Chapter 12: The Downward Slide

    I was up well before dawn the next morning and headed toward Fitz's for some coffee and advice. Hortensia made the best mocha coffee I've ever tasted, so I was looking forward to that as much as I was the advice I needed from Fitz. He had shut down our work at the warehouse for the time being, feeling it would be too hard to keep our eyes open to all the threats and still do good work at the same time.

   He was still keeping me on payroll though, and told me it was justified as we were still working for the long-term success of the business.  The lights were off when I got there; they were keeping them off in an effort to project the idea that any interlopers would sense that there was some kind of a trap awaiting them if they rushed in half-cocked. He told me that they'd been awakened one night by a loud scream, and when he went to investigate the source , he found a piece of boot and a large  puddle of blood next to one of the bear-traps he had placed by an entrance at the rear of his property. Another night there was other screaming and when he went to check it out, he discovered some torn blood-stained clothing on a strand of barb-wired fence he had strung two-feet from the ground across the trees behind his shop.

      "I've put up enough No Trespassing signs to make all the people in this area aware, and every one of those traps are well within my property, so no should be out there without permission." Then he gave me a signal I should use to announce myself when approaching the house and showed me where the booby traps were in case I needed to get something out of the shop. Then I explained what had happened at Lennie's school the day before.

      "The wolves are starting to circle. I need to figure out how I'm going to handle things. No more lolly-gagging, Fitz, I need to get things done."

      "I don't know how much more busier you could be, Lad; you've been putting in full days already, as I see it."

    "Maybe it's a matter of degree then. I might just need bigger explosions.

         The tone of my voice caught him by surprise and made him laugh, "That last explosion took down a whole house, what are you shooting, for a mountain?"

       I grinned despite myself, "More like a Devil in a red car."

      "Why didn't you say so? Follow me into the shop, be careful where you step though."

       About an hour later, I was hiding inside of a old, broken down house that was located about seventy-five yards uphill from where Hector's mom lived. There were some trees behind it which would cover-up  my coming and going from the place. All the windows were broken out and almost all of the roof was gone. Nobody had lived there for several years, and it was where Rosa had hidden out when Johnny was looking for her the night she had fled. Broken glass was scattered all across the floor, and several large spider webs were strung across all the rafters and window frames. One of the windows faced Guadalupe's house and looked out across a large expanse of weeds and dirt. The window had been boarded up but one of the smaller boards had been pushed in giving me a perfect view of what was happening at the house across the field.

        I had been in waiting for about fifteen minutes when a suddenly red, Ford sedan pulled up into the yard in front of the house, and a tall, very thin man got out and stretched. I could see why Rosa had called Johnny 'the one-legged man'. He was so thin that when he stood with his both his legs together, he looked like a single stem emerging from the ground. Using the binoculars I had gotten from Fitz, I could easily see that it had to be him. His face was very bit as sinister looking as she and the school guard had described.
 
       Five minutes after he pulled in, two Los Angeles County Sheriff Department cars pulled into the yard beside him and a total of six uniformed officers emerged from the cars. Two of the officers went immediately to the rear of the first car, opened the trunk, and pulled out two shovels. Johnny went to the front door and knocked and his mother Guadalupe came outside dressed in some blue pajamas and a purple robe. He asked her something, and she got very agitated and was saying something to the effect of, 'I don't know nothing, I don't know," and gesticulating wildly which was exactly what I had told Rosa to tell her to do. I could tell that Johnny wasn't very happy with the performance, so he pushed her away from him, and he and the officers started briskly walking toward the shed at the back of the property.

     The two officers with the shovels went into the shed followed by another officer who appeared to be their leader. The other three officers stood outside with Johnny and his mother. Guadalupe appeared to be crying, and even as far away as I was, I could faintly hear her saying, "Why? Why are you doing this to me?" One of the officers took out a pack of cigarettes offered them to the others and soon every one but the mother was smoking.

      About twenty minutes after they had gone into the shed, the leader came out, and it was obvious, he wasn't very happy. He went straight up to Johnny and grabbed him by the shirt and started screaming in his face. Johnny got angry and started shoving back and had to be restrained by the others, then the two men with shovels came outside and carrying what looked like the decaying remains of a dog, maybe a Border Collie.

