ROLL CALL ~ A Prison List (True Prison Story) (59 page)

Raymond Senior didn’t look like he was feeling our stress at all. “Why don’t we just turn ourselves in to my attorneys? I’ll have you guys out on bail in hours. You’ll be protected under my attorneys and I promise you I won’t do any talking for myself. You’ve convinced me trying to talk and explain myself isn’t wise. I’ll let my attorneys do all the talking.”

I said, “It’s not like that when you’re on parole. You can’t bail us out. We’re going to have to do violations of parole, up to a year. I want to get a separate copy of Vince’s discovery evidence somewhere else safe.”

Troy said, “I sent the video footage to your Dad, B.J. but I couldn’t get Vince’s discovery notes. He wrote in those coded ruins to him with the gang rape information.”

Damon said, “Let’s either bury it or drop it off back in Vince’s P.O. Box.”

I stared out the passenger window at the dirt tracks and hillside outside of El Toro that still hadn’t been built up from when I was little, and, imagined myself riding a bike at the same rate we were going in the Hummer, and doing tricks on all of the dirt twists, turns and bumps. I heard Raymond Senior talking on the phone and it took a second to realize he shouldn’t be on the phone.

“Turn your phone off!”

Raymond Senior took the phone away from his face. “I’m just talking to my attorney and establishing him as yours also.”

“Turn it off!”

I watched Raymond Senior speak back into his phone. “I’ll call you back shortly.”

“You just gave away our location and who you were talking to!”

I looked at Troy. “Why did you give him his phone back?”

Detective Pincher stood next to detective Marks and detective Buzkill behind the substation when his phone rang.

“Raymond Senior made a call. He appeared to be in a vehicle traveling on El Toro road heading toward Trabuco Canyon.”

Detective Pincher asked, “Who did he call? Maybe that’s where they are heading!”

“I don’t think so. The call was to a law firm in Irvine the other direction from the one they were traveling. They’re heading into Trabuco Canyon. Maybe they are doing something else first.”

“Okay we’re going to get moving in the Crown Victoria toward Trabuco Canyon, there’s only one main road out there.”

Detective Maltobano raced around the corner, bounced over the oversized speed bump, and saw the faintest image of taillights turn a corner ahead. He thought, those looked like Hummer taillights. He pulled up to the house and ran to the garage door. It had window squares to look through at a height of about six and a half feet, he stood on his tip toes and bounced a few times and gave up. He ran around the fence to the backyard. It was locked. He hopped the fence and tried the garage door. It was locked. He ran further into the backyard and looked through the sliding glass door. It didn’t look like anyone was home.

“Jade they’re not here. Where else could they be?”

“I heard them talking about a P.O. Box in Trabuco Canyon, or Silverado Canyon.”

Detective Maltobano raced the high performance Crown Vic. through the gated community in the same direction he’d seen the possible Hummer’s tail lights. Outside of the community at a traffic light he searched the On-Star for directions to a P.O. Box. There was only one. It was in Trabuco Canyon.

Detective Pincher looked in his rear view mirror at detective Buzkill in the backseat and explained the plan detective Marks already knew about. “We’re either looking for a black Lincoln Town car with the PRESTO plates or a tan Hummer with CROSSROAD plates. When we find them I’m going to isolate them as much as possible and I’m going to take Raymond Senior into handcuffed custody and get him away from B.J. and Damon so you both can operate with impunity. You handle the business like you’ve been trained to do at the firing range so the suspect’s game is over for good. One of you get B.J.’s finger prints on the drop gun and leave it next to his body.”

Detective Buzkill asked, “What drop gun?”

Detective Marks handed a Ruger 9 m.m. to detective Buzkill and dropped it as detective Pincher swerved around a corner.

Detective Pincher said, “Just stick to our story and we’ll be heroes in the media for rescuing Raymond Senior from violent kidnappers! We’ll feed the media their crime histories piece by piece to keep the feeding frenzy on our side.”

