Bk 5-Roger Morgan, Chapter 2

DOCTOR MORGAN

Patty was a nurse in the orthopedic section of The Salt Lake Clinic. Her job was to assist the orthopedic physicians in their treatment of a never ending stream of patients. As a nurse she was a member of the professional staff, not to be confused with the physicians. Only the physicians occupied the top level of employees in The Salt Lake Clinic. Partner Physicians were looked on as almost “gods”. They ruled the clinic and their instructions weren’t questioned. New physicians who were not partners were in a class by themselves just below the partners. Professional staff came next, but without any authority, but because they were in daily contact with the “Gods” they were treated very well, but would not think of questioning one of the “Gods”. Next was the office staff headed up by an administrative group who also were held in high regard because they worked with the “Gods” and directly supervised the office personnel. Last came the maintenance and janitorial departments. These people were very important because a medical facility must be kept functional and clean. However, these people were the “unclean”, they were not to be spoken to directly by anyone in the top levels. Only administrative people directly responsible for these departments ever spoke to any of them.

The Salt Lake Clinic was a large multi-specialty clinic primarily serving the downtown Salt Lake City area. Their doctor pool was made up of about 60 partners who owned the clinic and the buildings. Residents from the nearby University of Utah Medical School rotated in many specialties to provide new doctors to replace the older partners who wanted to retire or slow down. They had an ongoing agreement with the Medical School to look at any promising resident about to graduate in any of the specialties at The Salt Lake Clinic. The most promising residents were offered part time work as a part of their training and it also allowed the partners to see if doctors in training would fit into their group.

A few weeks after returning to work at The Salt Lake Clinic from her honeymoon, Patty was walking to her car in the private parking lot. It was gated and monitored by security personnel who controlled all incoming vehicles into the lot. She approached her car and a man stepped in front of her and identified himself as Dr. Morgan. “I noticed you just came back from your honeymoon and you name is now Morgan. I was just wondering if you married into my family. What’s your husbands’ name?”

In the 18 months she had worked at The Salt Lake Clinic, no doctor had ever spoken to her outside of the exam and treatment rooms. She was so surprised by his appearance and his question she couldn’t think of what to say for a moment. “It’s nice of you to notice, my husband’s name is Roger. He’s from Murray and works for Wasatch Ambulance Company.”

“I’m from Northern California and I’m not aware of having any family ties in Utah, so I guess we’re not related. Sorry to have bothered you, see you around.” With that he stepped back smiling, looked at her for an inappropriate amount of time, turned and walked back toward the clinic entry door.

She unlocked her car, opened her door and as quickly as she could she got inside and locked the door. She looked toward the big entry door that required a name and employee number to open and didn’t see the mysterious Dr. Morgan. She looked around the parking log and didn’t see anyone walking or in a car. She backed up and exited the lot thinking ‘that’s really weird.’

She called Roger on her cell phone to see if he was home. This Dr. Morgan had scared her and she wasn’t going home unless Roger was there.

“Hi honey, yeah I’m home, what’s the matter?”

“I’ll tell you about it when I get home, love you.” She watched the traffic on her way home and more than once thought she saw Dr. Morgan in a black car following her but she couldn’t be sure. The traffic was heavy and with so many cars it could have been her imagination. She exited at 7200 South and didn’t see any of the cars that she thought was following her exiting with her. At the house, she saw Roger’s car but still she sat in her car for a few minutes watching cars coming past her. She called Roger, “I know this sounds weird, but will you come out to the car, I’m parked in the driveway?”

“Sure, I’ll be right out.”

“Roger came out to the car; Patty leaped from the car to Roger and grabbed him around the neck.”

“Honey, I’m glad to see you too, but is something wrong?”

“At that moment a black Lexus with shaded windows roared by missing Roger’s car at the curb by inches, it made the turn at the end of the street with squealing tires as the driver slammed on the brakes and then accelerated around the corner.”

