The Loverboy (23 page)

to follow along. Twice she tried to speak but was shushed by the
judge and quickly she found out that the lawyers were the only
ones to speak so she just relayed everything through Nicandro.
The prosecutor objected heavily to the new found facts and
the request to exclude the statement but the judge gave it merit
and decided that a new trial was in order. The trial would start
two weeks from now. Nicandro congratulated her and she was
returned to the holding cells.
On the first day of the new trial they managed to get the
statement excluded, which was a major victory. Now she could
write a new statement to be placed into the file. The new
statement would be the whole story. She would not be claiming
innocence but ignorance. She would leave nothing out and it
would be a lot more favorable than the old statement. The next
week the new statement was taken into evidence and next they
started to show how she had been played by Jake. She presented
the ticket and hotel bookings and along with his statement for
not knowing her it made for a good argument. They presented the
results of the forensics on the box and its content and as the
hearing passed the judge started to look less and less stern
when he gazed upon her.
They had had five hearings in total when both sides claimed
to have presented their cases. The judge excused them and he
would consider all the documentation and come back with a
verdict next week. On the bus ride back to prison she felt
content. She finally felt as if she had gotten a fair trial and
while she knew she was still going to be in prison next week
after the verdict, at least everything would have been said that
needed to be said and the judge would make his sentencing based
on all the details rather than a small part of them. According
to American law she could have hoped for a not guilty verdict
but not in this environment.
The next week she got up and had breakfast. After breakfast
she was led to the bus again and there were only nine others
this time, the least she had ever seen. One of them was Marcella
and Kim prayed she would not be chained to her. Sure they were
on good terms but Kim decided the best way to keep it that way
was to spend as little time together as possible. The less time
they spent together the less time she had to say or do the wrong
thing and piss Marcella off.
Marcella was not known for being a forgiving soul and she
had a very short fuse so it seemed best to stay out of the blast
zone of Marcella‟s explosive personality. To her relief her bus
partner was a young woman barely eighteen years of age and as
uncomfortable as a nun in a sex shop. She tried to make the poor
girl more comfortable and it had worked to some extent but Kim
had been a little preoccupied. For the second time she would
have her life in the balance. The first time she lost big. This
time she had nothing to lose and could only improve.
One thing that she noticed was that there was a lot of
activity on the road in the beginning of the drive. There were
several people on the street and they were all men. Usually it
didn‟t get busy on the streets until closer to the court house.
But she focused on her case and every now and then she tried to
comfort the girl sitting next to her.
In the holding cells she sat down and soon Nicandro came to
see how she was doing. She admitted she was nervous but
cautiously optimistic.
“It can‟t get any worse than it is” she said with a smile.
Nicandro nodded and smiled back. The hearing was just after
lunch and the judge announced he had made his decision. She
stood nervously waiting for what would come. For a little bit
she was afraid she would get another twenty minute lecture on
Americans corrupting his beloved country. But when he addressed
her there was no sign of the harshness of last time. He almost
seemed apologetic as he spoke.
“I have reviewed all the documents and have come to the
conclusion that a crime was still committed. There has been an
attempt to smuggle two pounds of cocaine across our border into
the United States. There have also been some new facts that were
introduced but none of them clearly exonerating the defendant
and the narcotics were in the defendant‟s possession. Based upon
the Mexican law I have no choice but to find the defendant
guilty of the attempt to smuggle narcotics”, he said solemnly.
Then he paused. Kim had expected this part but now was the
part that she had been fearing and anticipating at the same
time. She had a hard time keeping herself together.
The judge continued “However the new facts have shown that
there are valid reasons to question the level of the defendant‟s
intent or involvement. So I am ruling that the sentence be
reduced to the minimum sentence allowed for this crime which is
ten years in prison.”
Kim couldn‟t believe her ears and tears started welling up
in her eyes. Nicandro hugged her and she felt this weight fall
from her shoulders. The judge seemed pleased with the reaction.
She turned to him and stammered a thank you.
“You will also be eligible for parole after two-thirds of
your sentence has been served. I am looking forward to seeing
you in three years Miss Brown” the judge said with a reassuring
smile.
Chapter 27:
The news of the verdict had already reached the cell block
in the basement and the other women cheered as she came down.
Even Marcella seemed genuinely happy for her. This made her feel
good and she spent the rest of the day dreaming about the day
she would leave the prison. It would be at least three more
years but she would still be young enough to make something of
her life and she could go and see her mom and sister again.
At the end of the day they were taken out two at a time
again and transported to the bus. She was chained to Marcella
this time. She thought about it for a second but she was in such
a good mood that she could handle being chained to her for an
hour or so. Hell, she didn‟t care what they did this time. The
first thirty minutes of the ride were quiet and uneventful but
she noticed Marcella looking around the whole time. She looked
around too and five minutes later she noticed they were being
followed by a dark blue beat up Chevy van.
They had reached the edge of the city and were heading into
the less crowded part of town. Five more minutes passed and she
noticed a truck broken down on the right lane of the road and
four or five guys working to change the tire of it. The bus
slowed down and as it moved over to pass the truck safely
another truck appeared from a side street and blocked the other
lane. The van stopped right behind and the bus was trapped. The
guards reacted in surprise and the driver quickly radioed
someone about the situation. The men that had been changing the
tires pulled large assault rifles out from behind the tire of
the truck where they had been hidden and covered their faces.
The guns were pointed at the bus and the guard refused to open
the door. A loud chain of noise erupted and glass and blood flew
everywhere as one of the men shot the guard. The guard slumped
to the ground in a heap. He was dead. There was no way he could
have survived that.
