by CJ Shane
Letty was able to blend in easily in her neighborhood. A six-foot tall, dark-skinned Native American-Hispanic woman who kept odd hours could become the object of unwanted attention in more affluent parts of the city, and she didn't want that kind of energy. Nor did she want to deal with the petty criminals and gangbangers elsewhere in Tucson. Letty tried to remain as invisible as possible. These were the reasons that Letty told herself when she chose this house and neighborhood. But secretly she knew that the big mesquite tree in the front yard and two smaller mesquites and a palo verde tree covered in yellow blossoms in the backyard may have been the real reason for buying her little house. Most significant was that the house was affordable.
Detective Adelita Garcia was returning her call.
"Hi, Letty. Please tell me that you have single-handedly cleaned up the streets of Tucson, put all the criminals in jail, and you're calling me to tell me that I can retire now."
Letty laughed, "You are too young to retire, Adelita. So today I found a new bad guy just for you."
"Oh, yeah?" Adelita, who had made the rank of detective just one year ago, was assigned to the Violent Crimes Section of the Tucson Police Department’s Central Investigations Division. Her response to Letty was all business now. "Anyone I know?"
"That's what I'd like to know. Are you acquainted with any Chinese triad gang members, or would you like to be?"
"No, can't say as I know any, and I think I’d rather not. I hear they are not very nice people."
Letty had made a point of cultivating contacts in all the law enforcement agencies, in the medical examiner's office, and in several agencies in state, county, and city government offices. She did what she could to give law enforcement helpful bits of information when she had them, unless confidentiality obligations prevented it. She also knew and kept friendly relations with a couple of attorneys who occasionally hired her to do investigative work for them.
Adelita Garcia was different. She and Letty had been friends since their student days at Pima Community College. Both came from poor backgrounds, both had aspirations to do better, both were smart and capable, and both knew that if they worked hard, they might have a chance at a decent life. Adelita had always wanted to be a police officer. She had a plan and a supportive family who chipped in when her part-time job wasn’t enough to cover her tuition and school fees. Adelita earned an associate degree in criminal justice from the community college. Right after graduation, she entered the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy.
Letty’s economic situation was just as dire as Adelita’s, but she had little family support and no career calling like Adelita’s. After some thought and talking it over with her best friend, surrogate mother and teacher Maggie, Letty decided to go into a medical field. She figured there would always be a job helping to take care of people. She managed to earn a certificate as an Emergency Medical Technician before things fell apart. Letty’s mom took off – again – and left Letty’s three younger siblings with their grandmother. The elderly woman could provide shelter and lots of love, but not much more. The old woman lived at a subsistence level out in the desert on the reservation. Letty’s uncle Mando and her aunt helped out, but they didn’t have much either, and they had their own kids to care for.
Letty Valdez was forced into being the matriarch of the family when she was only twenty years old. She had to step up to make sure her sister and two brothers had enough to eat, clothes on their backs, and shoes on their feet. She wanted to make sure they stayed in school.
Given the choice of a low-paying, dead-end job that wouldn’t really cover the bills, Letty looked for another option – one that she hoped would provide a better future for herself and her siblings. The U.S. military was appealing because after her tour of duty, Letty would get help with tuition to return to college and finish her associate degree. Maybe she could even go on to the University of Arizona and get a bachelor’s degree someday. If she joined the Army, she would get training and experience that would potentially be interest to a future employer. Best of all, she would earn a monthly salary while in the Army, and the Army would feed, house and clothe her. Letty considered a tour in the U.S. Army to be a good deal. Most of what she earned would go directly to her grandmother to support her brothers and sister. So Letty went to the recruiter’s office and signed up.
Through these years, Letty and Adelita maintained their friendship. Adelita was one of the few old friends who bothered emailing Letty when she was in Iraq, and Letty would always be grateful for that. A couple of times Adelita sent Letty a box with luxuries so hard for a woman in a desert war zone to get – skin moisturizer, lip balm, and hair conditioner, and even some Mexican candies. In return, Letty sent Adelita some items from the Iraqi markets. Adelita’s favorite was a square cotton head scarf called a keffiyeh in a black-and-white checkered pattern.
