Chapter 3

It was late the night of their second day in Los Angeles as three men were watching the activity up the street from where the truck was parked. None of the three looked very happy.

Joe asked, “What do you think?”

“Looks like we found gang central,” Dan answered. There were two-dozen people standing around a number of tricked out cars, doing nothing but drinking and talking. Music, loud enough to be heard a block away, was coming from one of the cars. All of the men sported the same tattoos on their arms.

Recognizing two of the men from the pictures that Sonny had taken with his cell phone, Joe said, “There are the two guys who shot Sonny.”

The two guys were walking around and drinking beer like they didn’t have a care in the world. One of them was carrying a bag from a taco stand, and was walking around eating a taco. There wasn’t much doubt about which one was named ‘Taco.’

“I see them,” Donny said.

Glaring at the two men, Dan said, “We’ve been in town two days and we’ve found them already. It has been five days since Sonny was shot, and they are still haven’t seen the inside of a jail. I wonder what’s taking the police so long to find them.”

“It’s hard to find something when you aren’t looking for it,” Joe said.

He knew that anyone familiar with the area would have known exactly where to look for the two men. He suspected they hadn’t even hid out for a single day.

Dan said, “I’m going to call the cops and let them know where Dingo and Taco are.”

Dan pulled out the cell phone Donny had purchased at the Wally Mart and called 911. Despite an expectation that he would get put on hold, the call went right through to an operator. Taking care not to identify himself, he explained where the two suspects in the robbery were located. He named the two men and specified the robbery and the shooting that had taken place just to ensure that sufficient details were provided to give credibility to his report.

A half an hour passed before they spotted a patrol car. A five-minute delay would be understandable. A fifteen-minute delay would suggest that something significant was happening nearby. A thirty-minute delay convinced all three men that the police were uninterested in catching the gang members.

Donny said, “Finally, they got here. Let’s watch what they do.”

The bright lights of the city showed the policemen in the car quite clearly. The men in the patrol car looked away while driving past the gang. It was as if by not looking at them they could pretend they weren’t there.

“They didn’t do squat,” Dan said in disgust.

Joe said, “They are scared. I don’t think they would have stopped and arrested those two who shot Sonny, even if they did see them.”

“I noticed that,” Donny said shaking his head. The two men who had shot Sonny hadn’t even bothered to turn their backs to the police car. “The gang doesn’t seem to be worried about the police at all. They just laughed at them.”

It was obvious who was in control of this neighborhood and it sure wasn’t the police. The police car drove past the truck. The car slowed down when it passed by them. Both cops in the car were checking out the occupants of the truck. Joe touched the brim of his hat with his forefinger while smiling directly at the police officers.

Once the police car had passed, Joe said, “Assholes.”

Dan said, “Those two cops sure as hell checked us out, though.”

Looking back at the police car, Joe said, “We better get the hell out of here before we attract any more attention.”

“You just can’t keep from stating the obvious, can you?”

Snorting, Joe said, “It’s a necessity. Look at the company I keep.”

“Don’t be a smart ass,” Dan said.

Joe nudged Donny with an elbow and said, “Hey, he quit calling me a dumb ass and has started calling me a smart ass. I’m moving up in the world.”

Donny laughed.

Dan didn’t feel much like laughing considering that the police didn’t respond to the 911 call.

He said, “Calling the police didn’t do much good. We’ll drive by here tomorrow in the light and find a good place to watch them. Maybe we can get the police to arrest them, tomorrow.”

“One of the rooftops of the buildings around here ought to do,” Joe said. The dark made it a little difficult to see the roofs. From his perspective, that made it a perfect place from which to watch the action.

“The question is, which one gives us the best coverage of our game,” Dan said studying the buildings that lined the street.

“We’ll see, tomorrow,” Joe said.

Dan just shook his head and started the truck. He pulled onto the road so that he would drive past where the gang was hanging out. He wanted to get an idea of what the gang was doing.

“What time will we start scouting around tomorrow?” Donny asked watching how the gang reacted to their driving past. The gang members gave them a quick glance and then ignored them.

“I figure about six in the morning. We won’t have an audience,” Dan answered. He looked out the window at the gang while he drove past. There sure were a lot of them doing nothing.

“We’ll find a good spot and then spend the day there. We need to figure out their habits before we do anything,” Joe said.

He had already accepted that the police weren’t going to do anything and that it would be up to them to get the gang members to the jail.

“All three of us?” Donny asked.

“No. It will be just me and Joe. You need to take care of Sonny if he gets released from the hospital, tomorrow. Hank and his sons are supposed to show up sometime in the afternoon. It would be nice if someone was there to greet them,” Dan said.