“OK, I see why you were acting weird, what’s that’s all about?”
Patty told him about the Dr. Morgan in the parking lot and about seeing cars that she thought were following her all the way home. One of the cars that she thought was following her was a black car that looked like the one that had just went down the street.

“He has to be an employee at the clinic to be in the parking lot. It’s totally enclosed and you can’t get in without a sticker on your car and an employee number. I guess it’s possible to borrow someone’s car and use somebody’s number, but they told us that the car sticker number is matched up with the an employee number by security, so either that joker is an employee or he’s working with an employee.”

“Is it possible to see if there is a Dr. Morgan on staff from here?”

“Yeah, I can check on the internet.”

Patty went into The Salt Lake Clinic website and found a Dr. Morgan had been just accepted to the staff of the clinic in the orthopedic department. “Well that part of his story checks out. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s an Orthopedic Surgeon, a lot of them have an arrogance about them that fits him, but what is he doing following me home?”

“I’m taking tomorrow off and going to work with you.”

“No don’t take the day off but you could take me to work and then pick me up after work. If you drive my car, you can wait for me in the parking lot?”

Late afternoon in Patty’s car, sitting in the parking lot, Roger’s cell phone rang, “Are you in the parking lot,” asked Patty on her cell phone.

“Yeah.”

“Will you meet me right beside the door in exactly 5 minutes?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” Roger drove around beside the door and got out of the car. In exactly 5 minutes the door opened and Patty came out with Dr. Morgan right behind. Dr. Morgan saw Roger, visibly cringed, turned around and hurried back into the clinic.

“He’s been following me around all day. Every time I even turn around he’s there watching me. One time I was setting up a room when he walked in and told me that I was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, then left. I thought, oh boy, one of those. Later in the day, he came in again when I was alone and setting up a room and asked me out! I told him “You know I’m married, leave me alone or I’m going to file a sexual harassment suit against him.”

He laughed and said, ”Why would you do that, I only asked you to go to dinner with me. I’ll say you were harassing me and when I wouldn’t respond you said you would file a suit. They’ll believe me before you.” Then he left the room. One more time later in the day, he was waiting for me when I came out of the bathroom,

“I know your husband brought you this morning, let me take you home.”

“I went back into the bathroom and called you. He was waiting for me when I came out and followed me out. He sure stopped when he saw you. He’s right, one word from him and I’m history. They would fire me and ruin my medical career just like that. It is not unusual for a nurse to make a play for one of the doctors.”

“Your career isn’t worth putting up with this guy. Can you transfer to another department to get away from him?”

“Not really, my training is in orthopedics, I could probably transfer in time, but they would want to know why and then we have the problem of my word against his and besides, you saw him following me out. He’s like one of those lions on TV going after an antelope. He’s not going to stop. I think he’s crazy, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a serial rapist or something like that.” She thought about it for a moment, “No he isn’t a serial anything. The clinic does a complete background check before they hire anyone, especially a doctor. If he has any kind of record, he wouldn’t be on staff.”

“Yeah but what if he’s just starting, every serial rapist has to start somewhere?”

Patty tried to laugh convincingly, but failed, “I’m scared, what are we going to do?”

“I’ll take you to work again tomorrow, can you put up with him during the day if I’m there to meet you when you get off?”

“Yeah, for a day or two, but I don’t want to be faced with him stalking me every second of every day!”

“I agree, I want to check with Sam Turner, my old roommate about this guy and see if he has any good ideas. “

The next morning Roger pulled up to the front door of the clinic and Patty got out and went inside. A black Lexus was sitting in the patient parking lot with exhaust puffing out the rear. Roger called Sam and asked if he would meet him for lunch. At lunch Roger spelled it out for Sam.

“You could just handle it like you did Patty’s old boy friend.”

“What did you say?”

