Angels & Imperfections

  Chapter 14

   

  On the way to my next appointment, about fifteen miles south of Tyler, in the town of Jacksonville, I dropped Christine off at the office. I was driving south, on highway 69. Often, when I’m driving, I listen to talk radio.

  “Human beings are just highly evolved apes. We have canine teeth and finger-nails, for biting and tearing. We’re just smarter than the other, less evolved apes. We invented weapons to kill with, which put us at the top of the food chain. That’s survival of the fittest, baby.”

  “Hmmph, I don’t consider our animal ancestry to be a sufficient reason to eat meat. If you were a more evolved human being, like I am, you’d understand the only sensible diet for people, is vegetarian or vegan. Vegetables, legumes and other plants are a renewable food source and they don’t pollute the planet. No animals are tortured and killed to provide food for me. If you think the killing of fish, birds and other animals for food, is appropriate, you’re barbaric!”

  To me, the debate seemed…tasteless.

  Once again, I wondered why I ever listened to talk radio. It offered endless opinions, but very little useful or intelligent perspective, and no light.

  As I turned the radio off, I noticed the car in front of me was a black Impala.

  I speed dialed Tony’s cell.

  “Detective Escalante here, what can I do for you?”

  “Tony, it’s John, I need you to run a license plate for me.”

  “Apparently, J.W., you presume I’m your personal mole into the DMV data base. Wrong!”

  I was startled by Tony’s attitude. Evidently, he was still angry about the incident with Dustin.

  “Tony, this is important. Please run this plate. We need to find out who the owner of the car is.”

  “Why do you want that information?”

  “I’m headed south towards Jacksonville. I’m right behind a black Impala. The license plate is GEN 416. That’s G as in Giraffe, E as in Elephant, N as in Nancy, four, one, six. A black Impala, Tony! I think this is the car.”

  “Oh yeah, is that what you think? Well, everybody has an opinion. They’re as common as belly buttons. Personally, I think most stand-up comedy is really pretty disgusting.”

  “Come on, Tony….Dustin gave me the license number.”

  “Let me see if I understand you correctly. You’re following a car with a license number, some crackpot gave you, and you want me to find out who the car belongs to, that about it, wild man?”

  “Tony, just consider the possibility, I could be right. Are you willing to let a child abductor go, just because you resent me asking you to check a license number? If I’m wrong, there’s no harm, no foul. If I’m right, we can get this guy.”

  There was no answer for a moment. I was afraid he had hung up on me.

  “J.W., something’s come up. I’ll get back to you,”

  He hung up on me.

  As we approached a red light, I pulled up next to the black Impala.

  The driver was an ordinary-looking white guy. He had short brown hair and a goatee. He looked to be in his thirties. He was wearing a grey, hooded sweatshirt, a ball cap and sunglasses.

   

  I followed the Impala south for ten minutes. When Tony called me back, we were on the overpass, at the town of Bullard.

  “Are you still behind the Impala?” he asked.

  “Yep, we just went through Bullard.”

  “Can you keep an eye on it, for a while longer?”

  There was tension in his voice.

  “Sure, Tony, in this traffic, we’re all headed south, I can keep him in sight. Why?”

  “There are several things happening. I ran the plate. The guy who owns the Impala lives here in Tyler. He has a record, J.W. I don’t have probable cause, or even enough information to get a warrant to search his apartment, but I’m sending a patrol car over there, just to take a look around, and maybe interview some of his neighbors.”

  He was stressed. I could hear it in his voice.

  “Tony, what’s going on? This is the guy, isn’t it?”

  Tony sighed.

  “I’m headed south, toward you, right now. I want to know where he is, and where he’s going. We don’t have any probable cause to stop him, J.W.”

  That was the problem. Tony knew we were looking at the right guy, but there was no legal reason to interfere with him.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Just don’t lose him. I’ve alerted DPS. They’re sending a unit your way. We’ll figure something out.”

  I saw the Impala’s left turn signal go on. I put mine on as well

  “Tony, he’s leaving the highway. He’s heading east on a little county road, near Mt. Selman. I’ll tell you the number in a minute.”

  “Don’t lose him.” Tony snapped.

  “Calm down. You know where he lives. You can pick him up any time you want. What’s the big deal about keeping him in sight?”

  Tony was silent for a moment.

  “J.W., there’s another little girl missing. She was taken about forty minutes ago. There is no actual connection to this guy or his car, but I need to know where he goes. It could be important. I’m just approaching Bullard, now. What’s that county road?”

  I told him, my mind racing.

  “What if I cause a wreck? I could hit him with my car. Maybe I could disable his vehicle, and we might get a look in his trunk.”

  We had entered a heavily-wooded and very hilly area. The road curved up and down, through heavy pine and mixed hardwood forest.

  “Don’t do that, J.W., something could go very wrong. If the little girl is in the trunk, she could be hurt or killed. Don’t spook him and try not to lose him.”

  I had a hard time understanding him, because the cell phone signal was breaking up.

  “Yeah, but easier said than done. He has to know I’m behind him. We’re the only two cars headed out here, in the deep-woods. Hang on, he’s leaving the road. I’ll have to go on past him.”

  The driver of the Impala had stopped at a pipe gate, the entrance to a private gravel road, disappearing back into the forest. As I drove by, he got out of the Impala and went to unlock the gate. In my rear-view mirror, I saw him open the gate, but then I went around a curve, and the forest blocked my view. I tried to relay the information to Tony, but the cell phone signal was breaking up. I had no bars on my phone. I had to drive nearly a mile before I could find a safe place to turn around. I now had no cell-phone signal, at all.

  When I got back to the pipe gate, it was closed and the Impala was out of sight. I got out of my car and checked the gate. It was locked with a padlock.

  I ducked under the single joint of welded pipe, which made up the gate, working my way into the forest, along the edge of the gravel road. The gravel gave out after about twenty yards, the road becoming just two dirt tracks, twisting through the mixed timber. The underbrush along the edge of the road was mostly blackberry thickets, brambles and coarse bushes. It was too tangled and close for me to creep through the woods in my sport coat.

  I went back to my car to gear up.

  Tony drove up a moment later. He saw what I was getting ready to do.

   

  “J.W. we can’t go in there. It would be trespassing on private property. I’m a cop from Tyler. I can’t…I don’t have any jurisdiction out here. I’m not even sure what county we’re in.”

  “Well, I think we’re probably in Cherokee County, and if you don’t have any jurisdiction, then you can’t stop me from going in there.”

  Tony was troubled. I could see he was trying to figure out some legal way to handle the situation.

  I ducked under the gate.

  “Hold on a minute. I’m coming with you,” he said. 

  He went to the back of the unmarked Tyler police car and opened the trunk. I couldn’t see what he was doing. When he closed the trunk, he was wearing a bullet-proof vest, under a light jacket, with ‘POLICE’ stencilled on it. He w
as carrying a twelve gauge, pump action shotgun.

  Now we were ready.