Letty filled Adelita in on the evening's events. She described her encounter with Zhou Liang Wei, who claimed to be from China’s Ministry of Public Security, and his explanation that he was in Tucson to check up on the reported presence of triad gangsters.
"Marv got word for me from his buddy Lambert in Homeland Security that they were expecting a Chinese cop to arrive this week. Zhou Liang Wei is that cop. So I left him there with Jade because she refused to leave her house. I hope she’ll be okay. He seemed like he was the real thing. But I'm not sure where to go from here. I can't help but wonder if this might have something to do with her husband's disappearance – just a gut feeling."
"No progress on that case at all?"
"No, colder than ice. Carlos Lopez just disappeared into thin air. It’s been a year already. And that $100,000 grant money disappeared with him. I haven't been able to find Carlos, and there's been no sign of the money, either. I have a big file on this, and I've used all my tricks to find him. If he were a skip, I think the money would have shown up somewhere. It's difficult to have that much money in your pocket and not start spending it. I checked and rechecked all my sources."
Letty didn't mention it, but she had even looked into Jade's financial records to see if Carlos had deposited funds under her name instead of his own. Letty found a certificate of deposit made years ago by Jade's parents under Jade's name, Mary Catherine O'Reilly, before her marriage to Carlos. The CD for $3,000 had never been cashed. That was it. No sign of the $100,000.
"Well, everyone at the police department thinks he took off with the money. But you know what I think. I think he's dead, and whoever killed him took the money." Adelita's voice was flat.
"Yes," Letty breathed out. "I knew Carlos. There was no sign at all that he was unhappy with Jade or with his life here. He seemed very excited about being awarded that grant. He had all kinds of plans for the after-school center for kids on the south side. But he's the one who took the money out of the account just before he disappeared."
"Sure, but anyone willing to do violence could have forced him to withdraw the money," Adelita said.
"We looked at the surveillance video at the bank. He was alone. But I get your point. It would have been easy enough for someone to have threatened him...or more likely to have threatened Jade. Carlos loved her a lot." Letty paused, realizing that she had used the past tense "loved." "But people can fool you. Maybe he's lying around on some beach somewhere with a couple of babes on his arms, and a lot of money stuffed under his mattress."
"Hmmm....I'll look into this Chinese cop for you, and I'll find out if we've had any complaints or tips involving anyone that vaguely looks or sounds like triad gangs. I know one of the detectives working on Homeland Security intel in the department’s Special Investigations Section. I’ll talk to him."
"Thanks, Adelita. I have no idea at all why a member of a Chinese criminal gang would show up at Jade Lopez's house. I can't think of any connection to her husband's disappearance, but there's nothing else to go on. So anything you hear could help me a lot."
"Okay, will do."
Letty ended the call and walked into her house. All
the lights were on, and the kitchen door to the backyard was open. She could hear the furnace running, trying to stay ahead of the chilly desert night. Not good for the utility bill, Letty thought.
"Will," she called. Her baby brother was named after Willie Nelson, the country and western star. Willie Nelson Antone Ramone. The twins had more normal names – Eduardo and Elena Antone Ramone. But when she was pregnant with Will, their mother had a big crush on Willie Nelson and, as a result, gave his name to her youngest son. Letty was just glad that her mom hadn’t been infatuated with a Lady Gaga-type when she gave Letty her name.
Maybe Will was the youngest child, Letty thought with irritation. Their mom had run off with some Navajo cowboy from the rodeo several years ago. By now, she may have even more children, which would mean that Letty might have even more brothers and sisters. Letty and her siblings hadn’t heard from their mother for ages.
"Yep, I'm out here with Millie."
