Justice for Aleta

by Deanndra Hall

  “Yes, sir.” Jack stood to go, then stopped with his hand on the knob and spun back to look at Cappy. “Sir, can I speak to you about something else for just a minute?”

  “Sure. Sit down.” When the captain pointed at the chair again and Jack sat down, he asked, “So is this a captain and trooper conversation, or a Morgan and Jack conversation?”

  Jack breathed a sigh of relief. The guy was unbelievably intuitive and had the ability to switch from a hardened taskmaster to a father figure in a nanosecond. If he ever became a captain, he’d like to be half the man Morgan was. “A little bit of both.”

  Morgan scrutinized him for a few seconds and Jack almost blushed. “I can already tell it’s a Morgan and Jack conversation. What’s up?”

  How to approach it? Jack decided to just blurt it out. “I know it’s not very professional, but I’ve started a relationship with the woman whose husband and baby were killed in the incident.”

  Morgan’s eyes narrowed. “She’s not suspected of anything, is she?”

  “God, no!” Jack almost yelled. “No, she and her family were innocent bystanders. Matter of fact, they’d stopped to help the suspect when the fatalities occurred, and she was already away from the van. She had nothing to do with that.”

  “As long as you’re sure she had nothing to do with it, I don’t see a problem.”

  Jack nodded in understanding. “I’m positive.”

  “You know I’ve always trusted you guys. I trust your instincts. I figure if I can’t, I’ve got the wrong troopers and I’m a poor judge of character. Your record is exemplary and your behavior has always been professional. If you think it’s okay, then it’s okay with me.”

  “Thank you. If anything changes in regard to her, I’ll let you know, but for now, it’s all clear.” Jack stood. “I appreciate you listening to me.”

  Morgan stood too, and Jack was truly shocked when the captain extended his hand. As Jack took it, Morgan said, “Jack, I know what happened with you. You’ve been alone for a while. I think it’s time, and if this woman is right for you, I’m all for it.”

  “Thank you.” They broke the handshake. “And I’ll be ready for the briefing tomorrow morning, sir.”

  “Yes you will, trooper, or I’ll have a piece of you the size of Bowling Green.” With that, Cappy sat back down at his desk and went back to his work, effectively dismissing Jack.

  He was presenting the next morning. Well, he knew what he’d be doing that evening―pulling all that stuff together into something coherent. Then he remembered something, looked around the office, and noticed that Matt was nowhere around, so he moved to the radio on the far side of the room. “KSP unit nine, KSP unit nine, respond.”

  “KSP unit nine responding.”

  “KSP unit seven requesting rendezvous location with ETA of fifteen.”

  The radio went silent for a few seconds before Matt answered, “Coffee shop next to the Hyundai dealership on Dixie in Radcliff?”

  “Roger that, unit nine. ETA of fifteen and rolling.”

  Jack grabbed his jacket and headed out the door. He had some questions for Matt, and he needed the information pronto.

  “What’s up?” Matt asked as he strolled into the coffee shop.

  “Sit down. I need to ask you some questions.”

  “Uh, okay. Can I at least order a cup of coffee first?” his buddy asked, pointing back to the counter.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Jack waited impatiently as Matt placed his order and returned to the table. “I need to know how you found out about that meth chemist.”

  “Got a call from a Texas Ranger.” Matt pulled a little notepad from his pocket. “Name’s Daxton Chambers. They’ve got some guys undercover who told them there was a cooker coming from Kentucky, but he never showed up. They started checking different KSP posts and I happened to answer the phone.”

  “Our dead guy was bringing him?”

  Matt nodded. “Yep. They rented the car out of Bardstown and specified they wanted it to have plates from Ohio. Gave all the information over the phone, a dead guy’s ID and all. The guy driving that car was their regular runner. He’d drive to Texas, pick up a cook, and bring it up here to sell. One thing was accomplished that day―there’s less meth in Kentucky right now because that guy’s dead.”