CHAPTER 172

I watched the road as Damon waited to pull out of the country western business lot where we’d made the drop at the P.O. Box and noticed a Crown Vic. with tinted windows accelerate through a corner heading toward us. Damon didn’t hesitate and floored it right in front of a Porsche, sending us by the Crown Vic. in a blur. I pulled the passenger sun visor down and looked through the mirror behind us to watch the Crown Vic’s reactions. The Crown Vic. skidded to a stop at the entrance to the parking lot and tried to flip a U-turn. A Mercedes Benz that had been behind us was pulling out in our direction and an impatient driver in a B.M.W. did the same thing keeping the Crown Vic. pinched halfway through his U-turn. I watched the rear view mirror hoping that the windy road would make it impossible for the driver of the Crown Vic. to see which way we turned at the next corner and lost sight of it just in time. At the corner, Damon accelerated right in front of a Corvette going right.

Damon said, “He’ll think we went left toward the freeway where there are more streets to get lost in

I was thinking the same thing but wondering why we weren’t going that way. The direction we were headed was a lonely remote road without any options. “Why are we going this way? There’s nothing out here but hills.”

Detective Maltobano finished his U-turn and raced behind the B.M.W. and made it to the stop sign where the street made a Tee. The Hummer wasn’t visible. He turned left and raced around the B.M.W. and couldn’t see the Hummer ahead but saw another Crown Vic. racing the other way. He thought, that must be a government vehicle in pursuit. He floored the accelerator another half a mile, still no Hummer in view. At the next opportunity, he flipped a U-turn.

Damon said, “I used to go off-roading in these hills. I know a path that’s a short cut through to the toll road.”

I watched Damon turn into a one way street and saw a sign that said we were heading to a bird sanctuary. Damon lined up a long ago trail and accelerated right up a curb…

Detective Pincher saw the Hummer’s taillights in front of a Porsche and two other cars in front of him. “There they are!”

The Hummer was the only vehicle to branch off and turn right.

Detective Marks said, “That street dead ends at the bird sanctuary, we’ve got them!”

Detective Pincher turned into the dead end street and saw the Hummer bounce over the curb recklessly. He parked at the end of the street and yelled, “You two out! Follow them on foot and stay in contact on the radio, I’ll pursue them to the other side where the toll road meets, and we’ll pinch them!”

CHAPTER 173

We bounced over the curb and Damon floored it up a steep dirt hill. I couldn’t see what was on the other side of the hill and hoped Damon’s memory was accurate. The front tires came off the ground at the lip of the hill and the Hummer was almost perpendicular. The front tires came back down and I saw we were right in the middle of a narrow trail. Damon navigated through a turn and gunned the engine for a half a mile kicking up dust in our wake. We got to a hairpin turn and Damon said, “I hope the rain didn’t fill up this gulley we have to cross.”

At the top of the steep hill we couldn’t see the bottom of the gulley until it was too late. We were already going down the twelve foot drop when we saw the bottom was filled with massive boulders and water. The front end of the Hummer smashed into the boulders at an impossibly steep angle and we rolled over on the roof. I tried to open my door and it wouldn’t budge and began rolling down the window. Damon was right behind me and we were the first ones out. I pulled Raymond Senior out and Damon pulled Troy out.

I looked at the terrain and saw a toll road a few miles away to our right. We’d have to travel around a mountain bike trail to get there. To our immediate left was the bird sanctuary that dipped into thick trees giving it a shadowy seclusion.

Detective Marks and Buzkill stood at the top of the hairpin turn looking at the upended Hummer.

“They’re on foot! They’ll probably try and hide in the bird sanctuary! We’ll call you back in a few to let you know.”