Letty smiled. Their dog Milagro, a word which means "miracle" in Spanish, had somehow become Millie under Will's care. Millie was a beat-up, crippled runt of a pit bull with the sweetest nature in the world. The dog was content to stay in their backyard during the day, she barked a greeting at dogs that passed by, and she slept on her own padded doggie bed at the foot of the bed every night – sometimes at the foot of Will's bed, sometimes at the foot of Letty's. Millie had two doggie beds. Letty suspected that Millie ended up in Will’s bed on cold nights.
Letty closed the back door to keep the heat in. She turned on the oven and slipped in the "healthy" pizza and "healthy" quiche she'd just purchased on her way home. The pizza and quiche were heavy on the veggies and short on the cheap greasy meat and cheese in typical pizzas. That must be what made it "healthy", Letty thought. She hoped that the food really was as healthy as claimed.
The O'odham people had been suffering from a serious problem with obesity and diabetes for many years now, since they started eating the white man's food. She had seen old photos of the People back before the change. They were tall and sturdy people, but almost never overweight, much less obese. They worked on their farms and in their fields growing tepary beans and corn and squash and other foods that kept them healthy. But that was before government food aid, television, food stamps, soda pop, white flour, and chicken nuggets led to rampant diabetes.
Since both his parents were O'odham, Will was as vulnerable as any tribal member to junk food. What he had in his favor was a big sister who made sure he ate right and his all-consuming passion for long-distance bicycling. Letty set out the ingredients for a salad and then went into the backyard. She sat down next to Will on the porch. It was full night now. She buttoned her jacket.
"Supper will be ready in about 20 minutes. Have you fed her yet?"
Will smiled and rubbed Millie's tattered ears. "Yes, and she ate like there was no tomorrow. She acts like every meal is her last meal. She has to eat every crumb and then she licks the bowl."
The dog, a red nose American pit bull terrier, moved over to sit where she could lean against Letty's legs. Millie looked up at Letty with adoring eyes as Letty stroked the dog's back. Millie had big patches of bare skin on her tan and white short-haired body. Her ears were chewed up, and there were scars all over her neck and chest. Her front left leg hung limp and almost useless from too much nerve, tendon, and ligament damage. The dog used the leg mainly for balance. Millie was small for a pit bull, maybe only 45 to 50 pounds. She had obviously been used as bait in dog fights. When the scumbags were done with her, they just dumped her out in the desert on the edge of town. They hadn't even bothered to kill her, but just left her to die a slow, miserable death in the hot summer sun.
No telling how long the dog had been out there before Letty found her. That was entirely accidental, too. Letty remembered suddenly that she had forgotten to return a call to one of the attorneys she occasionally worked for. She pulled over to the side of the road to look up the phone number when some movement in the hot sand about twenty feet off the road caught her attention. Letty got out of her car to take a look. She spotted the dog right away. It was emaciated and had several open wounds. The dog hadn't had any water for who knows how long. It was on its side, panting short, shallow breaths, eyes sunken and glazed. The dog shifted its amber-colored eyes to focus on Letty. Then the dog’s tail began to wag feebly.
"Damn," Letty muttered to herself, but she didn't hesitate. Who could resist a dog on death's door that would wag its tail when it saw you coming? Letty checked and could see the dog was female.
"Okay, you pitiful mutt. Some asshole really did a number on you. I guess there must be some reason that I'm the one who found you. So don't you die on me. I had too much of that in Iraq already." Letty picked up the dog and placed her on the floor of her pickup truck in front of the passenger seat. Off they went to the vet. Fast-forward about six weeks, and after being cared for by a very generous and kind-hearted veterinarian who provided services at reduced rates for vets, Millie went home with Letty. The plan was to foster Millie and find her a permanent home, but Will and Letty both fell in love with the good-natured little pit bull. And the feeling was mutual.
Letty and Will sat together in comfortable silence, taking turns rubbing Millie's ears and her chest.
After a few minutes Will said, "Letty, I have a chance to work longer hours over the Christmas break. My boss wants me to fill in for a couple of folks who will be on vacation. He said he would teach me some new bike-repair skills plus I'll make a few extra dollars. What do you think?"