  “Then there’s something you should know.” Jack started laying out all the information they’d gotten from his conversation with Aleta and his insistence in the lab.

  “So there was another person involved.”

  “Yeah. I need to talk to that ranger. I need to see if he knows this guy, or knows who he might work for.”

  “I’ve got his contact information here.” Matt recited the number and Jack put it in his phone. “You going to call him?”

  “Yeah.” He knew Matt wanted him to call Chambers right that second, but he wanted to do that somewhere private and quiet where he could really concentrate on what the ranger was saying. “I will in a little while. I’d like to enjoy my coffee first.”

  “I’ve gotta get back out. Let me know if you need anything else,” Matt said, rising and heading toward the door, but he turned and came back. “By the way,” he said, leaning toward Jack, “that woman? The one who was in the accident? Have you seen her?”

  Where was he going with that? “Actually, yeah. I got some more information from her.”

  “Do you know … She’s really cute. How’s she doing? Think she might like some company?”

  Jack almost snickered. “I think she’s seeing somebody. At least it sounded that way when I talked to her last.” Well, he wasn’t lying.

  “Oh. Damn. Day late and dollar short. Okay. Catch ya later.” He ambled out of the coffee shop and Jack watched him go, amused as hell. As soon as he’d finished his coffee, he made his way back to his cruiser and hit the road.

  All day, no matter what he was doing, he was thinking about all the evidence. He’d know more when he talked to Ranger Chambers.

  Jack radioed his end of shift and drove straight home. As soon as he had a shower and had found something to eat, he sat down at his kitchen table and started working. When he started piecing it all together for the briefing the next morning, it all made sense. He understood why their shooter was stopped on the side of the highway―he was watching for the little red car. Instead of pulling in nicely, the car was gaining on him, so he pulled off with his fender sticking out and the van came along and clipped him. But he had a job to do, so he did it with Joshua standing there, and the fact that Joshua and the baby had gone over the side of the bridge didn’t matter to him. Then his heart froze.

  Aleta. Did the shooter realize she was even there? Had he seen her? Could he remember what she looked like? Her husband and child’s death had been all over the news. Finding out who and where she was would’ve been a piece of cake, and he knew Aleta could be in danger, real danger. The man sounded like he was from New York, but he was wearing a duster. This was a guy who had something to prove, and most likely it was to whoever he was working for. If they found out he’d left a loose end, it would be his responsibility to tie it up or be on the losing end of a gun. The idea made him shiver.

  He picked up his phone and hit her contact, then breathed a silent sigh of relief when she answered, “Hello?”

  “Hey. How ya doin’?”

  “I’m good. How are you?”

  “Busy, as usual. So have you come up with somewhere for us to go Friday night?” Just making small talk with her was calming him down. She was okay. That was all that mattered.

  “I think so. Do you like steak?”

  Jack laughed. “I’m a red-blooded American male, right? Of course I like steak!”

  “Good! I heard two of the servers at work talking about this steakhouse in Radcliff. I thought maybe we could go there. You know, just jeans and a polo shirt-type place. Relaxing.”

  “That sounds good. I like it. Don’t tell me where it is. You can tell me when I come to pick you up. What time?”

&nb
sp; “What time will you get finished with work?”

  “By the time I get off shift and get cleaned up and dressed? Probably four thirty or five.”

  “Then let’s make it six.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Jack?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “Thanks for calling. I just … I really wanted to hear your voice.” Hers was soft and hesitant, and he knew it took a lot for her to say those words.

  “I wanted to hear your voice too. Makes me smile.”

  He heard her giggle just a little. “Good! I’m glad. So I’ll see you Friday night. Will you call again before then?”

  “Yeah. I’ll call you every night. How’s that?”

  “That doesn’t make me sound too needy, does it?”

  Jack laughed out loud. “No! It makes you sound like you want to talk to me, and I’m pretty happy about that!”

  “Yay! Okay. So I’ll talk to you tomorrow night?”

  “You sure will. Night,” he said, then finished with, “sugar.”