      There was a heated discussion. Johnny's mom quit crying and started laughing uncontrollably. The two guys with the shovels carried the corpse of the dog back in the shed and reburied it. The heated discussion between Johnny and the leader continued, but I had no interest in sticking around and watching the fireworks. I had a pretty good idea where Johnny was going to head next, and I needed a head start. 

       The red-headed stranger's name turned out to be Aubrey O'Toole and he owned a up-scale barber shop in Glendale. It was situated on the  outskirts of the city in a building that was a little isolated from the city proper. It was located next to another larger building. The two buildings shared, a large paved parking lot between them. The signs on the other building told that it had once been a furniture store, but was now vacated and boarded up. Red's Barber Shop took up the larger portion of the building it was in; but shared frontage on the main road with Dottie's Sunshine Cafe. In the rear of the old furniture store there was a cinderblock enclosure where they had once stored all the broken down cardboard they used in the business. I had parked Fitz's truck in the parking lot of  another abandoned building a block away from the barber shop and rode my bike from there to where I was hiding and awaiting the arrival of one very angry Robert, who I was betting, would be headed back toward where he had gotten the information that his brother was buried in his mother's shed.

     And I didn't have to wait long. The red Ford sedan slid into the parking lot at a high rate of speed and came to a screeching halt. Robert slammed the door open and leapt out. I watched him reach back inside the car and pull out a chrome pistol and stuff it into the back of his waistband. He had shut the motor off but was in such a hurry, he left the door wide open which made my job a whole lot easier.  I had told Red that I needed at least fifteen minutes; I felt that ten would probably do but wanted to give myself a little extra for nerves. He was naturally nervous and upset and protested he could only guarantee thirty seconds if Robert took the notion to shoot him before asking any questions.

      I assured him that wouldn't happen because if Robert did that, he wouldn't be able to find out what had happened to his brother. I told Red that after he after he convinced Robert to spare his life, to go call a number I had provided and ask whoever answered the phone what the heck had happened. I knew that the voice on the other end would just start laughing and answer, "Tell them fat, lazy bastids to dig the hole a little deeper, the dog was a distraction!"

      By the time Hector got that news, I was already putting my bike in the back of Fitz's truck. I couldn't resist the urge to drive by the front of the barber shop and see how the plan was working. I turned the corner onto the street just as Robert was forcing Red into the passenger side of his car. I hadn't foreseen that occurrence. I was hundred yards down the road when I heard the explosion, looked in the mirror and saw car parts flying through the air.

       I didn't have time to feel too much guilt, if any, about what had happened to Red because right when I heard the explosion, I suddenly remembered what it was about the voice of the masked man on the night we blew up the house; it was my brother Pete's voice I heard.

      When I got out of the truck at Fritz's house, I immediately called out the signal.

          "That you, Errol?"

        "Yep, and I have to tell you, I feel pretty stupid having to yell out, "Polly wattle doodle all day."

           Fitz stepped outside chuckling, "That's why I picked it. Come on in Errol, we have some guests waiting inside."

          The whole back side of Fitz's house was a large closed-in patio which even had a fireplace and barbecue pit. In the middle of room there were several expensive outdoor chairs surrounding a large low  circular oak table. There were several men sitting around the table, Old Man Lee was there, next to him sat Johnny Luna a life-long friend of his, Ernie was there to Johnny's right, Big Mike Garcia was next to him, then there were three empty chairs, so I took a seat next to Big Mike, and Fitz sat down beside me. I was nodding to acknowledge all of the guys when the back door to Fitz's house opened and out came Hortensia with a tray of glasses followed by my brother Pete carrying the large green bottle of very expensive Scotch that normally sat as the center piece of the top shelf of Fitz's well stocked bar. He was holding on to the bottle with both hands, but nodded toward me.

       "Errol."

       "Pete." I didn't have time to ask him what the heck he was doing there because Fitz stood up and cleared his throat as Pete uncorked the bottle and poured it into the glasses. When he was done, he took the first one over to where Hortensia was standing and handed to her in spite of her protestations.