“Look, I’m not stupid and neither is detective Olsen. He’s the officer who gave you Patty’s phone number and address, although you obviously didn’t need the address. Olson and I go back to the academy. He saw your address and knew that was my address so he called me and we had a little talk about what had happened. You’re our hero so don’t look so worried. We’re behind you all the way. If you have any more human slime that needs to be flushed down the toilet, we’ll help you as much as we can.”

“It was that easy to see that I was the one that killed that guy?”

“No, we just figured it probably was you and knowing you like I do, I figure there was a 95% probability you were the killer. There was no way we could have proven it unless you confessed like you just did to me. Hey buddy, don’t worry, as far as I’m concerned, case is closed. I wish I was in a position to follow your example. Now let’s talk about this Dr. Morgan. There have been a number of rapes around the University of Utah, more than usual close to the Medical School. This could be the guy responsible for some or all of them. The way I see it is to wait for him to strike again, or… hold on, I’m not suggesting we let him rape Patty and then nail him. What I think we should do is have a little talk with him and if necessary kill him.”

“I’m still working on the fact that you knew that I killed that dirt bag ex-boy friend of Patty’s. Help me out here to understand the mechanics of what to do.”

“Ok, I’ve been thinking about how to take this animal out. You said he was sitting there in a patient parking space when you dropped Patty off. Does Patty know you were the one who killed her slime bag ex-boy friend?”

“Yes, I told her before I allowed myself to get serious with her. I didn’t want her finding out I was some kind of murderer if the thought would freak her out, so I told her.”

“How did she take it?”

“She called me a hero and kissed me like I had never been kissed up till then.”

“She’s one in a million, but she’s also a magnet for screwed up men. When you first introduced me to her, I thought ‘this is one of the prettiest women I have ever seen and my old buddy Roger is going to marry her!’ I thought then that you may have to kill again just to protect her. ”

“OK, so what do you think I should do?”

“First off, you should know that there was a rape just down the street from the clinic last night. An attractive young Spanish girl, who works in the clincs’ maintenance department, left work and walked to her apartment. She was beaten and almost killed by a man dressed in black who broke into her apartment and was waiting for her when she got there. Her mouth was taped with duct tape and her hands were taped and tied with rope. He repeatedly raped her until it was dark outside and then left.

“You’re kidding me!”

“No, I’m not, now tomorrow you take Patty to work and drop her off just like today. You might want to be dressed in jogging clothes in case someone’s watching. As soon as Patty goes in, pull up to the Lexus and park so he can’t pull out, walk up to the passenger door and open it. If he won’t open the door, keep knocking until he does. This kind of arrogant prick will be so confident in what he plans on doing to Patty, he won’t be afraid of you. As soon as he opens the door or window shoot him, at least twice, one in, or close to, the heart and the second in the middle of his head.

“OK, it sounds good to me, but I don’t have a pistol, let along a clean pistol. I don’t suppose you have a clean pistol I could use?”

“Funny you should ask. Ever since this Robin Hood business started, I’ve been grabbing every pistol that I can safely get away with.” Sam handed Roger a box. “There’s a 9MM Ruger, a silencer and a box of hollow point shells in that box. It’s unregistered and has been used in at least one homicide in West Valley. The former owner was killed in a gang battle and doesn’t need it any more.” You won’t have a chance to practice with it before tomorrow morning, but at point blank range, you shouldn’t have a problem. There’s also a manual that I got off the internet explaining how to use and clean the gun and attach the silencer. Make sure you know how to take off the safety before you attempt to shoot that slime.”

“I should be nervous or scared, but that slime is going after my wife; I would happily kill him with my bare hands.”

“One more thing, don’t worry if you see a police cruiser driving by or parked on the street. It will be me, if I can be there, or Olson. You might want to be just a little early to avoid as many people coming to work as possible. Not too early, we want that slime to be there.”

Roger was in the parking lot to pick up Patty at her quitting time, it was a repeat of the previous day. Patty came out, Dr. Morgan was right behind her, although this time he didn’t appear surprised that Roger was there. He stood at the door with a wicked smile as he watched Roger opened the door and Patty got inside.