  “Night.”

  He wondered if she was clutching the phone to her chest when she ended the call. She sounded excited about Friday night. He was a little excited too. Then he sobered. He still had to call the Texas Ranger.

  He heard someone answer the call, a female voice, and say, “It’s a five oh two number. Oh! Hello?”

  “Hello. This is Kentucky State Police Trooper John Henry Fletcher, badge twelve eighty-five. I’m looking for Texas Ranger Daxton Chambers. Could I speak with him, please?”

  “Sure! Dax, it’s a trooper from Kentucky,” he heard her say.

  There was the sound of the phone being jostled before a male voice said, “Ranger Chambers.”

  “Ranger Chambers, this is Kentucky State Police Trooper John Henry Fletcher from Post Four. I think you spoke to one of my colleagues, Trooper Matthew Colvin?”

  “Yes! I sure did! Have you got any more information for me?”

  “Yes, sir, I do. And I was hoping to get more details from you, if that’s okay?”

  “Sure! And dispense with the ‘sir.’ That’s not necessary. My friends all call me Dax.”

  “And mine all call me Jack.”

  “Glad we got those formalities out of the way! Now, how can I help you?”

  Jack began telling Dax what they’d found in the last few days. When he was finished, the ranger said, “Well, that all makes sense with what we know on this end.”

  “So the key piece of the puzzle here is whoever kidnapped the chemist.”

  “Yep. Do you have a description of the shooter?”

  “Sketchy, but unusual.” Jack went over all the details Aleta had told him.

  The minute he said something about the duster, Dax stopped him. “Stop right there. I know who this guy is.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yep. Name’s Blake Moss. They call him Poser because he’s trying so hard to look like a modern-day outlaw. Makes him madder than hell. But he’s a helluva shot, from what we can ascertain, and I’ve heard that he has zero conscience. None. Doesn’t care about anybody but himself and the guys he’s trying to impress. The current one is Diego Ortiz, small time distribution trying to make it into the big leagues. His chemist was killed in a cooking accident and he’s been trying to find another one for months now. Sounds like he just decided to snatch one instead.”

  “I’m guessing that’s right. Do you know this chemist’s name?”

  “We’re trying to find out who he is, but he’s supposedly from your area. That’s why I called there.”

  “Not my area, or at least I don’t think so. I’m in Elizabethtown, Post Four. The driver of the car was from the far western part of the state. Post One. But that’s okay. I’ll talk to some of their guys and see what they know.”

  “Sounds good. The guy he was supposed to be coming to cook for is head of the Menendez cartel, Don Hernan Menendez. They’re royally pissed that their chemist has gone missing. Our biggest question has been how Ortiz knew the chemist was coming. Menendez suspects he has a snitch in his organization. We’re worried about our guys because of their newness to the cartel for fear Don Hernan will peg them as the snitches. Which, of course, they’re not, at least not like he’d think of snitches.”

  “Yeah. That could be bad. Anything else you can think of?”

  “One. Where did you get the description of the shooter?”

  “From a witness on the scene.”

  He heard Dax snort. “Word of warning: They won’t be a witness for long. He’ll eliminate anybody who can tell them anything about him. It won’t be because they’ll be a threat. It’ll be just because he can.” Jack’s heart sank. Aleta. He’d been right to be concerned about her. “It might be worth it to put them in protective custody if they could be instrumental in a trial.”

  “She certainly could be, so I’ll talk to my captain about that. Can you think of anything else?”

  “Nope. I think that about covers it. Are you guys actively working on this?”

  “Yes. I’m presenting at the morning briefing tomorrow. I’ll let you know what’s going on. If you get more information―”

  “I’ll definitely call you.”

  “Same here. And thanks for working with us on this.”

  “If it’ll get the case off our books, gladly!” Dax said and laughed.