        Once every one had a glass, Fitz started talking, "As spiritually minded folk, we would have to acknowledge that it would wrong on many levels to drink a toast to celebrate the taking of a life. However, it would equally egregious to fail to acknowledge a major step in a man's progress in becoming a truly serious man. And where it is undeniabley wrong in the wanton taking of a life, there are times when truly serious men must sacrifice their conscience in order to prevent the pervasive spread of unchecked evil. Today, our good friend, Errol has made such sacrifice." It was the first time in my life that anyone had ever toasted me. When everyone had set their glasses down, Fitz added, "We have some things to tell you, Errol, which I think might help you deal with the mixed emotions that you might be feeling. Pete, I'll let you start it off."

      Fitz sat down and Pete stood and started talking, "Errol, there were a lot of times recently when I wanted to spare you the responsibility of today, but I couldn't. When Pa died, Grandpa had wanted to get Cousin Joe and go take deal with the sheriff that allowed Eddie Tudder to cheat Pa that night. He told me that our sweat Mama had ordered them to wait until I got a little older, and include me in on whatever took place. So, on the night of my sixteenth birthday, Grandpa came told me what I had to do.  He also informed me that Tudder and the sheriff were involved in kidnapping a lot of poor girls in Oklahoma and Arkansas, holding them out on Tudder's farm and then when the got enough, transporting them down to Tupelo Mississippi where they sold them to the bordellos around that area. So, on night I waited outside a brothel for three hours in a driving rain until Tudder came outside for a smoke. I shot him right between the eyes with Daddy's rifle. Then, I waited until the sheriff came outside to see what the noise was all about. He was still buttoning up his pants, when I shot him too. Granda and Joe was waiting in the trees, and on the way home, Joe pulled out a pint of Grandpa's white lightning from his overalls and even let me ride in the window seat for the ride home."

        As soon as he finished, Old Man Lee stood up, "I was twelve years old. My mother took in washing and ironing to save up money to open up her own restaurant. She gave it to a man in Sacramento who offered to sale her his restaurant. He not only didn't give her the restaurant, he raped her in his office, cut her throat and dumped her body in the river. He was getting a shave in my barber shop and laughing after telling  unfunny joke when I cut throat."

       Luna just said, "My mother was murdered by her brother over a twenty dollar gold piece." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold coin and flipped it on the table, "This gold piece."

        Big Mike kept his story short too, he just said, "The priest in our village had a thing for young boys. The people complained of course, but nothing ever changed. Went on for years until one day, my little brother Tomas came home crying from school."

        Ernie was so emotional about his part in this bizarre tell-all that he couldn't even talk. He looked liked he was somewhere a millions miles away. It was Fitz who broke the silence and told Ernie's story, "Ernie's whole family were murdered in Turkey. He was only one of his immediate family who survived a massacre by hiding beneath a bed that contained the bodies of his three brothers. Someday, you should ask him to show you his collection of Turkish knifes that he keeps in the room behind the bar."

     It was Fitz's turn to share his story, but he was silent. It was like he wanted me to ask first, but instead, I asked, "How do you know my brother, Fitz?"

      "Pete did me a big favor. That's how I met him."

      I was more than a little confused, "Yeah, but Pete just recently came out here same as me, and I'd just randomly met you just few weeks ago, and he ain't been nowhere around."

     Fitz chuckled, "I warned you about the dangers of assuming things when I first met you, Errol. I never said he did me a favor in Los Angeles."

      That confused me even more, "Not Los Angeles, then the only other place I've ever been is ..."

      "Tulsa, Oklahoma, he answered before I even finished the thought. "I had a daughter, a beautiful young lady named Sienna. He mother was half Shawnee, the daughter of a chief. I met her when she visited Boston. She never told me about being pregnant, she was afraid Sienna he might want to go live with me in Boston. I didn't even know about her until she was twenty-one years old. She grew living with her mother in the northeast corner of Arkansas. When her mother died, I got a letter telling me the story and that Sienna had moved to Tulsa to live with her uncle. Me and Hortensia went back east to meet her and were arranging things to have her come visit us to see how she liked it out here. Unfortunately, she went out to a bar in Tulsa and met a man named Eddie Tudder. She died in a bordello in Tupelo Mississippi from the drugs that they kept her on to keep her under their control.