We ran into the sanctuary and stayed in the shadows. Everywhere I saw the sunlight filtering through was the wrong place to be and I followed the path and saw two massive cage enclosures just as I heard an ear piercing screech. The first cage had a bald Eagle in it and was staring at me curiously from his perch. I was momentarily transfixed with the beautiful bird of prey. There was just a hint of sunlight piercing through the tree tops and it gave the Eagle a reddish tint to its majestic feather pattern making it look bloody and battered. The next cage had an even bigger bird of prey and was the one screeching the warning. It was a California condor. It was spreading his wings in an impossibly far reaching span and seemed to be studying me. I ran around his cage for shelter and pinched myself into the boulders that ran behind both cages. Damon and Troy did the same thing behind the Eagle’s cage. Raymond Senior kept going.

I watched him walk into the sunlight and stop at a well built bathroom and turn around to look at us. I saw Detective Pincher pointing his gun at him and get his attention. Raymond Senior threw his hands in the air and I watched him get placed roughly in handcuffs and escorted out of view.

Detective Pincher shoved Raymond Senior into the back of the Crown Vic. while ranting, “You’re going to be charged with a criminal conspiracy if you don’t give me your full cooperation! Are the suspects armed?”

Raymond Senior remembered all the warnings not to say anything and maintained a stoic mask

Detective Pincher yelled, “You should be ashamed of yourself for bowing down to their pressure and making those statements on their behalf!”

Then he slammed the door and ran into the bird sanctuary right as the echo of a shot fired reached their ears.

I saw two detectives enter the sanctuary the way we had with their guns drawn. There was nowhere to hide. All we could do was hope to blend in with the boulders. I was hoping the birds wouldn’t screech and give us away. I watched them studying the intruders quietly. Detective Marks walked past the first cage past Troy and Damon and stopped. Then he looked right at me.

“There’s Benny!”

I watched both detectives shuffle forward in a shooters stance and wondered why they weren’t ordering me out backwards with my hands in the air. I lifted them anyway and my stomach sank as both detectives got closer and still hadn’t started yelling out commands. Both detectives shuffled their way in between both birdcages and I saw the California condor lurch into the air and screech toward the detectives.

Detective Buzkill panicked, turned, and fired at the possible threat and the screeching bird was silenced and fell to the ground in a heap.

I saw the other perch the Condor was going to land on and yelled in outrage, “You idiot!”

Detective Maltobano saw the Crown Vic. parked at the curb when he heard the report from the gun. He skidded to a stop behind it and saw Raymond Senior running into the sanctuary screaming, “They don’t have guns!”

Detective Pincher turned and saw Raymond Senior and then detective Maltobano.

“Benny! Turn around and walk backward toward my voice! Hands in the air!”

CHAPTER 174

Raymond Senior stared at Detective Pincher and thought, they were right about this guy, he’s an overzealous bully.

Detective Pincher said, “If you want to play hardball with me and stay silent and take the side of criminals I can promise you the whole county is going to associate you with a home grown terrorist organization whose criminal history and structure will come out in the media. Everyone will turn on you, locally. As soon as the Feds get here they will be interviewing you and then you can expect another interview from Homeland Security so you might as well tell me the truth now. You’ll be a local hero. It’s your choice, outcast… Or Hero?”

Internal Affairs detective Maltobano drove to the P.O. Box and flashed his credentials. “I need to see a log of who has come in today.”

He scanned: Tony at 9 a.m., Ronald at 9:30, Christy at 10:30, and Vickie at 11:15 and then Valiant at 12:30 p.m. “Who came in under Valiant?”

The employee said, “I asked a big guy with tattoos who he was while he used the P.O. Box key and he said, Valiant…I looked up the box number they used and it was under the name Valiant.”

“I need to get into that box.”

“Sir I can’t let you do that. It’s a federal law.”

“Let me talk to the owner.”

“I’ll get you the key sir.”

Detective Pincher watched Raymond Senior and his team of attorneys that showed up a few minutes ago walk out of his office. He looked at detective Marks and Buzkill and said, “He isn’t talking yet… We might have to talk to the D.A. to drop the charges temporarily and let the state have them for their violations. If we do that they might drop their guard while we monitor Raymond Senior’s home phone, his cell phone, his son’s cell phone and the wife’s cell phone. We can pick the charges up again as soon as we have some evidence.”