.”
“So you were one of the intended victims?”
“Yes, said Hidalgo with more than a little irritation in his tone, “Look, I worked for the La Plata police department in Durango for a while and I know when we are getting the run around.”
A little embarrassed Sergeant Blanco got serious about what he was doing and pulled out an incidence report form and started to fill it out.
Hidalgo and I gave a description of Fernandez and Garcia, along with a cover story of Dr. Douglas, doing some geological work for the university. Afterwards Hidalgo asked, “What do you know of Juan Armijo? He is an older fellow who we ran into up there?”
The sergeant, now being much more cooperative thought for a minute then reported, “Oh yeah, I know of him. He is an eccentric old man who lives in Chimayo. He is quite harmless, although some of his relatives are a little shady.”
Hidalgo says, “What about his nephew and his friends?
The sergeant answered the inquiry with, “No, I don’t think so, but I could be wrong. I don’t know him or his friends. I’ve never heard any reports on them.”
Hidalgo asked, “What do you know about Don Fernandez or Jose Garcia?”
“Who are they and where do they live?” asked the sergeant.
Hidalgo answered the query with, “Somewhere around Serpiente or possibly Magnelena or Socorro, maybe Belen.”
Sergeant Blanco excused himself and walked into an adjoining room full of cabinets and said, “Give me a few minutes.”
Several minutes later he came back holding several pieces of paper in his hands. “Those guys are bad men and they certainly are in the files, they both have rap sheets several pages long. Garcia and Fernandez have both done time in Santa Fe at the state penitentiary. Actually they are currently wanted for burglary and in Bernalillo County for armed robbery. Where did you run into them?”
Hidalgo and I spent the next few minutes explaining the incident in Serpiente where they were caught ransacking Indian ruins.
“It figures,” said sergeant Blanco, “People are trying to find those two characters. It makes sense that they would be laying low yet doing something that makes them lots of money.”
The sergeant shared information with us as to where the last known address for the two characters was and then gave us his card. He was now a lot more interested in the situation up on the Rinconada.
Revenge
Returning to camp that evening we drove past every motel they could find along the route back to Rinconada. Our journey was uneventful but every time we saw a brown boxy looking car we became anxious. We pulled into several parking lots in front of motels looking at license plates until we finally came across a likely Cherokee Jeep, but in just a matter of minutes a young couple with small children came out and got into the jeep and drove away.
At one time, a brown Cherokee Jeep drove up behind us. Then it passed us with an elderly lady driving it. It obviously was just another false alarm. We were perplexed at what to do and had to make some real decisions. Returning to camp we unpacked the coolers of iced drinks and food we had purchased, set them under the cedar tree, covered them with wet towels to keep them cool and went to bed. The next morning we again enjoyed fresh food again.
Hidalgo, while stirring his usual cup of well sugared and creamed coffee looked up at everyone and said, “I think we should get what we can out of the mine, while we can before something else happens.”
Corey looked up from his ham and eggs and replied, “You realize that if we show up with bags of gold, anywhere, it is going to open up a Pandora’s Box of questions from people. Everyone is going to want to know where we found it. This place could wind up looking like a circus.”
“Not only that,” Dr. Douglas interjected, “What we found is a real treasure even without the gold. Biologist will want to know about the bioluminescence and archeologist will have a field day with the Indian artifacts. In fact, there are very few places like this on the planet, and those petroglyphs tell me that this is not an ordinary Indian camp. Even Chaco Canyon cannot hold a candle to this place. The University professors are going to want to study this. It could make many of them famous.”
Hidalgo looked worried as he said, “Our artifact thieves think that we are dead, yet here we are. Sooner or later they will be back and discover our camp is still here with us in it. Then, they will not leave us alone until they know what we have here. The next time they try to kill us they might succeed.”
Corey continued, “Next time they may drop the pipe down the hole and it really would be impossible to get out.”
I angrily said, “Next time one of us is going to be hiding. If it is me and they show up, I’m going to shoot first and talk later.”
Hidalgo says, “That would not be a good idea. First of all, we hid the truth from the police yesterday. Secondly, we can’t prove that they tried to murder us. More than likely, knowing the way justice works around here, you would be sent to jail for murder. The way I see it is we need to hide the entrance to the mine and then leave for a while or set a trap for those thieves.”
Dr. Douglas worriedly replied, “The trouble with that is, they already know about the entrance to the mine. They just don’t know what is down there. Surely by now they have heard the old Armijo mine story from someone around here and have made the connection to the possibility of there actually being gold there. Besides why else would we be here? I don’t think we could convince them that we are studying the local geology or just plain fishing at the river. Besides they already looked through our stuff and we didn’t bring a single fishing pole. No, they know we are on to something here and they will be back.”