      At that point, he reached inside his jacket and took out a folded document and placed it on the table in front of me. I picked it up and unfolded it. It was insurance policy taken out on me naming Elsie as the benefactor. Fitz started up again, "Your wife Elsie and her lover were waiting for the right moment to take you out. Pete didn't think he could get close enough to the man without he being recognized as your brother. He mentioned the problem one night when I was back in Oklahoma visiting Sienna's grave. I was more than happy to be able to return a favor. It was me, not your brother, who put that monster on that lamppost in case you were wondering. And it was me that advised Pete to come out west, and as long as we are sharing secrets, even our meeting on the side of the road where I was wrestling with that sofa wasn't random."

      I was confused but also a little angry that there didn't seem to any kind of randomness in my life, and that others were planning everything without my knowledge."Well, what if I hadn't stopped to help you that day?"

     "Pete told me how you were going to give up your job because you didn't feel that you were giving fair value to your employer. I told him that I very much wanted to meet someone who would do such a thing. It was test that I had contrived; I had set that old, sofa on that road myself, and one I was pretty certain you would pass. And in answer to your question, if you had sailed on past and not offered to help, you probably wouldn't be sitting here, and your sweet Rosa would already be suffering for your lack of foresight."

      Pete got involved at this point, "I think you need to know that Hector, Giancarlo, and Jimmy DeLeo are or were not as mesmerized and desirous  of Rosa's beauty as you believe. She's uncommonly pretty, but they were all more concerned with how money she could make them, even Hector was planning on selling her to DeLeo so DeLeo could send her out to his off shore casino where he also runs a bevy of the best looking ladies that Giancarlo and his goons can kidnap and deliver. Of course, DeLeo would more than likely have sampled her wares before shipping her out." 

      Then not satisfied that I fully understood the gravity of the situation, Fitz took out a second document from inside his jacket and tossed it on the table. "Just case you were feeling that the punishment meted out to the man who talked your wife into taking out an insurance policy on you was a bit extreme, here's the one that I took out of his briefcase before I hung him up on that lamp post." I opened it up. It was an insurance policy taken out on Elsie listing her lover as the beneficiary.

     Pete drove me home a little later. It was quiet in the car for a few minutes before he opened up, "I'm sorry about not telling you about all this earlier. The truth is, I was hoping I would never have to tell you most of it. Mama left it to me, but she did say that there would most likely come a time when I have to do to you what she and grandpa did to me."

    I thought about it for a minute before answering. "That's kind of a cynical outlook on life, wouldn't you say, Pete?  I never got a sense of Mama ever being that cynical to."

     He was looking out of the window as he answering, "Naw, she was never that cynical. She looked on everything as being practical, doing things that needed to be done. I guess it come from dealing with all of Dad's inconsistencies. But, she weren't ever cynical. Mom could be standing knee deep in a swamp and see nothing but potential. She was always an optimist, Errol. She would look at all this craziness we are going through, and consider them as speed bumps on the highway to heaven." He flashed me a grim smile.

     "Tell me, how was it, Pete, standing out there waiting to shoot Tudder and that fat sheriff?"

        "Well, the way I figured, there was never anything going to be anything worse in my life than seeing Pa hanging from that tree limb. Once I done it, I felt kind of relieved. You'd figure I'd feel kind of guilty about taking a man's life, but I never really did. When grandpa told me about everything Tudder and sheriff was up to, I didn't consider them as men. I looked at them like they were monsters who needed stopped. Grandpa didn't say a whole lot to me that night, but he started treating me like a a full grown man from that point on. How did you feel when you heard that explosion?"

       "I felt like I'd crossed a line of some sorts, and, tell the truth, after listening to those men, I kind of feel like I ain't never had any say in my own life, like it was movie script, with no random lines. It felt like something I was destined to do. Feels strange like maybe life ain't got meaning or real purpose."

       "Mama always saw beauty in the mystery of life. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and seeing her standing out front of the house looking up at the stars. I remember watching her reading that damn poetry book and seeing tears welling up in her eyes. You want some random? That gal of yours and that boy, what part of the script was that?"

        "I don't know, even her. The first time I looked in her eyes, I felt electricity run all through me. I was in middle of a card game, and I went speechless. It was like I'd known her a thousand years, and had lost her somewhere along the way. You ever have that feeling about a woman?"

        He laughed, "Funny you should ask. I just got married."