Chapter Nine

MANNY
Louis Samboli was the organized crime chieftain for the Western United States. His area included the intermountain states of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. Harry Trong was his most trusted sub-chieftain and in charge of Utah. Trong had divided Utah into 4 parts, each managed by a trusted lieutenant. Emmanuel Camacho, Manny, was one of those lieutenants and was the subject of a special meeting in Las Vegas.

Manny had received instructions to attend the meeting and since he had recent losses of almost a half million dollars, he didn’t expect to make it out of Las Vegas alive. However, it seems that Mannys’ organization wasn’t the only one that had suffered losses recently. He wasn’t in as much trouble as he had expected. He had operated years with nothing but regular weekly profits that matched exactly the budgeted and expected profits. Now he had a loss. The organization expected some losses. As long as the profits continue, everything is normal. Whatever caused the loss should be fixed. Since Ricardo died or was killed, the cause has been fixed. Just in case there was another cause, Manny went through an intense face to face interview with each of his distributors. They were all nervous because of the death of one of their members and because they knew that a lot of money and drugs were missing. Any one of them could have taken the money and had a nice tidy little nest egg.

One of them was so nervous that Manny incorrectly assumed that he had a hand in the death of Ricardo and the theft of $250,000 cash, and about that much inventory. Manny signaled his bodyguard to take him out and bury him somewhere that he would never be found. This made the other distributors even more nervous, since none of them believed it was caused by internal people. They felt that it was an outside anomaly, a random event that could not have been planned for. Maybe something that Ricardo himself caused, of course, they would never know unless the money or drugs turned up.

Manny’s number one bodyguard took the call. It seemed that another distributor had died. This time it was those crazy Mexican brothers. They had both been killed in their home. The loss was about half what Ricardo cost them, but still enough to cause Manny heartburn.

‘6 years without a loss and now 2 losses in about a month. The financial loss was now about ¾ of a million dollars. I’m getting too old for this,’ thought Manny. ‘My problems will go away if I can recover the money and drugs.’ He called his people together. His intent was to find who took the money and drugs. “I want you to talk to all of your people. I want the person or persons that stole my money and drugs. Start asking questions and FIND OUT WHO DID THIS TO ME!”


DETECTIVE RIZZO
Rizzo wasn’t the investigating officer on the death of the Mexican brothers. He suspected that Robin Hood was involved, so he asked to see the paperwork. “You have time on your hands”, asked Rizzo’s boss?

“No, I’ve got more work than I can possible get done, but since I investigated the last drug related death, I wanted to see if there was any connection. Is there some reason that I shouldn’t see this report?” It’s always better to attack than to go on the defensive. He had learned this long ago. There are some exceptions, but as a general rule, if it appears that you might have something to hide; you’ll be attacked from all sides. If you’re the attacker, it’s assumed that you have nothing to hide. In this case, he did have something to hide. He was pretty sure who was involved in at least 6 murders, maybe more. The fact that he suspected someone who was involved in this many murders and didn’t pursue these individuals would get him in big trouble and in fact could get him thrown off the force and prosecuted. However, looking at this report was the proper and logical thing to do.

He read the reports and summarized what he found:

1. Victims were very bad people. 3 arrests including a vehicular homicide. Each time they were released because of diplomatic immunity.

2. A news story about the death and the Mexican brothers could have brought these parasites to the attention of Robin Hood.

3. The Victims were also involved with drug distribution as evidenced by the drug residue in their home.

4. Due to the fire that burned the victims and destroyed the home, there was very little evidence. It appeared that one of the victims was killed with a blunt object to the head. The other was killed with a heavy sharp instrument to the head. The first was similar to the death of the other drug dealer.

5. It appeared that there had been a duffle bag full of money. A bag like this should have been full of different denominations. Only small bills were found in the ashes. Because of the fire, the small bills could have been on top, so it was inconclusive. In my opinion, “it’s probable that Robin Hood and friends have more money to work with.”

6. There was no evidence to point to anybody.

7. The drug organization was applying pressure. They wanted their money and drugs back. It was pretty obvious that their drugs were not going to be returned, unless they could get it from the police. In this case, it was destroyed by the fire. The money was a different issue. Who ever had stolen the money from these guys and from the other drug distributor probably had all or most of it in hiding somewhere. There was a 99% probability that it was not in a bank somewhere.

Rizzo should have checked out Cole and Aaron’s bank records, but this would leave a trail. It could spark at least a question of “why do you want the bank records on these 2 guys now?” A request for bank records would need to go through channels and would be recorded. “No, he wouldn’t make the request. These guys are smart enough that they wouldn’t put the drug money in their personal bank accounts anyway.”
He took the reports, stapled them together and filed them in the unmarked file. ‘It’s about time I talked to these guys.’

SKULL & CROSSBONES FILE-TALL BLACK MAN
Cole looked at the Skull & Crossbones file that he had copied from Sam Christiansen the newspaper reporter. It contained page after page detailing failures of the legal system to remove criminals from society. The result would inevitably be more innocent victims of these “rabid dogs.”

The next time he saw Sam, “I copied your Skull & Crossbones file, is that alright?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be alright?”

“I don’t know; I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t taking something of yours that you wanted to keep private.”

“Look, I’m keeping this file because it makes me sick that these criminals are released on the public because of attorneys’ tricks or the police messing up on some tiny detail. The judge throws the case out and the criminal walks free; EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE KNOWS THAT HE’S GUILTY! It’s just plain crazy. Sometimes it makes me want to just take a gun and shoot them myself. If I knew who this Robin Hood was, I would send him an autographed complete copy of my Skull & Crossbones file with additions whenever I run across any new ones.”