He headed the truck in the general direction of the Wally Mart. It was getting late, and they would need to be up early in the morning.

“Why me? Why not you?” Donny asked thinking about spending an evening with Hank.

Knowing why Donny was trying to duck out on staying back, Dan said, “I guess I could take Sonny over to the college when he gets out of the hospital tomorrow. I wouldn’t mind checking out all of those coeds for an hour or two. You know what they say about California girls.”

“I suppose I can help Sonny move back into his dorm,” Donny said suddenly coming to the realization that he was about to blow a golden opportunity to check out a lot of attractive single women.

“What do they say about California girls?” Joe asked.

“Hell if I know,” Dan answered.

Donny laughed at the exchange, and then said, “I’ll tell you tomorrow night.”

“We’ll probably be gone most of tomorrow night,” Dan said. “You and Hank can take the next day.”

Donny groaned and said, “I’m going to have to listen to him tell the story about the twelve point buck again.”

“It only takes him two hours to tell it,” Joe said.

Hank had a reputation for never shutting his mouth. He liked to tell stories, and told them in such detail that an hour could pass while he related how he brewed his coffee in the morning. The story would have digressions about how he had once talked to someone who had visited a coffee farm in Columbia, the physics behind perking, and the current price of coffee beans on the international market.

Donny said, “Two and a half hours.”

Dan grinned and said, “He’ll probably tell you all about that fight he was in back in his rodeo days. That’ll eat up another fourteen hours.”

“Too bad Flower won’t be there,” Donny said.

“You mean Rose?” Joe asked with a smile. Hank’s wife’s name was Lily and Donny had once made the mistake of calling them the flower girls. They hadn’t been happy about that.

“Yes,” Donny said.

“That girl is sweet on you,” Dan said.

“Don’t talk like that,” Donny said.

Everyone expected them to get married one day. Even Rose and he expected that. There weren’t many women his age out where he lived so he didn’t have many choices. For that matter, Rose didn’t have that many choices in men. The lack of choice didn’t affect their feelings towards each other, though.

Joe enjoyed the subtle art of rubbing salt in wounds, so he said, “She’s a pretty girl. She’d make a good wife.”

“Yes, she is,” Donny said, “The problem is that if I take up with Rose, I have to put up with Hank.”

“Don’t forget about her two brothers,” Dan said with a grin.

Joe said, “They aren’t all that bad. Compared to Hank they are kind of quiet. Of course, they are a bit high strung when it comes to guys taking up with Rose.”

“Until Rose tells them otherwise. What Rose wants, Rose gets ... as far as those two are concerned,” Donny said.

He had found out the hard way that they tended to go overboard in the other direction when they tied him up and delivered him to Rose after she had expressed an interest in him. That was the beginning of a long courtship.

“I remember that time when she happened to mention to them that she wanted you to visit one Saturday night,” Dan said with a grin.

“They are just good old country boys,” Joe said with a laugh.

He also knew all about the time when Donny had been delivered to Rose by her brothers.

Donny was about to make a reply when Dan’s telephone rang. Picking it up off the dashboard, Donny opened it and handed over to Dan.

Putting the phone to his ear, Dan said, “Hello.”

“Really?” Dan asked with a very serious expression on his face.

“Are you all right?”

“Where are you?”

“We’ll be there to pick you up in thirty minutes.”

“Just hold tight, and lay low,” Dan said.

He closed the cell phone and set it on the dashboard.

“What was that about?” Joe asked. It was obvious to him that Dan’s mood had taken a turn towards angry.

“Sonny left the hospital, and is waiting for us to pick him up,” Dan said. His voice was tight.

“Why did Sonny leave the hospital?” Joe asked.

Dan’s grip on the steering wheel tightened before he answered, “We’ll talk about it later.”

“I’d rather talk about it now,” Joe said. He wanted to know if they were going to be walking into a situation that might require a little preparation.

“And I’d rather not,” Dan said.

“If it’s what I think it is, I bet it’lll be on the radio,” Joe said while he reached over and turned on the radio. It hadn’t been on for more than thirty seconds before there was an announcement that there had been a shooting at Central General Hospital. The station’s disk jockey said that they would have more details as soon as they become available.

“Are you ready to talk about it now?” Joe asked reaching over to turn off the radio.

“Three gang members showed up in Sonny’s room and he shot them. He slipped out of the hospital and is waiting for us in a parking garage,” Dan said. Looking at Joe, it was obvious to him that the man wanted a few more details. He said, “That’s all Sonny told me.”