As soon as the door closed Patty said, “I don’t know if I can stand this much longer. He came into the exam room every time I was alone and asked me to go out, to take me home, or to just talk to him. What are we going to do?”

“If he’s there tomorrow morning when I take you to work, I’ll go have a talk to him. If he so much as opens his mouth, I’ll kill him!”

“How are you going to kill him,” asked Patty.

“I had a talk with Sam Turner today. He knows that I killed that slime that almost killed you.”

“He’s a policeman, how could he know that and not arrest you?”

Roger detailed his conversation with Sam right up to the contents of the box sitting in the back seat. He also told her about the rape of a clinic employee the night before.

“I heard about the rape. It was all we talked about all day between patients today. I’m so proud of you. I can’t believe you’re willing to protect me like that.”

“I told Sam that with your safety at stake, I would gladly kill that slime with my bare hands.”

Patty said, “He’s still standing there watching us.”

“I guess we should go now, if he can read lips, he will know he’s in big trouble.” Roger looked at the slime; the smile had turned into a sneer on his face and he was staring at Patty. “I can’t wait till the morning. Roger spent several hours reading the manual and cleaning the Ruger. He dry fired it once to make sure he knew when the safely was on.

On the way to work the next morning, the news reporter talked about another rape in downtown Salt Lake City. The location wasn’t announced, but the rapist was dressed in black and the victim’s mouth and hands were taped with duct tape.

“I’ll bet it was Dr. Morgan!”

“I agree,” said Roger. “After today I’ll bet there won’t be another rape around here for a long time.”

They were 15 minutes early to avoid the last minute employees coming to work. Most employees parked in the parking lot with only a few dropped off at the front door.

“It’s not there, the black Lexus isn’t there,” said Patty!

As she got out of the car, the Lexus pulled into an empty parking space. Patty went in the front door without looking at the Lexus. Roger saw a police patrol car driving slowly by the clinic and stop against the curb in a loading zone. Roger pulled around and quickly pulled up behind the Lexus. He got out of the car and walked to the passenger door. He heard a click as the driver pushed his lock button. Roger tried to open the door knowing it was locked. The Ruger was in his right hand inside his jacket. He knocked on the window, nothing happened. He knocked again, waited a minute and knocked again.

The window dropped an inch, “what do you want!”

“I want to talk to you!”

“So talk!”

Roger had thought this might be his response, so he lowered his voice so the driver couldn’t understand what he was saying and whispered. “Look, you’re harassing my wife and I want you to stop.”

The window dropped down about half way, “I can’t hear you!”

Roger focused on the arrogant sneer painted on the driver’s face. He had practiced pulling the gun out of his pocket and quickly aiming at the face in his mind a million times and 30 or 40 times for real. But first he had promised himself he would ask Dr. Morgan what his intentions were. “What do you think you’re doing chasing my wife?”
The arrogant sneer turned into a sadistic smile, “I’ll make you a deal. I can get her fired and if I do she won’t be able to find a job in the medical field. I won’t do that if you will convince her to spend one night a week with me.”

“You’re nuts!”

Maybe, but I’ve done it several times before. It works quite nicely for me. I get a luscious woman to share my bed once a week without having to put up with the bullshit of a wife. The last one just moved out of the area, probably because of me, but when I saw Patty, I decided she would be the next one. I want her to spend one night a week as my wife, in my bed, or her medical career is finished!”

Roger couldn’t help smiling at the pervert. This wasn’t the reaction Dr. Morgan expected; his smile faded and then disappeared as Roger pulled the Ruger up over the windows edge. Roger hesitated just long enough for Dr. Morgan to recognize what was pointing at him, he screamed “You can’t…” as Roger pulled the trigger until the magazine was empty. The silencer did its job and the only noise was a clapping sound and the sound of breaking glass as fragments of the bullets smashed the window beside the slimes head. The inside of the car was filled with smoke. Roger put the Ruger back into his pocket and walked back to the car, climbed in, backed up enough to miss the car and pulled on the street and past the police car. It looked like Sam was driving the police car with another policeman beside him, but he couldn’t be sure.