I added, “One more thing, they are bound to have made a lot of money selling artifacts they stole out of the Indian ruins down in Serpiente. They have resources and I wouldn’t doubt that they would hire some help, especially if they thought they would get even richer. Then there is Garcia, you know he has a score to settle for that bullet Hidalgo put into his knee.”
Juan Armijo, who hadn’t said a word so far finally looked up and said, “There are options. We can take some dynamite and blow the entrance and come back at a later date or stay and fight them. I don’t know about you all but I say let’s set a trap for them. Let’s give them some of what they have been handing us.”
Everyone looked at Juan Armijo and as he looked around the party he could see everyone’s heads bobbing up and down in a yes posture. Everyone was angry and wanted a degree of revenge. Juan Armijo then smiled.
The Trap
The next morning while Dr. Douglas, Armijo
and I stayed in camp, armed and ready for unwelcome visitors, Hidalgo and Corey took the familiar trail back to the mine. Once there Hidalgo hid himself away in the rocks while Corey made the long climb down into the caverns. Once inside, he collected several leather bags of gold which he packed away into a small backpack he was carrying. He then climbed to the top and pulled the backpack up to the top of the chasm.
He then immediately returned to the entrance, got the all clear signal from Hidalgo and the two of them hid the gold. Then Hidalgo took a turn into the caverns. They did this until they had gathered up all the loose bundles of gold that they could find in the ruins. Carefully hiding all but a small amount they returned to the camp. Once Corey and Hidalgo were back in camp, Dr. Douglas and I loaded into the Cherokee Jeep and headed back to Santa Fe, stopping everywhere we could to make sure that we would be plainly visible to anyone watching. Once in Santa Fe we deposited the gold in an account. While in Santa Fe we purchased two more weapons along with ammunition before returning to the camp.
For the next week we daily took a single small sack of gold into Santa Fe depositing it into a deposit box at the bank then returning, making sure we were seen by anyone who might be watching, but after almost a week of this we began to worry that our bait wasn’t being taken. Then on the seventh day, just as it was starting to get dark a brown vehicle appeared on the road back at the old Armijo shack. They built up the fire to make sure that it appeared that everything was normal.
The next morning as usual everyone dropped off the edge of the Rinconada while Juan Armijo causally took a chair and leaned against the cedar tree while pretending to sleep. Sure enough, within a few minutes, Garcia and Fernandez drove up to within about a hundred yards. Fernandez got out of the car and started walking into camp. As soon as he got to the cedar tree he lifted the butt of his gun and hit Juan Armijo in the side of the head with it. The head popped off and rolled over to the camp fire pit.
By this time Garcia had driven into the camp and was getting out of the car. Fernandez, realizing that the head was only a storefront mannequin dressed to look like Armijo, immediately turned to run to the car but the trap was already sprung. Hidalgo and Corey let loose with a volley of shells causing the two ladrones to freeze in their tracks.
We were well hidden behind the rim escarpment and offered no target for Garcia and Fernandez. With nowhere to run and little to hide behind they gave up, throwing their hands into the air and dropping down on their knees, just like Hidalgo ordered them to do.
The Kidnapping
We gathered around the thieves with guns at the ready. Corey yelled at them, “Why are you bothering us?”
Garcia spit on the ground, looked up at him and replied rudely, “What do you expect? You messed up the sweetest deal we have had in years down in Serpiente, it was muchas dulce. But the real reason, the main reason, is my knee. It hurts me all the time. I will never be able to walk again like a normal person.”
Foolishly I walked up to him, got right in his face and said, “What about the people you have killed? They will never walk anywhere again. What about their families who will never get to share their lives with them again?”
Hidalgo started to warn me to get back but I was angry. I let my anger get the best of me. I turned to look back at the others but Garcia made a razor fast move as he pulled a hidden knife out of his belt, thrusting the blade under my neck.
We were suddenly in a standoff.
“Get those keys out of your pockets, demanded Garcia.” Flustered but feeling helpless, Dr. Douglas and Armijo pulled the keys to both vehicles out of their jeans and handed them to Fernandez. He immediately gave them a sling over the edge of the cliff. With the sharp blade of the knife still under my chin the two thieves walked over to the car, got in and speed away, with me between them.
The dust rolled up behind the car as the kidnappers speed away, Hidalgo, Cory and Dr. Douglas made a mad scramble toward the edge of the cliff. But just as they got to the edge Armijo finally got their attention.
“Do you really think we need keys to start old Lupe?”
Looking back at him they all turned around with perplexed looks on their faces. Corey asked, “You don’t need a key?”
“No,” replies Armijo, “Let’s go.”