“Whew, do other people feel the same way you do?”

“Everyone that I’ve talked to about the way the legal system works, feels the same way or are even more frustrated than I am. I figured when they gave me this assignment of reporting on the court cases, I would get to see some really bad apples getting sent to prison. I’ve been doing this assignment for 6 months. So far I’ve only seen one really bad criminal get sent to prison, and he only got a couple of years for raping and killing a teenage girl. What’s so sick about this whole thing is that I’ve seen a petty thief who robs a corner grocery store get more jail time than a guy who kills somebody. That’s just wrong. Some of the judges are the biggest problem. Judge Cramer is the worst around here.”

“I noticed that you have the home addresses on all of these guys. Is that a part of the legal information on file?”

“No, but since I heard the first story about Robin Hood, I’ve included the home addresses. I’m serious, if I know how to get the file to him, I would send it today.”

“Do you think that it’s right to go around killing people like Robin Hood seems to be doing?”

“Of course, as long as the people who are getting killed are the criminals who have murdered, or raped other people, they deserve to pay for their crimes. Why do you ask?”
“I just wondered if most people feel the same way about Robin Hood that you do.”
“Well, what do you think, do you think that Robin Hood should go around killing criminals?”

Cole answered, “I agree totally. I would take it a step further. I don’t think that any criminal should be put in prison for life. Why should society pay for a criminal to spend the rest of his life in jail? If he did something that bad, he should be put to death.”
“I would agree with you on that as well.”

“Send me information on any other human slime that has managed to escape justice when you get a chance. I would like to track these vermin to see what happens to them down the line.”

“I will personally deliver to you a copy of every new person who makes my Skull and Crossbones file.”

At lunch the next day, Cole told Aaron about his meeting with Sam. “The first guy in the file was released because they couldn’t find anybody to translate for him. He raped and killed a woman. There were numerous witnesses, but because he spoke some rare African dialect, Judge Cramer turned him loose? I have his address and it’s not too far, shall we go for a ride?”

The address was in the worst part of Salt Lake City. People were standing on corners watching them drive by. The house listed as the guy’s home was what looked like a shed on a little lot between some old broken down houses. There was an old car in front of the shack. Smoke was coming out of the rusty pipe sticking out of the roof.
Cole put his silenced pistol in his new shoulder holster.

They knocked on the weathered barn wood door; a tall black man beckoned them inside. The furnishings inside the shack would have looked right at home in the most expensive homes anywhere. Here they looked out of place. In broken English, he said, “Please sit down, my friends will be here soon. Can I get you something to drink?”
“No thank you, I didn’t know you could speak English?”

He looked at them suspiciously, “Just because I come from a small country in Africa, doesn’t make me stupid. Of course I speak some English. How can I do anything in this country if I cannot speak the language?”

Aaron laughed, “I’ll bet the police are not happy with the judge.”

“That’s true; the police know that I speak and understand your language, but the judge would not listen to them.”

Aaron and Cole exchanged glances, fishing for information Aaron asked, “We thought that your friends would be here. Is there a problem?”

“They were supposed to get a hostage from the school and meet us here one hour ago. You’re also late.”

“We’re here now,” growled Cole. The noise of a car door slamming came through the window. The tall black man looked out the window and went outside.

“I wonder who he thinks we are,” said Aaron as they pulled out their pistols and held them behind their backs. The tall man came back in the shack followed by 2 huge men carrying something in a 6 foot long wooden box. Each of them glared at Aaron and Cole. In unison, the twin 9 MM pistols spit fire first at the tall man and then at the other two as they dropped the box and desperately reached for the guns in their pockets. The three lay still on the floor. A faint, muffled cry of help was coming from the box. There was a tool chest in the corner, so Cole took a hammer and a screw driver and forced the lid off of the box. The occupant of the box was a small boy wrapped in blankets. A piece of cloth had been put in his mouth, but he had managed to spit it out.

“Help me, please,” said the boy.

“You’re safe now. What happened,” asked Cole?

“I don’t know. I was late coming out of the school. I pushed through the locker room outside exit door and someone grabbed me, pushed a rag in my mouth, threw a blanket over my head, wrapped me up with more blankets and put me in this box.”
“Did they tell you anything?”

“No, this happened a little while ago.”

“Where is the school that they kidnapped you from?”

“It’s the Huntsman School for Gifted Students. It’s a private school in Salt Lake City. All of the kids are from rich families. We’re gifted because our families gift a lot of money to the school. We’re no smarter than anybody else.”

"That sounds pretty smart to me."

“I take it that you’re from a wealthy family?”

“Yeah, my dad’s president of a coal mining corporation. You said I was safe, are you going to let me go?”

“Well that would explain why they grabbed you. We’re going to take you home, if you’ll tell us where you live,” laughed Cole.

“What about the people who took me, are you working with them?”

Cole moved aside so the boy could see the bodies. “I don’t think working with them would be the right description. What’s your name?”

“I’m Jimmy Gleason. I heard noises but I didn’t know if it was shooting or not, did you kill them?”

“Yes, these were bad men who deserved to die. One of them killed a woman and they would probably have killed you if we didn’t happen to be here.”

Aaron gathered up the pistols from the 3 dead men. 9 MM seems to be the weapon of choice for criminals.

Jimmy directed them to a huge home on the mountainside in Sandy. “Jimmy, you’ve been saved by Robin Hood. It would help us if you didn’t give the police a good description of us. Just tell them that we are nice, tall, white men,” instructed Aaron. “The address of the dead people is on this piece of paper; give it to your parents.”

Jimmy ran up to the front door, turned around and waved, and then went in the house.