  They hung up and Jack sat there, his head spinning. Blake Moss. The Wyatt Earp-wannabe with a huge Ruger and a bad attitude. Oh, and .454 Casull rounds―couldn’t forget those. He was worried. If that guy figured out Aleta had seen him, he’d come after her. Jack couldn’t let that happen.

  They’d have to have a little chat, he and the beautiful brunette. Keeping her safe was at the top of his list of priorities.

  The room filled with uniforms, and Jack was ready. After the morning preliminaries, Nathan Barr presented his case of a missing woman and her derelict husband who was suspected in her disappearance. When he was finished, Cappy nodded to Jack, so he rose and carried his notes to the podium.

  A little murmur ran through the room when he said, “I spoke with Texas Ranger Daxton Chambers last night and he was able to give me the following information.” When he finished, he asked, “Any questions?”

  “Yeah. How the hell did you get a Texas Ranger to work with you?” one of the guys called out.

  “Actually, he’d called here about a case they were working on. The missing chemist. We’re trying to come up with his name, thinking maybe that would lead us somewhere. We know who took him, and who he was taken for. But we still don’t have his name. And now, because of what I learned from the ranger, I’m worried for the witness’s safety. So if you see something, say something. Anything you hear could be useful. If you’ve got an informant, they might know something. Keep that in mind. I really don’t want to have to call KDCI in on this, but if I have to, I will.” The Kentucky Department of Criminal Investigations took criminal cases the KSP couldn’t solve. Jack didn’t want this one to be one of those.

  When he was finished, he took his seat with the rest of the guys. Cappy outlined the things he needed them to be thinking about for the day. When he turned them loose, he looked to Jack and motioned to his office.

  “Close the door,” Cappy told him as soon as he entered the big glass office, and his captain pointed to the chair in front of the desk again. As soon as Jack sat down, his superior grinned at him. “Good work. So you’ve got a Texas Ranger working with you on this?”

  “Yes, sir. I do, thanks to Trooper Colvin. He fielded the original call and made the connection.”

  “What’s your next move?”

  “I’m planning to call the other posts and the police departments around the area to see if they have a missing person’s report on file for a guy who might be a chemist.”

  “Good plan. Get on it. And you said you were worried about the woman’s safety?”

  “Yes, sir. Ranger Chambers told me this guy would kill her just because he can.”

/>   “Then you’d better be thinking of something to keep her safe.” Cappy turned back to his desk. “That’s all, trooper. Sounds like your plan is clear.”

  “Thank you sir.” With that, Jack hopped up from his chair and took off out the door. He had a lot of territory to cover.

  He started checking missing persons reports all over the region. Most of them were older people with dementia who’d wandered away from home. It seemed the rest were teenagers who ran away and their parents reported them missing. None of them looked promising.

  At lunchtime, he took a break and went to the pancake house. Aleta was working in the back, but all she could do was wave at him, her yellow rubber gloves making her look cartoonish through the round windows of the swinging back kitchen doors. He started to ask if she could come out and talk to him, but decided against it. That job was part of her plan to exert her independence, and he wasn’t about to jeopardize that for her.

  He decided to spend the afternoon combing over those missing persons reports. He didn’t really anticipate finding anything of any use, but it could happen. One by one, he went through them. Hitting the older individuals first, he found the same description over and over: “Occupation: Retired plumber.” “Occupation: Retired teacher.” “Occupation: Retired singer.” Well, that one was a little different. But none of them indicated anything that would tie them to his investigation. Matter of fact, most of them said something about “needs medication” or “wandered away.” If they were so impaired that it could be called wandering away, they sure weren’t cooking meth.

  Then he started through the ones for the teenagers. Many were boys, but most were girls. Most likely Mom told them they couldn’t date the boy they’re sure they’re in love with, Jack thought, shaking his head. One girl was a student at Pike County High School. He looked at her report out of curiosity: “Occupation: Student.” She was seventeen, and the picture of her showed a beautiful, smiling young woman who could’ve easily passed for twenty-two. Then he looked at the date she was reported missing. The day before his incident. Her name? Kennedie Strickland