With that, they all ran to the old blue truck. With Hidalgo up front with Armijo, Corey jumped into the bed of the truck. Armijo reached under the dash and after a little fumbling with some wires the old truck roared to life and away we went; barely, for the old truck was indeed old and had to be carefully driven over the rutted jeep road to get out to the main road which was itself well rutted and corduroyed. They didn’t have a chance; by the time they got back to the blacktop the other car was long gone. Driving until they came to the first backcountry store they stopped, went in, and called the police to make a report. They hoped that Sergeant Blanco would put out an all-points bulletin along with some road blocks, a kidnapping had occurred.
Within twenty minutes a state police car arrived at the store. Shiny and black the car signified to Hidalgo a fighting chance with the desperados. They knew they would need help but little did they know where it would come from.
Enrique
Corey was fit to be tied. Two days had passed without a word as to what had happened to me. They did find the keys to their Jeep Cherokee after some grueling searching by using ropes to repel down the slabs of hot volcanic rock. It was then back to work for Corey and Hidalgo, spending everyday driving around looking for a trace of the desperadoes’ car and then returning to the edge of Rinconada in order to camp each evening. They were truly feeling the old saying; ‘If it wasn’t for bad luck, they would have had no luck at all.’ Finally everything changed.
Corey spotted it first. On the horizon they could see Armijo’s old blue truck slow plodding its way over to the camp. Armijo got out of the truck along with several other younger people, the people that had been in the café, weeks before when they were stopping for lunch. Armijo introduced Enrique his nephew along with his rough looking friends.
Corey asked, “What are they doing here?
Armijo chuckled and answered, “Have you ever heard the saying that you can’t judge a book by its cover?”
“Sure,” answered Corey. “Is there something we can do for you?”
“No,” replied Enrique, “but we can help you.”
Mystified, Hidalgo who by this time was starting to get angry, answered, “How can you help us?”
“Simple,” says Enrique, “I know where they are keeping Penny.”
With that said they all jumped up jubilantly and the entire tone of the conversation turned to hope.
Enrique continued, “She is being held at a hacienda off the main road. I think it is a relative to one of the men you are looking for which is why you can’t find them anywhere. The car is kept inside of an adobe walled in yard. You don’t know where to look but you see we have many friends with many ears and eyes. They spotted the car you are looking for and even saw the one who has a bad limp. If you wish we will help you get Penny.”
“Let’s go,” Corey replied excitedly, but Hidalgo caught him by the sleeve of his shirt and pulled him back into his camp chair. “We need a plan before we go barging in, and I really think we need to inform the police. This time I don’t want them to get away, and...
Corey interrupted with, “If they have hurt Penny in any way I’m going to...”
“Do nothing,” says Hidalgo. “Kidnapping is a federal offence, the FBI will be involved. We need the police to put them away for the next fifty years or so. If they can’t, then we will talk of disposing of them, besides if we don’t do this legal, we will be the ones in jail instead of them.” He winked at Corey and said, “Trust me, I know how this works.” With that, they drove into town again to place another phone call to the police.
Ojo Caliente
That evening they met with Sergeant Blanco as well as the State Police and Enrique gave them directions to the hacie
nda in Ojo Caliente where he had seen Garcia coming and going. Dr. Douglas, Armijo and his nephew then returned to guard the camp. The hacienda was a classic styled home that would be worth half a million dollars in the right location. Here it was isolated and quite some distance off the main road. Run down and slowly falling apart from lack of repairs it was a perfect fixer upper for the industrious soul, but for the lazy people who lived there it had no value other than a hide away from prying eyes.
As soon as they got to the old Spanish styled house the police surrounded the property and several policemen climbed the six foot adobe wall that surrounded the house. A state policeman went up to the door. He no sooner knocked on the door when two young thugs ran out the back door. With nowhere to go they were immediately caught. Everyone then entered the house with guns drawn.
I had been tied to an iron railing which was part of an old bed, unharmed, but extremely dehydrated, angry and in desperate need of a bathroom. Fortunately Corey was there to untie me and after a quick run to a bathroom, we hugged. Hidalgo ran into the kitchen and brought me some water.
“Where are they, ask Hidalgo?”
I answered, “I think they borrowed their cousin’s car and were going to go back to our camp. I do know one of them said something about dynamite.
“Dynamite, repeated Hidalgo, what in the world would they to do with that stuff?”
“I don’t know, I replied but I don’t think they are blowing up tree stumps with it. Who is watching the camp anyway?”
Hidalgo looked worried as he answered, “Dr. Douglas, Armijo and his nephew were going back out there to keep an eye on things. You do realize we have really misjudged those boys. They saved our bacon. Enrique’s friend who is Armijo’s nephew was the one who spotted Garcia and Fernandez and let us know where you are.
The Family at Serpiente Page 27