Patty was in the 3rd floor window observing the scene. She felt an overflowing love for the man doing the shooting, her husband protecting her.

Sam Turner and Ray Olson sat in the police cruiser and watched Roger take care of the slime. “You realize we’re accessories to murder,” Asked Sam?

“Yup,” replied Ray, it makes you feel good all over doesn’t it? Does that make us a Robin Hood copycat, or helper or what?”

“We had better get out of here before Salt Lake City PD gets here”.

A Salt Lake City PD patrol officer arrived about an hour later and wondered about the call. The caller said that there had been a shooting in front of the clinic but didn’t know when the shooting occurred. The caller didn’t see or hear the shooting. He was a grounds keeper for the clinic and had seen the broken glass and looked in the car through the broken window. He had also seen a police cruiser in the loading zone earlier in the day. The officer checked the status of police cruisers in the area and none of Salt Lake City PD cruisers could have been here. ‘The caller spoke with broken English, probably Hispanic, and probably saw a taxi or maybe a “rent a cop” security vehicle.’ He didn’t think to check with other area departments. The Murray police department, 10 miles away, have GPS locator beacons on all cruisers and would have told him that “yes, Sam Turner was there at the estimated time of the shooting.”

The officer opened the door to reveal the carnage of a man hit with multiple hollow point bullets. There wasn’t much left of Dr. Morgan’s head. His cultivated professional appearance and arrogance was gone. In its place was a blood soaked carcass that didn’t resemble a person at all, more like a pile of offal left after a big game animal had been butchered. Pieces of blood covered bone covered the inside drivers side of the luxury car. The officer looked in the trunk and was surprised to find a University of Utah duffle bag with several packages of prophylactics, black tee shirt, black sweat pants, black hood, duct tape, rope, lock picking implements, surgical gloves, and an employee directory of the Salt Lake Clinic. The two rape victims were outlined in red along with half a dozen others.

‘This guy may have been the rapist,’ thought the officer. “It looks like he pissed off somebody who fought back,” laughing he added, “I love it when a bad guy gets taken out! I wonder if we can find the killer and contract with him to take out all of the rapists we find.”

The news stories about the murdered doctor at the Salt Lake Clinic all headlined the deterioration of law and order in Salt Lake City. “How could this happen in our quiet, conservative town?”


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MARIA

Patty had just entered a vacated exam room when she heard the door open and shut behind her. It surprised her because she wasn’t expecting any help and since the death of her stalker, Dr. Morgan, her daily routine had returned to normal. The changing of disposables only took a few minutes; she had just started to replace the paper on the table. She turned and recognized Maria Gonzales, a nurse’s aid who sometimes helped her.

“Is it alright I ask question,” nervously asked Maria?

“Sure, what’s the matter?”

“I saw new Doctor, who was killed, following you around and how mad he made you. Now he’s dead. Did you ask Robin Hood to kill him?”

Patty didn’t know what to say. She stood there looking at Maria trying to think up a good answer. It had not occurred to her that anyone had noticed how the late Dr. Morgan was stalking her. The police had come to the clinic and questioned everyone. That was 2 weeks ago and nothing had come up at that time, now this! “Maria, what are you talking about?”

“I am in beeg trouble and I don’t know what to do. Will you help me send a message to Robin Hood. If he won’t help me, I think I go back home to Mexico.”

“It’s almost lunch time. Let’s have lunch together. We can go in my car,” said Patty.

Each ordered a hamburger, “Ok, why don’t you tell me what’s going on. Why do you want Robin Hood to help you?”