"Sounds good to me, Will. You'll need to set aside some time for us to visit Grandma. Just remember when school starts in January, you'll have to drop down on the hours so you can keep your grades up."
"Yeah, yeah, I know.....I had all B's this last term except for chemistry. But I brought that D up to a C+."
"Much better than the term before. Now let's see some A's. You are capable of it."
Will laughed. "You're not gonna be satisfied until you see me win a Nobel Prize in physics, right?"
Letty grinned. "That's right. The People need a Nobel Prize winner. Might as well be you. But it doesn’t have to be physics. Literature would be okay, or economics or…" Will laughed.
Letty felt real relief at Will's good cheer. Letty had been shocked when she'd first seen him after she returned from Iraq. Her little brother, whom she had carried around on her back as a child, had grown to nearly six feet three inches tall and had ballooned up in weight...not obese, but heading that way, like so many in the tribe. She didn't like the crowd he was hanging with either. She knew that there were gangs on the reservation, and she suspected that his friends were in a gang. Letty decided on the spot that her little brother was going to live with her. Grandma Antone accepted this with equanimity like most things in life. No one else was there to ask so Letty took Will with her back to Tucson.
When he first came to live with her, he was surly and rarely spoke to her. She ignored his bad attitude, and focused on what needed to be done. She enrolled him in the neighborhood high school, and she made sure he was eating right and doing his homework every night.
What really turned Will around was the day that Letty took him to see the start of El Tour de Tucson that first November that they lived together. Ten thousand bicyclists from around the world came to Tucson to bike the tour. Much to Letty's surprise, Will was captivated. He asked a lot of questions that she couldn't answer. They went home, and Will pulled her old bike out of the shed, then they went back to the tour. Will ended up riding a short leg in the last hour of the tour. That was all it took. Long-distance bicycling became his chief interest in life. He got a part-time job after school at the bike shop, and earnings from the job enabled the purchase of a good bike. Will brought his grades up, he hung out with biking geeks, he spent most of his free time training for races, and in the process, he dropped fifty pounds.
"So what's up with you? What have you been doing, Letty?" Will asked. This was new. In recent months, h
e'd become much more open with her and was now expressing interest in her life as well as sharing some things going on with him.
"Today I sent off the final report for that client in Phoenix. Remember? The one with the partner who skipped with all the money? I found the skip taking it easy on a Caribbean beach. Now I'm waiting for a big fat check in the mail." She smiled. "And tomorrow afternoon I am meeting a new client...or potential client. I don't know exactly what she wants me to do. She was pretty vague in the phone conversation. She lives up in the Foothills."
Actually Letty did know what the woman wanted, which was to prove that her sister's teenage son was innocent of murder, but she thought it best not to tell Will details of her work.
"Want to go biking with me tomorrow morning before your interview with the client?"
Letty hesitated. She was thrilled to get the invitation from him, and the idea of a relaxed bike ride sounded like fun. But she had to go with Jade and the Chinese cop to check in with the Tucson police. She didn't know how much she should tell Will about that.
"I wish I could, but I can't." She paused. "I have something else...business-related...that I have to do in the morning"
Will grinned. "Big secret, huh? I wish you'd tell me more about what you do. I think it's so cool. My friends at the bike shop think you are just totally cool...a private investigator. Very hip. Like on TV. They love it when you come in the bike shop. They try to guess if you are packing heat."
Letty was genuinely surprised. She had no idea that he thought anything she did was cool. No one had ever had told her that she was cool. Well...no one other than Chava. She pushed down the stab of pain that inevitably came when remembering him.
"They'll be sorry to learn that I spend most of my time searching through public records or on the Internet. It's not all that exciting. And ‘packing heat?’ Your friends have been watching too many movies. Okay. I'll tell you more, but you can't talk to anyone about this. It's all confidential. I'm serious. We investigators have guidelines we have to follow to keep our licenses. We can't go around flapping our lips about the clients. Keep your mouth shut, okay?"