Then the man pointed the gun at the driver through the
window who quickly opened the door and let the men in and the
man that had unloaded his gun on the guard walked in first. Then
he paused as he stood over the guard and Kim could hear a soft
gurgling noise coming from the guard as he was gasping for a
breath. The man aimed his gun again and squeezed off a few more
rounds with no sign of emotion whatsoever and the gurgling
sounds stopped immediately. The prisoners all dove behind the
bench to avoid being shot. Kim tried to duck too but Marcella
stood up and since they were chained together Kim went up with
her.
“Sandro, over here” Marcella yelled excitedly.
The man looked at her in recognition and nodded. Then he
pointed his gun at the driver and ordered him to open the caged
part of the bus where the prisoners sat. The driver complied and
was directed to unchain Marcella. He removed the chain that had
her chained to the seat but with a trembling voice he claimed he
didn‟t have the key to unchain the prisoners from each other.
Only the prison and the courthouse had those keys as a security
measure. Clearly annoyed by this the man lifted the gun again
and pointed at the driver as if to give him a second chance to
revise his answer. The man fell to his knees and begged for his
life claiming he really didn‟t have the key; another loud noise
and more blood.
The man named Sandro looked at the chains that connected
Kim to Marcella and then looked at Kim. He raised his gun and
pointed it at Kim. She cowered and saw nothing but coldness in
his eyes. Marcella pushed the gun away and told him that she
wasn‟t going to run around tied to a corpse. He seemed to
understand and dropped the gun. Then he headed outside and
Marcella followed him dragging Kim along. Kim almost tripped
over the corpses of the guard and the driver when she got out of
the bus but managed to keep her balance. Everything was going so
fast that she hadn‟t been able to register what was going on but
two men had just been shot right in front of her and she felt
like she was going to be sick.
One thing she did know was that Marcella knew these guys
and they had come for her. She also quickly figured out that the
slightest resistance was enough reason for them to shoot her. So
as long as she was cooperative she might live. If she would
resist and become easier to handle dead then they would shoot
her without hesitation. Puking right now was not going to be a
good idea and she focused as hard as she could on keeping the
content of her stomach down with success.
The van pulled out from behind the bus and the rear doors
opened wide. Marcella got in the back and Kim followed right
behind her. Some of the men that had been working on the truck
also got in. Through the open door she saw the man named Sandro
get back into the bus. Then more gunfire and some women
screaming, then a few more rounds and everything was quiet.
Sandro came out of the bus and got into the passenger seat in
the van. The doors of the van slammed shut and the van sped off.
Kim just sat there horrified at what had just happened. Ten
lives had just been extinguished and the mood in the van was
great. These weren‟t people. They were monsters. Marcella was
the happiest of all. Kim could only think of the guards and the
women in the bus and their families. She just wanted to scream
about the madness of it all but thought better of it. She fought
to hold down the tears to avoid drawing any attention to
herself. Sandro opened the window in the divider of the van and
asked Marcella if she was ok.
“Never better” she had responded.
Then he looked Kim over. When she noticed his stare she
tried to shrink even smaller and he looked away leaving the
window in the divider open. In the back of the van she was to
her relief unnoticed. The men were too busy greeting Marcella
like she had been a long lost friend.
Finally she couldn‟t hold it anymore and when she noticed
Sandro staring at her again she asked “Why did you have to kill
them all?” in a sharp tone.
The van got really quiet and everyone just stared at her
like she had just insulted their mothers. It was quiet for a few
seconds before Sandro responded.
“I don‟t care for witnesses” he said as if it was the most
obvious thing in the world.
The rest agreed and went back to chatting with Marcella.
They drove for two hours and then stopped. They stayed at a
house in a remote location and there they had a blacksmith come
and release Marcella and Kim from their bonds. At first Sandro
had wanted to shoot through the chains but much to Kim‟s relief
Marcella had heavily protested against it. Three men stayed with
them until the blacksmith arrived while Sandro and two others
left. Kim was happy that he left. She did not like him one bit.
He was cold and ruthless and she did not trust him. On second
thought she did not trust anyone in the group she was travelling
with. The blacksmith came and it took him a good thirty minutes
to release them from their bonds. After he was done he was paid
and he left with a word of warning about his family or something
if he talked. Kim shuddered.
One of the men looked at Kim and then asked Marcella
“should I shoot her now?”
Kim looked back in shock and then at Marcella with begging
eyes.
Marcella glanced at her as she was eating and said “Nah,
she‟s not going anywhere and she certainly won‟t go back to the
police. They just put her back in prison to finish her sentence
and she escaped. They would never let her out. And she has
helped me in the past. Thanks to her I was able to be on that
bus. Now we are even.”
Kim felt relieved but only for a second. Marcella was right
she was a convict and an escaped one at that. Why would they
believe she had been forced to run? She certainly had not
resisted. Really she had nowhere to go. She had no money or
papers and if she went back to the United States she wouldn‟t
get past the border and if she did she would just be extradited
back to Mexico. Again in a sick twist of fate her life had taken
a turn for the worse. This time people had even died and she
wasn‟t sure when it would be her turn.
The next morning they left early but this time the vehicle
was no longer the old run down van but a sleek black Cadillac
Escalade. Kim had not been able to sleep as she had spent the
whole night thinking about the poor people in the bus and ended
up crawling into the third row of seats as far away as possible
from everybody. There the motion of the car finally put her to
sleep. It was late afternoon when she finally awoke and they had
stopped at another old shack of a house. The camp they were
going to was at least ten more hours and they stopped for the
night. Just to be safe they chained Kim to the bed with a pair
of handcuffs.
They ate microwave meals and Kim got homesick thinking of
being back with her mom and sister. Being chained to the bed