Maria was in tears as she started, “I came to America 5 years ago. I worked very hard and got a permit to come here to work. I found this job and started sending money to my family in Mexico City. 2 years later my two sisters came to be with me. They wouldn’t wait for the legal permit and didn’t have enough money to buy the help. I told them not to come until they could do it legally. They didn’t listen and one day they called me and asked me to come to Tucson, Arizona to get them. They have been living with me since.”

“There are a lot of people from Mexico here illegally. I don’t know how Robin Hood could help you.”

“No, No, my problem is last year some bad men come to our house. I don’t know how they found out about my sisters, but they told us that if we didn’t pay them, they would tell the police my sisters were illegal aliens and that I helped them. When I told them that we couldn’t pay them the amount of money they wanted, they said that was ok, we could pay them in another way. Every weekend and sometimes during the week, we have to have sex with men they bring to our apartment or they will turn us in!”

“That’s horrible, how many men are there who make you do this?”

“3 men.”

“I don’t know if will be able to contact Robin Hood, but I will try. Give me your address.”

Patty told Roger the entire story, “You should have seen her, she was in tears as she told me about it.”

“Do you believe her?”

“Yeah, why would she make up a story like that?”

“Maybe the police put her up to it.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Give me the address. I’ll call Sam and see what he thinks.”

“Do you think it’s a good idea to call him since he’s a cop?”

“Well, if this friend of yours had one guy messing with her, I would see what I could do, but since there are at least 3 men involved, I think I had better see if Sam wants to even the odds. The other thing is that Sam is an accessory to murder because he watched me shoot Dr. Morgan and didn’t do anything about it.”

“Sam, it’s me, how have you been?”

“Never better, what’s up, you’re not going to kill anybody else are you,” he said as he laughed?

“Weeeellllll, that’s why I called you.”

“OOOOOOOK, let’s hear it, just because I gave you some advice and watched the last time doesn’t mean I’m interested in making this a full time business! Do you realize how much trouble I’d be in if my department found out what I’ve done so far?”

“Yeah I realize you would probably be in as much or more trouble than I would.”

“You’ve go that right. It’s called accessory to murder and if a police officer is convicted of accessory, it’s curtains. Ok enough about the depressing outlook, what’s going on.”

Roger repeated the story Maria had told Patty.

“I’ve heard of this kind of thing going on, but I’ve never actually seen it. It makes me mad as hell that anyone would do this. We have to stop it! I’ll be by in 30 minutes; bring that gun I gave you.”

“Patty, Sam is coming by in a few minutes. Give me the address.”

“Can I come too?”

“I don’t want you to come and I don’t think Sam would allow it either.”

“This isn’t fair. Next time I find you someone to kill; I get to come and help you!”
“You’re unbelievable.”

“I love you too, be careful.”

They sat in Roger’s car about half a block down the street and across from the little house in the Rose Park area. Rose Park was one of the worse parts of the greater Salt Lake City area. It was a Friday night and from what Maria had told them, the men would be by with clients paying for sex. A van pulled up and 5 Hispanic men got out, 2 of them handed something to one of the other men. Roger and Sam assumed it was money for the sex. One of the 3 walked up to the door and knocked, it opened and a tiny Hispanic girl looked out. The first man held the door open and the 2 “Johns” walked in. The first man followed them in and came out a few minutes later to rejoin the other 2 at the van. They stood there with red spots glowing in front of each face and the cigarette smoke drifting up into the dark sky. The street lights were bright enough to provide shadows instead of faces.

“I think we should go up and shoot those three and then go in and do the other two,” said Roger.

“Not a good idea to go in there and shoot two men with 3 witnesses. Think this through. We follow them when they leave. The first opportunity we get where we can take care of all three with no witnesses, we do it.”

“I thought we would be just doing some planning tonight?”

“That’s what we’re doing, but if the opportunity comes up, we do it,” explained Sam.
About 30 minutes from when they first knocked on the door, the door opened and the 2 men came out. The door slammed shut behind them. They could hear talking and laughing coming from the 5 men standing at the van. They all got in and drove down the street. Roger and Sam followed them at a discreet distance. The van weaved back and forth indicating the driver was either drunk or high on something. It drove into the parking lot of a small neighborhood bar near a freeway onramp/exit. The parking lot was filled to capacity. The van pulled up in front of the entrance and the two “Johns” got out and went into the bar. The van pulled out of the parking lot and drove back the way it had come. Roger and Sam followed the van as it went back to the home of Maria and her sisters and parked at the curb. The van sat there with the engine running. The exhaust was puffing out the rear.

“Now seems to be a good time.”

“What if they have guns or something?”

“The element of surprise, plus, in case you didn’t notice, my uniform is hanging in the back. I’ll put it on, we walk toward the van, you step behind it and I’ll go up with my gun drawn and knock on the window. When I knock on the window, look in the back window, if you see a gun; shoot through the window at whoever has the gun. Chances are they’re dividing up their money or sharing a joint.”

As they approached the van, a few cars went by but none slowed down or seemed to notice the drama taking place. Roger stepped behind the van and stood there, it was a delivery type van with windows in the rear and in the door, but none on the side. Roger heard Sam knock on the front door window so he looked inside, he could see the outline of 3 men and it appeared one of them had a pistol in his hand and was raising his arm toward the window. Roger quickly aimed at the shadow and pulled the trigger, he kept shooting until all three were down and his pistol was empty. He didn’t’ hear or see any indication of Sam shooting.

“Well Cowboy, mighty fine shooting, but you might have left one of them for me to put down. One of them was handing me his identification when you shot him. You then knocked the others down so fast; I didn’t bother to do any shooting, and that’s probably best, since I only have my service pistol and it doesn’t have a silencer on it. I didn’t think about it until now, a bullet in one of those “pimps” from my pistol would have been hard to explain and could have been a problem since I’m off duty tonight.”

They looked around up and down the street. There was nobody in sight and no lighted windows where someone was looking out. It appeared there were no witnesses.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Sam, “We’ve had enough fun for tonight.” They hurried back to their car and pulled onto the road. As they pulled up to the van, they noticed the door had opened in Maria’s house. The outline of three young women was painted in the light of the doorway.

“What happened,” pleaded Patty as Roger walked in the front door? Roger outlined the night’s events. “I’m so excited, that’s exactly what I imagined was happening.”

“OK, now what are you going to tell Maria tomorrow?”

“I’m going to tell her that I sent a message to Robin Hood, but whether or not he can help you, I just don’t know.”

The next day, Patty repeated her practiced message to Maria.

“You mean you don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?”

“The police come to our house last night after those bad men come to our place and left. The police knocked on our door and asked us if we knew anything about the van sitting in front of our house.”

“We told them no, why?”

“They told us that some men had been killed in it.”

“The police then stayed out there and other people came and helped them do whatever they do and then they left. Earlier the 3 bad men brought 2 other men to my house who had sex with my sisters. They left in the van and come back and sat out there in the street. We thought they come back in for more sex; then we saw two men walk up to the van, one of them looked like a policeman. We expected to hear some gunshots but we didn’t hear anything.

The two men walked away from the van and we opened the door, we thought they were coming to our house, but they walked by our house and on down the street. We wanted to go to sleep so after an hour my sister went out and looked in the van. She said it looked like they were dead! I went down to pay phone and called 911 and told them about the van with dead people inside.”

“Maria, please don’t tell the police that you asked me to get a message to Robin Hood!”

“I wouldn’t ever do that; in my country you can’t trust anyone, especially the police.” She smiled shyly, “But if I hear of any other people who need Robin Hood to help them, I tell you.”

“What have we got ourselves into,” asked Roger when Patty related her conversation with Maria?

The investigating officer read the reports from CSI and ballistics. What was left of the bullets indicated the bullets had been fired from a pistol last owned by a gang-banger in West Valley, since deceased, the present ownership unknown. ‘A dead end on that, I guess Robin Hood strikes again with no clues as to his identification, I love it!’


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